Ladies and gentlemen, draw-go control is back and it’s mad. Witness a deck with 14 maindeck counterspells and Torrential Gearhulk to do it again. A White Splash costs the deck nothing, and you can get away with “just” 24 lands in control because you get to run 4 Cycling Lands, a ton of cycling cards, and Baral to discount all your spells. Your win condition is to go on for days with Commit to Memory, and eventually fill the sky with an unbeatable drake army from Drake Haven.
Even in a world of 10 power on turn 3, massive airships crashing in on turn 3, and a turn six insta-kill combo, I think this deck has some real game to it. I don't think it came together until today, but Hieroglyphic Illumination gets us to a critical mass of Cycling spells that are good with Hulk, while Commit // Memory gives us a powerful instant that also ensures we never ever run out of gas.
There are a lot of alternatives and other cards to consider. The heart and soul of the deck imo is Baral, Chief of Compliance. Baral blocks bears and sneks, makes all our spells one cheaper (raising the odds of us being able to develop a Haven and hold counter mana up early, or counter a spell and still cycle), and gives us a loot on Counter. That in turn can fuel the Haven, letting us pitch excess enchantments, Barals, or lands to make drakes. I chose to go with 3 Havens because you don't need to jam it turn 3 (frequently that's going to be a disastrous play in the presumed metagame, actually), and because duplicate copies do not a whole lot for you.
Beyond that core of Barals and Drakes, the deck is pretty flexible. You do want to run at least 12 spells with Cycling, I think, and at least 12 counterspells, and that makes a full 4 Censors a no-brainer. Making people play a turn off-curve is what this deck wants, and cycling it for a Drake later is also solid at instant speed. From there, I figured that...
- Negate is a card we want a ton of since it stops Saheeli, Gideon, Heart of Kiran, and opposing Havens.
- Disallow is a card we want a ton of, since it can stop resolved Planeswalker activations and just hard counter any spell.
- Void Shatter is a card we want a few of...I think. It exiles Scroungers and Embalm creatures and Aftermath spells which is helpful and relevant. This spot could quite easily be something else though, with Insidious Will and Overwhelming Denial (alongside just going to 4 each of Negate and Disallow) being among the strongest contenders. Failure//Comply is also worth consideration even though it fails to trigger Baral. If aggressive Zombie, R/W, Madness (Lulz), and G/B decks take back off, Horribly Awry is worth considering as well.
Almost as challenging as our Counterspell ratio is our card draw ratio. We have a lot of cycling but not a lot of raw card advantage. Hieroglyphic Illumination is a must as a cheap cycle that is a decent Gearhulk target late game. Pull from Tomorrow is an amazing "draw deep" spell late-game. And of course Commit // Memory is a great versatile card and the only decent Aftermath spell, giving us a midgame tempo spell and a lategame reload. I have no idea if my ratios are right, or honestly if Pull is worth running at all compared to just going +1 copy on the other draw spells.
White is our splash, mostly on the back of Cast Out which is insanely strong but also for Fumigate and sideboard cards. I don't have Blessed Alliance or any Gideons or Dovin Baans in this list though, and that might just be super wrong. I am not sure if another Fumigate is a good call; the answer to that largely depends on whether other aggro or midrange decks besides Mardu Vehicles take off. Every other color has some merit though - Black adds Archfiend of Ifnir and Fatal Push and Grasp of Darkness and is probably most preferred since you have better mana with cycling lands, but there's an argument for Red, Green, or various Tri-color configurations as well. I like Tricolor less because you have riskier mana and also it's harder to tech in Geier Reach Sanitarium which can be a powerful late-game engine otherwise.
I was thinking of draw-go decks based on cycling. I like your build but I'd suggest a couple changes: I would like 25 or even 26 land rather than 24... 24, even with cycling, seems too low for a control deck. Also, Baral and Oketra's attendant trigger removal too much. I think that maybe you culd go -4 Baral, -1 attendant, and play 2 more lands and some more early removal.
I was actually thinking of going esper and use shadow of the grave as a finisher. End of turn, with 6+ mana you can cast SotG and cycle 2 to 4 cards to get +2 to +4 card advantage. This should help you reload enough to stabilize and win from there (specially if one of those cycled cards is renewed faith.)
I was thinking of draw-go decks based on cycling. I like your build but I'd suggest a couple changes: I would like 25 or even 26 land rather than 24... 24, even with cycling, seems too low for a control deck. Also, Baral and Oketra's attendant trigger removal too much. I think that maybe you culd go -4 Baral, -1 attendant, and play 2 more lands and some more early removal.
I was actually thinking of going esper and use shadow of the grave as a finisher. End of turn, with 6+ mana you can cast SotG and cycle 2 to 4 cards to get +2 to +4 card advantage. This should help you reload enough to stabilize and win from there (specially if one of those cycled cards is renewed faith.)
I love the interaction of Baral + Haven, but I imagine there is a world where this deck (probably Esper) is better with 0 Barals and only three maindeck creatures (Hulks), using the black to run removal spells over some of the counterspells, more lands, and Shadow of the Grave instead of Commit as its big reload spell. Renewed Faith is a card I am ashamed I forgot.
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Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I mentioned cutting the baral's because for about a month or so I played alot of grixis with Baral and dark intimations and liliana, the last hope. The idea was that if baral died it didn't matter because it was easy to resurrect him. But he ate too much removal, and while his ceiling was high, his flor was pretty low too.
If you got your heart on Baral you might want ways to rebuy him to make him more consistent. Might I suggest Dusk//Dawn? I guess if you go that route you might want to include some more 2 power dudes to buy back as well. Perhaps Spell Queller, and yo could have a core of 8 creatures that play well with counterspells and Dusk//Dawn?
imo we want some black in here. Personally I feel UB is the way to go as it opens up more options for cycling and more ways to use cycling to our advantage, while also giving strong side board options. Cards like Archfiend of Ifnir and Faith of the Devoted both work well with cycling cards while Nest of Scarabs gives you another token making outlet and the powerful sideboard card of Trespasser's Curse
EDIT: when trying to tag the aftermath cards using card tags, use card=non-aftermath name in order to get the card, ie card=Never for Never // Return
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Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
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4 Baral, Chief of Compliance
1 Oketra's Attendant
4 Torrential Gearhulk
Artifacts and Enchantments: 7
3 Drake Haven
4 Cast Out
Instants and Sorceries: 20
4 Censor
3 Negate
3 Disallow
2 Void Shatter
3 Hieroglyphic Illumination
1 Fumigate
2 Pull from Tomorrow
2 Commit // Memory
4 Port Town
4 Irrigated Farmland
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
2 Plains
13 Island
Ladies and gentlemen, draw-go control is back and it’s mad. Witness a deck with 14 maindeck counterspells and Torrential Gearhulk to do it again. A White Splash costs the deck nothing, and you can get away with “just” 24 lands in control because you get to run 4 Cycling Lands, a ton of cycling cards, and Baral to discount all your spells. Your win condition is to go on for days with Commit to Memory, and eventually fill the sky with an unbeatable drake army from Drake Haven.
Even in a world of 10 power on turn 3, massive airships crashing in on turn 3, and a turn six insta-kill combo, I think this deck has some real game to it. I don't think it came together until today, but Hieroglyphic Illumination gets us to a critical mass of Cycling spells that are good with Hulk, while Commit // Memory gives us a powerful instant that also ensures we never ever run out of gas.
There are a lot of alternatives and other cards to consider. The heart and soul of the deck imo is Baral, Chief of Compliance. Baral blocks bears and sneks, makes all our spells one cheaper (raising the odds of us being able to develop a Haven and hold counter mana up early, or counter a spell and still cycle), and gives us a loot on Counter. That in turn can fuel the Haven, letting us pitch excess enchantments, Barals, or lands to make drakes. I chose to go with 3 Havens because you don't need to jam it turn 3 (frequently that's going to be a disastrous play in the presumed metagame, actually), and because duplicate copies do not a whole lot for you.
Beyond that core of Barals and Drakes, the deck is pretty flexible. You do want to run at least 12 spells with Cycling, I think, and at least 12 counterspells, and that makes a full 4 Censors a no-brainer. Making people play a turn off-curve is what this deck wants, and cycling it for a Drake later is also solid at instant speed. From there, I figured that...
- Negate is a card we want a ton of since it stops Saheeli, Gideon, Heart of Kiran, and opposing Havens.
- Disallow is a card we want a ton of, since it can stop resolved Planeswalker activations and just hard counter any spell.
- Void Shatter is a card we want a few of...I think. It exiles Scroungers and Embalm creatures and Aftermath spells which is helpful and relevant. This spot could quite easily be something else though, with Insidious Will and Overwhelming Denial (alongside just going to 4 each of Negate and Disallow) being among the strongest contenders. Failure//Comply is also worth consideration even though it fails to trigger Baral. If aggressive Zombie, R/W, Madness (Lulz), and G/B decks take back off, Horribly Awry is worth considering as well.
Almost as challenging as our Counterspell ratio is our card draw ratio. We have a lot of cycling but not a lot of raw card advantage. Hieroglyphic Illumination is a must as a cheap cycle that is a decent Gearhulk target late game. Pull from Tomorrow is an amazing "draw deep" spell late-game. And of course Commit // Memory is a great versatile card and the only decent Aftermath spell, giving us a midgame tempo spell and a lategame reload. I have no idea if my ratios are right, or honestly if Pull is worth running at all compared to just going +1 copy on the other draw spells.
White is our splash, mostly on the back of Cast Out which is insanely strong but also for Fumigate and sideboard cards. I don't have Blessed Alliance or any Gideons or Dovin Baans in this list though, and that might just be super wrong. I am not sure if another Fumigate is a good call; the answer to that largely depends on whether other aggro or midrange decks besides Mardu Vehicles take off. Every other color has some merit though - Black adds Archfiend of Ifnir and Fatal Push and Grasp of Darkness and is probably most preferred since you have better mana with cycling lands, but there's an argument for Red, Green, or various Tri-color configurations as well. I like Tricolor less because you have riskier mana and also it's harder to tech in Geier Reach Sanitarium which can be a powerful late-game engine otherwise.
What do you all think of draw-gos chances?
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I was actually thinking of going esper and use shadow of the grave as a finisher. End of turn, with 6+ mana you can cast SotG and cycle 2 to 4 cards to get +2 to +4 card advantage. This should help you reload enough to stabilize and win from there (specially if one of those cycled cards is renewed faith.)
I love the interaction of Baral + Haven, but I imagine there is a world where this deck (probably Esper) is better with 0 Barals and only three maindeck creatures (Hulks), using the black to run removal spells over some of the counterspells, more lands, and Shadow of the Grave instead of Commit as its big reload spell. Renewed Faith is a card I am ashamed I forgot.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
If you got your heart on Baral you might want ways to rebuy him to make him more consistent. Might I suggest Dusk//Dawn? I guess if you go that route you might want to include some more 2 power dudes to buy back as well. Perhaps Spell Queller, and yo could have a core of 8 creatures that play well with counterspells and Dusk//Dawn?
EDIT: when trying to tag the aftermath cards using card tags, use card=non-aftermath name in order to get the card, ie card=Never for Never // Return
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans