The main idea of the deck is to control the board until turn 7 when we are casting Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh.
I must say the hardest part of the deckbuilding was the mana base, since if you can't cast your cheap removal on curve you will have big problems against aggro and midrange decks. Hour of devastation is the card that shines here, since it can wipe out the entire board most of the time, including Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Selfless Spirit and Archangel Avacyn
triggers. I must say that Hour of Devastation is indeed the card that is making this archetype possible, recovering some of the weaknesses of the previous UR Control. Now lets jump into the cards and my choices explanation:
Instants:
2x Abrade - This card is just too good, gives you answer to most creatures and gives you maindeck flexibility, which is very important. It allows you to kill
Heart of Kiran
turn 2, which you cant do with Harnessed Lightning if you don't have bonus energy, and more important Oketra's Monument.
2x Magma Spray - The card you want to see when you are playing vs Zombies and more important Scrapheap Scrounger. I'm not playing 4 copies because 2 damage removal in certain matchups will be stuck in hand
3x Fatal Push - Great card vs aggro and midrange decks, not playing 4 copies because against control and some combo matchups i would have too many dead cards maindeck
4x Harnessed Lightning - The best removal in the deck in my opinion. Although we don't have many ways to produce energy, I feel like Glimmer of Genius can help this card make the 5-6 damage needed to solve the big BG creatures and enemy gearhulks
3x Disallow - Best countermagic of the deck, only issue is that it can remain stuck in hand on the first turns when we really need it because we don't have 2 specific blue mana. Playing only 3 copies for this reason
1x Essence Scatter - I feel like we have so many removals already, I'm not sure on this card and I'm looking to replace it in the future with a more meta-oriented card. It is for sure a good card, and it will always do some work
4x Glimmer of Genius - I love this card, it makes you dig 4 cards deep into your deck, makes you energy for Harnessed Lightning and Aether Hub and it's a great target for Torrential Gearhulk. 4 copies of this card are a must
2x Supreme Will - This card is very sweet, just like Abrade it gives you flexibility and it will never be a dead card. I will test this card a lot and I'm still not sure on how many copies I want to play, but I think 2 is the minimum
Sorceries
1x Cut / Ribbons - I used to play this card back in Mardu Vehicles and I just fell in love with it. I'm not sure if this card can actually close games in a control deck just like it did in Mardu. I will test this one but I can say it will be probably removed for a counterspell since we are a bit light on them
2x
Never / Return
- Great card, very flexible. It can answer planeswalkers if you don't wanna burn early Hour of Devastation, it can exile Scrapheap Scrounger and much more, the only drawback is that it is sorcery speed and 4 mana for its second ability is a lot. I will probably cut one in the future.
2x Sweltering Suns - Good card, did some work on the Amonkhet metagame. We still don't know how good this card will be in this meta, but we know for sure that if this card sucks we can always cycle it. I'm playing 2 copies that can turn into 0, 1 or 3 depending on the meta.
2x Hour of Devastation - I think that this is by far our best card in the deck. This is just AMAZING. It kills almost everything, and it even leaves your Torrential Gearhulk alive. This is even one of the few answers in standard to a flipped abbey. I will test even more copies of this card maindeck and see how it works.
1x
Dark Intimations
- I was waiting for Nicol Bolas to jump in standard just to see how this card works. It will probably suck but it's just too much flavor not to play it.
Creatures
4x Torrential Gearhulk - Do I have to say something about this card? Don't we already know how GREAT it is? I'm watching this card slowly taking Snapcaster Mage's slot in some control modern decks like Jeskai and UW. This is just enough to say how good this card is. Play 4 or go home
Planeswalkers
2x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh - This is our biggest win condition. I have to say that this is not a busted planeswalker, one like Ugin or Karn that you cast and win the game on the spot. It is a balanced planeswalker that lets you take over the game if you are not so behind on the board. All his abilities are very strong, and you can close out the game at the cost of 12 loyalty, burning the opponent for 21 damage. I'm playing 2 copies because we have many can trips, and by turn 7 we will have it in hand most of the time. And don't forget
Dark Intimations
recursion!
Manabase
As I said this is by far the most difficult part of the deckbuilding. Our goal is to make the first 4 landdrops and the sixth untapped. This is obviously very hard, and I designed the manabase with this objective in mind. Since 25 lands are a lot, and without fetchlands in standard we may flood out late game, I put 2 BR cycle lands. Didnt wanna put U-based cycle lands since we need a lot of U specifics to cast our Disallows, Torrential Gearhulks and so on. I play only 2 Wandering Fumaroles because I feel like we already have enough win conditions and we can't afford to play many more tap lands
SIDEBOARD
2x Abrade - Side in matchups where you need those 3 damage or you have many artifact targets
2x Chandra, Flamecaller - UW monument is a real deck now, and it has recursion thanks to Dusk / Dawn. This card can easily wipe out a small board and close the game the remaining turns. How can this be bad
2x Dispel , 2x Negate - COUNTERWARS !!! In some matchup we just wanna resolve Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh and well, here we are with all our countermagic
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - This card is huge in some matchups. If you can play Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Sweltering Suns on the same turn you will just win on the spot in matchups like UW monument and Zombies. Remember that your zombies won't die to Dusk / Dawn
1x Sphinx of the Final Word - This card is very good in control matchups, just be sure to protect her from removal when you plan to cast it because it will very likely win the game on its own if you can do so.
3x Thing in the Ice
- Not sure on this one, I don't know how easily we can flip it in this deck. I will test this one a lot
CARDS THAT I DIDN'T PUT IN THE DECK
Pull from Tomorrow - I think that this card is just too slow for this meta, and it's a nombo with Torrential Gearhulk.
Grasp of Darkness - Will we really have 2 black mana before turn 4-5 ?
Censor - This card is great for sure, and will probably take the slot of Essence Scatter and Fatal Push or Magma Spray depending on how the meta evolves. I used to play this card in Temur Marvel and it was dead most of the time. We will see
Bontu's Last Reckoning - Why play this card when you have so many sweepers without such a big drawback?
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - We are playing control, we want to Glimmer of Genius turn 4 or stay open for removals. Chandra will most likely be cast and die on the following turn.
Torment of Hailfire - I have learned by experience that everytime you let your opponent choice, it will never be game changing, unless you cast this card for X=8 or more
I hope you enjoyed this "guide", I will try to update this as long as I test this list, putting records on competitives and FNMs, and sideboard guides as long as the meta is established. I will play the Regional PTQ on August and this is the deck that I wanna test right now. Please make suggestions below, hope you enjoyed, CYA.
