This deck is based off of a deck called UW fun police which I got from This link. You might take a look at this deck and go okay you want to mill your opponent out as slowly as possible with a codex shredder. Well if you think that, then you are only about .001% correct. While codex shredder can serve as an eventual win con about 20+ turns after you play, the real win con of this deck is to waste as much time as possible game one to demoralize your opponent until they scoop from frustration then tossing in greater threat density from the sideboard game 2 if you change the board around a bit or wasting as much time as possible in game 2 and going to time. You may be asking why play codex shredder then instead of the typical UW control cards in the format. They are pretty good at wasting time and demoralizing your opponent. That is a very good question with a simple answer. There is absolutely no reason to. Codex Shredder is actually a pretty bad card in terms of winning the game, but the point here is to drag the game on until you opponent conceded. That being said, codex shredder does offer something else besides its mill 1 ability. That would be its second ability that nobody really cares about because it is actually pretty expensive, but it can offer some strategic value later on in the game. Scenario 1: you drop it T1 in the control mirror. They have 2 options. They can either a). Let it sit there and mill them ever so slowly in which case the long game now favors you. In addition to milling them 1 a turn, it also acts as a shitty Snapcaster Mage in that it can recur a counter spell from your grave. Or b) they can attempt to Detention sphere it. If they try that then You just have to worry about resolving all of you Jace, Architects of Thought Because if all 4 land, one of them is going to stick and basically be card advantage that your opponent has minimal say in.
Scenario 2: You are playing against some form of Aggressive or Midrange creature based deck. Your opponents board is full and they have lethal next turn and you have already used all of your verdicts, or you have used 3 and are searching for the last one. Instead of fretting or using that Sphinx's Revelation that will probably not hit what you need anyway why not just codex shredder a verdict back use it to clear their board and use that revelation from a much more advantageous position.The point that I am trying to stress here is that codex shredder offers something just as good as if not better than card advantage. It offers card selection. The ability to use codex shredders as revelations or verdicts 5-7 is a beautiful thing especially when you are waiting on the elixir to shuffle it all back in. Even better is that it doesnt exile so you can use the same verdict from the yard several times and you opponent will never know that you have another in hand.With all that said I still have to admit that codex shredder is actually still a bad card. It is a very fragile win condition and very vulnerable so we need something to make it better. That is where the one of trading post comes in. Trading post allows us to buy Back our shredders in the late game and gives us something to do with them in case they are hit by a needle in the sideboard games. We can cycle them and Buy them back until we hit one of our d spheres or revoke existence to deal with their needles and then win the game that way.The original fun police had a few different cards than the list that I am running. The list that I saw did not play mutavaults, it did not play Encroaching Wastes, and it played a playset of Bloodbaron of vizkopa in the side and some number of Fiendslayer Paladins. Mutavaults are way to good to not include in a UW deck. While I admit that I do want to get a codex shredder mill going most of the time, it is sometimes better to start swinging out with the vaults. If vault is offering you opponent a 5 turn clock and Shredder is going for 10+ turn clock they will probably dig for mutavault removal first which allows you to better protect your Codex Shredders. Encroaching wastes is another interesting card. You can actually play the deck without it, but I have killed enough Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and mutavaults to say that the card is necessary. Also it gives you some protection in case someone is playing Maze's End(God Forbid) which this deck, like all UW decks, is surprisingly soft to game 1 and somewhat into game 2 since wastes and Pithing Needle are the only cards that can really interact with the deck. Bloodbaron is a fantastic card and I thoroughly love it, but Im not really sure that it is the right card for this deck. It was originally going to be used against the black decks once they take out their devour fleshes and against UW decks once their verdicts are gone. Then you play this card and close the game out. Only problem is that most black decks still play lifebane zombie and Ive gotten this card stripped from my hand more times than I have played it. And in the mirror you dont really want to turn their counter spells on too often to fight over your things. You want them to tap low so that you can fight over their cards more effectively. So that card was omitted. I instead chose to replace it with a 2 Doom Blade 2
Dark Betrayal
suite. Aggressive decks are sometimes a problem and having an extra way to deal with a master of waves or a Stormbreath Dragon is pretty critical in any UW deck. Dark Betrayal is obviously for the black decks. As you can imagine Obzedat, Ghost Council is a real problem card for this deck. Once it resolves it just kind of stays there and you will need a solid way to deal with it. Both of these cards will also have a really nice surprise factor. Game 1 they just see you playing your typical UW spells then all of a sudden boom. Their
Master of Waves
met the Doom Blade and all they had was a
Gainsay
in hand.The fiendslayer paladins have been replaced with 1 Negate and a 2 Revoke Existence. Negates along with Gainsays are obviously good in the mirror there isnt much explanation there. Revoke is also good in the mirror, but you can also bring in one or both in order to deal with underworld connections in against the mono black deck. This is especially important against the mono black deck splahshing green for abrupt decay. Your d sphere wont always stick and you will need a back-up plan. The card can also be brought in against the devotion decks as anti-god tech or whenever you find it usefulThere is a second Negate and a
Glare of Heresy
in the side that have not been accounted for. That is because I trimmed down the number of
Gainsay
in the side. While gainsay is good in the mirror and against the mono blue decks. At the end of the day the mono blue deck is still a creature deck so you want doom blade verdict and last breath in for their creatures. Gainsay is really just there for Jace, Architect of Thought and Jace, Memory Adept that they may bring in and the potential AEtherling out of the board. Also at the end of the day the UW deck will probably stay a control deck. Negate will get you there most of the time, but you will have quite a few dead cards to take out during this matchup so feel free to side in those gainsay or whatever else you feel as though you may need. I will admit that there is a UW devotion deck that is going around and shaking things up. It is very similar to the mono blue deck except it has access to a lot of the cards that make up the core of this deck ie. Supreme Verdict,
Detention Sphere
, and
Azorius Charm
. Depending on the list it may also play some number of counter spells main.
All in all this deck functions like your typical UW control deck with a few minor differences.Pros: This deck is more favorite in the late game since it has the ability to interact with the graveyard and recur all of its major threats. Since your major threats curve out at 4, you have more mana available during the critical parts of the game to counter spells and detention sphere things.Cons: This deck is significantly more mana intensive the your typical UW deck since it has no high curve cards to sink its mana into. While your typical UW deck can play Elspeth and then keep 2 or 3 mana up to protect it, you can expect to make it to turn 9 and still not have enough mana to cast all of your spells. You may need to tap 5 to activate codex shredder and get a Dissolve from your yard and then tap 3 more to play the dissolve you just used 8 mana to stall the game. Basically once you get behind with this deck, you really get behind. Dont expect to do anything significant with this deck until after turn 10. You are really just stalling the game until you can chain revs and elixirs until your opponent concedes. That is your true win con.Alternative suggestions for the deck to fit your needs. This deck is a bit more mana intensive than your standard UW control deck. It could be advised to move the trading post to the side or remove it all together and then playing a 27th land. And maybe removing something like a last breath or an azorius charm in favor of a 28th land. You really dont want to miss land on UW and your really really dont want to miss on UW codex shredder. If you are confortable with removing the Trading Post from the main then you could also think about removing the Ratchet Bomb as well. They were really there for me to add some extra utility and Synergy to the Trading Post.The Gainsay:Negate ratio can be adjusted a bit to fit your local Meta. You could also add Essence Scatter Somewhere in the board.Jace, Memory Adept May be a card that you would want somewhere in your 75. Sometimes you need to wrap the game up in a hurry and 5 turns to deck is about as fast as a deck like this can get.Elspeth, Sun's Champion could also be useful in the side I guess. But lets be honest you will find yourself siding her in and the codex shredders out most of the time, so you may as well be playing the same old boring UW list that everybody else is playing and you have no reason to even be reading this description.AEtherling One of my most hated ways of winning out of a blue based deck. I would honestly rather lose to codex shredder than this card. At least when codex shredder is dropped I know that it was probably my fault for ignoring it for so long. With this you either have an answer or you have 3 turns to find one. Add this card back in if you need a quick win in the mirror without too much fuss. Although you should be warned. Aetherling is normally a card that wins the game when you are already winning the game if that makes any sense. Unless it is the mirror. The mirror is a strange strange place that you almost never want to go to.There are also a handful of other cards you could add to this deck that I dont really want to talk about because I feel as though they are either very situation or not really impressive. Archangel of Thune for aggressive decks or even the burn decks if you can last that long. Brimaz, King of Oreskos good all around beater and an excellent blocker. Can keep up with an Assemble the Legion or an Elspeth, Sun's Champion for about 2-3 turns.Ashiok, Nightmareweaver aka the new drownyard.And whatever other cheesy way you can think of.
If you dont like the idea of playing black lands just for the scry, and feel as thought the Doom Blades and
Dark Betrayal
s are lack luster you could remove the black lands all together and go for Guildgates and/or basics in those 8 slots. You will also free up some room for some sideboard tech.I also have some warning about the deck. Firstly stay away from Hero's Downfall, Thoughtseize, and Duress. This is not an Esper deck. You may be thinking that since it has 8 black lands and it is playing Black spells in the side that these could be useful. Im here to tell you theat they are not. Those cards are traps. If you want those cards go play an actual Esper deck. The double black in heros downfall is just a pain ecspecialy when all of your black lands are tapped lands. Besides you already have the ability to deal with every single permanent in Standard except for Obzedat from the main board alone. Also single discard is not where you want to be with this deck. I feel like the reason you make people discard is so that you can resolve a threat. When you only real threat is a codex shredder I think that your problem is probably protecting it more than anything. Also the deck is not playing divination so you have no real way to refuel your hand after a string of discard. It is better to stock up on counter spells so that you can fight when you have to and not try to preemptively take things that may or may not be there. If you really want to play some form of discard out of the side I would advise Sin Collector he gives you information and gives you opponent a clock to deal with. If you like playing control and feeling like an ass after every game of magic, then this is the deck for you. Feel free to change the sideboard to fit your local meta. To be honest if you are piloting this deck right the sideboard wont really matter since you game 1 will literally take forever and game 2 will most likely go to time. I would also like to suggest not taking this version of UW control and playing it on MTGO since you will most likely time out halfway through game 2. If you do play this on MTGO I would advise adding the bloodbarons back to the side. AEtherling and Jace, Memory Adept could also speed things along a bit for the second and maybe third games. One of them will most likely be required, but both probably wont be necessary.
