Classic Casual Control.

[DragoFireheart]

Going for a classic WoG / Counter control deck with some planeswalkers for support.

Kill conditions are Jace 2.0, Elspeth and manlands. The deck is somewhat depowered and doesn't use ridiculously cheapness like Academy Ruins / Engineered Explosives recursion, Humility, Tarmogoyf, Natural Order / Progenitus, Countertop, etc.

A nice U/W control deck with some power but nothing too unfair.

[snip]

Couple of notes: [old list]

* In the context in this deck, I feel that Force of Will is fine.
* This deck takes a long time to kill.
* I use AV instead of Standstills as they are a bit weaker power-level wise.
* I think Spell Snare is a bit awkward. Is there some other counter besides Counterspell and Force of Will I can use? I was also thinking about taking out the Spell Snares for Ponders to give my deck more consistency. The slot of four must be blue spells. Suggestions on that card slot?


Current List [6-23-2010]:


4 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
2 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
2 Pulse of the Fields
4 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Wrath of God

3 Oblivion Ring

1 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
5 Island
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Plains

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor



I decided the best way to depower it was to remove the tundras so the mana base is somewhat worse.

I added pulse of the fields so I don't roll over to burn. Removed the tops for the pulse.

Took out Spell Snare for Ponders.



Is the power level of this deck too high for casual play?

[LostButSeeking]

This looks very similar to a deck that was very popular 6 or 9 months ago called ultimate walker, although yours is straight UW rather than UWr.
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?14269-[Deck]-Ultimate-Walker It was an evolution of landstill, and if the thread isn't as popular as it was say, six months ago, it's because most of their criticisms were found to be valid and many people adopted their ideas in the UWx landstill thread.

I'm not quite sure how to critique this, since this is the casual forum and you're playing a very solid, legacy quality deck. I don't know what your playgroup is like, but if you and I were playing casually and you brought this out against one of my casual decks--say, Ninjas--I'd ship it straight back and get out one of my better legacy decks.

[DragoFireheart]

I'm not quite sure how to critique this, since this is the casual forum and you're playing a very solid, legacy quality deck. I don't know what your playgroup is like, but if you and I were playing casually and you brought this out against one of my casual decks--say, Ninjas--I'd ship it straight back and get out one of my better legacy decks.

Suggestions on powering down a bit? I'm replacing Tundras with Rav duals and adding cheaper duals like Glacial Fortress.

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

Needs moar Shroud Turtle.

[DragoFireheart]

Needs moar Shroud Turtle.

They die to wrath. I'd rather use Wall of Omens since I don't lose any cards if I wrath it.

[LostButSeeking]

Remember that this is all playgroup dependent. I don't even OWN four tundras, let alone have enough to warrant playing them in my casual decks.
However the easiest fix for me is if you played Ajani Goldmane and Jace 1.0 rather than Elspeth and Jace 2.0. Given this change, I'd probably be perfectly happy playing against this with some of my solid casual decks (like 8post) trather than, say, LEDless dredge.

Also, are your casual games more multiplayer or single player oriented?

If you're looking for ideas for solid but not overbearing casual multiplayer decks, I find old decks that are/were marginal in extended make good bases. I've made UW Tron, Death Cloud control, Cruel Control, eightpost, Vore and some other stuff (You might have noticed, but I favor manaramp control when I play multiplayer). If you want lists for anything, just say the word.

[DragoFireheart]

Remember that this is all playgroup dependent. I don't even OWN four tundras, let alone have enough to warrant playing them in my casual decks.
However the easiest fix for me is if you played Ajani Goldmane and Jace 1.0 rather than Elspeth and Jace 2.0. Given this change, I'd probably be perfectly happy playing against this with some of my solid casual decks (like 8post) trather than, say, LEDless dredge.

Also, are your casual games more multiplayer or single player oriented?

If you're looking for ideas for solid but not overbearing casual multiplayer decks, I find old decks that are/were marginal in extended make good bases. I've made UW Tron, Death Cloud control, Cruel Control, eightpost, Vore and some other stuff (You might have noticed, but I favor manaramp control when I play multiplayer). If you want lists for anything, just say the word.


Well, I'm not using Elspeth at all and in place is FoF. I'm using AV over Standstill.

I typically play single and multiplayer casual, so I want something that's decent for both.