Went 2-1-1 at FNM tonight with the following list. Beat Slivers and 8 Rack. Drew against Skred Red, and lost a tight match 1-2 to Jund.
I won Game 1 against Jund with Colonnade beat down after he shocked and thoughtseized himself down very low. Game 2 he cast 3 Bloodbraid Elfs and I had no way to overcome the card advantage. Game 3 was close, but I was unable to find any way to generate card advantage and lost after he was able to pull out a few 2-1s with. If I had found a Jace, Revelation, or Search for Azcanta in Game 3 I probably could have pulled it out.
I definitely got punished against Jund for not having Wall of Omens in the list, and think going forward it's definitely correct to be playing 1-2. Cutting to 2 Jace definitely felt like it affected my ability to generate card advantage to start turning the corner.
With the spoiling of cast down, I don't see a need to be white anymore; the unconditional removal of path to exile is functionally negated when you can run push, cast down and hero's downfall in some numbers.
I tried to think a little bit about where Path really shines over cast down and there isn't a lot of spots once you also factor in that Fatal Push is still also going to be in the deck. It came down to GY threats and Tasigur basically.
Obviously there are a few other positives in white, mostly Gideon of the Trials and the sideboard cards, imo, but I think access to better removal and therefore better Snapcasters is worth the trade off. I also really like Tasigur's positioning in a post Cast Down world...I have to imagine Jund gives up terminate for cast down, and tasigur is just going to be a nightmare for them if they do.
I'll miss the uncounterable Wraths, but damnation seems decent since grixis shadow is on the decline anyways.
I'd love to have my mind changed since I'm emotionally invested in UW (and economically, holy did colonnade rise), so if anyone can find a flaw in my thinking or something I'm overlooking I'd love to discuss it.
Until someone casts a tasigur, ulamog, wurmcoil engine, bloodghast, etc, against you.
Cast down is nice, but path to exile is still the strongest removal spell in the format.
While I don't disagree that UB might be pretty viable, especially with the new edition, there are still very much reasons to be in white.
Why do you think jund gives up terminate? Costing red instead of colorless isn't that big of a deal when you're playing other red cards, as well as blackcleave cliffs.
3 pages back I posted a UB list (its the 3rd/bottom spoiler tag on the post). I played a similar list recently (with no field of ruins, fewer counterspells, and maybe fewer planeswalkers, adding in some shadow of doubts and a bit more removal).
My matchups were quite bad (I lost to grixis delver in 3 close games, not drawing enough answers to resolved delve threats, lost to dredge twice, and beat jund), but the deck felt ok, especially for a first attempt. Its possible tasigur over ashiok is better (though I like the creature-less aspect). With cast down the deck probably gets a bit better.
Maybe it wants a few mainboard discard spells as well.
Until someone casts a tasigur, ulamog, wurmcoil engine, bloodghast, etc, against you.
...
Why do you think jund gives up terminate? Costing red instead of colorless isn't that big of a deal when you're playing other red cards, as well as blackcleave cliffs.
In UB you're going to have plenty of ways to deal with a wurmcoil and Tasigur (Jace -1, downfall, damnation, Lilly -2, more snaps etc), so those are non issues. You're also much less likely to face ulamog when you aren't pathing wurmcoils and other threats. We can also move to some number of Tec edge over field since we don't need massive amounts of Mana for revs or colonnade activations.
Bloodghast is for sure an issue, as is pretty much every creature in dredge or hollow one decks, but to be fair those are bad matches for UW anyways. We lose a bit of sideboaed power there, but we also get access to 3 Mana sweepers, which shouldn't be overlooked.
I think it will take awhile for them to give up terminate but I think it will happen eventually. Missing Tasigur and Regen creatures is fine for easier mana. They don't run many fetchable red sources, and they hate running basic mountain, so it makes sense to run the card that is easier on the Mana.
I see no reason why you'd ever be interested in trading one of the best 1 mana removal spells ever made for a conditional two mana spell. Go For The Throat is only bad vs a single deck. Swapping it for Cast Down won't change lot. The only deck that card may make the cut in is a Corey Burkhart like Grixis Control it won't suddenly make UB a tier 1 strategy.
Jund only plays 1 maybe 2 terminates, so switching to a card that does not kill tasigur is not going to make jund cry.
The problem with UW is not that path gives people extra land, or that we need additional removal spells to beat creature decks.
The problem with UW is the linear decks who try to kill us on turn 4 (dredge, storm, hollow one, breach, bogles). We need a better unconditional counter spell and a to a lesser extent a better life gain card that you can main deck.
Black helps against the blue based combo deck with discard, but discard sucks if you don't have a clock. If you're playing black, one of the best cards is liliana of the veil. Liliana forces you to play a more proactive game forcing your opponents to react than trying to answer all of the opponent's threats. Then you're playing less sweet instant speed cards like counters and snapcasters. Then it's like why aren't you playing jund or some shadow deck?
with Rickster, rogue_LOVE and Gen0syde86 help, I've came with a solid build and I finally went undefeated yesterday! I won against Burn with a Jace -12 (the card is awesome). Also, I won againt Ad Nauseam 2-1, losing game 1 but winning postboard with 2 Dispel, 2 Ceremonious Rejection, 2 Stony Silence and 3 Detention Sphere. I took out 4 Path, 2 Supreme and 2 Wall. It felt great to win that match.
with Rickster, rogue_LOVE and Gen0syde86 help, I've came with a solid build and I finally went undefeated yesterday! I won against Burn with a Jace -12 (the card is awesome). Also, I won againt Ad Nauseam 2-1, losing game 1 but winning postboard with 2 Dispel, 2 Ceremonious Rejection, 2 Stony Silence and 3 Detention Sphere. I took out 4 Path, 2 Supreme and 2 Wall. It felt great to win that match.
Congratulations! Ulting Jace vs. Burn has got to be a sweet feeling.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
My meta is aggro heavy (Burn, Affinity and others) and combo heavy (Ad Nauseam, Storm, etc.). I play both Burn and Ad Nauseam too, so that gives me an edege, but I try to be the most proactive possible and have quick answers at instant speed. That's why there's no Dentention Sphere in the main, no Sear for Azacanta either : for this one, I really prefer Ancestral Vision. I've played it in Grixis Control and it was good, it's at least as good in UW. I would hardly see myself not play it for the pure card draw. I found it was still good even though not casted on turn 1 : coming of on turn 5-10 is still potent and gives velocity. Sideboard could have 2 Surgical Extraction if I wanted to be very picky on hate also
In general, I love the deck. I don't remember having that much fun since 3 years almost, since I got very good with Ad Nauseam. But I'm having a blast, like in my first days of Theros Standard and Gatecrash and such. Thanks for the good info on the page guys!
@ rogue_LOVE : I've played magic for 5-6 years and I don't remember having such a perfect moment! It was great Burn was so completely desperate, he was almost willing to ultimate Jace !
Jund only plays 1 maybe 2 terminates, so switching to a card that does not kill tasigur is not going to make jund cry.
The problem with UW is not that path gives people extra land, or that we need additional removal spells to beat creature decks.
The problem with UW is the linear decks who try to kill us on turn 4 (dredge, storm, hollow one, breach, bogles). We need a better unconditional counter spell and a to a lesser extent a better life gain card that you can main deck.
Black helps against the blue based combo deck with discard, but discard sucks if you don't have a clock. If you're playing black, one of the best cards is liliana of the veil. Liliana forces you to play a more proactive game forcing your opponents to react than trying to answer all of the opponent's threats. Then you're playing less sweet instant speed cards like counters and snapcasters. Then it's like why aren't you playing jund or some shadow deck?
I think each type of shell has it's advantages and disadvantages control deck:
UB:
Disruption vs Control can be a very powerful tool to disrupt combo decks but has a very hard time against aggro decks, or decks that can combo off from the GY (Storm, Dredge, Hallow One) or decks with Aether Vial tricks that can protect their creatures from spells (Humans/D&T, Merfolk). Also these type of decks are very threat light. One of the best pieces of magic advice I've ever gotten is you can't play magic trying to avoid losing, you have to make an attempt to win as some point and this deck seemingly is just trying to find ways to avoid losing.
UR:
There are a lot of different versions but mostly the deck is trying to use Blood Moon + either go wide/kiki/thing in ice or Emrakul to kill the opponent. Blood moon just shuts off a lot of decks and thus free wins. On the flip side the combos are clunky, going wide is hard with all the sweepers and not great ways to protect your combo. The Through the Breach version is the strongest IMO but there is a lot of times where you are dead before you can combo off, or you spend too many turns trying to find both combo pieces.
UW:
Has the best removal in the format in Path to Exile, really punishes other control decks via their manabase and white is the best sideboard color in the format and also home to the best suite of planeswalkers (Gideon of the Trials, AoZ and Jura along with Elspeth, the Sun's Champion). Being a mostly creatureless deck means you can concentrate on permission and keeping the board clean while gaining card advantage. The problem with UW right now is that the format has gone very low to the ground and those low to the ground decks give UW problems, especially since pre-board we only have 4 PtE to deal with turn 1 creatures and accelerating mana for the opponent has it's downside with a lot of threats being 3-4 mana that UW doesn't recover from well (Liliana, Ponza Tricks, TKS, other Jaces, BBE). In my opinion this deck has the best overall matchup suite in the meta and really only struggles with few decks.
With the ever changing meta I think the choices in front of us are : Go 3 colors to access more utility/removal or make the decks a little lower to the ground in order to get the planeswalkers online. The problem is that I think we need to have some threat on the board keeping pressure. I like the planeswalkers but they can be clunky and sometimes too expensive to make a difference before we die. I like Clique/Secure the Wastes as easy ways to add some pressure to the board without tapping out because it gives us the ability to add to the board presence and pressure while being able to deal with threats instead or untap with a full suite of responses.
I've been swapping back and forth between all control builds and UW has been the most consistent winrate, so the deck is definitely super strong, but I think we need to adapt to the fact that Humans/Hallow One right now are the decks to beat and our matchups pre board are just not very good. Jeskai is better equipped to deal with lower to the ground decks, but UW is very limited in it's removal options and both decks do a really good job of doing fast pressure before a board sweep or negating our answers (burning inquiry, vial, meddling mage, Thalia, necromancer, etc)
Playing Condemn is a way to try to fix against Humans and Hollow One (though it's still only single-targeted), as is something like Hallowed Burial (prolly too slow), Settle, and Terminus. Terminus has the highest ceiling but the lowest floor. We could also do some radical stuff and maindeck Relics or something - an idea I've thought about since people started maindecking Nihil Spellbomb in BGx decks (for Grim Flayer).
I have started to notice an issue in my playtesting -- since Jund is always on Maelstrom Pulse, our card advantage is hard to stick since it basically all dies to Pulse or Decay. It's been super annoying recently, and I play 3 Azcanta, 2 lil Gid, 2 JtMS right now. Should we be looking at Glimmer of Genius and Think Twice?
As far as cheap pressure, Restoration Angel pairs well with Wall of Omens.
Just to reiterate my deck because it seems like everyone is having issues all over the place. I am something like 30-10ish with my deck. I don't play online so the results are a little skewed towards my performances at local events but the players at my LGS are high caliber players.
This deck has performed pretty well for me recently. I have been able to beat decks like Hollow One, Tron, Dredge, Blue Moon, Jund, Saheeli Combo vale, Storm, Grishoalbrand, and many others. most of these wins came pretty easily too. This deck operates pretty smoothly. It's a little clunky in the 3-4 mana spot but as long as you sequence everything correctly, the deck is great. This deck can control a board state for a long period of time and then it closes the game out in about 1-3 turns. It seemingly take your opponent from 20-dead in a matter of a turn or two once you're ready to pull the trigger.
Welp, my counter-heavy and planeswalker-dense experiment has come to an end. It caught some people off guard for a little while, but results have tailed off and now I’m back on something resembling the stock list (with a little extra potential pressure in the form of maindeck Clique and Secure; as a poster above pointed out, these cards are great ways to advance the board state without having to tap out). My time off the beaten path has made my appreciate the Ben Hill-style builds a lot more.
I continue to believe that UW is a great color pairing for Control decks in the meta. Has anybody played against the new-look Ponza featuring BBE? Pre-unbanning, big Ponza was my boogeyman deck when piloting UWC, and I’m hoping the matchup has gotten a little better for us.
The problem with UW is not that path gives people extra land, or that we need additional removal spells to beat creature decks.
I think it is a problem, when the creature is a Bird, Hierarch or even a Dark Confidant. I'm not that big of a fan to kill the mana creatures, but Oust them was mostly a good thing as they normally don't want to re-draw it. Pathing Confindant is really bad just because you have to do it in your turn and Jund really likes beeing ramped for T3. There maybe some other situation, where it is really bad, but mostly I do agree, that the upsides of Path are way better for this kind of deck than the downsides, especially when you overload on these effects with Settle and Field.
The problem with UW is the linear decks who try to kill us on turn 4 (dredge, storm, hollow one, breach, bogles). We need a better unconditional counter spell and a to a lesser extent a better life gain card that you can main deck.
Yeah, that is abolutely right, but I'm sure they will not give us Counterpell, which would be fine for the format I think so maybe some kind of fatal push Counter? But again, I don't expect them to do that anytime soon. Something what I would like in the format would be an Unexpectedly Absent, which could be really shut down some of the bad situations this deck could face. For lifegain, you mostly need something that is added to another effect. I do play 1-2 Blessed Alliance Main as well as one Sphinx's Revelation for these reasons, but mostly other cards would be more effective if I wouldn't value the lifegain part of these cards.
I literally could not have said it better myself.
As a side note, I wonder if Pathing Confidant on their end step (and letting them net a card) is a better line than Pathing on main step -- if you let them resolve a Lili (especially of the Last Hope) or a BBE+trigger, you will be in much worse shape than if you let them have a Sign in Blood. Back when the most threatening thing they could do was a Lili of the Veil or Goyf, you could easily Path Bob on main step and be fine, but that may not be the case anymore.
I continue to believe that UW is a great color pairing for Control decks in the meta. Has anybody played against the new-look Ponza featuring BBE? Pre-unbanning, big Ponza was my boogeyman deck when piloting UWC, and I’m hoping the matchup has gotten a little better for us.
Sorry, but the matchup is downright terrible now. I thought the matchup was bad before, but BBE is gamebreaking, serving as a haste-y extra threat while also and having all kinds of all-stars to cascade into (Moon, Stone/Molten Rain, Tireless Tracker, even Arbor Elf can be disasterous for keeping up with their curve). They also cut some of the medium cards like Acid-Moss for more hits for BBE, meaning more must-counter spells and card advantage. Yeah, not good haha.
I've already lost to T2/3 BBE into Moon multiple times.
I continue to believe that UW is a great color pairing for Control decks in the meta. Has anybody played against the new-look Ponza featuring BBE? Pre-unbanning, big Ponza was my boogeyman deck when piloting UWC, and I’m hoping the matchup has gotten a little better for us.
Sorry, but the matchup is downright terrible now. I thought the matchup was bad before, but BBE is gamebreaking, serving as a haste-y extra threat while also and having all kinds of all-stars to cascade into (Moon, Stone/Molten Rain, Tireless Tracker, even Arbor Elf can be disasterous for keeping up with their curve). They also cut some of the medium cards like Acid-Moss for more hits for BBE, meaning more must-counter spells and card advantage. Yeah, not good haha.
I've already lost to T2/3 BBE into Moon multiple times.
Dang, sounds rough. I see that the newer lists are moving away from Stormbreath Dragon and maindeck Thrun (which may not have been common overall, but was certainly present in my local meta), so I’d hoped that seeing less of those two haymakers would make the matchup more tolerable.
Between Vendilion Clique and Meddling Mage, what would you guys take against Storm and Ad Nauseam (scapeshift and other combo too) ? I'm leaning toward Meddling Mage to shut them down completely.
I prefer Runded Halo as it is more versatile. It's very nice versus Bogles, Valakut, Dredge and so much more.
This. Meddling Mage is terrible in this deck because it dies to easily and isn't really much of a threat. Now if Vendilion Clique and Meddling Mage are your only options, I'm taking Clique all the way. Clique does more for you. Yea you can't shut down their combo but it gives you the information about what to play around, gives you a bigger clock, and is a much better blocker if needed.
I prefer Runded Halo as it is more versatile. It's very nice versus Bogles, Valakut, Dredge and so much more.
This. Meddling Mage is terrible in this deck because it dies to easily and isn't really much of a threat. Now if Vendilion Clique and Meddling Mage are your only options, I'm taking Clique all the way. Clique does more for you. Yea you can't shut down their combo but it gives you the information about what to play around, gives you a bigger clock, and is a much better blocker if needed.
is a great card for game 2 and game 3 where opponent SB out some removal (assuming you play few creatures main)
I won Game 1 against Jund with Colonnade beat down after he shocked and thoughtseized himself down very low. Game 2 he cast 3 Bloodbraid Elfs and I had no way to overcome the card advantage. Game 3 was close, but I was unable to find any way to generate card advantage and lost after he was able to pull out a few 2-1s with. If I had found a Jace, Revelation, or Search for Azcanta in Game 3 I probably could have pulled it out.
I definitely got punished against Jund for not having Wall of Omens in the list, and think going forward it's definitely correct to be playing 1-2. Cutting to 2 Jace definitely felt like it affected my ability to generate card advantage to start turning the corner.
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Snapcaster Mage
Planeswalkers (4)
1 Gideon Jura
1 Gideon of the Trials
2 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
Other Spells (28)
4 Path to Exile
3 Cryptic Command
4 Serum Visions
4 Spreading Seas
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Detention Sphere
1 Spell Snare
2 Search for Azcanta
1 Wrath of God
1 Logic Knot
1 Negate
1 Mana Leak
1 Settle The Wreckage
1 Remand
1 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Field of Ruin
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
3 Plains
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Stony Silence
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Condemn
1 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Rest in Peace
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Celestial Purge
1 Settle The Wreckage
I tried to think a little bit about where Path really shines over cast down and there isn't a lot of spots once you also factor in that Fatal Push is still also going to be in the deck. It came down to GY threats and Tasigur basically.
Obviously there are a few other positives in white, mostly Gideon of the Trials and the sideboard cards, imo, but I think access to better removal and therefore better Snapcasters is worth the trade off. I also really like Tasigur's positioning in a post Cast Down world...I have to imagine Jund gives up terminate for cast down, and tasigur is just going to be a nightmare for them if they do.
I'll miss the uncounterable Wraths, but damnation seems decent since grixis shadow is on the decline anyways.
I'd love to have my mind changed since I'm emotionally invested in UW (and economically, holy did colonnade rise), so if anyone can find a flaw in my thinking or something I'm overlooking I'd love to discuss it.
Cast down is nice, but path to exile is still the strongest removal spell in the format.
While I don't disagree that UB might be pretty viable, especially with the new edition, there are still very much reasons to be in white.
Why do you think jund gives up terminate? Costing red instead of colorless isn't that big of a deal when you're playing other red cards, as well as blackcleave cliffs.
3 pages back I posted a UB list (its the 3rd/bottom spoiler tag on the post). I played a similar list recently (with no field of ruins, fewer counterspells, and maybe fewer planeswalkers, adding in some shadow of doubts and a bit more removal).
My matchups were quite bad (I lost to grixis delver in 3 close games, not drawing enough answers to resolved delve threats, lost to dredge twice, and beat jund), but the deck felt ok, especially for a first attempt. Its possible tasigur over ashiok is better (though I like the creature-less aspect). With cast down the deck probably gets a bit better.
Maybe it wants a few mainboard discard spells as well.
In UB you're going to have plenty of ways to deal with a wurmcoil and Tasigur (Jace -1, downfall, damnation, Lilly -2, more snaps etc), so those are non issues. You're also much less likely to face ulamog when you aren't pathing wurmcoils and other threats. We can also move to some number of Tec edge over field since we don't need massive amounts of Mana for revs or colonnade activations.
Bloodghast is for sure an issue, as is pretty much every creature in dredge or hollow one decks, but to be fair those are bad matches for UW anyways. We lose a bit of sideboaed power there, but we also get access to 3 Mana sweepers, which shouldn't be overlooked.
I think it will take awhile for them to give up terminate but I think it will happen eventually. Missing Tasigur and Regen creatures is fine for easier mana. They don't run many fetchable red sources, and they hate running basic mountain, so it makes sense to run the card that is easier on the Mana.
The problem with UW is not that path gives people extra land, or that we need additional removal spells to beat creature decks.
The problem with UW is the linear decks who try to kill us on turn 4 (dredge, storm, hollow one, breach, bogles). We need a better unconditional counter spell and a to a lesser extent a better life gain card that you can main deck.
Black helps against the blue based combo deck with discard, but discard sucks if you don't have a clock. If you're playing black, one of the best cards is liliana of the veil. Liliana forces you to play a more proactive game forcing your opponents to react than trying to answer all of the opponent's threats. Then you're playing less sweet instant speed cards like counters and snapcasters. Then it's like why aren't you playing jund or some shadow deck?
If you wanted to play some UBw version, i'd go with this list Shaun McLaren tried out a month ago. And make some tweaks to it.
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
Congratulations! Ulting Jace vs. Burn has got to be a sweet feeling.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Wall of Omens
Planeswalkers (4)
2 Gideon of the Trials
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Gideon Jura
Spells (24)
3 Ancestral Vision
4 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
2 Spell Snare
1 Logic Knot
2 Mana Leak
2 Negate
1 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Cryptic Command
2 Supreme Verdict
4 Spreading Seas
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
5 Island
2 Plains
2 Polluted Delta
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Dispel
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Detention Sphere
2 Rule of Law
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Supreme Verdict
My meta is aggro heavy (Burn, Affinity and others) and combo heavy (Ad Nauseam, Storm, etc.). I play both Burn and Ad Nauseam too, so that gives me an edege, but I try to be the most proactive possible and have quick answers at instant speed. That's why there's no Dentention Sphere in the main, no Sear for Azacanta either : for this one, I really prefer Ancestral Vision. I've played it in Grixis Control and it was good, it's at least as good in UW. I would hardly see myself not play it for the pure card draw. I found it was still good even though not casted on turn 1 : coming of on turn 5-10 is still potent and gives velocity. Sideboard could have 2 Surgical Extraction if I wanted to be very picky on hate also
In general, I love the deck. I don't remember having that much fun since 3 years almost, since I got very good with Ad Nauseam. But I'm having a blast, like in my first days of Theros Standard and Gatecrash and such. Thanks for the good info on the page guys!
@ rogue_LOVE : I've played magic for 5-6 years and I don't remember having such a perfect moment! It was great Burn was so completely desperate, he was almost willing to ultimate Jace !
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
I think each type of shell has it's advantages and disadvantages control deck:
UB:
Disruption vs Control can be a very powerful tool to disrupt combo decks but has a very hard time against aggro decks, or decks that can combo off from the GY (Storm, Dredge, Hallow One) or decks with Aether Vial tricks that can protect their creatures from spells (Humans/D&T, Merfolk). Also these type of decks are very threat light. One of the best pieces of magic advice I've ever gotten is you can't play magic trying to avoid losing, you have to make an attempt to win as some point and this deck seemingly is just trying to find ways to avoid losing.
UR:
There are a lot of different versions but mostly the deck is trying to use Blood Moon + either go wide/kiki/thing in ice or Emrakul to kill the opponent. Blood moon just shuts off a lot of decks and thus free wins. On the flip side the combos are clunky, going wide is hard with all the sweepers and not great ways to protect your combo. The Through the Breach version is the strongest IMO but there is a lot of times where you are dead before you can combo off, or you spend too many turns trying to find both combo pieces.
UW:
Has the best removal in the format in Path to Exile, really punishes other control decks via their manabase and white is the best sideboard color in the format and also home to the best suite of planeswalkers (Gideon of the Trials, AoZ and Jura along with Elspeth, the Sun's Champion). Being a mostly creatureless deck means you can concentrate on permission and keeping the board clean while gaining card advantage. The problem with UW right now is that the format has gone very low to the ground and those low to the ground decks give UW problems, especially since pre-board we only have 4 PtE to deal with turn 1 creatures and accelerating mana for the opponent has it's downside with a lot of threats being 3-4 mana that UW doesn't recover from well (Liliana, Ponza Tricks, TKS, other Jaces, BBE). In my opinion this deck has the best overall matchup suite in the meta and really only struggles with few decks.
With the ever changing meta I think the choices in front of us are : Go 3 colors to access more utility/removal or make the decks a little lower to the ground in order to get the planeswalkers online. The problem is that I think we need to have some threat on the board keeping pressure. I like the planeswalkers but they can be clunky and sometimes too expensive to make a difference before we die. I like Clique/Secure the Wastes as easy ways to add some pressure to the board without tapping out because it gives us the ability to add to the board presence and pressure while being able to deal with threats instead or untap with a full suite of responses.
I've been swapping back and forth between all control builds and UW has been the most consistent winrate, so the deck is definitely super strong, but I think we need to adapt to the fact that Humans/Hallow One right now are the decks to beat and our matchups pre board are just not very good. Jeskai is better equipped to deal with lower to the ground decks, but UW is very limited in it's removal options and both decks do a really good job of doing fast pressure before a board sweep or negating our answers (burning inquiry, vial, meddling mage, Thalia, necromancer, etc)
I have started to notice an issue in my playtesting -- since Jund is always on Maelstrom Pulse, our card advantage is hard to stick since it basically all dies to Pulse or Decay. It's been super annoying recently, and I play 3 Azcanta, 2 lil Gid, 2 JtMS right now. Should we be looking at Glimmer of Genius and Think Twice?
As far as cheap pressure, Restoration Angel pairs well with Wall of Omens.
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
4 Wall of Omens
4 Blade Splicer
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Restoration Angel
Planeswalkers:
2 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
1 Gideon Jura
Enchantments:
1 Detention Sphere
3 Spreading Seas
Instant/ Sorcery:
3 Cryptic Command
4 Path to exile
2 Negate
1 Logic Knot
1 Remand
2 Spell Snare
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Island
2 Plains
1 Moorland Haunt
4 Field of Ruin
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Calciform Pools
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
2 Runed Halo
2 Dispel
1 Celestial Purge
1 Disenchant
2 Settle the Wreckage
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Spreading Seas
This deck has performed pretty well for me recently. I have been able to beat decks like Hollow One, Tron, Dredge, Blue Moon, Jund, Saheeli Combo vale, Storm, Grishoalbrand, and many others. most of these wins came pretty easily too. This deck operates pretty smoothly. It's a little clunky in the 3-4 mana spot but as long as you sequence everything correctly, the deck is great. This deck can control a board state for a long period of time and then it closes the game out in about 1-3 turns. It seemingly take your opponent from 20-dead in a matter of a turn or two once you're ready to pull the trigger.
I continue to believe that UW is a great color pairing for Control decks in the meta. Has anybody played against the new-look Ponza featuring BBE? Pre-unbanning, big Ponza was my boogeyman deck when piloting UWC, and I’m hoping the matchup has gotten a little better for us.
I literally could not have said it better myself.
As a side note, I wonder if Pathing Confidant on their end step (and letting them net a card) is a better line than Pathing on main step -- if you let them resolve a Lili (especially of the Last Hope) or a BBE+trigger, you will be in much worse shape than if you let them have a Sign in Blood. Back when the most threatening thing they could do was a Lili of the Veil or Goyf, you could easily Path Bob on main step and be fine, but that may not be the case anymore.
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
Sorry, but the matchup is downright terrible now. I thought the matchup was bad before, but BBE is gamebreaking, serving as a haste-y extra threat while also and having all kinds of all-stars to cascade into (Moon, Stone/Molten Rain, Tireless Tracker, even Arbor Elf can be disasterous for keeping up with their curve). They also cut some of the medium cards like Acid-Moss for more hits for BBE, meaning more must-counter spells and card advantage. Yeah, not good haha.
I've already lost to T2/3 BBE into Moon multiple times.
UWB Esper Draw-Go Control (clicky)
UW Azorius Control (clicky)
Currently pursuing a degree in Biochemistry.
EDH: I've decided I don't like multiplayer formats.
Dang, sounds rough. I see that the newer lists are moving away from Stormbreath Dragon and maindeck Thrun (which may not have been common overall, but was certainly present in my local meta), so I’d hoped that seeing less of those two haymakers would make the matchup more tolerable.
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
This. Meddling Mage is terrible in this deck because it dies to easily and isn't really much of a threat. Now if Vendilion Clique and Meddling Mage are your only options, I'm taking Clique all the way. Clique does more for you. Yea you can't shut down their combo but it gives you the information about what to play around, gives you a bigger clock, and is a much better blocker if needed.
is a great card for game 2 and game 3 where opponent SB out some removal (assuming you play few creatures main)