The null rod contradiction

[Grand Inquisitor]

This post is directed mostly at builders of control decks, but any help is appreciated.

It should be obvious to many that null rod is a very strong hoser in the current environment.  Besides locking down the standard artifact mana, it also takes out mindslaver, equipment, isochron scepter, illusionary mask, and Karn/Trike/Pentavus.

As a control player, this is an attractive inclusion as a maindeck hoser that is almost never a dead card.  The decks that have used this strategy effectively are usually aggro or aggro-control strategies such as O.Stompy, Fish, and Suicide.

What I have been struggling to do is build a deck that has a more dedicated control strategy, but can still abuse null rods.  The problem I’ve had so far is that in order for control to be successful at stopping the early rush of combo and aggro strategies (I’m being ignorantly simplistic on purpose), it often requires early mana acceleration to support large draw spells or tutor chains, or it uses ACC counterspells at the expense of card advantage (FoW) or tempo (Daze).  This is problematic, since you don’t want null rod’s effect to be symmetrical, however, you do want to be able to power early broken plays with moxen.  Also, please don't suggest Damping Matrix as a solution. Its higher mana cost, and its different effect make it inadequate for my purposes.

Additionally, since Null Rod is often a mana-denial strategy, as a deck builder, I have a tendency to want to reinforce that direction with strip effects, Back to Basics, and the like.  While this has long been a strategy of decks such as Keeper and Urphid, it appears to me that (with the exception of Landstill), current control decks have been moving towards large amounts of card draw (Hulk), and efficient finishers (Psychatog, Dryad, Welder-Slaver) as their focus.

One example of some success in this direction is something like Jonathan Patch's deck: http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=114

However, my suspicion is that he was aware there was going to be a ton of slaver, and metagamed appropriately.  While Null Rod is a metagame call, the deck I have in mind would be something that is more flexible and could be brought to larger events.  I'm going post a decklist in a short while, but would like to see what kind of discussion this generates.

[Matt]

The list of non-card disadvantage, non-artifact acceleration is sadly short. This same problem has been dogging me at least since Gush was restricted - about the time when I realized that the best decks were consistently the ones that abused the Power cards the most.

Anyway, cards that come to mind:
Dark Ritual: weak choice because black doesn't have very much to back follow Rit-Duress-Rod up with

Elvish Spirit Guide: green is a strong choice all-round, but this is still card-disadvantage, and therefore not partocularly attractive for a control deck

Ancient Tomb: good choice if you're able to capitalize on the mana denial with some heavy damage output - maybe something like Sped Red?

Fastbond & City of Traitors: I lump these together because they're both natural inclusions in any impending Crucible of Worlds decks - and even Crucible is unaffected by Null Rod.

Exploration could also work here, but that card has its own problems of being mostly dead without an Enchantress effect, or having lots of lands that need dropping. Crucible might address this, but I don't think Exploration is a productive route to go down before Fifth Dawn. It is something to keep on the back burner, though.

[Jacob Orlove]

In my experience, playing Null Rod with 2-3 artifact mana producers is completely workable. This leads me to think that you could probably support 4-5, probably Lotus, Sol Ring, and on-color moxen, although it wouldn't be very pleasant.

Thirst for Knowledge would be a nice way to discard whichever artifacts end up being useless (Brainstorm obviously helps here as well), and Stifle would make for a nice complement to the mana-denial theme of the Rods.

[DavidHernandez]

This is something that i've been working on for a while.  I actually built a deck called "Suicide Stacker" recently, and had success with it (i.e., I won money at a tournament).  It completely destroys Keeper style control decks and anything running Scepters, but is inconsistent against aggro and decks like Gay/r and O.Stompy.  It can do well against Dragon because I also run 4 main deck Ankh of Mishra.

My thoughts are that Null Rod can be played, in a deck that can be hurt by it, in the same way that Armageddon was played in early control decks.

"If I know it's coming, I can play around it" is how I see it.  So, my Sui-Stacker ran Main Deck Null Rods along with a full complement of Artifact Mana and Workshops.  I could drop a set of acceleration, along with a Juggernaut, and a Null Rod on the next (or same) turn.  With Lightning Bolt backup to clear the way of any weenie critters/blockers, this works well.

This theory flies in the face of standard deck concepts because of how much 'hurt' you may put upon yourself, but that can have a place if you are careful.

I've also put Null Rods into Miracle Gro and GaT builds, since those decks are not as reliant on artifact mana (well, the builds with 2 Moxes and a Lotus).

In doing this, I find that the deck needs to have a LOT of threats, and as I add more aggressive cards, the builds become more and more like Gay/r.  The closest thing I came to a "control deck with null rods" was a U/w build using Meddling Mage, Serendib Efreets, and Decree of Justice.  Without the acceleration of a full set of moxes, I needed to run inexpensive creatures that had evasion properties (Flying etc.), which again starts to resemble Gay/r.

I look at Meddling Mages as card advantage since one card shuts down four.  Null Rod is also card advantage, but it's bigger because it shuts down entire deck concepts.

The most recent example of a "Null Rod" success didn't actually use Null Rods...it used Damping Matrix.  That is the Dryad Hate deck that took second at Hadley last week (piloted by Abhorsen105).  He used 3 Moxes, a Sol Ring, and a Lotus, and might have been able to successfully abuse Null Rod instead of Damping Matrix.

I'm still testing a Null Rod GaT and a Null Rod Miracle Gro, and both are promising.  I think that pitch counters are critical (4 FoW and 4 Misdirection are key), and possibly Daze, are important in slowing down the opponent.  Stifles and Strip effects are also of high importance.  I think a minimum of 3 Stifles are required.  This will shut down the Fetchlands, and save your own duals by Stifiling the opponent's strip effects.

I'm also considering a U/W deck with White creatures that have Shadow, Curiosity, Counterspell effects, and Null Rods.

--Dave.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  I was considering this in something like Ultima's recent list with thirst for knowledge.

Also, Jacob (or other mods) I mistakenly posted this in the wrong forum.  Can someone move this to Newbies?  Thanks.

Moved as per your request.

Hyperion

[ump]

I too have considered using Null Rods in a control deck similar to UrPhid.  The way I figure it, other decks seem to abuse their acceleration far more than I can.  I still keep the moxes in as an early time walk.  As a way to offset the drawback of having a dead mox under a Null Rod, I run Tolarian Academy to still get mana out of it.  I should mention that I run Chalice of the Void also so the number of artifacts is still pretty high.

[Dr. Sylvan]

I actually think that this concept could be pretty effective, keeping in mind the constraints. First, it should be two or three colors so you lose the minimum possible effect from not running a full slate of Moxen. Since you can probably support four artifact accelerants, I'd take three Moxen and Black Lotus. Blue and red are mandatory to this, because I'm foreseeing both Stifle and Blood Moon. To me, the question is more "does a third color provide the needed solutions to aggro enough to counterbalance more weakness under Blood Moon?"

The way I see it, this much mana denial is enough to ruin any Hulk player's day (at least as far as most other decks can), and there's the obvious benefits GI already brought up. Because Keeper is still played, it's also good to note that without artifacts they've lost half of their "Decree momentum", and you have the additional chance to cut off white entirely.

I can't think what the best kill condition for this deck would be, though, since naturally the most mana-intensive options are straight out. (No Decree.)

[Purple Hat]

If you went with U/R what about morphling?  I know it's fallen out of favor recently because of decree, but with such heavy mana denial it could work.  if you play Null Rod, B2B and Blood Moon to go with a set of strips, pitch counters and stifles you should have pleanty of time to drop a morphling and take them out.  you could even do some silly things like side 4 propaganda against aggro.

[ctthespian]

GI:  This is more feedback about how Null Rod effects my deck.  In my UW landstill Null Rods themselves don't really hurt tremendously.  It's the fact that they are often coupled with the stompy creatures in Landstill that make them more troublesome.  As far as stopping my artifact mana, that's not a problem.  Still Null Rods don't really hurt Landstill, except for disk.  With new sideboard or mainboard choices that I've made the relliance on overcoming Null Rod to beat decks like O Stompy with Disk have lessened greatly.

-Keith