New and updated decklistThis description will be filled with card analysis, reasoning behind why I chose the cards, and amount, and useful information for whoever wants to know.
Press this button, Dave, to give the deck a +1 This is a UWR Control deck
This version of the deck is a pretty standard shell, with differing values here and there. Control is a very versatile deck, able to deal with almost anything, and turn the game around instantly.
This is incredibly important. You must always know what you're doing, know which lands to fetch, if at all, which card to play. Know the deck inside out. If you know your 75 perfectly, sideboarding becomes really quick, and it can sometimes throw the opponent off, or if they were busy thinking about their own sideboard, didn't pay attention to what you were doing.
Know the meta:
Another vital thing. For a properly constructed control deck, you need to know what the meta is, and how to beat the top decks. From this, you can determine which cards are better than others, and what you should prioritize.
Know the game:
This may seem obvious, but you need to know all the possible interactions your deck can make. Knowing the rules can win you the game, and cause the opponent to misplay themselves to a loss. Know what you are doing.
Transition statement:
Now that you know what is required to play control, remember that it is not an easy deck to play, and you must think about many different things while playing. Do not choose this as your first deck. Do not buy into it without appropriate testing. Lastly, make this deck your own. The below 75 is my 75, and yours will be different based on how you want to play, and what you think is good.
This is UWR Control, not UWR Midrange, so no Restoration Angel or Geist of Saint Traft. This is meant for extra threats which provide control utilities for us.
Snapcaster Mage: This expensive little 1U buddy, a worthy modern staple, is responsible for flashing himself in allowing us to recast virtually half of our deck, while providing a little 2/1 body which can sometimes be very useful. A playset is run due to his amazing ability. The Snappy beatdown plan is a legitimate one. Half the time, you win games without ever seeing a win condition.
Venser, Shaper Savant: A pseudo-Cryptic taking the place of the third. Incredibly high utility and versatility. Returning spells to their owner's hands and getting a 2/2 is a fantastic tempo play, and gets past the 'uncounterable' keyword due to how his ability has been worded. Bouncing permanents back to hand is another worthwhile utility play. You can timewalk the enemy sometimes by bouncing expensive creatures or screw with their mana by bouncing an 'enter's tapped' land.
Ajani Vengeant: A great finisher which helps a lot against aggressive decks. His ult wins against land decks, including control matchups. -2 keep you alive, and is removal. +1 good for screwing their mana and keeping fatties tapped down.
The usual suspects here. Nothing new about the spell shell, except the quantities of some of the cards.
Cryptic Command: We run 2-3 of these, but it costs 1UUU, which can sometimes be difficult to cast, usually not, with the overwhelming amount of blue mana. Incredibly versatile and useful in almost all late game situations. Weak in the early game. I'm running 2 Cryptics because Venser takes the third slot.
Electrolyze: Although it has a weird mana cost, it can usually kill 2 things, and draw us a card. Is it me, or is that good? It can really put on the pressure on decks that play Dark Confidant or any other 1-2 toughness dude. Amazing against Affinity, since it hits two dudes, and draws a card. Very good in grindy matchups, since the card draw is very relevant.
Lightning Bolt: Probably the best card in modern. Costs R for 3 damage. Versatile, strong, relevant. Snap 4 of.
Lightning Helix: Almost as good as Lightning Bolt, provides us with life to buy time against aggro decks. It's a better counterspell against burn than Counterspell most of the time.
Serum Visions: Draws cards and fixes draws. Invaluable to have the ability to fix draws. It's a great cantrip and provides the opportunity to set up draws against different decks.
Mana Leak: Amazing counter spell. Absolutely amazing in the first 5 turns. Afterwards, people debate its utility, hence why Logic Knot is in the deck. It's on a 2-3 split with Logic Knot.
Path to Exile: Best removal card in modern, after Lightning Bolt, (Bolt damages players, too). Only running 3 for creatures that we can't deal with, like Tarmogoyf and sometimes Gifts Ungiven creatures. Not the best in conjunction with Mana Leak, but the removal is too important to bother about that.
Logic Knot: A bigger Mana Leak that focuses on late game rather than early game. The Delve mechanic gives it viability early on and makes it quite useful against decks that can instantly make mana, like Storm, to determine how much to make them pay.
Sphinx's Revelation: Former standard staple, pretty great to draw into late game. Gives the deck the boost it needed with only 8 sources of card draw. Gaining life can be pretty monumental against aggro, keeping you alive an extra turn. Seeing how this IS NOT a Revelation deck, we only run 1. Can feel clunky against counterspells, but does great against BGx decks and anything grindy.
Secure the Wastes: A win condition that makes a ton of 1/1s.
Censor: A small Mana Leak with the fantastic ability to cycle. If it's a dead draw it transforms into another card and is still available with Snap. The versatility it brings is valuable.
Supreme Verdict: We like to clear the board to maintain board control. It's a catch all, and cannot be countered. Quite good against Eldrazi decks or any creature decks.
Land makes up about 1/3 of the price of this deck, and is really damn important. We need to run specific land to put ourselves in a better position.
Fetch Lands: 4x Flooded Strand, 3x Scalding Tarn, 1x Arid Mesa
These are very expensive, but also very good. Thins out our deck just enough so we won't draw into a land from a Sphinx's Revelation or Cryptic Command. Very good for getting to right land for the situation. Fuels Delve.
Shock Lands: 2x Steam Vents, 2x Hallowed Fountain, 1x Sacred Foundry,
Steam Vents are the best shock lands, with Hallowed Fountain close second. We get extra white from our Celestial Colonnade and have so much blue, that we can afford a singleton of Foundry. The Fountains are good as lands than enter untapped in order for us to cast responsive cards like Part to exile. The double black sources are to fuel our greedy desires. Having only two black sources is super greedy, but the mana base is already so tight as is.
Celestial Colonnade: A lot of the time, this will be our win condition. 4/4 Flyer with vigilance, meaning you can tap it for mana after attacking is just insane. We run 3 because it can be very clunky to draw into too many of them. We will almost certainly have one by the time we need it.
Glacial Fortress, Sulfur Falls, Spirebluff Canal: Checklands are relevant mid-late game. They don't hurt us, provide two colours, and enter untapped. The fastland is a great card early game to give us easy two coloured land to potentially cast T1 Serum Visions. Saving the life from fetching is worth running 1, but they enter tapped mid-late game and we never want to draw into it past turn 3.
Tectonic Edge/Ghost Quarter: We like to have an amount of land destruction cards. Against Tron, Infect and Affinity, Ghost Quarter is better, but against grindy decks, Tec Edge is the superior option. Meta dependent.
Desolate Lighthouse: The loothouse will gain us incremental value at the end of each turn. Very valuable when digging for a win con, or the right spell.
Basic Lands: 2x Island, 1x Mountain, 1x Plains
Generally we only need 2 blue sources to win a game, but basics are good counterplay to Blood Moon.
Most cards are only singletons based on the fact that the mainboard works really well a lot of the time, and only a few cards are bad. A control deck's sideboard is almost always very versatile and ready to deal with every situation.
Anger of the Gods: Exiles small creatures, which is relevant against Affinity, Company and other weenie decks. A great extra sweeper. Can come in against most small creature decks.
Blessed Alliance: A better Timely Reinforcements that gives options. The lifegain is great and the Edict is great. All-star against burn, infect, Death's Shadow decks, Bogles, etc.
Celestial Purge: Very good to kill turn 2 Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil and other annoying black or red cards that can be a pain. It hits all permanents, not just creatures so can hit enchantments like Blood Moon.
Ceremonious Rejection: Colourless decks suck, and so we must punish them. Affinity is mostly colourless. Eldrazi and Tron are colourless. Punish their artifacts. Punish those nasty Eldrazi. Stop Urza's greatest creation from ever having freedom.
Counterflux: Almost exclusively for Storm, but can work in the mirror.
Dispel: In a world full of instant speed cards, it's always a good idea to have a number of these in the 75. It can deal with just about anything from control decks and works against Storm and other combo decks.
Izzet Staticaster: Any small creature decks will be punished for running x/1s. Company decks get hurt, Affinity gets hurt, Merfolk gets hurt.
Jace, Architect of Thought: Great in both the mirror and other grindy matchups. Decks that run 1/1s will not beat Jace. The -2 mini Fact or Fiction is his main ability, but the ult helps out a lot, too.
Molten Rain: Dishonour on you, dishonour on your lands.
Negate: Like Dispel, this is here to deal with the frustrating spells that matter. The condition is non-creature spells, but that's such a huge card pool that it's rarely irrelevant.
Rest in Peace: Nukes any graveyard decks and combo decks that use the graveyard. Dredge can't win through RIP. Storm almost loses on the spot to RIP. Reanimator strategies die.
Threads of Disloyalty: I am a simple mage. I see small creature, I take it.