[Deck] B/W Control, or "opponent creature can't fly"

[Holo_rip]

Hello there,
i have been lurking on the source for quite a long time now. Looking for information to improve my playskill, improve my deck and all. I'm a huge fan of deck such as B/W Confidant, U/W Landstill and stuff like that.
I'm gonna present you a deck that i have been working for nearly 2 month. As stated before, i'm a big fan of B/W Confidant and Landstill, and that's why i came up building an B/W control deck. Some guys on MWS have ask me my list, but i have been keeping it secret till i post it here on the source.
First, the name. Could be better, but haven't found another. It refer to "white men can't jump" (not really the film, but for basket ball). It is linked to a card wich is quite important to this deck and his strategy.
I will be glad to hear some feedback about my creation, in order to improve it.
Thanks all, and here we go.

So, maybe a decklist hum ?

Land (23) :
4 scrubland
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Windswept heath
3 Wasteland
3 Mishra's Factory
4 Swamp
3 Plains

Creature (3) :
2 Eternal Dragon
1 Tombstalker

Spells (35):
4 Sword To Plowshares
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Pulse of the Fields
3 Vindicate
3 Night's whisper
2 Skeletal Scrying
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Enlightened Tutor
2 Smother
1 Moat
1 Sensei's divination top
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Decree of Justice

Sideboard (15) :
3 Engineered Plague
3 Disenchant
4 Chalice of the void
3 Extirpate
1 Humility
1 Pithing Needle

Ok, so here it is. 61 card i know, but well, i don't like to have only 1 smother.

Then, some explanation :
-4 Scrubland : kind of needed isn't ?
-6 fetch : 6 seem to be enought with crucible to have good synegie with top, a split of 3/3 allow me to have acces to the color i needed when i need it (the deck have sometime trouble with mana, with double white and double black card)
- 3 wasteland : got crucible, and it allow some tempo. Recursive wasteland can be a pain.
- 3 Mishra's factory : here mainly as a recursive defender. We need to survive the early game. My point of view is that it is one of the most arguable card in this deck due to double color cost.
- 4 swamp : basic ftw.
- 3 plains : basic ftw.
- 2 Eternal dragon : win condition, mana stabilizer and recursive beater. Don't think that we have to argue about him, maybe one more eternal.
- 1 Tombstalker : another beater. I really live in fear of extirpate, so that i won't be fucked up if someone extirpate my eternal. i have no that much problem to get card in graveyard, useally i cast it for 2.
- 3 DOJ : beatter, instant blocker, and drawer. I mainly hard cast it, gonna see why in some minute.
- 4 STP : creature removal, best of the game. next.
- 3 Vindicate : mainly as creature removal, but i choose it because of it's versality.
- 2 Smother : again, creature removal. I don't wanna sit there with a Meddling chanting STP or vindicate.
- 2 EE : mass removal, mainly for ETW token, but it help a lot with a large field of creature, with tarmagoyf costing only 2.
- 3 Night's Whisper : i need to gain card advantage and dig my library to get the right answer. Net you two card for two life. Great.
- 2 Skeletal Scrying : Another card that gain my card advantage. instant, so i can cast it at the opponent end of turn. Only two because i don't want to be fucked up if i draw a tombstalker.
- 2 Pulse of the Field : life gain, many deck have trouble with it. Moreover, with 5 Card that draw me card and hurt me, i should say that this is kind of necessary. It have won me some game against combo deck, and many against aggro-control.
- Enligthened Tutor : this is my toolbox. Needed.
- Crucible : allow recursive mishra's and wasteland, isn't that needed, can be change, but it is great as a one off, and you can still pick it when needed with ET.
- SDT : allow card quality, and have good synergie with fetch. One of, i don't want it early game, and i pick it up with ET.
- Moat : this is THE soul of the deck. First we disrupt and answer threat, then we drop a moat to lock out our opponent and play big flying dude. it is really a hard lock against many deck.
- duress : disrupt are needed, and i don't play blue. Will test Thoughseize in it place.
- Hymn to Tourach : disrupt again. Needed.

The point of this deck is to control the early game and the go to the beatdown via some Flying men for the win. I originaly build this deck to have an answer to nearly all. For this, i have put a little toolbox via EE and Moat.
Moat is the very soul of the deck. The main plan is to disrupt the opponent, then play moat and then go for the distance via eternal dragon, DOJ token or Tombstalker.

Ok, that's it. I think i haven't forgot a thing. This deck can be still improved, it manabase have to be, but well, i haven't work that hard on the manabase.
Thanks for all of your feedback by advance.

Holo.

[Team-Hero]

Have you considered the new 3/1 black flyer for 2 mana? I think it came out in the new set?

I was wondering how that card would do in this deck?

[dude 666]

I don't know about you, but Night's Whisper seems particularly janky. Have you considered Phyrexian Arena?

[raharu]

I like Arena also, but why not cut two Smother for another Vindicate? More versatile and it will cut the list to 60 cards.

[Jaynel]

Tombstalker + Skeletal Scrying =/= combo. Have you ever had any problems with that? Does replaying fetches with Crucible of Worlds also impair either of these spells?

[Cavius The Great]

Tombstalker + Skeletal Scrying =/= combo. Have you ever had any problems with that? Does replaying fetches with Crucible of Worlds also impair either of these spells?

He only has 1 Tombstalker. he should easily be able to refill his graveyard by the time he feels he needs to play it.

I'm really liking this deck. It looks solid. How have your matchups been against Goblins and Thresh?

I also think your SB needs more Planar Void. You need ways to deal with opposing graveyards and Planar Void is a great E. Tutor target.

Let me know how this deck has done in testing becuase I would love to know. it looks really solid to say the least. :wink:

[Nihil Credo]

Do not test Thoughtseize + Hymn. Instead, test Duress + Thoughtseize. While raw card advantage can be achieved already in several ways (Black draw spells, land recursion, Dragon, Decree, sweepers), nailing the one threat you can't deal with is priceless. In addition, it smoothes your colour requirements and mana curve (important since you have six colourless lands).

Tombstalker < Exalted Angel. You can't play Tombstalker very soon anyway, so there's little reason not to play a creature that has the bonus of nullifying four power of ground attacks... and that CAN be played on turn 3, if needed. It will also allow you to go up to three Scryings if needed, both by providing life and giving more graveyard fodder. I'd play two Angels and two Decrees, btw.

I think Edicts (probably Diabolic, but Chainer's has its merits as well) are better than Smothers here. You already have StP and Vindicate to deal with targetable threats; Edicts makes it easier for you to answer more resilient threats, like Nimble Mongoose, or Mother of Runes.

As a maindeck card, could Renewed Faith be considered over Pulse of the Fields? Pulse can be used to stall if your opponent has less than 4 power of creatures in play, but Renewed Faith is never dead, for example, in control-on-control matchups, and is better when your manabase is under attack.

[Holo_rip]

I'm glad some of you like the deck and give some advice. Thanks all.


Have you considered the new 3/1 black flyer for 2 mana? I think it came out in the new set?

I was wondering how that card would do in this deck?
Well, i don't want to give my opponent the choice, it is one of the first thing of magic that i have learn. Plus, i has only 1 toughtness, and a only fire/ice wrench it. So my opinion is : no, isn't worth.


I don't know about you, but Night's Whisper seems particularly janky. Have you considered Phyrexian Arena?
Well, i have considered it. It net you more card than night's whisper, but you need more turn for this. Whisper net you two card now. This deck have to find answer to early threat, and that is why i choose whisper instead of arena, cause it is two card now.


I think Edicts (probably Diabolic, but Chainer's has its merits as well) are better than Smothers here. You already have StP and Vindicate to deal with targetable threats; Edicts makes it easier for you to answer more resilient threats, like Nimble Mongoose, or Mother of Runes.
This is a good advice, sometime you need to deal with untargetable creature or else, and for this (with smother in the build) i use EE, but yeah, it is worth testing it, and to be fair, i think it will be better.


Do not test Thoughtseize + Hymn. Instead, test Duress + Thoughtseize. While raw card advantage can be achieved already in several ways (Black draw spells, land recursion, Dragon, Decree, sweepers), nailing the one threat you can't deal with is priceless. In addition, it smoothes your colour requirements and mana curve (important since you have six colourless lands).
Thinking of it, i think you're right again. To be true, i haven't try to fill Lorwyn card in the deck at the moment. But, i have others way to gain the card advantage war, and it is true that this particular deck need to deal with threat. Moreover, isn't mana intesive and come turn one. So i'll change 4 hymn to 4 Thoughseize. Moreover, pulse allow me to lost life quite easily.


As a maindeck card, could Renewed Faith be considered over Pulse of the Fields? Pulse can be used to stall if your opponent has less than 4 power of creatures in play, but Renewed Faith is never dead, for example, in control-on-control matchups, and is better when your manabase is under attack.
Here i think you're wrong, it negate the drawback of fetc, drawer and life loss by the opponent, it is recurcible. It is really a pain to deal with when, with two goyf, you deal only 1 dommage a turn.


Tombstalker < Exalted Angel. You can't play Tombstalker very soon anyway, so there's little reason not to play a creature that has the bonus of nullifying four power of ground attacks... and that CAN be played on turn 3, if needed. It will also allow you to go up to three Scryings if needed, both by providing life and giving more graveyard fodder. I'd play two Angels and two Decrees, btw.
I have to admit that i quicly test angel, and then dismissed it because stalker cost me only two. I'll give more chance playing it. I'll test too the 2/2 split of angel/decree.


Let me know how this deck has done in testing becuase I would love to know. it looks really solid to say the least.
Well, it have done really well. I won't give pourcentage because i found this to be like "hey, my deck PWN this deck and this deck", and many time it's not that true, so i'll give my impression with my experience of the deck.
The hardest matchup i have found are combo, and that's why i run hate in my SB.
Against goblin, i just need to stall till i found my moat, and then it game in the first game. Then i got plague, so it is quite good.
Against threshold, it have a quite good matchup. I've been testing with a friend of my playing MD Trygon Predator. Otherwise it is again counting on Moat.
I haven't played that much again control deck, so i can't say.

Sorry for such a huge post but well, some give me advice and ask question, i just answer this.

Holo.

P.S : one funny thing that i can remember during my testing : i have lost one match against a rifter deck decking myself. Quite funny at the moment, the opponent just say at the end of game "you lame, screw your deck, and run good card". Well, he haven't kill me.

[Slay]

If you plan on lategame hardcasting Decree of Justice all the time, you should probably cut it down to 2 copies. Make your deck more consistent with 60 cards. It's a kill card, and you're a control deck. You don't need 3.
-Slay