UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
For me this deck is always a local meta driven deck. I feel like the engine it runs is hard to compare across. At my store there is almost no affinity but a huge amount of Jund and a small amount or Tron and other stuff, the presence of Jund is the reason I started playing mystical teachings because if Jund wants to take my cards and go long with tarmogoyfs and bobs and Liliana well then I will play a full playset of electrolyze and a smattering of huge haymakers like blue sun zenith to bury my opponent. When Tron and infect and affinity have been very present I have decreased on mystical teachings and have played much more sweepers and gone to Vendilion Clique to both disrupt block and set up. The thing I have loved most about playing Cruel control over the past year is how despite being a Grixis control deck it has such a wide range to it and I wouldn't criticize anyone for how they wish to guild the deck because it is so niche and yet so adaptable in a way that other decks are just not. I will always love this deck most no matter how good it because it brings out the Brewer in me. I can go on and on over all the unique one of cards I've been able to play because of the meta game and mystical teachings. I single handedly influenced how present Tron was because I was playing Commandeer in my SB and Tron players were tired of having their Karns stolen turn 4 after I teachings for commandeer and stole it in that same turn by pitching my hand. Anyways if Tron and affinity become good I suggest engineered explosives cheep red sweepers and big 5 mana sorcerers like Bribery and Crumble to Dust backed up by some timely negates, counterflux etc...
After playing Tron enough I have learned that Fulminator Mage is not how this deck wants to beat them, unless you are playing a very heavy creature build of Cruel you just don't have the pressure to be able to take advantage of using Fulminator to take them off land for a turn they run so many draw artifacts and tutors that you need to either tempo them out long enough to land a crumble or play a version that has 2-3 tasigurs cliques and ways to tempo them out just enough to kill them before the lands come together for them. I prefer to go haymaker for haymaker with Tron mostly because if I play 4 fulminators then I limit my SB for other matchups but who knows if Tron becomes that big a presence maybe we will need both to battle them
lol chalupa omg i remember suggesting a commandeer mystical teachings strategy against tron!!! very glad to see someone actually pulled it off to such success lol !
One idea I also had, although it seems not that great tbh but hey just an idea to throw out there, was parallectric feedback to teachings for to get a later game burn plan vs tron. Idk how good that is but yeah funny at least .
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Blowing up tron's hopes and dreams. Stealing karn and Ugin is sick
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
This is my new list going forward. There is a **** ton of Tron in meta now, along with company decks, affinity and elves.
EDIT: I have somehow forgotten to include Kommand LOL. I'll make room for it.
I would say that with 4 Serum Visions you can definitely go down to 25 lands instead of 26. Also 4 crytpic commands when company, affinity and elves are there is not ideal.
I agree. I'm still testing numbers, but I like where it is. I think two cryptics is ideal in this meta.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I'm thinking two cryptic is probably the correct number as well but what I don't understand in all these lists is being proactive with discard effects that help flip Jace earlier and give us a way to rip our opponents of cards and work with perfect information. I also think that Delay may be a great alternative to remand or mana leak. I definitely don't wanna be reminding any of th r new breed of eldrazi with Cast triggers still going off. That just seems like real poor times.
Lil Bolas what decks are you looking to bring Mogis in? Is he a somewhat conditional one sided Sulfuric Vortex like card that also has elements of the abyss? I'm curious why you always have him in there not that I think it's wrong I've just always wondered why and how has he performed for you?
I usually bring him in against any deck that will put up a long fight. I usually put him in against tron, jund/junk and other grindy matchups.
He has performed very well for me, I've never lost a game where Mogis hit the field. He makes the opponent try to speed up the game, which causes them to make mistakes.
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Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I haven't tested Mogis personally but I can't justify tapping out on 4 for him. Whereas Tapping out for Keranos can definitely dig you out of a hole sometimes as quickly as the next turn.
Mogis coming out a turn earlier than Keranos and his 'spicy' factor has single-handedly won me games against grindy matchups. I was simply blown away on how he completely took over games, such as matchups like Jund. I remember coming in here when he was new and advocating for people to give him a try. However he isn't just spicy, he's actually quite good. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand why Keranos is powerful and I run one of each of these two gods. Keranos whiffs at times, especially against cards like spellskite or leyline of sanctity, whereas Mogis completely gets around these two mentioned cards. Mogis can whiff in the sense that the opponent always has the option to sac a creature, but more often than not they will take the two damage. Only time an opponent doesn't take the damage is if they have a plethora of creatures(tokens or what-have-you) or are about to die. The damage from Mogis is slightly more guaranteed than the damage Keranos might do, even though I understand Keranos does a point more of damage. Since we are a control deck we mostly keep a handle on opponents' creatures, so Mogis provides a more controlled clock. I've seen many players not know how to simply to deal with or can't deal with a Mogis vs a Keranos. Also, Mogis is still quite good against control decks. Another thing is that Mogis does the damage the turn after he's out, whereas Keranos takes one turn more, thus essentially being always a turn behind. Now, I do understand the card advantage that Keranos provides, but I like what Mogis can provide too.
Fair enough, I guess the reason I am not a fan of Mogis is that I have never had a problem against Junk, Junk or other control decks, my match percentage against them is very high so bringing in what I feel to be a card that doesn't really do much or is a huge haymaker goes against my SB preferences when I feel I have actual bad matchups that a card like Mogis could be used for those. I totally get wanting to play win more cards I mean come on cruel ultimatum is totally win more but for me the SB should be more than just sweet cards but cards that have big impact like a crumble to dust which is game ending against a tough matchup
I play this deck for fun though, dropping mogis and seeing the hope fade from my opponent's eyes is delicious.
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Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Is anyone going to use Remorseless Punishment? It seems powerful enough and similar enough to Cruel Ultimatum to be used. I've won against a Sliver CoCo deck with it. Haven't tried it in an FNM though.
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I understand that. I wish they were all foil textless cards.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
One idea I also had, although it seems not that great tbh but hey just an idea to throw out there, was parallectric feedback to teachings for to get a later game burn plan vs tron. Idk how good that is but yeah funny at least
3 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Island
2 Wandering Fumarole
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Swamp
2 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Mountain
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Smoldering Marsh
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Visions
4 Cryptic Command
3 Spell Snare
3 Mana Leak
2 Damnation
2 Terminate
2 Dreadbore
2 Hero's Downfall
1 Silumgar's Command
1 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
2 Vandalblast
2 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Devastation Tide
This is my new list going forward. There is a **** ton of Tron in meta now, along with company decks, affinity and elves.
EDIT: I have somehow forgotten to include Kommand LOL. I'll make room for it.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Ooh, Silumgar's Command in the main and Silumgar himself in the sideboard? Cool stuff, but any particular reason why?
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I would also probably move Ashiok in themain.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
- Nicol Bolas
He has performed very well for me, I've never lost a game where Mogis hit the field. He makes the opponent try to speed up the game, which causes them to make mistakes.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
- Nicol Bolas
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas