Card/Deck Theme in black and white

[Spiderdoofus]

How do we create synergistic themes in black and white?

I think white and black are an interesting pair from a design perspective. MaRo talks how they are one of the two pairs with the least straightforward mechanical hearts (the other being UB; http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/240). What's interesting is that W and B have a lot of individual mechanics in common, like lifelink, but not ones that readily lend themselves to creating a synergistic deck. They kill stuff, they gain life, but the cards don't interact with each other in the way that say, UR does. In UR, there are mechanics like replicate, storm, copying spells, that combine in interesting ways. Having a pile of removal spells or lifelinking creatures doesn't really create that feeling of "the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts" that I like.

So just for the sake of discussion, I'd like to see what people thought would be interesting synergies for black and white could be in cube. Not necessarily in any particular cube, but in general.

This is all I got:
"Bleeder" - what the GTC team decided to go with; examples include extort, lifelink, Underworld Dreams, etc.
Good: good in limited, lots of support
Bad: not very synergistic, kind of boring

Enchantments - lots of interesting BW enchantments, lots of W cards that care about them, some black; examples include bestow, Blightcaster, enchantresses.
Good: Fairly good synergy
Bad: parasitic, could fall prey to poison principle because not a lot of other cards interact with enchantments

Edit: thought of a couple more; stax (unfun), hatebears/disruption (too narrow)

 

[Mondschwein]

I know it has nothing to do with synergy but there's one word for BW in my cube: goodstuff.
Combining the token spells both colours have (Spectral Procession, Ophiomancer, Lingering Souls, Intangible Virtue, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad) with disruption & removal (Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Duress, Smother, Inquisition of Kozilek) or the lifegain things (Vampire Nighthawk, Knight of Meadowgrain) with black spells having you lose life (Carnophage, Night's Whisper, Phyrexian Arena, Phyrexian Rager). This is a very flexible deck-type which I always find fun to draft. It indeed is very non-synergistic but it actually allows for some interaction which is also important and I think even better than having one synergistic deck which isn't really en par with the others.

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Black/White puts together a few decks in my cube.

B/W Heroic (usually B/W/U Heroic): You get all kinds of removal and evasion along with some disruption and push in with a powerful aura.
B/W Control: All of the best removal + Resistant threats (usually token makers) = A winning deck
B/W Life: Lifegain engine + Card Advantage engine = insane inevitability if you survive the early game.
B/W Anthem: Token makers + Anthems = a fast death. This deck isn't nearly as good anymore now that I don't run 4cc Sorin or Elspeth, it is probably only viable with an extremely favorable split.

That said, B/W is easily one of the least common decks that comes out of my cube and while I don't keep count, its possibly the least drafted 2 color combination (or R/U).

Black has great enchantments in general and some good bestow cards, so that's a possible angle. If you include cards that like auras or that like enchantments in other colors (spikeshot elder, argothian enchantress, etc.) you might be able to get something going.

 

[Eric Chan]

Yeah, I'm gonna agree with Mondschwein above. Without any explicit support on my part for the deck, "life payment + life gain" has become one of the preferred archetypes around here. People seem to love dealing damage to themselves with cards like Bob, Bitterblossom, and more recently Herald of Torment, and then finding ways to recoup the lost life. Vault of the Archangel out of the utility pile is an all-star in this deck, and often one of the first lands snapped up overall.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Man, vault might be the poster child for the utility land draft in my eyes.

Screw seat of the synod, that's a card I'd want in my deck but not really in the cube!

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Vault of the Archangel carries hard. I had a pretty poorly constructed deck that seemed destined for 0-3ville that picked up huge wins off of the life swing from it and ended 2-1 for basically no good reason.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Okay, real talk:

How much life does whip of erebos gain on average per game? I like the effect for this kind of thing, but man does that card hose aggro hard.

 

[CML]

You know, BW sucking is a common problem in MTGS cubes because it lacks the tools to compete with the U decks, but I never had that issue. The unifying theme is "virtual card advantage" or "mana efficiency" or "value" exemplified by cards like Lingering Souls and Sculler, which is why those cards are more puissant in even Legacy than something powerful but off-theme like Vindicate.

Paying 4 mana for an enchantment that just gives your guys lifelink isn't too good against aggro, if y'all tried out Whip you'd realize it's not as scary as it looks. I dunno, the card seems well-balanced and well-developed to me.

 

[Chris Taylor]

It just seems like the kind of card designed to turn games into protracted grind-fests, the kind of gameplay I'm trying to avoid.
If it's just not that successful, should I even bother?

 

[CML]

grindfest has the valence of a long game that lacks excitement, neither player doing much of anything. whipping shit into play is pretty sweet

just try it wtf

 

[Eric Chan]

Whip of Erebos actually hoses midrange harder than it hoses aggro, in my experience. The decks that would plaster you to the wall by turn four will still have no problem doing so, but the decks that take four turns durdling to build up their ramp or token strategies have a tougher time overcoming the 20+ point life swing that Whip whips up.

Vault of the Archangel carries hard. I had a pretty poorly constructed deck that seemed destined for 0-3ville that picked up huge wins off of the life swing from it and ended 2-1 for basically no good reason.

This is why I've found that multiple Tectonic Edges, along with stuff like Spreading Seas and Fulminator Mage, are absolutely necessary when stuff like Vault and Kessig Wolf Run are showing up every draft. Got to keep those pesky players running spell-lands honest!

 

[FlowerSunRain]

I've always considered Spreading Seas. It seems like a good card and blue is one of my mana denial colors. I'm not sure why I never pulled the trigger.

 

[silasw]

I have been trying to make Lingering Souls/Braids a thing. Works with Smokestack and Pox too. And Balance, I guess, maybe?

 

[CML]

i approve of all those effects that aren't balance