Wednesday 4 September 2013

Modern removal

This is sort of a follow on from my last post about the mono black infect deck I've been putting together. So far I have found a good sideboard card to try out so will try to get two more copies, this card being Sadistic Sacrament. Three mana is about the top end I want to be hitting for sideboard cards, and this is one that doesn't require a card to already be in my opponents graveyard.

I have also taken out a Liliana and a Rime Transfusion for two extra Plague Stingers. I've been thinking about replacing the Night's Whispers too, initially with Tezeret's Gambit, but that new card in Theros (Scry 2, draw 2, lose 2) looks equally interesting so I want to play two of each to see if one is better.

Also in Theros is Thoughtsieze which I mentioned I would like to get. Will initially just replace Inquisition with them as I get them, but I'd ideally like to play 4 Thoughtsieze and 2 Inquisition, but I'm not sure what to take out for the two extra.

I've been mulling over my removal suite. I've taken out Devour in Shadow and Disfigure for an extra Devour Flesh and Dismember (3 of each). My reasoning is that I'm usually going to be wanting to remove just one creature, so Devour Flesh does that fine while getting around indestructible and Hexproof and, as previously mentioned, the infect deck doesn't care about life gain.

I've put Dismember in as it is a good Disfigure replacement as I can cast it for one mana if I really need to, and it will kill a lot more. The bonus over Devour in Shadow is that I can spend less life sometimes and it gets around indestructible in addition to regeneration (which Devour in Shadow also gets around). Devour Flesh should handle anything over 5 toughness, but -1/-1 counters from my creatures will also shrink things down into Dismember range. The big creatures that I saw at the tournament aren't affected by Devour in Shadow anyway (both Eldrazi, one indestructible, one has protection from coloured spells, so Devour Flesh is better here as it will actually do something).

I'm not sure what I need for mass removal. Infest seems reasonable for now in the sideboard, but I'll have to play some more creature heavy decks to make up my mind. I'm not sure whether Damnation would be better here or whether the extra mana is too much of a drawback. Similarly for Mutilate, but I think Damnation would be better in that case anyway.

I'm not sure when I'll next get a chance to play the deck, hopefully I'll be able to update it some more first.

No comments:

Post a Comment