U/R Phid for new Metagame

[Milton]

Here is the current U/R Phid deck I have been playing.  This deck was developed about 6 weeks ago with the help of Jamino.  We developed this deck as a response to the increase in Long.dec and other fast combo decks.

Mana: 26
4 Volcanic Islands
2 Islands
4 Fetchlands
1 Stripmine
4 Wastelands
5 Moxes
1 Lotus
1 Library
4 Mishra's Factories

Card Drawing / Tutoring: 13
4 Standstill
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
1 TimeWalk

Board Control: 3
3 Fire/Ice

Permission: 11
4 Mana Leak
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirection

Creatures: 7
4 Ophidian
3 Gorilla Shaman

Board:
1 Dominate
1 Fire/Ice
1 Stifle
1 Misdirection
1 Blue Blast
2 Red Blast
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Hurkyls Recall
1 Psionic Blast
1 Gush
4 Other (I used Null Rod, could be Challice, Jamino used Miners)

Card Choices:

Many of the card choices were made based on the notion of the fundamental turn 2 in fast decks.  Our deck design was built around disruption or permission so we could deal with and push back the fundamental turn of most decks.  Many card choices were based on allowing us to stay alive past the first two or three turns and move into the mid-game, where a deck like this can just take over.

Mana Leak -
Because of the relatively small amount of blue mana for a Phid deck it was decided that Leak was a better card than Drain.  Also, being able to drop a first turn Mox, land and have Leak is nice against very fast combo decks, addressing the fundamental turn issue.  Lastly, the mana-denial element of Wastelands, Strip and Shaman is great at keeping an opponent low on mana, meaning that they will almost never have three extra mana to play.

Standstill -
Playing with this card slows that game down, and if it doesn't it greatly improves your position.  Conventional wisdom states that an opponent will usually ignore a Standstill, and cast combo elements anyway.  This results in a high chance of drawing more permission to deal with and disrupt the fundamental turn of the opponent.  Personally, I feel that playing with Standstill is almost like cheating.

Misdirection -
There are far more Misdirection targets out there than we assume.  Mostly, though, this card is a great card for protecting Phids and for having counter back-up for Leaks and Force of Wills.  It can and does generate tremendous card advantage against bad match-ups, like Gob Sligh and Suicide.

The rest should be pretty self explanitory.  Our goal with this deck is to be able to cast a first turn Standstill, have the mana to cast a first turn Mana Leak or have a first turn Force.  

We developed this deck prior to Mirrodin and I am still testing Scepter, but I find it to be generally inferior to Standstill and Ophidian.  Also I have found that Challice is over-rated in my testing, except as a way to totally foil Long.dec.  It is my opinion that Challice would be nice in this deck, but not as a main-deck strategy.

Thoughts?

[Grand Inquisitor]

In testing have you had trouble finding/keeping blue sources around?

Also, Urphid, has been called a 'bloodmoon' deck.  This new strategy completely ignores this option, have you missed it at all?

[Os-Vegeta]

Jamino showed me this deck too a while back, and I'll try to make the same comments here that I made with him.  

Quote 4 Volcanic Islands
2 Islands
4 Fetchlands
1 Stripmine
4 Wastelands
5 Moxes
1 Lotus
1 Library
4 Mishra's Factories

You do realize that you're very blue-mana-light here.  I understand that you're going to want Factories for synergy with Standstill, but you're also bastardizing your manabase a bit by trying to run not only 5 moxen and a Lotus along with 5 strips but also along with Mishra's Factory.  

Quote 4 Standstill
4 Brainstorm
4 Ophidian

Ok, you have a nice amount of card drawing here, and I'm going to relate a problem here that I often encountered when I tried running 4 Brainstorm, 4 Standstill, and 4 Curiosity in Fish - there's just too much.  It can end up being overkill, as it proved in my case.  

My experience with Phid builds has really led me to believe that Keeper is just superior in every single aspect.  As I explained in the past (actually in Jamino's thread), Phid is just not that great in the current environment, even in post-Mirrodin, as the metagame is still just to fast for the little snake.  I really just don't see the point of running a draw engine that makes you wait 3 turns before you start gaining card advantage from it, provided that you have cleared the way for it.  The extra card drawing can make up for the difference there, but if that's the case, did you really ever need the Phid to begin with (or in other words, weren't you already in control and practically had the game won)?

[glenchuy]

can 3 scepters work here instead of the 4 standstills?

[Jamino]

We have both tested this, and I found that the reason we wanted the Standstills is draw, just about every game it will eb 2 mana to draw 3 cards. Not a bad deal.
If you start playign with scepters they will nto always give you card drawing, and while card advantage in general is good, we really want to DRAW more. Scepter is also veyr mana intensive. Turn 2 it can come out (without moxen) but in order for you to activate you will need another two. This will mean that during this time, you wont be playing a Phid, or puting a standstill. Both of which after a few turns, which this deck really focuses on getting on, you will win. They want to answer to your phid, your going to be drawing 3 cards first, most probably a counter or a MisD to counter that bolt or Swords.
However I am still trying to incorporate maybe just 1 for its general usefulness, and help in control mirror.

@Grandinquisator
Sometimes, it can be hard, but unless the opponent gets that very rare 3 waste 1 strip draw in the first few turns, we are fine. Later in the game we have standstill otu and they will try to focus there wastes on our factorys. As always, just survive the first few turns and you will be fine. Also, we generally just keep the fetchs untill we really need it. And rememer, we play stifle.\n\n

[Toast]

Why the factories? you are playing a pure control deck...it would be just as easy to include kill cards that are faster and don't use up blue sources.

drain is the heart and soul of this deck...It fuels all of the bigger drops like phid. not having it is a mistake IMO.

In a deck that likes having a full hand and an answer for everything do you really think it is a good idea to have only 4 regular counters and 7 pitch especially when 3 of them don't always work?

It seem to me like you are trying to do too much here...this deck is sort of like phid, sort of like fish and it just doesn't seem to work out well together.

[Gabber 4-ever]

Well...The deck looks very different from what I am used to when it comes to Phid-decks.I love Phid decks and since you are probably a much more talented player than I am it would be great if you could answer my questions/ statements about your build.

1.To me one of the best reasons to play Ur allways was Blood moon, some say that the fetchland have made this card  worse and that might be true to some extents but the fact is that if you resolve this against most combo , Hulk or  Keeper decks you are on the winning track. Im not saying that you can´t play without it, only that it might be to good to overlook.

2. When I played Phid I used much more counters than you do. Drains are sooo good in this deck. T1 might be alot faster than before, but when leaking a spell stops a spell a Drain allso can give you the acceleration needed to get an insurmountable advantage. I can see a point in that leak might be the strongest of the 2 cards right now, but for your card drawing to be really effective I think that you need to play more pure counters so that you allways have an answer in hand.

3. Gorilla shaman! This card is great at doing what it should, but the question is if is´t beeter po play a more multi-porpose card like CotV or Keg? I would belive that it all comes down to the meta on this one...I played in a meta where random aggro was a factor to consider and that alone made the Keg much greater (CotV did´t exist at that time).

4. The sideboard that you play looks good but is it really as good as the more monotone strategy of older Ur decks (I am talking about 3-4 Moon, 4 REB, 4 Flux and stuff like that).

5. I do realise that your deck is much more of an aggro/controll deck than the decks I am talking about but could you please explain why this built is the one to play and not the more traditional Phid decks instead.

Thanks!
-The Gabber

[Milton]

I've been busy so I haven't had a chance to respond.

Anyway, in no perticular order:

Toast:  The factories are in there to provide stability against early aggro threats.  Many think aggro is dead.  I feel that it will come back a little in the comming months.  A first turn Mox - Factory can block a Lackey, and the Misdirections can prevent the Factory from being burned down.  A first turn Factory can kill a first turn Negator.  Why don't I play other kill cards, such as Masticore or Morphling?  They can't block and kill a first turn Lackey or Negator.  They don't push back the clock enough.

As for Drain, with only 11 sources of blue, not counting lotus, drains aren't an option.  Plus, the ability to drain a second turn threat is almost impossible if you are Wastelanding and Stripmining aggressively.  Leak is far superior against the deck with the fundamental turn 2, and that's what you have to beat.  Also, I really don't have any cards in my deck that can be used as a mana sink for the Drains, except maybe for the Phids and Wishes.  That's not enough.  Listen, as good as Drain is, it has lost a lot of it's playability latley.  It's still good in Keeper where it can fuel a huge Mind Twist or start up a Fact or Ficiton, or whatever.  It's not as good in Phid.

Os-Vegeta:  Yes, I know that I am blue-mana light.  I don't play any spells that require more than one blue, not counting Force or Misdirection.  In that respect I am fine.

As for the 12 card drawing spells, 4 Brainstorm, 4 Standstill and 4 Ophidian:  12 is the perfect amount of card drawing for Phid.  In fact, at GenCon we used 4 AK's in place of the Standstills.  In Fish, Curiosity isn't always a good card, whereas Phid, Standstill and Brainstorm are almost always good.  Phid has a very, very tough time winning with only 8 non-Ancestral card drawing spells.

Is Keeper better?  No.  It's good now, what with Scepter and Challice, but it's not really better.  Different, yes.  Better?  I don't think so.  They are totally different decks.  A first turn Lackey or Negator is much harder for Keeper to deal with.  Also, it's much harder for Keeper to maintain a stable mana base in the face of all the Wastelands and Strips that will be entering the meta.  Lastly, Keeper has a tougher time against Long.dec, unless Keeper has Challices manideck.  And maindeck challice might not always be the best Keeper build.  Having said that, Keeper is clearly more versitlie, but it trades stability for this versitality.

[herby]

milton- i still think saigon blast should be another REB, fire/ice>psionic blast. that hurkyl's recall should also be changed to something like teferi's response.

glenchuy- scepters might be good.
-4 standstill +3 scepter +1 merchant scroll?
-4 phid +4 AK  
   ?

team showercap 4 L\n\n