Ulamog, the Ceaseless Creativity (Standard MTG Deck)

This deck has the end goal of a turn 8 win (not a kill, I might add). This deck wants to control your opponent's attack strategy and board state with cards like Press for Answers , Jace's Scrutiny , Shock, Harnessed Lightning, etc. for the first few turns. But, on turn 4, the magic happens. By then, you should have played the two former spells listed before, nabbing you a Clue token. Play Indomitable Creativity, with X = 1, targeting the Clue. This lets you reveal cards from the top of your library until you hit one of two Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hungers. Put him on the battlefield, and watch your opponent either scoop or start sweating. To recap:

TURN 1: Land per turn, usually a red source to play Shock mindgames with your opponent.

TURN 2: Land per turn, blue source. During your opponent's attack, if they swing, play Jace's Scrutiny . Nab a clue token.

Turn 3: Land per turn (one that enters tapped, preferably). Again, play control during your opponent's turn if you have to. At this point, if they have no creatures, during their end step, play Jace's Scrutiny declaring no target, but to get the token instead.

Turn 4: Indomitable Creativity the Clue. Here comes Ulamog and the ensuing questioning of the legality of the move, the calling of a Judge, and the scoop.

Deck Strategy

Basically, this deck plays control until the combo can be pulled off. A good opening hand will contain 3 to 4 land, at least one copy of either Jace's Scrutiny or Press for Answers , and some combination of Harnessed Lightning, Shock, or Radiant Flames . By turn 4 however, you should have at least one copy of Indomitable Creativity in hand. If you do, go ahead and initiate the combo, but the safest way to do so is to wait until turn 7 if you have a spare Disallow in case of a counterspell or To the Slaughter (during your opponent's turn). Note that although you do have an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger on the battlefield, it technically wasn't cast, so the "exile two permanents" effect will not trigger. From that point on, it's just a matter of killing your opponents creatures, milling them out (it's essentially a 3 turn timer from there), and countering any threats to Ulamog.

Checking out the sideboard reveals responses for both creature-heavy and control-heavy match-ups. If your opponent is running a very grind-y control deck, punish them with Fevered Visions as an alternate wincon. Yes, it gives them a slight card advantage, but 2 damage each turn is pretty good at putting pressure on them to make a move. If your opponent is running a fast and aggressive deck (@Mardu Vehicles), Radiant Flames takes out a good percentage of the fast and aggressive creatures, and Fragmentize is an excellent response to Heart of Kiran.

Card Tech

Mainboard:

-Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger- Um, this is kinda the wincon. Either through damage (2 hits) or mill (3 swings, maybe 2), this card wins the game.

-Shock- Shock is really good for direct damage or for shutting down the CopyCat Combo. Also good for earlygame removal (I'm talking to you, Scrapheap Scrounger).

-Aether Meltdown- This card can turn big threats into little things to deal with, and a pain in the side to Mardu Vehicle players. Also, the leftover energy can fuel an Aether Hub or a Harnessed Lightning.

-Anticipate- Anticipate is a very good dig spell for when you're trying to find a specific card. It takes the one you want, and gets rid of the others, and helps prevent an Ulamog from going into hand.

-Harnessed Lightning- Harnessed Lightning is a very flexible removal spell that can grow big if you have enough energy in store. Leftover energy from a burn can fuel an Aether Hub in case you're down a color.

- Jace's Scrutiny - This card laughs in the face of the Heart of Kiran, shutting it down to a 0/4 when it attacks. Besides Heart, this card can shut down any decently-sized attackers, and provides the all-essential Clue token.

- Press for Answers - A good tapdown spell that removes an opponent's threat for one turn. Also a cheap supplier of Clue tokens.

-Disallow- This is a counterspell, but better. It can respond to a Heart of Kiran crew, a Saheeli Rai drop, a Felidar Guardian flicker, a Winding Constrictor double, and many other things. Also good for, well, countering things.

-Indomitable Creativity- The primary outlet for getting an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger onto the battlefield. Included because hardcasting Ulamog would actually make sense.

- Radiant Flames - A good board wipe that can deal 3 damage to everything your opponent controls. Punishes the crap out of an Aggro deck, and a good sideboard out for control decks.

-Glimmer of Genius- Glimmer is a great "at the end of your turn" dig spell. The energy also fuels a Harnessed Lightning and Aether Hub

Sideboard:

-Dispel: A good 1-mana counter to eliminate any threats from control decks to your Indomitable Creativity.

-Fragmentize: Fragmentize is a great response to Heart of Kiran, and eliminates any kind of tapdown Aura on your Ulamog. Good against artifact-heavy match-ups.

-Release the Gremlins: Once again, another response to artifact-heavy decks and Heart of Kiran. Also creates a bunch of 2/2 Gremlins cheap.

-Negate: Always a good counterspell to any type of direct burn or killspells. Don't be afraid to put these in if your opponent is playing black, as To the Slaughter is always a thing.

-Fevered Visions: Always board in your 3 Fevered Visions during a control matchup. More often than not, your control-oriented opponent will have more than 3 cards in hand anyway, so dealing 2 damage to them at the end of their turn makes for a great punish and alternate wincon. Also, it supplies you with an extra card at the end of your turn, which is always good.

- Radiant Flames : In a highly aggressive matchup, Radiant Flames tears aggro decks apart. Being able to deal 3 damage to all of their creatures (including flyers) essentially eliminates their board state, leaving only the big ones to fight your Harnessed Lightnings and Shocks.

- Confirm Suspicions : The only 5-drop in the entire 75, Confirm Suspicions is a relatively expensive counterspell, but supplies you with at least 2 extra Clue tokens to dig for spells at instant-speed.

FNM Testing Coming Soon!

This Friday will be the first time in at least 2 months that I will be able to attend an FNM. I'm taking this deck just to see if it will be at least a little competitive, but also just to get some laughs and reactions about the combo. If it does decently well, I'll post my findings here.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Board Update — April 30, 2017

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Based on suggestions from Red_X and active playtesting, I made an update to the mana base and sideboard of the deck:

Spells:

-1 Shock: In this format, there's a lot of responses that can be made to Shocking a creature. Plus, with CopyCat out of the format for good, I don't need as many responses to Saheeli Rai. But, as 2 damage to the face is pretty good, and as a way to hold of Scrapheap Scrounger for an additional turn, I kept 3 in the mainboard.

Land:

-2 Inspiring Vantage: The only six cards that I need a white mana for are 4 Radiant Flames (2 in the sideboard) and 2 Fragmentize. The odds of having all six of those in my deck at once is slim, and the Aether Hubs supply a good source of White mana already.

+1 Westvale Abbey ^Flip: During matches at FNM, I found myself not doing a lot at the end of my opponent's turn, especially against the Enigma Drake control deck. This left a LOT of untapped mana that could have been used for something good. Westvale Abbey ^Flip is a great mana sink that gives some fodder to sacrifice to Indomitable Creativity and some decent chump blockers. Also, if I have enough tokens, Ormendahl, Profane Prince ^Flip is a good game-ender that can steal a healthy amount of life if necessary.

+2 Geier Reach Sanitarium: After dropping a match, I would look through the next five or six cards in my library just to see what I could have gotten, and more often than not, a wincon popped up two or three cards too late. The Sanitarium can be an instant-speed dig, and helps me cycle cards that I don't need out of my hand.

Sideboard:

-1 Confirm Suspicions: Five mana for a counterspell isn't exactly what I had in mind, but the three clue gain seemed pretty good at the time. Well, it wasn't. Especially against other grind-y matches, dumping two extra mana into a Disallow that still has a separately activated cantrip was not helpful. Also, adding a Westvale Abbey ^Flip creates an instant-speed guinea pig to Indomitable Creativity for the same cost. For these reasons, this card is out.

+1 Westvale Abbey ^Flip: For the same reasons as stated above in the mana base, I decided to add one more Abbey to the Sideboard. If I find myself in a creature-heavy matchup, I can double my chances of being able to pump out tokens. Also, sideboarding out an Abbey for an Abbey in Game 3 makes for some excellent mindgames.

FNM Playtest and Analysis, 4/28/17 — April 29, 2017

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Revision 1 See all

(7 years ago)

-2	Aether Hub	acquire
-1	Aether Meltdown	acquire
-1	Anticipate	acquire
-1	Confirm Suspicions	side
-3	Disallow	acquire
-2	Dispel	acquire
-2	Fevered Visions	acquire
+1	Geier Reach Sanitarium	main
-4	Harnessed Lightning	acquire
-4	Indomitable Creativity	acquire
-6	Inspiring Vantage	main
-2	Negate	acquire
-1	Radiant Flames	acquire
-2	Release the Gremlins	acquire
-3	Shock	main
-4	Spirebluff Canal	acquire
-1	Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger	acquire
-4	Wandering Fumarole	acquire
+1	Westvale Abbey ^Flip	main

Top Ranked	Achieved #20 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Exclude colors	BG
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 19 - 8 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 7 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.86
Tokens	Clue, Energy Reserve, Gremlin 2/2 R, Human Cleric 1/1 BW
Folders	Current Builds, Standard post AKH, kaladesh, Idea Farm
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