This deck is a work in progress - I'm still figuring out which cards are good and which aren't. The deck may change a lot and at any time.
The basic idea is to play a tap-out control deck with the following things:
-That doesn't have creatures, so that opponents' removal is blanked. The draw back of that is that bolts can still go at my face (unless I have a leyline of sanctity) and abrupt decays can still go at my stuff (unless I have a greater auramancy) - though I tend to flood the board with so many abrupt decay targets, that it's only good against me and not great.
-That plays cards which slow the game down greatly to allow me to set up. For example, cards like Ghostly Prison or
Storage Matrix
make the opponent choose one of developing their game plan or attacking me, but they can't do both.
-To play cards that answer multiply things at once. Leyline of sanctity suddenly turns off all 4 lightning bolts, liliana ultimate, gifts ungiven, targetted discard, etc. RIP answers all the goyfs and all the deathrites. Ghostly prison and sphere of safety and story circle make it so that it doesn't matter how many creatures you have - you might as well have one (or none).
-In combination with the last point, use Venser well. Pithing needle, nevermore, and runed halo are all powerful reactive answers, but they are usually considered not good enough for game 1. But with Venser you can name a different card later on. Plus, you can upgrade your d-sphere/o-ring to remove something better than you originally removed. And besides that, you get sweet value off of spreading seas and faith's fetters, and copy enchantment. (Note: Nevermore currently is moved to sideboard).
There's other directions you can go as well. White is the only color completely central do a deck like this. Green can add some ramp, since you want to dump your hand fast, but green doesn't give much else (except maybe Lignify). Green is only worth running if you run Utopia Sprawl because we want to ramp to 3 but my list is heavily base-white so that's not so easy. Red is certainly worth considering since Blood Moon is very powerful, but Lightning Bolt isn't that great in this deck. I haven't considered black much, so I'm not sure what that offers. You can also go in a direction based around Mesa Enchantress and Verduran Enchantress, which I have thought about but not tested. It seems like the enchantresses would be way way too hard to protect.
Note: the deck was updated fairly heavily on 6/21/13. I've left the explanations of some of the odd cards below in case you want to try them yourself, and added some new ones.
Here's a card-by-card of some of the weirder cards:
Porphyry Nodes - this gives your opponent a choice. Either keep playing creatures and keep losing them, or take a turn off from playing creatures, which usually slows the game down as we wanted. If you think it's awkward for us, you're right, but it's more awkward for the opponent.
Story Circle - This is often played as a 4 drop (ie with a mana open). It can often completely win games - name green against bogle or red against burn etc and that's it, you now have infinite time to setup (watch out for skullcrack). Blanks a whole ton of your opponents spells at once which is why I like it.
Relic of Progenitus/
Aether Spellbomb
- I wanted something to put down on turn 1 (especially on the play) that could be impactful, and while these aren't always impactful at least they cycle.
Telepathy - Also something I found when looking for a turn1 play - the deck has a lot of sequencing and a fair bit of guesswork, which is much much easier when you know you're opponent's hand.
Serum Visions - Not an odd or weird card, but I did want to explain it. I put it in the deck because it's also a turn 1 play, but also it filters through some of the cards you don't need in the matchup or already have or want to tutor for later to protect from thoughtsieze, etc.
NOW REMOVED (too slow/cute - replaced by
Ajani's Mantra
for repeatable lifegain):
Honden of Cleansing Fire
/Honden of Seeing Winds - the white one goes along with slowing the game down. If you've got your plan executed, your opponent can only chip away at your life total a little bit at a time, so gaining 2 per turn hurts them a lot. And who doesn't like drawing cards?
NOW REMOVED (too slow to matter, would rather run more defense grids):
Curse of Echoes
- in addition to Defense Grid it's anti-counterspell tech to some extent (not always with things like counterflux, spell snare, mana leak) but also lets you copy their abrupt decays, lightning bolts, cantrips, etc.
NOW REMOVED (not good enough by itself and too dead sometimes):
Storage Matrix
- Slows the game down. The ideal time to play it is when your opponent both has tapped lands and creatures, but if you've got nothing else to do then it's fine to just start using it. Works extremely well with ghostly prison. Also, note that it makes it so planeswalkers never untap. Sorry, that Gideon Jura isn't doing anything to me.
NOW REMOVED (lowering curve of deck): Azorius Signet - the deck has a lot of 3-4 drops and a few 5-drops and wants to tap out all the time. The signets give you the acceleration is sweet. But I'm only giving them a section to say that they are awkward since stony silence is an important sideboard card and storage matrix is also awkward.
NOW REMOVED (I like damping matrix): Suppression Field - Pros and cons of this one. Pros should be obvious, the cons are tec-edge, venser, luminarch ascension, story circle. But compared to damping matrix, it also hoses opposing planeswalkers, fetchlands, manlands, etc.
NOW REMOVED (Very cute but not that good): Prison Term - I don't like that deathrite shaman. Wait wait, now that you played that tarmogoyf I changed my mind. It's the same concept I enjoy of answers that can answer multiple things or improve over time.
