UW Mystic Control

[Blue Lotus]

uw mystic control

Stoneforge mystic is quite a powerful engine. Turn one mystic invalidates two predominate strategies in vintage: countermagic and spheres. The only way shops can hope to beat turn one stoneforge is turn one revoker.

Counter/top is a combo that is very powerful in vintage as well. Top and counterbalance alone each generate card advantage. Together they are game ending.


4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Mortarpod

3 Counterbalance
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
2 Sensei's Divining Top

3 Spell Pierce
1 Balance
4 Force of Will
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Disenchant
3 Mana Drain
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Hurkyl's Recall

1 Merchant Scroll
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tinker

1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
3 Island
4 Tundra

A few notes on the list:

No 'main' tinker target has not been something I am itching to include. Tinkering out batterskull is fine but most often you are getting either vault or key. If I were to add one I would cut maybe a spell pierce, but I think 3 is the right number. Maybe disenchant but it is nice to have a third spell to get null rod.

Black could be splashed +1 vamp +1 demonic +1 will + 1 gifts +1 thoughtseize; -2 enlightened tutor -1 drain -1 spell pierce -1 seal would be where I would start. I think straight u/w is fine. By not running gush and running tutors that are permanents (stoneforge) you cannot abuse will effectively. Also the mana is fantastic, having many islands is a huge boon.

Im not ready to give a full sideboard for this deck. I would definitely have 7 slots to ichorid, for of which would be pithing needle. Im not sure if the other three should be things like relic and crypt or surgical extraction and ravenous trap. Usually I like to go for jailer but that isn't an option.

And dismantling blow is straight fire. STRAIGHT FIRE.

Is anyone else playing around with mystic in vintage? I have been very happy with my games vs. shop and oath, pretty even vs turbo time vault variants, and less than 50% vs. gush.

[Lemnear]

you should consider Mystic to team up with Confidant and the black vintage staples which would greatly increase the expected performance. Second Equips besides the Skull should be Sword of Fire & Ice instead of the pod. I doubt Counterbalance-Top has a place in vintage ... you need a curve in your and your opponents deck to make it tick. It is dead in so many matchups and even in most others it's pretty random if it counters anything. All cards that are actually considered a thread in vintage pass the balance without resistance (Jace, Gush, Tinker, Tezz, All workshop creatures, etc.)

No robot in the deck is indeed questionable ... I agree that you have 3 targets with key, vault and skull but tinkering for skull is unimpressive versus lots of decks because of the lack of damage you can generate.

With trygon predator on the rise again it's maybe not the best idea to rely on artifacts atm

[vaughnbros]

You should definitely have blightsteel.  As for the rest of the deck i think your trying to get too cute with stoneforge and then also putting counterbalance top in, counterbalance doesn't seem as good as just running counterspells or some sort of draw engine, tapping down early for a card that might not influence the game seems sketchy, as a result you should probably cut the enlightened tutors and seal of cleansing.  Aven Mindcensor or Ethersworn Canonist might be a good additions to beat other blue deck as they dont really affect you but should hurt them tremendously.  The deck does seem to play well though as is from what ive tested of it.

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

[Derail the thread alert:

Talking about Dark Confidant: Couldn't Stoneforge + Confidant be the thing those WB hate decks (I think they were called YinYang) always wanted?

I mean, it's so cool. No, seriously: The Problem of black discard decks were always, that yes, you could destroy their hand, but then it's a question of can you finish them off before they topdeck? And also, anything that put creatures on the board quickly. Now you have big bodies, card advantage and the best hand destroy ever.

4 dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice / Umezawa's Jitte
   abyssal persecutor? aven mindcensor?


4 Gitaxian Probe and/or surgical extraction
4 Cabal Therapy
Duress, Thoughtseize,
Vindicate (oh boy, 3 mana sorcery 1for1... But still, it's VINDICATE)
tutors
swords to plowshares / path to exile
disenchant stuff

I'm sure there is a lot more fancy stuff...

Sorry for throwing out halfbrewed, thread-derailing ideas...

[vaughnbros]

[Derail the thread alert:

Talking about Dark Confidant: Couldn't Stoneforge + Confidant be the thing those WB hate decks (I think they were called YinYang) always wanted?

I mean, it's so cool. No, seriously: The Problem of black discard decks were always, that yes, you could destroy their hand, but then it's a question of can you finish them off before they topdeck? And also, anything that put creatures on the board quickly. Now you have big bodies, card advantage and the best hand destroy ever.

4 dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice / Umezawa's Jitte
   abyssal persecutor? aven mindcensor?


4 Gitaxian Probe and/or surgical extraction
4 Cabal Therapy
Duress, Thoughtseize,
Vindicate (oh boy, 3 mana sorcery 1for1... But still, it's VINDICATE)
tutors
swords to plowshares / path to exile
disenchant stuff

I'm sure there is a lot more fancy stuff... 

Sorry for throwing out halfbrewed, thread-derailing ideas...

This sounds a lot like the deck Mark Hornung built.  He talks about it in this article
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/22511_2011_Vintage_World_Champs_Report_Challenge_Accepted.html
   

[Womba]

[Derail the thread alert:

Talking about Dark Confidant: Couldn't Stoneforge + Confidant be the thing those WB hate decks (I think they were called YinYang) always wanted?

I mean, it's so cool. No, seriously: The Problem of black discard decks were always, that yes, you could destroy their hand, but then it's a question of can you finish them off before they topdeck? And also, anything that put creatures on the board quickly. Now you have big bodies, card advantage and the best hand destroy ever.

4 dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice / Umezawa's Jitte
   abyssal persecutor? aven mindcensor?


4 Gitaxian Probe and/or surgical extraction
4 Cabal Therapy
Duress, Thoughtseize,
Vindicate (oh boy, 3 mana sorcery 1for1... But still, it's VINDICATE)
tutors
swords to plowshares / path to exile
disenchant stuff

I'm sure there is a lot more fancy stuff... 

Sorry for throwing out halfbrewed, thread-derailing ideas...

This sounds a lot like the deck Mark Hornung built.  He talks about it in this article
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/22511_2011_Vintage_World_Champs_Report_Challenge_Accepted.html
   

Yeah this has been a pet deck of mine for a while. I have some people playing it at the grudge match tomorrow. I would strongly suggest trying the black splash. Plus Skullclamp with Batterskull and the returning ability is a slow but still fine draw engine when you have nothing else to do with your mana. I would advise adding a Skullclamp as well.

[Blue Lotus]

I did add black and did like the deck, but I'm not sure a more focused vault/key deck is just better. You lose to the same hate and only gain a slow win condition.

However, snapcaster mage, confidant, clique, and kataki makes a a good creature based of guys who are easily cycled with skullclamp. Also, mortarpod is definitely a card. Killing bobs and revokers with no card investment really helps in both control and shop.

I think I'm going to shift to something like Mark's deck, more creature based. I may move the batterskull to the board. It is only good vs. shops, just about everything else has an answer and the skull is not even the quickest clock.

I wonder if he can comment on the inclusion of the guildmage. It seems like a very mana intensive answer when revoker does the same thing for free.