Unpowered Isochron Control

[Ben Kossman]

The Scepter is one of those cards that strike me as amazing with a deck built around it. It's had tourney usage already
in every format besides Standard. I want to create a deck that neutralizes the card's inherent drawback and really
breaks it in type one. I'm trying a sligtlly different buiild than one might expect using W/G instead of a Blue base. I'll probably end up using more as I test it but for some reason I'm convinced Oxidize is an incredible card in type one and I've
always preferred board control over counters. Here we go...

Win conditions10
4 Eternal Witness
1 Decree of Justice
1 Kodama of The North Tree (The best Green critter ever?)
4 Isochron Scepter

Tools:20
4 Abeyance
4 Orim's Chant
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Oxidize
1 Enlightened Tutor
3 Naturalize

Other Stuff:6
1 Balance
1 Regrowth
4 Sensei's Divining Top

Land/Mana:24
1 Sol Ring
1 Voltaic Key
1 Chrome Mox
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
4 Tithe (Works well with the Top)
2 Forest
2 Plains

The primary reson I beleive it can work is that it has the ability to deal with Null Rod (Not to mention any other Artifact
that sees play). The witness's allow you to lose your first scepter and simply bide your time until you
can force one through. There's no way control can stop you from keeping one on the board so they'll
have to either kill you quickly or get locked out of the game in short order. I want a transformational sideboard but
haven't decided on anything besides Exalted Angel since the deck is a;ready one big sideboard as it is. I'll post it
after I test w/o a SB...

[Ben Kossman]

Sideboard

VS. Combo
-4 Abeyance
-3 Naturaluize
+3 True Beleiver
+4 Gilded Light

Vs. Blue Based Control
Not much really. The maindeck has what it takes to get Scepter on the table.

Vs. Aggro
-4 Abeyance
+4 Exalted Angel

Vs. Stax
-4 Abeyance
+4 Sacred Ground

[warble]

My 2 cents:

This looks like a toolbox deck, a thing of the past for type 1.  Now that blue has become the broken color(okay it started that way) and black has become blue's little b|tch you're dropping two powerhouse colors for two colors that really can only add utility and board control (and nobody denies if Swords to Plowshares was blue or black it'd likely be a 4-of)  While in type 2 it is extremely valuable to have answers, in type 1 it's valuable to have counters, duress, and win conditions.  Yes, that's right, we'd prefer to win the game instead of holding 2 StP, naturalize and 2 isochron scepters.

If the counter to this is, "well I run 4 waste + strip" we can look at a deck like FcG or BirdSh|t and immediately counter the fact that you are in any sense aggro.  Looking at animate dead or oath of druids we can also counter the argument that 2-cost spells don't exist that DO win the game.  While 1 isochron as a utility card is a powerhouse, 4 isochrons with a bunch of utility cards is just madness!  But not the madness like if Zodiac dragon wasn't errata'd, madness like "do you run any answers to my isochrons like Echoing Truth b/c you win if you do."

However, if you're of the opinion that replacing null rod with Isochron Scepter is a good decision, I'd like to see some brokenness back that up.  This is type 1, not type 1.5, make this deck break itself and win on turn 2.  Yes, I know what a control deck is.  No, I don't know what a "board control" deck with 4 isochron scepters looks like.

It's interesting to have such a big utility set in a deck, but not tempting, and really not tempting considering there's no blue in the whole deck.

[Ben Kossman]

Solid Reply. In terms of Brokenness Chant/Scepter is it. The issue is how you support it. You can either go with recursion or counters/Meddling Mage. That's where I'm at right now. I like this deck. It's like parfait but w/lower cc's. Having said that
it needs more efficient win conditions, I won't argue that point...

[Ben Kossman]

Here's a 5 proxy U/W version more in line with the successful Extended builds.

Artifact:8
1 Darksteel Colossus
4 Isochron Scepter
1 Zuran Orb
1 Sol Ring
1 Voltaic Key

Blue:22
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Cunning Wish
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestrall Recall
1 Tinker

White:4
3 Orim's Chant
1 Balance

Gold:4
4 Meddling Mage

Land:21
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
2 Darksteel Citadel
5 Island
1 Plains

Sideboard
1 Orim's Chant
1 Brain Freeze
1 Argivian Find
1 Enlightened Tutorr
1 Misdirection
2 Sacred Ground
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Stifle
4 Exalted Angel

My Plan is to side out the scepters game two and just play Angel-Go. This build's probabaly a little more in line with what most people would play and with good reason. It's a pretty formidable strategy with four drains to get out an early scepter
and Cunning Wish letting you find the pieces in a relatively expedient fashion. I've seen 4CC playing Scepter
and it seems like you'd want a more stable mana Base to be able to use it consistently early game.
I'm not sure about the Citadels but I really love the Tinker/Colossus combo so for now their in but Colossus
could just as easily be an Angel or Decree.

[apoc7k]

Here's a 5 proxy U/W version more in line with the successful Extended builds.

Artifact:8
1 Darksteel Colossus
4 Isochron Scepter
1 Zuran Orb
1 Sol Ring
1 Voltaic Key

Blue:22
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Cunning Wish
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestrall Recall
1 Tinker

White:4
3 Orim's Chant
1 Balance

Gold:4
4 Meddling Mage

Land:21
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
2 Darksteel Citadel
5 Island
1 Plains

Sideboard
1 Orim's Chant
1 Brain Freeze
1 Argivian Find
1 Enlightened Tutorr
1 Intuition
1 Misdirection
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Sacred Ground
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Gilded Light
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Stifle
4 Exalted Angel

My Plan is to side out the scepters game two and just play Angel-Go. This build's probabaly a little more in line with what most people would play and with good reason. It's a pretty formidable strategy with four drains to get out an early scepter
and Cunning Wish letting you find the pieces in a relatively expedient fashion. I've seen 4CC playing Scepter
and it seems like you'd want a more stable mana Base to be able to use it consistently early game.
I'm not sure about the Citadels but I really love the Tinker/Colossus combo so for now their in but Colossus
could just as easily be an Angel or Decree.

Thats 18 cards in the SB... was that intentional or were you not paying attention? Just thought I'd point out that you're 3 cards over the traditional limit.

What would you take out if you were going to insert power into the deck? Also, what if an opponent played null rod, or a pithing needle... or a meddling mage for that matter? The problem I see is that there are still plenty of decks that can hurt your strategy fairly well because of what they run. This goes the same for any deck out there, but do you feel that you're prepared to deal with things like that?

My last line of questions is this... What decks does this fare well against? I guess, any deck can look good on paper, but the testing is the real part. What have you tested against, and how did this deck perform? Or are these just fairly educated guesses? Either way, I would like a little insight.

[Ben Kossman]

I guess what I'm going for is a more stable version of 4cc. Versus Aggro the combo (Chant/Scepter) is intended to stabilize
my position until I can either deck them or Tinker for Collossus as soon as possible and just roll them. Versus Control the plan is to neutralize their answers to the Scepter with MM and Counters until I can deck them with Brain Freeze and  Ancestrall them out. Versus Combo Meddling Mage and FOW give me game. At some point in all of these matchups I want to get a Scepter with AK or Ancestrall to neuitralize the card disadvantage of Scepter. Mana Drain makes an early scepter a more Realistic possibility but honestly this deck needs to be fully powered to compete as the scepter needs to come down turn one in the non-control matches. The good matchups aren't really as important to me as the genuinely bad ones like Prison.
Sacred Ground is supposed to deal with that but that's contingent on it coming down turn one as well. The truth is I'm not sure how great this deck is in type one but I know the Scepter is viable in tournament play as it's already been used successfully so I'm taking that success and attempting to build on it. I'm not sure any of that answers your questions but thanks for the critique anyway.

[zulander]

Fire/Ice is a good choice as it gives you control and card draw, I however think that the deck is a scrubby meta deck if you will. I just think that it gets on line about one turn too late. However, if you were playing in a less competitive meta such as a local store, I think that the deck would work out pretty well and give you good results. Please do not take my comment as a discourage, rather I am trying to encourage you to try harder to get it faster, more stable, and a solid deck.

[Ben Kossman]

I appreciate honest criticism. Bring it on. A red Splash isn't a horrible idea as I could also use REB. Here's a U/R/W version...

Artifact:13
1 DSC
4 Scepter
5 Moxen
1 Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Voltaic Key

Blue:20
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Cunning Wish
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
1 Tinker
1 Ancestrall

Split:2
2 Fire/Ice

Gold:4
4 Meddling Mage

White:3
2 Orim's Chant
1 Balance

Land:16
4 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
1 Plains

Sideboard
4 Exalted Angel
1 Orim's Chant
1 Teferi's Response
1 Stifle
2 REB
2 Tsabo's Web
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Fire/Ice
1 Disenchant
1 Rack and Ruin

The red Splash is a solid idea. I went ahaead and made it 10 Proxies since that seems to be the direction things are goingi in over in tournament land (Thank God).  If you want a more credible source for this archetype you should check out Morphling.de. As they have the decks I'm basing mine off.