Mono Black "Insta-Win", modern help
Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 3, 2013, 5:33 a.m. by REV666
Ok boys and girls, I signed up just to ask your help.
I REALLY want to be a PiTA at the LHS games and I want to build a deck around the Sanguine Bond & Exquisite Blood "instant win" scenario. I figure mono black would be fine (and the reason Im going to focus on modern is EB is going out of Standard soon)
Anywho, I pulled out some of my black cards and just threw together a "deck" even tho I dont have the 4x SB & 4x EB in my hands yet. Id type it all out here but its mundane, trying to focus on flying and extort, with a few cards to hurt the player like Stab Wound and find a needed card in the library.
Can you kids help me out putting together a deck around that 2 card combo?
alrighty! let me give you a little background on me real quick. im 30, just got back into playing and the last time i played, i think the last sets i played with were tempest/portal etc. i remember playing when the only rules were x amount of cards in a deck and who knew what a format was? i had boxes of no-set cards too, tossed em all.
anyway, back then i was a black/white player when the common thought was opposing colors would never work, and (at least in my school) i was pretty much unstoppable. back then, we just put cards together and hoped for the best. i still have no real clue as to "proper" building technique.
today, i have a black white life drain standard deck that will need some adjustment come the end of the month, but overall im loving MTG again!!!
ok, now onto the list:
24 Swamp
4x Stab Wound
the main focus is obviously a way to take life and give it to me, or be more or less unblockable once the combo is on the table. this is using the cards i have available to me in my box, as well as the in transit combo cards SB/EB
September 3, 2013 10:39 p.m.
Your best bet for getting commentary would be to use the deck builder and take commentary there. It's just easier to look things over there than it is with a list in a post.
But I'll give it a try anyway! This is obviously a combo deck, and it's a slow one in comparison because you can't reasonably play it until turn 6. That is not a deal-breaker in and of itself. It does mean that you have to be able to adjust for that.
It means you're going to have to defeat your opponent's strategy for six turns. Midrange creatures and Extort cards are not the way to do that. I would suggest that you decide what you want the deck to do and then build everything else around that one thing.
If you want to run the Sanguine Bond / Exquisite Blood combo, that will mean beating aggro decks that can have you dead before you can cast either card, and it'll mean beating combo decks that...well, can have you dead before you can cast either card.
For the former, wrath effects are available. You term your deck "black white" but it's really not, since it only has black cards and no lands other than swamps, but I would suggest certainly going full BW. BW has access to Day of Judgment , Wrath of God , and Damnation (Damnation is pretty pricey these days). This is obviously not really compatible with the strategy of playing a bunch of little extort guys, which is another reason to not do so. BW also has no lack of spot removal with Dismember and Path to Exile , and to a lesser extent Go for the Throat and Doom Blade (though there are decks that completely blank either). You should have no trouble keeping creatures off if you play some of those.
For combo decks, instant-speed spot removal is also useful against many of them, such as Splinter Twin and Pod decks. Other combo decks like Storm and Scapeshift can go off without creatures at all. For those, the best that you can do in your colors is targeted discard. Thoughtseize is best and is about to be reprinted, but even then it's still pretty expensive. Duress and Inquisition of Kozilek are cheaper and still reasonable cards, but neither will hit everything you want it to hit.
It should also be noted that white is the best color for sideboarding against combo decks, with things like Rule of Law and Stony Silence and Ghostly Prison . (And if you're okay with more expensive cards, Aven Mindcensor and Linvala, Keeper of Silence are also very good in some matchups.) Another reason to add white-generating lands.
You also obviously need to find your two-card combo. I see Diabolic Tutor but you should be aware that it has the same CMC as the wrath effects, so if you have to play a wrath card you'll be slowing yourself by a turn. However draw and tutoring are somewhat limited in Modern, so short of adding Sign in Blood , there may not be a lot you can do.
With all of that trying to survive until you can go off, the hardest part may be actually doing damage/gaining life to activate the combo after you get both combo cards into play. Keep that in mind and understand that this is really a three card combo because the two in play literally do nothing until you can do damage or gain life.
This doesn't really leave room for much of a backup plan, which at least the creatures were good for. You might want to consider Lingering Souls as it can a) activate your combo, b) block early little creatures, and c) not lose its entire value with a wrath. It's not a terribly good backup plan because it's not fast (though Vault of the Archangel in conjunction with them might let you race), but everything's a give and take, isn't it?
September 6, 2013 11:45 a.m.
yeah i went in tonight and got my head smashed in, but pulled out the combo twice and ended up not too bad in standings (not top 4 tho, lol)
i was noticing this deck was very slow. my main "idea" when building it was, using what i had in hand aside from the combo cards, focus on things that would basically activate the combo once out. it just took too long to get out and for the most part, i died a turn before it happened.
i never said this deck was a black/white, when i used to play it was B/W and my now standard deck is B/W.
ill try the deck builder thing when i can. not sure how to work it but ill get there
MollyMab says... #2
Show us a list. We can help you.
However, modern is a turn 4 format and a lot of decks will kill you before you have the combo online
September 3, 2013 7:23 a.m.