my idea of adapting ivan flock's UW-revelation deck to modern. basically lots more options for wraths and draw cardswith better/more tempo permission. this deck is still very much in development so any suggestions are welcomed.
The basic game plan is to answer as many plays as possible early game while ensuring you make a land drop every turn until mid to late game and then play more defensively as you abuse Sphinx's Revelation to lever an insurmountable amount of card advantage and life while using post board wipe opportunities to chip at the opponent with man lands. bonus style points if you can maneuver a mill win by constantly using Blue Sun's Zenith on the opponent.
now lets talk about the cards:
Card Draw:
3x Sphinx's Revelation: this is the main draw engine in the deck it also lets you stabilise your life total and forces your opponent to make big plays in order to keep up with the lifegain
1x Blue Sun's Zenith: this is a little fail safe for those decks that pack spells similar to Slaughter Games. it also provides a very secondary or tertiary win condition in that it has the potential mill the opponent especially if they also have a high card velocity such as twin exarch or UWR control decks
4x Quicken: i consider this as mostly a draw card while also letting you provide your board wipes extra reach during your opponent's turn making opposing manlands much less appealing. also this constant threat will force the opponent to play around it by not over extending each turn therefore playing threats at a slower more manageable pace for our counterspell package. it also lets you cycle for the cards you want more and potentially from turn one.
3x Compulsive Research: since the most abundant resource in this deck is lands this card will generally read draw 3 discard one from early to mid game. it loses some of it's draw power late game as you have most likely played 60-70% of your lands but that's fine because Sphinx's Revelation or Blue Sun's Zenith should be your main draw engine at this stage and you can start discarding Compulsive Research to make 7 cards in hand.this can also be combined with Quicken for turn 4 draw 4 cards and discard one or two.
3x Serum Visions: this card is a rather safe little draw option as most people wont' bother with it, it lets you plan the next turn or two and can be played turn one or combined with Quicken to draw 2 then scry 2 from turn two.
board wipes and removal:
3x Wrath of God: I run this as the main board wipe purely because cards like Thrun, the Last Troll simply exist and are a favorite sideboard card against this type of deck's strategy.
2x Supreme Verdict: sometimes you only want to have to worry about a counter war over just the Quicken (which is unlikely to happen unless they've played the deck before, due to the general prevalence of Remand and Mana Leak and how bad it is to use those on a 1 cmc spell.
1x Planar Cleansing: this is to deal with those pesky non-creature permanents our other board wipes cant touch. this includes things like Blood Moon and Birthing Pod as well as just about any planeswalker ever.
3x Path to Exile: simply the best spot removal in the format as it can deal with any indestructible nuisances our board wipes cant handle and can be reasonably defended to interrupt most combos.
Counterspell package:
3x Remand: great tempo swing and helps to cycle through the deck. it also has relevance late game as it can be used to save our spells while fizzling opposing interruptions. also ridiculous against flash back spells.
2x Delay: this serves a similar albeit slower role as Remand as it answers most things, slows the opponent, can save our own spells and provides extra opportunities to deal with the spell with a more permanent counter or board wipe. originally this slot was Mana Leak however mana leak just lost too much relevance late game where this deck really wants to shine.
3x Negate: with the number of board wipes and removal this deck is packing it really struggles with non-creature spells and permanents and this spell provides a very definitive answer to these types of spells as well as maintains relevance through out the entire game.
3x Cryptic Command: this spell is just insane, it basically does anything and everything. got some creatures to push through for the last points of damage or a troublesome permanent? tap and/or bounce end of turn and swing for the kill. not to mention its most generic mode "counter, draw"
Win Conditions:
8x Manlands: this package includes a playset of Celestial Colonnade and Mutavault these are basically attack of opportunity cards as they allow you to chip the opponent's life total as you lever openings on the board by clearing creatures with board wipes etc.
1x Elixir of Immortality: this card allows you to keep the game going for way longer than it really ought to by shuffling all your spells from you graveyard back into your library. it also increases your draw quality as the game progresses since your deck will have a much lesser percentage of lands than the start of the game. also the lifegain is very relevant against aggro and burn decks
Blue Sun's Zenith: as mentioned before this card has the potential to mill opponents and it's shuffle trigger means that you will always have an X-Draw spell within your library independent of Elixir of Immortality
Opponent's concession: this is a competitive deck and as such is played under a time limit and if the opponent is good they'll realise their chances of winning are minimal after the 2nd-3rd Sphinx's Revelation therefore they should concede in order to save time and move onto game 2 or 3 otherwise you'll both end up with a draw which is effectively a loss for a professional/very competitive magic player. (on a side note: this deck is slow, very, very slow so to get the best results from this deck you have to be operating at a playing speed similar to players like stanislav cifka as demonstrated in the first 10 minutes this video with a reasonably similar deck and play style)
Cifka Plays Control
sideboard:
this is still mostly a work in progress and is basically designed for matchups i expect to have difficulty against
Tempest of Light: this deals with cards like Rest in Peace, Blood Moon and Archmage Ascension it also hoses enchantment heavy decks like aura hexproof and enchantress.
Mindbreak Trap: awesome against storm and is really good at dealing with those pesky spells that say "can't be countered"
Disenchant: an attempt to make the affinity less lopsided it might be more correct to use something like Kataki, War's Wage.
Tectonic Edge tron is annoying and this helps, also stops opposing manlands
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: effectively another elixir of immortality when you discard down to hand size and will win you the game when you eventually hardcast it, cuz you may as well go big or go home lol.
[[celestial purge: can deal with my most troublesome hate cards most specifically Liliana of the Veil
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir: basically a total badass in the control matchup/mirror as the opponent can forget about countering your shpinx's revelations and counters until he is dealt with.
Bribery this is a secondary wincon against decks that run big creatures that we can effectively stall until we can cast bribery. after all what's better than your own emrakul? it's surely your opponent's.
thank you for reading this description, this deck is still very much under construction and any critique or card suggestions are welcomed, I also have a version of this deck on OCTGN if anyone is interested in playing a tier 1 or 2 deck against this monstrosity lol.
