Extended BW control

[Mindstab_Thrull]

So, I'm looking to start playing Extended over the next while to prepare for next spring. I've decided I want a black-white Stax-ish kinda deck. So, at this point, this is my current list, with help from BrassMan:

4 Duress
4 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Dark Confidant
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Vindicate
3 Mortify
4 Braids, Cabal Minion
2 Trinisphere
2 Tombstalker
4 Chrome Mox
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Godless Shrine
3 Tainted Field
3 Caves of Koilos
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Snow-Covered Plains

I'd like to wiggle in another Trinisphere, and I agree with an IRC discussion I had with Anusien - the Caves and Fields seem a lil overkill.  I figure I'll bring the Fields back to 4 and the other two slots can either be more GQ's or basic lands - or maybe Cabal Coffers.

Any suggestions on how to get this deck to do what I want from it?

[botb]

Where's the flagstones of trokair loving? That seems like it'd be mucho spicy with braids. Also 4x ghost quarter would be spicy as it'd wreck a lot of decks out there as they're basically 6-10 fetch lands or a million cip invasion sac lands. It seems viable but I don't know about the worthiness of hippie in the format or mortify for that matter. Seems like a good starting point though maybe also supression field to mess with all the fetches in the format.

Potential cards for the list include: Profane Command, Supression Field, Aven Mindcensor, Descendent of Kiyamore, Jotun Grunt, Curse of the Cabal (I BLAME BRASSMAN), and Smallpox

[Zombie Shakespeare]

I agree with botb. In order for your deck to be more Stax-like you need more board disruption. A few Crucible of Worlds would obviously combo well with both Ghost Quarters and Flagstones. Ghostly Prison might be helpful versus pure aggro strategies.

How do you intend to protect Braids from all the burn being run by aggro?

[Mindstab_Thrull]

botb and ZS: Have reshuffled the land slots somewhat, and am now looking at:
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Godless Shrine
4 Tainted Field
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Flagstones of Trokair (with only seven lands maindeck they can fetch, and four fetches already, more seems overkill; at most, I'd add a third)
3 Snow-Covered Swamps
2 Snow-Covered Plains
... and a playset of Chrome Mox for mana as well.

I had a Crucible or two in my original decklist that I showed to BrassMan, and they got cut to be able to bring some of these up to 4-ofs. (Bob, for example, was a 3-of -- until, amongst other things, I found I actually *do* own a fourth.) I do agree it needs to find a way back in to pull this off right; the question is, what do I cut for Crux?

Curse of the Cabal is cute, and a Braids that isn't Legendary would be a nice fit. The problem is simply that the mana cost is insane when you're running Bob - 10 to the dome is bad times, unless I run Death Grasp instead of Tombstalkers.. which is something I've considered, too.

As for protecting Braids - I should fit a third Trini in at least. If I can knock out enough mana sources with Trini + Braids + Vindicate + Ghost Quarter + Crucible + discard, Braids should be able to handle herself well enough. After the first run-through that I had with this deck before I showed it to BrassMan, it came out fairly decently against a few different casualish Legacy decks, including one based around Lich + Words of Worship + Words of War, and another on Ball Lightning + Unearth. Yes, it's Extended vs Legacy, and you have just about all the tools Extended has and then some to play with.. And I was holding my own pretty well, usually beating him. But he wasn't running much burn in any of the decks apart from Words of War, and I nuked that before he got it active, which meant Braids lived to see another upkeep. So I'll have to get him to throw something together and see what happens from there.

[Mindstab_Thrull]

Current decklist:

4 Duress
4 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Dark Confidant
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Vindicate
3 Mortify
4 Braids, Cabal Minion
4 Trinisphere
2 Tombstalker
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Chrome Mox
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Godless Shrine
4 Tainted Field
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Snow-Covered Swamps
2 Snow-Covered Plains

Mostly, pulled Hyppies for a pair of Crucibles and the other two Trinis. That should make it more consistent, I think. Do you think it's good enough to try it out?