UGw Order Control

[Maveric78f]

I know that playing natural order these days is as original as scratching your balls in front of a football game. Nevertheless, the list I'll propose is the first I've seen that should be played as control.

I've taken the basics of UG control decks :
4 FoW
4 BS
3/4 counterspell
2/3 intuition
1 LftL
4 tarmo
18/19 mana lands
1 wasteland
2/3 cycling lands
X Fact or Fiction

Playing NO in a control deck faces 2 hindrances that I'm trying to overcome:
- not enough creatures to sacrifice: play dryad arbor (cheap recurrent green creature) and eternal witness (good control card)
- too many dead cards: play only 1 prog and 1 natural order as combo elements and tutor the combo with mystical tutor

As we play mystical tutor with already a full curve (BS and mystical@1, CS and LftL@2, intuition@3, NO and FoF@4, FoW@5), counterbalance is even more a bomb than usually. UG is not enough to control the game as it has no creature sweeper. R is also bad at dealing with creatures. B offers deed but it is dyssynergic with counterbalance, tarmogoyf and Dryad Arbor. W offers STP and good SB options. In this thread I've chosen a W splash but the black one could be tested with the great intuition targets that are stinkweep imp, darkblast or even Grave-Shell Scarab, and with volrath's stronghold.

So W exists MD only for STP and Nantuko Monastery. It's a light splash, even lighter because UU is required on turn 2 and GG turn 3 or 4.

I finally end up with that list:


// Lands
1 [U] Savannah
1 [9E] Forest (4)
1 [JU] Nantuko Monastery
1 [B] Tundra
1 [ON] Tranquil Thicket
2 [ON] Lonely Sandbar
2 [7E] Island (3)
1 [FUT] Dryad Arbor
1 [ON] Wooded Foothills
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
4 [A] Tropical Island
1 [REW] Wasteland

// Creatures
3 [FD] Eternal Witness
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
1 [CNF] Progenitus

// Spells
1 [IN] Fact or Fiction
4 [A] Swords to Plowshares
3 [CS] Counterbalance
2 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
3 [ST] Counterspell
1 [RAV] Life from the Loam
2 [JGC] Intuition
3 [6E] Mystical Tutor
1 [VI] Natural Order
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will

The curve is great:
0: _________________________ 25 (24 lands -3 cycling lands +4 FoW)
1: ________________ 16 (13 1CC +3 cycling lands)
2: ___________ 11
3: _____ 5
4: __ 2
5: 0 (4 5CC -4 FoW)

I'm testing a bit before building a SB.

[DireLemming]

I'm toying with something similar. On conclusion I have come to is, having Empyrial Archangel as a second NO target is worth it. Why? 2 reasons:

1) Gives you more staying power against fast aggro and aggro-control. Relying on StP (and to a lesser extend Goyf) alone is risky because of how easily it is thwarted by CB or Chalice. Just being able to block a Tombstalker is often enough to keep you in the game.

2) Makes being stuck with Progenitus in hand is less awkward. I'm aware we have BS, but it still costs you games now and then. In the same vain I'm also running a singleton Cephalid Coliseum.

[SuperBean]

Well I think in a deck like this, Brainstorm is a must if you happen to draw your 1-of Progenitus.

[adrieng]

I didn't want to start a new thread about progenitus and I am playing the same colours than you. So I was thinking what about playing both show and tell and natural order. I 'll give you a list I have just started and didn't make a lot of testing though it seems great :

4 tropical island
4 windswepth heath
4 savanah
2 flooded strand
2 wooded foothils
1 plain
2 forest
1 island

4 tarmogoyf
4 noble hierarch
2 birds of paradise
1 squee
4 eternal witness
4 progenius
4 show and tell
4 natural order
4 survival of the fittest
3 eladamri's call
2 swords to plown
4 brainstorm

Natural order+ show and tell + eladmari's call (for either witness or progenitus)makes the deck very consistent. You can have a turn 2 progenitus with show and tell !!

[Infinitium]

Why Progenitus? Angel I do understand as it stabilizes the board, but it isn't like UGw is light on unanswerable creatures to complement Goyf (Efreet, Morhphling, Dragon, Gigapede and so on and so forth).

[Maveric78f]

2) Makes being stuck with Progenitus in hand is less awkward. I'm aware we have BS, but it still costs you games now and then. In the same vain I'm also running a singleton Cephalid Coliseum.

I agree with 1), but with 2), I have another way to get rid of Prog : LftL until having 8 cards in hand and discard it.

adrieng: your list is too much different from mine. I would prefer that you discuss it in another thread.

Infinitum: when prog is wrathed, it goes back to library. When it's discarded also. It's also a 2 turn clock. As Direlemming said Angel is probably also worth it, but as I said, I don't want to have too many kills that are only kills. In a control deck, a good kill is a control element (Tarmogoyf and witness fit perfectly this role).

[Mordenkaynen]

@adrieng

Probably Living wish would be better than Survival. With it, you can disappoint an opponent that plays permission by fetching Boseiju. Btw, Boseiju is a good reason to play Order+Show win.con. "enablers".