The best way for a control deck to win? Keep the boardstate clear of any vicious creatures! And what's the best way to do that? Boardwipes, killspells, and counterspells!
Crux of Fate
is arguably the best boardwipe in these colors, possibly the best boardwipe in Standard. Wrecks all the creatures on the field- or doesn't, depending on the mode chosen.
Languish gives
Crux of Fate
a run for its money. At 4 mana, it's slightly faster with roughly the same effect, making it a hoser against aggro decks. However it doesn't stop big butts like Siege Rhino,
Silumgar, the Drifting Death
, or huge Eldrazi.
Complete Disregard
hits a lot of valuable creatures at instant speed like Hangarback Walker, Monastery Swiftspear, Den Protector, Mantis Rider,
Abbot of Keral Keep
, and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
. Best yet, it exiles the creature, keeping your opponent from getting all their Thopter tokens from their Hangarback Walker.
Ruinous Path is the new Hero's Downfall. At sorcery speed, it's slightly slower than the instant-speed Downfall, but lategame it gets better by being able to make a 4/4 out of a land. It still does the same thing for the same cost though: get rid of problem creatures or planeswalkers.
Ultimate Price is another great Standard killspell, hitting a lot of prime threats in the meta and being cheap and reliable to cast.
Clash of Wills
is a great early game counterspell that can be a real surprise to your opponent even late game. Also useful in a counter war. It gets the mainboard spot over Negate since Clash can counter any spell.
Despise
is our one-mana answer to creatures and planeswalkers in the hand we definitely don't want hitting the battlefield. Discard is always very nice, especially to the things that threaten our life total the most.
Disperse is our way to deal with things that blue and black can't deal with- artifacts and enchantments. It's also good for burning on attacking creatures.
Ob Nixilis Reignited is value on a card, enough said. His +1 is amazing, giving us gas while milling the opponent with a Tutelage out, and his -3 is another Murderous Cut to get rid of the opponent's best creature. His -8 is backbreaking, but unlikely to achieve; it's also win-more, as we should be well on our way to winning by the time it comes out.
Scatter to the Winds is our only hard counterspell, and just like Ruinous Path, gets better as the game goes later. Getting a 3/3 in addition to countering a spell is pretty great, and it's the 3-mana "counter target spell" that's strictly better than Cancel.
Send to Sleep is a great way to keep unfavorable creatures from attacking, like Hangarback Walker, Siege Rhino, artaka, world render, and Woodland Wanderer. The best part is that even with all the Delve spells, Spell Mastery is easy to proc and making their best creatures unable to untap next turn is a great way to delay their chances of winning.
