Want to play a versatile Azorius control deck that doesn't break the bank? Sick of all those pesky creatures and planeswalkers? Maybe you just like playing matches that take brief eternities to finish. In any of those cases, this may be the deck for you!
As a quick peek at the deck list will tell you, this is a Modern deck built around grinding the gameplay to an absolute standstill through liberal use of cards like Gideon's Intervention, Sphere of Safety, and Detention Sphere, then winning with either Approach of the Second Sun or just by letting your opponent scoop in frustration. Let's break down the cards we're running, to see what fits where.
Temple of Enlightenment - It makes , and while it does enter play tapped it also lets us scry, which is almost worth it being tapped since we don't have a ton of drawing power.
Glacial Fortress - It makes , and usually comes into play untapped outside of turn 1-2. Both of our colors quickly? Sounds good to me.
Port Town - It makes , and usually comes into play untapped during turns 1-2. Again, we like having both colors quickly.
Plains - It makes , and comes into play untapped, AND can let Glacial Fortress or Port Town come into play untapped. We like . A lot.
Island - It makes , and comes into play untapped, AND can let Glacial Fortress or Port Town come into play untapped. We like , but not quite as much as .
Ghost Quarter - ? What are YOU doing here? In all seriousness though, this card can be a blessing in the right situation. Letting us mess with our opponent's mana base is always a good tool to have, even if they get to replace what we remove with a basic. Plus, if we really, REALLY need to, we can always use it to fix our own mana base if we can't seem to get a certain color, though this should almost never happen.
Telepathy - This card is amazing in this deck. Letting you see your opponent's hand at all times means you know what cards to ban from play before anyone even tries to play them. This is probably your best turn 1 play, and usually your opponent won't bother to remove it once it is on the field because they have bigger problems to deal with using their limited enchantment removal. The only real downside is that multiple copies are dead draws. (This is also fun in multiplayer, since it reveals all other players hands to every player, meaning some people will want to keep you around so that they can continue to reap the rewards).
Peek - A slightly worse version of Telepathy, it does have a few perks to it, such as it's instant speed and built in card draw. Even if you don't need to see your opponent's hand, this is effectively usable as a cycle for .
Condemn - One of our cheapest forms of creature removal and the first line of defense in the early game. Putting a creature on the bottom of our opponent's library is often better than destroying it, and we don't care about our opponent gaining life because we aren't going to win by dealing damage. A shame it only works on attacking creatures, but we have other removal to get around that.
Unsummon - Our other form of early game creature removal. Bouncing to our opponent's hand isn't ideal, but it makes for good early game stalling, and it gets better in late game thanks to some of our other enchantments preventing replay altogether. Unlike Condemn, this also lets us hit non-attacking creatures, like mana dorks or soul sisters.
Spreading Seas - Our second and only means of land control outside of Ghost Quarter, This can completely shut down our opponent when used early or on certain targets, and at worst is a bad cycling card that counts towards or total enchantments in play. Use this when your opponent has limited mana in any color other than , or to take out special lands like tron or man lands. This is an easy card to swap out against blue decks, but in most other matchups it can be crippling, especially in the early game.
Journey to Nowhere - This is our preferred form of creature removal. At 2 mana, it is relatively cheap, exiles creatures instead of destroying them, and as an enchantment helps boost one of our other late-game cards. Opponents can technically blow it up, but usually drawing enchantment hate off of our other cards is a better deal.
Detention Sphere - This is Journey to Nowhere on steroids. For just an extra blue mana, it can now target any non-land permanent (other than other copies of itself), and grabs not only the target but also all other copies of the target currently in play. It's fun to sit on this until your opponent has managed to play at least 2 copies of a permanent, then nab them both at once, but don't feel bad if you really need to get rid of some big enchantment or artifact and have to blow this on it.
Ghostly Prison - You know it, you love it, it's a favorite of prison decks everywhere. For just three mana, you have taken almost every "go wide" strategy in the game and made them look like just so much bluster. At a head, attacking with more than a couple creatures at a time is infeasible, and using even one limits their other plays for the turn. This card gets to be extra fun when you get multiples in play, and soon opponents are giving up entire turns just to try and sneak in a little damage.
Nevermore - One of our two big control cards against strategies that don't rely on opponents just attacking us, the ability to stop an opponent from playing cards altogether is hilariously good against more competitive decks that use playsets of the best cards. We can even use them to protect themselves by naming enchantment hate cards, making them very hard to deal with. Even better if we already played Telepathy or Peek, since they take all the guesswork out of what would be our best choices to ban, and can turn Unsummon into a proper 1 mana removal card in some cases.
Gideon's Intervention - A slightly better version of Nevermore at a slightly higher cost. Not only have we banned our opponent from playing a card, but the copies already in play can't damage us now, either, making it a better version of Detention Sphere in specific situations as well. Also, as a side note, you CAN choose to name land cards, it just doesn't prevent them from being played. Usually not a good choice, but against decks like Titanshift or those with lots of man lands, this can be a viable strategy.
Sphere of Safety - Hey, remember all those times I mentioned that a card counted as an enchantment like it was a good thing? This is why. For two extra mana, this is a stronger version of Ghostly Prison. In a deck with so many enchantments, it is rare that you will drop it with being less than 3, with normal being closer to 4 or 5, and it will only keep getting bigger the longer you force the game to grind out. Plus it stacks with copies of itself and Ghostly Prison to reach astronomical total costs. Manage to get 2 copies of it into play, and may decks simply won't be able to generate enough mana to still hit you.
Approach of the Second Sun - Now, if you've read this far but skipped the intro, you may be wondering "well, this looks all well and good, but how do I actually win?" This card is your answer. Sure, it costs 7 mana, but who cares when your opponent hasn't been able to keep a combo piece on the board up until now? Yes, it can take up to 7 turns after it's cast for you to actually win, but so what when your opponent is sitting there scratching their head at how they are supposed to drum up enough mana to hit you with anything? Fine, you have to cast it twice and it's super telegraphed, but what does it matter when you have literally forbidden your opponent from using counterspells? The first casting can also help stave off impending death if necessary with the lifegain, and (fun fact) the first casting doesn't even need to resolve to count towards winning the game. Not only do you get to take your sweet, sweet time playing this card, but it even lets you beat other prison decks or lifegain because it doesn't rely on interacting with your opponent at all. You win the game. Period.
Sideboard Show
Elixir of Immortality - Our main defense against the occasional Mill deck, and the only reason I can't add artifacts to the list of card types we don't support. Use these to help stave off burn decks, help prevent death by mill, or if you feel like being the biggest jerk at the table and changing your win-con to "I just can't run out of cards, you'll draw out eventually." We're running 4 of this, because it doesn't help against mill if you can't get one in hand.
Dispel - A nice, cheap counterspell. Use this to help slow down burn decks, or to help protect your control cards and win-con against removal and counters.
Negate - We generally have other ways of dealing with creatures, so this is pretty much just Counterspell for us. Just like Dispel, this can be used against burn or counter control, but also against other enchantment decks, non-creature artifacts, or planeswalkers.
Disenchant - Speaking of dealing with other permanents, this is also good! Helps to break down combos, or anything that will stay in play and keep pinging us past our pillows.
Condemn and Journey to Nowhere - For when you need that extra little boost in high speed creature removal.
And that's the game! This deck will be a WIP for a while now, so if you have any suggestions it would be awesome if you drop them in the comments. Upvotes are helpful as well, since they get the deck seen by more people and therefore gets more input. The only things to keep in mind when making suggestions are:
1: It's a budget deck, so try to keep all suggestions under $3.00.
2: It's a creatureless deck. Yes, Meddling Mage is a thematic addition, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant can be a good win condition, but with the deck's focus on banning cards, adding creatures means we now need to ban all the creature destruction cards we could just ignore before.
3: If you do suggest a card and it gets added, you will be credited at the end of the description.
And on that note... oh, is it that time already? Well then, thus far here are the credited sources for changes to this deck.
Original deck inspired by:
SaffronOlive - His deck "Nevermore" is/was the core of this deck's identity, I initially just tuned it to be more budget and creatureless.
Cards contributed by:
Wyldemage - Responsible for addition of Unsummon for more early game creature control.
