how much does BUG control have going for it?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Nov. 13, 2012, 11:04 p.m. by gheridarigaaz
I'm considering making a control deck with my 3 favourite colours...the tutor colours... any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks
Theres some decent, but not amazing, spot removal available to the selection. Though i don't know if i should make the deck a graveyard-basedl deck or something else. Any ideas would be helpful. I want to incorporate the Veilborn Ghoul /Sphinx of the Chimes interaction, but that's 7 cards taking up a large slot... so it 's probably not be feasible. I see a lot of RUG decks popping up so why not try another combination that isn't entirely primed before gatecrash?
Farseek , Thragtusk , Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Jace, Architect of Thought are all really good cards to have, usually as 4-ofs in BUG Control decks. I personally wouldn't run the Sphinx/Veilborn combo, as it is slow and usually those 7 cards are better off as straight forward draw spells. If you do run it though, you need as many swamps as possible in the deck, meaning some good black cards. Liliana of the Veil and Vampire Nighthawk are both really good cards for this deck and help push you more into black. Mutilate is also incredibly good as you'll want to control the board. Griselbrand makes for a good finisher. You can also run the Elixir of Immortality /Diabolic Revelations combo, which works well once you have over 7 mana.
November 14, 2012 12:14 a.m.
gheridarigaaz says... #4
I'm considering running Gilded Lotus and a few high-casting bombs too. I'm only considering it though because when i tap out for it i'd be able to cast murder or dissipate in the same turn
November 14, 2012 7:30 a.m.
gheridarigaaz says... #5
I'm considering running Gilded Lotus and a few high-casting bombs too. I'm only considering it though because when i tap out for it i'd be able to cast murder or dissipate in the same turn
November 14, 2012 7:30 a.m.
BUG really is going to have to wait until gatecrash for it to shinre. One major thing the deck is missing is good wraths. Mutilate is ok at best and for it to be really effective you are going to need Watery Grave . Also it could use some nice spot removal and a powerful walker.
November 14, 2012 8:29 a.m.
gheridarigaaz says... #7
definitely agree there, but i'm pretty impatient. I've got the idea that Abrupt Decay isnt so good in standard at the moment with a lot of important permanents being mid-rangey, e.g. Thragtusk , Restoration Angel , trostani and Thundermaw Hellkite . any threats in terms of blue worth considering in the deck? i know Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius has been a big hit, but to run that i'd need to splash red. I've got a pair of Desecration Demon s that'd fit right in with Griselbrand .
I'll post what decklist i have on here once i've made it.
November 14, 2012 9:33 a.m.
I'd agree that Abrupt Decay is not very good in the current standard. Gilded Lotus is an incredibly good addition, especially with Farseek s ramping into louts early.
November 14, 2012 10:37 a.m.
If you are running bug then run thragtusk. It and a griselbrand or two should be enough to do people in. Desecration demon could be interesting but I wouldn't recommend adding more than 2. Also you want at least 2 snapcasters. It would be easier to spash red for nicol bolas rather than niv mizzet if you are looking for a powerful late game.
November 14, 2012 10:57 a.m.
Why would he bother splashing red? That's why he isn't running Dracogenius, he doesn't want to splash.
November 14, 2012 11:12 a.m.
Splashing red has many benefits. It has a powerful end game in bolas, removal like pillar of flame and mizzium mortars, as well as having more utility creatures such as huntmaster of the fells. I was not suggesting he splash red I was just showing him that the path was there. Oh, and one does not simply splash for niv-mizzet, its mana cost is just to restricting.
November 14, 2012 11:48 a.m.
lol, I like that, good reference, the cost is way too restricting. I just feel like there is no need to splash red for BUG. Griselbrand , Jace, Architect of Thought , Thragtusk and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage are all excellent late game cards, without skewing the mana base at all. I didn't mean to sound rude, sorry if I did. Another note for the deck, Vraska the Unseen may be a little slow as a win-con, but her middle ability is too good to ignore, I would consider running her as a 2-of at least(remember, almost Vindicate is still almost Vindicate ).
November 14, 2012 12:31 p.m.
gheridarigaaz says... #13
it may sound noobish, but i have actually splashed colours in decks for one-of cards, admittedly the decks worked perfectly fine most of the time.
On another note... i have considered the thought of splashing for Niv, I like the izzet colour combination, what i don't like is the fact that the guild's flavor dictates that a lot of it's answers, such as bounce spells, soft counters and burn removal really don't have much scope in a long game... sure you can use overload spells... but it doesn't necessarily deal with every threat on the board.
blue just generates the card advantage you need while providing answers to spell-based threats in counterspells
black can deal with almost any form of creature based threat and provide early disruption with cards like Duress and Appetite for Brains
green fixes mana, generates card advantage (to an extent) and can permanently deal with non-creature permanents like o-ring, d-sphere and Kessig Wolf Run
(by card advantage I mean keeping a decent number of cards in hand)
on top of all that, the colour combination is pretty good for large creatures that end games.of the blue threats i'm considering Havengul Lich who'd work really well with Gilded Lotus or maybe Stormtide Leviathan ... though he's kinda sketchy as a creature...
November 14, 2012 12:32 p.m.
If you're going for that hairy of a manabase (because until gatecrash, you manabase will be worse than Solar Flare's), I'd say stick to really simple win conditions. Sturmgeist . Fettergeist with a Ring of Evos Isle . Griselbrand or Harvester of Souls with sweepers like Mutilate .
You also need to decide how you're going to to the late game. You can go the midrange approach, using mana dorks and mana accel to. There's the turbofog approach, using Walls and Axebane Guardian to survive until the mana gets built up. Planeswalkers are great, as they work effectively as Fogs that give other cool effects, like fetching swamps or freezing permanents, but they're all fairly expensive. You can also use a lot of cheap spells, then abuse snapcaster to get double duty out of them, or Psychic Spiral to mill them down (Especially useful for Jace Variations)
ckim777 says... #2
Recently i have seen a BUG deck that ran Griselbrand that topped high in an FNM. It used a mix of ramp with farseek, thragtusk, and Jace and Tamiyo.
November 13, 2012 11:21 p.m.