New player needs help with FNM U/B control deck
Standard Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 28, 2016, 12:15 p.m. by MDT12
Hey guys and girls,
I'm pretty new to magic and have only been playing on kitchen tables so far. However, I recently bought a box with pretty good cards from a friend who wanted to quit and now decided I would like to try my luck in a FNM (standard) event. In the box was quite a lot of Dragons of Tarkir stuff so I attempted to make a blue black control deck with dragons (because you know, they're dragons). I was led in the direction of Shota Yasooka's Pro Tour deck and made a build around the same concept, alhough I don't own a lot of the expensive lands or some of the rare spells. The deck:
It currently has 28 lands, but I might take it down to 26 or 27 to put in maybe another Anticipate and/or another piece or removal such as Murderous Cut or Silumgar's Command. Please let me know what you think of the deck and how it could/should be modified. Thanks in advance!
Thanks golffore297 for the input! I might put in the 2 Duress instead of the Despise, was not sure what would be the best at this moment. Just for my information, these should be in to remove Jace/Gideon from their hand right? My friends don't play that many spell heavy decks except from an occasional Blue control mirror. Also, I put in the 4x Silumgar's Scorn as opposed to Clash of Wills because of the high Dragon Count of 7 (was 8 before I put in Ob Nixilis Reignited). I actually played the deck a few days ago with 3x Scorn and 1x Clash, in addition to 2x Void Shatter, and really liked it so I might keep it that way.
January 28, 2016 1:10 p.m.
golffore297 says... #4
When looking at the meta, there's a lot of high impact non-creature spells running around in Standard. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is certainly one of the bigger ones, but it's also really good in the control mirror, which will net you with more resources in the mirror. Other things like Crackling Doom and Abzan Charm are perfectly good targets, and taking away a Rally the Ancestors or Collected Company from a Rally player can hinder them a lot.
The reason why it's good to mix Clash of Wills, Silumgar's Scorn, and Void Shatter (geez I miss Dissolve) is because they can each be good at different stages during the game. Clash of Wills can still be good as a two mana counterspell if your opener doesn't have a dragon in it, that way you can say the Scorn's for later when you do have a dragon.
Also, just looking through your sideboard, Flaying Tendrils might serve a little better than Rising Miasma. Against R/G, the difference between 3 and 4 mana is huge. If you want to keep something at 4 mana, look into picking up a Languish.
January 28, 2016 1:35 p.m.
Alright, thanks again. Didn't know the card Flaying Tendrils but will pick some of those up soon for aggro/Rally/BW lifegain matchups. I have 2 copies of Drown in Sorrow but sadly that's not in Standard any more. Might also pick up Languish for a potential replacement of 1x Crux of Fate but he's quite 'expensive' at 4+ euros although it would be just a 1 off. I was also pondering the option of Crush of Tentacles as a 'flavor card' with a similar purpose. Last question, what do you think of Sphinx of the Final Word as a big bomb in this deck, or potentially sideboard against other blue/spell decks?
golffore297 says... #2
With the meta the way that it is right now, you would be well off mainboarding some Duress. A single copy of Silumgar's Command probably wouldn't hurt anything, but a singleton copy is probably all you need as it is really slow. Also, I noticed you were missing Clash of Wills, not sure if this was a personal choice of unintentional.
And don't worry about having to budget some! I have budgeted plenty of decks in my early FNM decks and they've run fine, even won me a couple of nights.
January 28, 2016 12:55 p.m.