So, I have decided recently to get back into Magic after about a 7-year hiatus. I am looking to play mainly limited but also want to play some standard tournaments.
Since I was very comfortable playing control decks in the past, I believe the last deck I played in standard was U/B faeries, that should tell you when the last time that I played standard tourneys was.
Anyway, here's the U/W control that I'm working on for standard right now, I believe the deck is less than $100 in total which to me is pretty budget and since I don't have any cards I will basically buy every card in this deck.
So, anyways this is my deck right now, I didn't get to test it yet in the field, but I think it is good enough to take on some of the other decks and it is well under $100. The 5 main deck rares are less than $1 each. The regal caracals are also less than $1, and the dovin bann's are about $3 each, the Sphinx is also $1 and Linvala is about $2. The other higher priced cards are the lands basically.
I am not sure if the Glyph Keepers and Viziers main deck are enough of a win condition, I would like to play another win condition but not sure what. I do like the regal caracal and vizier possible combo after side boarding the cats in and turning into more of a beatdown deck.
I was also thinking of putting 2 or 3 Approach of the second sun in the sideboard and also up the Failure/Comply to 3 so that those become an alternate winning combo and can win in 2 consecutive turns, but it would take 9 mana to pull it off.
Anyways, what do you think about this deck and do you have any suggestions on other win conditions for it? I do not want to get the Torrential Gearhulk because it is very expensive and I don't like that it's an artifact and many people will have main deck hate for it. I also don't like Kefnet because it is also kind of expensive and this deck doesn't need to draw cards that much to win in the first game.
I like having only 5 creatures main deck so the opponent's kill creature spells will be useless, also not playing any planeswalkers main deck either for the same reason.
Use deck tags - People won't even look at your deck without them. They give a quick and easy reference to the cards you're posting (and will probably save you a lot of typing.
It isn't totally necessary to give a description for each and every card. A lot are self explanatory. Like Negate counters non-creature spells. You don't have to tell the spells it will counter.
It's probably better to talk about cards in batches. For Example: Talking about your mana base as a whole is better than talking about each individual land choice.
As a courtesy, I added deck tags to your deck to facilitate discussion. If you want, you can click on QUOTE of my reply and you can see how to do deck tags.
First, either pick Fumigate or Engulf the Shore. I personally would pick Fumigate over Engulf the Shore. There's a lot of ETB effects for creatures and you probably won't want to give your opponents 2nd chances to use their creature ETB effects again. That's double energy production for Atherworks Marvel decks, double cast triggers for decks with Eldrazi, etc. There are situations where Engulf is better than Fumigate, but they're far fewer. That makes Engulf more of a sideboard choice in your list than a mainboard.
Second, your deck is a slower version of control, so cards like Censor are going to be far less useful than hard counters like Disallow and Void Shatter. Granted, you can cycle them away, but in the meantime, you're still very light on hard counters. They're taking up slots that can be used for true hard counters.
The same goes for cards like Essence Scatter and Negate. You should pick one and put the other in the sideboard. If you're expecting more creatures, put that Essence Scatter in the main and Negate in the side. If expecting non-creatures, vice versa. The way I see it, instead of giving yourself 50/50 game 1, just slant heavier against what you expect to see and take more game 1 wins.
The solution might be to take both Essence Scatter and Negate out of the main, and that will give you room for Censors AND more hard counters, then you can be more specialized G2.
Thanks so much for making my deck clickable, I will try to edit my original post and see if I can make it the same way. As for your suggestions, I have not been playing magic or standard for 7-8 years and now I live in Tokyo, Japan and have just found out about a local store. I want to attend their limited events and also the standard events since the deck I will be playing is not that expensive and I can keep it under $100.
I also have a lot of experience with playing control decks, but I have no idea what my meta is at this store. They do have almost daily standard tourneys, but I haven't actually watched any games to know what people are playing.
So, by having just 2-3 of each card I want to confuse my opponents since they won't know what cards I'm playing in my deck and how many of each. So, that's why I want to test 2 engulf the shore and 2 fumigate maindeck, I may buy another fumigate for the sideboard, also I like that engulf is an instant and only needs 1 blue to cast so I can keep a counter back after casting it.
Second I really like Censor in testing, because it does act as a hard counter turn 2 and maybe turn 3 and after that I can just cycle it away, I want to be able to counter as many things as possible in the first 4-5 turns. Once I figure out if my meta is creature heavy or not then I can decide on whether to run 4 essence scatter or 4 negate main deck or not.
Any suggestions on win condition main deck first game? I think that the glyph keeper is very hard to kill and it's embalm ability makes is great later in the game. Another question is can I use Cast Out on a planeswalker? (I stopped playing magic right after planeswalkers came out so I almost never had to play against one)
One last thing, I got my inspiration by watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uojgtju4nuY
And yes I know that deck is Gearhulk heavy, that's why it works but I can't afford it right now, and I want to keep this deck on a budget.
I understand what you mean, I may take out the 2 evolving wilds for 2 islands and take out 1 plains for the 4th irrigated farmland so I'll have 16 islands out of 25 lands. I don't really need double plains main deck, after sideboard regal caracal might need double white.
Actually I will give it a shot, I wanted the evolving wilds to thin out my deck but I guess having 16 islands in the deck would make it a lot more stable early game and make the engulf the shores very strong since in the first 4-5 turns I only need 1 white mana at most and having 7 dual lands would probably give me that.
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll change the decklist above to fix that, I have really fallen in love with engulf the shore.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"May he who is without mana cast the first spell!"
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Actually, you could go to Mono Blue, then you can play with engulf the shore and really cut down the budget of the deck. Lands are expensive, but basic Islands are cheap! The only thing you'd really be missing out on is killing a few creatures, which really isn't a big deal. There are plenty of good creature counters like Essence Scatter and Horribly Awry. With Engulf, you can get a 2nd bite at countering any creatures you miss. I personally don't think white adds so much to the strategy that it's worth adding the extra expense.
Actually, you could go to Mono Blue, then you can play with engulf the shore and really cut down the budget of the deck. Lands are expensive, but basic Islands are cheap! The only thing you'd really be missing out on is killing a few creatures, which really isn't a big deal. There are plenty of good creature counters like Essence Scatter and Horribly Awry. With Engulf, you can get a 2nd bite at countering any creatures you miss. I personally don't think white adds so much to the strategy that it's worth adding the extra expense.
Yeah, I know what you mean, but here's some reasons for UW.
1. I am much more comfortable playing a UW deck especially having the fumigate (fake ***) in the deck since I am kind of used to mass killing creatures.
2. I really love the idea of bringing Regal Caracal in the second game and comboing it with Vizier of Many Faces for some cat beatdown that the opponent will probably not expect.
3. I actually think the deck with white is a lot more stable than just a pure blue mono deck, and white also gives me more creature removel as well as Cast Out to get rid of Planeswalkers, since I'm not running Gearhulks to attack into the planeswalkers I really need something else to get rid of them.
Aside from that I've been checking out the other threads in Standard about UW, (I went to bed at 2am last night due to reading deck threads) and I was pleasantly surprised to see other people play the Glyph Keeper as a win con, and also approach of the second sun in the sideboard.
I guess those are going to have to be tested, I will stick to UW but maybe work on the decklist a bit more so I don't have so many 2's of one card.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"May he who is without mana cast the first spell!"
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
So, basically the deck's win conditions are the 2 Glyph Keepers or the 2 Sphinx of the final word. The alternate win conditions are 2 Approach of the second sun and 1 Westvale Abbey.
I think approach is doable and it works very well with Failure/Comply, once I have 9 mana I can cast approach and failure it in the same turn, and basically cast it again next turn for the win.
Also the Memory part of Commit/Memory works with approach too, if someone counters the first approach and it goes to the graveyard I can cast memory and shuffle all my graveyard and hand into my library and draw 7 and thus having a high chance of drawing approach again, hell, I may even want to counter my own approach if I have memory in the graveyard.
It should also mess around with graveyard decks, once they put some cards in their graveyard I can engulf the shore at the end of turn, and then on my turn cast memory and have them go to 0 cards in their graveyard basically restarting their whole plan.
I also like Failure/Comply because the failure part buys me a turn and acts like a hard counter on turn 2 or turn 3 since they won't be able to re-cast their card again during that turn.
The way the deck is built it should win the first game against a control/counter match up, and after side boarding in the 3 dispels and 3 cast outs and taking out the 3 essence scatters, 2 engulf the shores and 1 immolating glare the match up should be even better.
I'm more worried about aggro that's why I want to have a lot of 2 to cast counters, such as 3 essence flare, 2 failure/comply, 3 censors so I can counter their 2nd or 3rd turn plays. Then I have some 3 casting cost counters and if they get something out I can use immolating glare, or commit or if they have more than 1 creature then I can engulf the shores.
After sideboarding I will put in the 2 horribly awry, the 3 regal caracals, 2 viziers, 1 dovin baan and 2 cast out. I can take out the 2 sphinxes of the final word, 1 approach of the second sun, 2 failure/comply, 1 commit/memory, 2 engulf the shores and 2 void shatters .
Due to zombies becoming popular and the fact that they make a lot of tokens and use doubles of the same creature named card I put 2 declaration in stone in the main deck to keep that in check.
So, I played on the Amonkhet game day event last Saturday and I went a horrendous 1-3-1 out of the 5 rounds played and finished on the 15th spot out of maybe 27 players.
First of all, my last magic tournament was back in the summer of 2009, and I also haven't played any magic games for the past 4-5 years, even in a casual environment. I played 2-3 times last month only just to remember how to play the game, the steps, the stack and refresh my memory with the new cards in standard, also the new rules that have been changed in the last 7 years or so.
Second of all, I didn't get to playtest live with anyone, so all I did is playtest by myself to see how I would play the first 3-4 turns of a game and also I've watched a lot of Youtube videos of people playing other decks in the format so I would know the potential decks I will face and the cards in them. I know pretty much all the cards in Amonkhet but outside of a limited event that doesn't do me much good since I don't know the cards in the other sets that are in standard now. The reason that is a bigger problem than normal is because I live in Tokyo but I can't read Japanese, and all of my opponents were Japanese and they owned Japanese cards, so if I can't recognize the card by the art then I have no idea what the card actually does.
Third of all it was my first time playing a tourney at this store, and first time playing a tourney in Tokyo so I had no idea what the decks being played in standard are and if the people here like to play netdecks or build their own decks.
Phew, now with all the excuses out of the way here is a mini tourney report for this budget deck. I played pretty much the list posted above but at the end of this report I will post the new and updated list with the changes I made after playing the 5 rounds tourney. I do want to keep this to be a budget deck under $100 so I can't add Torrential Gearhulks, Gideons or any other expensive rare to the deck as a finisher since that will take the deck over $100 real fast.
TOURNEY REPORT
Round 1 - against U/W control with Gideon and Avacyn - 1-2
I won the first game quick due to playing a maindeck sphinx of the last word and then playing approach twice behind it. Not a surprise since my deck is built do beat the mirror match in the first game. Second and third games I lost due to my opponent playing selfless spirit and archangel avacyn beatdown and I got stuck on 4 lands in the second game and on 3 lands in the third game. If I didn't get stuck on lands both games I might have been able to win either the 2nd or 3rd game but once the opponent had a creature out to beat me with he stayed back holding counters so I was toast.
Round 2 - against Mardu vehicles (gideon)- 0-2
I lost these 2 games fast, he beat my deck, I didn't get mana screwed but he just beat me with his deck that had too many threats for my answers. In the second game I did a desperation move of casting memory from my graveyard to fill my hand up but I still couldn't find an answer to all his threats.
Round 3 - against R/B madness - 2-0
In the first game we both got stuck on 3 lands for maybe 4 turns, he beat me down with a 1/1 artifact guy that exiles cards when he attacks and then he can put them in his hand, but when he tried to sac the creature to do that I disallowed the effect so he discarded his hand and didn't get any cards either. I also won this game by casting approach twice.
In the second game I beat him down with cat tokens, I got regal caracal down and beat him, then when he got a big creature out I cast engulf the shores and got my cat back, then re-cast the cat and make tokens, block and so on and beat him down to 0 with the cats.
Round 4 = against B/G/R GOD energy (hazoret/rhonas) 0-2
I had a good draw in the first game but I lost to the two gods, Hazoret and Rhonas. I didn't get to counter them, they are indestructible so immolating glare does nothing against them and I didn't get to engulf the shores either. In the second game he beat me down with a 3/3 creature that he got out on the 3rd turn and I wasn't able to counter it and then I couldn't draw an answer to it for the next 3 turns and so I lost.
Round 5 - against U/W/B control (kefnet/sorin) 1-1-1
Another mirror match and in the first game I beat him due to the maindeck sphinx of the final word again. In the second game he boarded kefnet and got him out on turn 3 and basically beat me down for 5 for enough turns to win, I had no answer to a resolved kefnet since immolating glare doesn't work on it, and the opp protected him with counters against other cards. In the 3rd game we timed out, he had Sorin out twice but I got rid of him, I kept trying to beat him down with westvale abbey 1/1 cleric tokens and hoping to get enough to transform the land which I did but only in the last turn for the 5 turns max.
Cards that were MVP's in the deck:
1. Declaration in Stone
2. Engulf the shore
3. Failure/Comply
4. Approach of the second sun
5. Sphinx of the final word
Cards that I didn't draw or did nothing in most of the games:
So, the games I lost aside from the first round mana screw game 2 and 3 were all lost to either a Planeswalker or some big creature/god. I believe against the Mardu deck I also lost to a resolved Gideon and due to not drawing either of my cast outs that I boarded in game 2 there was not much I could do against the planeswalker.
Because Gideon is indestructible, or when Avacyn comes into play it makes all creatures also indestructible and the gods are the same I realized that immolating glare or fumigate are nigh useless against those decks. What does work is declaration in stone and engulf the shores .
So, I am thinking of playing engulf the shores as a 4 of main deck and 2 declarations in stone as well and keeping fumigates and immolating glares in the sideboard against zombies or other decks that are not running many gods/planeswalkers. Engulf lets me bounce the gods/planeswalkers to their hand on their own turn so that I may be able to counter them when they try to play them again.
failure has worked great in the deck as well, it is pretty much a hard counter on turn 2 or turn 3. I need answers to gods/planeswalkers so I have decided to go back to 3 cast out main deck. Censor did nothing for me, I pretty much cycled them 90% of the time and I think I only cast them once or twice during the whole tournament and so they are out. Instead, I will be running 4 essence scatters because they can hit a target in every deck, and I would've probably won some games if I was able to counter a creature instead of cycling censor and not getting a counter out of the draw.
I need to keep the finishers cheap and I was quite surprised as were my opponents with regal caracal forcing them to play around the card and allowing me to chump block a few times, gain some life from the cats and then bounce the mommy back to my hand to cast it next turn and make more cats. It also won me game 2 against the R/B deck and kept me alive against another deck.
One last note, I do want to keep the deck under $100, so I don't want to buy Torrential Gearhulks or Gideons to put in the deck, also Archangel Avacyn will rotate out in September so I don't want to invest money in that. I was looking at either getting two Kefnet's as finishers and card draw or a couple of angel of sanctions but for now I'll try to finish people with the Sphinx and the cats or just stall until I can cast approach.
My opponents all played some form of a net deck, except for the U/W control and the U/W/B control decks and they all had more expensive decks than mine as well, with all having Planeswalkers in their decks except for the G/B/R energy deck that played Rhonas and Hazoret.
The main thing your deck needs is more lands. the #1 rule of playing control is to hit your land drops every single turn. Because of that, you probably want to have 26 lands in your deck instead of your current 23.
I still think you should be playing mono-blue. If you aren't playing Fumigate in the main anymore, then there's no real reason to play white. Bounce works just as good as removal. There's also cards like Imprison in the Moon that can handle pesky resolved creatures and planeswalkers. And there are plenty of blue win-cons in standard that you shouldn't have to lean on white.
I also think you should add some more card draw in the deck. Hieroglyphic Illumination is a great choice since you can also cycle it when the occasional mana screw happens.
The main thing your deck needs is more lands. the #1 rule of playing control is to hit your land drops every single turn. Because of that, you probably want to have 26 lands in your deck instead of your current 23.
I still think you should be playing mono-blue. If you aren't playing Fumigate in the main anymore, then there's no real reason to play white. Bounce works just as good as removal. There's also cards like Imprison in the Moon that can handle pesky resolved creatures and planeswalkers. And there are plenty of blue win-cons in standard that you shouldn't have to lean on white.
I also think you should add some more card draw in the deck. Hieroglyphic Illumination is a great choice since you can also cycle it when the occasional mana screw happens.
My deck has 25 lands and I think that's enough, I've played U/W control decks before, a long time ago but still I've never needed more than 25 lands.
So, I managed to make it to FNM this week, playing my second tourney in 8 years (the first was last weekend's Amonkhet game day).
I went 2-1 with the decklist in post #12.
The one main deck difference was I took out the 1 vizier of many faces for a sphinx of magosi and in the sideboard I took out the 1 Dovin Baan and 1 Confiscation coup for 1 Vizier of many faces and 1 Insidious Will. I am still testing various budget cards.
TOURNEY REPORT
Round 1 against U/R control - 2-1
I lost the first game to this netdeck U/R control due to his lands, the 2 wandering fumarole got me good. We fought a long 2nd game and I managed to win on the back of an approach of the second sun. We scrambled to play the 3rd game with 10 minutes left on the clock and I took care of his torrential gearhulks and managed to get down a sphinx of the final word and cast an approach twice with the sphinx on the board.
Round 2 against B/G energy - 0-2
I got run over both games without drawing an engulf the shore either game, the deck was just too fast and also I didn't get to counter much since my hands were full of high casting cost spells both games, it was weird.
Round 3 against U/B eldrazi-aggro - 2-1
I lost the first game since I didn'T know what his deck did and I countered some eldrazi guys but the ones that stuck on the board beat me down. Second game had me counter the first 6-7 spells that he played and he was out of cards almost when I dropped a sphinx of the final word and beat him down with it. In the third game I managed to get an approach of the second sun out, and then made a mistake which let him drop 2 big eldrazi guys and pump them up with a land and hit me for 14 the next turn. However, I topdecked my 8th island and managed to Engulf the shores for 8 on my main phase bouncing his huge eldrazi guys. On his turn, he played one eldrazi guy again and end of turn I pulled from tomorrow for 4, then I cycled a land and on my draw step I drew approach of the second sun for the second time and cast it to win the 3rd game.
MVP's of this FNM:
1. Approach of the second sun (I won 3 games out of 4 because of it)
2. Sphinx of the final word (I won one game with him and he is amazing against control or decks running some counters)
3. Engulf the shores (saved me from two big Eldrazi creatures, also bounced 2 gearhulks against U/R)
4. Failure/Comply (good hard counter early game and even late game it's better than censor, comply is bomb against counter decks if you remember to flash it back.)
5. Essence scatter (I cast 3 of these in a row against the eldrazi deck, basically countering his first 6-7 plays with these and the other counters)
Cards that didn't do much:
1. Regal Caracal - only came out once, I am waiting to get 2 kefnets and switch them with the cat lord and test that out
2. Fumigate - I sided them in but didn't draw them, of course, they are still good in the sideboard.
The deck is looking better than before, although still has trouble with fast creature decks. I am planning to change the win conditions to 3 Sphinx of the final word, 2 Kefnets and of course the 2 Approach of the second sun. I will run 2 regal caracals and 2 vizier of many faces in the sideboard.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"May he who is without mana cast the first spell!"
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
So, I have decided recently to get back into Magic after about a 7-year hiatus. I am looking to play mainly limited but also want to play some standard tournaments.
Since I was very comfortable playing control decks in the past, I believe the last deck I played in standard was U/B faeries, that should tell you when the last time that I played standard tourneys was.
Anyway, here's the U/W control that I'm working on for standard right now, I believe the deck is less than $100 in total which to me is pretty budget and since I don't have any cards I will basically buy every card in this deck.
U/W control - Amonkhet Standard
4 Irrigated Farmland
2 Aether Hub
12 Islands
3 Plains
1 Westvale abbey
3 Glyph Keeper
2 Vizier of Many Faces
2 Engulf the Shore
2 Fumigate
3 Censor
2 Disallow
2 Void Shatter
3 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
2 Commit/Memory
3 Glimmer of Genius
2 Pull from Tomorrow
2 Cast out
3 Immolating Glare
1 Sphinx of the final word
2 Horribly Awry
3 Regal Caracal
1 Dovin Baan
1 Fragmentize
2 Approach of the second sun
2 Failure/Comply
So, anyways this is my deck right now, I didn't get to test it yet in the field, but I think it is good enough to take on some of the other decks and it is well under $100. The 5 main deck rares are less than $1 each. The regal caracals are also less than $1, and the dovin bann's are about $3 each, the Sphinx is also $1 and Linvala is about $2. The other higher priced cards are the lands basically.
I am not sure if the Glyph Keepers and Viziers main deck are enough of a win condition, I would like to play another win condition but not sure what. I do like the regal caracal and vizier possible combo after side boarding the cats in and turning into more of a beatdown deck.
I was also thinking of putting 2 or 3 Approach of the second sun in the sideboard and also up the Failure/Comply to 3 so that those become an alternate winning combo and can win in 2 consecutive turns, but it would take 9 mana to pull it off.
Anyways, what do you think about this deck and do you have any suggestions on other win conditions for it? I do not want to get the Torrential Gearhulk because it is very expensive and I don't like that it's an artifact and many people will have main deck hate for it. I also don't like Kefnet because it is also kind of expensive and this deck doesn't need to draw cards that much to win in the first game.
I like having only 5 creatures main deck so the opponent's kill creature spells will be useless, also not playing any planeswalkers main deck either for the same reason.
Thanks!
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
First, some advice about posting.
I really only have 2 suggestions.
First, either pick Fumigate or Engulf the Shore. I personally would pick Fumigate over Engulf the Shore. There's a lot of ETB effects for creatures and you probably won't want to give your opponents 2nd chances to use their creature ETB effects again. That's double energy production for Atherworks Marvel decks, double cast triggers for decks with Eldrazi, etc. There are situations where Engulf is better than Fumigate, but they're far fewer. That makes Engulf more of a sideboard choice in your list than a mainboard.
Second, your deck is a slower version of control, so cards like Censor are going to be far less useful than hard counters like Disallow and Void Shatter. Granted, you can cycle them away, but in the meantime, you're still very light on hard counters. They're taking up slots that can be used for true hard counters.
The same goes for cards like Essence Scatter and Negate. You should pick one and put the other in the sideboard. If you're expecting more creatures, put that Essence Scatter in the main and Negate in the side. If expecting non-creatures, vice versa. The way I see it, instead of giving yourself 50/50 game 1, just slant heavier against what you expect to see and take more game 1 wins.
The solution might be to take both Essence Scatter and Negate out of the main, and that will give you room for Censors AND more hard counters, then you can be more specialized G2.
Thanks so much for making my deck clickable, I will try to edit my original post and see if I can make it the same way. As for your suggestions, I have not been playing magic or standard for 7-8 years and now I live in Tokyo, Japan and have just found out about a local store. I want to attend their limited events and also the standard events since the deck I will be playing is not that expensive and I can keep it under $100.
I also have a lot of experience with playing control decks, but I have no idea what my meta is at this store. They do have almost daily standard tourneys, but I haven't actually watched any games to know what people are playing.
So, by having just 2-3 of each card I want to confuse my opponents since they won't know what cards I'm playing in my deck and how many of each. So, that's why I want to test 2 engulf the shore and 2 fumigate maindeck, I may buy another fumigate for the sideboard, also I like that engulf is an instant and only needs 1 blue to cast so I can keep a counter back after casting it.
Second I really like Censor in testing, because it does act as a hard counter turn 2 and maybe turn 3 and after that I can just cycle it away, I want to be able to counter as many things as possible in the first 4-5 turns. Once I figure out if my meta is creature heavy or not then I can decide on whether to run 4 essence scatter or 4 negate main deck or not.
Any suggestions on win condition main deck first game? I think that the glyph keeper is very hard to kill and it's embalm ability makes is great later in the game. Another question is can I use Cast Out on a planeswalker? (I stopped playing magic right after planeswalkers came out so I almost never had to play against one)
One last thing, I got my inspiration by watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uojgtju4nuY
And yes I know that deck is Gearhulk heavy, that's why it works but I can't afford it right now, and I want to keep this deck on a budget.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
I understand what you mean, I may take out the 2 evolving wilds for 2 islands and take out 1 plains for the 4th irrigated farmland so I'll have 16 islands out of 25 lands. I don't really need double plains main deck, after sideboard regal caracal might need double white.
Actually I will give it a shot, I wanted the evolving wilds to thin out my deck but I guess having 16 islands in the deck would make it a lot more stable early game and make the engulf the shores very strong since in the first 4-5 turns I only need 1 white mana at most and having 7 dual lands would probably give me that.
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll change the decklist above to fix that, I have really fallen in love with engulf the shore.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Thanks but Cast out pretty much does the same thing and can hit other permanents, I think it includes planeswalkers, is that correct?
Does anyone know of another win condition for the main deck, except for torrential gearhulk or kefnet...anything else that I am missing?
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Yeah, I know what you mean, but here's some reasons for UW.
1. I am much more comfortable playing a UW deck especially having the fumigate (fake ***) in the deck since I am kind of used to mass killing creatures.
2. I really love the idea of bringing Regal Caracal in the second game and comboing it with Vizier of Many Faces for some cat beatdown that the opponent will probably not expect.
3. I actually think the deck with white is a lot more stable than just a pure blue mono deck, and white also gives me more creature removel as well as Cast Out to get rid of Planeswalkers, since I'm not running Gearhulks to attack into the planeswalkers I really need something else to get rid of them.
Aside from that I've been checking out the other threads in Standard about UW, (I went to bed at 2am last night due to reading deck threads) and I was pleasantly surprised to see other people play the Glyph Keeper as a win con, and also approach of the second sun in the sideboard.
I guess those are going to have to be tested, I will stick to UW but maybe work on the decklist a bit more so I don't have so many 2's of one card.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
4 Irrigated Farmland
16 Islands
1 Westvale abbey
2 Glyph Keeper
2 Sphinx of the final word
2 Declaration in Stone
2 Engulf the Shore
2 Fumigate
3 Censor
2 Disallow
2 Void Shatter
3 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
2 Commit/Memory
4 Glimmer of Genius
2 Pull from Tomorrow
2 Failure/Comply
2 Immolating Glare
2 Approach of the second sun
2 Vizier of many faces
3 Regal Caracal
2 Forsake the worldly
1 Fragmentize
3 Cast out
2 Horribly Awry
So, basically the deck's win conditions are the 2 Glyph Keepers or the 2 Sphinx of the final word. The alternate win conditions are 2 Approach of the second sun and 1 Westvale Abbey.
I think approach is doable and it works very well with Failure/Comply, once I have 9 mana I can cast approach and failure it in the same turn, and basically cast it again next turn for the win.
Also the Memory part of Commit/Memory works with approach too, if someone counters the first approach and it goes to the graveyard I can cast memory and shuffle all my graveyard and hand into my library and draw 7 and thus having a high chance of drawing approach again, hell, I may even want to counter my own approach if I have memory in the graveyard.
It should also mess around with graveyard decks, once they put some cards in their graveyard I can engulf the shore at the end of turn, and then on my turn cast memory and have them go to 0 cards in their graveyard basically restarting their whole plan.
I also like Failure/Comply because the failure part buys me a turn and acts like a hard counter on turn 2 or turn 3 since they won't be able to re-cast their card again during that turn.
The way the deck is built it should win the first game against a control/counter match up, and after side boarding in the 3 dispels and 3 cast outs and taking out the 3 essence scatters, 2 engulf the shores and 1 immolating glare the match up should be even better.
I'm more worried about aggro that's why I want to have a lot of 2 to cast counters, such as 3 essence flare, 2 failure/comply, 3 censors so I can counter their 2nd or 3rd turn plays. Then I have some 3 casting cost counters and if they get something out I can use immolating glare, or commit or if they have more than 1 creature then I can engulf the shores.
After sideboarding I will put in the 2 horribly awry, the 3 regal caracals, 2 viziers, 1 dovin baan and 2 cast out. I can take out the 2 sphinxes of the final word, 1 approach of the second sun, 2 failure/comply, 1 commit/memory, 2 engulf the shores and 2 void shatters .
Due to zombies becoming popular and the fact that they make a lot of tokens and use doubles of the same creature named card I put 2 declaration in stone in the main deck to keep that in check.
Thanks!
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
So, I played on the Amonkhet game day event last Saturday and I went a horrendous 1-3-1 out of the 5 rounds played and finished on the 15th spot out of maybe 27 players.
First of all, my last magic tournament was back in the summer of 2009, and I also haven't played any magic games for the past 4-5 years, even in a casual environment. I played 2-3 times last month only just to remember how to play the game, the steps, the stack and refresh my memory with the new cards in standard, also the new rules that have been changed in the last 7 years or so.
Second of all, I didn't get to playtest live with anyone, so all I did is playtest by myself to see how I would play the first 3-4 turns of a game and also I've watched a lot of Youtube videos of people playing other decks in the format so I would know the potential decks I will face and the cards in them. I know pretty much all the cards in Amonkhet but outside of a limited event that doesn't do me much good since I don't know the cards in the other sets that are in standard now. The reason that is a bigger problem than normal is because I live in Tokyo but I can't read Japanese, and all of my opponents were Japanese and they owned Japanese cards, so if I can't recognize the card by the art then I have no idea what the card actually does.
Third of all it was my first time playing a tourney at this store, and first time playing a tourney in Tokyo so I had no idea what the decks being played in standard are and if the people here like to play netdecks or build their own decks.
Phew, now with all the excuses out of the way here is a mini tourney report for this budget deck. I played pretty much the list posted above but at the end of this report I will post the new and updated list with the changes I made after playing the 5 rounds tourney. I do want to keep this to be a budget deck under $100 so I can't add Torrential Gearhulks, Gideons or any other expensive rare to the deck as a finisher since that will take the deck over $100 real fast.
TOURNEY REPORT
Round 1 - against U/W control with Gideon and Avacyn - 1-2
I won the first game quick due to playing a maindeck sphinx of the last word and then playing approach twice behind it. Not a surprise since my deck is built do beat the mirror match in the first game. Second and third games I lost due to my opponent playing selfless spirit and archangel avacyn beatdown and I got stuck on 4 lands in the second game and on 3 lands in the third game. If I didn't get stuck on lands both games I might have been able to win either the 2nd or 3rd game but once the opponent had a creature out to beat me with he stayed back holding counters so I was toast.
Round 2 - against Mardu vehicles (gideon)- 0-2
I lost these 2 games fast, he beat my deck, I didn't get mana screwed but he just beat me with his deck that had too many threats for my answers. In the second game I did a desperation move of casting memory from my graveyard to fill my hand up but I still couldn't find an answer to all his threats.
Round 3 - against R/B madness - 2-0
In the first game we both got stuck on 3 lands for maybe 4 turns, he beat me down with a 1/1 artifact guy that exiles cards when he attacks and then he can put them in his hand, but when he tried to sac the creature to do that I disallowed the effect so he discarded his hand and didn't get any cards either. I also won this game by casting approach twice.
In the second game I beat him down with cat tokens, I got regal caracal down and beat him, then when he got a big creature out I cast engulf the shores and got my cat back, then re-cast the cat and make tokens, block and so on and beat him down to 0 with the cats.
Round 4 = against B/G/R GOD energy (hazoret/rhonas) 0-2
I had a good draw in the first game but I lost to the two gods, Hazoret and Rhonas. I didn't get to counter them, they are indestructible so immolating glare does nothing against them and I didn't get to engulf the shores either. In the second game he beat me down with a 3/3 creature that he got out on the 3rd turn and I wasn't able to counter it and then I couldn't draw an answer to it for the next 3 turns and so I lost.
Round 5 - against U/W/B control (kefnet/sorin) 1-1-1
Another mirror match and in the first game I beat him due to the maindeck sphinx of the final word again. In the second game he boarded kefnet and got him out on turn 3 and basically beat me down for 5 for enough turns to win, I had no answer to a resolved kefnet since immolating glare doesn't work on it, and the opp protected him with counters against other cards. In the 3rd game we timed out, he had Sorin out twice but I got rid of him, I kept trying to beat him down with westvale abbey 1/1 cleric tokens and hoping to get enough to transform the land which I did but only in the last turn for the 5 turns max.
Cards that were MVP's in the deck:
1. Declaration in Stone
2. Engulf the shore
3. Failure/Comply
4. Approach of the second sun
5. Sphinx of the final word
Cards that I didn't draw or did nothing in most of the games:
1. Censor
2. Immolating Glare
3. Fumigate
4. Glyph Keeper
So, having this tourney as my actual live testing ground this is how the deck looks like now:
4 Irrigated Farmland
2 Prairie Stream
14 Islands
1 Westvale abbey
2 Regal Caracal
2 Sphinx of the final word
1 Vizier of Many faces
2 Declaration in Stone
4 Engulf the Shore
2 Disallow
2 Void Shatter
4 Essence Scatter
3 Negate
1 Commit/Memory
4 Glimmer of Genius
2 Pull from Tomorrow
2 Failure/Comply
3 Cast out
2 Approach of the second sun
1 Vizier of many faces
1 Dovin Baan
1 Sphinx of the final word
1 Confiscation Coup
1 Commit/Memory
2 Forsake the worldly
2 Immolating Glare
2 Fumigate
2 Horribly Awry
So, the games I lost aside from the first round mana screw game 2 and 3 were all lost to either a Planeswalker or some big creature/god. I believe against the Mardu deck I also lost to a resolved Gideon and due to not drawing either of my cast outs that I boarded in game 2 there was not much I could do against the planeswalker.
Because Gideon is indestructible, or when Avacyn comes into play it makes all creatures also indestructible and the gods are the same I realized that immolating glare or fumigate are nigh useless against those decks. What does work is declaration in stone and engulf the shores .
So, I am thinking of playing engulf the shores as a 4 of main deck and 2 declarations in stone as well and keeping fumigates and immolating glares in the sideboard against zombies or other decks that are not running many gods/planeswalkers. Engulf lets me bounce the gods/planeswalkers to their hand on their own turn so that I may be able to counter them when they try to play them again.
failure has worked great in the deck as well, it is pretty much a hard counter on turn 2 or turn 3. I need answers to gods/planeswalkers so I have decided to go back to 3 cast out main deck. Censor did nothing for me, I pretty much cycled them 90% of the time and I think I only cast them once or twice during the whole tournament and so they are out. Instead, I will be running 4 essence scatters because they can hit a target in every deck, and I would've probably won some games if I was able to counter a creature instead of cycling censor and not getting a counter out of the draw.
I need to keep the finishers cheap and I was quite surprised as were my opponents with regal caracal forcing them to play around the card and allowing me to chump block a few times, gain some life from the cats and then bounce the mommy back to my hand to cast it next turn and make more cats. It also won me game 2 against the R/B deck and kept me alive against another deck.
One last note, I do want to keep the deck under $100, so I don't want to buy Torrential Gearhulks or Gideons to put in the deck, also Archangel Avacyn will rotate out in September so I don't want to invest money in that. I was looking at either getting two Kefnet's as finishers and card draw or a couple of angel of sanctions but for now I'll try to finish people with the Sphinx and the cats or just stall until I can cast approach.
My opponents all played some form of a net deck, except for the U/W control and the U/W/B control decks and they all had more expensive decks than mine as well, with all having Planeswalkers in their decks except for the G/B/R energy deck that played Rhonas and Hazoret.
Thanks!
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
I still think you should be playing mono-blue. If you aren't playing Fumigate in the main anymore, then there's no real reason to play white. Bounce works just as good as removal. There's also cards like Imprison in the Moon that can handle pesky resolved creatures and planeswalkers. And there are plenty of blue win-cons in standard that you shouldn't have to lean on white.
I also think you should add some more card draw in the deck. Hieroglyphic Illumination is a great choice since you can also cycle it when the occasional mana screw happens.
My deck has 25 lands and I think that's enough, I've played U/W control decks before, a long time ago but still I've never needed more than 25 lands.
The reason to play white is for declaration in stone and approach of the second sun p/card] which is one of the main win conditions of this deck. I also get access to cast out as well, which I didn't play main deck for game day but now I've put them back in. I will have 3 cast outs and 1 commit maindeck to deal with planeswalkers from now on, besides the four engulf the shores which can bounce Gideon if they make him a creature and also the counterspells can counter the planeswalkers.
I don't need more card draw either with four glimmers and two pull from tomorrow as well as being able to cycle the lands and cast outs.
I just didn't have enough answers for planeswalkers and gods main deck, that's why I lost the matches that I lost at game day.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
I went 2-1 with the decklist in post #12.
The one main deck difference was I took out the 1 vizier of many faces for a sphinx of magosi and in the sideboard I took out the 1 Dovin Baan and 1 Confiscation coup for 1 Vizier of many faces and 1 Insidious Will. I am still testing various budget cards.
TOURNEY REPORT
Round 1 against U/R control - 2-1
I lost the first game to this netdeck U/R control due to his lands, the 2 wandering fumarole got me good. We fought a long 2nd game and I managed to win on the back of an approach of the second sun. We scrambled to play the 3rd game with 10 minutes left on the clock and I took care of his torrential gearhulks and managed to get down a sphinx of the final word and cast an approach twice with the sphinx on the board.
Round 2 against B/G energy - 0-2
I got run over both games without drawing an engulf the shore either game, the deck was just too fast and also I didn't get to counter much since my hands were full of high casting cost spells both games, it was weird.
Round 3 against U/B eldrazi-aggro - 2-1
I lost the first game since I didn'T know what his deck did and I countered some eldrazi guys but the ones that stuck on the board beat me down. Second game had me counter the first 6-7 spells that he played and he was out of cards almost when I dropped a sphinx of the final word and beat him down with it. In the third game I managed to get an approach of the second sun out, and then made a mistake which let him drop 2 big eldrazi guys and pump them up with a land and hit me for 14 the next turn. However, I topdecked my 8th island and managed to Engulf the shores for 8 on my main phase bouncing his huge eldrazi guys. On his turn, he played one eldrazi guy again and end of turn I pulled from tomorrow for 4, then I cycled a land and on my draw step I drew approach of the second sun for the second time and cast it to win the 3rd game.
MVP's of this FNM:
1. Approach of the second sun (I won 3 games out of 4 because of it)
2. Sphinx of the final word (I won one game with him and he is amazing against control or decks running some counters)
3. Engulf the shores (saved me from two big Eldrazi creatures, also bounced 2 gearhulks against U/R)
4. Failure/Comply (good hard counter early game and even late game it's better than censor, comply is bomb against counter decks if you remember to flash it back.)
5. Essence scatter (I cast 3 of these in a row against the eldrazi deck, basically countering his first 6-7 plays with these and the other counters)
Cards that didn't do much:
1. Regal Caracal - only came out once, I am waiting to get 2 kefnets and switch them with the cat lord and test that out
2. Fumigate - I sided them in but didn't draw them, of course, they are still good in the sideboard.
The deck is looking better than before, although still has trouble with fast creature decks. I am planning to change the win conditions to 3 Sphinx of the final word, 2 Kefnets and of course the 2 Approach of the second sun. I will run 2 regal caracals and 2 vizier of many faces in the sideboard.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle