Snow and Tell

Legacy Competitive Control Counterspell Creature Cheat Exile Show and Tell WU (Azorius)

Balaam__

Instant (24)

• 4x Brainstorm
• 4x Counterspell
• 4x Force of Will
• 4x Mana Leak
• 4x Path to Exile
• 4x Swords to Plowshares

Enchantment (4)

• 4x On Thin Ice

Creature (4)

• 1x Blightsteel Colossus
• 1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
• 1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Sorcery (8)

• 4x Personal Tutor
• 4x Show and Tell

Land (20)

• 4x Flooded Strand
• 8x Snow-Covered Island
• 4x Snow-Covered Plains
• 4x Tundra

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Sideboard

Instant (11)

• 4x Cyclonic Rift
• 3x Impulse
• 4x Remand

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Winter's Rest

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Search for Glory

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I’ve been wanting to make a U/W deck for some time now, and it was a toss up between this and a Spirits deck. I’ll make the Spirits deck eventually but for now, I’m very pleased with how this turned out.

The Mana Base

We’re running Azorious colors here, with the deck stacked slightly in favor of blue. Snow lands play a role, giving permission for certain prison type spells to be cast. Otherwise, the lands are fairly straightforward.

• Tundra , ironically, does not count as a snow land. Go figure. But it nets us either or mana with no drawbacks, so we really can’t complain.

• Flooded Strand is more than meets the eye in this particular deck. It’s obvious use is to fetch one of our snow covered basics, with a side benefit of thinning the deck, but it has a specific effect on a card detailed below.

• Snow-Covered Island and Snow-Covered Plains round out our basic lands.

Permission Denied

Since we effectively have no creatures of our own to shield us, we need a defense of some kind if we’re going to last long enough to stand a fighting chance. Enter the Counterspells.

• Counterspell is a powerful card in our arsenal, to say the least. Simply zap anything deemed threatening and carry on as usual.

• Mana Leak is arguably not as good as a straight up Counterspell , but fits in nicely nonetheless. Especially when played during the opening few turns, chances are it’ll deny a card from hitting the table.

• Force of Will is a force majeure. With nearly half the deck consisting of blue cards, this amounts to a Counterspell with no mana cost. Hold it in reserve until your darkest hour and it might just see you live to draw another turn.

The Gulag

The next best thing to outright countering a spell is to lock it down. While not a Prison deck, per se, we have a few options available that share similar characteristics. Our Gulag—our Siberian snow-covered prison, so to speak, takes the form of a few white Instants and an Enchantment.

• Path to Exile is just superb. Banish that troublesome creature away, and at instant speed! With how heavily armed with counterspells this deck is, it doesn’t really matter if the opponent gets a free land as part of the deal. Odds are you’ll be able to counter whatever they might want to play in response.

• Swords to Plowshares is Old School Magic at its finest; beautiful hand painted artwork on a brutally effective card—topped off with a sterling quotation and a title with a biblical flair. My eyes tear up when I see the predominant artistic direction the majority of the cards/expansions have taken in more recent times...sigh

• On Thin Ice is one reason we’re running snow-covered basics. It’s a nasty way to deport any capitalist dog of a creature to a proverbial frozen gulag—all for just one of The People’s white mana!

Sonar

At some point we’ll need to stop dancing around with counterspells and start plopping things down that can actually win us the game. To do that, we’ll need to locate certain cards.

• Brainstorm is banned in other formats for a reason. For a mere one blue mana we get the privilege of drawing three cards, keeping what we like in our hand, and returning two cards to the top of our library in the order we prefer. Remember Flooded Strand ? Use it post- Brainstorm and the two unwanted cards we placed atop the pile will now be shuffled back into our library!

• Personal Tutor , because alas Mystical Tutor is banned:/ Use this to find Show and Tell , in conjunction with the previous card if possible to get it into your hand this turn.

Navi’s Curse

Look!! Listen!!

With our sorcery and a heavy hitter in hand, we’re ready to close out the game. Prepare to force the opponent to stop what they’re doing and Hey!! Look!! Watch Out!! as we play a game ending creature long before they expect it.

• Show and Tell is simple enough; cast it and pick a creature in your hand to play for free. It’s worth noting that any abilities referencing being “cast” will not be applicable here; for instance Ulamog will not allow you to exile two target permanents when it hits the table. Show and Tell lets you “play” the card, which is not the same as “casting” it. A minor point but important to remember. The good news is it’s fair; the opponent is bound by this ruling the same as you are.

• Iona, Shield of Emeria inflicts color-blindness. Imagine waking up one day and you can’t see a particular color, say Red. Ask a Red Deck Wins player how that feels~

• Blightsteel Colossus is here to stomp around and push that poison damage through.

• Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger just winnows that library down like so much chaff.

• Emrakul, the Aeons Torn earns you the Cthulhu seal of approval. Unless you were playing against a life gain deck, this 15/15 will bring that sword of Damocles down until it’s practically scratching the opponent’s head.

Again, Show and Tell does give the opponent the same opportunity to play a threat of their own, but don’t worry—just bounce it back to their hand or else exile it afterward.

TL;DR

•Control the action with counterspells and creature exile/lockdown

•Acquire Show and Tell using Personal Tutor if necessary, then cast it to field a game ending creature

The Sideboard

The sideboard is a work in progress. I picked a few cards I was thinking might be useful but that didn’t quite make the maindeck. If anything doesn’t belong, drop a comment; do likewise if you see something that should be here but isn’t.

• Winter's Rest is another prison type spell. I passed on this in favor of On Thin Ice for the maindeck, but kept it here.

• Search for Glory brings us a new tutor that actually works really well here. It can find us a snow-covered land, or better yet one of our creatures. Potential life gain is a nice bonus too. Only downside is it’s not cheap. I wouldn’t say it’s mana intensive, but I wasn’t sure 3cmc for a tutor fit the tempo this deck rolls along at.

• Remand is a solid spell to buy just a bit more time, so I threw a few in the sideboard.

• Impulse was beaten out by Brainstorm but it’s a pretty good option by itself. I kept it here just in case.

• Cyclonic Rift is an epic bounce spell, but this deck isn’t really configured to hit the Overload cost. I kept it in reserve for now.

”For I will show him plainly how many things he must suffer...”

Top Ranked	Achieved #20 position overall 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Legacy legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 20 - 6 Rares 8 - 4 Uncommons 12 - 5 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.85
Folders	Legacy