Question Argeaux, why use Dead Weight, just seems like a really weak card that doesn't stop a creature from swinging at you

Good question, AgentGreen.

Dead Weight serves a few purposes:

1. It can flat out kill a Creature that's toughness 1 or 2 for a cost of

2. It can take away the teeth of a Creature, eg. Lambholt Pacifist  ^Flip stays tiny once it flips, and doesn't help an unflipped version of itself attack.

3. It adds a bit of fuel for To the Slaughter to get its Delerium on. Although that's not essential, it's nice if it happens.

The more and more that I play with it, the more I like your deck in what I'm thinking will be the format at least at the start of SoI standard. The one creature in testing that I've found your deck has problems with is a resolved Reality Smasher. Sure, you can block it with a pumped Kalitas, but you want to take care of it when you don't have Kalitas pumped, Kalitas at all or any way to pump Kalitas. If it were my deck, I'd put some number of Stasis Snare in the sideboard. I know you said you don't like those because of how they can get removed and that's fair, probably a good call for your local meta. Going against the red or blue Eldrazi aggro decks that top out at Smasher though, they don't have enchantment hate anywhere in the 75 unless they're running a really wonky list. Snare gets Smasher at instant speed and you don't even have to discard to Smasher. Something to think about anyway.

I too question the usage of Dead Weight, simply because it is only good removal against fairly small creatures. It seems like it would be more of a sideboard card that you brought in against aggro decks, because topdecking this lategame whilst staring down a Dragonlord Atarka or World Breaker would not be a pleasant surprise, or even just drawing this against a midrange deck, it wouldn't exactly have a multitude of targets. In fact, the only targets in a midrange deck that I can think of off the top of my head are Sylvan Advocate, and Den Protector. I personally feel that it would be better to just have hard removal to combat most decks game 1, and if it was an aggro deck, you could take out your playset of Anguished Unmaking for four Dead Weight. To top that off, the aggro decks I've been seeing lately look to have larger creatures, like mono-red eldrazi, and the rakdos vampires deck. Besides, against any proper aggro deck, slowing their clock by two damage seems quite lackluster for a card that could, more often than not, turn out to be a completely irrelevant draw against other, non-aggro, decks.

It's a good tip, icefire033.

I did with play with the card a bit in another build and didn't mind it.

I will definitely keep it in mind if things start to play out differently from what I'm anticipating.

ExplosivesAreUs I don't know what to tell you.

A lot of the scenarios you are positing just don't happen.

The big Creatures are either removed from hand by Transgress the Mind or dispatched by Anguished Unmaking.

Think about Dead Weight like the secret Magma Spray that your Mama never told you about. The baby Grasp of Darkness.

It's a great, cheap way to eliminate an early threat.

It's also versatile. Big Reality Smasher got you down? Three , one Dead Weight, and a Grasp of Darkness and boom, it's dead.

Or just defang it for a while by turning it into a 3/3.

I'm not going to convince everyone of its worth. I don't have to.

I love it but, if you don't, make your own version of this deck without it.

That's the beauty of Magic.

icefire033 You actually do have to discard when you drop a Stasis Snare on a Reality Smasher, or the spell is countered. Now granted in this set discarding isn't really a bad deal with madness and Delerium, but you still need a card to discard.

Argeaux Except Reality Smasher's ability is harder to work around

You said "Big Reality Smasher got you down? Three , one Dead Weight, and a Grasp of Darkness and boom, it's dead.

Three for one Dead Weight + a card + Grasp + a card. You are burning 4 cards to nuke one big threat. That's not a great tradeoff by any means

@AgentGreen I believe you can use Stasis Snare, and other cards like Quarantine Field/Isolation Zone, for that matter, on a Reality Smasher without discarding. Here's why. Take Grasp of Darkness, for example. The spell itself is to give a target creature -4/-4. This is a spell that would target the Smasher, and requires a discard. Now Stasis Snare is a bit different. In old terms, S.Snare is a world enchantment spell, so resolving the spell itself is to put the enchantment into play. Once it enters, then the exile ability triggers, meaning it is a triggered ability of the card. The spell resolves without target, but this ability is what allows S.Snare to do anything after entering the battlefield. Since Smasher does not specify countering abilities, just spells, S.Snare exiles it without further cost.

Now in comparison, look at Kira, Great Glass-Spinner. Kira specifies that the first spell or ability that targets a creature you control gets countered. So if you tried to Stasis Snare a Kira (or another of the opponent's creatures while their Kira is in play), the enchantment would enter the battlefield without incident, but its triggered ability would get countered, leaving you with an enchantment in play that does nothing but give two white devotion.

Andwelcometothejam is absolutely correct with regards to the interaction between Stasis Snare and Reality Smasher, and every other enchantment removal spell for that matter. You do still discard a card for dead weight+grasp a Smasher. But a weighted Smasher can't attack profitably into even an unpumped Kalitas. But the flash on Snare is crucial, and playing the deck, ID like to leave anguished unmaking back to deal with walkers. Having extra answers to a slight problem postboard is exactly where a control deck wants to be.

Something else I noticed while playing the deck is that late game Duress and transgresses are often dead cards and you only have the walkers for card advantage. If I were building the deck, I would cut one of each Duress and Transgress for 2 Read the Bones to cut down on bad topdecks late and to add more card advantage. Also a one of Sea Gate Wreckage could be worth considering.

This is why one of the best cards in Standard that deals with Reality Smasher is Suspension Field. Other cards that affect it (without needing to discard) include Alchemist's Vial, Briber's Purse, Citadel Siege, and Quiet Contemplation.

Ah you're absolutely correct. I forgot it's not an aura, it's a standalone enchantment, and it's the ability of the Enchantment that targets the Smasher which goes around the discard to save ability

AndWelcomeToTheJam Those cards you mentioned will no longer save you in Standard after next week

Fine, I'll use Ob Nixilis Reignited instead.

That works too :)

Argeaux Love the deck. If my B/W Control doesn't pan out very well, I may just switch to yours and give it a try. Mine is more Tokens based (I know Declaration in Stone is a death sentence for tokens) I also like the idea of using Angelic Purge with Demonic Pact. Specially since they cannot stop you from sac'ing Demonic Pact in the attempt to cast the Angelic Purge. So perhaps you can take a look at mine and give me a few pointers on B/W Control (Jumping back into standard after a year or so of not playing).

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/BW Control - New standard

ughh this looks so fun to play but im too poor

tbqh I'm not worried about discarding cards with this deck, as I always seem to have heaps in hand.

As pointed out, a defanged Reality Smasher can be taken care of by Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, or a flashed in Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip.

I don't know why you aren't finding targets with Duress and Transgress the Mind in the late game.

People are usually hanging on to their bigger cards and spells to deal with bigger Creatures at that stage.

Argeaux I'm not finding targets after I've ripped through their hand and they're in topdeck mode. It's possible that the decks i'm testing against are more aggro in nature and don't keep things back as much as you're used to playing against...which is just your meta and completely fine.

I have Ob Nixilis Reignited in the build.

Sorin, Grim Nemesis can also kill Reality Smasher without discard, using his second ability.

I actually get a lot of card draw happening in this deck with the first ability of both Ob Nixilis Reignited and Sorin, Grim Nemesis.

Sea Gate Wreckage I'm not really keen on.

As I've said before, I don't want to put too many land cards in that tap for <>.

I wouldn't put both Sea Gate Wreckage and Blighted Fen in, and I like what Blighted Fen does better.

Argeaux,
I suspect it's obvious to you, but wanted to mention anyways: If an opponent leaves up after sideboarding, it's probably Display of Dominance.

Wasn't obvious at all, clayperce.

Thanks for the heads up.

So I will need to look at board wipe if I see that happening.

Or just a silly spell I don't mind fizzling, that is annoying enough to force that play.

Just a heads up

I am going to make a strong effort in building your deck; asides from the SOI cards, I am missing one Languish; one Kalitis, 2 vents and two Grasps

Time is of the essence for me, you're going to run this to the mill; I'm going to run it through a PTQ (there's one at my LGS next Saturday; a day after rotation)