Overview
The main theme of this deck revolves around the card
Seasons Past
from Shadows over Innistrad. This card is unique in that after returning a bunch of cards from your graveyard to your hand, it puts itself on the bottom of its owner's library, allowing it to be tutored for and played every turn once you have put a tutor card in the graveyard. This gives me an incredible amount of card advantage and inevitability, as each turn I am able to cast the same removal spells, giant threat sorcery, and sweepers every turn. If you want to be extra mean, you can throw an extra turn card into the rotation to chain together these amazing seasons past turns one after the other, winning you the game with Exsanguinate or any creatures you got off of
Villainous Wealth
. I chose
Damia, Sage of Stone
for the incredible card advantage she gives to any control deck. The other main feature of the deck is the relative lack of creatures, making sweepers in the deck extremely effective, punishing decks hoping to attack for the win. If you can survive the early game of taking damage from creatures, this deck features a late game that is the envy of many a control deck.
Card Analysis and Combos
Ramp:
A huge part of the deck, we have ramp spells at every low mana cost to ensure that the deck can consistently power out to at least 7 mana (for Damia) as early as possible without relying on a ton of artifacts. You'll notice the deck runs a lot of basics, and that is because of Boundless Realms and Collective Voyage, two of the biggest ramp spells there are, if you have enough basics to support them. Thanks to seasons past, you can often cast them multiple times per game, and so I wanted to be sure a majority of lands in the deck could be brought into play off of these two spells. A nice interaction in the deck is the combination of Burgeoning or Exploration with
Damia, Sage of Stone
. Because Damia's ability is better the fewer cards you have in hand, this deck wants to be able to play extra lands that Damia draws into each turn, and these two enchantments serve double duty as great early game ramp and late game card advantage. Once most of the deck's lands are in play, Zendikar Resurgent offers maximum value by doubling all land-based mana, allowing for a massive x-spell finisher. Finally, the excellent combination of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers is a fantastic way to practically double the mana output of the deck, and they can be searched out with Tempt with Discovery or any of the other tutors in the deck.
Card Draw:
There are only three spells in the deck that specifically draw you cards:
Damia, Sage of Stone
, Rhystic Study and Phyrexian Arena, and really the second two are only included for their hyper efficiency (assuming your playgroup isn't staunchly against giving people with rhystic study value). The main card advantage comes from Damia and from
Seasons Past
, the key piece to the deck. Once you can tutor up and cast seasons past every turn, the need for other cards becomes less important. If playing against other control decks, try and wait to cast seasons past until you can protect it, as getting seasons past countered takes you back to trying to win a fair game.
Control:
Because the deck runs so few creatures, sweepers like Toxic Deluge are incredibly one-sided, and the most useful removal for creatures in the deck, but there are a smattering of blue-based creature removal spells like Pongify and
Curse of the Swine
, and the ever important exiling Reality Shift. I generally don't worry about the tokens it gives my opponents, since the damage they can deal usually isn't enough to matter until you can sweep them away. Otherwise the deck focuses on counterspells to ward off opposing threats, as they are a universal answer to any card type. A few anti artifact and enchantment spells round out the control suite nicely, just in case something dangerous slips into play.
Win Conditions:The main win condition of this deck is either casting haymaker sorceries Exsanguinate or
Villainous Wealth
, or combo-ing off for infinite turns with
Seasons Past
. While one cast of villainous wealth for 20+ is often enough to win the game, exsanguinate usually needs to be cast a few times via seasons past to ensure victory. Metallurgic Summonings probably isn't necessary for this deck, but it's a new(ish) card I want to play with, and the second ability is one of the few other ways for recursion in the deck outside of
Seasons Past
.
That's the deck, I hope you enjoy, and please give suggestions!! That is all!
