MTG Salvation

I'm making some duel decks for a friend and I and I'd appreciate feedback or suggestions on how to build them. My goals are:

• One deck should pack as many infinite combos or very strong synergies as possible and it should be difficult for it to win without combo-ing out
• The other deck should focus on countering the first with instant-speed answers a relatively slow win condition of its own
• Ideally the decks would be balanced so that two equally-skilled players would each win half the time and games would be highly interactive during the combo player's turns
• Keep the budget for both decks about $50 or under

Here's what I've got so far:



Since there are few duplicates in the combos deck I figured that straight destruction spells would be too good and opted for bounce spells and conditional counters instead. The Warhammers are there to try and prevent situations where the answers deck wouldn't get outraced by creature beats from Safehold Elite and the like if it fails to draw creatures early.

What do you all think? Do you have any suggestions?

The control deck has horrible win conditions, lacks card advantage and has too much artifact/enchantment hate (I guess the latter is effective against the combo deck).

The idea behind control is to make all land drops, 'control' the board by countering dangerous spells and then drop a win condition that the opponent cannot handle. Frost Titan is a good example.

Blue is generally bad at dealing with permanents once they are on the battlefield. Bouncing is an option, but it is inherent card disadvantage.
Hence the need for extra draw. If you splash blue with a different colour, you can usually use that colour to deal with stuff. White has excellent removal. Oblivion Ring, Path To Exile, Wrath of God...

Here is an example decklist for UW-control.
Supreme Verdict is the expensive card. Can be replaced by any of the 'weak' wrath reprints.
StP can be replaced with condemn, oust.

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The control deck has horrible win conditions, lacks card advantage and has too much artifact/enchantment hate (I guess the latter is effective against the combo deck).

The idea behind control is to make all land drops, 'control' the board by countering dangerous spells and then drop a win condition that the opponent cannot handle. Frost Titan is a good example.

Blue is generally bad at dealing with permanents once they are on the battlefield. Bouncing is an option, but it is inherent card disadvantage.
Hence the need for extra draw. If you splash blue with a different colour, you can usually use that colour to deal with stuff. White has excellent removal. Oblivion Ring, Path To Exile, Wrath of God...

Here is an example decklist for UW-control.
Supreme Verdict is the expensive card. Can be replaced by any of the 'weak' wrath reprints.
StP can be replaced with condemn, oust.

MaelstromPonderer's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4x Azorius Signet 3x Mana Leak 4x Counterspell 3x Dissolve	4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Repeal 4x Fact or Fiction 2x Supreme Verdict	2x Serra Angel 2x Frost Titan 4x Reflector Mage 8x Plains 12x Island 4x Tranquil Cove

I know what the idea of a control deck is. I'm not trying to build a generic UW control deck; I'm trying to build something specifically to interact with the combo deck. The weak win conditions are by design.

Interesting topic. Would love to see how this pans out after more feedback. I am not too experienced a player so I cannot say.

To reiterate something I once heard, though: Everything is counterable.

I've been tinkering with the combo deck list and have made a few changes. I still haven't bought all the cards yet in case any of you have feedback.



I was thinking of swapping out an Ashnod's Altar for a Myr Matrix or Prototype Portal so that I could have one more combo with Dross Scorpion. I like the idea of each combo piece being a singleton, but I'm hesitant to go down to just a single altar since so many combos want one.

For the answers deck, I was thinking of swapping some one-drops or maybe the hammers for Latch Seekers.

Update: I've now had a chance to play these decks several times and have really enjoyed it each time (as either deck). The updated lists are below.





The combo deck seems pretty close to complete. The only changes I'm still considering would be to take out an Ashnod's Altar and the Prototype Portal for two Nature's Spiral so that it has a limited ability to bring back combo pieces that have been lost.

The control deck I can still see making changes to in order to tweak its power up and down. You'll notice that this list is a lot different than the original. The addition of Aerial Responder was one of the best moves in terms of creating the board states I want where the combo can't just win by swinging with Safehold Elite and Midnight Guard and really needs to go infinite. Aerial Responder's lifelink and ability to attack and act as a blocker are perfect.

Mana Leak was too strong so I switched it out for Failure // Comply, which I've been happier with but I don't find myself using the second mode very often. I may decide to switch those out for Unsubstantiate or something similar. I'm also considering switching out Solemn Offering for the strictly-better Invoke the Divine although that will probably require tuning the deck's power down in some other way to compensate.

As far as tuning goes Ritual of Rejuvenation has been a great card dial to turn--swapping them out for more useful cards to raise the power or adding more back in to lower it.

We've had some great games with these decks already with lots of back-and-forth action. In my last came, Control won by the narrowest of possible margins; if the Combo deck had just one more mana or one more life to survive the next attack it would have gone infinite and won.