Shadows' Verdict

Sorcery

Exile all creatures and planeswalkers with converted mana cost 3 or less from the battlefield and all creature and planeswalker cards with converted mana cost 3 or less from all graveyards.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (8)

Mtg_Mega_Nerds on Need Next-level Ayara, First of …

2 years ago

You need more ramp since you have a lot of expensive cards. For ramp you need: Arcane Signet , Charcoal Diamond , Jet Medallion , Nyx Lotus , Dark Ritual , Culling the Weak , Wayfarer's Bauble , Bubbling Muck . Take out Ugin, the Ineffable . I don't know why you have it, there are hardly enough colorless cards to make it effective. Also take out Josu Vess, Lich Knight , Abhorrent Overlord , and a couple more expensive cards that cost 6+ cmc. You also need to change your boardwipes. They are far too expensive to be effective. Trade Necromantic Selection for Shadows' Verdict , Deadly Tempest for Mutilate , Oblivion Stone for Soul Shatter . I would suggest Decree of Pain for Damnation or Toxic Deluge considering the deck price. Other cards to consider adding: Swiftfoot Boots , Defile , Phyrexian Arena , Sign in Blood , Read the Bones , Night's Whisper . Since you are already running good sac outlets, Exsanguinate and Torment of Hailfire consider adding an Infinite Mana Combo. Make these changes and the deck will be much faster and more competitive.

Clashboy15 on OTJ - Grixis Control

2 years ago

Nice list, but why no Bonecrusher Giant ? It's one of the best cards in standard right now, and seems like a great 2 for one in the deck. Serves as removal at times and is also an efficient creature that really puts a pressure on the opponent's life total (when necessary, since it is often a blocker as well). I also feel like heated debate is a little bit slow, considering that it's 3 mana and doesn't always kill creatures. Black -- a color you're playing -- offers much better removal, and "can't be countered" doesn't seem very important. Also, I think a few copies of Extinction Event and Shadows' Verdict would be nice. You might also want to play a little bit more islands, since you have 2 castle vantresses.

EpicBox75 on

2 years ago

Hi. I love UB control archetype so I would like to give my 2 cents. So I'll hope that this helps/gives new ideas ^_^

I think your deck at the moment has unnecessary tap lands. Halimar Depths Vivid Marsh and Polluted Mire and Lonely Sandbar. I would recommend trying Mystic Sanctuary, Sunken Ruins, Field of Ruin, Fabled Passage or Castle Vantress. Karakas is also viable option even though it acts like colorless land in UB.

I also need to recommend Search for Azcanta  ^Flip because it can win control mirrors almost by itself. Shark Typhoon and Omen of the Sea are my personal additions usually because both of them are 2 for 1 effects.

For sorcerys I have not been impressed with Yahenni's Expertise and I have played Shadows' Verdict and/or Dead of Winter instead of it. Also Bloodchief's Thirst and Baleful Mastery are cards that I can't stop recommending because they are just that good, the ability to get rid of an creature or planeswalker while being cheap removal if needed is just so good.

For creatures I will recommand Murderous Rider it is another hero's downfall with 2 for 1 thanks to adventure, I have never been impressed by Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir because he usually doesn't do enough for 5 mana. For planeswalkers if your meta has decks that have creatures Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is surprisingly effective and talking about Ashiok Ashiok, Nightmare Muse is a real game closer because both +1 and -3 are extremely good and an army of 2/3 will win the game at some point.

For instants I will just write recommendations because there are so many: Archmage's Charm just does everything you would want, Commence the Endgame uncounterable threath + card draw and is especially good mirror breaker, Cryptic Command it also does everything, Disallow the stiffle can save games sometimes (like countering planeswalker "ultimate"), Erebos's Intervention I personally like this card very much because it can buy so much time against aggro decks, Hieroglyphic Illumination works as early game can trip and mid/late game divination, Spell Snare on draw this is amazing and usually the best cards are 2-3 costed so this usually hits something important and last but not least Force of Negation because it is another force. I would recommend little bit more targeted removal because edict effects are worse against decks that play mana elfs or other low impact 1 drops.

I personally wouldn't play your artifact package but because I haven't played with artifact package I won't say anything about that because I don't know how good it is.

These are just my recommendations and these aren't absolutes. Here is also list if you would like to compare different building choices

I hope that you found this helpful ^_^

razelfark on Quandrix Devotion

2 years ago

Hello Raknulfr,

I have tested the deck out and it has been performing very well most of the time.

The issue with removal has been surprisingly not that big of a deal. The only issues with removal is when someone uses a sweeper over targeted removal, and the sweeper is usually Extinction Event or Shadows' Verdict at which point Heroic Intervention just wasn't doing much even though it is in the side for white/red sweeper counter play.

Targetd removal play arounds are mostly you make sure not to play Scute Swarm until you can land drop with him and hopefully make it a double land drop for the turn to make sure you can keep it on the field. Remember to play land from hand after resolving the scute if possible to prevent your opponent from blasting it before moving to cast another spell, this is to keep your opponent from getting reaction priority to kill it before you can get a trigger.

Another thing about the removal protection, a lot of people are running cards that hit "Nonland" cards like Binding the Old Gods and Skyclave Apparition . What this means, is that having Ashaya, Soul of the Wild on the board all our non-token creatures will be considered lands. This also means that any nontoken creature that enters the battlefield will trigger Scute Swarm . This combo is soo strong I am thinking of adding another Ashaya just to make it more consistent. Small note: Ashaya does shrink when Tanazir Quandrix uses his attack trigger, so keep in mind.

As for the Master Symmetrist , this card is not going to do much for us. If we have either Tanazir Quandrix or Klothys's Design with a board of scutes, then we don't really need trample as the scutes power with numbers increase enough that our opponent won't be able to block enough to matter 9 out of 10 times (plus they usualy lose their board chumping 4/4 scutes).

Some quick math for the Klothys's Design to put in perspective why I don't care for trample; if I have 7 Scutes in play they will all get +7/+7 meaning I swing with 7 creatures that are 8/8. Meaning if 3 get through, I would kill most people that don't gain life. The numbers get much scarier if you take into account you can land drop the turn you play the spell to double your scutes in play to swing for even more.

The deck does takes some time to develop its board sometimes, but that is also why there are so many ramp spells to get it going fast enough and to help make sure you can trigger as many scutes as possible.

Hope this answers some of the questions about the card decisions.

razelfark on

2 years ago

I see you have a strong combo with Nissa of Shadowed Boughs with her minus to setup a free Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider to the board that you can follow up with Professor Onyx . That seems interesting, but you look like your lacking ways to protect her if you resolve her. You may want to include some sweepers into your deck like Extinction Event or Shadows' Verdict to clean up the board for when you want to resolve your Nissa or for general survival as a lot of decks are finding ways to hit the board wide quickly.

For your land base, I would probably suggest removing the Evolving Wilds and just go with basic lands or more of the Triome lands. The reason for this suggestion is that you are running Cultivate , Fabled Passage , and Binding the Old Gods . With soo many cards to take lands from your deck, this may lead to you very quickly turning your Cultivate and Evolving Wilds / Fabled Passage into dead draws from taking your few basics from deck too quickly.

Cosima, God of the Voyage  ^Flip is a tricky card and I know you are using the Evolving Wilds to help trigger this card more likely then the Nissa. If that is the case then you would need more basics in the deck as previously stated (meaning you would need to trim pathways to keep the wilds).

You may want to consider running one Saw It Coming in the main board to make your opponent guess what you really have foretold since you are running the draw, kill, and extra turn spell already. Players will hesitate to play cards when they see certain spells once they know what kind of cards you foretell.

I think these small adjustments should boost your consistency a bit for your gameplay. Wish you the best of luck with the deck.

Sorin_Markov_1947 on

3 years ago

Pretty plain Esper Control list. Most of your cards are pretty low in power though.

Unsubstantiate is pretty weak counterspell/bounce. Saw It Coming is better 9/10 times.

Solve the Equation , The Birth of Meletis , Professor Onyx , Archmage Emeritus , even ECD (depending on the matchup) are all pretty slow. Esper lists in Standard right now have a lot of value packed into them. Most of them use Yorion, Sky Nomad as a companion and love to blink things like Omen of the Sea , Treacherous Blessing , ECD, and Sad Robot . Skyclave Apparition is usually pretty good too, as it removes things much earlier than other exile effects.

Speaking of removal, let's work on that. Murderous Rider is not a good rate anymore. Bloodchief's Thirst , Heartless Act , or Eliminate are the removal of choice usually, and Shadows' Verdict the sweeper.

I'd even probably take out the 4x Neutralize for some combination of Disdainful Stroke , Essence Scatter , and Negate .

With Strixhaven coming, I expect Elite Spellbinder to be a good addition to control. It blocks well and disrupts your opponent's curve.

In the sideboard, with the prevalence of control, 4x Mystical Dispute is a necessity. You'll also want something for the mono-red aggro matchup, probably more Shadows' Verdict s. Against mono-white aggro, you want Shadow's Verdicts and maybe some Ravenform . Shark Typhoon is also good in the control matchup (hint: you'll almost never cast it, but cycling can't be countered and gives you a card back). Disdainful Stroke should also add up to 4x between mainboard and sideboard, as the control deck of choice at the moment loves to run big spells. Unfortunately, this deck will fold to Dimir Rogues and I can't think of a sideboard plan that would change that. Their fish tactics are just too good against dedicated control decks.

MrBoombastic on

3 years ago

I agree with everything @Markov_1947 pointed out. These grindy Ultimatum-less decks usually fold to Emergent Ultimatum and you play neither Extinction Event nor Shadows' Verdict , meaning that you could easily get run over by mono-white or mono-red too. I like a whole bunch of the cards you put in here and wish they were playable in a midrange deck like this, but many of them just aren't right now. If you want something like this, you either put in Ultimatum and join the bad guys, or you go more controlling and gear up to beat them.

Sarulf, Realm Eater and Cosima, God of the Voyage  ^Flip are great for limited and do look pretty delicious on paper, but in reality they are just too slow for constructed. I haven't played around with Nissa of Shadowed Boughs yet, but I believe she fits best in an aggro deck. Wolfwillow Haven is often better than Lotus Cobra , as the snake is just terrible at dodging Shock , Bonecrusher Giant , Eliminate and whatnot.

Hope that helps some. Good luck!

DanMcSharp on Snow Dimir

3 years ago

Hello,

I'm having a lot of fun with the snow archetype too, but I think you vastly under-estimate how useful Jorn, God of Winter  ^Flip front side is, as I did at first too.

Untapping everything let's you get another permanent back with his back side, it lets you pump more mana into your Ascendant Spirit (3rd ability is repeatable), you can trigger Frost Augur again, let's cast that big Graven Lore that you weren't quite able to squeeze out otherwise... and more. It's really worth it.

I splash green just for that, and for Binding the Old Gods . It's excellent removal and it can get any forest card in the library (not only basics) straight into play. Death touch isn't the most useful, but we have lots of small dudes so it's not irrelevant.

With that said, your version seems fun too, but I would avoid using Shadows' Verdict since that would remove a lot of the things you want to bring back from the graveyard with Kaldring, the Rimestaff . Also I feel like 4 Narfi, Betrayer King is a bit overkill since in theory as soon as you get one, you can keep replaying him.

In any case, we're playing snow, and that's cool.