[TSP Block Constructed for the next PTQ Season] BG Control

[freakish777]

Ok, so obviously this deck will want an update (or even major shifts) when Future Sight comes out, but here's a list I've been playing around with:

//Mana, and lots of it (maybe too much?)
10 Swamps
8 Forests
4 Terramorphic Expanse

4 Prismatic Lens
4 Phyrexian Totem

//4-drop "Fair Cards"
4 Harmonize
4 Mvonli Acid-Moss
4 Harmonize
4 Tendrils of Corruption

//Other stuff
4 Extirpate (this might go to the SB)
4 Stupor
4 Gaea's Blessing
2 Krosan Grip

//SB
2 Krosan Grip
4 Sudden Death
3 Dodecapod
4 Funeral Charm
2 open slots

Anyways, you occasionally run into some problems with not having enough removal against the fastest beatdown decks, so that's why there's Funeral Charms and Sudden Deaths in the SB to come in for Acid-Mosses/Extirpates, whatever.  Blessing lets to do dumb things like play 4~6 Harmonizes/Damnations/Acid-Mosses in a game (as well as give you an alternate win conditon of just decking the opponent).  Tendrils of Corruption pads your life buffer for finding good stuff off Harmonize/Blessing.

I haven't played this deck much (and I don't have enough stuff on MTGO to do "real testing"), but it seems capable of creating some absurb board positions.  Let me know what people's thoughts are, if there's something obvious I missed, if you think it can compete or not.

[Implacable]

First, I'll assume that you mistyped and that the second set of Harmonizes are in fact Damnations (since you reference them in your post).  If that, then I would then compare the decklist to the prominent archetypes of current TSP Block: W(/x) Weenie, Scryb & Force, Teferi Control, and the plethora of Wild Pair builds.  Against White Weenie, you would appear to have a fairly solid game; you have eight answers to Priest, which a necessary element, Wrath effects (although perhaps not enough overall board control), and card advantage.  Against Scryb & Force, you will get taken to town if you do not draw a Damnation within the first five turns; you should probably expect to lose a good deal of games to that simple fact.  Against Teferi Control, you have little to no gameplan; they can essentially counter the cards that target Teferi, then abuse Teachings to find more counters, card draw, and Helkite.  Finally, against Pair in general, you have a decent gameplan; you use Damnation to wipe and Tendrils to pick off their engine pieces.  However, you may not have enough disruption to stop them from going off eventually, as your win condition is painfully slow. 

Now that that's done, let's turn to your list. 

1) Your manabase looks manageable, and that's more than most TSP decks can say.  The only possible addition would be to add storage lands in order to cast multiple spells in a large turn to eliminate Teferi.

2) Your spell-base looks reasonable.  I like the addition of Mwonvuli Acid-Moss in particular, because it punishes the terrible manabases of, in particular, Teferi Control and the myriad of Blink.decs

3) The 'Other Stuff' section is where this list gets sketchy.  I have no idea why you would want to run Gaea's Blessing; there are so many cards that do so much more than it.  Extirpate doesn't seem very good at all in this deck; while it does serve to eliminate hard-to-deal-with cards that you've managed to kill once, like Spectral Force or Teferi, Extirpate is really only good with significant discard elements.  Finally, the use of Stupor is questionable; with more discard, it combines effectively with Extirpate, but alone, I don't see a purpose for a glorified Mind Rot.

I might experiment with the following changes:

+4 Wall of Roots
-These are the best pieces of mana acceleration in the format, and ensure Turn 3 Harmonizes or Mwonvulis, both of which are very powerful in TSP
+4 Smallpox
-In combination with other pieces of removal, Smallpox trades with amazing creatures like Shapeshifter & Spectral Force.  In this format, which relies on large creatures and doesn't have as many random dorks as previous block formats, Smallpox is very, very good.
+2 Sudden Death
-Killing Teferi is some good, I hear.
-4 Stupor
-4 Gaea's Blessing
-2 Extirpate (having these in to deal with random cards can be helpful; they're just terrible in multiples)

[Zherbus]

Implacable said most of what I was going to say. The only thing that I think it debatable is the lack of Search for Tomorrow.

The original list, with an accelerated draw would be Turn 1 land (preferably Terramorphic Expanse). Turn 2, Prismatic Lens (leaving you with just colorless open). Turn 3, you either rock with 4 mana. You could play Phyrexian Totem and really, turn 3 you tap out to play something to help you catch up.

The format isn't terribly fast, but I think you want to take into consideration that WW is quite popular. Turn 3, they have a few hard to kills on the board - one likely with Griffon Guide. R/G get's online almost as fast, and Teferi decks have morph's and suspended crap a-plenty.

Search for Tomorrow gives you the boost, where turn 1 you can suspend it, turn 2 you can play a lens or a wall, then turn 3 you have up to 4 lands, and wall/lens. Something to consider...

[ReAnimator]

At least a couple of Urborgs belong in here as you are running the full set of tendrills.

In the extirpate spots, i would suggest Call of the Herds. They are good against control and aggro, and with the blessing package it gives you a legitimate long game win condition. Also unlike T2 there are no repeal and remand decks to make them unplayable.

another legitimate long game win condition that would fit in very well with this type of strategy is to run 2 Disintegrates. (Sort of like how the old T2 4 colour control just ran 3 blessings and one fireball as the win con. circa 97 ) this also gives you some more targeted removal.

I would also think about having some maindeck Sudden deaths, and probably dropping the krosan grips.

I would really be worried about anything with boom/bust or the blinkriders decks as having your lands blown up is really rough.

Here is a list with others' changes and mine, straight off the top of my head.

4 Terramorphic
1 mountain
2 stroage land one RG one RB
2 Urborg tomb of yawgmoth
9 forest
6 swamp

4 search for tomorow
4 Wall of roots
4 Call of the herd
4 Acid moss
4 harmonize
3 blessing

2 disintegrate

4 Damnation
3 tendrills
2 sudden death
2 totems

SB
3 Grips
4 Extirpates
4 stupor
4 Charms

I don't really know it the totem's are worth it anymore, as you have increased win cons. You could also try the green totem in that slot as you have a lot of green now.

The basic land count may need to go up as you would now have 12 things that fetch out land.

Hope this is useful food for thought.

[freakish777]

Yeah, the exclusion of Search for Tomorrow is an oversight on my part.  As is the exclusion of Urborg considering I'm running Tendrils of Corruption.  Wall of Roots is definitely in over Prismatic Lens (I like being able to filter mana, but having an 0/4 blocker is probably more important in the early turns).

How many Enchantments/great artifacts have you guys been encountering in block?  I'll probably move the Krosan Grips to the SB, but I like having them to cut off Totems/Lens/Wild Pair/etc.  Do you guys think 3 or 4 is the right number in the board?

I don't think I'm a fan of Smallpox in a deck that usually is going to play the control role.  I'd prefer to have 8 mana around so I can drop Harmonize + Damnation in a single turn or say double Acid-Mosses against a control deck.  The idea was to play resource denial against control decks with Acid-Moss, Stupor and Grip, forcing them off some stuff so I can either resolve Damnation while they're tapped out, or so I can beat with a Totem in the meantime. 

At 22 lands and 8 artifact mana sources, sometimes it feels a little flooded, but Harmonize goes a long ways to help this out when you hit it.  What do you guys recommend with Wall of Roots (for Lens) and Search for Tomorrow likely coming in?  Go to 20 lands?  Just cut 4 of something for 4 Search and stay at 22?

Sudden Death probably should be main.  I'll look into where I want to fit it in.

How about Mindstab or Haunting Hymn in place of Stupor?  Is it worth it, or is the deck not focused enough?

[Crankster]

4 Harmonize
4 Mvonli Acid-Moss
4 Harmonize
4 Tendrils of Corruption

8 harmonize = TOO many insane plays?

[freakish777]

4 Harmonize
4 Mvonli Acid-Moss
4 Harmonize
4 Tendrils of Corruption

8 harmonize = TOO many insane plays?

As Implacable pointed out, I made a typo, one of those is supposed to be Damnation.

[Gekoratel]

I don't play any block constructed because I'm testing more for Legacy right now, is it just me or is this deck lacking in win conditions.  Aside from the 4 Negator Totems I don't see how your deck is capable of dealing 20.  If for some reason you are slow to draw into your win condition then you are giving your opponent infinite time to get back in the game.  The most popular decks in the format are Terferi decks with at least 8x counters so if you don't manage to sneak that Totem down quickly they will probably be able to counter all of your win conditions will ease.  Changes I would make would be:
-4 Extirpate
-4 Blessing
+8 Win Conditions

The problem with a BG control strategy is that aside from Negator Totem you don't have a lot of solid win conditions because all of the good ones are incredibly expensive and therefore won't be good against Control decks.

[freakish777]

Ok, Disintergrate + Storage lands have been pretty good so far.

Wall of Roots is really good, but there's always the problem of blowing them away with Damnation against aggressive decks.

Phyrexian Totem is essentially better than most of the creatures in the format, if you know burn or an Urborg powered Tendrils is coming, you simply don't activate it, otherwise it gets around Damnation and Sudden Death pretty well, going late enough into the game for the last points of damage against burn it's still good if they can't kill it outright.  If they do have ways to deal with it as a creature, it lets you do dumb things in your turn with Acid-Moss, Harmonize and Damnation later on (casting 2 in a turn on turn 5 or 6 is pretty good, or even going Acid-Moss, Wall, suspend Search).