Welcome! We do our deck-specific discussion in relevant threads here rather than have everything in Standard Main. I will move this there. It might get you more feedback also. Thanks! - hoser2
Hi Topsx, cool list. How does it go vs White Weenie and Boros Aggro with Adanto Vanguard?
Land base:
Ideally you want 4x Watery Grave / 4x Drowned Catacomb. While you collect those, Submerged Bone yard or Dimir Guild gate are fine. But you really need at least 4x Grave or Catacomb with 4x Dimir Guildgate at the very least to function decently. Drop the Evolving Wilds. Too many taplands
Counter Spells:
Syncopate 1 - 2x main deck 4x is too many
Negate 0 - 1 main. With 2 - 3x side board
Spell Pierce 0 - 1 these are playable but get weak later in the game
Essence scatter 3 - 4 main board. The top control deck, UWR, does not play any. However as a two color deck they are good. Even other control decks play creatures that can be countered.
Sinister Sabotage: 4x if you not playing Disinformation Campaign Devious Cover-up 0 - 1 Catch-all that recycles anything from your graveyard. Redrawing those Contempts can be nice.
Removal
Moment of Craving 2x Needed for aggro With x in the sideboard
Cast Down 2 - 3x main
Murder 0 - 2 I personally like this card as it great against Aurlia and Dawnbringer Angle and Niv Mizz
Vraska's Contempt 2 - 4x Premier remover in black. Really should be 4x The Eldest Reborn is also an option
Ritual of Soot and Golden Demise probably want 3x of each between the main and side Blink of an Eye - your answer to enchantments
Hand Disruption Thought Erasure 4x with out question main
duress 2 - 4x in the side Disinformation Campaign - If youare this kind of control go for 3 - 4 main
Card Advantage
Opt
Discovery // Dispersal
Chemister's Insight
Treasure Map
All of these are great options. Almost any combination of 4x - 8x of these
Win Conditions
Doom Whisperer - Im not really fan of this one. So I would not play any
Instead Dream Eater is actually pretty good. 2 - 4x
Nezahal is probably better in the sideboard as 1 - 2x Nightveil Predator could also be good
Adrian Sullivan wins GP Milwaukee defeating GB Midrange with his 4x main board Niv-Mizzet, Parun in his URW deck.
Reid Duke admits on camera that Niz is the best card in standard.
The big reason not to go all in on the big guy is that BG runs approximately a million ways to deal with him game one (Chupacabra, Vivien Reed, Vraska's Contempt, Trophy, sometimes Harpooner) and BG is a big chunk of the meta right now. Pascal Maynard's recent Grixis Dragons video on CFB shows the car wreck that happens when you build around NM and get paired with BG.
That is the reason why I took the opposite approach and went creatureless. Ends up being a VERY good matchup(against what is, as you said, a big chunk of the meta right now), because they have so many cards that are straight up dead. Or they have cards that end up being VERY bad(Can't count the number of times people have Vraskas'd their own creatures in response to them being burned for the 2 life).
NM is amazing when hes good, but when hes not he hurts the deck strategy(at least mine). So I've been very happy just keeping him in the sideboard.
How are you burning people out when you also need burn spells to answer creatures? And no Expansion // Explosion.
For those who want stay creatureless or who dont already know, Niv-Mizzet, Parun is an incredible card. Top 5 in Standard. If not second to Teferi.
Untapping with Niz can put the game away
I guess its fair to note that a creatureless deck still needs to win, and ral plus burn plus explosion mill may not be enough. I suspect squee is your most resilient option despite being painfully slow. Otherwise you commit to a mix of nezahl, niv mizzet, and crackling drake and accept their drawbacks as the cost of having ways to actually end games quickly.
Just gonna say, I haven't been having a problem in this area. Between two large burn finishers, lots of incidental burn, Ral and Research. Feels like plenty, especially with the amount of your deck you get through drawing. I think it's plenty worth staying creatureless.
Do you feel like Firemind's Research holds a worthy place in the deck?
What does your current deck look like?
Well, since I really like both Ral and Niv-Mizzet (lore-wise), I was excited to try them out on MTG Arena in an Izzet control shell. After reading through this topic and playing some games with the deck running 2 copies of Niv-Mizzet, Parun and two Ral, Izzet Viceroys as well as 3 Enigma Drakes and 4 Crackling Drakes I decided it would be better to try going creatureless rendering lots of removal useless (though still for black and green both Vraska's Contempt and Assassin's Trophy are very much alive...) Since just 3 copies of Ral is not enough wincons I decided to add two Firemind's Research.
Since I'm new to MTGA I do not have all the cards - I will get to 4 copies of Steam Vents/Sulfur Falls. Second Detection Tower would albo be nice versus Carnage Tyrant and possibly other hexproof threats. Since first game creature removal is useless, siding in the creature threats from the board should be strong in Bo3 matches. So far the deck looks decent in Constructed Events (Best of 1). This format is played until 3 losses or 7 wins. In three runs I went 6-3, 0-3 (or possibly 1-3), 7-2 (or 7-1, don't remember). I could have played the first two matches better in the second series, last one I got mana screwed and beaten down by Simic Merfolks)
4 copies of Cannonade is good versus aggro and versus other decks it's often simply jump-start fodder. Firemind's Research has been surprisingly good versus Dimir control decks (discard shenanigans) thanks to the steady stream of draw it provides, especially since counter wars produce so many charge counters. Even when they tucked with Teferi I've been able to kill him in response, which is great. I think the deck also has decent matchups versus Jeskai/Azorius control. I've been able to beat Teferi decks multiple times by patient play, usually winning with Ral's ultimate, sometimes with some help of the Firemind's Research burn.
Biggest problem so far have been explosive starts by aggressive decks (double or triple consecutive casts of History of Benalia, especially when I got no Cannonade in hand) and green stompy decks when they draw well, but I guess this is the case for everyone. I probably should introduce some answers for artifact threats (Immortal Sun could really screw this deck over), but so far I've run into none. Goblin Cratermaker could be decent from the sideboard. Of course, as always for UR, enchantments are a problem as we have no answers for them if they resolve. But I've been surprised by how well the deck was doing.
Possibly the deck could run a transformational sideboard towards an aggro wizards deck with Adeliz or tempo Drakes. I think it really has potential, especially since this list isn't refined.
Seeing as the PTQ winners were announced today, and the Jeskai deck that went 9-0 did not contain Opt, Risk Factor, Shock or Lightning Strike, and it had Cleansing Nova and Settle The Wreckage in the 75 in the same numbers I gave, I'm going to call that I wasn't just blowing smoke up my butt when I was saying what I was saying. Obviously if the Jeskai deck - a deck that had access to do those cards - chose not to run them in favour of superior cards, then that means they were considered to be bad or at least less good than the 75 they actually went with. And if it's not good enough for Jeskai, then it's not good enough for Izzet either, because if the deck could have been Izzet, it would have been. Again, the mostly blue control deck was white as its second core, not the red.
And no, I don't think Risk Factor is bad in control because it's a punishment mechanic - who's care about that - it's just bad because it doesn't do anything to affect the board and effectively removes a card from your hand while are getting beaten down by the various aggro decks in the format. It's not a control card. It belongs in a burn deck, preferably mono-red.
Why are you even here telling people they are wrong for wanting to play a deck?
For everyone else, here is UR list that when 5-0 in league without running "superior" cards.
Ideally you want 4x Watery Grave / 4x Drowned Catacomb. While you collect those, Submerged Bone yard or Dimir Guild gate are fine. But you really need at least 4x Grave or Catacomb with 4x Dimir Guildgate at the very least to function decently. Drop the Evolving Wilds. Too many taplands
Counter Spells:
Syncopate 1 - 2x main deck 4x is too many
Negate 0 - 1 main. With 2 - 3x side board
Spell Pierce 0 - 1 these are playable but get weak later in the game
Essence scatter 3 - 4 main board. The top control deck, UWR, does not play any. However as a two color deck they are good. Even other control decks play creatures that can be countered.
Sinister Sabotage: 4x if you not playing Disinformation Campaign
Devious Cover-up 0 - 1 Catch-all that recycles anything from your graveyard. Redrawing those Contempts can be nice.
Removal
Moment of Craving 2x Needed for aggro With x in the sideboard
Cast Down 2 - 3x main
Murder 0 - 2 I personally like this card as it great against Aurlia and Dawnbringer Angle and Niv Mizz
Vraska's Contempt 2 - 4x Premier remover in black. Really should be 4x
The Eldest Reborn is also an option
Ritual of Soot and Golden Demise probably want 3x of each between the main and side
Blink of an Eye - your answer to enchantments
Hand Disruption
Thought Erasure 4x with out question main
duress 2 - 4x in the side
Disinformation Campaign - If youare this kind of control go for 3 - 4 main
Card Advantage
Opt
Discovery // Dispersal
Chemister's Insight
Treasure Map
All of these are great options. Almost any combination of 4x - 8x of these
Win Conditions
Doom Whisperer - Im not really fan of this one. So I would not play any
Instead Dream Eater is actually pretty good. 2 - 4x
Nezahal is probably better in the sideboard as 1 - 2x
Nightveil Predator could also be good
Niv is thee best card in standard.
How has Murmuring mystic been?
Reid Duke admits on camera that Niz is the best card in standard.
Untapping with Niz can put the game away
What does your current deck look like?
Also, thoughts on Squee, the Immortal or Lightning Mare vs control match ups?
For everyone else, here is UR list that when 5-0 in league without running "superior" cards.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/decks/new#paper