Love the use of time in the ice here. Have you considered adding either Merfolk Trickster or Watertap Weaver? Even more tempo bouncing fun!

Thanks makoenergy. This isn't really a tempo deck, it's a Control deck with a 3 mana threat. For this strategy to work every card needs to support Tempest Djinn by way of drawing cards or protecting it. Time of Ice makes the cut because it is effectively like drawing extra cards and playing extra lands, but I wouldn't want more of that effect in the form of Merfolk Trickster or Watertrap Weaver, the 2/2 body isn't worth much here.

Some games I will play Tempest Djinn on turn three, but really only if the opponent has stumbled and I either have a second Tempest Djinn or don't think they can remove it for awhile. In that case it's about tempo.

I actually really like this deck. I like Tempest Djinn as a bomb and wincon. It's not something as obvious as Torrential Gearhulk, and would probably fly under the radar of some players. It's super budget and cool but personally I'd add in a few more counter spells, probably an Essence Scatter or two. I think Anticipate and Supreme Will are both right at home here, being able to filter your deck is never a bad thing

I agree with AlmondCat. I personally have NEVER ever liked Lay Claim in any deck except to cycle it. 7-mana to take something is way too much, especially if the thing just dies. With 4 copies, you're likely to have it in hand with your 5th island on the board and just wishing it was a response to your opponents threats. I think Essence Scatter or even Negate would serve as a much better replacement.

It's a fun deck but the win condition it is not enough.

@Mortenick, the win condition is 1 or 2 giant evasive creatures in a deck full of creature removal and card draw, that is the classic Control deck win condition. Typically you'll only attack 2-3 times to do 20 damage. As a bonus you can sometimes just win using the opponents win condition with Lay Claim.

I'm currently testing a Mill strategy in the side board using Psychic Corrosion against other Control decks.

Hi!

It looks like a cool deck! In general, I love budget decks and this one looks pretty cool. +1 for me!

Also, about your comment on Tempest Djinn, I think that True-Name Nemesis might be a bit better than that! :P But I agree that the Djinn certainly looks powerful! :D

Oooo... I think I'll definitely be building this to give it a go. Simple, mono-colored control is one of my favorites, even though I usually prefer doing it in .

@MurderForBrunch, thanks. True-Name Nemesis is arguably much better in some ways. When I say "Tempest Djinn is possibly the most powerful 3-drop evasive blue creature ever printed" I'm talking about actual power/toughness. Games go so many turns with this deck, I've got him up to 13/4.

Ohhh there are so many annoying cards! It makes me so happy looking at it.

Seriously though, have you considered adding a blue wizard package? This doesn’t necessarily has to entail Baral, but it gives you access to Wizard’s Retort. I would also be considering Syncopate and Supreme Will, or straight Counterspells such as Essence Scatter. As for Lay Claim, have you considered In Bolas’ Clutches as replacement? I get that it doesn’t have the Cycling clause, but it does cost 1 less, and can give you an option of Karn’s Temporal Sundering as an alternate win con in the board.

All in all, this deck looks awesome.

would not win fnm w/ this

@toastySmorc, I haven’t really considered adding any other creatures because that would just dilute the decks strategy. There’s no benefit to doing a little more player damage, you’ll do enough with a single Tempest Djinn or you won’t. This deck is simply going to lose against certain decks and I don’t think it’s worth the sideboard spots to make it a little less likely. Against lots of ETB triggers or decks that go really wide really quick you’ll just have to get real lucky.

I don’t like counterspells in this deck, beyond Negate in the sideboard. It’s better here to bounce a creature and draw a card then to counter it with Essence Scatter because the opponent will always have more creatures in their hand, you can’t really ever get ahead.

I’m still not satisfied with the sideboard, but have some new ideas. Basically I’m thinking I want a Mill strategy against Control and in any other bad matchup I just want to be able to do my thing even more reliably, so a couple Mirror Image and I’m thinking I’ll try Leave in the Dust.

PlagueRats hmm curious. I must be approaching this at a different angle. I'm considering it from a more Stop-Your-Tempo angle via counterspells. The thing is, even after you bounce a creature, they'll just replay it. Against a control deck, a tempo loss like this is mostly inconsequential if you don't have a Djinn up. I feel like the bounce cards will be better adapted to a tempo build-maybe like WU fliers or something.

Also with regards to the wizards, they're not meant to deal damage, but to give you access to the 2 mana straight counterspell. But since you're not too into counterspells we'll forget about that.

Actually I'll brew my own version of this and we can compare notes?

toastySmorc, by all means, try out whatever variations you can imagine and let me know how it works out.

I think I’ve failed to properly explain this deck, I’ll add a few points here for now. Using bounce effects like this is generally a losing strategy, it only works when you have a critical mass of decent bounce/draw effects. There really aren’t enough here, but I make up for it with all the can-trips. When this deck wins it rarely looks easy, your life total will go dangerously low and the opponent will usually be in a position to win the next turn. That does make for exciting games though :)

It should go without saying that you want to wait till a creature is attacking before you bounce it, presumably opponents will do the same when trying to remove Tempest Djinn so Galestrike can save it. Censor is almost worth more in your graveyard then in your hand, opponents will practically give you a Time Walk over the course of a game playing around it by making less then ideal plays.

This deck can’t hold off opponents indefinitely. There will always come a point where they can play more threats then you can deal with, so You need to find the right time to get a Tempest Djinn into play and attacking before that happens. Then it often becomes a race, but you expect to be able to remove their biggest threats every turn while swinging with your own.

Have you considered adding In Bolas's Clutches? And for card draw maybe Arch of Orazca?

Thanks for your interest SirHuggle

Lay Claim is a very different card then In Bolas's Clutches. This deck, even more then most, can’t afford to get stuck with an unplayable 6 drop in the early game.

I hadn’t considered Arch of Orazca. This deck never has more then two non-land permanents at a time and really cares about islands. So this card gives nothing but downside until at least turn 8 just to finally give the option of spending 6 mana to draw a card. Seems really bad to me?

I noticed all those instants and soceries could do some work from being in the yard (especially after you cycle them); maybe Cryptic Serpent could do some work

@SpookyToe, a late game big vanilla creature body isn’t very valuable here. Tempest Djinn works because it has flying and there’s enough removal to ensure it can always get through, but the ground can get jammed up. An early game big creature might be good in the sideboard against aggro, but Cryptic Serpent would come out too late.

PlagueRats

Arch of Orazca is kind of bad for this deck, you're right. However, I did play test this deck with some of the sideboard cards. I took out 2 Censors and put in 2 Mirror Images. I also had In Bolas's Clutches in and, while I did have it in my hand early on, I was able to draw the game out long enough to use it as well as Lay Claim. To make the deck faster, leaving out In Bolas's Clutches out is probably a better choice.

Have you considered Dive Down as protection from removal.

@walnutsmb, you got to love a one mana counterspell and combat trick, but I don't think Dive Down works out so well here. My main consideration is that this deck only has a creature in play maybe a one third of the time, so a card like Dive Down is completely unplayable about two thirds of the game. That's part of the reason why Unsummon is so good in the mainboard. In the sideboard, as you suggest as protection from removal it could be good, it would make you more efficient at fighting overwhelming removal. However I prefer my strategy of transforming into a creature-less Mill deck against Control, rather then trying to beat them at their game.

This is a great deck but what will you replace censor, galestrike, and lay claim with post rotation?

@RobertPlant, one of the main reasons for playing a budget deck is that you don't have to worry about rotation. I have been thinking about what this could look like in Modern, I'd upgrade Galestrike with Repulse for sure and add Remand in place of something

Playtested a couple games--deck is a lot of fun to play!

I definitely got ran over by aggro though. I wonder if--since the mana curve is pretty high anyways--a copy or two of River's Rebuke wouldn't be a good addition? Against mid-range or small numbers of creatures, the Unsummons and all were unbeatable, but spending 3 mana to Galestrike a 1-drop wasn't sustainable. Being able to bounce a whole board would be a pretty big setback to a low-to-the-ground deck with only 2 mana out.

Thanks for the decklist!