[Multiplayer] B/g Control

[Negator131]

This deck is quite solid in multiplayer, especially in creature-based metagames. It is almost mono-black control, with a slight green splash, purely for the most powerful multiplayer card ever printed, Pernicious Deed.

18 Swamp
1 Forest
3 Cabal Coffers

4 Wayfarer's Bauble
4 Solemn Simulacrum

4 Pernicious Deed
3 Mutilate
2 Oblivion Stone
4 Duress
R Mind Twist

4 Promise of Power
R Demonic Tutor
R Yawgmoth's Will

4 Undead Gladiator
3 Darksteel Brute
2 Consume Spirit
1 Darksteel Colossus

Some card explanations:
9 Board Sweepers, 0 Spot Removal
This is a multiplayer deck. I haven't seen an example of a creature which spot removal can deal with which the mass removal listed cannot. Also, with the amount of mana this deck can produce, the argument that spot removal is less costly mana-wise has little merit.

3 Darksteel Brute
He's next to impossible to remove. Barring a Swords to Plowshares on him, or a timely Diabolic Edict. Also, better targets for Swords often present themselves, in the form of 7/7 and larger flyers. Also, he feeds Edict with said large flyer or Colossus on the table.

That said, in my opinion, these three slots are easily the weakest in the deck. If anyone can suggest a better replacement, please do.

4 Wayfarer's Bauble, 4 Solemn Simulacrum
They fetch up the one Forest in the deck. My metagame is almost entirely devoid of Stone Rain, Strip Mine and friends, so I don't much need to worry about the consequences of the Forest or a Coffers getting destroyed.

4 Promise of Power
In testing, this was the best draw spell for this deck. It can hurt a lot after taking early beats, but in the lategame (or when backed into a corner early) it puts a large to gigantic flyer into play to hold the fort. I have tried Skeletal Scrying, but the negative synergy with Yawgmoth's Will was too dramatic. Also, five cards for five mana makes this more efficient, as I rarely to never Scried for more than 5. Also, its sorcery speed hardly matters, as I have zero instant-speed cards in the entire deck.

Overall this deck has a very straightforward gameplan. Allow people to overextend, then blow up the world and beat with gigantic men. Lather, rinse and repeat.

The only true difficulties with this deck that I have experienced are with combo decks, mostly Pandeburst. Outside of multiple early Duresses, this deck has little hope against combo. Does anyone have suggestions on this matter?

Overall suggestions? Comments? Questions? Thanks in advance!

[JamesPr]

This deck seems a little slow, Also does one darksteel colossus do the trick?  I'd rather play two.  Also is duress that powerful, because where I play there's about ten people on the table and a duress can only screw over one of them.

[Negator131]

Around here, it's four to five people per chaos game, and Duress always targets the combo player, as it's the best weapon to beat my deck. Barring the combo player participating that evening, it takes either a Rhystic Study or a counterspell from the control player, neutering either their early-game card draw or their permission. In short, it's quite powerful, but its uses are limited.

As to the deck being slow, I don't disagree. However, the ability to stall in the early game gives it the time it needs to drop a board sweeper most of the time. Is there a better early-game weapon for this deck that I'm perhaps missing? In a brainstorm earlier, I thought that 3-4 Abyssal Gatekeepers might help with that, perhaps in the Darksteel Brute slots.

The other alternative to the speed problem is mana acceleration, which is almost universally card disadvantage. Dark Ritual is the best of the best, and it doesn't fit because it is inherent card disadvantage. Is there anything else you had in mind?

Also, because my average play group is so much smaller than yours, one Colossus gets the job done nicely. I think two copies would clog up my hand in the early game.

[JamesPr]

Well upon thinking about this further, Nevinyrral's Disk is a much better sweeper than Oblivion Stone.  Sure O-Stone is better when you have the mana but when you don't Nevinyrral's Disk can come through for you.

I would still play two Darksteel Colossus though, simply because with Undead Gladiator if one is clogging your hand you can discard it.

Adding mana accel really depends on your metagame.  I'm guessing you don't have any elf players that win in three turns , so getting out an early deed isn't a top priority.

[Revvik]

-4 Duress
+4 Innocent Blood?

Or if you can truly generate enough mana, Barter in Blood, but Innocent Blood should do enough.

[Mouth for War]

In a brainstorm earlier, I thought that 3-4 Abyssal Gatekeepers might help with that, perhaps in the Darksteel Brute slots.

Negator : barring a flying weenie horde, I've found that Abyssals are an outstanding method of keeping your opponents off you in the early stages of chaos / multiplayer games involving a lot of aggro.  Nobody wants to lose their quick starts, so they generally leave you alone.  The danger then comes from the other player/s with board disadvantage, who will do anything possible to get rid of your Gatekeeper, clearing the board and saving their own butt...but by then it's done its job, and you're well on your way to establishing the kind of tempo you want.

     I play almost exclusively chaos / multiplayer during breaks at one of my jobs, and the games usually consist of three or four players (we play Allies / 5-Star if we have five players), so the environment sounds pretty similar to yours.

Some card explanations:
9 Board Sweepers, 0 Spot Removal
This is a multiplayer deck. I haven't seen an example of a creature which spot removal can deal with which the mass removal listed cannot. Also, with the amount of mana this deck can produce, the argument that spot removal is less costly mana-wise has little merit.

     Anything with regen can avoid the Oblivion Stones and Deeds.  While the deck may produce a ton of mana, I'd definitely rip the O-Stones out of the build for something along the lines of Edicts (whether Chainer's for the flashback, since you have the mana, or Diabolic for the instant speed) or additional creatures (see below).  Gotta love Mutilate, though...

The only true difficulties with this deck that I have experienced are with combo decks, mostly Pandeburst. Outside of multiple early Duresses, this deck has little hope against combo. Does anyone have suggestions on this matter?

     Pernicious Deed is golden, obviously...  How about Plague Bearer?  No synergy with the board removal, but he can dust zeroCC critters without breaking a sweat, plus lay waste to tribal decks and possibly keep you from taking those early beats...  Doesn't help much against Pandemonium, but...

     I hesitate to suggest graveyard hate in chaos unless your deck depends on empty graveyards, which, in this case, doesn't apply.


     As for your problems with combo in general...that's always a problem in multiplayer.  Generally speaking, once the rest of the group realizes what deck the combo player is piloting, he's the target.  Is this not so in your group?

[Ephraim]

How often do you use the various aspects of Promise of Power? It seems as though you already have win conditions, so it is difficult to gauge just how good the Demon token aspect is for you. Five mana and five life for five cards is decent, but I think you could do better. (Obviously, entwining the card is huge, but at a cost of 9 mana, I'm sure it still takes your deck a while to ramp up.) If you find that you're using it mostly as a card-drawer, you may also consider [card]Syphon Mind[/card]. It fits into black control's scheme nicely, dodges the one-to-one symmetry that makes Duress so iffy in multiplayer, and is a very nice draw spell when you have three or more opponents. Obviously, if you frequenly use Promise of Power to generate Demon tokens, this advice isn't really applicable and you should ignore me. ^_^