I would cut 3 Doomfall, 1 Bontu's Last Reckoning and 1 Torrential Gearhulk.

Doomfall is incredibly expensive and is really good against either deck you mentioned in your meta.

Bontu's reckoning is a great card but it has a real cost and is irrelevant against Approach.

Gearhulk is fantastic but 4 is a lot. You have other win conditions with Hostage Taker and Tezzeret the Schemer. May I ask why you have tezzeret in this build?

Also I think Vraska's Contempt is fantastic against both decks and you could consider adding 1 more.

hwagner you might have missed the two extra copies I have of Vraska's Contempt, in the Sideboard.

Tezzeret the Schemer is there for a couple of reasons:

• It can help to mitigate the effect of Bontu's Last Reckoning.

• It also provides a way to ramp into Torrential Gearhulk and allow more than one spell to be cast a bit earlier.

• I always like Planeswalkers that help you get rid of Creatures, in Control decks. I ran Ob Nixilis Reignited and Sorin, Grim Nemesis in the last Control deck I played and they were phenomenal.

• It's ultimate provides another win con.

It's kind of an "Argy" card - a bit outside the box. If it works, it will be brilliant. If it doesn't, I will replace it.

I need all the Bontu's Last Reckoning as a way to stop Carnage Tyrant, and decks that have gone wide like Cats.

Yahenni's Expertise won't clear the board if Creatures have gotten too large.

Does that change your feedback?

I've cut this back to 61 cards and I'm going to leave this at that.

I might try this set up some, I will have to run with what I have since I only have 1 tezz and 1 hostage taker but I have 2 scarab gods i will add. I like how you plan to use the tokens from tezz to pay for bontu's. I may look into doing this for treasure map as well because I have seen that card working well for opponents I am facing.

how are you doing vs other control decks, this is where i feel my current UB deck is struggling. U/W approach and Grixis control?

I only JUST built this and have hardly run many tests with it.

You can see what I've tested against in the Update.

I'll report in the Update, as soon as I've done some tests against Control.

But I thought it only brought the boys to the yard?

Damn right.

It's better than yours.

I could teach you ... but I'd have to charge.

And you ain't got the money, honey.

+1 for There Will Be Blood reference

FINALLY someone gets it Pieguy396

You are a monarch among people.

I absolutely love that scene; Daniel Day-Lewis is absolutely amazing. Glad I could contribute something :)

On an actual deck-related note, have you considered running The Scarab God as a 1- or 2-of?

clayperce I asked a LGS today if they had this box.

They did, and I bought it JUST for this deck.

I wouldn't have known about it if you hadn't mentioned it on my other deck, so thanks for that.

I'm gonna sleeve up in hot pink.

Pieguy396 from my experience with Control decks you don't want too many Creatures, and I like what Hostage Taker and Torrential Gearhulk bring to the table better than The Scarab God.

Daniel Day Lewis is good in the whole movie but that scene is particularly effect due to the other fellah in it.

You feel his suffering.

Fair point. I'm not much of a Standard player, I just heard it's a pretty good card lol. Also, it seems like Tezzeret the Schemer doesn't actually do a lot here in a deck with no other artifact synergies. How is he working for you?

Question:

You noted that //static.tappedout.net/cache/b7/17/b71778e6c042ec4f95b63bb8df082fab.pngEtherium Cells if used to cast Bontu's Last Reckoning will allow all your Lands untap next Turn. I am newish to magic, so I'm curious how this is the case. The way I interpret Bontu's Last Reckoning is that lands in general don't untap during your next turn.

Hence, if I used only //static.tappedout.net/cache/b7/17/b71778e6c042ec4f95b63bb8df082fab.pngEtherium Cells to cast Bontu's Last Reckoning and then used 6 lands to flash in Torrential Gearhulk during my opponent's end step, I would still be unable to untap my 6 lands that I used to cast Torrential Gearhulk. Is that incorrect?

Pieguy396 did you read the section I wrote in the Description about why Tezzeret the Schemer is awesome in this deck?

You do realise that he makes his own Artifacts, right? And that Torrential Gearhulk is also an Artifact?

I suggest you play test this deck against some other Standard deck if you want to see how well he works.

Thousandoaks you've added an extra step to what I said.

I didn't say "use //static.tappedout.net/cache/b7/17/b71778e6c042ec4f95b63bb8df082fab.pngEtherium Cells to pay for Bontu's Last Reckoning, and then your lands will untap next step, even if you have tapped them to pay for something else".

The idea is to use //static.tappedout.net/cache/b7/17/b71778e6c042ec4f95b63bb8df082fab.pngEtherium Cells to pay for Bontu's Last Reckoning INSTEAD of lands.

Ah, yes, I did miss that. Even still, I feel like just the Etherium Cell tokens plus your Torrential Gearhulks aren't enough to make reliable use of his -2, and his +1 seems a little weak, although I guess his ultimate is excellent at ending games. I just ran a couple playtest games against 4C Energy, and both times I played a Tezzeret, he just died to some combination of Glorybringer, Longtusk Cub, Bristling Hydra, and Rogue Refiner. It's very possible that I simply misplayed and played Tezzeret when I should have held up mana to bluff a counter or cast a Glimmer of Genius, but whatever. You obviously know a lot more about this deck (and Standard) than I do, and from your description it looks like you don't have a lot of 4C Energy in your meta, so I'll assume you, unlike me, actually know what the heck you're doing lol.

Pieguy396 if you just did a playtest where you ended up with Glorybringer, Longtusk Cub, Bristling Hydra, AND Rogue Refiner on the field at the same time then you are either having an extremely bad draw, or there is something wrong with how you are playing this deck.

You should have been able to dispatch those Creatures one at a time, and you should also have gotten advanced warning that the Opponent had Glorybringer in hand, and/or have been able to dispatch it with Essence Scatter, either hard cast or flashed back with Torrential Gearhulk, or ripped it from hand with Harsh Scrutiny.

If you WEREN'T able to do that on Game 1, then you should have Sided more Creature removal in for Game 2.

I can't speak for other formats but, in Standard, you need an intimate knowledge of the meta to know which cards to play when, if you're piloting a Control deck.

None of the games had all of those on the field at once; I'm not that bad. All of the games I played were without sideboard, as I'm nowhere near experienced enough with either deck to make good sideboard choices. Once, Tezz died to a Glorybringer off the top with just a Rogue Refiner in play, and the other time it was a Longtusk Cub with 2 counters, and then I played a Bristling Hydra and Aether Hub to get the energy kill him. I tried to play as I would have if I didn't have perfect knowledge of my "opponent", although I may have overcorrected. I assume you generally wait until you have counter/removal protection before playing Tezz?

I find it's generally a good idea to read "How to Play" in my description, before playing the deck.

That's the reason why that section is there.

Check there and you will see how I said to play Tezzeret the Schemer

DRAINAGE, ELI. YOU BOY.

+1 from me.

Poor Eli.

You made me laugh, and spit coffee everywhere.

Thank you

Geo67 I hope you saved some of that coffee for Tezzeret the Thirsty.

The stuff still in the cup.

Not any that you spit out.

Argy,
:-D (on the deckbox)!

I had a look at the Pro versions of this deck and have moved some things around in mine, as a result:

• This deck was sorely in need of more draw, so I added 3x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip

• Took out Aether Hub for more Fetid Pools and Field of Ruin, which were two changes I was already considering

• Added 1x Essence Scatter and 1x Fatal Push, which I was also already considering

• All copies of Bontu's Last Reckoning have now gone, but there are more ways to pick little Creatures off one at a time, Counter them, grab them from hand, or steal them with Hostage Taker

• All Negate have been moved to the Sideboard, and a couple more added

Options now for dealing with Carnage Tyrant:

• Grab from hand with Harsh Scrutiny

• Forced Sacrifice with Doomfall

• Copy and block with Vizier of Many Faces (I actually had a dream about adding this card to my deck, the other night)

This deck has now gotten a lot stronger against Temur Energy.