The greatest strength of this deck is its ability to find the right tool to advance is game plan due to the fact that most of it cycles.
Basically the goal is to use Drake Haven to keep putting 2/2 flyers on the board and beating the opponent's face with them.
Censor, Countervailing Winds, Renewed Faith,
Settle the Wreckage
, and Fumigate help to stall out the game and can be cycled to go get a Drake Haven, make Drakes, or try find a more appropriate answer.
Hieroglyphic Illumination, Arch of Orazca, and Abandoned Sarcophagus are the card advantage engine for this deck. Arch of Orazca can be used to draw cards in the late game with excess mana. Abandoned Sarcophagus effectively makes the graveyard an extra hand since it means cards with cycling can be cast from the graveyard.
Although many of the lands in the deck can be cycled, it is important to remember that this deck is very mana intensive. Do not be afraid to play cycling lands as lands in order to make land drops. The only times cycling lands should be cycled are if it is necessary to find a different card or to make drakes after stabilizing.
Sideboarding:This deck usually has a very solid game 1 match up against most decks in the format. The sideboarding plan goes as follows:
Authority of the Consuls - These are a hedge against super aggro haste decks since buying the extra turn can often be the difference between stabilizing using a
Settle the Wreckage
or Fumigate and just losing. I would only ever suggest bringing them in on the draw.
Forsake the Worldly - Just needed something random to fill a slot. They cycle and exile artifacts and enchantments at instant speed which can be useful.
Gideon's Intervention - Mostly for the Approach of the Second Sun decks. If they're particularly greedy and not running any other win conditions, this card can win the game spot. The most common removal those decks will have is Cast Out which can be answered by Cast Out.
Ixalan's Binding - Useful against decks that run a lot of the same card. It is most often better to just rely on Cast Out since Cast Out cycles and can be cast from the graveyard thanks to Abandoned Sarcophagus.
Lay Claim - Costs too much mana but can be a fun answer to decks that rely heavily on a single permanent. Taking control of
The Scarab God
seems decent and Lay Claim can always be cycled.
Nimble Obstructionist
- Despite being expensive to cycle,
Nimble Obstructionist
having flash makes it good in control matchups that rely on sorcery speed removal since it can be played end of turn.
Comments:The deck's mainboard is pretty consistent and powerful on its own. I would be careful not to over sideboard and risk upsetting its balance too much by running too many non-cycling cards. For this reason, I would suggest running another cycling desert instead of Shefet Dunes since the latter seems like just a win more card.
The deck sideboard is pretty meh. I would suggest running 4 of Negate and some number of Dispel. I haven't found a good answer to UW Control decks that run Scavenger Grounds other than to try to out tempo them by sideboarding in counterspells and keeping them from using card draw spells. These matchups often come down to using the Ipnu Rivulets at the right time and sometimes decking your opponent.
I have been considering some number of Oketra's Attendant for the sideboard. They dodge counterspells really nicely with Embalm, but are too slow most of the time.
