I guess I should make clear a couple of points. I chose some of the cards because I have them and due to cost things like Snapcaster Mage are not on my purchase list. You are correct it is a superior card and I would include 4 if I had them.
I've removed Jace, Memory Adept and moved Liliana Vess to the sideboard. I've added in Sphinx of the Final Word and Draining Whelk as the main victory conditions. Thing in the Ice remains the secondary win condition. I also have one Pearl Lake Ancient and one Dralnu, Lich Lord available and am considering Oona, Queen of the Fae or Grave Titan as possible finishers.
Ashiok is meant to help control the board during the mid/end game. Liliana Vess plays that role from the sideboard against other control decks.
I got rid of Mana Leak since it had troubles after mid-game and replaced it with Pyschic Barrier, which works well in tandem with Countersquall. Every bit of damage adds up in this deck.
I only have 2 Serum Visions so those with the Peek, Into the Roil and Blue Sun's Zenith are my card advantage engines.
Onto the sideboard... Drown in Sorrow is meant to get rid of swarms of creatures. It also has Scry (1) as a side benefit and doesn't kill TITI. Hero's Downfall are there if the opponent is getting large creatures or planeswalkers through.
Far and Away adds verstility especially in the form of causing creatures to be sacrificed, which is my only way outside of Thing in the Ice to get at hexproof creatures.
Dimir Charm is there for the great flexibility it offers. Hurkyll's Recall is there for Affinity/Robots and the Dispels are meant to work against burn or other control decks.
Piracy Charm is a versatile card, not sure if there are better options though.
I think the deck has improved quite a bit from the first version. Now I need to playtest it against the top decks to see how versatile it is.
I would really love if Counterspell, Force of Will and Daze were available in Modern.
Any other thoughts or impressions? I would love the feedback. Is the disruption, counterspell, removal mix about right?
Personally, I think as long as the tension between LotV and Cryptic Command exists I think UB Control will have a difficult time finding it's place. I've been fish-bowling a bit of a mid-rangy version. Not sure about though. I can say that Shadow of Doubt, Mana Leak and Think Twice at the 2 drop slot is pretty spicy.
I think Dimir still needs a few more spells to make them more viable, ones similar to Kolghan's Command.
Here's a few I quickly thought of:
1 Fusion Card
A. Demonic Counter [Instant, 1U & 1B]
Counter target spell. You lose 1 life.
B. Unholy Sacrifice [Instant, 1B & 1 colorless]
Opponent sacrifices a creature.
C. Fuse - can cast both, counts as 1 spell.
2. Ashiok's Nightmare Vision [Instant, 1B & 1U & 1 colorless]
Choose two:
- Return creature from your graveyard to play. It is a nightmare in addition to other creature types.
- Exile top 2 cards of opponent's library. If either of them are creatures you can cast them for their converted mana cost using any mana.
- Exile 1 card from opponent's graveyard. You gain 1 life and the opponent loses 1 life.
3. Ob Nixlis' Command [Instant, 2B & 1U]
Choose two:
- Destroy target creature.
- Draw a card. Lose a life.
- Opponent discards two cards.
4. (Lich Lord) Dralnu's Arcane Mastery [Instant, 2U & 1B]
Choose two:
- Counter target spell.
- Cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard for rest of turn for its converted mana cost using any mana. Then exile it.
- Draw a card.
5. Queen Oona's Will [Instant, 3B/U combined]
Choose two:
- Add 2 1/1 flying blue/black faerie rogues tokens.
- Look at opponent's hand, put a creature or planeswalker you find on bottom of their library.
- Do 2 damage to target creature or player. You gain 2 life.
- Counter target artifact or enchantment spell
If we get a few more tools like the ones listed above it will make UB control more playable in the current meta.
This decklist is the one I have been building and tuning for several months now, with consistent results against all the tier 1 and tier 2 strategies that I know of in the current Modern meta. This deck can fight all of them. Whatever strategy you throw at it, wherever from, no matter how ever fringe, it will find a way to combat it. It is the living embodiment of the philosophy “there is always an answer.” It also requires - and rewards - skill-intensive play; such that when it wins, it wins completely, showing a complete grasp of the game few other decks can rival. Past a certain point, playing against this deck becomes a completely futile endeavour; nothing the opposition can do matters.
Here is my UB control deck i have been tuning for quite a long time. It goes for the classic conservative control plan, with many hand, stack and board disruptions and removals. It tries to stall the game while depriving the opponent his most powerfull if not all toys.
Usually it wins with damage from the manlands or one of the four big lifelink buddies of the deck. UB is a combination with few to none lifegain cards, so lifelink is neccessary to win many aggro match ups.
The deck performs excellently against the top tier. After the sideboard it does not really have a bad match up, though hyper aggressive hands of aggro decks can be unsolvable without the perfect cards. Against those decks it ultimately come to whether we drew the key Night of Souls' Betrayal or Leyline of the Void or not. By the end of the fourth turn someone will have scooped.
The problems of the deck is that it can be too passive for its own good, have the wrong answers to the wrong threats (a rare sight but it exists) and become land flooded. Decks with extreme building, such Lantern Control and Tron can become problems because many cards we own are worthless against them and need a particular set of cards to win them.
As for the sideboard, Spreading Seas, Bribery and the Dragonlord are geared towards Tron based decks.
The Leyline is good against Dedge and graveyard based decks. Spellskite to disrupt combo and aggro decks. Dispel and Duress for the control and creature light decks.
The explosives are there for the 1-2 cmc hyper aggro and noncreature cards that bother us.
What this deck needs is certainly Counterspell, an Abrupt Decay style of card, a card the bounces and discards for a low cost and possibly a noncreature constant threat that can win you the game by itself, such as a Planeswalker or an Enchantment that grindly summons tokens or loses life to your opponents.
I'll probably still stick with Esper Control as my main modern control deck but I've been brewing UB since I saw Fatal Push spoiled. I prefer to play UB to Esper.
Besides Fatal Push any cards sticking out to you? I think most are spoiled by now.
I don't know if AV is the correct draw power for draw go style control, I've been playing 3 Think Twice and 1 Forbidden Alchemey but i also run 4 LotV. So glad this format seems to be slowing down to give a new breathe of life to controlish strategies.
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This leads me to believe the best thing about Blue is the cantrips and not the counters given they are too narrow in Modern. LotV and 8-12 cantrips is what I've been looking at. LotV into Living Guildpact is great board control.
There isn't a win-condition in this deck, Tar Pit isn't enough if you have no burn to finish it off.
Maindeck playsets of Entrancing Melody (interesting card, not sure how good it'll be against anything other than DS/Goyf)
and Shadow of Doubt (very matchup/timing specific) seem very suspect as well.
Censor isn't a counterspell so much as cantrip 9-12. I find LotV and counterspells don't do well together. LotV attacks on 2 axes whereas counters are situational w/o being unconditional or just too expensive. Deprive seems like it should be played more alongside Cancel but both just aren't good enough.
Shadow is definitely a bit of a flex spot. Substitute whatever. Damnation or Vendillion Clique seems fine.
Entrancing Melody .... I would argue this is a wincon. Control Magic certainly was in the Draw/Go mono Blue decks of yore. It's absolutely a 2 for one against a deck playing creatures (or at least those at a reasonable CCM.) We're in agreement it's good against Deaths Shadow and goyf, correct? So then where does it top out. You're certainly not stealing a Gurmag Angler or a Wurmcoil Engine. So then is the middle good enough? Stealing a Thought-knot Seer seems good and stealing a Matter Reshaper seems fine. Control Magic is too good for modern and Standard. How expensive does it need to be before it's OK? It's not at 3UU. Not even at 5 stapled onto a 1/1 bc we got Beguiler of Wills instead. Entrancing Melody is pushed. Enough for Modern is a question that will need to be answered but it is certainly a bump for control. Black is the best control color in Modern. Blue has the cantrips. What does that shell look like?
the problem is that i dont know if 2 Scarabs and 4 Creeping Tar Pit are enough wincons.
there are still 4 Snapcaster and 5 Planeswalker, but I guess you cant count them as wincon
Nassif was running 1 scarab god, 1 wurmcoil, a few snapcasters and the Tarpits and that was it. Enough for 34th at the MOCS. It begs the question "how many wincons are enough?"
I guess I should make clear a couple of points. I chose some of the cards because I have them and due to cost things like Snapcaster Mage are not on my purchase list. You are correct it is a superior card and I would include 4 if I had them.
To replace Snapcaster Mage I chose:
I would like a Horror finisher replacement for Jace so they play nicely with Thing in the Ice. My current list of options has:
1 Gleancrawler
1 Mindleech Mass
I am currently leaning towards Consuming Aberration. Anyone have suggestions for this?
Serum Visions and Peek are to help flip the TITIs. I like 1 or 0 cost instants that also let you draw a card. Here are some other options:
4 Ponder
4 Fate Transfer
4 Dream Salvage
3 Index
3 Preordain
3 Silent Departure
3 Quicken
3 Spellsnare
3 Piracy Charm
3 Twisted Image
3 Shadow Rift
3 Remove Soul
3 Twincast
3 Delay
3 Essence Scatter
My Decks:
1 Sphinx of the Final Word
1 Draining Whelk
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Thing in the Ice
Planeswalkers (2)
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Spells (28)
2 Blue Sun's Zenith
2 Psychic Barrier
4 Countersquall
2 Dimir Charm
2 Into the Roil
2 Murderous Cut
2 Doom Blade
1 Go for the Throat
1 Smother
3 Despise
2 Duress
3 Peek
2 Serum Visions
4 Polluted Delta
4 Drowned Catacomb
1 Watery Grave
7 Island
5 Swamp
1 Liliana Vess
2 Perilous Vault
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Far // Away
2 Dimir Charm
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Dispel
I've removed Jace, Memory Adept and moved Liliana Vess to the sideboard. I've added in Sphinx of the Final Word and Draining Whelk as the main victory conditions. Thing in the Ice remains the secondary win condition. I also have one Pearl Lake Ancient and one Dralnu, Lich Lord available and am considering Oona, Queen of the Fae or Grave Titan as possible finishers.
Ashiok is meant to help control the board during the mid/end game. Liliana Vess plays that role from the sideboard against other control decks.
I got rid of Mana Leak since it had troubles after mid-game and replaced it with Pyschic Barrier, which works well in tandem with Countersquall. Every bit of damage adds up in this deck.
I only have 2 Serum Visions so those with the Peek, Into the Roil and Blue Sun's Zenith are my card advantage engines.
Onto the sideboard... Drown in Sorrow is meant to get rid of swarms of creatures. It also has Scry (1) as a side benefit and doesn't kill TITI. Hero's Downfall are there if the opponent is getting large creatures or planeswalkers through.
Far and Away adds verstility especially in the form of causing creatures to be sacrificed, which is my only way outside of Thing in the Ice to get at hexproof creatures.
Dimir Charm is there for the great flexibility it offers. Hurkyll's Recall is there for Affinity/Robots and the Dispels are meant to work against burn or other control decks.
Piracy Charm is a versatile card, not sure if there are better options though.
I think the deck has improved quite a bit from the first version. Now I need to playtest it against the top decks to see how versatile it is.
I would really love if Counterspell, Force of Will and Daze were available in Modern.
Any other thoughts or impressions? I would love the feedback. Is the disruption, counterspell, removal mix about right?
My Decks:
1 Sphinx of the Final Word
1 Draining Whelk
3 Thing in the Ice
4 Spellstutter Sprite
Planeswalkers (2)
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Spells (28)
2 Psychic Barrier
4 Countersquall
2 Dimir Charm
2 Into the Roil
1 Far // Away
1 Go for the Throat
2 Murderous Cut
2 Doom Blade
1 Smother
2 Despise
2 Duress
1 Raven's Crime
2 Peek
2 Blue Sun's Zenith
2 Serum Visions
4 Polluted Delta
4 Drowned Catacomb
1 Watery Grave
1 Sunken Hollow
6 Island
5 Swamp
1 Liliana Vess
1 Psychic Intrusion
2 Perilous Vault
2 Suffer the Past
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Dimir Charm
2 Dispel
My Decks:
Here's a few I quickly thought of:
1 Fusion Card
A. Demonic Counter [Instant, 1U & 1B]
Counter target spell. You lose 1 life.
B. Unholy Sacrifice [Instant, 1B & 1 colorless]
Opponent sacrifices a creature.
C. Fuse - can cast both, counts as 1 spell.
2. Ashiok's Nightmare Vision [Instant, 1B & 1U & 1 colorless]
Choose two:
- Return creature from your graveyard to play. It is a nightmare in addition to other creature types.
- Exile top 2 cards of opponent's library. If either of them are creatures you can cast them for their converted mana cost using any mana.
- Exile 1 card from opponent's graveyard. You gain 1 life and the opponent loses 1 life.
3. Ob Nixlis' Command [Instant, 2B & 1U]
Choose two:
- Destroy target creature.
- Draw a card. Lose a life.
- Opponent discards two cards.
4. (Lich Lord) Dralnu's Arcane Mastery [Instant, 2U & 1B]
Choose two:
- Counter target spell.
- Cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard for rest of turn for its converted mana cost using any mana. Then exile it.
- Draw a card.
5. Queen Oona's Will [Instant, 3B/U combined]
Choose two:
- Add 2 1/1 flying blue/black faerie rogues tokens.
- Look at opponent's hand, put a creature or planeswalker you find on bottom of their library.
- Do 2 damage to target creature or player. You gain 2 life.
- Counter target artifact or enchantment spell
If we get a few more tools like the ones listed above it will make UB control more playable in the current meta.
My Decks:
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Damnation
2 Thoughtseize
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Quicken
2 Victim of Night
3 Bile Blight
1 Dismember
3 Hero’s Downfall
2 Dissipate
3 Deprive
2 Cryptic Command
1 Blue Sun’s Zenith
1 Liliana Vess
1 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Watery Grave
4 Polluted Delta
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Island
2 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Leyline of the Void
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Geth’s Verdict
2 Elixir of Immortality
1 Sorin Markov
1 Transgress the Mind
2 Extirpate
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Deprive
1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Summary Dismissal
4 River of Tears
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Polluted Delta
2 Watery Grave
3 Island
1 Swamp
4 Mutavault
Creatures (8)
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Batterskull
Spells (27)
2 Damnation
2 Smother
1 Go for the Throat
1 Murderous Cut
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
3 Cryptic Command
3 Mana Leak
1 Deprive
2 Spell Snare
2 Ancestral Vision
1 Think Twice
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
1 Duress
1 Bribery
3 Spreading Seas
1 Dispel
3 Spellskite
1 Engineered Explosives
Here is my UB control deck i have been tuning for quite a long time. It goes for the classic conservative control plan, with many hand, stack and board disruptions and removals. It tries to stall the game while depriving the opponent his most powerfull if not all toys.
Usually it wins with damage from the manlands or one of the four big lifelink buddies of the deck. UB is a combination with few to none lifegain cards, so lifelink is neccessary to win many aggro match ups.
The deck performs excellently against the top tier. After the sideboard it does not really have a bad match up, though hyper aggressive hands of aggro decks can be unsolvable without the perfect cards. Against those decks it ultimately come to whether we drew the key Night of Souls' Betrayal or Leyline of the Void or not. By the end of the fourth turn someone will have scooped.
The problems of the deck is that it can be too passive for its own good, have the wrong answers to the wrong threats (a rare sight but it exists) and become land flooded. Decks with extreme building, such Lantern Control and Tron can become problems because many cards we own are worthless against them and need a particular set of cards to win them.
As for the sideboard, Spreading Seas, Bribery and the Dragonlord are geared towards Tron based decks.
The Leyline is good against Dedge and graveyard based decks.
Spellskite to disrupt combo and aggro decks.
Dispel and Duress for the control and creature light decks.
The explosives are there for the 1-2 cmc hyper aggro and noncreature cards that bother us.
What this deck needs is certainly Counterspell, an Abrupt Decay style of card, a card the bounces and discards for a low cost and possibly a noncreature constant threat that can win you the game by itself, such as a Planeswalker or an Enchantment that grindly summons tokens or loses life to your opponents.
Besides Fatal Push any cards sticking out to you? I think most are spoiled by now.
My Decks:
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4 Serum Visions
4 Ancestral Visions
3 Spell Snare
3 Mana Leak
3 Cryptic Command
4 Fatal Push
2 Murderous Cut
2 Collective Brutality
2 Damnation
3 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Darkslick Shores
4 Watery Grave
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Ghost Quarter
2 Island
2 Swamp
#Though I would probably take out: 2x Jace, Architect of Thought and Ob Nixilis Reignited (though this one might be worth a slot).
Probably for some Cryptic Commands and maybe a 1x-of Torrential Gearhulk.
#4x Fatal Push + 1x Murderous Cut can replace the: 3x Disfigure + 2x Victim of Night.
Hero's Downfall is also more of a SB card and probably be replaced by Thoughtseize/Countersquall or more Collective Brutality.
The deck seems too slow and durdly imho without enough ways to win, it mainly relies on CA through AV to grind out wins.
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/blue-black-control-in-modern/
There was the Grixis Xerox article a bit back as well:
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/decks-like-deaths-shadow-will-always-become-the-best-deck/
This leads me to believe the best thing about Blue is the cantrips and not the counters given they are too narrow in Modern. LotV and 8-12 cantrips is what I've been looking at. LotV into Living Guildpact is great board control.
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Dark Confidant
Spells
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Opt
4 Serum Visions
4 Censor
4 Entrancing Melody
4 Fatal Push
4 Shadow of Doubt
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Watery Grave
4 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Swamp
1 Island
4 Ghost Quarter
Maindeck playsets of Entrancing Melody (interesting card, not sure how good it'll be against anything other than DS/Goyf)
and Shadow of Doubt (very matchup/timing specific) seem very suspect as well.
Shadow is definitely a bit of a flex spot. Substitute whatever. Damnation or Vendillion Clique seems fine.
Entrancing Melody .... I would argue this is a wincon. Control Magic certainly was in the Draw/Go mono Blue decks of yore. It's absolutely a 2 for one against a deck playing creatures (or at least those at a reasonable CCM.) We're in agreement it's good against Deaths Shadow and goyf, correct? So then where does it top out. You're certainly not stealing a Gurmag Angler or a Wurmcoil Engine. So then is the middle good enough? Stealing a Thought-knot Seer seems good and stealing a Matter Reshaper seems fine. Control Magic is too good for modern and Standard. How expensive does it need to be before it's OK? It's not at 3UU. Not even at 5 stapled onto a 1/1 bc we got Beguiler of Wills instead. Entrancing Melody is pushed. Enough for Modern is a question that will need to be answered but it is certainly a bump for control. Black is the best control color in Modern. Blue has the cantrips. What does that shell look like?
At 5-mana Batterskull is another option.
Nassif was running 1 scarab god, 1 wurmcoil, a few snapcasters and the Tarpits and that was it. Enough for 34th at the MOCS. It begs the question "how many wincons are enough?"
UB in 20th!