UB Exploit

During the spoiler season for Dragons of Tarkir, I wrote several posts regarding the new mechanic Exploit for the set. Now, with all the cards at my disposal on Magic Online, a Blue/Black Exploit deck is definitely the first build I want to experiment with. UB Control was already a pretty strong deck in the metagame, although it relied more on the synergy built around Black Devotion, and particularly Gray Merchant of Asphodel, to power out its wins. With the Exploit Commons fairly evenly split between Black and Blue, it turns out that utilizing that same synergy will be much more difficult.

Here's the current build that I am testing:

UB Exploit

by gwyned

Creatures 4 Palace Familiar 4 Pharika's Chosen 4 Vulturous Aven 3 Jeskai Sage 3 Sultai Scavenger 2 Gurmag Drowner 2 Silumgar Butcher 1 Benthic Giant 1 Servant of Tymaret 24 cards Other Spells 4 Anticipate 4 Treasure Cruise 3 Whisk Away 1 Eternal Thirst 1 Font of Return 13 cards

Lands 4 Dismal Backwater 4 Evolving Wilds 7 Swamp 8 Island 23 cards Sideboard 3 Duress 3 Festergloom 3 Pharika's Cure 2 Negate 2 Returned Phalanx 1 Benthic Giant 1 Flesh to Dust 15 cards

Essentially I am running cheap creatures to sacrifice with Exploit, including the excellent Pharika's Chosen for early defense, and both Palace Familiar and Jeskai Sage, which draw you a card when they die. Additionally, between Exploit in general and Gurmag Drowner in particular, you should be quickly filling up your Graveyard, creating easy fuel for Treasure Cruise and Sultai Scavenger. This also allows the deck to quickly draw through its cards, especially utilizing Anticipate and the excellent Vulturous Aven. This build is definitely light on removal, with only three Whisk Away in the main deck, supplemented with two copies of Silumgar Butcher. Finally, I added a few "silver-bullets" with Benthic Giant, Eternal Thirst, Font of Return, and Servant of Tyramet.

I have a few questions I'm still trying to answer:

1. Is this the right mix of Exploit creatures to play?
2. Is it a mistake to not run enough Black creatures to make Gray Merchant viable?
3. Can the deck get away with so little removal?

If you've got some feedback, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!