After a fair amount of testing, I can say that Risk Factor is a fantastic card, but probably best left in the sideboard. against mono green, or red, or basically any deck that has green or red and a lot of creatures with limited removal options, sweepers and removal with teferi is still the best way to try and win. Now however, with Risk factor, I really like the idea of going burn for games 2-3 against any sort of grindy mid range deck, and the mirrors. In a meta where green stompy is going to be somewhat common, you really can't have both Risk Factor and Chemister's Insight in those numbers, they're too clunky and do too little on very important turns. Risk Factor + Banefire is an incredible win con against B/G/x and other control decks, but just too slow against any sort of creature deck.
Also, Seal Away seems to be a lot worse now, it seems like Enchantment removal is much more common these days. Justice Strike is solid enough, but if the plan is to have the option for burn in games 2-3, I think 4X Lightning Strike and 4X Ionize should be in the main deck. And i mean hey, with greedy shockland use and something like Arguel's Blood Fast burning the opponent out game 1 isn't completely unheard of, especially if you're playing with Dream Eater
They said quite clearly on their website any gems you purchase during beta will be refunded on launch. Of course there will be a wipe, but if you spent 50 bucks (around the cost of a normal video game) you will get 50 dollars of gems on launch after the wipe.
So it seems like the hype for this deck has slowed down a bit since Worlds but I'm still trying to jam it. Right now I'm on a more traditional list with 3 Search for Azcantas and while I haven't got to try it yet I do have a question about Search itself. Say you have Search in hand on turn two, Censor or an Essence Scatter, and no removal and you're up against an Energy or Ramunap deck (most of my meta). Do you just play Search and hope to hit a Push or Extraction on your turn or do you hold up Censor? I find myself in this position rather frequently with only 2 Searches. I usually go with Censor but I'm legitimately not sure if it's the right choice. Sometimes it works out but not always. I'm just curious as to what your guys' opinion is.
It honestly depends on your hand, and if you're on the draw or play. If you're screwed or flooded and on the play then it can be ok to just jam the turn 2 search, and hope you can draw the right answers and stabalize. On the draw against energy, and with a good mix of spells and lands, definitely hold up the counterspell for refiner / virtuoso. More often than not it's correct to hold up the countermagic, but the whole point of search is to filter your draw to make the deck more consistent, and sometimes that means jamming on turn 2 and hoping you can filter enough to deal with the threat that will undoubtedly land.
I still think Temur Energy is the best overall deck, but fixing the tokens match isn't a problem for UB control anyway. The problem stems from trying to finish the game off in a reasonable fashion. I actually wonder if we're supposed to be more aggressive in that match. We have several tools to fix that if it becomes a main stay in Standard.
Try using Gifted Aetherborn in the board against tokens, it keeps your life up and they board out push so it stays around and will eventually eat a cast out. A basic u/b list should beat temur, or, at least, that's what I've experienced online. The guy who won the nationals today has the best list I've seen for this meta game. The Glint-Sleeve Siphoner is great against control mirrors.
I haven't had a problem beating tokens. I'm just musing on whether we should be concerned with it (i.e., devote sideboard slots to that match).
Honestly Tokens doesn't bother me that much. My SB is fairly dedicated to creatureless strategies, being able to go up to a full set of negates and 3 duress, all of which I like in the mirror, tokens, and approach MU's (and any other jank I run into). Not to beat a dead horse, but another reason why I prefer glimmer to illumination is because it really shines in g1 against tokens, as that first game is just going to be a grind fest. Typically though, I can out grind the tokens player, even if they manage to resolve their engine cards, so Hidden Stockpile and Anointed Procession. I've had some pretty awesome comebacks against tokens where they get up to 40 life and I just grind away against them, getting to the point where I'm flashing back vraska's contempt with a 4/4 zombie gearhulk on their last servo, during my main phase. Stuff like that. SB games I just treat it like a control mirror, and if I get tempo'd out by some cats and priests, so be it, but I never let their engines come into play, with the hope being I can land a gearhulk or Scarab God and stabilize only after they have no more engine cards left.
As far as various SB creature slots go I'm real interested in testing Deadeye Tracker, as it seems to fit the role of real cheap creature good in the late game, similar to what Dragonmaster Outcast did for the U/R control lists, and also being a hedge against gifts. Gifted Aetherborn has been real good though, being a complete game changer against red, a cheap road block against temur, and a serviceable threat against control, basically coming in for almost every MU.
This. In fact, in the deck tech article I linked to above, Josh Utter-Leyton says that "Blue-Black Control has no catch-up mechanism, and almost all of your answers are counterspells, so taking a turn off to cast Glimmer of Genius is a big problem, and you fall behind as a result. Search for Azcanta is a way of getting your card advantage engine on the table for a lot less mana."
Also, did anyone notice that we put two UB control lists in to the Top 4, at 2nd and 4th? The finals will be 1st vs 4th, 2nd vs 3rd, so Chew will play Huey Jensen (Jensen's only loss in Standard was to Chew), and Wrapter vs Dominguez (they were paired together in round 13, and Dominguez won 2-1). Potential for a UB Mirror final! Also, Sam Black finished 6th, and Gerry T finished 9th.
So I read the article and I still don't really like their explanation for Illumination over Glimmer. First, they're running illumination, not opt, so they do plan to spend some of the time taking a turn off to spend 4 mana to draw 2. Also, Illumination over glimmer really offers a only small window where it flips azcanta earlier, and we're talking only 1 turn earlier to flip azcanta. And, azcanta activation costs 4 mana, same as glimmer, so while the "catch up mechanism" is already on the bored, you still need to spend 4 mana to actually catch up. Also, azcanta activation can't get lands, gearhulks, or scarab gods. Glimmer is really just a high value card, if we count a scry as half a card, then glimmer is instant speed, draw 3, and make aether hub an Underground Sea the rest of the game all for 4 mana. I'd rather have that then flip azcanta 1 turn earlier potentially some of the time and be playing illumination.
I think azcanta is getting a little over hyped. It certainly is a powerful addition for control decks, but its very slow, and really only shines in grindy MU's. casting it on turn 4 against temur energy, and then scattering their bristling hydra on their turn is obviously the most ideal situation, but it doesn't always work out that way. Also, there's no way to loot for the deck, so drawing a 2nd copy of it is basically a dead card. I've been comparing it to Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, because its essentially a 2 mana filter that flips later in the game to provide card advantage. Jace was a 4 of though because you could loot away extra copies, you can't do this with azcanta. Currently I'm at 2 copies in the deck and I'm happy with it there. Maybe 3 copies is correct, but like I said I really hate drawing a 2nd copy early in the game
I don't think the mana is good enough to support a 3rd color, as if you're running a straight control list you're going to want disallow over Supreme Will. Will makes sense in the approach lists, but hard counters are just too important for a more classic control shell.
Vraska's Contempt is a great utility card. In a deck that uses gearhulks I like it better than Cast Out. I'm not sure what the right number is, but probably a staple for the deck going forward.
The 2 spells I'm still experimenting with are Walk the Plank and Bontu's Last Reckoning. I think an unconditional sweeper is needed MD to have out for a resolved Bristling Hydra that starts getting out of control. Also, Carnage Tyrant is floating around, out there somewhere, so having outs to these threats is nice. Same for Walk the Plank. The sorcery speed is not ideal, but so long as merfolk remains fringe, this is a 2 mana unconditional removal, so its a good spell to have in the deck.
Personally, I'm still on the energy package for control, so I have 4 hubs and glimmer to support with energy for them. I've noticed that the worlds lists are cutting hub and glimmer in favor of evolving wilds and Hieroglyphic Illumination. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that. Illumination ultimately proves much less card advantage than glimmer, and while 3-4 EW helps enables revolt for push, the extra tap lands slow the deck down, potentially on critical turns. Having 2-3 mana up for censor or disallow in the early turns is so very critical, and honestly I'd rather play a hub on T1 in case I see a Bomat Courier and just burn the energy for a push, as opposed to an EW later in the game to get a 4 drop with push. Curious to hear any arguments for the Illumination / EW package.
Anyways the deck has been playing real well, the curve is great, the power level is very high, and the answers are very efficient. 4 Negate and 3 Duress in the SB, combined with the MD counterspell suite, really makes me a favorite in games 2-3 against U/W Approach, W/B tokens, and other creatureless strategies. Gifted Aetherborn and Essence Extraction in the side plus vraska's contempt in MD are amazing against mono red games 2-3. Search + glimmer + gearhulk + scarab god is probably the grindiest thing you can be doing in std right now, so any game that goes long I'm capable of just grinding away a victory.
The main thing I'm still experimenting with is sweepers. Yahenni's Expertise and Rags // Riches are both options, but with all the various, giant, temur enegy creatures, with snek in the format, with dinosaurs, it seems like the unconditional sweep that reckoning offers is the best, despite the heavy drawback about the lands. Still not sure though, would love to hear feedback about the best sweepers given how the meta is shaping up.
2) I felt very much disappointed with glimmer of genius, and surprisingly pleased with Illuminations. How did you find them to work compared to each other?
Not sure how you can be hating on Glimmer, as it's probably one of the core / best cards in the deck. if we count a scry as 1/2 card, then glimmer is draw 3 for 4 mana at instant speed, which by itself is already a good rate. Not only the, but the extra energy comes in real handy late game when dealing with troublesome creatures that grow large, like a Longtusk Cub or a delirium Grim Flayer. I can't imagine dropping the small energy package of 4 Harnessed and 4 glimmers, as it's saved me in more games than I can count (along with 4 hubs).
But energy synergies aside, glimmer + gearhulk is literally the core of blue based control right now. The scry 2 draw 2 is the engine that lets us churn through our decks, dig for what we need, and almost always lets us turn that corner favorably, with a grip of cards in hand, to actually win the game. That being said I do like to side out 1 against Ramunap, but it's still a core card that I'm always happy to draw, just maybe not multiples in certain MU's.
Glimmer, more than anything else, makes blue based control possible. When Dig Through Time rotated out blue based control fell off a cliff, and the best control deck around was the B/W planeswalker deck, but it was the Glimmer + Gearhulk that made blue based control possible, either Jeskai, U/B, or U/R, all of which have the same core of Glimmer + Gearhulk.
Agreed about prioritizing Suns over Devastation. The main reason I was so excited for Devastation was between it, Abrade, and Magma Spray it seemed U/R finally had all the tools needed to be favored against vehicles, and of course vehicles is no where to be seen now.
Also, I've been considering swapping Thing in the Ice for Shielded Aether Thief as mono-red gets a LOT of it's damage in by disabling blockers, nothing's worse than spending turn 2 to play a TiTi, only for Ahn-Crop Crasher or Earthshaker Khenra to render it incapable of blocking for the turn, whereas the thief can be flashed in after attacks are declared, nulling a large source of the Mono-Red's power. And of course the 4 toughness is the magic number to avoid Mono-Red's Shocks and Abrades. Not sure if this would be effective, but just something I was considering.
Obviously TiTi is a huge asset because it can act as a crucial road block against other aggressive decks, like zombies or humans, and still be an additional threat in MU's where you have to worry about Dispossess or an abundance of removal, but I have always loved the energy sink and flash ability of Thief. Heck, since both are resilient to Suns, and since RDW is so popular now, maybe having both in the SB is correct.
Another option could be Unsummon, as all you really want in this MU is just a lot of cheap interaction, and card advantage doesn't really matter. Unsummon can have some fun shenanigans with Gearhulk too.
Also I have noticed a lot of lists are now running the full set of Supreme Will and only 1-2 Disallow. Currently, I'm still playing the full set of disallows and 2 Wills, but I was wondering what the opinions are of the ratio of Supreme Wills to Disallows.
Crook of Condemnation seems to be a real important SB card, as the Prized Amalgam and Haunted Dead variants are still running around, along with the new gifts re-animator. Possibly Scavenger Grounds in the SB as well, as an extra land for game 2 is always nice if that MU is going to get grindy.
Hmmm, Aven Mindcensor is an interesting choice, I assume you would want try and use it to stop the Gate to the Afterlife trigger that tutors up Gifts.
If you want to go that route, I'd just have Nimble Obstructionist in the SB, which would have a lot of different uses, including stopping Ormendahl in the mirror, stopping the Gate to Afterlife trigger, stopping all the Gearhulks ETB triggers.... the list goes on, its a versatile card.
How many people are closing out games with Westvale? I feel like I never need to use it when play testing.
I close A LOT of games out with Ormendahl, but only in certain MU's, so zombies, mono red, and other low to the ground aggro strategies. These games usually come down to races, and if I'm on the draw or never get a monument down, I'm usually loosing the race, and Ormendahl completely flips the game around, and odds are the opponent has no answer to deal with it. double grasp can deal with it, so can a Dark Salvation with 7 zombies in play, but the fact is he's a 1-2 turn clock that puts you out of lethal range, so unless the opponent has the answer in their hands, you're going to win.
The other time I'll go for the Westvale flip is if the game gets real grindy, and I can just sac 5 free warrior tokens, at which point I'm down no cards for him. Against any deck that has disallow, or even the potential for stifle bird in the board, I usually won't risk it.
Also, just curious what kind of MU's people are bringing Angel of Sanctions in for? Reason I ask is because if I bring in the angel, I really want to be SB'ing out all of my Dusk // Dawn, as the 2 do not play that well together. I'm thinking Fairgrounds Warden might just be better.
Yeah Bolas is a 7 mana sorcery speed threat. If you don't have countermagic to deal with it then you should be prepared to loose. Maybe you get lucky and can land a Gearhulk and have a Fumarole in play and can just smash him next turn and kill him, but that's the best you could probably hope for.
Resolved walkers are a nuisance for U/R to deal with. Even Grixis, because you're probably not running Hero's Downfall variant in a 3 color deck that also runs Cancel. Another options that a lot of people were playing in U/R control for a while was Brutal Expulsion which was a nice combo that bounced Gideon and exiled a scrounger, but its only a temporary solution, and Bolas is just going to smile at the 2 damage.
Commit was an all star, saving me from enchantments, making Sphinx of the Final Word look really bad, and just acting as a very versatile removal/counterspell. Memory never came up, but I know there will be some corner cases where it's useful. It's a safety net if you are losing to one of the random mill decks that are popping up, if your opponent has a better hand, but you manage to force through a Gearhulk Ect. I'd consider a 2nd in the board.
My experience with with Commit has always left me disappointed. I found the card to be clunky and awkward, and occasionally game winning in corner situations where annoying enchantments like Hidden Stockpile or Fevered Visions would resolve, and the new mill Fraying Sanity absolutely fits into this category, and of course it helps with planeswalkers threatening to go ultimate. By my complains were A) the 4 mana was expensive and the card was more often than not clunky in my hand and B) It never dealt with a threat permanently, as you'd see it again in 2 turns.
A card I think would be better is the new Consign // Oblivion which lets you bounce a very annoying threat, but later in the game lets you gain some card advantage and when the opponent gets low on cards it lets you permanently deal with the threat. You can do some cool things with this card if you opponent dumps their hand, like bounce something you don't like, then during opponents next draw step flash in a Gearhulk, cast Oblivion, and get a nice 2 for 1 including the threat you bounced. There's also opportunity for Gearhulk bouncing shenanigans when Gearhulk gets targeted with removal. The best part is the 2CMC casting cost of Consign gives you a lot more freedom to play around with.
Yeah, I've been playing the 25 land version of U/R for a while, and even though there is a difference of 1 land, I noticed a significant increase in the number of times I would be mana screwed with 25 lands as opposed to 26 lands. After testing the deck multiple times it really is noticeable going from 25 lands, to 26, and even though I don't have a lot of practice with it, I'd suspect going from 26 lands to 27 is the same thing.
Another utility land I'm really interested in Scavenger Grounds as this land can wreck delirium strategies, wreck the emerge decks that use Prized Amalgam and the new Champion of Wits and even have game in the Gearhulk mirrors, being able to clear out the GY while the opponent's Gearhulk is on the stack. Where was this land when Emrakul was legal.
Personally, I'm happy with the land count at 26, with the 4 dual black cyclers for when you flood out, and some combination of Censor and Hieroglyphic Illumination for when you get screwed.
This brings up an interesting new point I noticed, which is Censor vs Supreme Will. I've found you definitely don't want to go overboard with these 2 and entirely skip Disallow. While both censor and supreme will have utility in the late game, the fact is, in the late game, I'd rather have a hard 3 mana counter then either supreme will or censor, and I've found myself in the late game with multiple censors and wills in hand, no hard counter, and simply unable to stop opponents spells from coming down. I'm not really sure what the numbers should be, but i think 4-5 Cancel is still absolutely necessary.
I'd point out that Wandering Fumarole may be a lot more important going forward than it has been prior to Hour of Devastation, because of Abrade. Gearhulks gonna be getting blown up everywhere now.
Other than that, there is still a huge danger in having 4 win conditions in the deck and all being the same card, and that is the existence of cards with Lobotomy-type effects. Anyone playing black would be wise to bait off whatever counter magic you have and then drop a Dispossess with one mana up to spare in case of Censor, and you're done.
I have several creatures in my SB for the various MU's that serve as alternate wincons after game 1. I've been running 3 Thing in the Ice, 2 Dragonmaster Outcast, and another 2 Sphinx of the Final Word. while Kefnet is good in the control mirror, I still prefer Sphinx, which is basically an auto win if you can land it first. I suppose now with Hour of Devastation Sphinx isn't quite as good, but I doubt Hour is staying in after game 1, and even if it does you can always use your now uncounterable Negate to stop it.
Thing in the Ice goes in against any aggro and especially against any black deck because of Dispossess. With Marvel gone Dispossess won't be showing up as much, but it still is definitely out there so TiTi is very important as the alt win con. Main matches it comes in are G/B, Mardu, and Zombies.
Dragonmaster I like in MU's where the opponent plays limited removal and is most likely siding a lot of it out. Spending a single mana on turn 6 to slip him on the battlefield is usually GG if you get to untap with him. I like to bring him in against the various Temur strategies, so emerge and energy and all those strategies, as well as decks like colossus or some of the jankier brews.
Maybe my style with U/R is different than other players, but I don't rely on Fumarole all that much outside of corner scenarios. The main advantage of U/R is being able to play at flash speed and just always represent countermagic and / or removal. if the opponent is top decking, or upticking a walker feely I'll fire up the Fumarole to pressure them, but outside of that I'd rather keep my mana free and cast my spells.
I have been toying around with a similar idea. For me, MBC comes down to 1 card in Hour of Devastation Bontu's Last Reckoning. A 3 mana Damnation is just about the most absurdly powerful thing in standard, regardless of the drawback. That being said, the drawback on reckoning is a considerable, so I've been trying figure out the best way to utilize Reckoning, or what shell would be best to mitigate the drawback on it.
The solution I came up with is basically standard 8 rack. The idea is to just be a heavy hand disruption deck, essentially forcing opponents to either over commit to the board or have their hand stripped away from them. once the opponent has no hand and is top decking, reckoning has little to no drawback. The first draft I came up with is this
The list has no sideboard and is far from optimized, but it seems to me to be the best shell to make good use of Reckoning. A couple of notes on it:
This list is extremely low on Win Cons. The main one being Torment of Scarabs which I'm basically using as The Rack along with a possible Remorseless Punishment, both of which aim to just do direct damage to the opponent after stripping away all of their permanents and hand.
Mono black lets you add lots of different lands for utility, and I've only scratched the surface as for what's possible for utility lands. Blighted Fen has been a staple for heavy black control since it's been around, and something like Mirrorpool when combined with Remorseless Punishment can just win the game on the spot, theoretically capable of 20 points of damage.
This list that I threw together has 0 card draw or filtering, and I'm not sure if that's a mistake or not. Succumb to Temptation is a pretty bad card, but could give the deck some much needed velocity. What I did include however was a whopping 12 cycling lands, which will go a long way to prevent flooding, which is something that will just be a giant pain for this deck.
Anyways this is the brew I've been tinkering around with, would love to hear some feedback.
Also, Seal Away seems to be a lot worse now, it seems like Enchantment removal is much more common these days. Justice Strike is solid enough, but if the plan is to have the option for burn in games 2-3, I think 4X Lightning Strike and 4X Ionize should be in the main deck. And i mean hey, with greedy shockland use and something like Arguel's Blood Fast burning the opponent out game 1 isn't completely unheard of, especially if you're playing with Dream Eater
Starting off I like a 75 of something like this:
3 Essence Scatter
2 Syncopate
2 Justice Strike
4 Lightning Strike
4 Ionize
3 Settle the Wreckage
2 Cleansing Nova
Card Advantage
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Chemister's Insight
4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
3 Dream Eater
Lands (27)
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Steam Vents
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Sulfur Falls
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Island
4 Plains
2 Banefire
4 Risk Factor
4 Negate
2 Lyra Dawnbringer
3 Deafening Clarion
It honestly depends on your hand, and if you're on the draw or play. If you're screwed or flooded and on the play then it can be ok to just jam the turn 2 search, and hope you can draw the right answers and stabalize. On the draw against energy, and with a good mix of spells and lands, definitely hold up the counterspell for refiner / virtuoso. More often than not it's correct to hold up the countermagic, but the whole point of search is to filter your draw to make the deck more consistent, and sometimes that means jamming on turn 2 and hoping you can filter enough to deal with the threat that will undoubtedly land.
Honestly Tokens doesn't bother me that much. My SB is fairly dedicated to creatureless strategies, being able to go up to a full set of negates and 3 duress, all of which I like in the mirror, tokens, and approach MU's (and any other jank I run into). Not to beat a dead horse, but another reason why I prefer glimmer to illumination is because it really shines in g1 against tokens, as that first game is just going to be a grind fest. Typically though, I can out grind the tokens player, even if they manage to resolve their engine cards, so Hidden Stockpile and Anointed Procession. I've had some pretty awesome comebacks against tokens where they get up to 40 life and I just grind away against them, getting to the point where I'm flashing back vraska's contempt with a 4/4 zombie gearhulk on their last servo, during my main phase. Stuff like that. SB games I just treat it like a control mirror, and if I get tempo'd out by some cats and priests, so be it, but I never let their engines come into play, with the hope being I can land a gearhulk or Scarab God and stabilize only after they have no more engine cards left.
As far as various SB creature slots go I'm real interested in testing Deadeye Tracker, as it seems to fit the role of real cheap creature good in the late game, similar to what Dragonmaster Outcast did for the U/R control lists, and also being a hedge against gifts. Gifted Aetherborn has been real good though, being a complete game changer against red, a cheap road block against temur, and a serviceable threat against control, basically coming in for almost every MU.
So I read the article and I still don't really like their explanation for Illumination over Glimmer. First, they're running illumination, not opt, so they do plan to spend some of the time taking a turn off to spend 4 mana to draw 2. Also, Illumination over glimmer really offers a only small window where it flips azcanta earlier, and we're talking only 1 turn earlier to flip azcanta. And, azcanta activation costs 4 mana, same as glimmer, so while the "catch up mechanism" is already on the bored, you still need to spend 4 mana to actually catch up. Also, azcanta activation can't get lands, gearhulks, or scarab gods. Glimmer is really just a high value card, if we count a scry as half a card, then glimmer is instant speed, draw 3, and make aether hub an Underground Sea the rest of the game all for 4 mana. I'd rather have that then flip azcanta 1 turn earlier potentially some of the time and be playing illumination.
I think azcanta is getting a little over hyped. It certainly is a powerful addition for control decks, but its very slow, and really only shines in grindy MU's. casting it on turn 4 against temur energy, and then scattering their bristling hydra on their turn is obviously the most ideal situation, but it doesn't always work out that way. Also, there's no way to loot for the deck, so drawing a 2nd copy of it is basically a dead card. I've been comparing it to Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, because its essentially a 2 mana filter that flips later in the game to provide card advantage. Jace was a 4 of though because you could loot away extra copies, you can't do this with azcanta. Currently I'm at 2 copies in the deck and I'm happy with it there. Maybe 3 copies is correct, but like I said I really hate drawing a 2nd copy early in the game
3 The Scarab God
3 Torrential Gearhulk
Spells (29)
4 Fatal Push
4 Opt
3 Censor
3 Essence Scatter
2 Search for Azcanta
2 Walk the Plank
4 Disallow
2 Bontu's Last Reckoning
3 Glimmer of Genius
2 Vraska's Contempt
4 Aether Hub
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Fetid Pools
7 Island
6 Swamp
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
1 Consign // Oblivion
3 Duress
2 Essence Extraction
3 Gifted Aetherborn
1 Kefnet the Mindful
4 Negate
I don't think the mana is good enough to support a 3rd color, as if you're running a straight control list you're going to want disallow over Supreme Will. Will makes sense in the approach lists, but hard counters are just too important for a more classic control shell.
Vraska's Contempt is a great utility card. In a deck that uses gearhulks I like it better than Cast Out. I'm not sure what the right number is, but probably a staple for the deck going forward.
The 2 spells I'm still experimenting with are Walk the Plank and Bontu's Last Reckoning. I think an unconditional sweeper is needed MD to have out for a resolved Bristling Hydra that starts getting out of control. Also, Carnage Tyrant is floating around, out there somewhere, so having outs to these threats is nice. Same for Walk the Plank. The sorcery speed is not ideal, but so long as merfolk remains fringe, this is a 2 mana unconditional removal, so its a good spell to have in the deck.
Personally, I'm still on the energy package for control, so I have 4 hubs and glimmer to support with energy for them. I've noticed that the worlds lists are cutting hub and glimmer in favor of evolving wilds and Hieroglyphic Illumination. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about that. Illumination ultimately proves much less card advantage than glimmer, and while 3-4 EW helps enables revolt for push, the extra tap lands slow the deck down, potentially on critical turns. Having 2-3 mana up for censor or disallow in the early turns is so very critical, and honestly I'd rather play a hub on T1 in case I see a Bomat Courier and just burn the energy for a push, as opposed to an EW later in the game to get a 4 drop with push. Curious to hear any arguments for the Illumination / EW package.
Anyways the deck has been playing real well, the curve is great, the power level is very high, and the answers are very efficient. 4 Negate and 3 Duress in the SB, combined with the MD counterspell suite, really makes me a favorite in games 2-3 against U/W Approach, W/B tokens, and other creatureless strategies. Gifted Aetherborn and Essence Extraction in the side plus vraska's contempt in MD are amazing against mono red games 2-3. Search + glimmer + gearhulk + scarab god is probably the grindiest thing you can be doing in std right now, so any game that goes long I'm capable of just grinding away a victory.
The main thing I'm still experimenting with is sweepers. Yahenni's Expertise and Rags // Riches are both options, but with all the various, giant, temur enegy creatures, with snek in the format, with dinosaurs, it seems like the unconditional sweep that reckoning offers is the best, despite the heavy drawback about the lands. Still not sure though, would love to hear feedback about the best sweepers given how the meta is shaping up.
Not sure how you can be hating on Glimmer, as it's probably one of the core / best cards in the deck. if we count a scry as 1/2 card, then glimmer is draw 3 for 4 mana at instant speed, which by itself is already a good rate. Not only the, but the extra energy comes in real handy late game when dealing with troublesome creatures that grow large, like a Longtusk Cub or a delirium Grim Flayer. I can't imagine dropping the small energy package of 4 Harnessed and 4 glimmers, as it's saved me in more games than I can count (along with 4 hubs).
But energy synergies aside, glimmer + gearhulk is literally the core of blue based control right now. The scry 2 draw 2 is the engine that lets us churn through our decks, dig for what we need, and almost always lets us turn that corner favorably, with a grip of cards in hand, to actually win the game. That being said I do like to side out 1 against Ramunap, but it's still a core card that I'm always happy to draw, just maybe not multiples in certain MU's.
Glimmer, more than anything else, makes blue based control possible. When Dig Through Time rotated out blue based control fell off a cliff, and the best control deck around was the B/W planeswalker deck, but it was the Glimmer + Gearhulk that made blue based control possible, either Jeskai, U/B, or U/R, all of which have the same core of Glimmer + Gearhulk.
Also, I've been considering swapping Thing in the Ice for Shielded Aether Thief as mono-red gets a LOT of it's damage in by disabling blockers, nothing's worse than spending turn 2 to play a TiTi, only for Ahn-Crop Crasher or Earthshaker Khenra to render it incapable of blocking for the turn, whereas the thief can be flashed in after attacks are declared, nulling a large source of the Mono-Red's power. And of course the 4 toughness is the magic number to avoid Mono-Red's Shocks and Abrades. Not sure if this would be effective, but just something I was considering.
Obviously TiTi is a huge asset because it can act as a crucial road block against other aggressive decks, like zombies or humans, and still be an additional threat in MU's where you have to worry about Dispossess or an abundance of removal, but I have always loved the energy sink and flash ability of Thief. Heck, since both are resilient to Suns, and since RDW is so popular now, maybe having both in the SB is correct.
Another option could be Unsummon, as all you really want in this MU is just a lot of cheap interaction, and card advantage doesn't really matter. Unsummon can have some fun shenanigans with Gearhulk too.
Also I have noticed a lot of lists are now running the full set of Supreme Will and only 1-2 Disallow. Currently, I'm still playing the full set of disallows and 2 Wills, but I was wondering what the opinions are of the ratio of Supreme Wills to Disallows.
Hmmm, Aven Mindcensor is an interesting choice, I assume you would want try and use it to stop the Gate to the Afterlife trigger that tutors up Gifts.
If you want to go that route, I'd just have Nimble Obstructionist in the SB, which would have a lot of different uses, including stopping Ormendahl in the mirror, stopping the Gate to Afterlife trigger, stopping all the Gearhulks ETB triggers.... the list goes on, its a versatile card.
I close A LOT of games out with Ormendahl, but only in certain MU's, so zombies, mono red, and other low to the ground aggro strategies. These games usually come down to races, and if I'm on the draw or never get a monument down, I'm usually loosing the race, and Ormendahl completely flips the game around, and odds are the opponent has no answer to deal with it. double grasp can deal with it, so can a Dark Salvation with 7 zombies in play, but the fact is he's a 1-2 turn clock that puts you out of lethal range, so unless the opponent has the answer in their hands, you're going to win.
The other time I'll go for the Westvale flip is if the game gets real grindy, and I can just sac 5 free warrior tokens, at which point I'm down no cards for him. Against any deck that has disallow, or even the potential for stifle bird in the board, I usually won't risk it.
Also, just curious what kind of MU's people are bringing Angel of Sanctions in for? Reason I ask is because if I bring in the angel, I really want to be SB'ing out all of my Dusk // Dawn, as the 2 do not play that well together. I'm thinking Fairgrounds Warden might just be better.
Resolved walkers are a nuisance for U/R to deal with. Even Grixis, because you're probably not running Hero's Downfall variant in a 3 color deck that also runs Cancel. Another options that a lot of people were playing in U/R control for a while was Brutal Expulsion which was a nice combo that bounced Gideon and exiled a scrounger, but its only a temporary solution, and Bolas is just going to smile at the 2 damage.
My experience with with Commit has always left me disappointed. I found the card to be clunky and awkward, and occasionally game winning in corner situations where annoying enchantments like Hidden Stockpile or Fevered Visions would resolve, and the new mill Fraying Sanity absolutely fits into this category, and of course it helps with planeswalkers threatening to go ultimate. By my complains were A) the 4 mana was expensive and the card was more often than not clunky in my hand and B) It never dealt with a threat permanently, as you'd see it again in 2 turns.
A card I think would be better is the new Consign // Oblivion which lets you bounce a very annoying threat, but later in the game lets you gain some card advantage and when the opponent gets low on cards it lets you permanently deal with the threat. You can do some cool things with this card if you opponent dumps their hand, like bounce something you don't like, then during opponents next draw step flash in a Gearhulk, cast Oblivion, and get a nice 2 for 1 including the threat you bounced. There's also opportunity for Gearhulk bouncing shenanigans when Gearhulk gets targeted with removal. The best part is the 2CMC casting cost of Consign gives you a lot more freedom to play around with.
Another utility land I'm really interested in Scavenger Grounds as this land can wreck delirium strategies, wreck the emerge decks that use Prized Amalgam and the new Champion of Wits and even have game in the Gearhulk mirrors, being able to clear out the GY while the opponent's Gearhulk is on the stack. Where was this land when Emrakul was legal.
Personally, I'm happy with the land count at 26, with the 4 dual black cyclers for when you flood out, and some combination of Censor and Hieroglyphic Illumination for when you get screwed.
This brings up an interesting new point I noticed, which is Censor vs Supreme Will. I've found you definitely don't want to go overboard with these 2 and entirely skip Disallow. While both censor and supreme will have utility in the late game, the fact is, in the late game, I'd rather have a hard 3 mana counter then either supreme will or censor, and I've found myself in the late game with multiple censors and wills in hand, no hard counter, and simply unable to stop opponents spells from coming down. I'm not really sure what the numbers should be, but i think 4-5 Cancel is still absolutely necessary.
I have several creatures in my SB for the various MU's that serve as alternate wincons after game 1. I've been running 3 Thing in the Ice, 2 Dragonmaster Outcast, and another 2 Sphinx of the Final Word. while Kefnet is good in the control mirror, I still prefer Sphinx, which is basically an auto win if you can land it first. I suppose now with Hour of Devastation Sphinx isn't quite as good, but I doubt Hour is staying in after game 1, and even if it does you can always use your now uncounterable Negate to stop it.
Thing in the Ice goes in against any aggro and especially against any black deck because of Dispossess. With Marvel gone Dispossess won't be showing up as much, but it still is definitely out there so TiTi is very important as the alt win con. Main matches it comes in are G/B, Mardu, and Zombies.
Dragonmaster I like in MU's where the opponent plays limited removal and is most likely siding a lot of it out. Spending a single mana on turn 6 to slip him on the battlefield is usually GG if you get to untap with him. I like to bring him in against the various Temur strategies, so emerge and energy and all those strategies, as well as decks like colossus or some of the jankier brews.
Maybe my style with U/R is different than other players, but I don't rely on Fumarole all that much outside of corner scenarios. The main advantage of U/R is being able to play at flash speed and just always represent countermagic and / or removal. if the opponent is top decking, or upticking a walker feely I'll fire up the Fumarole to pressure them, but outside of that I'd rather keep my mana free and cast my spells.
The solution I came up with is basically standard 8 rack. The idea is to just be a heavy hand disruption deck, essentially forcing opponents to either over commit to the board or have their hand stripped away from them. once the opponent has no hand and is top decking, reckoning has little to no drawback. The first draft I came up with is this
3 Fatal Push
2 Harsh Scrutiny
2 Collective Brutality
4 Lay Bare the Heart
4 Transgress the Mind
4 Bontu's Last Reckoning
4 Doomfall
4 Never // Return
4 Torment of Scarabs
3 Remorseless Punishment
Lands (26)
4 Canyon Slough
4 Fetid Pools
4 Desert of the Glorified
3 Ifnir Deadlands
3 Scavenger Grounds
8 Swamp
The list has no sideboard and is far from optimized, but it seems to me to be the best shell to make good use of Reckoning. A couple of notes on it:
This list is extremely low on Win Cons. The main one being Torment of Scarabs which I'm basically using as The Rack along with a possible Remorseless Punishment, both of which aim to just do direct damage to the opponent after stripping away all of their permanents and hand.
Mono black lets you add lots of different lands for utility, and I've only scratched the surface as for what's possible for utility lands. Blighted Fen has been a staple for heavy black control since it's been around, and something like Mirrorpool when combined with Remorseless Punishment can just win the game on the spot, theoretically capable of 20 points of damage.
This list that I threw together has 0 card draw or filtering, and I'm not sure if that's a mistake or not. Succumb to Temptation is a pretty bad card, but could give the deck some much needed velocity. What I did include however was a whopping 12 cycling lands, which will go a long way to prevent flooding, which is something that will just be a giant pain for this deck.
Anyways this is the brew I've been tinkering around with, would love to hear some feedback.