The Gold Standard

Standard AngelOfDivinity

SCORE: 126 | 338 COMMENTS | 29596 VIEWS | IN 82 FOLDERS


Sept. 22, 2015

The last update turned out to be irrelevant, because I went Esper and did go back. The entire purpose of this update is to hide that update.

Thanks.

lordmalphas, once BFZ comes out I'm going Esper. But I want to make the changes with a knowledge of the entire set, so for now I'm just leaving this as is. I'll start making changes next week.

September 13, 2015 12:38 a.m.

LordOfDispair says... #2

Needs more lands. I ran 25 with scrylands in standard and a low curve, but this might need 26. Other than that, Anticipate is a very nice piece of filtering at instant speed, and Dragonlord's Prerogative isn't that great against non-control opponents. Also, Self-Inflicted Wound is a very nice piece of sideboard material.

September 14, 2015 12:42 a.m.

I mostly disagree about Dragonlord's Prerogative. I feel like people see the uncounterable clause and then fail to recognize that it refills your hand. The uncounterable thing is nice, but isn't what makes it a good card in my opinion. That clause is hardly ever going to be relevant. I used to run both Anticipate and Self-Inflating Mattress, and I don't really like either of them. I do think I should maybe add another land, and since I do always side out 1 prerogative against aggro (which means pretty much always) anyway I'll drop one of those for another land.

September 14, 2015 12:56 a.m.

lanimilbuS says... #4

I am seeing a multitude of lists running Ultimate Price over Murderous Cut and am growing curious as to why. Would you be so kind as to explain this to me?

September 17, 2015 5:05 p.m.

I think because of the following:

Ultimate Price can be used turn 2 & 3. Especially relevant against aggro, which in my meta anyway is the thing that your deck has to be able to beat.

Dig Through Time food

Tasigur, the Golden Fang? I guess, mainly the first two.

Also, some people play Disciple of the Ring

For me it's mainly the first one.

September 17, 2015 5:22 p.m.

lanimilbuS says... #6

Interesting, thank you!

September 17, 2015 6:16 p.m.

No problem!

September 17, 2015 10:16 p.m.

Fibbe says... #8

I don't think running 28 lands would be wrong in this deck, I'm not even sure running 29 lands would be insane, well, it might be if you're mostly facing aggro decks. Control decks are always hard to theorycraft before going into a format, but I'd play 4 Polluted Delta and at least 2 Flooded Strand to fuel Delve, along with a number of Prairie Streams and Sunken Hollows to let you fetch for the colour you're lacking. With a manabase that strong, you can more freely incorporate white cards in the sideboard, and if you want more flood insurance, you can even build that into the manabase with more Shambling Vents. After that, it really depends on what kind of aggro you're facing up against, you build control decks to suit the meta you expect, and then you test the hell out of them, the spells you have here seem reasonable if you're expecting aggro.

September 18, 2015 11:59 p.m.

Fibbe, thank you very much for the input. The reason behind not including those lands is that I want to trade for them, not buy them... But honestly, I just... don't like White in BFZ. I mean, in addition to Shambling Vent, I do like Planar Outburst... But Roil Spout, not a bad card, has its equals or betters... And sure, Stasis Snare is cool, but doesn't hit plansewalkers like Ruinous Path, and the isn't something I want to be held up to. I just feel like U/B will serve me better sheerly because of the land base simplicity, while sacrificing very little.

I do totally agree though, once I can I'm totally getting deltas and hollows, but by trades preferably.

So, I'm going back to U/B.

September 19, 2015 12:13 a.m.

Fibbe says... #10

AngelOfDivinity, U/B control splashes white for Dragonlord Ojutai all the time, and with the stronger manabase you get access to cards like Utter End out of the sideboard to stop problems you cannot handle as straight U/B.

Though now that I think about it, there are decks you can go that benefit from being three-colour, if you play white, you get to play Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  Flip, Ojutai's Command, and more. You can play Hangarback Walker in that deck, it'll be much more of a tap-out control deck, but with some very strong options, especially for dealing with aggro, and the U/B deck will likely fall under a weaker version of this, unless it wants to give up Ruinous Path as a removal spell and rely solely on counters and more narrow removal as you seem to have done already.

September 19, 2015 12:49 a.m.

Errast says... #11

So far Angel, the deck looks pretty cool, but I've got a few problems with the deck, that I'll write about below.

  1. Shambling Vent needs to go. This card doesn't block well. The lifelink might be nice, but you're better off running any other land, as this will most likely trade with a 1 drop, or a burn spell, and then you'll be out a land.

  2. Horribly Awry is probably better suited as a Despise, or Transgress the Mind. These cards are much more active, and allow you to get more information on what your opponent is looking to do, and take their best creature (or planeswalker) out from under them.

  3. Whether or not Eldrazi are a thing in the new standard, Ultimate Price should definetly dropped for Ruinous Path. The removal with a late-game creature stapled on is really useful.

  4. I think that you should at least consider Scatter to the Winds, the card does late game stuff, and another counterspell is always welcome in Control. Especially when that counterspell does rad stuff like giving you creatures (sure it's extra mana spent, but a beater's a beater, no matter where it comes from).

September 19, 2015 1:18 a.m.

Respectively:

  1. I dropped white.

  2. I see where you're coming from, but in my meta Transgress the Mind wouldn't really hit a lot, and the problem with Despise is that after a certain turn people in my meta tend not to have hands and just always play whatever they topdeck, so while it would be better for the first few turns it would be dead mid-late game, which is why I prefer the counter.

  3. Good thinking. Since I'm running 17% less dragons now, I instead cut 2 Foul-Tongue Invocation and 2 Ultimate Price for it. Plus there is almost nothing with hexproof in BFZ, so hopefully the advantage that comes from the sacrifice won't be relevant.

  4. It's a 2 of now.

September 19, 2015 1:47 p.m.

Errast says... #13

To be entirely honest with you, I've been considering running Sultai Control, and you could probably consider it too.

Kiora, Master of the Depths keeps your creatures from being tapped for too long, helps ramp you up to your end game stuff, and fuels Dig Through Time and Tasigur, the Golden Fang.

Nissa, Vastwood Seer  Flip definetely doesn't look like a control card either right? But her +1 when she flips is so useful. She also forms Elementals for you to add to your small army of creatures.

So the two cards I'm recommending give lots of land. With this much land, you'll be able to filter through your library in no time, getting to all the juicy spells in your deck, and drawing cards all the way. But where does all the excess mana go while I'm digging through my library? It all goes into Villainous Wealth, which lets you dig through your opponent's library for all their best stuff.

So no, there's not a whole lot of stuff to splash green for, but what is there is surely pretty looking pretty good, I know I'm excited at the very least. Honestly, with the new lands in standard, I doubt you'll have any trouble's getting 3 colors on the field. You also get Woodland Wanderer. I mean, come on.

September 20, 2015 1:13 a.m.

This deck used to be Sultai, actually, and I took 1st place at FNM one week with that, but I concluded that really everything I had in green I had options for in U/B... just like my conclusion now with White.

September 20, 2015 2:04 a.m.

Errast says... #15

I remember you used to be Sultai, I was one of the people who talked you out of playing it.

That's why it's so funny that I recommend you go back to it.

September 20, 2015 8:51 a.m.

Lol, I thought you were. I was kinda confused. But all the same, I still feel like the assets gained by running green aren't worth diluting the mana base. Like yeah, Nissa, Kiora, Sagu Mauler, and Villainous Wealth all win games, but so does Silumgar, the Drifting Death. See what I mean? Same with White.

I have been been toying with the idea of putting in Dragonlord Kolaghan as a 1-of. I just really don't like that he doesn't have hexproof, but his second ability I think would make him hilarious against any creature base deck, and the fact that he is Fervor is also great. Plus that's one more card to trigger Silumgar's Scorn and Foul-Tongue Invocation. But I think I should relegate both him and the Ojutai I currently have Main Board until I can get a fourth haven.

September 20, 2015 12:55 p.m.

Things I'm really loving:

EVERYTHING WITH AWAKEN.

Even considering running 1-of Part the Waterveil as a wincon.

Scatter to the Winds is the new Dissolve, and Ruinous Path is the new Hero's Downfall. Yes, at normal cost they are both strictly inferior to those former iterations, but the late game asset of a creature is huge. And Rising Miasma I am finding to be an inferior replacement for Drown in Sorrow, but a replacement none the less.

In all three of these comparisons, the new card is definitely worse than its former iteration, but I am loving the addition of a creature at the cost of its former speed/ scry 1.

September 20, 2015 7:12 p.m.