UB teachings is a deck totally committed to a controlling game plan. It aims to Counterspell and remove all the opponents threats until the late game is reached. Card advantage from Accumulated Knowledge + Evincar's Justice + Mystical Teachings
make it so then you are always a ahead on cards and always have an answer. Then we play either Evincar's Justice or Curse of the Bloody Tome and close out the game. This is a good deck for you if you are an experienced player who can analyze complex situations and you like to play a controlling style of deck. If you are a control player this is an excellent deck to jump into pauper, a diverse and fun format of all commons.
Now for card choices:
MAINDECK
CARD ADVANTAGE
Accumulated Knowledge as a controlling deck it is important for us to draw cards at instant speed. This forces our opponent to make the first move and gives us the choice of whether to draw cards or interact, over the long game the multiple copies will accrue an insurmountable amount of card advantage and it can be tutored for with Mystical Teachings when you need raw card advantage rather than specific answers.
REMOVAL
Agony Warp This removal spell fits very well with the mana base of the deck not requiring double mana. It kills most relevant creatures and prevents a bit of damage, be sure to use this first if possible and save non conditional removal for later
Chainer's Edict This removal spell is sorcery speed so it can be a liability when facing down certain decks, such as delver, you also cannot pass with this up, the upside is it is almost unconditional because usually you can eliminate all their creatures but the one you want to kill and then edict, if you can survive to the late game then it is an extra card for free and it is also a good card to discard to handsize with because of flashback.
Complete Disregard In pauper various creatures with undying will be played against you or boarded in such as Stormbound Geist + Young Wolf
cards like Unearth are played as well as many other ways to recur threats. Complete Disregard gives you an answer to those cards that doesn't put you behind on cards, it is also useable on other threats when necessary.
Diabolic Edict This is an instant speed tutorable answer to threats like Slippery Bogle + Ulamog's Crusher
which are otherwise hard to answer and also serves as and instant speed sacrifice removal spell
Disfigure This spell destroys many of the formats premium threats like Frogmite+Delver of Secrets+Skarggan Pit-Skulk for only 1 mana, allowing you to deal with one drops without trading down in mana, it is also cheap enough that you can often cast it and Mystical Teachings before the game goes too long to protect your life.
Doom Blade Doom blade is either the best removal in your deck or the worst, when facing down the mono-black decks that see play in the format Doom Blade is a dead card, otherwise it is excellent because it can kill any threat and we get to choose what dies, because it is sometimes a dead card we only play one.
Echoing Decay is a clean answer to tokens, killing multiples at once, it also kills many of the smaller creatures in the format and has the potential to kill multiples of those at once, providing card advantage, it is sometimes and expenxive Disfigure though but it is useful as a tutorable way to answer tokens.
Ghastly Demise serves a function similar to Doom Blade, in the early game it kills the small creatures you need to target and in the late game it is functionally non-conditional, it has the same issue as Doom Blade it can't hit black creatures
Evincar's Justice This is one of the only sweepers available in the Pauper format, Evincar's Justice can lock token decks out of the game with its buyback, answer multiple small creatures at once and serve as a win condition with Pristine Talisman, try to survive until buy back is online.
Innocent Blood This card works well with our Counterspell game plan, allowing us to remove one of our opponents at the cost of one mana, as their are no creatures in the deck the effect is one-sided
COUNTERSPELLS
Counterspell Some threats we have difficulty dealing with (Ulamog's Crusher) because we have only conditional removal or have etb triggers that put the game out of reach (Chittering Rats + Thorn of the Black Rose
) counterspell allows us to answer those effectively and efficiently. Sometimes our opponents play spells that we have to interact with as well (Counterspell + Lightning Bolt
) which counterspell also effects, it is also an excellent card to teachings for when we don't know an opponents hand or threat base. As always when necessary it can be used to answer small creatures if necessary. NEVER Counterspell a creature you can effectively and without card disadvantage answer with removal.
Exclude This is the cryptic command of the deck it is a catch-all answer to creatures while putting you ahead on cards when you cast it, it however is mana intensive compared to you other answers and cannot answer creatures already on the battlefield, so it is only a 2-of, if you have to answer a creature on the stack this is an excellent teachings target.
Prohibit is nothing flashy, but it is essential, it allows us to win counter-wars and leave up counters with out leaving up double blue, it can counter most relevant things, though sometimes we will be forced to kick it. It brings our Counterspell count up to a healthy number.
Remove Soul can deal with any creature and is especially good against etb triggers, it is cheaper than exclude and can be grabbed and cast with Mystical Teachings a turn earlier, it cannot hit creatures on the field if you prefer Essence Scatter or False Summoning they fit well in the slot as well.
MANABASE
When playing lands keep in mind the cmc of the cards you want to cast most right now in your hand and sequence your taplands to maximize effectiveness
Bojuka Bog This land enters the battlefield tapped so it sometimes is worse than Swamp the cost of having another tap land is low enough that putting in 1 to hate out various graveyard decks such as reanimator, dredge and tortured existence
Dimir Aqueduct This land can be very slow at times given to our instant speed style of play, however in the late game a big part of how we overwhelm people is with mana advantage, not only being able to answer all their threats and interaction but to do it every turn, or do it and leave up Accumulated Knowledge + Mystical Teachings
, this land effectively makes you hit 2 land drops, it also fixes our mana and bounces Radiant Fountain to keep ourselves safe from direct damage and buy time, it can also bounce Lonely Sandbar to cycle of Bojuka Bog to nerf your opponents graveyard.
Dismal Backwater Because this is pauper these are the best duals available, providing both are colors and gaining us a life, it is somewhat awkward with are bouncelands but it can be bounced for 1 more life at times.
Island Though islands make only one color they perform a very important role in the deck, allowing us to leave up double blue for Counterspell in the early game because they enter the battlefield untapped.
Lonely Sandbar Unlike Islands, lonely sandbar enters the battlefield tapped, however it can be cycled for a random card for our deck when we already have enough lands to find interaction.
Radiant Fountain gives us an edge against decks that want to Lava Spike us or attack with Faerie Miscreant it has synergy with Dimir Aqueduct as well, it will be bad in some openers due to mana but its functionality as part of the lifegain package should not be under-estimated.
Swamp serves as an untapped black source to cast our removal early when necessary.
OTHER
Mystical Teachings is the most important card in the deck allowing us get ahead on cards while also always having an answer to what our opponents are doing. Mystical Teachings for Mystical Teachings is a very strong play when you can afford to make it, because of the flash back you can grab all of the Mystical Teachings. It also allows us to take advantage of all of our one-ofs, our deck is built around it!
Capsize this card has a high ceiling and a low floor, it allows you to leverage mana advantage to attack your opponents manabases and slow down their threats, lands that enter the battlefield tapped and Karoo lands are very common giving this card additional utility, it is a good tutor target at times, otherwise, well there is a reason it is a one-of.
Crypt Incursion This always puts us down a card when we play it however it does have several perks, it can buy us many turns to find removal and take control of the game, it can be a wincon with a repeatedly buybacked Evincar's Justice, it can hose graveyard decks and prevent recursion shenanigans which trouble our deck.
Curse of the Bloody Tome This is our primary maindeck win condition when we play it slowly decimates our opponents library, it is good for the deck because it only requires an investment of 3 mana and can sit passively on the field as we stall for the rest of the game. If more are placed in their is not enough interaction. The more mana intensive alternate wincon Evincar's Justice + Pristine Talisman
also works so don't play like this is your only way to win.
Pristine Talisman This may seem out of place in a control deck, a mana rock, but Pristine Talisman fulfills several functions in the deck, it provides life-gain giving us an extra edge against any deck that uses direct damage to attack our life total, it allows us to ignore 1 power creatures, it provides mana advantage to prevent our opponent from overwhelming us with a rapid flurry of cheap spells, it serves as a win condition with evincars's justice.
This is a deck that has various one-ofs designed to beat single decks, that are otherwise mediocre, because of this the deck has some flex slots these are cards you can replace with similar cards from the maybeboard, these decisions are largely meta dependent
Ghastly Demise
Agony Warp
Complete Disregard
these can be replaced by some combination of Chainer's Edict, Diabolic Edict and Murder
Accumulated Knowledge can be replaced by Think Twice
one Prohibit can be replaced by Mana Leak or Deprive
one Mystical Teachings can be replaced by Whispers of the Muse
two Evincar's Justice can be replaced with some combination of Deep Analysis, Compulsive Research and Probe
two Dimir Aqueducts can be replaced with Dimir Guildgate
One Lonely Sandbar can be replaced with one Island
two Evincar's Justice and Ghastly Demise can be replaced by Gurmag Angler
hydroblasts can fit in the sideboard and if you are only playing less than 3 Evincar's Justice in the main at least the difference should be in the sideboard
