BRw Control

[Filth]

BRw Control
Land - 25 1 Arcane Sanctum 2 Akoum Refuge 4 Dragonskull Summit 4 Marsh Flats 3 Arid Mesa 7 Swamp 3 Mountain 1 Plains Creature - 10 4 Vampire Nighthawk 2 Wall of Reverence 4 Malakir Bloodwitch	Other - 25 2 Duress 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Sign in Blood 4 Terminate 4 Blightning 3 Ajani Vengeant 4 Earthquake

This deck started out as a BRw "Zombie" Control deck more or less focusing on Necromancer's Covenant. Then someone on IRC suggested that I should play Malakir Bloodwitch... and so I ended up cutting the Covenants, Lightning Reavers, and other zombie stuff. The Bloodwitch is very good in this format, and I want 4 of them in the deck. After some more MWS testing I also cut 4x Bituminous Blast for 4x Earthquake, which gave me better matchups against pretty much everything. Don't be fooled by the deck's name or the card choices - it's really a burn deck, and having a Fireball effect in there really helps.

The manabase has gone through a lot of tweaking, and it can usually support a Duress - Sign/Terminate - Blightning/Nighthawk - Ajani/Wall curve. Sometimes the turn 1 Duress doesn't happen, but it isn't really that important anyway. I just want to hit the critical Brave the Elements or Conqueror's Pledge, or whatever troublesome removal or planeswalkers the opponent may have. I'm playing 25 land, because with 24 I just didn't seem to draw the right colors often enough. It's not that I need the extra mana, but color screw can really ruin games.

All of my creatures have two things in common: they fly, and they give me more life. Both abilities are really synergestic with Earthquake, and of course the life gain helps with the large amount of fetches + 4 Sign in Blood. I'm aware that Wall of Reverence can't target Bloodwitch, but +1 or +2 life per turn and a 1/6 body is still really good when I'm trying to race the fast aggro decks.

Sign in Blood and Blightning are obviously my main card advantage producers. Hitting a turn 3 Jace Beleren with Blightning never gets old. Earthquake is a Lavalanche that costs less, because it doesn't hit any of my creatures, and I should have enough life gain to offset the damage to my own face. I wouldn't even consider Volcanic Fallout in this deck, because the double red isn't easy to get, and it just doesn't do enough in most matchups. Quake for after a turn 3 Nighthawk is a good start against aggro, and against control, I'd rather have a Fireball than a Shock.

This deck beats the tribal aggro decks (Vampires, Soldiers, Goblins), and has enough burn and hand disruption to keep control on the back foot. For some reason every time I've wanted to test against Jund or Bushwhacker on MWS, all of my friends have disappeared from MSN/IRC and so I haven't been able to test those matchups at all. From the few games I played against Jund back when this was still "Zombie" Control, I can tell that I can't race a Broodmate Dragon. Against Jund, I'm probably going to save my Blightnings until they don't have many cards in hand, and then remove the Dragons proactively. They still probably have the advantage here, because all of their threats are very powerful. Wall of Reverence can potentially buy me 1-3 turns if not removed, but other than that, Jund is playing either the same cards as I am, or more powerful ones.

Possible sideboard cards for this deck include:

+2 Duress
More annoyances for control. All Soldier decks also run enough Honor of the Pure, Harm's Way, Brave the Elements, Ajani Goldmane, and Conqueror's Pledge to pose a problem unless I deal with those cards proactively. Duress and Blightning are very good against pretty much anything mono-W.

+1 Wall of Reverence
Good against Jund, and some problematic fast aggro decks.

Vampire Hexmage
I HATE playing against planeswalkers. This also laughs at those Ball Lightnings and whatever. I CANNOT afford to spend my life on Sign in Bloods when playing against RDW, so I can swap them for these.

Goblin Ruinblaster
Good against control, and another tool to help against those Broodmate Dragons, and maybe Sphinx of Jwar Isle if it sees play. Resource denial is always fun.

Celestial Purge
A card I'm going to hate when my opponents play it. The most important uses for this card are killing Sprouting Thrinax and dealing with Bloodchief Ascension. Actually, the ability to deal with Ascension is my main reason for playing white in the deck. R/B just loses to that card.

Deathmark
I've never liked this card, but it might actually be good in this deck/meta. Kills everything in Jund except the token half of Broodmate Dragon, and Nighthawk if they're running it. And Stag obviously has protection.

Disfigure
This is my card of choice if I want more 1-mana instant removal. It's slightly easier on the manabase than Burst Lightning, and also gets around Mark of Asylum if Soldiers/Bushwhackers start playing it.

Needlebite Trap
When the whole deck is so Lightning Helix -themed, this card is too good not to mention. It would be awesome in the mirror, but sadly I don't think there are going to be enough decks that run life gain.

Unstable Footing
TurboFog. I wouldn't be surprised if that deck saw play in my FNM meta.


The sideboard I've used in the MWS test games looks like this:

Sideboard
2 Duress 2 Deathmark 3 Celestial Purge 4 Vampire Hexmage 4 Goblin Ruinblaster

In the right meta, you could play more Duress MD, and move 1-2 Terminate to the SB. My FNM meta is full of newer players who like using their basic lands to power out Woolly Thoctars and other fatties, so I'm more likely to face an aggro deck than control.

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rabbit asked about this deck here, but discussing it would have been off-topic there, so I updated this old "Zombie Control" thread, and am now bumping it instead of making a new thread. I hope the mods understand.

So, rabbit (I know you're going to read this), does the first post answer your question? For a shorter answer, based on testing so far, I honestly believe this deck can compete in the current T2 meta.

[rabbit]

You were right I was reading this . Yeah this makes a lot of sense. I like the direction this is going, but I do have one question. Why not run Baneslayer Angel over Wall of Reverance? I understand if you don't have them, but if you did I'd seriously consider that over the Wall. It'll be pro dragons which helps with Broodmate Dragon.

Also, I would consider dropping Sign in Blood. Don't get me wrong, I love card draw in and the 2 life is really not that bad with the amount of life you can gain, but I would replace it with Path to Exile. This will cover fully anything that's pro black/pro red.

In your sideboard maybe get rid of Deathmark. Between Baneslayer, PtE, Terminate, and Celestial Purge; you'll have a full range of removal that can hit just about everything. So a Sorcery speed removal won't be necessary. I would however, consider Gatekeeper of Malakir or Day of Judgement. Gatekeeper will cover single shroud creatures, and DoJ can work the aggro decks that hit off quickly.

Just some thoughts that I see, but this deck does look pretty wicked. Let me know how you do with this one.

[Filth]

Oh, right, Baneslayer. Of course I should have mentioned her. The thing is that she costs , and white is just a splash in this deck. I have two lands that produce white, and only one of them is fetchable, so I'm never going to draw double white in this deck. I understand that I could increase the amount of white in the deck, probably making it BWr. But do I WANT to do that is a whole different issue. See, I like playing rogue decks for the sake of being different. Baneslayer tends to turn decks into "Baneslayer Control", and I don't want that to happen here.

There's also the $$$ issue. I COULD buy the Angels, but do I really want/need them? If the deck keeps losing to Jund or other decks that Baneslayer would be good against, then I may have to get my playset. But for now I want to test this RBw version.

EDIT: Same thing for Path, really. I'll start playing them if I really need them, but not if I can avoid it. And I'd rather not rely on drawing one of the 9 white sources in the deck just to be able to use my removal. Anyone can build a deck with 4 Path, 4 DoJ, and 4 Baneslayer, but building a white deck without any of them is more interesting. ;P

EDIT2, because I love editing my posts: Gatekeeper of Malakir could kill Wall of Denial or Sphinx of Jwar Isle, yes. However, Sphinx comes down too late to make much of an impact, and Wall of Denial can't really block my attackers anyway. There isn't anything else that the removal already in the deck couldn't handle.