Behold blessed perfection. -Sheoldred, Whispering One
This is a deck strategy which I fondly refer to as Horror Control. This deck is slow and methodical, if you enjoy watching your opponent's hope slowly drain away as you shut them down at every corner; only for you to ruin their chances at winning with your monstrous Horrors. If that sounds interesting then this is most certainly the deck for you.
First, lets talk about the control cards. Discard engines such as
Inquisition of Kozilek
and
Thoughtseize
are key to shutting down your opponent's plan. Using these cards turn one grants you the opportunity to snag an important combo piece, aggro cards, anything really. I run a total of 4 strict discard cards. Next, I run 3
Mana Leak
, 2
Cryptic Command
, and 2
Dispel
.
Mana Leak
is the most flexible counter spell in the format, and will completely shut down most early game spells, making this card very helpful for getting to the late game.
Dispel
counters most removal spells, so it is very useful for protecting your creatures, which are your win conditions. Lastly,
Cryptic Command
is one of the best cards blue has to offer: it can counter, tap down opponent's creatures, bounces back annoying planeswalkers or man-lands. This card always has a use, it may as well read "You Don't Lose the game this turn" as it will stop your opponent in their tracks and buy you the time you need. Lastly are the kill spells, 2
Fatal Push
, 1
Go for the Throat
, 1
Murderous Cut
, and 1
Yahenni's Expertise
. If an opponent does manage to get a creature on the field,
Go for the Throat
or
Murderous Cut
will more than likely be able to kill it, and
Fatal Push
is just too efficient. If your up against go wide strategies,
Yahenni's Expertise
is most needed. This deck can struggle against these decks, so take full advantage of the second
Yahenni's Expertise
in the side board. Additionally,
Yahenni's Expertise
won't kill most of our most important creatures, and the additional spell is incredible value. Lastly I have 2
Collective Brutality
, this card is a Swiss-Army Knife as it can either act as a kill spell or discard spell. It's third mode can useful be useful, especially against burn.
Next is the draw cards. A play-set of
Serum Visions
will let you filter through your deck very quickly and get you to the cards you need, when you need them.
Phyrexian Arena
is a very risky card, but the payoff is so worth it. This card should be saved for mid-to-late game when your running low on gas anyway, as at three mana, it's too much of an investment to play early game when you should be focusing on control.
Now let's talk creatures. Majority of our creatures also provide control elements in and of themselves.
Vendilion Clique
takes a card away from our opponent while providing us with 3 power in the air.
Snapcaster Mage
and
Torrential Gearhulk
both give value to the cards in our graves, helping us continue to controll our opponent's game.
Spellskite
is just a nuisance against most decks, stealing away burn and removal spells.
Phyrexian Obliterator
is just an amazing card, that is very hard for most players to deal with and can rot away their board state quite rapidly.
Geralf's Messenger
is difficult to deal with thanks to undying, and shocks our opponent every time he enters the battlefield. And
Awoken Horror
bounces back our opponent's creatures as its rather unlikely they'll be playing horrors. Speaking of which, any non-horror creatures we use have amazing enter-the-battlefield effects. Giving us additional value from our
Vendilion Clique
s and
Snapcaster Mage
s when
Awoken Horror
flips.
Lastly, I have 2
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
. Ashiok grows really fast with a +2, and her -X grabs creatures for you. This is very useful as it allows you to build a very strong board-state while maintaining mana for control and draw spells. Her ultimate isn't game winning in most cases, but it can be very crippling and grant you the opening for
Phyrexian Obliterator
,
Awoken Horror
, or
Torrential Gearhulk
to start swinging freely and win you the game.
One last note, the mana base is needs to be almost perfect. Between
Phyrexian Obliterator
and
Cryptic Command
, we have a lot of greedy cards. So have fun dealing with that.
I hope people like this deck, if you have any questions or advice please let me know.
