Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage

Brawl*

olag

Land (25)

• 1x Aether Hub
• 1x Arch of Orazca
• 1x Desert of the Mindful
• 1x Desert of the True
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Ipnu Rivulet
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 8x Island
• 1x Memorial to Genius
• 7x Plains

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Cast Out
• 1x Gideon's Intervention
• 1x Ixalan's Binding
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip

Instant (10)

• 1x Censor
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Essence Scatter
• 1x Glimmer of Genius
• 1x Hieroglyphic Illumination
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Settle the Wreckage
• 1x Spell Swindle
• 1x Wizard's Retort

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Fumigate
• 1x River's Rebuke
• 1x Urza's Ruinous Blast

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Karn, Scion of Urza
• 1x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Artifact (8)

• 1x Azor's Gateway  ^Flip
• 1x Cultivator's Caravan
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Orazca Relic
• 1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• 1x Sorcerous Spyglass
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x Treasure Map  ^Flip

Creature (7)

• 1x Azor, the Lawbringer
• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1x Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
• 1x Skittering Surveyor
• 1x Torrential Gearhulk
• 1x Walking Ballista

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As a hardcore control player in most formats, I wanted to create a deck that matched my playstyle but that would also remain competitive. With Baral, Scarab God, and Nicol Bolas being some of the top tier commanders right now, it's hard to play a straight-up control shell in UW. Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage provides that tempo angle of attack which is really helpful against the counterspell and removal-heavy decks of the format, while still having a solid foundation for a UW control shell against the non-blue decks of the format (like Ghalta).

Notable runner-ups:
1) Supreme Will: Solid counterspell that is never dead
2) Karn's Temporal Sundering: Great card to play while ahead, not so useful when behind
3) Commit / Memory: Great card, playable on most board states and can refuel in the late game
4) Lyra Dawnbringer: Good with Raff, mostly just a 5/5 for 5 with some nice keywords most of the time
(which may or may not be relevant)5) Seal Away: Very good, cheap removal, but the meta doesn't seem to favor these types of cards yet
6) Cataclysmic Gearhulk: Pseudo-wrath at instant speed with Raff, but we tend to play multiples of certain card types which may result in some awkward interactions.

The major point of this post is to get some advice on the build. I'm far from an expert on standard, so I've probably missed some cards as I've been testing the deck. If there's anything I've missed that you think may be useful, I'd be happy to hear it. Please keep suggestions in a competitive framework with Baral in mind.

I've probably missed some utility land, or have some non-optimal deck choices. I'm hoping an extra set of eyes can help me differentiate between optimality and internal bias. Thanks for the read!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is not Brawl legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 21 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.69
Tokens	City's Blessing, Construct 0/0 C, Emblem Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Treasure