Ok here is my current decklist:4 Flooded Strand4 Tundra6 ...

[CharlesXavier]

Ok here is my current decklist:

4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
6 Island
3 Plains
3 Mishra's Factory
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal

4 Ophidian
4 Meddling Mage
2 Morphling

4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll

4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection

4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Wrath of God

What are some things to consider? Should I be running Isochron Scepter? I haven't tried it but it looks like it could work (Swords, Counterspell, AK's, Brainstorms). I originally played 4 Mana Leaks over 4 Ak's, but found out I didn't have enough draw, I didn't regret replacing them after playtesting. I tried Future Sight and it was a win more card, it was great when me and my opponent were in a topdeck mode though. I replaced it with a Merchant Scroll... Some of the games, I took control and needed to topdeck a Morphling and it never came until several turns later so I added in Mishra's Factory for an alternative kill. I play in a mostly aggro environment of burn, weenies. I might try to squeeze in a 2nd MisD since I see a lot of burn. Please let me know if anyone has any suggestions to improve the deck, thanks.

[MTG_Djinn]

I would make room for 3 or 4.
You have 17 targets if you but them in.

If I were to but them in I would do this:
+ 4x Isochron Scepter
- 1x StP
- 1x Misdirection
- 2x Ophidian

Why you say?
StP: Because of Isochron Scepter you now have potential andles Stp and therefor I think 3 is more then you need.
Misdirection: Its the same here, you have 10 counters and even more with the scepter.
Ophidian: If im right you use this mainly to fraw that extra card. Again you get much out of the Isochron Scepter with AK and Brainstorm and there for I think they will do great.

You could also take out all the Ophidian and put Isochron Scepter in insted. With this you get 2 slots open for 2 other cards. here would Fire/Ice be good. I know you cant use Fire with you mana base, but try getting it under a Isochron Scepter. It works Wonder.

Think you did a good job with this non-power deck.

-MTG_Djinn

[Gumby Ancient]

How was your UW deck when you tested it against other type 1 decks? I would like to compare yours with mine.(mine is posted last month)

[Misemaster]

I would probably look into maybe 1 or 2 cunning wish somewhere. I agree about the ophidians being taken out for scepter, ophidian is just to slow in the current enviornment.

[MTG_Djinn]

Quote I would probably look into maybe 1 or 2 cunning wish somewhere.

Good Point.

Try this:
+ 4x Isochron Scepter
+ 2x Cunning Wish
- 1x StP
- 1x Misdirection
- 4x Ophidian

Its just a suggestion. Try it and if you dont like it, play your version instead!

-MTG_Djinn

[Flurp™]

Quote + 4x Isochron Scepter

4 scepters is way too many, they will sit in your hand too much.  The most I would go would be 3, but I think that 2 should be enough.

[Samite Healer]

I know you are talking about your U/W control deck, but have you thought about adding any other splash colors, namely red and/or black?  This may not be what you had in mind, but I am assuming you are trying to make your deck as good as possible, and I see no reason why other colors shouldn't be included.

First, I'd like to discuss several of your card choices:

Morphling:

I am curious as to why you play Morphling instead of Decree of Justice.  In today's metagame Decree is much better in that it doesn't get countered, usually requires no main phase mana, can kill attackers during combat, and tremendously helps against the Welder Mud/Stax match.  I also think that hardcasting Decree helps against the random aggro matches the same way Morhphling often does.

Ophidian:

I think Ophidian is extremely slow in the current environment, because it takes 3 turns to produce any kind of card advantage.  You also need to protect it, which takes up valueable resources as well.  In the control mirrors it also makes your opponents' Swords to Plowshares much less useless, especially if you waste counters on them trying to protect your phid.  If you splashed black, you could use a card like Skeletal scrying for draw without these drawbacks, and it doesn't use main phase mana and couples well with Cunning Wish.

Meddling Mage:

If you see a lot of burn, then why play Meddling Mages?  If you name Lightning bolt, it will get incinerated, and vice versa (or whatever other burn spell).  It seems to me that your Mages won't be living very long.  Against the control matchup, they may help at times, but I don't think they will help as much as splashing red for blasts and shaman.  Also, Chalice of the Void can help you tremendously against red burn decks, and aggro decks that don't have a diverse curve.

Have you considered these?

Fire/Ice:

I know your deck is blue white, but if you are thinking of making a red splash, then there is no reason not to play Fire/Ice.  If you are going to be playing scepters, then Fire/Ice is definitely an amazing imprint target, especially against aggro.  At the worst, it cycles or pitches to FoW.

Starstorm:

While I was thinking about red, I figured I'd add this as well.  This card is absolutely amazing against aggro, isn't shut down by chalice (if that ever came up), and cycles.  If there isn't enough aggro to give it a maindeck slot (perhaps over wrath), then you can always Cunning Wish for it.

Chalice of the Void:

If you are playing against lots of burn, then CoV is basically a Proactive misdirection.  Setting Chalice for 1 usually stops a majority of their spells and leaves you in good shape.  It is like a proactive Misdirection, which isn't completely dead against straight aggro.

Intuition:

If you are going to be running the AK draw engine, then perhaps you may want to use Intuition to fetch yourself three AK's.  There is also that whole Deep Analysis thing, but if you start running Scepters then that will often be your draw engine.  It's probably best to see how your decklist progresses and then think about Intuition, etc.

Demonic Tutor and Yawgmoth's Will

Well, I'm sure you'll include these if you run black.  

After all of my suggestions it may look like the deck just pretty much turns into a Keeper version, or the Chronic, but I just think that adding colors simply makes the deck stronger.

[CharlesXavier]

Heh, I knew people would be asking me to splash colours  As much as I'd like to turn this into Keeper, EBA, and the like, I'm dirt poor and can't afford Underground Sea's... As you can tell the deck is pretty budget.

I'm not sure if my meta is as quick as competitive ones, but I face old scrubby-janky decks like WW, Elves, Burn, a few decks that pack counters.

I do face a few combo decks, so I guess the Meddling Mage would be half/half. I'm still wondering if they should be run.

The reason I don't run Chalice is because I don't have any Moxen or many accelerants. Just the Sol Ring. So the deck will not be able to Chalice @ 1-2(most likely the most common) until turns 2-4 which is slow and also will shutdown, if at 1: Swords, Brainstorm, 2: Ak, Counterspell, Mage, Balance, and Scepter.

Seems everyone is telling me to take out the MisD's, if I face a lot of burn, shouldn't these be golden?

What about the manabase is it okay? Maybe I could even add a 4th Factory? Or remove them completely?

Hmm, about Morphling, yah looks like Decree would be faster. But Morphling is so fun  Is Decree better than Morphling in everyway? Could I possibly do 2 Decree+2 Morphling, or should the Morphlings be removed?

Ok, now I know I am going to play Scepter for sure, but need to test other things. I'll post my new list later.

[BreathWeapon]

Fire/Ice is pretty hard core on a stick, even without Red. As for how many you should use, i'd always run the full set ... 3 is a cop out. I love that little stick, its made Parfait soo much more enjoyable.

[MTG_Djinn]

Quote (Flurp™ @ Nov. 23 2003,14:32)4 scepters is way too many, they will sit in your hand too much.  The most I would go would be 3, but I think that 2 should be enough.

No its really not. When you add 4 your game is going to be arround it. There will always be some that will be counterd and destroyed so there for is 4 needed. You also want to draw it fast and not have to tutor for it.

@Samite Healer
What happend to UW Kontrol? Its not UWRB kontrol. And yes the deck might be better if you splash red and black, but then we all would play the same deck. And thats not fun in the long run.

-MTG_Djinn

[mtgmooner]

just curious...if you were to add 4 scepters with the current build of the deck...what do you do against a deck such as long or dragon??  The tempo loss of having to cast the scepter and imprint something onto it makes it virtually impossible to maximize the potential of playing a scepter, especially when a turn one or two kill isnt all that uncommon.  Counterspells alone are going to beat a good player...do you think you would be wise to make room for card like Orims chant or abeyance to not only give you decent scpeter targets against an aggro deck, but add the flexibility to stop decks like dragon and long??  lemme know what you think...

[MTG_Djinn]

Quote (mtgmooner @ Nov. 24 2003,07:31)just curious...if you were to add 4 scepters with the current build of the deck...what do you do against a deck such as long or dragon??  The tempo loss of having to cast the scepter and imprint something onto it makes it virtually impossible to maximize the potential of playing a scepter, especially when a turn one or two kill isnt all that uncommon.  Counterspells alone are going to beat a good player...do you think you would be wise to make room for card like Orims chant or abeyance to not only give you decent scpeter targets against an aggro deck, but add the flexibility to stop decks like dragon and long??  lemme know what you think...

Yes the tempo goes down but its not that much! and no one sais you have to put i down turn 2, and if he goes first you cant stop him any way, if it goes off turn 1, with out FoW.
But you are right. I just think they would be good to but in the SB along with Stifl.

-MTG_Djinn

[CharlesXavier]

Quote (mtgmooner @ Nov. 24 2003,07:31)just curious...if you were to add 4 scepters with the current build of the deck...what do you do against a deck such as long or dragon??  The tempo loss of having to cast the scepter and imprint something onto it makes it virtually impossible to maximize the potential of playing a scepter, especially when a turn one or two kill isnt all that uncommon.  Counterspells alone are going to beat a good player...do you think you would be wise to make room for card like Orims chant or abeyance to not only give you decent scpeter targets against an aggro deck, but add the flexibility to stop decks like dragon and long??  lemme know what you think...

Well if you took the time to read some of the posts above, you'd know that I don't play in a powered place, all decks are outdated aggro. I don't think anyone wins turn 1-2 around here.

Anyways, I've done some testing and this is what I've been using:

Creatures: 6
4x Meddling Mage
2x Morphling

Counters: 8
4x Counterspell
4x Force of Will

Draw: 17
4x Brainstorm
4x Accumulated Knowledge
3x Isochron Scepter
3x Fire/Ice
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Fact or Fiction

Removal: 5
3x Swords to Plowshares
1x Wrath of God
1x Balance

Land: 24
4x Tundra
4x Flooded Strand
5x Island
3x Plains
4x Mishra's Factory
1x Sol Ring
1x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Lotus Petal

The Factory's help me to kill them quicker, but I'm not sure there needed, they just become good ways to lose land by getting burned. I'm not to sure about adding Chant or Abeyance, what would I cut for them? Maybe -4 Meddling Mage, +1 Scepter and +3 Chant/Abeyance? Also, should I play Impulses over AK's? So far, I don't think I've imprinted AK yet, since if I have a StP, Fire/Ice or Counterspell I'd rather do that. And I'd need more than one AK's for it to function well.

[BaronSengir]

try running intuitions (maybe 2, optimal number) to abuse AK. with 3 in yard and 1 imprint, 2 mana for 4 cards is definetly some good yummy card drawing.

chant > abeyance if you decided that you want to include one because you can keep paying the kicker (payed when isochron puts copy of spell on stack) and effectively freeze him for the turns on end.

won't memory lapse work better imprinted? lapse is also better because it delays them one turn basically.

[CharlesXavier]

Quote (BaronSengir @ Nov. 24 2003,17:32)try running intuitions (maybe 2, optimal number) to abuse AK. with 3 in yard and 1 imprint, 2 mana for 4 cards is definetly some good yummy card drawing.

chant > abeyance if you decided that you want to include one because you can keep paying the kicker (payed when isochron puts copy of spell on stack) and effectively freeze him for the turns on end.

won't memory lapse work better imprinted? lapse is also better because it delays them one turn basically.

So far testing Scepter, its good, but it really clogs up your mana, basicly just stalling the game. The thing about Memory Lapse is, it's only good when imprinted on Scepter, otherwise its not too hot. I've still got more testing to do, I'll post my thoughts again tomorrow.

[BreathWeapon]

Why would you run AK over Brainstorm

Brainstorm smoothes your manabase, and it draws on Scepter. Sure, AK on a Stick seems UBER ... but its completely win more.

[MTG_Djinn]

Quote Also, should I play Impulses over AK's?

Personally I would play AK's, because if you run them one by one AK's gets you more cards in hand.

Quote Why would you run AK over Brainstorm

Say whay? Do you mean on the Scepter?

Quote try running intuitions (maybe 2, optimal number) to abuse AK. with 3 in yard and 1 imprint, 2 mana for 4 cards is definetly some good yummy card drawing.

Yes that would be optimal but then you have to protect the Scepter at all cost. If you get a scepter up and running with just 2-3 AK's you will draw so many cards you wount belive it. There fore I dont think intuition is needed.

-MTG_Djinn

[CharlesXavier]

Quote (BreathWeapon @ Nov. 24 2003,23:03)Why would you run AK over Brainstorm

Brainstorm smoothes your manabase, and it draws on Scepter. Sure, AK on a Stick seems UBER ... but its completely win more.

Hmm? I don't recall saying running AK over Brainstorm... I've tried replacing Meddling Mage with 1 Scepter and 3 Chants, but it wasn't all that good. It turns the deck into more combo-sih and since I don't have any tutors(no black), I am not able to get a Scepter when I need one. Chant just like Memory Lapse would be nice on a scepter, but when its not it just stalls for 1 turn while Mages, can stop certain cards and continue to attack.

Two-three Cunning Wishes does seem like it could do good in this deck, it would allow me to put the Fact or Fiction in the sideboard, play stuff like Disenchant, Chant, Renewed Faith, etc(actually can't think of anything else). But it might slow down the deck a little. The only main thing I could use is a Disenchant on a stick anyways.

Since I do try to get card advantage, I usually have more cards than my opponent, so Balance is a nice sweeper, but than I end of losing most-all of my hand... Although, sometimes it can be super broken. My current build does seem to be working fine though, I did take out the Factorys, I experienced a little too much colourless mana.