U/B Control (BFZ)

Standard*

zandl

Creature (5)

• 2x Dragonlord Silumgar
• 1x Icefall Regent
• 2x Silumgar, the Drifting Death

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Ob Nixilis Reignited
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Land (27)

• 1x Blighted Cataract
• 4x Dismal Backwater
• 2x Flooded Strand
• 2x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
• 5x Island
• 4x Polluted Delta
• 1x Skyline Cascade
• 4x Sunken Hollow
• 4x Swamp

Instant (20)

• 4x Anticipate
• 4x Dig Through Time
• 2x Foul-Tongue Invocation
• 2x Murderous Cut
• 3x Scatter to the Winds
• 1x Silumgar's Command
• 4x Silumgar's Scorn

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Crux of Fate
• 3x Languish
• 2x Ruinous Path

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Sideboard

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Virulent Plague

Artifact (1)

• 1x Orbs of Warding

Instant (6)

• 2x Disdainful Stroke
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dragonlord's Prerogative
• 2x Negate

Sorcery (6)

• 2x Displacement Wave
• 3x Duress
• 1x Self-Inflicted Wound

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Here be dragons; a Blue/Black Control deck which utilizes the board-balancing strength of Dragonlord Silumgar , the stabilizing power of Silumgar, the Drifting Death , and the raw force behind Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. The vast majority of these cards aren’t new but haven’t necessarily been given their full time to shine in control decks yet. A friendly-yet-perhaps-unfamiliar face I’ve decided to add belongs to Icefall Regent. In future-Standard testing, Icefall is far more dependable in a format without Lightning Strike and Bile Blight, where the new removal is more expensive and tends to be slower. Icefall counts as a Dragon for our themed spells and lands hard on turn-5 to lock down a threat, often forcing the opponent to use up his or her next turn to deal with it (if even possible).

Another card I previously did not care for but am steadily growing fond of is Silumgar's Command. With the unfortunate loss of Hero's Downfall at rotation, control decks lose much of their ways to deal with resolved Planeswalkers. With this Command, we can take them out alongside a mid-sized creature or a noncreature spell. Many times in testing, this card felt strikingly similar to Far / Away (R.I.P.) due to its ability to completely turn the tides of the game on its own. It does butt heads with an already-top-heavy curve, but the one-of aspect of the spell here would likely serve us well as an “oh-crap” card that can pull us out of some pretty deep holes.

I sincerely hope people set aside their negative statements regarding Ob Nixilis Reignited’s complexity and just RTFC to see its implications. Ob Nixilis (a) kills stuff and (b) draws you cards, usually in that order. On a board with a lone Siege Rhino or any other single threat, Ob has the capability to take a firm hold of the game, generating value and Murdering anything you grimace at. Combine this value-engine on a slow board with a turn-6 Silumgar, the Drifting Death as a guard and I’m no longer sure how someone can realistically claw back into that game.

The other part of the deck I wanted to focus on is the land-base. Sadly, Radiant Fountain is no more and our 2 life goes away with it. Haven of the Spirit Dragon is a shoo-in since nothing is worse than sitting across from a Haven behind a Dragonlord you already can’t deal with once, let alone twice. It’s obvious we wouldn’t need an entire playset of Havens, though, considering we have but 6 targets in the entire list (and they won’t always be great to get back anyways). This leaves us with a few open slots. Blighted Cataract was an immediate first choice because things that can draw you cards without taking up spell slots are always good. After 1 copy, though, I’d be getting nervous about our chances of hitting 2 Blue mana on the second turn for Silumgar's Scorn. Since colored mana is a thing and the deck is already somewhat lacking in early-game control (turns 1-3), why not check both boxes with Skyline Cascade ? Imagine you’re on the draw against RDW and start at 19 life from a Monastery Swiftspear, but your turn-1 land is this into Scorn on the following turn - I like that, too.

Sideboard is basic stuff for now; after all, control decks need to know what to react to in order to do well, but the format is still being pioneered. We’ll stick with simple tools that we at least know are already effective and do their jobs well. Displacement Wave would appear to be the only odd man out here, but I fear G/W Hardened Scales will be tier-1 post-rotation and Languish just doesn’t cut it there. A well-timed D-Wave for 2 or 3 will wipe their board and give you at least 1 free turn to get something going. It’s also really handy against a Hangarback Walker that has recently been felled. -shrug-

Date added	9 years
Last updated	9 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 29 - 4 Rares 7 - 5 Uncommons 7 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	4.33
Tokens	Emblem Ob Nixilis Reignited
Folders	new deck idea