UB Discard Deck. How to modernize?

[boogiepop]

A while back, I was trying to make a group of 40 card decks that would be balanced with each other as best as possible. I put a lot of restrictions on myself like A) Rath block cards only, B) no card listed at over $1.50 on starcitygames, and C) no more than 2 copies of each card. These restrictions were meant to keep things on the cheap and also to avoid cards that were maybe overpowered (based on the assumption that Tempest was old enough that the market prices would accurately reflect a cards worth). Right now, though, I'd like to change the deck and put in some modern cards. I'm hoping to make it more deadly (since it kinda isn't) and add new things that would give me more decisions to make on my turn. Here's what it looks like now:

2*Carnophage
2*Carrionette
1*Dark banishing
2*Dauthi slayer
2*Diabolic edict
2*Knight of dusk
2*Scalding Tongs
2*Merfolk looter
1*Null brooch
1*Oath of scholars
2*Pit Imps
1*Reckless spite
1*Skyshroud vampire
2*Vampire hounds
1*Wind drake

2*Rootwater depths
4*Island
10*Swamp

And here are the cards I've seen thus far that I'm interested in adding:
Murder of Crows
Think Twice
Doom Blade (to replace Dark Banishing mainly because that artwork is simply badass)
Turn Aside (not sure on this one)
Grafted Skullcap (or this either)

Suggestions?
Thanks in advance, folks.

 

[Spiderman]

Wow, that's a lot of choices if this is from Rath... over 10 years worth of cards (although, I guess "modern" could be from the past couple of years)

 

[boogiepop]

Oh, I guess "modern" was a poor choice of words. I did indeed mean the full decade-worth. I missed out on everything after Rath so my knowledge of the newer (ha) cards is mainly through gatherer and magic workstation. And there's a lot there. I was hoping maybe I could get suggestions based just on memory since I'm guessing you guys were around for many of these releases.

 

[Spiderman]

Heh. I kinda stopped playing "for real" at about Urzas Saga, so that's only one year later. So a lot of the cards are unfamiliar except in Mindmaster context.

And man, that's a lot of choices...

 

[Mooseman]

Rootwater Thief

Raven Guild Master
Rootwater Depths

 

[boogiepop]

Thief and Guildmaster - Hmm, those sound like cards for locking down an opponent and milling, respectively. I can see the applications of the former in this deck, but am a bit lost regarding the latter. Are you recommending them as just cool cards I should be aware of?

 

[Mooseman]

Nope Just cool discard cards
Since you are discarding a lot you may want to look into Threshold cards and Flashback cards

 

[boogiepop]

Well, I kinda finally got back to this deck. (Took long enough, heh!) I've messed around with flashback for quite a bit now so I decided to go a different route today.

After replacing Scalding Tongs with Gibbering Descent and searching through a TON of cards, here's what I've got:

2* Gibbering Descent
2*Enclave Cryptologist
2*Looter Il-Kor
2*Bonded Fetch
2*Vexing Sphinx
2*Carrionette
2*Gorgon Recluse
2*Brain Gorgers
2*Hidden Horror
1*Grave Scrabbler
2*Dark Withering
2*Ichor Slick

2* Rootwater Depths
6* Island
9* Swamp

Most of the cards came from the Time Spiral block. Carrionette is all that remains from the original build.
Oh, and I reduced the cost to 50 cent max per card.

One problem, however, is that I am sometimes unable to do anything when the looters are under-performing. I put in six of them though so maybe that's just the nature of the beast. Another thing is that it can sometimes be a war of attrition until Gibbering Descent comes out. Finally, the Brain Gorgers and Grave Scrabbler are the weak links (though they do support the Hidden Horrors nicely.)

Any suggestions, fellas?

 

[Oversoul]

No Duress? That's all I can think of right now. Well, that and the fact that every time you use Rootwater Depths in a deck, I kill a kitten.

 

[turgy22]

I wouldn't use Rootwater Depths, either. I prefer the Salt Marsh-cycle of lands for two-color decks, though Dimir Aqueduct might work even better and its common.

I also recommend Compulsion and maybe some card or cards with a Feldon's Cane effect to avoid decking yourself. Quest for Ancient Secrets seems like a good fit for a newer card.

 

[boogiepop]

Thanks guys! I did try your suggestions this past weekend and got some much better results. Duress (and its ilk) have proven essential at saving my looters from early forms of removal. Compulsion was great in that it could stick around without fear of said removal but alas... it cost too much mana. Or I should more correctly say that I have too few cards with a difference of more than 2 mana between their madness activation cost and regular casting cost. I shopped around for a suitable replacement and Hapless Researcher fit the bill in the end. And turgy, you were right; I was indeed in need of something to prevent myself from self-milling suicide.

As for the Rootwater Depths, I apologize for being responsible for the untimely deaths of so many kittens. I kinda like sucky lands in a way, heh. The Dimir Aqueduct is definitely the better choice though.

Anywho, I'm pretty darn happy with it now, so mucho gracias to you all!