Something a little different...
Ever since I first saw this archetype, I've been of a mind that Junk would provide the ultimate list-- a black-based control deck but abusing Resto/Thragtusk and Resto/Disciple while attritioning out other decks. However, the mana quite frankly sucks in terms of trying to both play
Mutilate and stay consistent. It's just too forced. Having said that, your light splash, Alex, looks relatively reasonable considering how late you expect to want a Vault activation and the fact that you are not looking at completely dead cards without your white source.
A few weeks back, BBD (on the heels of others) posited that a BW take on the archetype might actually be a more globally effective deck within the meta. Obviously, giving up
Thragtusk is the big drawback of this take on the deck, but the gains from white add a dynamic element to
the deck in the shape of
Restoration Angel. Also, white provides access to answers to cards BG struggled with--planeswalkers primarily--in the form of
Oblivion Ring.
Again, Tusk is the big hit in leaving green but what else do we lose?
Scavenging Ooze - I'm on the fence on this. On the one hand, it can be a great card if you run into Reanimator or are up against a creature deck that gives you lots of targets to grow him up. He's also a secondary source of lifegain against creature decks, which is convenient because that's when you want it. However, as has been pointed out over and again, the ooze is only as good as the number of green sources you have to activate his scavenging. Still, a big ooze is a big wall, and he makes great fodder for revelating with Disciple.
Removal - As Alex commented,
Abrupt Decay is hit or miss; however, it is a key
card in BG because it kills
Domri Rade dead and he can wreck us if not dealt with. Nighthawks (main or SB depending on the build) can get him, but you generally need to commit 2 turns to getting rid of him this way, which really isn't what you want to be doing against GR Aggro.
Putrefy really is just a differently-costed and less consistent
Murder; sure, it will kill the odd
Staff of Nin or
Lotleth Troll, but in this meta the gains over
Murder are questionable. Unless you play against Alex's deck, anyway...
Vraska the Unseen - Up until recently, I'd have called this a wash; yes, she can come in and kill problem planeswalkers which is definitely meaningful for this deck (Garruk), but so can a big
damned flying demon. If Frownyard decks really do make an upswing in the next few weeks, she has more utility.
Golgari Charm - Against Aristocrats, it can be another sweeper (if you can sweep them safely); it can also kill pesky enchantments to help with Hexproof and the like.
Anti-Control Enchantments - Cards to shore up matches against control (
Primeval Bounty,
Deadbridge Chant); people seem very split over running these cards as well as
Demonic Rising. Theoretically Bounty is a fantastic card in a long, drawn-out match, but is it going to resolve? And if it does, will it be enough? I don't have the experience with it to know, but a consideration.
All this being said, Alex just suggested through his experience that Thragtusk is really main draw to green. Yes, we get other utility, but Tusk is the main green cog in the deck's plan.
So, here'
s BBD's latest posted list of "Orzhov Guildgate", or BW Control:
[deck]
CREATURES
3 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Geralf's Messenger
3 Desecration Demon
2 Disciple of Bolas
4 Restoration Angel
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
OTHER SPELLS
4 Sign in Blood
2 Mutilate
2 Blind Obedience
1 Doom Blade
2 Tragic Slip
1 Ultimate Price
2 Victim of Night
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Liliana of the Veil
LAND
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Orzhov Guildgate
3 Mutavault
12 Swamp
Sideboard
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Doom Blade
3 Duress
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Ultimate Price
2 Underworld Connections
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Pithing Needle
1 Mutilate
1 Blind Obedience
[/deck]
Evolution of the Deck - Kibler mentioned the idea of BW in an article some weeks back, but never fleshed it out beyond a rough list; Valeriy Shunkov also proposed a list, and like Kibler was looking to Blood Baron of Vizkopa to help with the loss of Tusk. Both also
proposed Sin Collector in the main as another Resto target, as well as playsets of Lifebane Zombie.
Going from the same general direction, BBD found Lifebane to be less than ideal against most of the meta, while Geralf's Messenger--as anyone who has played it in a list with Resto--becomes meaningful reach and a resilient beater. He also found Blood Baron to simply not be as awesome as one would expect him to be. He's embarrassing against an opposing Thragtusk, and if they happen to be running Mortars, he accomplishes nothing. Obzedat, Ghost Council, however, plays very happily in this deck; the double
can be a bite, but it is not generally an issue given the card draw this deck should generate.
What did come to light in his online testing against Hellrider/Hellkite decks was that
Blind Obedience is an effective card in this deck that supports its gameplan well. Killing
the first attacks of hasted creatures provides the opportunity to utterly nullify their effectiveness, and in a deck with so much good cheap removal, it can be equated to "life gain" via damage prevention.
Another shift--again in line with Alex's earlier commentary--was a movement of
Vampire Nighthawk to the main. Not only is the card well-fitted for this deck and relatively live in the current meta, but in combination with Obedience he just flat shuts down Hellkite or any other threat that can't First Strike through him or evade with protection (few relevant creatures indeed).
But of course, the main reason to go white in this archetype is
Restoration Angel. Alex mentioned playing
Undying Evil, which is a card I have always loved but which has bitten me in the butt more than once when I topdecked it rather than a card that could do something on its own. Resto is for all intents and purposes a 4-
mana UE that brings a fine 3/4 flying body with it for the extra cost. It does absurd, nasty things in this deck...the angel should be trading up for black wings. Let your opponent sac to tap DD then attack in, then Resto the demon; they cannot feed it more than once a turn, so now they are crashing into an angel and a huge demon rather than attacking clear. Feed Messenger to Disciple, let him come back, then Resto Disciple the next turn...4 damage across the table and you are up 7 life and have a new starting hand. Resto blinking Nighthawk in response to Thundermaw being cast--dead dragon. Or just blink Obzedat or Messenger for those last points of damage.
Oblivion Ring is a ubiquitous problem-solver...it tackles many of the problem cards that the deck struggles with and allows it to stay on-task.
PLAY - I played around with the deck quite a bit this weekend and I think this is where I'm going to stay most likely until rotation.
Windstrider and I played a number of games with him on an RB Midrange build, and I found it much more flexible than BG. I never thought much about the Extort trigger on Obedience when experimenting with it in Dega, but in a control deck that's not trying to make a specific curve it creates a substantial life swing over time while acting as a mana sink. The removal suite was powerful, though I was reminded of why I dislike
Ultimate Price when I was staring at Reckoner across the table after Dan had wrecked my hand with double
Duress. I personally think Murder makes more sense as it just flat deals with things like Olivia that dodge the available Terrors. I also think Sever the Bloodline makes sense in the side somewhere given that the Flashback cost is reasonable with this deck and thus it offers more CA.
My other set of test games was against my son on Kibler Dragonmaster. To say that he was frustrated against this deck would be an
understatement; even though he is familiar with the archetype from playing Gruul Aggro against the BG version, the Resto shenanigans and
Blind Obedience just wrecked him. For example, he cast Hellkite to tap DD, then came at me with the dragon and
Hellrider, apparently giving him the win...except that Resto blinked the demon before blocks then got in front of Hellrider as his dragon got owned by an untapped demon. The demon and angel then took off his head on my turn.
Is BW a "better" deck than BG? I can't really say at this point. But I can say that it's a blast to play and likely a decent twist to carry into an event right now. I plan to keep goofing with it, particularly tweaking the removal suite. I like Alex's idea of using
Vault of the Archangel as a mana sink and finisher, but it would obviously mean kicking
Mutavault out of the deck. The call would have to
be meta-dependent; against aggro, the Mutavault can save you life early on or punish other decks for a slow start, while Vault is just a monster in the late game.
EDIT: I just saw that BBD took 10th Place at SCG Baltimore with this list; one BG player finished in the Top 8. I updated the list with his final tweaks (Mutilate split 2/1 rather than 1/2, Liliana split 2/1 rather than 3/0, addition of a Mutavault for a total of 61 cards main). I had already made the Mutilate switch as fewer than 2 starting made no sense to me; Lili split is okay, but I'd as soon kick another removal spell to the side. I understand him wanting 3 Mutavault so the deck has a turn 2 option other than removal, but I'm not so much sold on going to 26 land and 61 cards. I've played with 61 often enough, but I'm not sold on this reason to shift. But being as BBD took 10th at Baltimore and I sat home and played at the table, I will shut my yap and defer to him.
