dknight27

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).

Haven't playtested yet, but its on the list.

Sideboard I'm still toying with, I welcome suggestions.

I love a good RWU control deck. So much potential.

I see a couple things that are a little off balance in this build that I think could improve the way she handles.

Firstly, the curve is a little high. You need a heavy saturation of 1-drops and 2-drops as the base of builds like this, cause if you can't respond turn 1 and 2 you will be playing catchup the whole time and will never really be able to gain control. This can be handled decently well by shaving off some of the 3 drops, which I will cover below, in favor of some 1 drop tactical cards (like opt, sleight of hand, serum visions, etc), and switching around the 2-drop counters, which I will cover below.

The 2 drop counters: Rune snag seems like a good option, but in reality its pretty conditional and better options exist. Remand and negate would go a long way in this build, as they are cost effective and devastate opponent's development, giving you time to get stuff done. You are running plenty of removal already, so don't worry about negate being a dead draw.

The 3 drops: You are running a high saturation of 3-drop critters that are essentially your win conditions, which is a little too high. They are currently 1/6th of your deck, which means you are more than likely going to have one in the opening hand (which you realistically don't want), and the chances of them doubling up are pretty high, which you absolutely don't want. Your goal is to filed 1, protect it, deny opponent his plan, and walk it to victory. I wouldn't run more than 6, especially since none of them have enter the battlefield effects, so they are slow.

Lands: 24 lands is very high with no tactical or man lands, and youre only running 3 fetch lands, so you are gunna draw a lot of dead lands. If you have the cash, Celestial Colonnade is a wonderful card to have in decks like this, as its an alternate win condition that is immune to many types of removal and helps with the land count not being dead. Ghost quarter and field of ruin also help get rid of the dead draws. I would advise running more fetch lands as well, i usually run 8.

4 copies of Ajani is a bit high. Realistically you don't want him in the opening hand (4 drop that will be vulnerable and you can't protect im will in the opening), and you don't want to have them clog your hand with multiple copies, so I would advise running 3.



Then there are the usual cards that need consideration in builds like this, such as snapcaster mage, torrential gearhulk, jace the mind sculptor, etc.


Just my thoughts, not trying to put the deck down.

This looks deadly as hell for a budget deck.

The 22 lands seems a little high, especially since more than a third of the deck is a 1 drop. The slower fetch lands certainly help, but perhaps some tactical lands like faerie conclave (which goes for 60 cents a pop) could smooth that out. Other than that, bravo

I agree completely about the 27 lands, especially since there are no tactical lands or man lands.

Ironically, as we are suggesting a drop in lands, there also seems to be a bit of a curve problem here. You have no actual 1-drops (the X counters need at least 2 available), and an extremely limited supply of 2 drops, both of which are necessary for a pure blue control deck to survive.

The 1 drop tactical cards will help speed this up a lot, and they are affordable (namely opt).

The 2 drop soft and hard counters would also go a looooong way to helping this out, such as negate, remand, essence scatter etc.



I don't see counterbore being worth the 5-drop spot, even with the extraction effect. Having a brick like that in the opening hand would be death, especially since this deck has almost no ability to interact with anything on the field once it actually resolves.

no problem

the 2 drop saturation looks pretty good, let me know how she handles

This will sound extremely snobbish, but I promise it isn't intended that way.

Are you open to some constructive criticism?

I would consider dropping the 2 drops considerably in favor of more 1 drops. Right now you are almost guaranteed to not have a turn 1 play (especially since you don't want to drop jorga turn 1), and this deck really really wants to hit the ground running with a turn 1 accelerant. There are plenty of 1 drop mana pump elves to choose from, and if you drop 1 turn 1 you will speed this deck up effectively by 2 turns.

I love the old fashioned discard model. Great throwback

The curve in here seems a little low for 23 lands, even if you are using 4 spots for the man lands and you want to drop them for raven's crime. My fear is that you are gunna eat a lot of opening hands with a high saturation of lands that's gunna mess up your ability to do what this deck needs to do, which is hit the turn 1 targeted discard, then follow up with the 1-2 punch on turn 2 with a double discard.


Just my thoughts

4 color deck, 20 lands, and no 1 drops is unfortunately a recipe for a slow deck.

My advise is to either significantly up the lands (23 with some manlands would be nice) and hit some 1-drops (blue tactical cards like sleight of hand/opt or removal like lightning bolt/fatal push)

or pull the lands to 21, cut blue entirely, and still hit more 1 drops.




That way the deck will hit the ground running and not have to play catchup the whole game

Whoops. As you can no doubt tell, i dont play much EDH

I'm all about trying new things and trying to get away from existing decktypes. Keep working at it and see where it goes

Hey, i get it. Riding the lightning with a rainbow deck can be fun for sure. Getting access to whatever you want is a hell of a fun idea.

I'm still processing what exactly I think about how to maximize this one

I've never seen a zoo try for 16 lands before, even with the birds. I like the idea, but I would make some suggestions based on it.

In general, even with the birds, your curve seems a bit too high to me. There will be plenty of hands where you won't have a bird, and will be stuck with 1 land for a couple slow turns, so its essential that you have a high saturation of 1 drops or all the tempo this deck needs will fall away and you will be sunk. In addition, your turn 1 bird is gunna get lightning bolted as often as possible, so you have to be able to survive the games where the bird gets burned away.

Harmonize isn't cost effective enough in this build, and its going to eat a tempo that you desperately need (you won't be able to play anything you draw that turn). I would advise running adventurous impulse which ups the 1 drops (if this deck doesn't drop a 1 drop turn 1 it will lose), helps fix land problems, is fast food for goyf, and will almost never be a dead draw.

Fist of ironwood and hyena umbra are bad fits as they are conditional (need creatures to be on the field already), and don't necessarily give enough advantage to justify their spots. The goal of this deck isn't to max out a critter with extra material committed (critter and enchantment), but to field fast critters and clear the field so they can do what they do as fast as possible. You are better off running removal in those spots so you can field the critter turn 1, and just remove anything in its way and not worry about buffing it up. I know the enchantment count helps with goyf too, but neither will splash directly into the grave, and with only 4 in the deck they arn't reliable as food anyway.

Browbeat is very interesting in here. I'd never considered it for Zoo before. Even though it gives opponent the option to rob you of topdeck tempo, the 5 damage they will have to eat basically guarantees that they will be within a killzone range for your little guys. Plus its more food for goyf.

I would consider dropping 1 woolly thoctar (3 total) because they have such a pain in the ass casting cost in a deck with 16 lands, and because its is extremely unlikely that you will be able to drop it turn 3 unless you have a bird survive. Better in my mind to up the saturation of 1 drops (maybe vexing devil?).


Just my thoughts, not trying to put the deck down.

Are you going for legacy legal?

I see a couple areas of redundancy in here that could really help the deck if they are fixed.

Honor of the pure is redundant because you are playing around with big flyers, so making them bigger, while nice, isn't necessary and realistically isn't worth the loss of card advantage.

Wall of reverence is an excellent blocker, and is decent with the lifegain, but this deck doesn't need to stall out when it has 4 mana, 4 mana is the jumping off point to cast a 4-drop angel and go to work. A nice slap of 4 drop angels (of which there are TONS to choose from) would be a much better fit.

Gift of estates seems a little iffy to me, as its conditonal, slow, and worthless once you get out of the early middle game. Plus it is extra worthless when paired with endless horizons.


I would consider looking at 4 copies of mindstone, as what this deck desperately needs is a turn 2 acceleration that gives you the ability to play a 4 drop turn 3. Mindstone does that, and is basically never a dead draw as it can replace itself once you don't need it anymore. That combined with your 4 white orchids and 3 omens (i would consider taking this up to 4), will basically ensure that you have a turn 2 play that does what this deck needs to do.

Running a few tactical lands and bringing the total land count up to 23 would be helpful too

I've always been afraid of running 4 cryptics with blood moon and 4 fields of ruin, too much potential for a brick in the hand either way for me. Other than that this looks deadly.

The curve in this one seems a little lopsided to me. A little too heavy on 3 drops, even with the birds and 23 lands.

Commune with nature seems like an excellent way to solve this, as it speeds things up (lowers the curve), provides excellent tactical control, and can get you to your combo pieces pretty easily.

Seems like Prophet of Kruphix would be a perfect fit.