dknight27

20 lands, especially with 4 colonnades is too low for this curve. I wouldn't run fewer than 23

Looks pretty solid to me

I'm not really a fan of the 2 treetop villages in here. I know they stop the bleeding of confidant, but if you swap em out for some 1 drops, like fatal push, they will only hit you for 1 more damage (should be inconsequential), but will speed things up nicely (the village eats tempo like a mofo)

Here's how I would build the deck I described above, just as something to look at.

https://www.mtgvault.com/dknight27/decks/modern-demicontrol/

No problem. What build did you use for blue/red?

Gotcha

Well, the general problem here is that this build is halfway between a combo deck which only throws DoR at opponent's face, and a proactive control deck which uses DoR as a win condition. As its sort of half way between 2 builds, it won't be very good at either idea.

In modern, it will be very hard to pull off a combo build for DoR, as there aren't very many good ways to throw it quickly in the grave from the deck and fetch it back, so I advise going with the proactive control build.


Basically how those work is a TON of cheap/cost effective disruption spells and ways to get through the deck more quickly, so you can stop opponent from doing anything until you find and field your win condition/s.


So, right now we need to pull out all the stuff that doesn't:

a- stop opponent from doing stuff
b- move through the deck quickly
c- directly work to win the game


So, take out- tyrannize, desperate ritual, fists of the demigod, and vessel of vitality off the bat.
-tyrannize gives opponent a choice and there are better ways to win
-fists of the demigod is redundant, as DoR is a badass on his own and its a card that doesn't do anything without a critter
-desperate ritual and vessel of vitality are for fielding the DoR faster, but are useless if you don't have one in hand and we aren't aiming to sling them as fast as possible anyway in this build.


Then, we have to look at the mechanics by which you are finding and fielding your DoR's.

Infernal tutor and disentomb are bad options because they are highly conditional (neither does anything without a copy of DoR already), and there are better ways to go about doing what you're doing in here.

The best option for this is Kolaghan's command, which will fetch back DoR from the grave and take care of another problem as well. Only problem there is that it's about 15 bucks a pop. Still, a gamechanging card and basically never a dead draw.

I've never been personally fond of dash hopes, as its harder to cast (2 black) than other options, gives opponent an easy out (I will eat 5 life all day to keep your from fielding a DoR), and can't solve anything that has already resolved.

Instead, I would focus on cards like: lightning bolt (excellent removal that doubles as a way to finish out close games), fatal push (excellent removal), inquisition of kozilek (slows down opponent in the opening, removes responses later (drop 1 before you drop DoR to get rid of their removal)), blightning (slows down opponent and bleeds them), max out the terminates to 4 (pretty much the best removal in modern), and collective brutality (cost effective way to use wasted cards (extra lands), ditch a DoR to the grave if you have multiples so you can pull it back, and as a bleeding effect).

Also, I would take the land count up to 21 so you won't be stalled out, and if possible (budgetary concerns) add in the fetch lands like bloodstained mire.

4 thunderous wrath's is too high for my taste. You positively don't want one in the opening hand, so I would consider dropping it down to 2 or 3 to make sure you will topdeck it (for its miracle cost) rather than have it sit in the opening hand

Sounds good. What sort of budget are we working with here?

Even with this curve, 16 lands isn't gunna cut it. You are gunna eat mulligans, negating the card advantage you want by running fewer lands, or have games where you are stuck at 1 land and lose the tempo you need

Are you cool with a decent amount of constructive criticism?

I prefer Viashino Pyromancer over Abbot. Consistent and predictable 2 that doubles as a planeswalker hater that you can drop turn 2 with no problem (abbot you can't drop with certainty of playability until you have mana built up). Plus its still snapbackable with claim.

This looks wonderful. Basically guaranteed turn 1 discard disruption, follow up with a turn 2 banger. Fantastic.

Only thing I am considering is Executioner's Capsule as a fast, confidant friendly, goyf food option.

Builds like this are really interesting to me. Their main problem, and one I'm seeing echoed here, is that good enchantments tend to be 3-drops or higher, making the deck slower than the mechanics it wants to shut down.

One way to fix that is to run affordable tactical cards, fast spot removal, and stall tactics, all of which would be of help in this build.

Basically, what this deck wants to do is have either a turn 1 or 2 drop (preferably both) that help you either accelerate or takes care of any quick work by opponent, then on turn 3 drop your 3rd land and go to work.


The 1 drop blue tactical cards like opt, serum vision, and sleight of hand are wonderful for fixing problems and speeding things up. I know you're not running blue in this build, but honestly it would be worth considering just to get in cards like this (as well as opens up more options for enchantments). Another good tactical option is explore, which is basically never a dead draw and will really knock this build into gear.

Spot removal like path to exile lets you respond to critters that are gunna get fielded before you can get your lockdown working as well as be excellent options to pull effect critters off the board if they are a problem later.

Accelerated defense cards like wall of omens, viridian emissary, and elvish visionary go a long way to speeding things up and giving you protection so you have time to field the 3-drop enchantments you need.

I'm surprised to see no Trinketmage in here to fetch out sol ring, voltaic key, and mana vault.

I like running a higher land concentration in my Memnarch EDH, especially since your curve tops at 4-drops.

Other than that this looks solid.

No worries. Its still ingeresting. I just got swept up imagining the prophet untapping everytjjng to death

Well, that sort of depends. What kind of budget are we working with? And are you opposed to adding a third color?

Right now this is a "good stuff" build that is going for "getting it done", meaning you are throwing critters at opponent while denying opponent the ability to throw them back at you. If you want to keep this theme, there are some tweaks that could really help, mainly lowering the curve and fixing the lands.

Its cool if this deck is just thrown together for fun, but if you want to tool around with it I'm more than happy to talk it over

Unfortunately Goyf isn't going to do well in this deck as the curve is sow high. Goyf is good because he is cost effective and fast, but in a deck that has a curve well above 3 he wont do any good until the late middle game

This looks positively fantastic. I love how spellqueller folds right in while keeping a control element. That's a match made in heaven.

I'm also a big fan of the underlying land mechanics going on. Honestly, this is a hell of a build.

Only observations/suggestions I can think of is to ramp up the ramunap excavators over kruphix as the topdeck lands are a variable while grave lands in here are not only a given but have a toolbox set up intentionally.
And perhaps Tamiyo, field researcher is worth considering.

This is very creative. I'm going to have to take a closer look cause I love what is going on

Alrighty. There are some decent bones here, but in general there are some things to consider about deckbuilding in general that it would be beneficial to mention. There are a few little tricks that aren't as well known to newer players, and once you look at deckbuilding through this lens, things start running more smoothly.

First, your curve is too top heavy. Right not 22/60 cards are 3 or 4 drops, meaning the math is very much pointing toward an opening hand where you don't have a turn 1 or 2 play at all, which is a major problem. You are also far more likely to run into hands where you are waiting to drop your third land and can't really do anything until you do, which is the death of decks in modern. It is far more beneficial to have more 1-drops and 2-drops so you are basically guaranteed to be able to hit the ground running. Fortunately, mono-black has many good candidates for these slots, which I'll get to below.

Second, you've got some redundant/underpowered choices in here that can be swapped out for stuff that hits harder and more consistently. Bad moon is an attractive card for mono black, but the truth is you can't afford the card slot for the benefit. Your critters are already powerful for their cost, and the goal of this deck isn't to win a critter vs critter match like a red/green deck. Plus its conditional on having a field already and can also help opponent, so in general its just not worth it. A similar theme for vampiric link. I know you can do fun stuff like enchant opponent's critters/make your big 5/5 a lifelink sledge, but this deck doesn't actually need the lifegain to either survive or create a win situation. I know you're worried about bleeding out with dark confidant, but in reality the little card engine that he is USUALLY wins you the game before you bleed out. On top of that, when you drop the curve, he will hurt you far less than now (odds are a 3 life drain or higher).

Royal assassin is a great card, provided opponent is running heavy critters, which isn't guaranteed in modern. There are plenty of very prominent decktypes that don't care about critters and/or can recover quite easily, making him not as powerful as he seems. Also, the 3 assassins/2 array combo is pretty unlikely to pay off the way you want it to. The math is against them being fielded together, and you are better off running cards that work better on their own, which will help you with overall consistency. Plus, black has WONDERFUL removal options that you can rely on anyway.

4 copies of the same planeswalker are in general a bad decision as you can't play them together so you will be seeing some dead draws. I would drop it to 3. Similar idea as whip of erebos, except that its conditional, so I would only run 2 (need critters and/or a full grave to make it stick).

Hypnotic specter is unfortunately too slow/vulnerable to be worth the spot. Yes, if it hits it will be devastating, but in modern it has to survive until turn 4 in order to do any damage, and that's not going to happen. Every removal card ever takes it off the board, and that's not what you want from your turn 3 drop.

Nykthos helps you less than you think in here. Its legendary, so you can't double up, and you need at least 3 other swamps on the board for it to break even under optimal circumstances as this deck stands (your devotion will be very low in the early game). Plus, it doesn't do a regular black pump, so you can't use it to field any of the early black requirement costs, upping your chances of slow/dead openings. Also, this deck doesn't need to ramp toward anything (no X costs or big boys), so in reality its not really worth the spot.

Arena is a decent idea for suiciding off your confidants, but you can do that pretty easily anyway by just attacking or blocking with them (this is actually a fantastic use for them, get a little card advantage and 2 damage every turn off or chump block after you get what you need). Plus, it doesn't pump mana at all and this deck needs to lay lands that pump quickly.

My advise for the lands is to do all swamps with 6ish fetch lands (bloodstained mire, etc) which helps thin this sucker out once you get the lands you need.


As for what to sub in to fix some of this, I would look at maxing out gifted aetherborn and fatal push and swapping grey merchant to mainbard

Then take a look at bloodghast, graveyard marshall, gatekeeper of malakir, geth's verdict, collective brutality, geralf's messenger, inquisition of kozilek, thoughtseize, duress (sideboard for sure).