i have been reading and
enjoying your articles for
some time now and i have
come to the conclusion that
you always seem to give
awesome advise witch is why
i have come to you to day
with my latest deck that i
have been working on. the
object of this deck is to
gain a card advantage over
my opponent by not allowing
them to draw any cards and
then finish them of with a
simic sky swallower . I've
been attending a local
tournament and getting my
butt kicked every week
please help.
UG CARD CONTROL DECK
4 birds of paradise
3 noble hierarch
4 eternal witness
3 man o war
4 simic sky swallower
3 recollect
4 plow under
4 temporal spring
4 time warp
3 remand
4 memory lapse
8 forest
8 islands
4 misty rain forest
as for side board i have no
idea what to do because i
have no idea what my
opponents will bring in but
i do know that i will be
going against players that
use older decks last weeks
winner was a deck based on
survival of the fittest and
second place was a landstill
deck and each week is some
thing new . i just want to
be competitive with the
other players please help =)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, the current build isn't
working out for you, eh? I
think I can guess why. Right
now, your only answers to
what your opponent throws at
you are Man-o'-War, which
can only bounce creatures,
Temporal Spring, which only
gets rid of a card for a
turn or so, and the
counterspells Remand and
Memory Lapse, which also put
the "answered" card back
where the opponent can
recast it next turn. You
have Plow Under as well, but
that only answers lands, and
again, it only puts them
back on top of the library
where your opponent can get
them again. In addition, if
you don't have a
counterspell in hand or
didn't leave mana open when
your opponent casts
something that you have to
stop, then you're screwed.
You have no real way of
dealing with anything that's
already resolved. Sure, all
of this can in theory slow
your opponent down to the
point where your Simic Sky
Swallowers can come online
and he's in no position to
stop you from beating him
down, but you told me you've
been "getting your butt
kicked", so you know from
experience that the theory
doesn't work in practice,
does it? Oh well. No harm in
trying new strategies-- we'd
never find any if nobody
tried them.
As I see it, there are two
ways to make this deck work.
Solution #1: Make Permanents
Temporary and make
"Temporarily" Permanent
Most, if not all, of your
stalling cards put their
target on top of your
opponent's library. Since
you're in blue, the color of
mill, why not use a
milling card to then put the
top card of your opponent's
library into their
graveyard? Then Temporal
Spring would become a
Vindicate and Plow Under an
even better Feast of Worms.
This is also the easiest
method-- just replace Remand
with Jace's Erasure or
Grindclock. Grindclock would
work nice here, since you'd
only really need one counter
on it to mill away anything
important that you snag with
Memory Lapse or Temporal
Spring.
The downside of this method
is that because you don't
really expect to mill your
opponent out as a win
condition, Jace's Erasure
and Grindclock would be dead
draws that would have no
impact on the game until you
put something on top of its
owner's library. Combos are
nice, but it's best to avoid
playing cards that do
nothing without their
matching combo piece,
especially if the combo
doesn't win you the game
outright. Adding a few more
mill cards could make
milling a viable "plan B",
but most decks don't need a
plan B as much as they need
to get better at executing
their plan A.
Solution #2: Get Hard on
Soft Removal
This one requires more card
replacements, but may be
worth it. Take out every
"answer" card you have and
replace it with a card that
does the
same thing, but makes the
answered card or spell go
where your opponent can't
try to play it again next
turn. Man-o'-War would
probably become Acidic
Slime, Mystic Snake, or Mold
Shambler. Remand and Memory
Lapse would become Mana
Leak, Rune Snag,
Counterspell, Negate, or
Voidslime. Temporal Spring
would become... Rootgrapple,
I suppose. There isn't
really much replacement for
Plow Under, though. Drain
the Well, maybe? Creeping
Mold? Feast of Worms isn't
good enough if your
opponents don't use
legendary lands.
The downside to Solution #2,
however, is that Green and
Blue just aren't the go-to
colors for killing
creatures. Sure, green can
deep six pretty much any
other type of permanent, and
blue is just about the only
color that can stop instants
and sorceries, but killing
creatures is the purview of
Red, Black, and White.
Man-o'-War is probably the
best you're going to find in
that regard, although Acidic
Slime's deathtouch makes it
a good candidate for scoring
a 2-for-1 for you if it can
destroy one card with its
ability and another through
combat.
|