DECK: BUG New Age [of Control]

[death]

This may initially look like an amalgamation of Pox, Eva Green, Stax and Landstill because in reality it simply is. Having played these archetypes and with a conclusion in mind that Jace, the Mind Sculptor is the most broken card ever printed [from a control perspective], I decided to extract the control elements from each of those decks and brew them precisely into this "new" Jace archetype.


http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/7696/newagebug.jpg
http://www.twiddleskeep.com/user/products/thumbnails/thedark/Maze%20of%20Ith.jpghttp://www.twiddleskeep.com/user/products/thumbnails/fifthdawn/Crucible%20of%20Worlds.jpghttp://www.twiddleskeep.com/user/products/thumbnails/legends/The%20Tabernacle%20at%20Pendrell%20Vale.jpghttp://www.twiddleskeep.com/user/products/thumbnails/dissension/Spell%20Snare.jpghttp://www.twiddleskeep.com/user/products/thumbnails/timespiral/Smallpox.jpghttp://www.twiddleskeep.com/user/products/thumbnails/alarareborn/Maelstrom%20Pulse.jpg


A Jace dropped on an empty board is a very very dangerous threat.



June 20 2011 DCI Bannings Explained
How Did Jace Get Through Development?
...
Of course, we didn't fully understand Jace's power. His first ability underwent a significant late change, going from milling two cards to "fatesealing" one. That ability was playtested very little, and we didn't recognize just how easy it was to put away games with it.


lol.

Version 1.1
Lands [22]
4 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wasteland
1 Swamp
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Control [11]
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Crucible of Worlds
4 Maze of Ith

Permission [11]
3 Mental Misstep
3 Spell Snare
2 Counterspell
3 Force of Will

Removal [11]
4 Smallpox
3 Innocent Blood
4 Maelstrom Pulse

Support [5]
3 Brainstorm
2 Inquisition of Kozilek

Lands: 26, Spells: 34, Crt: 0 Cards: 60

Sideboard [15]
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Putrefy
3 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Perish
3 Spell Pierce
2 Misdirection
2 The Abyss


http://findmagiccards.com/Cards/WW/Chart_Jace__the_Mind_Sculptor_Prices.JPEG

[death]

Card choices to follow - later or tomorrow. Gotta go!

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

How do you win if you don't draw Jace?

[sco0ter]

How do you win at all?

[death]

I've won 6 games in a row after losing to Ichorid (didn't draw Tabernacle). I've beat Turbo-Drazi, ANT, MBC, Deadguy, MUD, and a Rouge deck.

[Greenpoe]

3 Brainstorm

It's hardly a blue deck with only 3...especially with only 4 win-cons.

[dahcmai]

Well, from first glance you have 5 counters that can stop a Vindicate or similar. Might want to shore up those openings. Those types of cards are fairly devastating to have slip through. Since you're relying on Jace so hard, you'll have to protect him better than that. There's decks out there that run more Vindicate effects than 4. Red rock has 8 for instance. Maybe a random Misdirection since it's so devastating vs that type of stuff.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Why is the manabase so black heavy? Why play Cspell with only twelve blue sources? Why play Crucible at all without the Lands shell to support it? Why 1x Tabernacle? Why only 3 Brainstorm? Why so little ability to exert pressure? Why Innocent Blood when you're already playing Smallpox, or, for that matter, why are you playing Smallpox at all? Why 2x Inquisition randomly?

[Izor]

Erm, what do you do if your Jace gets Extirpated, or simply killed as many times as you draw it?

[planarvoid]

seems like a bad BUG landstill...

[Birkardo]

Any control deck without
4x Force of will
4x Brainstorm
is wrong - find place for it.

[sporenfrosch1411]

...then Extirpate resolved and he scooped

[death]

@RaNDoMxGeSTuReS

It is next to impossible not to draw a single Jace. Using a probability calculator, the chances of drawing Jace are:
T1 -> T5 - 40% - 60%
T6 -> T10 - 63% - 75%

The odds increase even further by Brainstorming. In the first few turns, drawing a Jace will not be relevant since 1) you don't have resources to cast him 2) you will likely be dealing with opponent's business spells first.

@dahcmai
good call on Misdirection. I think it deserves 2 slots in the sideboard since it's good against targetted removal and burn spells to protect Jace.

@IBA
I agree, the manabase needs to be redone. The catacombs came from my Reanimator and should have been rainforests. I'll also add a Tropical Island to up the blue source.

The crucible is there mainly to recur Wastelands, Maze of Iths, and Tabernacle. Tabernacle is expensive and worse is that aside from being legendary it doesn't tap for mana (same with Mazes), that is why an Urborg was auto-included. Not all decks in legacy are swarm decks, most play only 8-16 creatures. Putting a Tabernacle into play can be devastating against certain decks though.

Innocent Blood is strong against fatties with shroud or protection (Progenitus, Emrakul, etc.). Unlike Go for the Throat, Snuff Out, or Dismember, this card gets rid of creatures almost unconditionally and it supplements the Smallpoxes in the main. Although they could also be ghastly demises.

Smallpox has synergy with Wastelands and Innocent Blood. I use it as Sinkhole at my opponents' basics before wrecking them completely with Wasteland recursion. This card takes care of creatures and can be combo's nightmare as you rip their hand and lands at the same time. Smallpox is underrated, it is not only ideal for screwing up with their strategy but it also clears the way for Jace, the Mind Sculptor allowing you fateseal an opponent to death.

2x Inquisition looks a bit random here but they're not. Although I'm still undecided whether Thoughtseize is better. But 2 more life loss is going to hurt especially with Mental Missteps in the deck. The reason why I like Inquisition is that it's a FREE Thoughtsieze most of the time since most spells and creatures in legacy are 3cc or less.


seems like a bad BUG landstill...
bad or better? Landstill has Standstill which doesn't really shine by itself. It's bad against Aether Vial, opposing manlands, Wasteland, Vendilion Clique. I can no longer count the number of times I've won against a Standstill, truth is this card can easily backfire on you.

Landstill has Pernicious Deed which is a great sweeper, effective but not before you soak up some damages. Landstill has Mishra's Factory, a 2/2 attacker and 3/3 blocker at the most. They don't really do a good job at defending since creatures you face are likely 4 power and up, they also don't do well at the offensive line. How's that for exerting pressure?


Any control deck without
4x Force of will
4x Brainstorm
is wrong - find place for it.
Gone are those days when this is true. Newer and neater cards are printed after every expansion that are hard to ignore. It's also wrong not to find place for them just for the sake of conforming with 4x BS 4x FoW public standard. The decklist has a boatload of permission and removal spells, making Brainstorm -> dig for answer almost obsolete, except for maybe shuffling the chaff away and digging for Jace.


Erm, what do you do if your Jace gets Extirpated, or simply killed as many times as you draw it?

I actually had the privilege of facing MBC with maindecked Extirpates. I was able to counter his discard spells while he extirpated my counters. I rfg'd Jace everytime I Forced. Eventually I won when I topdeck Jace and fatesealed him like he deserved. Game 2, I lost because after countering his discard spells, he was able to resolve Sadistic Sacrament, twice! Final game, I showed him why discard is a poor strategy and why Jace, tMS is a banned card.

Of course, there are times when Jace will die or be destroyed. I just replace him. If all these firepower is not enough, then that's life and I just accept it. Although I think the deck needs a 5th or 6th win condition.

[Jander78]

You should probably take a look at Carsten's deck CAB JaceTM (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?17986-CAB-JaceTM) since it has a similar strategy to what you're trying, but shores up some of the issues I see in your deck.

Why no Tolaria West?
Why Crucible of Worlds over Life from the Loam?
You need more draw / filter than only 3 Brainstorm (which should really be a 4 of).

[death]

Why Crucible of Worlds over Life from the Loam?

LftL is great when you are recurring multiple lands, most of the time I'm not. Also, dredging will make me put Jace into the yard and exposed to hate.

[death]

CAB Jace has an unstable mana base and inconsistent draw spells, uses Deed and Explosives which are relatively slow and mana intensive.

[The Treefolk Master]

CAB Jace has an unstable mana base and inconsistent draw spells, uses Deed and Explosives which are relatively slow and mana intensive.


Have you even tested the deck? While my experience with the deck is nowhere near Carsten's, it's enough to know that what you're saying isn't true.

1- The manabase of CAB Jace has never given me any issues before. 1 of each basic give protection vs. Wasteland, and having 3 Volcanics and 3 Tundras ensure having enough blue mana at your disposal. However, I have been trying to add 1 Crucible, as it seems it would be bonkers in the deck.

2- The true draw spells in CAB Jace are the Treasure Hunts. These are often backed up by Brainstorm, Top and Jace (which act as card selection on they're own). They look quite bad in paper, but they are really quite good in practice. Plus, they can be thrown blindly in extreme situations, which guarantees one spell).

3- EE isn't at all slow. The standarized version of the deck runs EE, not Deed.

[Tiago_B.]

I really like smallpox main. Since you dont run creatures, it should provide easy card advantage.

Consider Infest or Damnation for SD, specially Infest.

Your opponents wont know you run only jace as wincon, so the chances of getting it extirpated are smaller.

Hmm i think you need only 2 more things, some kind of recurring card draw or filtering (there's plenty of excelent black and blue cards for that, and only 3 brainstorm seems low); 2 more wincons, you could pick another planeswalker, or just get 2 more jaces, those from m12 could fit well.

The list is pretty raw, but id like to see it after fixing the manabase and more playtesting after changes. Regarding this, a second Urborg could be good.


Any control deck without
4x Force of will
4x Brainstorm
is wrong - find place for it.

So every non blue control deck just sucks? That's a strong statement.....I agree FoW is the best counter ever but......

Also, he has Misstep so 4 FoW isnt a must.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Life from the Loam is also insanely good with Jace and against control, though. I mean the natural question here is why this build is better than DeedStill. You've got Maze and Smallpox but less ways to exert pressure or to clear the board; in fact your only real way of dealing with multiple creatures is to rely on LD + singleton Tabernacle.

My first question is how much you've tested against Merfolk and Kitty Zoo, since those are I think the most obvious threats to answer in the metagame, and good examples of decks where just playing one-for-one removal isn't going to cut it.

[Goaswerfraiejen]

Is Maelstrom Pulse really worth splashing green all by its lonesome?

[death]

Is Maelstrom Pulse really worth splashing green all by its lonesome?

Splashing green, I think is worth more than splashing white (for Vindicate) or red (for Firespout) since green gives us more options. If you have Pernicious Deed, you can easily board it in. The deck can also be retrofitted with Mirri's Guile or better, Sylvan Library for library manipulation.

I guess we'll have to wait until Wizards print a B/G or U/G Planeswalker that will fit into this deck well. Until then ..

[death]

Did a few rounds of testing, won against Reanimator, no surprises there. I've won also against a Breakfast deck. Lost to G/W aggro because I misplayed my counters.

@ IBA, the deck needs help in that department. If we can shore up games against Zoo and Merfolk the deck has serious potential. Against Goblins, Misstep on Vial followed by IoK on Lackey will get there.