My latest five colour deck. This version like the others is focused around hard control. Unlike other control decks this list runs a nigh on ideal removal lineup. It has great win-cons and has absolutely fantasic sideboard potential all with some room for personal techs or meta conssesion cards. If your still reading I will explain some card choices to give an idea how the deck plays !
-lightning bolt , path to exile, spell snare; these are all excellent answers to a vast array of popular cards in the meta and they all cost 1 mana!!!!!! These are a must considering the vast array of pesky creatures opponents tend to play, snare also hits a great number of removal spells and enchantments and countermagic. Porphyry nodes is like a strange wrath, it can often reap x for-ones leading to card advantage, also has the upside of dodging protection and hexproof! It often causes your opponents to stave off developing their army in favor of shrugging nodes off but this effectively wastes their early game tempo! Note that's nodes has great synergy with alchemist's refuge but I will get to that beauty of a magic card later I promise ;D
- Abrupt decay, lightning helix, mana leak; the first two are a lil tricky, they require two colours so you must be careful with land fetches! Decay answers almost any permanent between turns 1-4, can't be countered too! This means it's an ideal answer for the infamous Splinter twin combo, cranial platings, goyf, v.clique and even an expedition map xD ! Helix, like bolt, can deal with most early curve creatures and can shorten a clock on your opponent a turn. It has the upside of lifegain which will be important with the painful landbase. Mana leak answers so many things I can't type long enough xD it gets weaker later on however the late-game is where this deck shines and where it's powerful win conditions can take the game!
-Electrolyze, Maelstrom pulse, anger of the gods; electrolyze is like a bully who kicks the weak kids for their lunch money, it decimates weenies and draws a card. Even dealing with just one creature is great as you come out a card ahead but kill two and you come out 2 cards ahead (heavy breathing) also makes for a satisfying cycle. Consider killing a V.clique and a snapcaster ..and drawing card #magicheaven. M.Pulse is a problem buster, artifacts,enchantments,creatures, planeswalkers and has the upside of potential x-for ones which lead to card advantage. It's downside of being a sorcery however it's still incredibly powerful and has insane synergy with alchemist's refuge and a bunch of lands :3 ( your getting the idea I like ARefuge and your absolutely right!). Anger of the gods straight up sets aggressive strategies back a step and a half, and the exile clause stops the pod decks coining advantage via persist when hit by it! ( insert fanboy comment on how it works with alchemist's refuge pretty well !)
-Cryptic command, sphinx's revelation; command is a card I could talk about for all too long, please go let somone take half an hour explaining why it's good and then try playing it !( if you don't know why otherwise you probably understand why it's in this deck) my only regret us that I can only squeeze two in here do to the tripple blue in the cost, perhaps with a revision of the landbase incorporating cascade bluffs for this and the RR in anger of the gods I could play the desired 4! Revelation is the bridge from the mid to late game, this card = card advantage! It also heals you a fair bit so upside upside! It is pretty important to push you ahead in the late game where you want to be cashing in that card advantage to game advantage and board presence whilst keeping your opponers from intervening.
-Tarmogoyf, snapcaster Mage; okay... Goyf... The Tarmo-G, this guy is like a clown with a big mallet... Scary. In terms of efficiency this guy is like a Carnot engine. He provides you no utility but the beef to deter attackers, a fast clock, resilient threat that makes you seem the aggressor sometimes( plus he gets better and better as the game goes on). ( oh yeah and refuge gives him flash !!!!!!!!!). Snapcaster Mage is the other end of the spectrum, full utility. Often described ( by me) as the lord of instant and sorcieries ( afterall this is pretty much tribal instant right ;D ) he provides a re-use of a card with a 2/1 to show for it! So if you reuse a removal spell and that spell trades 1 for 1 then having Mage left over is one up on your opponent! And if he ambush vipers something else then great +1's (DEM PLAYS). Also although he isn't as beefy as Tarmo-G, snappy-beats is not unheard of and often can surprise you when you realise he has dealt 12 damageto your opponent xD!
-Ajani Vengeant, Obelisk of Alara; okay so the cat-man provides an answer to a tapped permanent whilst acting as a scary ticking armaggedon for your opponent, he also gains life while shooting helicies (see above for lightning helix!). Obelisk of alara to be perfectly honest... Is rather funky. As to it's playability I need to test it. In theory however. It provides significant life gain that some decks can't beat. It can't kill pretty much every creature in robots and hatebears (dem weenies be scared of this !!). The lava spike shuts out nearly all planeswalkers that see competitive play (not karn sadly #plzkarngoaway) and provides great inevitability in terms of a win condition. The cycle can be okays if you topdeck utter uselessness... But at least it's there if you need it ! The titanic growth makes snappy suddenly a terrifying 6/5 ready for some serious action and tarmo-G, well he just gets bigger than theirs xD.
-Alchemist's refuge (I know you've been waiting for this!)!!! This card is like a lvl up for altta cards your playing (as if they wernt good enough already o: ) it also allows you greater degrees of freedom leading to more informed decisions. Example: you want to play Tarmogoyf however it leave you unable to cast (insert relevant removal/counter for hypothetical senario). You originally would have to trust your gut but refuge (with a lil bit of excess mana) leaves you able to see if your opponent has a card you wish to kill/counter and then make the choice ! I'm just saying, better descisons usually lead to more wins.
-Celestial Colonnade; C-nade has been a control favourite for a long time now, he is relatively resilient, uncountable and brings the pain. Manlands provide some extra reach and this guy can deter a restoration angel or a clique from knocking on your door. The vigilance allows him to be ready for the cheeky path to exile and spell snares at your time of need even if you've begin the write on your opponents life total !!!
-Reasons to play this deck instead of meta decks;Compared to the popular UWR control decks this deck finds it easier to deal with artifacts/enchantments in game 1 and has abrupt decay which can answer twin combos easily and Tarmogoyf without a path to exile in hand(more versatile than PTE) Compared to UWR control it has more win cons available excellent sideboard customisation and a lil room for any techs Has a maindeck answer to blood moon that isn't a counterspell (Adecay) although don't be fooled moon is amazing vs this deck just like it is vs any greedy manabase just as this deck weak to persistent land disruption.
Well I will test it out alot for now and report back my conclusions and update the list accordingly.
Please feel welcome to leave any suggestions (please leave reasons for specific cards so I can understand why they would be great :D ).(SIDEBOARD TO BE CONSTRUCTED LATER)P.S thanks for reading all of this
