Because I am a budget player, this deck was constructed for the Modern format with the condition that its total value could not exceed $20.00, sideboard included. The value of each these cards was based on the Medium price rating for each card on TCGPlayer.com, in order to avoid inaccurately high or low prices. I hope that this decklist can be of use to other budget players, or simply any player looking for a fun casual deck that can be easily assembled. Enjoy!
This is not your standard Control deck. Although the basic gameplan is still the same (remove threats, delay game, gain card advantage, finish off weakened opponent), the methods used to achieve this are recursive and fairly unusual. Personally, I think that makes this deck really interesting to play, and even to play against.
Augur of Bolas and Treasure Mage are the only two creatures in this deck, appearing in the form of four copies and two copies, respectively. The Augur is an excellent earlygame blocker, often generating card advantage by letting you draw one of the deck's 22 instants or sorcieries. Treasure Mage is more narrow in focus, allowing you to search your deck for a Staff of Nin and put it into your hand. Because Staff of Nin forms a large portion of this deck's lategame strategy, playing a Treasure Mage is a very common midgame move.
Next are the removal spells.
Disfigure
, Doom Blade,
Dimir Charm
, Far / Away, and
Tribute to Hunger
are all in this deck as basic spot removal. Some of these cards are better earlygame, while others are better lategame, and a few of them have little synergies in this deck. For instance, Dimir Charm can be used to manipulate both your own draws as well as your opponent's, and the Far portion of Far // Away can be used to bounce your own Augur of Bolas or Treasure Mage to allow you to reuse their ETB triggers for even more card advantage.
Drown in Sorrow
and
Consuming Vapors
appear in this deck as cheaper, weaker boardwiping effects. Although the spot removal package in this deck should normally be enough to hold off most threats, occasionally you'll find the opportunity to have a two-for-one, and these cards will serve you well. A little scry or lifegain never hurt anybody, either.
Now for some utility spells.
Consult the Necrosages
, Crypt Incursion, and Spell Burst all appear in this deck in low quantities. Consult is essentially a choice between a Divination and a Mind Rot, providing this deck with some much-needed hand disruption, while Crypt Incursion can be cast in the mid or lategame for a huge surge of lifegain. Spell Burst is a little more insidious, appearing in the form of a repeatable counterspell. Although this deck is light on countermagic, drawing a Spell Burst in the lategame can mean doom for the enemy, often locking them out from playing spells for turns at a time.
Finally we have our Transmutation spells. Perplex and
Clutch of the Undercity
both have situational effects when you cast them, but that's not what they're normally used for. By using the Transmute mechanic as a sort of tutoring effect, we're able to locate specific spells more easily, virtually playing extra copies of every 3CMC and 4CMC spell in the deck. Perplex can be Transmuted to find Treasure Mage, Drown in Sorrow, Consult the Necrosages, Far // Away, Tribute to Hunger, or Crypt Incursion. Clutch is less versatile, but can still be used to find a Consuming Vapors or an
Icy Manipulator
, providing board control when you need it most.
Three copies of Elixir of Immortality appear in this deck. While this may seem excessive, it allows us to reuse spells that we may only have one actual copy of, places our Transmute spells back into the deck, shuffles away any bad topdecks we might see coming, and allows us to win the game through milling. A repeatable source of lifegain is also very helpful for putting ourselves out of reach of lategame burn spells, providing us with even more inevitability.
Icy Manipulator and Staff of Nin round out our artifact department by providing reusable board control and potentially huge quantities of card advantage. Each of these cards can be tutored for in some way, and a Staff of Nin can often be combined with an Augur of Bolas or Treasure Mage to whittle away at the enemy life total.
The landbase here is very important.
Nephalia Drownyard
provides a repeatable milling ability that most decks will have trouble removing, while Halimar Depths allows us to manipulate our draws more easily. (Tip: Don't like the cards that your Depths showed you? No problem. Tuck those dead draws away by playing a Treasure Mage, transmuting a spell, or cracking an Elixir!) Having choices is key in a deck like this.
The sideboard for this deck can be sort of confusing. Some of the cards are simply there to supplement the deck's removal and disruption packages, while others are there as silver bullet cards that can be tutored for in some way. If you have any questions about this deck, feel free to ask in the comments below.
This particular deck has good matchups against my BR Aggro and RG Midrange decks. It has poor matchups against my WU Control and GW Midrange decks. You can find the exact price listings for all of the cards in this deck at the link below.
http://pastebin.com/0bcxAmYN
- (Note that these prices may have fluctuated since this deck was created)
