Tournement Deck Opinions

Hey guys. Currently I am building a black/blue mill you to death deck for standard play and tournements, hoping to go regionals this year. Some of you have faced this so far, but I wanted to post a deck list (sideboard included) and get some opinions on cards that might run well in here. (I removed the Crabs, unless Blue/Green they move to slow.)

MAIN BOARD

Duress x4 (Discard/Control) - Black
Ponder x4 (Draw) - Blue
Divination x4 (Draw) - Blue
Tome Scour x4 (Mill) - Blue
Twin Cast x4 (Utility) - Blue
Disfigure x4 (Control) - Black
Mind Funeral x4 (Mill) - Blue/Black
Archive Trap x4 (Mill) - Blue

Nemesis of Reason x2 (Mill) - Blue/Black
Sign in Blood x2 (Draw) - Black
Sadistic Sacrament x2 (Exile/Mill) - Black
Haunting Echoes x2 (Exile/Mill) - Black
Mind Spring x2 (Draw) - Blue
Traumatize x2 (Mill) - Blue

Island x 10 (Blue Mana Source)
Swamp x 6 (Black Mana Source)
Drowned Catacomb x 4 (Blue/Black Mana Source)

SIDE BOARD

Into the Roil x4 (Control) - Blue
Sage Owl x4 (Utility) - Blue

Ravenous Trap x2 (Utility) - Black
Rite of Replication x2 (Utility) - Blue
Telemin Performance x2 (Mill) - Blue
Sign in Blood x1 (Draw) - Black

The point of the deck isn't to do a lot of control but to thin my deck fast drawing into my mill and milling you before you can deal lethal damage. I felt that counters seemed to be too slow in standard myself (Cancel being on of the best *cringe*). I have considered maybe sideboard Jace over the Rites or Performances's. Any opinion would be muchly appreciated.

Id happily play against this with my Red Black aggro, BloodGhast loves to be milled.

Bloodghast I feel is going to be an over hyped card that is too easy to deal with. Besides I see BG then I just sideboard in graveyard exile and he is dealt with. One 2/1 creature isn't really that scary.

That is because people don't realize how to abuse him...
I may just revive my Golgari deck.

But ... I don't have to worry about a Golgori deck in Standard. In extended, then yes I think the Ghast can be a bigger threat.

Ghats works wonders as a sac outlet in extended, but I agree BG is overhyped.
It is no ichorid.

what about bloodchief ascension, as a back up plan in case you cant mill them in time.

or well, if you got it active, you would need to mill only 10 cards in order to win. assuming they have no life gain, or fail to remove it

The problem with the ascension is that the opponent has to lose life, which only his nemesis (and sign in blood sideboard) can do at the time.

Have you considered pithing needle sideboard? I'm unfamilliar with the current tournament standard, but it seems a strong reserve based on the decks I know of.
May be less effective against the faster decks this may have trouble with anyhow, though.

lol i hate when my quest for the grave lord becomes pithed haha or my hexmage.

Pithing Needle is something that was suggested that I am considering. I never had looked at the card, but it is a nice answer to a couple cards that I don't really have an answer to. Baneslayer, Iouna, and a couple other powercards.

Pithing needle =/= Meddling Mage

It will not deal with Iona or Baneslayer,
it just stops activated abilities.

Most people use it to stop Jitte and Top in Legacy.

I was thinking about the wrong card when I typed that. Pithing needle answer to Planeswalkers.

Blightnings and Duresses might give you trouble, and red burn might hit you too fast. You've no idea how much damage a turn 1 Goblin Guide can punch for. You might want to test against the Red Trio (being myself, Bob and Dave) and see how you fair. We run some of the fastest decks in the format so it would be a good check on whether your deck can punch out the mill fast enough.

Ohh i wish to take on this red trio with my own black red aggro.

Undead-DR wrote:

Ohh i wish to take on this red trio with my own black red aggro.

at the same time? o_O

Well technically I'm red/black too, and now Steve L's added a red/black combo to the mix. Let the Red mayhem begin!!!

Well I took some of the advice we talked about and added in counters and creatures and the deck went 4th place in the last Tourney so that is a little more of an improvement. I went 2-2, only lost too Vampires and f'n Ghasts. So after I try the red trio our quad out we'll see what still needs to be boarded.

I'm planning on finishing my Vaudeville Control (White/Black) by the end of this week hopefully, or at least proxied if you want to test against a less aggressive more control based vampire deck.

I also put together Roc, although it's looking more like Green White Ramp with a Black splash right now, needs some editing but when that's running we can test that one too. Kyler or I might also build Jund since that's another big deck lately, so we can see how that fairs in the current playerbase.

Hrm, been a while since this thread saw some action...

So in latest news, Jund's been tearing up the scene pre-wwk. Modded it a bit since Wwk came out but haven't been to a tournament yet. Tonight's the test night at Skyfox!

i have some gobs... could always use more gobs