I've been out of Magic for a couple of years and decided to get back into the game. My goal is for a mean u/B control deck.
I've played it a couple of Friday's and it does alright,but feels like it's missing something. I plan on getting another icefall regent for the deck. It has a good bit of mill in here so I can put some pressure on with it. The champions are nice turn one drops and they can come back easily. anticipate helps out if if I'm needing a card. The tormentor and archfiend combo really well together when they both on the board.
Been thinking about adding another Planswalker but I'm not sure which one to add. Any advice I could get with this deck would help a lot.
I do have some thoughts here. First of all, I would not play Mind Sculpt at all. Unless you're dedicating to milling them out and plan on winning that way (in which case you need Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver), then it's not really progressing you anywhere and is actually likely hurting you by potentially giving your opponent fuel for any Delve spells they may be running. You have a lot of marginal mill effects, but unless the effect is worth running without that, then it's probably not worth playing. Case in point - Mindscour Dragon - is your optimal play here as a 4/4 Flying creature for 6 mana? You can get better value off something like Prognostic Sphinx (and at a cheaper price!), which will drastically improve the quality of your draws and can even be far more difficult for an opponent to deal with. Of even Noxious Dragon (different color of the same cycle), which can have a direct impact against the board - especially against aggressive strategies. Or there is the Deathbringer Regent, which is absolutely worth the added 1 mana just for being more powerful and again having a direct impact on the board. Also, with the number of creatures you're playing, it could give you huge long-game advantage to put in some Palace Siege. It may seem pretty minor but I'd recommend Palace Familiar instead of the Jeskai Sage. Very similar, but just better because the Familiar is flying so can probably get damage in their easier if that's what you're going for. Most of your spells are reactive, so you're not likely getting much from the Prowess, and in a pinch the Familiar can block better too, say an opposing dragon.
So overall, those are some broad thoughts, and just a few card examples. Also, I know it's nuance but I'd consider this much more of a midrange deck than a control deck - sure you've got some counter spells, but it's not remotely the core of the deck. And that's fine, nothing wrong with that I'm doing something similar to what you are here just in U/W. But lets call a spade a spade.
EDIT: Also noted, you have WAY too few lands. I'd probably suggest you be playing 25/26 of them, or far too often you'll find yourself wishing you had more to cast those spells in your hand.
Which creatures would you recommend dropping entirely. I'd like it to be a full fledged control deck and ashiok, nightmare weaver would be a nasty addition to this deck. If I can get another palace siege I'd planned on adding it. Also, I can easily add two deathbringer regent to this deck. What about dragonlord silumgar over necromaster?
Milling isn't really a strong strategy right now because Delve cards are used fairly often in Standard, so you could be assisting your opponent cast spells easier.
The last two posts just echo the points I originally made. So, what I'll do here is give additional input about the decklist you have here rather than rehash a U/B control discussion, and if you genuinely want it to be a strictly control deck you should probably scrap this and start from scratch, checking under any number of a few U/B control threads. The basis here is actually a really reasonable and good foundation for a potent midrange deck that can play a more controlling role.
This is 26 cards. First, you need more land. I'd say 6 more. This leaves you 20 more slots for spells. We can start with that pair of Deathbringer Regent, he's expensive but can really change the course of the game for you. Dragonlord Silumgar is a good card that can sort of serve as removal in a fashion. Perhaps two of him is good, but he might be harder to get ahold of and if that's an issue we can find alternatives. I'd probably play two copies of Palace Siege over the two copies of the Monastery Siege. The blue one is good at card filtering, but you want quantity (which you need some card draw, getting to that in a bit) because your overall card quality is so high. Like, you'd want to play it if you didn't need land drops late game and wanted to keep your gas going. I'd also suggest 4 of the Palace Familiar, to slow down opponents until you get your threats going. It's not removal but doesn't cost you a card either, so that's a win in my book. Speaking of that - REMOVAL. You need it. Probably 2/3 Ultimate Price and 2/3 Hero's Downfall. Or Cut depending on whether or not you go with any of those, but whatever mix, I'd say 5/6 removal spells. Then there is the drawing. I'd actually say Divination or Read the Bones serve you well. Divination if you're worried about the life, but you could even do a split of both. 4-6 Draw spells though seem good. I'd say probably 2 Crux of Fate, because you need that as an answer sometimes. Then I'd actually suggest swapping one of the Liliana for Sidisi, Undead Vizier.
So, I think overall I've given you enough input and recommendations to tweak and optimize the deck and keep it in the spirit of the deck without just dictating a deck list and flexibility to what you think is a better fit. Let us know how it goes.
Honestly, you're very close to the "de facto" UB control deck, so you should really just look at that thread to see how it runs best. Koerslight mentioned above that there seems little point in rehashing the UB discussion here. I'll go ahead and point out some "traps" that I think you've fallen into, though, so you know the reasoning behind the differences between your deck and that of the pros.
Stormtide Leviathan simply dies to kill spells, so tapping 8 mana for it is a huge liability. It's simply not good.
Jace, the Living Guildpact doesn't accomplish much of anything. At 5 mana, he'll often just be an overpriced bounce spell. Don't bother.
Liliana Vess is better, but still expensive. She can be worth playing, but you're likely better off running her out of the sideboard, if at all.
Whelming Wave doesn't do enough. You're probably winning by the time you've landed your Leviathan, so that synergy isn't worth much.
Font of Fortunes is a good card, but it seems that the metagame doesn't support it. With so many must-answer threats landing on turn 2, you'll want to be able to answer them immediately, not tap out for an enchantment without immediate impact.
Dissipate is really just okay. In most matchups, it's Cancel, so Dissolve is strictly better. The only matchup I really like it in is against Dragon-based decks, since it answers Haven of the Spirit Dragon. Admittedly, that's a big part of the metagame, but I'd still suggest running something else in its place.
Duress is a strong card, but against creature-heavy decks like Abzan Aggro or highly redundant decks like RDW, its value is limited. Four in your main deck is a lot for a narrow, albeit strong, card. Thoughtseize sees more maindeck play due to its great versatility, and even that is usually just a 2-of in this sort of build.
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Formerly Angrypossum over at the now-defunct WotC forums.
Jace was the only other Planeswalker I had on hand besides Lilianna and I figured what the hell, but he honestly doesn't really add any utility to deck so I'm going to remove him. If I can get 3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver I plan on dropping Lilianna to one main and one sideboard.
Whelming Wave is getting traded out for Aetherspouts since it has more utility. Also, as Furious mentioned by the time I drop Pearl Lake Ancient the game is basically over for my opponent.
I would run Thoughtseize if I had more than one of them. Until then I used Duress. I've considered adding Despise to pick up where the latter falls short.
With Ultimate Price I've thought about dropping it down to two with four Hero's Downfall and three Drown in Sorrow. Bile Blight is nice, but I find it more useful against certain decks where Sorrow tends to hit evenly across the board.
Once I get my second Dig Through Time I'll have a bit more card draw. The only other thing I can see changing Font of Fortunes out for would either be Divination or Jace's Ingenuity. Though I feel Ingenuity is a tad overpriced for only three cards.
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Lands
3x evolving wilds
3x dismal backwater
7x swamp
7x island
Planeswalker(s)
2x liliana vess
Creatures
4x stratus dancer
3x bloodsoaked champion
3x torrent elemental
2x indulgent tormentor
3x jeskai sage
2x archfiend of depravity
3x necromaster dragon
1x icefall regent
2x mindscour dragon
3x siren of the silent song
Spells
3x mindsculpt
2x monastery siege
4x dissolve
3x antcipate
I've been out of Magic for a couple of years and decided to get back into the game. My goal is for a mean u/B control deck.
I've played it a couple of Friday's and it does alright,but feels like it's missing something. I plan on getting another icefall regent for the deck. It has a good bit of mill in here so I can put some pressure on with it. The champions are nice turn one drops and they can come back easily. anticipate helps out if if I'm needing a card. The tormentor and archfiend combo really well together when they both on the board.
Been thinking about adding another Planswalker but I'm not sure which one to add. Any advice I could get with this deck would help a lot.
So overall, those are some broad thoughts, and just a few card examples. Also, I know it's nuance but I'd consider this much more of a midrange deck than a control deck - sure you've got some counter spells, but it's not remotely the core of the deck. And that's fine, nothing wrong with that I'm doing something similar to what you are here just in U/W. But lets call a spade a spade.
EDIT: Also noted, you have WAY too few lands. I'd probably suggest you be playing 25/26 of them, or far too often you'll find yourself wishing you had more to cast those spells in your hand.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
GW Death and Taxes WG
I'd recommend ditching the following:
Bloodsoaked Champion
Torrent Elemental
Siren of the Silent Song
Necromaster Dragon
Mindscour Dragon
Stratus Dancer
Mind Sculpt
Monastery Siege
This is 26 cards. First, you need more land. I'd say 6 more. This leaves you 20 more slots for spells. We can start with that pair of Deathbringer Regent, he's expensive but can really change the course of the game for you. Dragonlord Silumgar is a good card that can sort of serve as removal in a fashion. Perhaps two of him is good, but he might be harder to get ahold of and if that's an issue we can find alternatives. I'd probably play two copies of Palace Siege over the two copies of the Monastery Siege. The blue one is good at card filtering, but you want quantity (which you need some card draw, getting to that in a bit) because your overall card quality is so high. Like, you'd want to play it if you didn't need land drops late game and wanted to keep your gas going. I'd also suggest 4 of the Palace Familiar, to slow down opponents until you get your threats going. It's not removal but doesn't cost you a card either, so that's a win in my book. Speaking of that - REMOVAL. You need it. Probably 2/3 Ultimate Price and 2/3 Hero's Downfall. Or Cut depending on whether or not you go with any of those, but whatever mix, I'd say 5/6 removal spells. Then there is the drawing. I'd actually say Divination or Read the Bones serve you well. Divination if you're worried about the life, but you could even do a split of both. 4-6 Draw spells though seem good. I'd say probably 2 Crux of Fate, because you need that as an answer sometimes. Then I'd actually suggest swapping one of the Liliana for Sidisi, Undead Vizier.
So, I think overall I've given you enough input and recommendations to tweak and optimize the deck and keep it in the spirit of the deck without just dictating a deck list and flexibility to what you think is a better fit. Let us know how it goes.
Lands-27
1xUrborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4xPolluted Delta
1xTemple of Deceit
4xTemple of Malice
4xTemple of Epiphany
3xDismal Backwater
4xRadiant Fountain
3xSwamp
3xIsland
Creatures-3
1xPearl Lake Ancient
1xStormtide Leviathan
1xPrognostic Sphinx
Planeswalkers-3
1xJace, the Living Guildpact
2xLiliana Vess
Spells-26
2xWhelming Wave
4xFont of Fortunes
3xUltimate Price
1xDig Through Time
3xDissipate
2xCrux of Fate
4xDissolve
3xAnticipate
4xDuress
Artifacts-1
1xPerilous Vault
I plan on replacing the Ultimate Price with Hero's Downfall as soon as they get here. Also, plan on adding another Dig Through Time, Drown in Sorrow and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver are also going to be added as soon as I get them.
So far I got Bile Blight, Disdainful Stroke, andAetherspouts for my sideboard.
Stormtide Leviathan simply dies to kill spells, so tapping 8 mana for it is a huge liability. It's simply not good.
Jace, the Living Guildpact doesn't accomplish much of anything. At 5 mana, he'll often just be an overpriced bounce spell. Don't bother.
Liliana Vess is better, but still expensive. She can be worth playing, but you're likely better off running her out of the sideboard, if at all.
Whelming Wave doesn't do enough. You're probably winning by the time you've landed your Leviathan, so that synergy isn't worth much.
Font of Fortunes is a good card, but it seems that the metagame doesn't support it. With so many must-answer threats landing on turn 2, you'll want to be able to answer them immediately, not tap out for an enchantment without immediate impact.
Ultimate Price and Hero's Downfall are both great. You shouldn't be replacing one for the other. Rather, run both. Also, run some Bile Blight.
Dissipate is really just okay. In most matchups, it's Cancel, so Dissolve is strictly better. The only matchup I really like it in is against Dragon-based decks, since it answers Haven of the Spirit Dragon. Admittedly, that's a big part of the metagame, but I'd still suggest running something else in its place.
Duress is a strong card, but against creature-heavy decks like Abzan Aggro or highly redundant decks like RDW, its value is limited. Four in your main deck is a lot for a narrow, albeit strong, card. Thoughtseize sees more maindeck play due to its great versatility, and even that is usually just a 2-of in this sort of build.
Jace was the only other Planeswalker I had on hand besides Lilianna and I figured what the hell, but he honestly doesn't really add any utility to deck so I'm going to remove him. If I can get 3 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver I plan on dropping Lilianna to one main and one sideboard.
Whelming Wave is getting traded out for Aetherspouts since it has more utility. Also, as Furious mentioned by the time I drop Pearl Lake Ancient the game is basically over for my opponent.
I would run Thoughtseize if I had more than one of them. Until then I used Duress. I've considered adding Despise to pick up where the latter falls short.
With Ultimate Price I've thought about dropping it down to two with four Hero's Downfall and three Drown in Sorrow. Bile Blight is nice, but I find it more useful against certain decks where Sorrow tends to hit evenly across the board.
Once I get my second Dig Through Time I'll have a bit more card draw. The only other thing I can see changing Font of Fortunes out for would either be Divination or Jace's Ingenuity. Though I feel Ingenuity is a tad overpriced for only three cards.