I like this deck and it is very similar to mine. Mine is always a work in progress but take a look at it and let me explain some changes I would make. I think you have too many creatures for a control deck. In control, you only want to drop creatures late game. I am talking turn 6 or later so that you always have many up to counterspell. Having too many little creatures in the deck is always going to result on you having to cast on your turn and closing your mana down. There are enough finishers in standard that won't die to removal that you need more counterspells. Reaper of the Wilds and Pack Rat need to be countered. Same with AEtherling . It is better to take all those little creatures that can't act as finishers out and have more counters instead like Essence Scatter and Counterflux . I would just take things like Izzet Charm out. I would also get rid of anything that makes you cast on your turn, like Fluxcharger and Nivix Cyclops . You need a finisher that will do work while you continue to control and protect it from removal. It shouldn't depend on your casting because the goal of control is to only cast when they do. That being said, Mizzium Mortars is very powerful and should still be in. You can't be afraid to do some casting on your turn. Opportunity should only be played on their turn though. So there are my thoughts. I have been trying to make this deck playable for a long time and just want to share ideas. I really like your thought process in adapting the deck so far (I read all of the updates) but I just want to save you some trouble. Here's mine

Thanks for the input! I probably do need more counterspells, but I don't want to overload on them. For control, this deck focuses on burn than counters. However, like you pointed out, there are some guys that won't die (or would be hard pressed to die) to that type of removal. (Another one you didn't mention was Mistcutter Hydra .) For that, I've added Ratchet Bomb to the sideboard, but that's probably not enough. I'll go ahead and add some counters. I think I'm going to stick with Dissolve and Counterflux rather than Essence Scatter , though. Dissolve always has a nice added bonus, and Counterflux is great in a mirror matchup. Essence Scatter can be great, but due to it being useful in certain circumstances, I'd rather not run it. (The same reason I'm not running Negate )

I disagree with removing Izzet Charm , though. It's not the best card ever, but it serves several different purposes due to its versatility. It can act as a Negate with a caveat, it can cycle through my deck, or it can act as burn. I'd rather keep it, but I understand why you disagree.

I'm not really sure about the Fluxcharger and Nivix Cyclops thing either. I could probably take out Fluxcharger , but I'm hesitant to, as if I do and don't draw well, that guy is a great blocker. If he stays alive, he can also hit for a ton of damage as well. I've played with it quite a bit, and I always groan a little bit when I get him, but I'm not sure if I want to cut him or not. If I did, I'm not sure what to replace him with. Spellheart Chimera , perhaps? I'd like to keep Nivix Cyclops , though, as he acts as a cheaper blocker than Fluxcharger , but also, he can hit like a truck. I found out a few months ago that his ability activates multiple times. Plus, compared to Fluxcharger , he's cheap.That said, you're right; I'm running too many. I don't want to get rid of all of them, but I think I'll get rid of one of each, and replace them with a Lightning Strike and another Dissolve .

I don't want to get rid of all of them, though. My reasoning for this is mirror matchups. If I'm up against another control deck, this deck doesn't have enough to control them more than they can control me, so I have to be the more aggressive one. If I'm relying on finding and getting out a singular AEtherling (Which I'm bumping up to 2 copies, after seeing your deck. I need to have more than one. I'm not sure what I want to take out yet, though.) which could easily get countered in order to win, I'll have serious problems, and will probably lose. Therefore, I need to be getting in earlier and more damage than they are, which essentially equates to more creatures or burn.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback! Now I need to actually get the cards I need to complete this deck.

If you're having issues keeping up with aggro, try Unsummon . It's fast, and if you didn't leave mana open for the first counter, then Unsummon gives you a second chance. Another good tempo spell is Time Ebb , which denies them a draw, and forces them to reconsider if they REALLY want that creauture on the field. I'm thinking add in some Unsummon and some Essence Scatter may be just what you are looking for.

To be honest, it seems like you're trying to combine aggro with control, when you really should be doing one or the other. I think you should either devote most of your energy stopping your opponent down, or killing them quickly. Otherwise, you end up with a Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius and Teleportal in hand, wishing you had something to do.

The only problem with Unsummon is it isn't Standard legal. Otherwise, I'd probably run it. And I do like Time Ebb for its tempo gain, but I'm not sure how well it fits. Since Time Ebb is a sorcery, I'll need 6 mana to cast it and counter if they replay something threatening. (Or 5 if I added Essence Scatter.) That just doesn't seem like a good solution versus aggro to me, especially if I went second, since I may be dead by then anyways. My way of keeping up with aggro so far has been burn and card draw. Once I added Opportunity, my problems with aggro have been much smaller, since I can replenish my hand, while they're stuck top-decking whatever they can. I can still get overwhelmed, but it doesn't happen nearly as often.

Maybe, but I'd say this is more of a midrange/control deck than anything. Its goal certainly isn't to win on turn 5, and never has been. That said, you're probably right. I'm definitely wanting to lean toward control, so is a reduced creature count and a greater number of counters what I'm looking for? I'll definitely try it, and see how it goes.

Anyways, thanks!

Aww, my bad. I forgot that Unsummon didn't make it into m14. Anyway, you seem to understand what I meant, so I will leave you to it! If you like, I could do some playtesting against my deck, and see how it fares?

Ah, okay. Disperse was essentially its replacement, but I'd rather run Cyclonic Rift . I can't bounce my own guys with it, but the only thing I'd really want to use it on is Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius , whereas if I overload Cyclonic Rift and it resolves, it'll almost always mean game. Also, if you'd like to playtest it, I'd absolutely love that! I try to playtest it myself, but since I'm playing both sides, I'm probably unintentionally biased. I did try it, though. I had problems with Alms Beast and card advantage, but I have answers for both. I just never drew them. It went 1-1, but I'm curious to see how it goes for you.

Looking at the deck again, though, I'm really agreeing with you. I don't want to take out a bunch of creatures or Teleportal , but if I'm trying to control to get out something like AEtherling , neither really help. I need more counters and burn, really. I'll try taking them out and see how it works. If it ends up backfiring, I'll change it back, but I have a feeling you're absolutely right.

Turn/Burn and Rapid Hybridization both deal with Reckoner real nicely. You should also look into the new Aqueous Form.

I think Essence Backlash would be more fun for you than Essence Scatter. Sure it costs more, but it does damage - especially if you use it to counter a Desecration Demon <3. And with your Goblin Electromancers, its cost gets reduced anyways.

Running 3 Opportunities is a little high on the 6-drops. At most, I would run two.

Thassa, God of the Sea could also be your best friend since she allows you to scry 1 every your upkeep and pay 1U to make a target creature unblockable.

Since you're having trouble with aggro decks, Young Pyromancer and/or Master of Waves fit into that department real nicely since they both produce tokens that you can use to block with.

You should also look into using Shock and Magma Jet

I'm not sure how much Aqueous Form would help. The only thing I'd want to enchant it to is a Goblin Electromancer, Guttersnipe, or AEtherling (Which would be pointless, since whenever I bounce it it'd just fall off.). If this was more creature based, I'd probably include it, but as it is, it doesn't really help in this deck.

True, but if I don't draw into the Electromancers, I'd MUCH rather have Essence Scatter. Right now, I'm using Essence Scatter to stay alive against fatties or aggro decks, and delay until I can get card advantage and start chipping away at them. (Or bashing away with AEtherling.) Essence Backlash would be great if I could reliably cast it all the time, but I'm not sure I can, so I'd rather have Essence Scatter. (Plus, having one electomancer takes it down to 1 blue, while it'd only take Essence Backlash down to 3, with a blue and a red.)

It may be a little high, but there's a reason I'm running three. I'm not running four for the exact reason you mentioned, but I want to draw into it, as it's one of the few sources of card advantage this deck has. Therefore, I need to draw into it often. I'm not running four because, like you said, that'd be too many, but I don't want to knock it down to two, because I'm afraid that if I do, I won't draw into it often enough. (Which would usually mean my loss.)

She might be good, but I'm not sure how much Thassa would help out. Scrying would be great for cycling through my deck, but I'd want to cast her much later than turn 3, since I need mana open for counters and burn. Plus, I'd rarely be able to get her devotion high enough. That said, I'll definitely consider it. The deck cycling may be worth it. I'll have to test it and see how it goes.

Maybe, but I'd rather, in most cases, just burn the creatures. This deck is much more about delaying than getting in a ton of damage quickly.

I've thought about both, and I may run them, but I'm not sure what to replace. If anything, I'm thinking Nivix Cyclops , but that thing has saved me so many times, and it works well for both blocking early game and for late game defense. Maybe a Turn and Burn?

Anyways, thanks!

Hey man, I've got a lot of experience with Izzet decks, and have found a lot of success with them. So, for what it's worth you need a little more card draw in my opinion. Opportunity is just overpriced and clunky, it's great when it happens but you need more draw sources early to compete with the aggro decks, as I see you've mentioned. I use 2x Divination , 2x Steam Augury , 2x Jace, Memory Adept , 1x Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius and 4x Quicken (because I have a lot of really powerful sorceries as well, so you could replace them with whatever you want) in my deck and I find that I usually have a pretty full hand.

Goblin Electromancer looks a little useless in this deck honestly, most of your spells don't have very much in the way of gray manna, and he doesn't reduce Turn / Burn to 3 CMC, it stays at 4. I would replace him with some ways to gain card advantage or control your opponent.

I'm not a big fan of Guttersnipe in control decks either, he's basically only used in decks designed to win quickly via burn spells and things like Nivix Cyclops triggers. I would have them go the way of Goblin Electromancer and get more draw/control stuff.

Cyclonic Rift is just a boss card, and has a place in it in every deck with blue in it. Bounce effects are much more effective than you think they would be, it gives you an opportunity (see what I did there?) to counter something you didn't get to earlier, and that overload is usually game over.

I really think that without those two creatures I mentioned earlier in the deck it would be incredibly wise of you to move Anger of the Gods to mainboard. Every decent control deck ever has had a few board wipes in it to kill everything on the field. Anger and Mizzium Mortars are really the best ones we've got in these colors right now. If it was my deck I would take out the Izzet Charm s as you've already discussed and Shock s for 3x Anger of the Gods and 1x Island . I say the island because you never want to miss a land drop in a control deck.

I'm not saying you have to do everything my way or you're wrong, these are just my suggestions =) If you want ideas or anything, or just to read a somewhat interesting deck description you can check out my deck IZZET PUNNY ENOUGH FOR YOU TO UPVOTE?!

I agree with your assessment of Opportunity , but I wasn't sure what else to add to the deck. I'm not splashing white, and I don't want to spend tons and tons of money, so Sphinx's Revelation was out of the question, and the only other instant speed card draw I know of is Inspiration and Steam Augury . (Unless you count Quicken , but that's more than card draw in my opinion.) I didn't want to run stuff like Jace, either Memory Adept or Architect of Thought, because he's too expensive, and I don't like Divination a lot, since it's a sorcery. However, I definitely see what you mean. If I can't play those Opportunities (either because I lose or I don't have the mana), my hand is emptied early on (especially against aggro), and I lose because of it. I don't want to run Inspiration or Steam Augury because Inspiration is too expensive, and I'd rather not have stuff in my graveyard, since the only card that benefits from it is Spellheart Chimera , which will have plenty of late game fuel anyways. Therefore, I'll try running Divination and see how it goes. If I don't like it, I may replace them with Quicken to make my Mizzium Mortars insanely good, but we'll see.

I'm a bit reluctant to remove Goblin Electromancer , but I see what you mean. The more I playtest, the more I realize that the creatures don't help me a lot. (Which is weird to me. When I first started playing, I had a Selesnya deck, and whenever I didn't have creatures, I was in trouble.) Every time I draw one instead of removal, I groan slightly. I was definitely considering taking out Guttersnipe entirely, though, so I just decided to remove both. If I feel the need, I'll put them back in, but until then, I won't.

I did have Cyclonic Rift in here, but it was another card that I didn't like getting, as opposed to removal. I do see how amazing it is, though, so I added it back in the sideboard. The problem is, I'm not sure what to board it in for. Aggro for tempo? Midrange to bounce big guys to counter? Maybe I should mainboard it, but I'm not sure what to replace.

Yeah, the only thing it'd hit would be Spellheart Chimera at this point. I need board wipes, but I usually just don't have them, so I'll go ahead and mainboard them. I'm considering adding a 4th, but I'm worried that'd be too many. Also, I agree with the Izzet Charm in most cases, but I'm not adding the Island. I rarely have mana problems, and I'd rather not get mana flooded. I'd rather have more removal.

Thank you so much; that was kind of the kick I needed. Now I'll see how it turns out. I need to get to another FNM at some point, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to. As soon as I can, though, I'm trying it out.

Sweet! My favorite thing to do with my deck is to Quicken into a Divination on their endstep, it basically means "I'm going to start the next turn with a fist full of cards and all my manna untapped"

Honestly Steam Augury is very good. "One pile is AEtherling , the other is 4 cards" is always fun.

Jace, Memory Adept isn't all that expensive, he's like $5-7. I saw one go for $4.50 on ebay the other day. $14 would really be worth the investment in my opinion. Also, there are some decks that you just can't beat with life because they gain too much, so it lets you have an alternate way of winning.

Have fun! Let me know how it turns out!

Hey,

Catch / Release (like 1 of) is a good way to deal with Planeswalker's ult 8p. Make sure to say TY.

I'd love it, but the Release half would require me to splash white, which I'd much rather not do due to many reasons. (The biggest being the money required for dual lands to make it reasonable.)

I'm not entirely sure how helpful the Catch would be, either. If he took an AEtherling like in that tournament, I'd rather kill it than use it against him for a turn, and then have it being a problem once more. That said, it would be helpful against fatties. I'll definitely consider it. (Though I may go with something like Act of Treason instead.)

Thanks!

what about a Quicken to Act of Treason in opponents combat phase, and target one of the creatures attacking you. use it to block and maybe kill off 2 dudes?

You wouldn't have to splash white for the Release half of Catch/Release. This isn't EDH; this is Standard. You just wouldn't use the Release half at all. And quite frankly, it's too high-costed anyways. Cyclops decks use Armed/Dangerous, only for the Armed half.

As far as using Catch to grab an AEtherling? That's a terrible idea to begin with unless they're tapped out. They could just use its ability to exile it until EoT, therefore you just whiffed your Catch. He was saying you could use Catch to grab a planeswalker (specifically one about to ult).

Quicken into Act of Treason seems pretty cool, albeit being a little "try-hard" if you ask me.

What legobumb said/wrote, in short Catch (of Catch / Release )is all I would use in this deck, and its a better Act of Treason taking a permanent not just creature target. Using esper's Jace ult for you is always fun. The look they give you as you cast Counterflux stopping their joke of counter spell 8)....priceless

Ah, I see what you're saying. I didn't see the 'target permanent' part; I thought it was target creature. I was thinking that you meant to use Release against planeswalkers.

That'd be extremely good against planeswalkers, but only really against a planeswalker ready to ultimate, and they still would've gotten the benefit of it beforehand. Therefore, I'd much rather just Pithing Needle it. It's not necessarily a permanent solution (although prevents them from playing another and using its abilities when I kill one), but the Catch would be extremely situational. In those rare times it'd work, it'd work very well, but I'd have to let him get up to that amount of loyalty necessary for me to ultimate it. I could theoretically also use it to burn counters on a minus ability, and then burn it with another card, but that'd take two cards. 2 for 1's are something I'd like to avoid if possible. I understand what you're saying, but I just don't see it as that practical. As for using it against creatures, the problem I have is that I haven't been dealing damage to him most of the game, so unless the creature is gigantic, he'd probably just take the damage, and then I'd be left in the same spot I would have been in before.

And by taking the AEtherling , I meant when I had someone in an FNM use Jace's ultimate and took one of the AEtherlings in my deck and used it against me. I didn't mean using Catch on one. (Which, as you pointed out, would be pretty dumb in most circumstances.)

The Quicken thing would be neat, but that'd require having both Catch / Release and Quicken in hand, and I'm not entirely sure how much Quicken helps me in a lot of cases. It could, and I see where it could, and it also gives card draw, but I'm worried that in a lot of cases it'd be a dead card, so I'm hesitant to include it, especially just as an enabler for the possible 2 for 2 trade (Though with a card drawn, would that make it 2 for 3?) that's extremely situational, once more. Personally, I'd rather have removal, a counter, or bounce, unless I really needed the card. If it had utility as both, like Azorius Charm , I'd probably include it, but it unfortunately doesn't. I suppose it'd let me cast Mizzium Mortars , Anger of the Gods , or Divination at instant speed, but that's about it. Granted, that's good, but I'm not sure if it's good enough to include, as that'd require me replacing it with something, and what would I replace?

nice +1

I built this deck and I'm taking it to fnm this Friday. I'm excited to play it and couldn't think of anything I would change. I just added a Stormbreath Dragon in to help with the control match up. Awesome deck +1

Awesome! Hopefully it goes well for you! I'm curious to see how well that Stormbreath Dragon works too. It may work pretty well as an alternative finisher, especially, like you said, against control decks. Let me know how it goes!

Looks like a good build. +1 from me. Slaughter Games won't be a problem for you like with most Esper and Azorius decks due to your 3 win cons, and red has some strong board wipes and removal in this format. Nice job dude :)

If you liked Williams deck from the grand prix dallas, check out my Azorius Burn Control deck, Burning the Soldiers Fate Personally, I believe it deals with the format, and balances out control mirrors.

Damn, I still haven't gotten to take the deck to fnm. The shop I normally play at randomly decided to switch that friday to a modern tournament so half the people played modern decks and the other half standard. I've playtested against a mono black deck devotion and managed to stall the game out but lost due to getting overwhelmed by a whipped back desecration demon. I will give an update when I do get to play an fnm with my variation of the deck. I just added in 2 cards that have previously served me well which are Steam Augury and Frostburn Weird . The weird alone has won me games in the past. Its a wall in the beginning and a 4 power beater later that beats 2/2s in fights. Just a thought for your consideration if you haven't yet. I will soon create my list here on tappedout and let you give your opinion on it.

That seems like a strange thing for them to do. I suppose you have a lot of modern players?

Anyways, yeah, both of those are big threats. The 5 biggest threats, at least that I've seen commonly used, have been Desecration Demon , Whip of Erebos , Obzedat, Ghost Council , Master of Waves , and Assemble the Legion . The only real answer to the Whip (aside from a counter) is to use Pithing Needle on it, but the demon and Obzedat are a lot harder to get rid of, almost always requiring a 2 for 1, unless you have Turn / Burn . The Master has to be countered or outraced, since none of our mainboard removal hits it. (Or didn't until I put in the Ratchet Bomb ) Assemble the Legion just has to be countered though, or we lose immediately, unless we can tick up Ratchet Bomb enough. I wish there were some enchantment removal for blue or red, but since there isn't, we have to rely on counters.

I've thought about Steam Augury before, and I always came to the conclusion that while it helps with card advantage, I like Divination better. That may just be a personal choice, but I don't like discarding stuff, especially when it doesn't benefit me at all (It slightly pumps Spellheart Chimera , but that rarely matters). It may be amazing, but I just haven't used it a lot, and have always decided against it in the past. I'll look at it, though. Instant speed card draw is great, and in most cases I'd say it's better than Inspiration . (Which isn't that good, granted. It's an instant speed Divination for a colorless more.)

I'm not entirely sure about the Frostburn Weird either. It seems to be good against aggro, but this deck usually does well in that matchup. It's not that great against midrange, as it usually it gets overwhelmed by much bigger stuff, and is pretty bad against control, as it dies to pretty much everything. That said, it does put pressure on them, and if it survives, it gets in for a good amount of damage. It also appears to be pretty good against Mono Blue devotion, as it trades favorably with most of the things they have, assuming I can block it. I'll try testing it, since it's probably much better than I'm expecting. It's definitely something to think about, at least. I tend to favor Young Pyromancer , but I certainly see the benefits of the weird.

I'm looking forward to seeing your decklist and what you changed. Good luck with it!

Thanks, one other thing to consider is Cyclonic Rift . Probably the best answer I can think of against devotion in general in our colors if you overload it other than just removing stuff fast. Otherwise just a great tempo card. I'm gonna test the deck a little bit today to try some variations of quantities of different cards and then I will post the deck on here.