Azorius Control U/W

So this is the Azorius deck i have been working on for the last night while waiting to see if anyone has updates on regionals

=P


My take on u/w has been the flying weenie version, but i decided to try out control.

I have tried Grand Aribiter + SpellTithe Enforcer

its nice when you get it out.. but..4 and 5cc repectively is still a little high, so I scrapped that eventually (it felt too

much like a bad LD deck, it either works or just caves)

So this is the deck list =)

As always, i am paranoid about surviving aggro, so I have tested it against the standard heezy preboard


// Lands
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Azorius Chancery
5 Island
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Plains
1 Prahv, Spires of Order
1 Island

// Creatures
1 Azorius Guildmage
1 Pride of the Clouds
1 Windreaver
2 Azorius Herald
1 Paladin en-Vec
1 Hokori, Dust Drinker

// Spells
4 Spell Snare
4 Mana Leak
4 Faith's Fetters
3 Hinder
4 Remand
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Wrath of God
2 Stream of Consciousness
1 Ivory Crane Netsuke
1 Evacuation

no side board as yet =P

The deck can play in to quite a few positions, kill cards can be the windreaver, Hokori lock, or beatdown via pride

And there is a whole swathe of counterspells. 15 in total.

Yeah yeah I heard not everyone likes ghostly prison, they work for me ;)

How the deck works:

1. Counter:

Work out how what counterspells you have in your opening have. You want to counter early if possible. No counters is fine

too, but you have to then think about the critters coming on against you early, so your playstyle will also have to change.

2. Try not to tap out:

Errmm I guess this come under old school u/w control =P You normally do not want to tap out. If you can make a play (say

playing ghostly prison) see if you can afford to play later. Most times you want to stall for as long as is possible. If the

board position allows, build your mana base rather then just play as much as you can. As far as possible, make plays on your

turn with counter protection.


3. Your life is a resource:
You can afford to go all the way down to very low life (e.g. 2 life ;p), if you can stabilise the board, and if they just

blew chars and flames at you, you are still cool. Though you should still try to get your life up asap. Play carefully, you

may have to cast the Faith Fetters on something really irrelavent just to get your life up (say a land or something), though

judge for yourself, do you have reason to think your opponent is not holding back, if not feel free to fetter the land =)

4. This deck can play forever

You have streams of consciousness, so you can technicall go on and on and on. But always sqeeze as much out of your resources

as you can.

5. The cards have different values at different points in the game.

Mana Leak is graavy early game, sucky mid to late game. However if you get hokori up, mana leak becomes relevant again.

Streams accordingly.

6. The deck is trying not to lose:

heh, I think this line of thought have been talked to death recently, but anyways as long as you do not lose you are still

winning. The deck is real slow at killing. Which is partly the reason for the lifegain (the longer you drag the game, the

likelier you are to be taken out by a top-decked burn). Th Azorius Heralds are both lifegain as well as "kill faster" cards.


I play 22 lands. I think the remand helps though. I noticed other decks run compulsion or telling time. This works for me

though.

Paladin En-vec is just amazing against anything red or black =P Oh and the first strike is just grand =)

Other notes or things I have tried:

1. When you have hokori online, the bounce lands really shine, as you untap 1 land but get 2 mana =)

2. Prahv is usable, not great but usable, would be fantastic if the activation cost was lower, but it would be too good I

guess =P

3. Windreaver - superman/superboy is quite nice ;) Even if he can only bounce rather than become untargetable

4. Overrule is too expensive early game, unfortunately that is when I need something more powerful, like wrath or just a

manaleak

5. It used to have condemn, but rather than condemn I have always wished it was something else so I took it out. I rather

lose some life, and lock it with prison or just wrath it away.

Overall it is about 50/50 against Heezy... the games are fun, often close. In most U/w there was always some way of locking

up the game. That is sort of missing in current u/w. (whether armageddon or winter orb). I though of using the kami of false

hope and Proclaimation of rebirth, but then i realised to get the stuff back efficiently i need B or G, more of an orzhov or

selesnyan trick I guess =) The Hokori is meant to fill that spot, but rather than becoming the focus (like the orb deck of

the past), it more of an alternate path thingie.


Comments or thoughts as always are welcome.

I'll try to do more testing... but once a deck half works I move to something else... golgari looks interesting at the moment

=)