This is an attempt at a full blown Azorius themed control deck that aims to lockdown your opponent while you draw towards your win condition. (Probably Azor's Elocutors or one of the 6-7 drop flier that can hit hard with flying.)
PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO OFFER SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT!
Azorius Charms are absolutely fantastic, allowing you to not only remove an attacking/blocking creature from combat, but giving your opponent a dead draw. In a pinch it's card drawing capabilities are also extremely useful. I've yet to make use of the lifelink option but if I was swinging with a Righteous Authority empowered
Archon of the Triumvirate
or Isperia, Supreme Judge I can imagine that it would provide for a nice health boost in late game.
Azor's Elocutors have yet to win me a game with filibustering, but I only think of that as an added bonus. At the very least he's a solid blocker that can force your opponent into making reckless assaults on you in order to keep his counters low.
Sphere of Safety is an amazing card, especially if you can get two out. Selesnya decks with large armies of big creatures will be challenged to scrape up the mana just to attack with two or more creatures, that is, if they aren't detained.
Supreme Verdict
is a linchpin of this deck. Nothing says control like an un-counterable board wipe. Although things like rootbound defense can really thwart this it still is extremely useful.
Jace, Architect of Thought seems pretty unimpressive at first glance, which in fact is his greatest strength. Other planeswalkers like Vraska the Unseen are instant high priority targets, but Jace doesn't seem to cause much aggro in comparison. Between the other lockdown elements in this deck and his +1 it makes it very hard for opponents to get a good attack in.
Righteous Authority is a nice card, despite it's mana cost. Not only does it increase the attacking tax on your enemies with Sphere of Safety it allows you to draw twice a turn. This card advantage cannot be understated.
New Prahv Guildmage
hasn't performed spectacularly for me yet, but in some late-game situations his detain ability has made the difference. At the very least, a 2/2 for uw that can give a creature flying for a turn isn't half bad early on.
Moorland Haunt
serves double duty. It lets you exile creatures for your graveyard that you don't want enemies doing anything with, but it also provides nice 1/1 fliers for chump blocking.
Palisade Giant
is a nice way to prevent any and all damage on you for at least one turn. If your enemy cannot muster up at least 7 damage or a removal then you are virtually untouchable.
Witchbane Orb
seemed more like a sideboard option at first, but it became obvious fairly quickly that this deck's major weakness was target player abilities. With this out not only can Jace not even be damaged outside of combat damage (which he will be powering down) but you cannot be forced to discard/mill/sac/etc. With hexproof, you are basically saying that there is only one road to damage you, and it's with creature damage, which this deck is excellent at dealing with. Until of course, someone destroys it.
Sphinx's Revelation is an amazing card mid-game. If you are a little low on life and/or you don't have the cards you need yet, tap 6-7 and go fish. :)
Azorius Keyrune
is one of those cards serving double duty. In the early game it is an extra source of mana, and in mid to late game it can be a quick hitting flier present on the board right after a
Supreme Verdict
.
(Maybeboard)Negate, perhaps instead of Dissipate, could help a lot against other control decks, or with removal. If someone tries to Naturalize your
Witchbane Orb
, nothing would be more satisfying than to say "Nope."
By breaking away from standard and adding in a couple
Curse of Exhaustion
s and a
Knowledge Pool
or two you can have some very amusing games. Basically saying "I hope you didn't want to cast any more spells this game... oh well." While in the spirit of non-standard things, why not throw in a Windborn Muse? ;)
