W/U Deck I am new

[Anonymous]

I just want to say this is my first time, so i am introducing myself.  I am Jake, i have been playing since revised came out, and found my self not really playing any of the new sets, mainly because there aren't a lot of people around to play.  I have played two tournies in my time, lost the one terribly and the other was double elimination, and won that.  But now i am back playing, reading almost everything on this site, and checking out many others.  If you have any tips on the deck please help me out.  Most of the people around here play pretty bad, sligh decks, hand des. and land des, so there isn't much competition.  Here is the deck i have been playing, i don't have any of the P9 so give me a break and any cards you can suggest would be helpful.

Land
4x Mishra's Factory
4x Tundra
4x Adaker Wastes
1x Strip mine
3x Island
2x Plains

White
2x Wrath of God
4x Swords to Plowshare

Blue
4x Force of Will
4x Counterspell
2x Unsummons
4x Miscalculation
4x Mana Leak

4x Ophidians
4x Morphling

Artifact
2x Millstone
2x Icy

I know this is only 56 cards, but i can't think of anything else that was in it, i would like to add more white, or even maybe another color, but what would be good.  I was thinking green, but don't know of any good cards to put it.  And i haven't even thought about a SB.

[Puschkin]

First off, welcome to this boards!

Onto the deck, filling the lst slots is easy, you have too less lands to run this control deck properly, espcially since you are running Factories which will end up being destroyed alot in the environment you described! Just add two more of each Island and Plains.

Unsummon is weak, add the missing Balance and a Mystical Tutor which is bale to grab creature removal, any other removal or counters, basically everything your deck is made up of.

Millstone is really not needed when you have 4 Morphlings. Dont know what to put in the freed slots, probably Dismanteling Blow since your current deck is helpless against enchantments and artifacts.

Icy is stylish but not really effective, especially if you have nothing to tap on your own like WInter Orb. You can get away with them in a scrubby environment and keeping them might help you simulating that old-school feeling and adds to the nostalgica-factor.

Try with these modifications and report back. Do you need a sideboard?

[Anonymous]

I would like a sb, but don't really need one right now, i will make the changes when i get home, cuz i got a week left of school before i go home, if anyone knows of a good place to play in or around sarasota, FL please let me know.  I will make the changes, thanks.

[Matt The Great]

Incidentally, a word of advice to help you interact better with the online magic community: when people say "B" it usually means 'black,' not blue. If you want to abbreviate "white/blue deck," write "W/U deck".

[Anonymous]

Thanks Matt, i realized that after i posted but couldn't fix it.

I took care of that\n\n

[j_orlove]

Wrath is nice, but next turn they'll just drop more stuff. More anti-creature cards would probably be useful.

I'm assuming you don't have Moat, so I'll suggest some additional options:

Story Circle is white intensive, but very strong. It is especially nice versus burn and enemy morphlings

Teferi's Moat is good versus mono-colored decks--it doesn't take a lot of white mana every turn, but it can't stop burn.

Powder Keg is excellent if your opponents rely on very cheap cards. If they play more expensive creatures, it is less useful.


In addition, some mana artifacts could be useful, both to help against bad land-d decks, and to accelerate your wraths and such. Good options would be sol ring, or, failing that, sky/marble diamond, fellwar stone, and mind stone.

However, the deck should really have at least 6 more lands. Once you have about 24 lands, you could add some of these artifacts--but count them as 1/2 a land.

So 24 land/36 spells would be roughly equivalent to:
 23 lands/2 artifacts/35 spells
 22 land/ 4 artifacts/34 spells  or
 20 land/ 8 artifacts/32 spells
etc. Just make sure you have enough land to consistently cast the artifacts.  

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help, i will check it out as soon as possible, do you think 2 more wraths would be good?  I don't really know.  I am now itching to get back to my cards so i can play.  Only 4 more days. What this deck be good for type 1 or would i need some better cards for it?  I don't have any money right now, but i would like to get some good cards for this, like moat at least.  do you think a winter orb/ ?icy? combo be good in here?

[Shock Wave]

Jake,

First of all, welcome to TMD. It's good to se a lot of u/w enthusiasts out there.  . However, your build looks very much like someone who stopped playing at the end of Revised and just picked up recently. Here are the major areas of concern, some of which have already been mentioned:

1. Your mana base is in dire need of refurbishment. Most control decks run 26 mana sources, I run 27, sometimes even 28. Get your hands on a Sol Ring ASAP, although I would not recommend diamond acceleration.

2. There is absolutely no synergy between Millstone and Morphling. Many have tried u/w aggro/stone and it just does not work.

3. Pushkin has already addressed the Unsummon issue, but I find it necessary to reiterate that fact.

4. Balance is one of the strongest cards in the game. Please run it.

5. You're seriously in need of some draw power: Stroke of Genius and Fact or Fiction and Brain Geyser are all easily attainable remedies.

There are some other issues but you never described your metagame, so I'll leave it at that. I hope it helps.

Check out some of these threads for help on u/w:

U/W Control #1

U/W Control #2

U/W Control #3

[Anonymous]

Sol Ring is now added, and i will add a couple more of each plains and islands, i will drop the mill stones and the icies. And balance is deffenitly in.  Yeah stopped playing a little after i guess weather light, mirage, well i have a some exdous but thats it. What does meta game actually mean, i am really have just been looking at forums and coming up with my own answer, is it just what people are playing in the area?  if thats the case, lets me think, most are playing some sligh decks with some really wierd parts like a w/r prevent sligh deck, i usually like to play a stasis deck, just because it annoyes the hell out of people if i can work it, and its funny to watch people cry about it, other then that there are some alright hand discard decks, and some decent, r/g stompy/burn type decks.  Other then that, i have seen one sliver deck, a W/B life gaining discard deck, and some mono blue counter/poker decks.  I am hopping to get people to think of better things, maybe if i start playing a better deck, many people will try and think of something good that can beat it.

[Anonymous]

would adding mana drains help this out?

[Shock Wave]

Quote What does meta game actually mean

"Metagame" refers to the decks you expect to face in your environment.

Quote would adding mana drains help this out

Provided that you have the appropriate sinks for it, yes. Brain Geyser, Stroke of Genius, Fact or Fiction, and Morphling all qualify as good sinks for a Mana Drain.

Oh one more thing: I didn't initially take notice of your Ophidians. Ophidians don't tend to work effectively in a deck without any acceleration (eg.moxes). Also, take into consideration that there is a lot of red in your environment. Trading a burn spell for an Ophidian isn't the most effective way to make use of your cards. I would try a mixture of Powder Kegs and something else in their spot.

[Kaervek]

Yeah, but he's not gaining a lot of card advantage as it is. Without the Ophidians, he'll have none at all (judging from his current list). Ofcourse there's 'virtual card advantage cards' like balance and Wrath, but I meant more like in the card drawing area.

Since you don't want power, I'll not mention the obvious Ancestral, but still you could throw in 1 Fact Or Fiction (mind you, it's restricted).

Since you're playing 4 Morphlings, I'd definitely go with the Mana Drains of you have 'em.

But most of all, have fun!

[Shock Wave]

Quote Yeah, but he's not gaining a lot of card advantage as it is. Without the Ophidians, he'll have none at all (judging from his current list).

I agree, he is light on card drawing. However, the current decklist is clearly sub-optimal for that reason and should be tinkered with to address the problem. I've tested Ophidians in U/W (powered with Lotus, 2 Moxes) and they stunk up the joint pretty badly. The reasons being are this:

- They lack cohesion with the big white bombs: Balance, Moat.

- They provide targets for removal, whereas your opponents removal would have been dead cards otherwise.

This is what I have gathered from testing. If you've come to different conclusions regarding Ophiddian, I'd like to know about them.

[Anonymous]

What if i take out two morphlings, and put two mana drains in along with a braingeyser?  I am thinking of taking out the Ophidians and putting in 4 impulses instead,  Here is the deck so far

White
2x Wrath of God
4x Plows
1x Balance
2x Dismatling Blow

Blue
4x FoW
4x Counterspell
1x Mystical Tutor - can there be more or is it restricted?
4x mis calculation
4x Mana Leak
2x Mana drains
4x Impulse
1x Braingeyser

2x Morphling

Artifact
1x Solring
2x Powderkeg
1x Teferis Moat - should this be more?

Land
4x Tundra
4x Adaker Wastes
4x Mishra's Factories
6x Island
6x Plains

Thats 59 cards is that about right?  Should i be worrying about trying to keep the factories in, or just take them out and put something else in?  I like using them, just because if i am sitting there with a lot of mana, i can always just pump them up and away they go to knock some life off.

[Anonymous]

If you could get your hands on them, I suggest you actually put in some Flooded Strand in the place of four of your basic lands.  If you see a lot of non-basic lands in your environment, wasteland might be a replacement for mishra's factory.  You should definitely have at least strip mine (restricted) in your deck.  Mystical tutor is restricted.  Use only one Teferi's Moat.  If you could get one, Moat would be better.  Story Circle is also a card you could possibly put in your deck.  A teferi's response and misdirection would help you somewhat to gain card advantage.

Mana Drains are very good.  I would try for an extra 2 if possible.

[Kaervek]

@Shock Wave: no, I agree. Ophidian's moment of glory is definitely Forbiddian. It probably has little place in decks that use white creature hosers. But if he takes them out, he should definitely replace them with some sort of draw.

@Jake_rrr: Mystical Tutor is indeed restriced (mainly for it's awesome power in fetching Ancestral, I think). The deck definitely looks better now, but I'm still in favour of adding more draw. You should definitely put in 1 fact or fiction.

Right now, you're running 18 counter effects, 8 of which are not 'hard' counters. That's a little too much, I think. But I could be wrong. Shock Wave, any thoughts on this?

[Shock Wave]

Quote Right now, you're running 18 counter effects, 8 of which are not 'hard' counters. That's a little too much, I think. But I could be wrong. Shock Wave, any thoughts on this?

The Miscalculations have to go. In their slots:

+ Fact or Fiction
+ Stroke of Genius
+ Mana Drain x 2

Now you have some decent Mana Drain sinks, so you should be all set. BTW, I cannot stress how one-sided control mirrors become once Library Of Alexandria hits the table. You absolutely must remove it ASAP. I would strongly consider Wastelands. Also, I don't see a Strip Mine in your deck. Please add one.

Other areas of concern:

- You are running 25 mana sources. I would consider running 26, or 27, as a lot of your cards are mana intensive.

- You have made no room for Misdirection. I would suggest tinkering with your counter base to add 2.

[Anonymous]

Ok let me take out the 4 mishras and add the strip mine, and 4x wastelands, the other four i can do also. thanks for the input.

[mordraid]

I would not remove the mishra's. the main reason why is that it protects you from the fast creatures. and the secnd reason is that you can activate it many times to your mana drain.