If you like interactive control decks which grind out wins with long-term advantage and the use of very powerful cards and engines, you will probably enjoy this deck.
UWR is probably my favorite 3-color combination together with BWR. Blue is my favorite color and Azorius and Izzet are too of my favorite guilds; thus I really wanted to design a UWR control deck. UWR has efficient answers to every permanent/spell while also having a number of engines and very powerful control cards that all have their own merits. The engines are Sunforger and Wild Research which allow you to create a toolbox of powerful enchantments which can allow you to run away with the game. Combine these with cards which hinder and disrupt the workings of other decks such as Humility and Blood Moon and you have the makings of a powerful control deck. The biggest disadvantage of UWR – namely that none of the generals was stellar in the color combination – has just been alleviated by the printing of Narset, Enlightened Master . Narset is a very powerful general that doesn’t require too much work to be good, blowing the other generals out of the water for this deck’s purposes.
As a control deck, you try to set up Narset , Land Tax + Solitary Confinement , Wild Research or one of your card advantage engines to solidify your position. In general it is worth going for Narset if you have a fast hand (i.e. with artifact ramp) or you can get her out with protection (such as Cavern of Souls ). Otherwise it can be worthwhile to wait a little bit longer for a good opening. If you can set up Narset, she should shortly win you the game through the card advantage she provides. Vanishing can allow you to protect Narset continuously. Some of the card choices also reflect the wish to decrease dead cards as much as possible (hence the relatively low land/creature count and the use of counterspells such as Arcane Denial which can be used on your own spells for value as well.
Your various tutors are there to set up one of the cards that can hinder your opponents most or generate the most advantage for you. If you have an early Enlightened Tutor I would generally find Land Tax or Torpor Orb / Humility / Blood Moon first, depending on the board state. Land Tax allows you to keep making land drops which is really important in this deck, especially with the lack of artifact ramp. Humility or Torpor Orb generally give you enough time to set up one of your win conditions or one of your other locks, putting you far ahead. The deck has enough ways to win through Humility although it will generally get destroyed long before that. A note on Humility, one of the most complicated cards in Magic: if Celestial Colonnade is activated after Humility has entered play it will enter as a 4/4 flying vigilance. If Batterskull enter plays after Humility you will have a 5/5 vigilance, lifelink germ token at your disposal, if Batterskull was already in play the token will be 5/5 but lose vigilance and lifelink. If you equip Sunforger after playing Humility your creature will be a 5/1. Sunforger will naturally still have the ability to unattach itself to cast a spell.
Even though Humility obviously does not work well with Narset, generally if Humility is on the board you will likely be ahead anyway and can set up a win quietly through Rest in Peace & Helm of Obedience combo, or Humility will be destroyed by one of your opponents. Humility hurts so many decks so much more than this one that it is worth including even with the dissynergy.
The great thing about Wild Research and Sunforger is that they in large part have the same toolbox, which also coincides partially with that of Isochron Scepter , another really strong card with the instants in this color combination. Circular Logic allows you to always search for a Counterspell with Wild Research , even if you have no other cards in hand or you randomly discard it. With Sunforger you can tutor for removal ( Swords to Plowshares , Shattering Pulse , etc.), card draw ( Cerebral Vortex , Izzet Charm , Tithe ) or counterspells ( Absorb ). Many of these cards, and others like Orim’s Chant are also great targets for Isochron Scepter. Note that you can imprint split cards on Isochron Scepter, and can cast either side with both scepter and sunforger. You can also pay for additional costs such as kicker when you cast a spell with scepter of Sunforger although you cannot cast the overload on Cyclonic Rift .
The planeswalkers have great synergy with the other powerful cards in the deck. One main problem with planeswalkers in EDH is that they are difficult to protect. Removal, lands such as Maze of Ith and Kor Haven , the planeswalkers themselves, and Humility all help protect these powerful permanents, for whom there is very little direct removal in EDH. There are synergies between the planeswalkers as well, such as Gideon Jura and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage being able to force an attack on you (thus tapping a lot of creatures) and allowing you to draw a large number of cards. The deck contains many of these synergies.
Aside from the Planeswalkers, the main way to win is through voltron damage of Narset herself (can easily occur with Angelic Destiny equipped) or through Rest in Peace and Helm of Obedience .
Let me know what you think and what changes you would make (which cards to add, which to remove). I’m always looking for feedback and quirky cards that can help me further improve the deck!
You might want to delete the periods after the card numbers, as it's messing up the card tags.
I actually have always liked Star-Spangled control, so this list looks pretty neat to me. I see that you have Reiterate on the testing list - have you given Wild Ricochet any thought? I run both in my Gisela build, and Ricochet can randomly blow people out when copying things like spot removal.
I fixed the card tags, so they all link directly now.
I have not actually looked at Wild Ricochet, I will add it to the options list. Although on first sight I think that buyback with Reiterate when you cast it with sunforger makes it more useful than Wild Ricochet. Do you find that the copy and redirect clauses are often relevant?
Personally, I find Wild Ricochet to be useful because it's a Redirect and Reverberate that takes up one less card slot. The copying half is quite useful, especially for copying ramp spells in the early game. Like I said above though, it can blow out opponents who don't expect it. Ricocheting a Swords to Plowshares effectively protects your guy while removing two of theirs.
Don't get me wrong, the ability to buyback Reiterate (even off of a Sunforger tutor) is good, but I've found that a lot of times it's too mana intensive to be able to actually buy it back. Given that, the Ricochet I've found to be more useful in most situations.
I love Wild Research. So good with some fun risk thrown in, though not so much risk with Land Tax up.
A single LD spell, like good ol' Armageddon would seal the deal once you got some Planeswalkers up and running. Not that you want a whole LD strategy, but would come in handy some games.
Faith's Reward is a nice sunforger target, nice card in general to have in a deck like this.
A single LD spell, like good ol' Armageddon would seal the deal once you got some Planeswalkers up and running. Not that you want a whole LD strategy, but would come in handy some games.
Faith's Reward is a nice sunforger target, nice card in general to have in a deck like this.
I had not actually thought of Faith's Reward . I guess in many it fulfills the same roll as Argivian Find , so I will try to test it in that slot when I can find one. I like that the blowout potential is much higher and how great it is with planeswalkers and Aura of Silence .
I don't like Armageddon in this deck though. In many ways, Cyclonic Rift does the same thing, sealing your win when you are ahead in board position. Armageddon doesn't deal with creatures, which seems like a large issue when it means you have to either have wrathed beforehand or laid down Humility . Cyclonic Rift is also much easier to tutor, which seems important if you want to win the game quickly. Obliterate is uncounterable, by the time you want to play it 8 mana shouldn't be a problem, and it also deals with creatures/artifacts.
I have started to add the sections on card choices and the testing / options list is getting longer and longer. Are there any other people who have experiences with cards on the list and would like to share them?
I had not actually thought of Faith's Reward . I guess in many it fulfills the same roll as Argivian Find , so I will try to test it in that slot when I can find one. I like that the blowout potential is much higher and how great it is with planeswalkers and Aura of Silence .
Just remember that Faith's Reward doesn't actually do anything if you were to Sunforger it up in response to a wrath. ChimericPisces reminded me of that in my Gisela thread, so I've been hesitant to include it as that's the primary situation in which you'd like to have it.
However, I wholeheartedly agree on Wild Research :D.
Thanks for pointing this out, which does make it significantly weaker. It probably won't help against Austere Command which is probably one of the biggest problem cards. I guess if you have Sunforger out, you can just tutor for a counterspell for their removal anyway and Faith's Reward would be unnecessary.
Finished adding all the card selections. I haven't managed to pick up Cyclonic Rift yet, which will replace Into the Roil which is currently in the list. Sphere of Safety was pretty brutal when I dropped it with 3 other enchantments in play.
This deck looks to gain a lot from Gatecrash and I will update the deck once Gatecrash is released.
Some cards that look interesting:
Gideon - not as good as the old one, but maybe still good enough under humility?
Blind Obedience - stops haste creatures, gains you life, costs your opponents life. Can win you the game with continual sunforger recursion.
Assemble the Legion - seems like a very strong win condition with Humility.
Aurelia's Fury - versatility is key here and it seems very powerful as a second cryptic command.
Boros Charm - not sure about this one, but it is sunforgerable and makes all your enchantments/artifacts indestructible.
Boros Keyrune - a 1/1 double strike seems quite good in a world of 1/1's. With sunforger this becomes a real killer. Outside of that it is a pretty mundane mana producer, but I like it more than Azorius Key Rune.
I also want to find room for Terminus and Entreat the Angels, as they are both incredibly powerful in this deck.
Is entreat the angels + decree of justice too much? Which one do you think is better of the two? I just keep imagining miracling 20 flying power for only 7 mana with entreat.
From Dragon Maze URW got a great new sunforgerable counterspell, Render Silent. I like it better than counterflux because stopping a second spell in a turn seems to be more useful more often than being uncounterable has been.
Aetherling is a great finisher in the lategame, swings for 8, dies to nothing, just a great card allround.
Wear // Tear is a pretty nice card to imprint on a scepter (although fuse doesn't work) and is sunforgerable as well. Just a solid card, nothing special.
I don't really like Ral Zarek for this deck as his ultimate doesn't win you the game alone, his plus ability is pretty mediocre in this deck, and just bolting something isn't worth tapping out for. I think I would add Chandra, the Firebrand above this.
Assemble the Legion turned out to be the best card in Gatecrash for this deck. Works great with Humility, requires an answer quickly, is an enchantment. Very strong card.
Entreat the Angels is just more powerful than Decree of Justice, so that was an easy change.
Muddle the Mixture is definitely one of my favorite cards but I cut it because of the dis-synergy with Narset and the fact that the deck is severely pressed for space. I will try it out instead of Izzet Charm and see how often the dis-synergy with Narset comes up and how often I want to sunforger for a looting effect. Thanks for posting!
UWR is probably my favorite 3-color combination together with BWR. Blue is my favorite color and Azorius and Izzet are too of my favorite guilds; thus I really wanted to design a UWR control deck. UWR has efficient answers to every permanent/spell while also having a number of engines and very powerful control cards that all have their own merits. The engines are Sunforger and Wild Research which allow you to create a toolbox of powerful enchantments which can allow you to run away with the game. Combine these with cards which hinder and disrupt the workings of other decks such as Humility and Blood Moon and you have the makings of a powerful control deck. The biggest disadvantage of UWR – namely that none of the generals was stellar in the color combination – has just been alleviated by the printing of Narset, Enlightened Master . Narset is a very powerful general that doesn’t require too much work to be good, blowing the other generals out of the water for this deck’s purposes.
As a control deck, you try to set up Narset , Land Tax + Solitary Confinement , Wild Research or one of your card advantage engines to solidify your position. In general it is worth going for Narset if you have a fast hand (i.e. with artifact ramp) or you can get her out with protection (such as Cavern of Souls ). Otherwise it can be worthwhile to wait a little bit longer for a good opening. If you can set up Narset, she should shortly win you the game through the card advantage she provides. Vanishing can allow you to protect Narset continuously. Some of the card choices also reflect the wish to decrease dead cards as much as possible (hence the relatively low land/creature count and the use of counterspells such as Arcane Denial which can be used on your own spells for value as well.
Your various tutors are there to set up one of the cards that can hinder your opponents most or generate the most advantage for you. If you have an early Enlightened Tutor I would generally find Land Tax or Torpor Orb / Humility / Blood Moon first, depending on the board state. Land Tax allows you to keep making land drops which is really important in this deck, especially with the lack of artifact ramp. Humility or Torpor Orb generally give you enough time to set up one of your win conditions or one of your other locks, putting you far ahead. The deck has enough ways to win through Humility although it will generally get destroyed long before that. A note on Humility, one of the most complicated cards in Magic: if Celestial Colonnade is activated after Humility has entered play it will enter as a 4/4 flying vigilance. If Batterskull enter plays after Humility you will have a 5/5 vigilance, lifelink germ token at your disposal, if Batterskull was already in play the token will be 5/5 but lose vigilance and lifelink. If you equip Sunforger after playing Humility your creature will be a 5/1. Sunforger will naturally still have the ability to unattach itself to cast a spell.
Even though Humility obviously does not work well with Narset, generally if Humility is on the board you will likely be ahead anyway and can set up a win quietly through Rest in Peace & Helm of Obedience combo, or Humility will be destroyed by one of your opponents. Humility hurts so many decks so much more than this one that it is worth including even with the dissynergy.
The great thing about Wild Research and Sunforger is that they in large part have the same toolbox, which also coincides partially with that of Isochron Scepter , another really strong card with the instants in this color combination. Circular Logic allows you to always search for a Counterspell with Wild Research , even if you have no other cards in hand or you randomly discard it. With Sunforger you can tutor for removal ( Swords to Plowshares , Shattering Pulse , etc.), card draw ( Cerebral Vortex , Izzet Charm , Tithe ) or counterspells ( Absorb ). Many of these cards, and others like Orim’s Chant are also great targets for Isochron Scepter. Note that you can imprint split cards on Isochron Scepter, and can cast either side with both scepter and sunforger. You can also pay for additional costs such as kicker when you cast a spell with scepter of Sunforger although you cannot cast the overload on Cyclonic Rift .
The planeswalkers have great synergy with the other powerful cards in the deck. One main problem with planeswalkers in EDH is that they are difficult to protect. Removal, lands such as Maze of Ith and Kor Haven , the planeswalkers themselves, and Humility all help protect these powerful permanents, for whom there is very little direct removal in EDH. There are synergies between the planeswalkers as well, such as Gideon Jura and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage being able to force an attack on you (thus tapping a lot of creatures) and allowing you to draw a large number of cards. The deck contains many of these synergies.
Aside from the Planeswalkers, the main way to win is through voltron damage of Narset herself (can easily occur with Angelic Destiny equipped) or through Rest in Peace and Helm of Obedience .
So now the complete decklist:
1 Arid Mesa
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Flooded Strand
4 Marsh Flats
5 Wooded Foothills
6 Polluted Delta
7 Scalding Tarn
8 Misty Rainforest
9 Windswept Heath
10 Hallowed Fountain
11 Sacred Foundry
12 Steam Vents
13 Volcanic Island
14 Tundra
15 Plateau
16 Command Tower
17 Mystic Gate
18 Plains
19 Plains
20 Plains
21 Plains
22 Mountain
23 Island
24 Island
25 Island
26 Island
27 Island
28 Island
29 Mistveil Plains
30 Cavern of Souls
31 Wasteland
32 Kor Haven
33 Ancient Tomb
34 Celestial Colonnade
35 Maze of Ith
36 Academy Ruins
37 Sun Titan
Artifacts – 11
38 Azorius Signet
39 Batterskull
40 Coalition Relic
41 Crucible of Worlds
42 Expedition Map
43 Helm of Obedience
44 Isochron Scepter
45 Mana Crypt
46 Scroll Rack
47 Sensei’s Divining Top
48 Sol Ring
49 Sunforger
Enchantments -12
50 Angelic Destiny
51 Blood Moon
52 Detention Sphere
53 Humility
54 Land Tax
55 Pendrell Mists
56 Rest in Peace
57 Rule of Law
58 Solitary Confinement
59 Torpor Orb
60 Vanishing
61 Wild Research
Planeswalkers -5
62 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
63 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
64 Gideon Jura
65 Jace, the Mindsculptor
66 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Instants – 28
67 Absorb
68 Arcane Denial
69 Brainstorm
70 Capsize
71 Cerebral Vortex
72 Circular Logic
73 Counterspell
74 Crimson Wisps
75 Cryptic Command
76 Cyclonic Rift
77 Delve into Time
78 Dismantling Blow
79 Enlightened Tutor
80 Fact or Fiction
81 Fire//Ice
82 Impulse
83 Izzet Charm
84 Mana Drain
85 Mystical Tutor
86 Orim’s Chant
87 Path to Exile
88 Shattering Pulse
89 Swords to Plowshares
90 Thirst for Knowledge
91 Tithe
92 Unexpectedly Absent
93 Wear // Tear
94 Council’s Judgment
95 Idyllic Tutor
96 Ponder
97 Preordain
98 Supreme Verdict
99 Terminus
Let me know what you think and what changes you would make (which cards to add, which to remove). I’m always looking for feedback and quirky cards that can help me further improve the deck!
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
I actually have always liked Star-Spangled control, so this list looks pretty neat to me. I see that you have Reiterate on the testing list - have you given Wild Ricochet any thought? I run both in my Gisela build, and Ricochet can randomly blow people out when copying things like spot removal.
stuff
I have not actually looked at Wild Ricochet, I will add it to the options list. Although on first sight I think that buyback with Reiterate when you cast it with sunforger makes it more useful than Wild Ricochet. Do you find that the copy and redirect clauses are often relevant?
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
Don't get me wrong, the ability to buyback Reiterate (even off of a Sunforger tutor) is good, but I've found that a lot of times it's too mana intensive to be able to actually buy it back. Given that, the Ricochet I've found to be more useful in most situations.
stuff
A single LD spell, like good ol' Armageddon would seal the deal once you got some Planeswalkers up and running. Not that you want a whole LD strategy, but would come in handy some games.
Faith's Reward is a nice sunforger target, nice card in general to have in a deck like this.
Opalescence/Parallax Wave combo = good times.
WUBRG Some of these decks can actually win games...WUBRG
How I know I should build a deck:
I had not actually thought of Faith's Reward . I guess in many it fulfills the same roll as Argivian Find , so I will try to test it in that slot when I can find one. I like that the blowout potential is much higher and how great it is with planeswalkers and Aura of Silence .
I don't like Armageddon in this deck though. In many ways, Cyclonic Rift does the same thing, sealing your win when you are ahead in board position. Armageddon doesn't deal with creatures, which seems like a large issue when it means you have to either have wrathed beforehand or laid down Humility . Cyclonic Rift is also much easier to tutor, which seems important if you want to win the game quickly. Obliterate is uncounterable, by the time you want to play it 8 mana shouldn't be a problem, and it also deals with creatures/artifacts.
I have started to add the sections on card choices and the testing / options list is getting longer and longer. Are there any other people who have experiences with cards on the list and would like to share them?
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
Just remember that Faith's Reward doesn't actually do anything if you were to Sunforger it up in response to a wrath. ChimericPisces reminded me of that in my Gisela thread, so I've been hesitant to include it as that's the primary situation in which you'd like to have it.
However, I wholeheartedly agree on Wild Research :D.
stuff
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
Some cards that look interesting:
Gideon - not as good as the old one, but maybe still good enough under humility?
Blind Obedience - stops haste creatures, gains you life, costs your opponents life. Can win you the game with continual sunforger recursion.
Assemble the Legion - seems like a very strong win condition with Humility.
Aurelia's Fury - versatility is key here and it seems very powerful as a second cryptic command.
Boros Charm - not sure about this one, but it is sunforgerable and makes all your enchantments/artifacts indestructible.
Boros Keyrune - a 1/1 double strike seems quite good in a world of 1/1's. With sunforger this becomes a real killer. Outside of that it is a pretty mundane mana producer, but I like it more than Azorius Key Rune.
I also want to find room for Terminus and Entreat the Angels, as they are both incredibly powerful in this deck.
Is entreat the angels + decree of justice too much? Which one do you think is better of the two? I just keep imagining miracling 20 flying power for only 7 mana with entreat.
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
Aetherling is a great finisher in the lategame, swings for 8, dies to nothing, just a great card allround.
Wear // Tear is a pretty nice card to imprint on a scepter (although fuse doesn't work) and is sunforgerable as well. Just a solid card, nothing special.
I don't really like Ral Zarek for this deck as his ultimate doesn't win you the game alone, his plus ability is pretty mediocre in this deck, and just bolting something isn't worth tapping out for. I think I would add Chandra, the Firebrand above this.
Assemble the Legion turned out to be the best card in Gatecrash for this deck. Works great with Humility, requires an answer quickly, is an enchantment. Very strong card.
Entreat the Angels is just more powerful than Decree of Justice, so that was an easy change.
Dragon Maze Update:
- Ponder
- Decree of Justice
- Izzet Charm
- Counterflux
- Gideon Jura
+ Render Silent
+ Entreat the Angels
+ Assemble the Legion
+ Aetherling
+ Wear // Tear
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
Muddle the Mixture is definitely one of my favorite cards but I cut it because of the dis-synergy with Narset and the fact that the deck is severely pressed for space. I will try it out instead of Izzet Charm and see how often the dis-synergy with Narset comes up and how often I want to sunforger for a looting effect. Thanks for posting!
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC