Land (26)
- 4x Dismal Backwater
- 1x Evolving Wilds
- 1x Flooded Strand
- 6x Island
- 4x Polluted Delta
- 2x Radiant Fountain
- 3x Swamp
- 4x Temple of Deceit
- 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Artifact (2)
Instant (21)
- 3x Anticipate
- 2x Bile Blight
- 4x Dig Through Time
- 2x Disdainful Stroke
- 4x Dissolve
- 1x Dragonlord's Prerogative
- 4x Hero's Downfall
- 1x Jace's Ingenuity
Sorcery (7)
Sideboard
Planeswalker (2)
Artifact (4)
Instant (5)
Sorcery (4)
"Nine times out of ten, our hearts just get Dissolved"
-Modest Mouse, Bukowski
This is a standard U/B control deck. For those unfamiliar, the goal of the deck is to trade up with your cards as much as possible and refresh your hand with Dig Through Time to get the cards you need, until your opponent is left topdecking and you can keep drawing into responses for anything they could play. I call it Land and Disease because I kill off all of their shit leaving the board with a bunch of land on both sides, until I can get the opportunity to play a Pearl Lake Ancient or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon.
Choice Justifications:
Mainboard:
Removal:
Hero's Downfall is still the best single target removal for this deck IMO, since it can get rid of creatures OR planeswalkers with no drawbacks.
Murderous Cut as a singleton in the main over Ultimate Price since the delve very rarely interferes with Dig Through Time and it has no drawbacks
Bile Blight is extremely effective and forces aggro decks to slow themselves down to play around it by not playing two of the same creature at the same time. Also an easy choice to sideboard out against certain decks.
Counterspells:
Dissolve is still the best counter in standard currently.
Disdainful Stroke will always trade up if possible and is an easy choice to sideboard out against decks with nothing 4 cmc or higher/
Card Advantage:
Thoughtseize needs no justification. Wins games.
Despise misses more than Thoughtseize, but still rarely misses in the current meta.
Anticipate added three of these to go down to 26 lands. Really useful for finding what you need early on, which is necessary since a big problem I've been having against certain decks is that they put me in the red too early and I can't stabilize before they finish me off
Dig Through Time basically the card that makes this deck work. I can grab exactly what I need when I need it.
Jace's Ingenuity instant speed hand refresh. Much better than Divination as I can save my mana for counters and then refresh my hand at the end of their turn.
Threats:
Liliana Vess never disappoints. Unless I am stupid and play it into a counter, I can always force them to at least discard a card or let me tutor before they can use Hero's Downfall. I would rather have them waste a Hero's Downfall on Liliana Vess than Pearl Lake Ancient or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, so she's at least good for drawing one out even if she dies immediately. If she doesn't die immediately, she causes a lot of trouble.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is a powerhouse. Board wipes as soon as he lands, then gives a lightning strike every turn until he can be ult-ed, at which point its basically game over because I now have two Pearl Lake Ancient on the field.
Pearl Lake Ancient still the best creature card for the card slot in this deck. Anyone who says differently is not playing him right. Tap your mana before returning it to your hand to leave it floating then flash him again instantly. You can lure unsuspecting players into attacking into him while he's tapped and bounce him to play him again untapped and block. You can return Radiant Fountain to your hand to play it over and over to gain life, or Temple of Deceit to scry.
Sideboard:
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver mainly for control matchups, though often doesn't see the light of day if game 1 goes to time. More often subbed in against extremely creature heavy decks, like Temur.
Dark Betrayal obviously extremely worth it against decks where it is applicable. Hasn't seen much play from me yet, so it might find itself being replaced in the future.
Ultimate Price is the card I'm most excited about from this new set. Keeping it in the sideboard for now to make sure its useful when it comes in, but it might get shifted to a some-of in the mainboard depending on how the meta looks.
Bile Blight//Disdainful Stroke// Crux of Fate // Despise //Perilous Vault to be subbed in for extra-of when needed
Rejected Cards:Silumgar's Command This card is too expensive and I don't like the "choose two" aspect because most often it will likely be difficult to be using both at once. Great in an EDH multiplayer type situation, but bad for this type of one-on-one standard deck
Haven of the Spirit Dragon is not worth it just for Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Suggestions
Updates Add
Comments View Archive
Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!
Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax
Please login to comment
| Date added | 9 years |
| Last updated | 9 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Standard legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 6 - 3 Mythic Rares 24 - 2 Rares 9 - 8 Uncommons 8 - 2 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 3.85 |
| Votes | |
| Ignored suggestions | |
| Shared with | |
| Views |