U/G Control
Mainboard:
Acidic Slime is an excellent defender and omni-removal. A wonderfully flexible card well-worth the heavy cost.
Ambush Viper
for defense, and annoying early-game stings against control decks.
Birds of Paradise is ramp and fixing, as it has been since time immemorial.
Chancellor of the Tangle
is a potential win condition, a great emergency flying-blocker, and sometimes a fun first-turn play.
Cudgel Troll
is a wonderful card that wrath-proofs my board to some extent and can provide recurring defense as well as mid-game offense.
Dissipate is the best counterspell in standard at present if you ask me.
Garruk, Primal Hunter is a win condition, and often a great way to refuel the hand in the late game.
Ghost Quarter stops various decks based on lands.
Mayor of Avabruck
is very dangerous if he survives, but usually functions to pull removal away from the opponent with minimal investment on my part.
Moldgraf Monstrosity
is a nasty win condition that is rough to deal with.
Predator Ooze is just a filthy, filthy card.
Rampant Growth ramps.
Stoic Rebuttal is your average 3-cost counterspell. Hopefully it will be replaced with superior tech as Innistrad goes along.
Viral Drake is there for aerial and general defense.
Volition Reins
is far too fun a card not to run. Single-handedly turns the tide of a duel for 6 mana.
Sideboard:
Autumn's Veil
is deployed primarily against other control decks, where it functions as a 1-cost counterspell, and sometimes obsessive mono-black control-type decks that do nothing but kill creatures.
Bramblecrush
is good against many types of decks. I tend to break it out if I see Oblivion Rings, planeswalkers,
Burning Vengeance
, W/G tokens, or anything else that relies heavily on non-creature cards.
Creeping Corrosion is only good against
Tempered Steel
decks. But if you resolve it against that deck, you win.
Flashfreeze
is an upgraded counterspell against red and green decks, of course.
Nihil Spellbomb is deployed against anything that uses recursion, especially
Burning Vengeance
decks and Solar Flare.
