[MtG] Modern Death Cloud

[CLG Klavier]

[spoiler=Regular list]

2 Eternal Witness

3 Kitchen Finks

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

4 Tarmogoyf

 

3 Abrupt Decay

3 Death Cloud

1 Damnation

4 Garruk Wildspeaker

4 Inquisition of Kozilek

1 Maelstrom Pulse

1 Putrefy

1 Slaughter Pact

3 Smallpox

2 Thoughtseize

 

4 Overgrown Tomb

4 Treetop Village

2 Twilight Mire

1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

4 Verdant Catacombs

3 Forest

3 Swamp

2 Tectonic Edge

[/spoiler]

 

Tools of doom

3 Death Cloud

3 Smallpox

 

The entire backbone of the deck. Death Cloud is this deck's Sphinx's Revelation of sorts - casting it for 3-4 usually ends the game on the spot. It doesn't outright kill the opponent, but it cripples them heavily, while we're affected much, much less. Smallpox, aka Death Cloud Jr. does its big brother's job well in the early game, holding off aggro decks and such. You haven't lived until you dropped a turn 2 Smallpox when opponent opened land + mana dork.

 

Symmetry? What symmetry?

2 Eternal Witness

4 Garruk Wildspeaker

3 Kitchen Finks

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

 

Here we have the stuff that makes the Cloud not so lethal to us. The most major ones are Sakura-Tribe Elder and Garruk Wildspeaker. Sakura-Tribe Elder trades us a card from hand for a land on the board, so we're still at the same amount of cards when Death Cloud hits, but we usually got more lands than them, thus allowing us to get back into the game faster. Garruk is the deck's all-star, since he both ramps us to a big Cloud, and also spawns beaters post-it, and can end the game with 1-2 creatures on the board. Kitchen Finks are the natural choice for decks involving sacrificing creatures, and especially here, they not only stay on field, but also offset the life loss from Death Cloud or Smallpox. Eternal Witness gets us back stuff, perhaps a land or some removal spell to not let opponent get back into the game.

 

Let's see what you've got

4 Inquisition of Kozilek

2 Thoughtseize

 

1 mana hand disruption are the staples of any deck running black, and in my opinion, this split is the best. I don't think I have to write explanation for why are they good - they let us peek at what opponent is playing, letting us plan in advance, we can get rid of cards that would be painful for us, discard a combo piece, and so on.

 

The big, the dumb and the ugly

4 Tarmogoyf

 

Tarmogoyf, while already being the format all-star, performs even better in this deck than most others. We can either play like other B/G/x midrange decks, drop early disruption and ride Goyf to the victory. However, he'll be the most deadly right after a big Cloud, which will puts lots of different cards into the graveyard, making him huge and allowing us to kill the opponent in 1-2 shots.

 

How about no

3 Abrupt Decay

1 Damnation

1 Maelstrom Pulse

1 Putrefy

1 Slaughter Pact

 

We gotta hold the ground until we got the sufficent amount of lands to drop the Cloud. Abrupt Decay is again a card that requires no explanation, it's a huge "no" button to anything crazy the opponent might be doing. Damnation is one of the best creature wipes at our disposal, and with Sakura-Tribe Elder, it can hit on turn 3, which is a big plus when against Zoo or Affinity, since that one turn might cost us the game. Maelstrom Pulse is a variant of Abrupt Decay, while it's more expensive and counterable, it hits anything regardless of CMC and is a killer against tokens. Putrefy is a nice flexible removal spell at instant speed, killing Birthing Pod or Aether Vial, basically a in-between of Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse. Finally, Slaughter Pact lets us kill a lethal attacker while tapped out, or let us screw up the day of a Twin player.

 

Lands

3 Forest

1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

4 Overgrown Tomb

3 Swamp

2 Tectonic Edge

4 Treetop Village

2 Twilight Mire

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

4 Verdant Catacombs

 

Oran-Rief, the Vastwood is a hilarious card with Kitchen Finks. Since this deck doesn't care for getting all of its lands untapped every turn, we can afford to run it, and it makes Finks VERY card to get rid of, and works hilariously if it's the land left behind after Cloud, pumping Garruk's tokens. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth fixes our mana for Death Cloud, since the triple black might be painful at times.

 

(Sideboard in progress.)

[Simping For Hina]

This is a weird deck, I haven't really seen much of it to notice if it is good or not. But with every deck or so, there are cards that are just better than others. Maelstrom is better than Putrefy, even with its speed. It is a better card since it hits more than just what Putrefy hits, and it hits harder against Artifacts and Creatures. Definitely play it over Putrefy.

 

3/3 of Inquisition and Thoughtseize is a better play, or you run more Thoughtseize than Inquisition. The two life shouldn't hurt you if you're playing Kitchen Finks, and it has a better game plan against Control and Combo. This deck has a harder time against Control due to the reliance of hitting creatures or nonland permanents, while it has a moderate game against UW(r) Midrange.

 

I think that the BGX Shell is a lot better than this type of deck because of the clogginess this deck has and the lack of value this deck can have. While all of its draws are live, they are not always useful or helpful in terms of pressure. Maybe cut some cards to fit in Smallpox, but Deathcloud isn't that impressive to run when the game goes too long and the opponent still has the ability to get back into the game. BGX is a lot better because it puts pressure down early, has card advantage and keeps the opponent's field in check all at the same time, and the clock is usually a lot faster than this deck seems to be.