B/G Death Cloud

Modern* leondal

SCORE: 3 | 5 COMMENTS | 2528 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

BGx update —Oct. 10, 2013

The deck has been performing very well versus any midrange decks and is particularly good against the other BGx decks in the format. We are running a similar game, but go a little bit bigger. The lack of card draw in the deck is completely offset by the individual power of cards, which always produce an X for 1 trade.

With that said, the deck has been very weak to combo decks and other controllish decks (And definitely Tron). Looking at the newer B/G + lingering souls decks that have been putting up results in the GPs, it's easy to see the similarities. I've taken the time to really break those decks down and see what has made them so successful.

This latest list keeps the Junk Death Cloud Core, Garruk Wildspeaker, Death Cloud, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and Liliana of the Veil and fits it into the BGx Shell. We are only running 4 spot removal spells, but those are augmented by our 6 sweepers. I never really ran Deathrite Shaman before because he dies to all the sweepers, but since trying him out, I've really been so impressed that I'm keeping him in, even though it cuts into my removal count.

I tested Gideon Jura and Vraska the Unseen as further planeswalker options. If I had to run one of them, it would definitely be Vraska. Gideon took too much of a white investment, which really cut in my ability to run Tectonic Edge. Ultimately, I had to make a choice on what was better; spending 5 mana and potentially using her ability only once, or just running something like Beast Within or Maelstrom Pulse.

Chalice of the Void was great in the sideboard for a while, but when I really thought about it, it only is really strong against decks that I am already favored against. This deck is already very good against the aggressive and midrange decks in the format. The problem is really Tron or big control decks.

I've seen some lists cutting Garruk Wildspeaker out. In my opinion, this Garruk is what makes the deck. Every one of his abilities is completely valid in this deck and his ultimate is only -4. What does that mean? That means drop him, +1 him, flashback lingering souls, next turn ultimate for 8 damage in the air (trample). Garruk is the main enabler AND finisher in the deck.