[Modern] Wither budget

[Federico Rosano]

I'm looking for some help with my new wither mono black deck. It's an early WIP so any suggestion is good.

https://deckstats.net/decks/88072/1116691-wither-1-1-

[MonteTribal]

Banewhip Punisher and Soulstinger might have a home here, although Soulstinger is a little risky.
Not a huge fan of Virulent Wound, seems low reward most of the time. Good for the sideboard vs elves/weenies

[Federico Rosano]

I found that Nest of Scarabs + Corrosive Mentor is a deadly combo.
I'm thinking about keeping just 4x creatures and support them using other spells like Dash Hopes.

[THEpuy]

Interesting idea you have here. There are definitely a couple of things that have to be worked out here:

0. Before anything else, you must know that dash hopes is widely regarded as a bad magic card, because your opponent will always pay the 5 life if they want the spell to resolve, or let the spell get countered if they need the life. Pull these cards. Just trust me.

1. Keep in mind that the modern format has MANY non-creature decks and recurring creature deck. The former, and often the latter, are COMPLETELY UNAFFECTED by the deck's game plan. This means you will want to include one or two cards that get better if they are on the board unopposed, or that hate on spell-based strategies (like discard spells. Inquisition of kozilek is pretty cheap)
2. This also means pulling any cards that do nothing without an opponent having creatures. This means contagion clasp and grim affliction have got to go. This is of course not the case if you want to add another kind of counter to be proliferating, but this is likely not the right direction.
3. Speaking of a lack of creatures: You only run 4 yourself! Sure, it's a very cool creature, but wouldn't it be nice if he had some friends? To add insult to injury, you also play 6 spells that pump creatures in your favor, and they are lonely because they have no targets. This simple solution here is to cut the pump spells for some creatures. First strike or double strike creatures are especially desirable because when given wither, the opposing creature will have its power  decreased before it gets to hit back, increasing the likelihood your guy survives.
4. Diabolic tutor is too slow for modern. Many decks will kill you turn 4. Same issue goes for torment of venom, as well as the fact that it gives the opponent a choice just like dash hopes.

So with that, the following cards in you deck remain:

4 Corrosive mentor
4 Nest of scarabs
4 Shadows of the past (good for fixing draw quality and can end a game given enough time. Cool choice!)
4 Grasping dunes
4 Ifnir deadlands
12 Swamp

I know this isn't much, but the point I am trying to make is that your engine of mentor + nest is a very good start. You just need to place better cards around it. I suggest searching the entirety of the modern format (I notice everything you have here is only standard, lorwyn, or shadowmoor) and see what kind of -1/-1 synergies you can find. The best kind of thing would be a card that puts -1 counters in a creature every upkeep. You are also gonna want to find cards that are just plain good. Good cards win games. I encourage you to make sure these cards blend well with your original engine, or even add to it, but this isn't always necessary.

I really hope you find this helpful. Good luck!

[jigsaw]

Shadows of the past might not work quite as well as you are hoping it will. You see you will def get a lot of scry 1's sometimes multiple times in a row, but you will unlikely have four creatures in the graveyard at any point of the game. I've got a commander deck that I've made public if you feel like drawing ideas from. It isn't the exact build I ended up going with but its a good prototype. Rhonas' broken tooth feel free to check it out

[Federico Rosano]

Thank you for all the help.
The main strategy of the deck is based on the combo Nest of Scarabs + Corrosive Mentor: the goal is to generate a great number of 1/1 insects with wither. They keep putting -1/-1 counters when they are blocked or block so even when they die, Nest of Scarabs puts on the board the same number of insects again and again and again.
The Blood Artist could be devastating here.
I tried a couple of games with the Festering Mummy and it's good, but honestly I'm not sure about the spells to put in.