No Mana Leak ?

Decided against Mana Leak for the following reasons:

1- 2-spot in the mana curve is packed.

2- I have plenty of answers to small stuff already; I'm more concerned about my opponent's mid-to-late game threats, and that means the stop-all counterspells.

Makes sense.

Any particular reason you went with Corrupted Conscience over Mind Control same mana cost but since the rest of your deck isn't infect I would think Mind Control works better. (Except for putting counters on their creatures)

I do love the art on Corrupted Conscience though...

Putting counters on their creatures is the name of the game. Steal one and make it kill another = 2 cards for 1.

Altough the situation will almost never happen, it is technically possible to steal 3 artifact creatures with your Corrupted Conscience, so switch out cancels for Stoic Rebuttal.

Also, hi Caley!

Hi, Smoofer! And yeah, I forgot Stoic Rebuttal is strictly better. Switched.

Per a conversation with miinor_threat, this deck obviously needs Snapcaster Mage . Will add if I happen to find any of 'em.

You need more forests (at least one) and a fourth Rampant Growth over Snapcaster, methinks. Your curve is somewhat high and lacks ramp effects aside from the 3 Rampant Growths you already have in here. I'd remove the Viral Drake s for the land/growth since with only 23 lands you may miss some land drops.

Other cards to keep in mind: Beast Within , Viridian Emissary .

Thrun, the Last Troll is a much better troll. you should use him if you can get any.

I am aware. He goes in when I get more cash.

I can't think of anything you would want to take out from this deck for some Snapcaster shenanigans. Possibly 1x Ambush Viper ? But I think with only 6-7 instants and some mana ramps, Snapcaster would be less useful than usual. I like the control aspect the viper gives more.

I have never been particularly impressed with Snapcaster Mage , but recurring counterspells is powerful. You're right though, I have no idea what I would remove.

Yeah. Snapcaster is broken but I still only run 1 in my U/B Control >.<. Also its expensive >.>

P.S. Only running 59 cards atm.

I was short one Skinshifter . But as of today, I scrapped all 4x of him for a Forest and 3x Mayor of Avabruck  ^{Flip  Flip}, so hey.

I really like this deck. +1.

Do you think that, if I was to make this deck, running 1-3 Snapcaster Mage would be worth it? I mean, I don't think you'd be low on counterspells, just a question. (I just traded for 4 of him, good investments ;) )

Nevermind, I didn't bother to read the above comments until now, Snapcaster Mage has already been discussed :P

Your point is still valid. I really think, the more I play this deck, that Snapcaster Mage is not even necessary. 7 is plenty of counterspells for the deck, especially when combined with Volition Reins and Ambush Viper , which do plenty of controlling. With Flashfreeze and card:Autumn's Veil in the sideboard, I really don't think he's necessary or even an improvement here.

I've been piloting this deck with the Mayors and they wreck if you drop them on turn two (or one with Chancellor in opening hand)! They are great. And I still think that Snappy isn't too necessary.

I also run 1x Beast Within instead of a 7th counter spell because it is so versatile and I often find myself needing to play a troll (for example) and missing a counter, only to destroy the permanent next turn with Beast or steal it with VR. Love the deck!!!

I love the deck and I thoroughly enjoy the commentary on your "hallelujah"/"oh shit" mental moments. Keep writing the articles, they provide so much insight for novice players like me. It's nice to see when to be aggressive, when to hold out for another turn to maximize a play.

Thanks for all your work! +1

Love the deck and the daily dose articles. I run a mono-blue control deck, but it doesn't have all the answers I usually need. I'm thinking about modifying it to be green/blue and am using your deck as a reference. Thanks for the ideas and great reads! +1!

Mono-blue control is a hard thing to pull off in standard, most of the time. The last one I saw that I really liked was that Lullmage Mentor deck a few people ran a while back.

How to you feel about Frightful Delusion ? i have built this deck and noticed that at times two blue isn't always there for to Stoic Rebuttal , though the spell being cast can still be cast, the fact that in the that person discards a card seemed really nice to me. What are your thoughts on 3x Frightful Delusion over 3x Stoic Rebuttal ?

Really not a fan, actually. I very occasionally have trouble with double blue in the early game, but I'm not too concerned about countering things in the early game anyway.

Frightful Delusion is a fine card when it counters a spell, but that can be fairly rare. It is a Force Spike effect that costs THREE, which is immense for a "tapped out only" counter, and is truly awful against other control decks, which represent a large part of the metagame right now. Most of the time it's just a 1 for 1 that hits the worst card in your opponent's hand in exchange for itself. Really I'd just prefer the extra mana that a card like Dismal Failure requires to get the full effect.

It may be possible to talk me out of it, but I have a strong preference for hard counters. They are a little bit more unwieldy to use, but my play style revolves around them, and I am no slouch at knowing how to deploy them. If I really felt that all the double blue was a problem, I'd be more inclined to go with Mana Leak than Frightful Delusion , but so far I haven't been dissatisfied with my color arrangements.

this deck has a fairly large top end. I know you have 4 birds and 3 rampants, but I'd add the 4th rampant, as well as cutting back on some of the higher drops (maybe lose the chancellor?). Also, Creeping Corrosion, while a blowout against tempered steel, is fairly narrow, and can't be used for artifact hate against, say, birthing pod. I'd sub them out for naturalizes, or if you're feeling gutsy, splash red for ancient grudge. Lastly, I saw that you said you don't have mana leak in here because it doesn't fit curve-wise, but with cards you're holding onto like mana leak, your goal isn't to slam it turn two. I think you should definitely use 4 mana leak and 3 dissipate as your counters. keep in mind that mana leak, while best used earlier so you aren't stuck with 3 at the end of the game, is still very viable against big cards, especially since your deck is fairly tempo-y and people will try to jam their bombs to stabilize as early as possible against you.