The idea behind this deck is pretty simple. This is a budget control homebrew based around the concept of making creatures with deathtouch into pingers. When a creature with deathtouch does damage to another creature, that creature will die, no matter the toughness. So you maintain control with these deathtouch pingers until you can get your finishers.
First, Spirit/Vampiric Link make your pingers into lifegain machines, and with a hoard of pingers (4-5) you can win the game quickly. (Also, if worse comes to worst, you can always enchant a big threat with spirit/vampiric link so that when it deals damage to you, you also gain that much life, negating the damage. It is worded in such a way that is is not just lifelink.)
Second, Oros, The Avenger is a 6/6 Flyer. That is pretty okay on its own. Fortunately, when you pack Spirit/Vampiric link, you can gain 3 life for each non-white creature on the battlefield while simultaneously wiping the board. Sure, you kill your pingers, but who cares when you've gained 36 life and you have a 6/6 Flyer.
Third, Thundermaw Helllkite can get in damage quickly to an empty board, which the opponent is sure to have if you can control it with your pingers.
The reasoning behind having make a stand is to prevent against boardwipes like pyroclasm, which can be devastating to this deck. Marrow shards is in here to (Hopefully) deal with hexproof creatures, although this won't happen often. Most of the time, in a case where you are being attacked by a 10/6 bogle with lifelink, you should just block with a 1/1 deathtoucher. You still hold the advantage in that case. This can also deal with infect. If they swing with a blighted agent or glistener elf then pile on the instant speed pump spells, wait or their las one before putting marrow shards on the stack. It will resolve, killing their 1/1 then they will have no action for the rest of the game.
Hope this deck is suitable for those looking for a competitive modern deck on a budget. This Barely Breaches $65 in paper and $25 online. It may not win a GP, but it's sure to impress at you LGS. If you have any suggestions as for how to improve this deck, please leave a comment! I left the sideboard empty because, as with every sideboard, it depends on your local meta.
Thanks for the support!
