UR SNOW CONTROL

[forests failed you]

I have been playing this deck, (with various modifications) since Time Spiral came out, and have done very well with it.  It started out as a joke deck that I was playing against the RIW guys with, but it actually turned out even in the early stages to be fairly competitive.  I love playing counterspell decks, and I think this is one of the better ones floating around in the format.  So I thought I would share it with everybody.  The basic premise is this, out draw your opponent by a margin of 3-1 and answer all of their cards 1 for 1.  Eventually play a win condition and protect it for the win.   

The strong match ups are definately Solar Flare, Tron, and anything that plays with 4-8 Counterspells.

The mediocre match ups are aggro decks.

The poor match ups are UG aggro control (scryb ranger.dec) and Glare.

Here is the list

UR SNOW
DEMARS DEC

4 Ancestral Visions
4 Think Twice
2 Careful Consideration

4 Cancel
4 Rune Snag
3 Rewind
1 Spell Snare
1 Commandeer
1 Plagerize
1 Boomerang

2 Teferi
1 Phryxean Ironfoot
1 Niv Mizzet

4 Skred
2 Wildfire

3 Izzet Signet

2 Scrying Sheets
14 Snow Covered Island
6 Snow Covered Mountain

Sideboard

1 Stalking Yeti
2 Flash Freeze
1 Commandeer
1 Repeal
1 Phryxean Ironfoot
2 Pyroclasm
2 Blood Moon
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Shadow of Doubt
1 Boomerang

CARDS

Ancestral Vision -  the backbone of this deck.  Turn 1 Suspend Visions is so unreal good that it is stupid in this deck.  Since the deck isn't trying to abuse tempo, but rather slow the game down to a halt, the drawback of waiting usually should not be a big deal.  It is bad when you are losing and top deck it, but the point is not to fall behind.  Like any Mono blue control deck (this is about as close to Monoblue as it gets) falling behind is a big problem since most of your answers are countermagic.

Think Twice - is awesome awesome awesome.  I'm very impressed with the draw spells in Time Spiral.  In particular I like the way that Wizards has made them all instant speed.  In this deck you should almost never be playing anything during your own turn.  Rather on their end step draw cards if they don't play anything worth countering, or you have mana left after countering.  A big part of this deck is making sure that you hit every single land drop from turn one to turn 12.  Think Twice is really helpful at this task.

Careful Consideration -  this card really pushes the deck through the mid game.  It allows you to turn extra lands drawn off scrying sheets into business spells and counterspells.  There is no recursion in the deck, but the digging for four is a great boon.

Cancel, Rewind - Hard counters are really good in the metagame right now.  If there is one thing that Arkroma does not like, it is gettting Countered.  Also, Rewind is a house against Dragonstrom because it allows you to untap lands when giggadrowsed, and also remember you can activate scrying sheets, hit, Rewind, untap sheets and hit again.

Rune Snag - bar none the best two mana counter in standard.  OBV it is in a stall control deck.

TEFERI - this card is great.  You end step it and don't have to worry about any trickery from your opponent.  Also, it is good for shutting off opposing suspend spells, and protecting your Visioins from annoying Remands.  He's amazing against call of the herd since he will always trade at least 2 for 1 if he resolves.

NIV MIZZET - The finisher.  The goal is to make a teferi and then when it is safe make a niv mizzet and kill your opponent.  I've untapped with an end step Niv Mizzet and gone 15 to the dome on multiple occasions.

SKRED - one mana kill target 10 / 10 vore?  busted

WIldfire -  is this decks Nevinyrrals Disk.  It resets the game against aggro and is your answer to decks like Glare.  Since you have so much draw power and signets it is much more likely that you will recover faster than they.  Not to mention decks that are building mana get completely hosed.  This decks curve is fairly low, and after the fire it is likely you are just going to want to play more counterspells.  It helps keep the game in a state where you can counter all of their threats.  Not to mention it is by far the best answer in the format to aggro decks.

PLAGERIZE, COMMANDEER, BOOMERANG, SPELLSNARE AS 1 OFS?  They are all good cards, and I like to have spicey plays in my deck.  So, they are there.  If we had to play 64 card decks I would play 2 of each.  The deck does a lot of digging and its nice to have these cards available to you.  Boomerang and Commandeer are good ways to not die to hellbent Demonfire.

SCRYING SHEETS - this card is INSAAANE.  enough said.

SIDEBOARDING -
the board is pretty self explainitory, Blood Moon is soooo good in this deck.  It only effects Sheets for you, and often times will cripple an opponent.  Tron is very sad when you drop the Moon on them.  Plus people never see it comming.   Blood  Moon, from the control deck??  wtf?

The coolest part about this deck?

A completly painless mana base that is good.

Most of the aggro decks are really just designed to deal 15 damage since it is assumed that most decks will do approximately 5 to themselves a game from painlands and shock lands.  That extra 5 life is a big deal, I promise you.

Enjoy, Comment, Criticize, etcetera.

[M.Solymossy]

I loved your original list, and played it @ states.  I only lost to Graveyard stuff (HAAKON) because my list didn't run GeeWhy hate.  Why don't you run Uthden Troll anymore?  I LOVE THAT CARD!   Other than that, thanks for posting the list Brian, I've been trying to update the list myself and failing.

How's the matchup versus MONOU Tron?

[kirdape3]

I'd be very wary of the U/W Triscuittron matchup as well.  They have twice or more the mana, Spell Burst x2 to lock you out, and a good deal of card drawing of their own.  When they get their Tron online, the game gets very silly very quickly as the amount of mana allows Tron to deploy several threats a turn defended with countermagic.  The counter for you is basically to hope that they can't defend themselves against Wildfire and/or just make every land drop every turn to try to keep within striking distance on mana.

Boros Deck Wins on the other hand is a nightmare matchup for this sort of deck.  They play a creature, you Skred it - they play a Priest, you lose horribly because you can't defend yourself from getting bashed by it.  Giant Solifuge also has to be a real pain if they can stick that creature, as you have only a single Ironfoot to defend yourself against it.  Every time I play against U/R Snow it's a super-easy 2-0 win and I get to go have lunch for forty minutes.

[forests failed you]

To be honest;  I always found Boros to be a very easy match up.  As long as you keep Soltari Priest off the board, you pretty much just bash them.  However, UW Tron is another story.   Game one is very difficult to win.  However, if you can resolve Wildfire you usually win.

Post board V Tron you have Blood Moons which pretty much destroy them.

Unfortunately, the way the metagame has shifted over the past two weeks, I don't think the deck is viable anymore.  The Dralnu De Lourve deck bashes it something fierce.  I've actually just taken to playing that UB control deck these days.  It was fun while it lasted.