Infuriating to play against, counter-control tries to keep as many enemy spells as possible from resolving. To that end, this deck packs in a full set of counterspells for every situation.
Mardu Vehicles/Ballista?
Horribly Awry
hits the creatures, while
Disperse
and
Stasis Snare
take care of the bodies, including those pesky
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
's. Switch
Spell Queller
out for some
Ceremonious Rejection
to help with those pesky
Heart of Kiran
's and
Walking Ballista
s, as its relatively small body dies to the removal packed by Mardu.
4-color Copycat should be an easier match, with multiple options available to target
Felidar Guardian
when it shows up on turn 4. Saheeli is a bit harder to get rid of in game 1; if you go first you'll have the multi-purpose counterspells available to stop her. Otherwise, you'll need to kill her with
Spell Queller
's.
Mainboard:
-
Stasis Snare
makes great removal for the more resilient threats. At instant speed, it knocks out Gideon and Heart of Kiran. Exiling the target means Scrapheap Scrounger and the odd U/B Resurrection decks stay contained.
-
Void Shatter
is the primary all-purpose counterspell. Due to the lack of graveyard hate in Standard, the exile removal is a big bonus. It's also way cheaper than
Disallow
.
-
Thing in the Ice
and
Rise from the Tides
are the deck's finishers. Originally,
Rise from the Tides
was
Archangel Avacyn
, but after an excessive number of casualties to
Unlicensed Disintegration
, the choice to switch was made.
-
Horribly Awry
is a very useful counterspell in most matchups. For Mardu, you may want to sideboard this out for
Negate
or
Ceremonious Rejection
, though the exile feature is useful against
Scrapheap Scrounger
.
Why no
Disallow
? It's $5 apiece and honestly is not a great counterspell. In many cases, the
Stifle
effect is just delaying the inevitable. If it was or had some additional upside like Scry 1 or something, I'd use it.
Feedback and constructive criticism are very appreciated!
