This is an iteration of the deck that Nate Prawdzik is playing on his YT channel, and that I am testing in paper.
So why this deck? Why not Miracles, or some other control vasriant centered around Delver or Angler?
The long and the short of it is that we want to be more controlling than those decks. Sure, you can miracle your entreat for 5, but them being all 1/1s that get halted on the shores of a moat means you still cannot win.
We are using a building strategy first pioneered by Brian Weissman in the very early years of Magic's history. Back when the only win condition in the deck was a miser's copy of Serra Angel. Or a little bit later when you could only win with the 1-2 copies Kjeldoran Outpost in your entire list.
This deck is built with the spirit of those decklists. Our win condition is Jace. And to a lesser extent, Gaea's Blessing letting our deck last longer than our opponent's does. So 3 cards in the 75 will win us the game.
After playing with this deck a good bit, and seeing the work Nate has done with this on his youtube channel, I firmly believe this could be the most skill-intensive brainstorm deck. And the one that might be able to leverage it better than any other with the right pilot.
There have been figurative mountains written about brainstorm specifically. The usual "legacy" method of utilizing it involves using BSn putting 2 cards you don't want back, and then cracking a fetchland to shuffle away the cards that are not good for the current moment.
"But KF! There are only 4 fetchlands in this deck!"
Correct. And we'll probably end up splitting them into 2 Misty's and 2 Strands. But the strength of BS into fetch is options. Do you want that card on top? Is the second one down pointless or another option? Were you hiding cards in response to a Hymn? The list goes on.
This deck enables what I consider to be the best selection options out of Brainstorming. Our 4 fetchlands are our first set of shuffle effects (and crucible lets us reuse them for quite a long time with the high count of fetchable lands). We also have our 2 Gaea's Blessing that let us restock our deck with countermagic, along with replacing themselves when we cast them. Furthermore we have Land Tax and Tithe. Land Tax itself potentially being good for shuffle effects throughout the entire game on its own. Tithe also being a 1-mana instant-speed 'draw' ~2; in a format that is all about incremental advantage.
Sometimes you will get to live the dream of assembling Land Tax + Scroll Rack
and getting 3 basics every upkeep, and then using Rack to exchange those 3 basics back into the deck for 3 real cards every turn. And then a shuffle from tax on your next upkeep to go and fetch out the same 3 basics again.
This brings us to Scroll Rack, and how it functions basically like a Brainstorm on steroids every turn. With all of our effects to reset the top of our deck as needed, Scroll Rack becomes an insurmountable wall of advantage in card quality against opponents who are playing normal cantrips. Naturally this strategy lends itself well to a Counterbalance line of play, and while we dont need to lean heavily into it, the incidental advantage of free countermagic with our excellent top of deck manipulation is a game-winning strategy.
The final boon to the card selection power of this deck is Search for Azcanta. We can put a card we want 2 down off the BS, and the situational card on top of it. If we don't need the situational card, we can mill it away with the search. Often it is correct to not flip search for Azcanta as fast as possible. Both of its sides have tremendous value for us, and we want the back side of it to be the nail in the coffin for out opponent in the late game. Either they play a spell and it gets countered, or we get to draw a card from our Azcanta on their endstep.
As Foretold + Restore Balance
allows us to play both a mana denial strategy between Wasteland + Crudible of Worlds and Restore Balance, and still keep avenues open to interact with the stack/boardstate.
Zuran Orb is a haymaker in a deck like this. With Crucible, it lets us trade land drops for life, and with Sylvan Library, trade that life for cards. Often it is better to not run it out right away so as to save it to trade away with BS/Rack, or up the number of cards in your hand to be more resilient to effects like Hymn.
One of the real all stars in this deck is the "legacy-legal" Library of Alexandria. This card is of course Throne of the High City.
Alongside Humility + Moat
, this deck that focuses around controlling the boardstate through countermagic and Swords to Plowshares The Monarch is just one of the most backbreaking forms of card advantage, and will almost always ensure your victory.
Contol has been a strategy of magic for almost as long as the game has been around. And as such, there are countless archetypes that incorporate elements of it into another strategy or gameplan. The old control decks of yesteryear had a different strategy: "If you can't do anything, I'll eventually win. So my strategy is to not let you win."
