Need Help with blue based control deck for specific format.

[Rybo]

The situation is basically this. My roomate has a mono blue control deck built using the t1 banned and restricted list but with the exception that nothing in the deck can be from any sets newer than mirage. His deck is powered and all the cards are either beta, signed, both, etc. There is a group developing that is building decks based on this same formula.

I am looking to build an old style version of Weissman's "The Deck"

for reference here is one of the newer lists of his deck.

4 Mana Drain
2 Counterspell
1 Force of Will
4 Mystical Tutor ( is now restricted )
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Braingeyser
1 Recall
1 Amnesia
3 Disenchant
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance

1 The Abyss
1 Demonic Tutor

1 Regrowth

2 Fireball
2 Jayemdae Tome
1 Mirror Universe
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
 
4 Strip Mine ( also now restricted )
1 Library of Alexandria
4 City of Brass
3 Volcanic Island
4 Tundra
1 Plains
4 Island
 
Any suggestions on a 4-5 color deck based off this skeleton?

This is what I have been toying with.

4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Braingeyser
1 Recall
1 Merchant Scroll

2 Disenchant
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
2 Serra Angel

1 The Abyss
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind Twist

1 Regrowth

2 Jayemdae Tome
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Mirror Universe
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
 
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
4 City of Brass
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Tundra
1 Plains
4 Island

Thoughts or suggestions? Its tricky to build because there are so many cards I wish I could play. will, fact, fetches, wishes, etc etc.

Sideboard will be built at a later time. Will definately include red blasts and gorilla shaman. Hence the Volcanic islands remaining main.

[Matt]

Unless you're also playing under old rules, Mirror Universe is crap.

JMD Tome is really, really slow. Even though there's no better draw 'engine' these slots could still be better used.
EDIT: Wait a minute. They just unrestricted Braingeyser. Hells yeah.

Serra as kill...and Abyss? What about Mishra's Factories?

You might be able to get by with some Mirage fetches. If you found enough shuffle-effects (like 4-5), Brainstorm is really good. It would also help your blue spell count, which is 16 and thus almost certainly far too low to suport four FoW.

What about Thawing Glaciers for the shuffler? If you up it to like seven basics that's enough to justify two Thaws.

Recall is garbage. Timetwister might be a better call.

Helm of Obedience is also crap. That should be a Control Magic or Moat.

Do you have enough plains to run Kjeldoran Outpost? With only one Strip and no Wastes it should be a lot safer, and uncounterable to boot.


So this is the deck I'd start from:

//Blue Removal - 10
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell

//Blue Draw - 11
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Braingeyser
4 Brainstorm

//White - 9
2 Disenchant
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Moat
2 Serra Angel

//Miscellany - 3
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind Twist
1 Regrowth

//Artifacts - 7
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring

//Land - 20
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

4 City of Brass
3 Flood Plain
4 Tundra

2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Plains

That's 60 cards. Maybe cut the Regrowth. It's also 21 blue cards, which is SO much better than 16.



On a related note, I wonder if a Bloom deck could be made under these rules.

[Rybo]

How about the following changes?

-2 J Tomb
-1 Recall
-1 Helm
-1 Mirror

+4 Brainstorm
+1 Sylvan Library

-1 Tundra
-1 Volcanic Island

+2 Mirage fetch or thaws?

the land base is pretty tricky without the good fetches. I had considered cutting out red and green entirely to smooth things out. Any thoughts on that? Would allow me to run thaw easier, along with outpost or options of that nature.

[Rybo]

I definately like the look of that list better. I totally forgot about braingeyser being unrestricted.

Any thoughts on losing red and green from the deck? I will lose regrowth and reb/pyro from the board.

[Matt]

Bump. I edited in an update when I realized Braingeyser is now unrestricted. :DDDDD

Also, with the Geyser, you now definitely don't want junk like "lands that don't produce " so I've gutted the Thaw. The CIPT of the fetches sucks, but consistency is an aspect of Magic that wasn't fully appreciated in the old days. The fetch-Brainstorm combo also tips your card advantage way over the top.

You might cut black AND green, making room for stuff like the fourth Plow/Disenchant and a MD Shaman. I would give this manabase for such a deck:

4 Tundra
4 Volc
3 Flood Plain
3 City of Brass
1 LoA
1 Strip
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Empty Slot

Something like that.

[Rybo]

thank you. That should give me something to start testing with. If anyone has any ideas for other decks using those same restrictions be sure to jump right in.

[racetraitor]

Well if you want to go beatdown you could always whip out the old Serendib deck. Here's a rough list (haven't played it since, well, around Mirage) :

4 Serendib efreet
4 Kird ape
4 Gorilla shaman
4 Scryb sprites
3 Frenetic efreet/Sea sprites/Argothian Pixies (depending on meta)

4 Lightning bolt
4 Incinerate
3 Giant growth
3 Unstable mutation

1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral recall
1 Time walk
1 Regrowth
1 Wheel of fortune

1 Black lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
4 City of brass
4 Tropical Island
4 Taiga
4 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Strip Mine

Not having 4 Strip mines hurts a lot, so I upped the Shaman count a little to have some element of disruption. The sideboard could look something like 4 REB 4 BEB 4 Shatter 3 Tranquil domain. If you're more of a fish player you could take out the green for more disruption, something like:

4 Serendib efreet
4 Lord of atlantis
4 River Merfolk
4 Gorilla shaman

4 Force of will
4 Unstable mutation
4 Lightning bolt
2 Blood moon
2 Psionic blast
1 Ancestral recall
1 Time walk
1 Timewister
1 Wheel of fortune

1 Black lotus
1 Mox ruby
1 Mox sapphire
1 Strip mine
4 Mishra's factory
4 Volcanic island
7 Island
5 Mountain

A deck like this won the Swedish T1 Nationals the year Tempest came out, 4 wastes and Manta riders + Curiosity was obv. a boost. Anyway, have fun with decks and make sure not to use the ugly green revised Serendibs, they are known to cause cancer ;)

[Rybo]

Quick update on the deck. So far I have only lost one game with it. Have mostly just been playing against other control decks. Library and mindtwist has been the key. What a shocker.....

I did cut one braingeyser for a recall. Most people probably dissagree. But 3 geysers has been a bit much. I rarely want to tap down that much mana main phase. Even after a drain. As mentioned I have been playing against a lot of control.

Manabase has been working great. Its been wierd trying to win games with serra angel. feels very old school. Im so used to morphling or exalted angel.

Any other suggestions/comments would be greatly appreciated.

[Matt]

I did cut one braingeyser for a recall. Most people probably dissagree. But 3 geysers has been a bit much. I rarely want to tap down that much mana main phase. Even after a drain. As mentioned I have been playing against a lot of control.

How does Recall help this? Not only is it a sorcery, but it's also card-disadvantage, which is awful against other control.

[Rybo]

I needed a way to reuse spells. Specifically strip mine, or disenchants. But it was also useful to get back demonic tutor, ancestral, time walk, balance or swords.

[Matt]

Timetwister would be better, wouldn't it? Or even Soldevi Digger.

[Rybo]

Twister would be good except that it would just shuffle back the opposing cards I was looking to get rid of. I would almost run feldons cane over that.

Digger is definately an option. Ill have to try that out.

thanks.