The goal of this deck is to play our pre-board strategy of
Solemnity
and
Phyrexian Unlife
Lock, which is full of things to let us dig for our combo like
Narset, Parter of Veils
,
Serum Visions
,
Arcum's Astrolabe
, and
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
. These are effective tools to shape our deck and find what we need. We also have ramp so that we can deploy our combo early, or even a turn two Narset. We also have controlling aspects like
Meddling Mage
,
Spell Queller
and
Deputy of Detention
to slow our opponent down or also shut down combo decks. We have
Reflector Mage
and
Deputy of Detention
to quell bleeding until we can deploy our combo.
Path to Exile
to remove tough creatures. Once the combo is down we win with Exalted Spell Queller's or Teferi's Ult / Teferi tucking himself for a Mill win.
These cards give the impression of a Bant Control deck, which is exactly what we want because after sideboard our deck turns into a very strong
Collected Company
deck. With the addition of
Knight of the Reliquary
,
Courser of Kruphix
,
Geist of Saint Traft
and
Tireless Tracker
- not to mention
Collected Company
.
We already have all the mana of a Bant Company deck with
Birds of Paradise
and
Noble Hierarch
, which in pre-board games just looks like a way to get our combo down faster. We already play
Spell Queller
and
Reflector Mage
which can be hit by Company but also just look like ways to slow down the game in game 1. Our other creatures like
Deputy of Detention
and
Meddling Mage
can now be played at instant speed for tricky plays. After sideboard, we have 29 creatures, which is right around where you want to be for CoCo decks.
Ideally our opponent will see that we are a Control-Type deck with very few creatures and will sideboard in order to play a control deck, maybe they even take our some creature removal. They will definitely bring in Enchantment hate which will hit almost nothing after game 1. All of a sudden a bunch of turn two
Knight of the Reliquary
's that are 4/4's will take them by surprise.
Our mana base needs to be primarily blue / green in order for our turn 1 plays of either
Serum Visions
or a mana dork.
Arcum's Astrolabe
also helps us dig on turn one and set up our mana fixing really well. With the use 7 fetch lands in our deck, we can easily fetch for a snow-covered land of any color and not have to worry about getting shock lands since we can always filter our mana with Astrolabe. The fetches obviously play well with
Knight of the Reliquary
and
Courser of Kruphix
for value. We also have
Ghost Quarter
for Tron and to boost
Knight of the Reliquary
we can always target our self and get a basic snow-covered land. We have
Waterlogged Grove
to draw a card and grow the Knight.
We also play mainboard
Leyline of Sanctity
because it actually has plenty of decks that get shut down game 1 -
Inquisition of Kozilek
,
Thoughtseize
,
Kitesail Freebooter
,
Walking Ballista
,
Grapeshot
,
Altar of Dementia
,
Liliana of the Veil
, and it tells our opponent to bring in enchantment hate for game 2 where it will be irrelevant.
And of Course we have 1
Retreat to Coralhelm
for that value engine with
Knight of the Reliquary
play all your lands combo with
Courser of Kruphix
out. and
Fblthp, the Lost
draws two cards off of CoCo.
Here is how sideboarding will usually go:
Out -
Solemnity
x 4
Phyrexian Unlife
x 4
Narset, Parter of Veils
x 3
Leyline of Sanctity
x 2
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
x 1
Serum Visions
x 1
In -
Courser of Kruphix
x 4
Knight of the Reliquary
x 4
Geist of Saint Traft
x 1
Tireless Tracker
x 2
Collected Company
x 3
Scavenging Ooze
x 1
The configuration of Game 1 control, Game 2 CoCo is better than the reverse because Game 1 most decks are not equipped to deal with 10 important enchantments / artifacts, while they are plenty ready for creature removal in game 1. While in game two, we give them a chance to take out all that creature removal that they already have in place for enchantment hate, which is now irrelevant after sideboarding.
(Solemnity and Phyrexian Unlife could be replaced by 4
Teferi's Puzzle Box
, which could free up four slots; however, I like Solemnity/Unlife because both cards have a little standalone utility. Unlife buys us an extra ten life in order to find our combo piece and can stop Infect decks if resolved and Solemnity can stop certain cards like
Aether Vial
,
Thalia's Lieutenant
,
Scavenging Ooze
,
Carrion Feeder
,
Raging Ravine
,
Arcbound Ravager
, and
Walking Ballista
. Solemnity is AWFUL against
Thing in the Ice
and
Devoted Druid
as it automatically flips TiTi and gives the devoted druid player infinite mana. But that is why we have Meddling Mage to name TiTi and Devoted Druid)
