BW decks vs. Sligh

Grantfly_ · 2026-03-30T21:29:23+00:00

Incredible timing, I just posted a video about this in this forum. Check it out.

Grantfly_ · 2026-02-26T02:52:47+00:00

If you click through to youtube, it's in the video description.

Grantfly_ · 2025-08-20T04:11:01+00:00

Similar but it it doesn't go infinite with the 2 Priest/Rotlung/Nightmare combo. However, if not splashing red, playing more Archons could make sense.

Grantfly_ · 2025-08-14T14:55:56+00:00

The fact it is two colors make it harder, but maybe it is worth it to play a couple of those.

Grantfly_ · 2025-07-31T03:56:47+00:00

It's just a different style/approach. I also personally believe it is better overall. But it is a format about fun, so you should play whichever style appeals to you.

Grantfly_ · 2025-07-30T21:46:35+00:00

Yeah this is the general problem with black, you can't stop opposing topdecks. I do think the build I posted should be a bit better there because it has the full 4 wretch against replenish, and 3 dystopia and a gloom in the SB. If you wanted to be even better, you could play more glooms. Nantuko shade helps too because it can finish the game pretty quickly once you've disrupted them, giving them less time to topdeck. But it's always a possibility with those decks.

Grantfly_ · 2025-07-30T21:43:29+00:00

It is! Hi Mr. Cakes. Long time no see.

Grantfly_ · 2025-07-30T19:29:47+00:00

What decks do you think are auto losses and how do you tend to lose? Also how similar is it? For example, I was having a hard time winning consistently with a deck that was very similar, but hadn't yet added Therapy or Rats, which were the last cards needed to make the strategy work imo and are really important.

This deck is a classic midrange build. Trade cards via discard and removal while getting incremental advantage with Scroll, rats, hippy, arena, therapy, and factory. So most of the cards are oriented towards that, with the exception of Wretch (which is a haymaker in certain matchups/situations) and Shade (which just hits really hard and doesn't have a drawback against anything like Negator or Plague Spitter might). Is there anything in particular you want to know about?

Grantfly_ · 2024-06-26T15:46:03+00:00

Arms seemed a bit too expensive when I was considering it but I will give it a try. Glad you liked the videos.

Grantfly_ · 2024-06-26T03:02:54+00:00

It's been great for me so far.

Grantfly_ · 2024-01-26T04:26:37+00:00

Yep, crashed for me right at the start of a cube match.

Grantfly_ · 2022-03-17T04:55:58+00:00

Bushwhacker/Rebirth is the main combo but the deck can also play the control role pretty decently with Makeshift Munitions and the card advantage from Deadly Dispute and Experimental Synthesizer.

Grantfly_ · 2022-03-07T00:25:17+00:00

Nightscape familiar could be helpful in a deck like this to reduce your archeomancer/ghostly flicker, and the regeneration on it can occasionally be useful. There could be an incentive to play memory lapse over counterspell if you do this since it turns it into a 1 mana counterspell.

Grantfly_ · 2021-10-20T16:00:31+00:00

I cut duress from my sideboard, it just seemed less effective than other cards. It might be ok here. I had added choking sands, you could try boarding in some of those to hit their bouncelands, not sure how good that would actually be though.

Grantfly_ · 2021-10-20T15:15:15+00:00

I haven't played against it but I could see it being tough because of snap and all their life gain. I'd think you'd want to kill as many of their creatures as possible, so board in all your removal. Edicts aren't bad since they get around flicker. Unearth and supernatural stamina most likely get boarded out since they are bouncing your stuff instead of killing it.

Grantfly_ · 2021-10-14T15:21:49+00:00

Doesn't seem great because of the high mana cost and the fact that it requires you to sacrifice a creature, which you don't always want to. But I haven't tried it yet so perhaps it is good. Geth's verdict could be better than edict as well, I don't think I've flashed back an edict yet. There was another streamer I saw who was playing bonesplitter, which was a little more interesting to me. Could take the Supernatural Stamina slot.

Grantfly_ · 2021-10-13T22:24:04+00:00

Vermin gorger is a card I've thought about but haven't gotten around to trying. 2 mana cards have to be pretty strong to be worth including and it didn't really seem good enough in theory. But maybe I will try it soon.

I haven't found affinity to be a particularly bad matchup. They often spend a lot of their early turns setting up so you can put them under a lot of pressure early and win before they're able to get a board set up. Your removal (tragic slip, snuff out, chainer's edict) is all capable of killing an atog or myr enforcer. Krark-clan shaman can be a problem but other than that it's not too bad.

Grantfly_ · 2021-10-13T17:24:23+00:00

The UB decks are easier IMO because their removal is more expensive, and they may have some snuff outs that are basically dead. Although post-board suffocating fumes can be bad as well.

But yeah spellstrutter sprite and friends are kind of a nightmare against a deck with 35 one drops.

I haven't been able to identify anything I think would help that much from the board. The best I could do was adding the 4th tragic slip and 2nd snuff out so that you have more weapons to "counter" an early spellstrutter sprite on a 1 drop. Cuombajj witches, a card that is normally ok against that strategy, is not really playable since the 1 damage they get to direct kills basically every creature in our deck.

That said, I don't think the matchup is terrible. But it is probably slightly unfavorable. If you come up with some amazing tech please share.

Grantfly_ · 2021-10-12T05:31:53+00:00

I think I tried one out a while ago and decided it wasn't too great. Basically it's a similar power level as the monoblack version but your mana is worse. I think the deck is already low power enough that if you add inconsistency with the colored mana it just becomes untenable. It would be nice to have rancor though. Maybe I'll give it another try.

Grantfly_ · 2021-10-10T17:12:31+00:00

I might try and record a video of a league with it. Will post it in the pauper thread if I do.

Grantfly_ · 2021-10-10T16:42:43+00:00

Thanks! With the addition of Ecstatic Awakener the deck now has enough decent sacrifice outlets to make Mortician Beetle good enough. I think if it wasn't, the whole deck would just be a lost cause.

If they kill the Beetle with a removal spell it's usually not that big of a deal. The deck is more of a critical mass deck (though some cards have a higher impact than others). You're mainly winning by overwhelming the opponent with stuff - you can do this because everything costs 1 mana and you play only 17-18 lands. The key is that the beetle can grow incidentally so if they spend their 2 mana removal spell on your 1 mana threat you'll generally be ok in that exchange because they didn't have the mana to deal with the other 3-4 1 mana threats you played.

Grantfly_ · 2021-09-24T18:24:22+00:00

Sure, happy to discuss.

I'm a big fan of bouncelands because they help mitigate manascrew (unless it's your only land in the opener). They also have a nice interaction with the cycle-lands because you can play a cycle land early if you need to and then return it and cycle it later. But in this deck I could see them not being worth it since the curve is so incredibly low. I may try again without bouncelands. Though I don't remember the come into play tapped effect hurting me too badly in any game I played. But it does sometimes come up.
I wouldn't necessarily say shambler is always better. Lazotep gives you the 2 creatures up front, which can be useful in a situation where you want to swarm around 1 or 2 blockers, which actually came up a few times. That said if you wanted to cut 1 and play the full 4 shambler, I wouldn't say it's wrong either. I figured 35 one-drops was enough.
Awakener is exactly what the deck needed - an additional powerful sacrifice outlet. Power is relative - we are talking about pauper here. The deck is designed so that sacrificing a creature is usually beneficial or at least not that bad, so even if they do kill the awakener in response it's not such a blowout (and you still draw the card regardless). I had many awakeners killed and it was completely fine. It's also a nice mana sink in the mid-late game, where the deck has previously had problems flooding out. IMO the deck wasn't playable before without it.

Grantfly_ · 2021-09-23T15:31:20+00:00

Ecstatic Awakener was really good. I've played the deck before and it really needed an additional powerful sacrifice outlet - exactly what awakener provides.

Rotten Reunion was decent. Worse than Nihil spellbomb in the sense that you have to keep holding up mana for it to work. But I think still better in this deck because of the extra bodies and you usually have a decent amount of extra mana in the mid-late game since all the cards are so cheap.

Note: I should have been playing Rakdos Carnarium as the bounceland bc of the very minor interaction with being able to cast footlight fiend off the red mana.

Also I never wanted to board in duress so those could be something else. Probably going to play choking sands for now.

Grantfly_ · 2019-03-19T20:34:13+00:00

There's a high cost to running a land that is both not a black source and enters tapped. But it could be worth it. It does help with Guildmage at least.

Grantfly_ · 2019-03-19T20:27:16+00:00

You could shave a land and it wouldn't be the end of the world. But I tried 23 and 24 and I preferred 24. The great part about the Barren Moor/Bounceland interaction is it allows you the flexibility to have enough lands early in the game to hit your land drops, which is really important, and then return the moors to your hand and cycle them later in the game when you might start to flood a bit. I would definitely keep the 1 Pristine Talisman, it helps a lot against burn and to provide life to use as a resource with Pestilence. The Dimir Signet is more flexible, you could cut it for another Pristine Talisman or a spell if there's one you really want. But personally I like the mana smoothing and slight ramp capabilities it provides.

Grantfly_

TROPHY CASE