They can't beat you without cards to play right?
I was really excited about Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver when it was revealed. I've also been partial to discard/hand control since my Ratnica deck a while ago.
Take any immediate threats out of their hands with Thoughtseize and Duress. Mill them with Jace, Memory Adept while controlling their spells and board presence with
Psychic Strike
, Dissolve, and
Far / Away
. Play their milled cards with
Psychic Intrusion
, or just directly steal their cards with Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver or Nightveil Specter.
Usually wins by milling them (after removing ways to deal with Jace), or beating them down with their own win-cons.
Sideboard
Aggro Matchup:
-4 Duress-2
Psychic Intrusion
+2
Wall of Frost
+4
AEtherize
Duress and
Psychic Intrusion
both lack the power against aggro that they have against most other decks, so they're good ones to pull out.
Wall of Frost
gives some early game protection to Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver and lets Nightveil Specter attack.
AEtherize
is the perfect tempo play this deck needs to recover against aggro. After one, I'll usually be able to put enough of their creatures and lands out with Nightveil Specter and Ashiok to outpace their attempt to rebuild, while countering their casts.
Depending on their speed/bombs, pulling Thoughtseize for more
Wall of Frost
and Hero's Downfall can be a good move.
Control Matchup:
-2
Far / Away
+2
Psychic Intrusion
Control is this deck's strong point, stealing the few win conditions that most control decks in the current meta have means they can't do very much. Duress and Thoughtseize pull out unfavorable counters, lest they lose the win conditions they're holding. My own counters are then enough to stop the conditions they do get, and
Psychic Intrusion
can let you take their
Elspeth, Sun's Champion
or AEtherling for yourself.
Midrange Matchup:
-X Duress-Y Planeswalkers+X
AEtherize
+Y Hero's Downfall or
Wall of Frost
The deck is relatively strong against midrange. Most decks still have some key cards you can control/counter/steal to win. Sometimes removing some card control for more creature control is a good way to go, but generally not many changes are necessary.
Rogue Decks
Monoblack Reanimator
-4 Thoughtseize-2 Jace, Memory Adept+2 Cremate+4 Crypt Incursion
This may not become popular, but it deserves a note because it absolutely destroys my deck. As is, if you don't hit hand control/sacrifice at the right time, there is nothing you can do to stop them from whipping everything you mill with Jace, Memory Adept or your counters. Counters become nearly worthless other than for the key parts, and for Grey Merchant of Asphodel the first time around. Pulling out whatever you can to put it graveyard control should improve the situation by quite a bit, and the remaining Duress still give you a decent chance of throwing out the whip or god ahead of time.
