Bad Deck Baz Presents...

Hi everyone. Jay here. Due to my very limited Internet time this weekend, I have asked ThatDamnAussie, a.k.a Baz to write a guest post about the three "bad decks" that he designed for my upcoming article series. I'll be playing each of these in a seperate post.


Now, without further ado, here's Baz to introduce the decks. Enjoy.


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G'day everyone, I am Baz, I'm also ThatDamnAussie on Twitter, BazD on MTGO and I guess now I'm also known as Bad Deck Baz. Jay put out a challenge on Twitter and as always I usually take his challenges and turn it up to eleven. I created a large number of Achievements that Jay used in a post around the time Zendikar came out.

Ironically, I'm a “limited” sort of player and I rarely delve into the realm of Constructed, unless I have an idea that makes me laugh. Thankfully, Jay provided me with all the inspiration I needed.

The Challenge:

Build a “bad deck” for Standard, and win games/matches with it.

Now, I took the phrase “bad deck” a little more literally than I believe Jay wanted me to, I actually built decks, that feature bad cards. As you'll see in these 3 decklists, sometimes a combo of bad cards can lead into something good. Although, I mostly just wanted Jay to suffer a whole lot.

First up, I'll introduce each deck Jay will be playing in his upcoming mini-series and I'll talk about some of the interactions I built into the deck and how I went about coming up with each of the deck ideas. Some are more interesting than others. I should inform you all that each deck was designed in a vacuum. None of these decks have been constructed purely for metagame reasons. Each one was built because they made me laugh.

IT'S A TRAP!

A “Bad Deck Baz” Deck

9 Island

11 Mountain

4 Scalding Tarn

3 Goblin Artillery

3 Reckless Scholar

3 Runeflare Trap

2 Lethargy Trap

2 Mindbreak Trap

4 Lavaball Trap

2 Whiplash Trap

4 Inferno Trap

4 Trapmaker's Snare

2 Trapfinder's Trick

3 Burning Inquiry

2 Chandra Ablaze

2 Quest for Ancient Secrets

Sideboard

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Jace Beleren

3 Font of Mythos

2 Pyromancer Ascension

1 Runeflare Trap

1 Burning Inquiry

1 Chandra Ablaze

1 Mindbreak Trap

IT'S A TRAP! is a very simple concept, a Blue/Red trap based

control deck. I was posting on Twitter about decking someone with Archive Trap and that made the AdmiralAckbar_ bot post “IT'S A TRAP!” This gave me the funny concept of a Trap based deck, especially in Standard. Jay's request for bad decks gave me the actual drive to build it.

Funny Interactions:

Inferno Trap doesn't care who owns the creatures that deal you damage. So you can Goblin Artillery yourself to complete half the requirements for a cheap Inferno Trap, it won't be a very efficient way to burn them out, but it's still worth a giggle for me. (Aside: most of the things I do are all about getting giggles).

Burning Inquiry makes your opponent draw 3 cards. Runeflare Trap gets cheaper if they've drawn 3 or more cards in a turn. I don't think I really need to spend lots of time explaining that interaction. I just think it's funny that it's in Standard.

Trapfinder's Trick with Chandra. Hey if you can't get those Traps out of your hand any other way, there's always forcing yourself to discard with Chandra. If you've got no traps, you can always use it as a 2 mana peek. Which I think is plenty bad enough.

Chandra on her own is still pretty hilarious in this deck. I mean seriously, you're firing out Runeflare Traps, Lavaball Traps, Inferno Traps (which targets things that get killed by the Lavaball Traps anyway). Not to mention you're casting an absolute truckload of Burning Inquiries, so not only are they drawing a load of cards, they probably won't have any lands left to cast them all with.

Other card choices:

Mindbreak Trap, Whiplash Trap, Lethargy Trap are all part of your Trapfinder's Snare tutor package.
Reckless Scholar in multiples is another way to force Runeflare Trap's trap cost. It's also a blocker.

With the sheer amount of graveyard action going on in this deck, being able to reload your deck while your opponent's graveyard is still filling up, adds a second “mill” win condition to the deck.

(Aside: I just realised the guts of this deck would make for a great Cerebral Vortex deck in Extended. Would probably improve it a whole lot.)

Sideboard Choices:

(Now, the sideboard doesn't have to constrain to the “bad deck” principle, which allows me to run some good cards.)

Lightning Bolt, Jace Beleren – I have to allow Jay some good cards don't I?

Font of Mythos – Hey, it turns on Runeflare Trap every one of your opponent's turn doesn't it?

Pyromancer Ascension – What the hell, it will randomly turn on some matches, not to mention its funny as hell to be Forking cards like Burning Inquiry.

The remaining cards are singletons just to fill up the numbers for certain matches while taking out useless cards.

Blisters on your Fingers

A “Bad Deck Baz” Deck

14 Island

2 Swamp

4 Jwar Isle Refuge

4 Drowned Catacomb

4 Alluring Siren

4 Wall of Frost

4 Sphinx Ambassador

4 Cosi's Trickster

4 Gomazoa

2 Quest for Ancient Secrets

3 Sadistic Sacrament

4 Telemin Performance

4 Polymorph

3 Haunting Echoes

Sideboard

1 Platinum Angel

3 Marsh Casualties

4 Kathari Remnant

3 Deny Reality

4 Flashfreeze

I don't think I really need to explain the key concept of the deck, beyond it's not as fun on Magic Online as it is in person. Forcing your opponent to just keep on shuffling their deck while your Cosi's Trickster just keeps getting bigger.

Key interactions:

Alluring Siren gets an absolute workout in this deck. Forcing them to attack into Wall of Frost or Gomazoa. Gomazoa is the preferred choice since that makes them shuffle up for the Trickster.

Sadistic Sacrament with Polymorph and Telemin Performance. Remove either the good stuff for when you Polymorph them, or remove the bad stuff for when you Telemin Performance them. Of course you can do the extreme route and kick Sadistic and remove every creature then you have a Blue “Doom Blade” or “Deck them” spell.

Quest for Ancient Secrets: Hey, can't complain with a jump through hoops card just to put a counter on Cosi's Trickster. Not to mention I'm a sucker for freaking out people who play a turn 1 Hedron Crab.

Sphinx Ambassador is a hilarious finisher. Sadistic lets you rummage through their deck to take notes on every creature in their deck so you always can think of the perfect card to name with the Ambassador ability.

The Sideboard isn't really worth mentioning.

It's a Wonderful Life!

A “Bad Deck Baz” Deck

10 Plains

2 Forest

4 Sunpetal Grove

4 Kabira Crossroads

4 Graypelt Refuge

4 Battlegrace Angel

4 Mycoid Shepherd

4 Grazing Gladehart

2 Sunseed Nurturer

2 Mesa Enchantress

2 Lifelink

1 Landbind Ritual

3 Sylvan Bounty

3 Cradle of Vitality

4 Soul's Grace

2 Celestial Mantle

2 Sunspring Expedition

3 Angel's Mercy

Sideboard

3 Felidar Sovereign

3 Wall of Reverence

2 Captured Sunlight

4 Solemn Offering

3 Ajani Goldmane

So some people complain I don't commit to an idea strongly enough. I'll have an idea that eventually I'll spin off in another direction and the original concept gets diluted. I took an original idea that made me laugh, and then made it. Not to mention I actually strained the concept. Besides the lands, only 2 cards in the deck and sideboard don't actually gain life.

The original concept: “Cradle of Vitality deck, with Felidar Sovereign in the sideboard” I had a chuckle when I thought of it. Probably doesn't seem as funny now that I've explained but people tell me I have a strange sense of humour.

As far as my Bad Deck Baz decks go, this one is probably the most linear and doesn't actually have any sort of strange, deep interactions like my other decks. It mostly just sits there and gains life while Cradle of Vitality is in play. I try and get the most bang for my buck so cards like Sunspring Expedition get featured (although now that Worlds is on, Sunspring Expedition isn't actually a bad card anymore) as a way to put 8 +1/+1 counters on a useless dude for 2 mana.

So there you have it, 3 bad decks to torture Jay with. I'm providing you, the audience, with your revenge on Jay for not keeping up to date with posts.

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I guess I sort of deserved that last quip.

See you next time!

Side Projects

I'm working on a couple of side projects at the moment, so I'm going to be taking a break from posting for a few days. I should resume posting on Monday or Tuesday, but at the moment I'm in the initial phase of a couple of projects and the initial phase always takes the most work, so yeah.

Sorry for the wait, and I'll see you soon. I'll try to arrange some guest posts to fill the gap.

Seriously though, I'm glad that I have great readers like you guys. I'm sure you'll understand if I want to take a few days off every now and then. If I'm not back posting by Tuesday you can officially license a mafia intervention on me.

Peace,

Salivanth

Letting Your Proteges Go - Part 2

Last time we covered my Magic story. It lasted longer than I thought it would so I split the post into two. Here's the second part.

After I was starting to get a new handle on the game, a pair of kids showed up: Matthew and Sarah. (I won't release last names for privacy reasons). Now, these were good kids. They were eager to learn and play. They only had two flaws:

A) Matthew was very, very irritating.
B) They both sucked.

So I set out to remedy B. I decided to teach the kids to play some good Magic. (Though I never talked Sarah out of that U/B Faeries deck...(This was a casual Faeries deck, not the Cryptic Command - Bitterblossom - Mistbind Clique concoction. It had Pestermites and Faerie Harbingers)).

Ironically, Matthew seemed more receptive. I came to the conclusion that he was a lot like me: he was young, and didn't KNOW when he was driving people up the wall. I gradually moved the kids up to Limited, I helped them with decks, I built their manabases in drafts every week. I took them under my wing.

And as karmic justice, guess what happened? I became a better player. Turns out when you have to explain how to build a sealed deck, you get a bit better at it. Same with many other concepts, like card advantage, life as a resource (Or, How To Not Chump Block a 3/3 at 18 Life 101) and drafting.

They got better. Matthew especially built new decks and got better at building them. He took my advice. Five-Color? Need less colors with that manabase. Bant? A bit too top-heavy and not consistent enough. Treefolk? Not bad. (It was able to beat my aggro decks a decent amount). Then before Zendikar came out he asked me to build him Mono-Black Control. All of a sudden he could beat me. His recent deck, Naya Cascade, is tough for me to beat. (I built that too). I wouldn't want to face that kid in a tournament with stuff on the line as much as I would have before.

As for Sarah, she improved her play but didn't change her deck. This kept her skill capped. But what happened when Zendikar came out? She built, with my tutelage, a Mono-White Emeria deck, and shot up. Both of them are now only a little below me.

And then there was Max. The third kid who only showed a few months ago. He really is a mini-me. He played the same class and race as me in World of Warcraft, he built a Jund deck like I did, and he even looks like me. I'm looking forward to sculpting him into a good player, once he learns what decks are possible and which are not.

It's time for me to let Matthew and Sarah find their own paths. I'll probably help Matt with his decks now and then, but I've taught them nearly as much as I can. I've still got Max, and I hope I keep having kids to teach. It's deeply rewarding, and makes you a better player. You can learn something from everybody.

From Sarah, I learnt to stick to a strategy. She played a deck for two years, and always drafts the same deck. She's so notorious for forcing it that nobody near her drafts it since they know she'll never quit. (Mono-White in Zendikar).

From Matt I learnt adaptability. I learnt that sometimes it's not bad cards, but bad decks. I also learnt the importance of trying different archetypes.

And from Max? I'm still looking forward to the lessons he has to teach, but he's looking like he'll end up a formidable player.

And this is my story, and some of the lessons I've learnt. I hope you find it informative.

Tomorrow, the Twitter community's best worst deck concept will be featured on this blog. I'll build it, test it, and probably fail miserably, but you learn a lot from failure.

Enjoy! See you tomorrow!

Letting Your Proteges Go - Part 2

This post will be up sometime in the next 24 hours. Sorry for the delay!

Miniseries Series 1: W/U Control Part 3

And we return to the final part of our W/U Control series. We've gone over the theory, we've designed the deck, now let's put it to the test.

The only change I made in the deck to test with was to take out a Plains and add an Island.

Now let's test.

Round 1 vs. Dark Naya

We go back and forth killing each other's creatures for a while. He then gets double Baneslayer and I get double Wall of Denial and my own Baneslayer. He gains a lot of life and I let him, since I aim to defeat him via decking him after he gets to about 50 life.

He eventually plays Day of Judgement, and gets a bunch of cards out which I kill. Finally, he gets Enlisted Wurm into Baneslayer and I can't find an answer. He beats me with 8 cards left in his library.

Game 2 I get a Luminarch, he gets a Pulse. I get a Wall, he uses DoJ. He plays 2 Baneslayers, I play 2 DoJs (he only plays one at a time). I play my own Baneslayer, which he O-Rings. I get another and get him down to 4 before he gets rid of it. I remark that that ended the chance of a quick game. I play most of my hand, then Mind Spring for 8. With this avalanche of cards I get a Luminarch and protect it until it comes online. I win shortly after.

Game 3 I get two Baneslayers, he O-Rings both, he gets two Bloodbraids, I kill them both. I go into control mode, killing or countering all his cards. I get a couple of Mind Springs though (that card is friggin insane) but he's able to kill my finishers, so I use another. Once again I use this avalanche of cards to protect a Luminarch, and win. Turns out the ability to draw 7 cards and make 4/4 fliers for 1W is good. Who knew?

1-0

Round 2 vs. Four-Color LD

He's playing a deck with Ruinblasters, Mold Shambler, Acidic Slime, Convincing Mirage and Spreading Seas, with Violent Ultimatum in the mix. I get a Baneslayer, which he Terminates, and then he manages to get two Slimes and a Ruinblaster and keep me manascrewed enough to never be able to win the game. He beats me to death.

Game 2 I drop a Turn 2 Luminarch Ascension and a Turn 3 Wall of Denial. I win that game in about four minutes.

Game 3 I get another Luminarch Turn 2, and this time he puts up more of a fight. He Bolts me to try and stop it, and when it does get online he Terminates the first angel and goes for a Violent Ultimatum, but I have the Flashfreeze and manage to kill him.

2-0

Round 3 vs. Emeria Recursion

He's playing a deck with Empyrial Archangel, Baneslayer, and Emeria, the Sky Ruin. No prizes for guessing his plan.

Game 1 is really anticlimactic. I get several cards off a Jace, he gets stuck on 2 lands all game. When I drop a Turn 6 Sphinx of Jwar Isle, he concedes on the spot.

Game 2 I get a Jace and he gets a bunch of lands. I Path a Baneslayer and play my own. He plays Empyrial Archangel. Trumping a Baneslayer is hard to do, but he did. I play a second Baneslayer to stop him attacking. I Flashfreeze a second Archangel. I drop Wall of Denial, he drops Baneslayer. He goes for Martial Coup for about 12, and I Negate. Very anti-climactic.

Very little happens for about 15 minutes. Eventually he gets a Day of Judgement off with TRIPLE Emeria out. I drop Baneslayer and Wall of Denial that I'd been sandbagging, and I use my Journey on a Baneslayer. He plays Martial Coup for 16. It was a LONG GAME. I then Mind Spring for 6 and draw a Day, which I saved 4 mana to use. I use it. I get Jace to 10 counters, but he gets killed. If I'd gotten him off I would have won right there.

I eventually get him down to 1 card in his library facing down lethal. I dig through almost all of my deck with Mind Spring and am lucky enough to find my final Day, which I do. I use Jace to bring him to 0 cards, and he loses the match.

3-0

Round 4 vs. White Weenie

He drops Akrasan Squire and Kazandu Blademaster. He gets me to about 10 before I draw a Day. I drop Wall of Denial. He drops Conqueror's Pledge. He gets me to 3, and then I topdeck a Day. He drops Gargoyle Castle, I kick a Sphinx of Lost Truths. We each Path each other's creature. He gets Honor of the Pure. I get Baneslayer, he plays Conqueror's Pledge. I unload my hand: Path to Exile, Journey to Nowhere, Sphinx of Jwar Isle, to allow me to survive. He plays Brave the Elements and that is that.

Game 2 I side out my Purges and Flashfreezes for the first time all day. He gets double Vanguard and an Honor of the Pure. I get Wall of Denial. He Paths my Baneslayer and plays Veteran Swordsmith. I dig for an answer, fail to find one, and die.

3-1

So in the end, I've found that even my rough version of W/U Control did pretty well: though I never tested it against Jund I did test it against several powerful decks with Cascade and was able to hold my own. The Flashfreezes main turned out quite well: I only sided them out once and usually sided the two in the board into the main. If I was to remake the deck, I don't know what I'd do at this stage.

That's the end of the series, but I do have a couple of announcements.

Firstly, I will pick the topic of my next miniseries, whenever I choose to make it.

Secondly, I'll be doing a couple of fun articles that you guys can have a part in soon. Details will be on Twitter. My username is mtgsalivanth, and I often release things there first, so please follow me!

Until next time, may you design and test your decks with pride.

Letting Your Proteges Go - Part 1

One thing I had a lot of in my old personal development blog was, well, personal things. I don't want to do too much of that with this blog, but I do have a Magic story to tell, so I figured, why not?

Have you ever taught a player to play Magic?

What about taught a bad player to become better?

This story will first cover my journey to here, and then it'll cover the journey of my proteges.

A couple of years ago, I entered Mega Games Trader for the first time. I'd heard that they had an Arena tournament there (whatever THAT was). The friend who invited me actually never showed, and I then proceeded to be told the following by the store owner:

See those guys out there? They've forgotten more about Magic than you ever knew. Listen to them. Learn from them.

Of course I thought I knew strategy. Here was my entire bevy of knowledge about strategic thinking.

• Build your decks to be 60 cards
• Have 4 of each of your key cards
• Instants should be played on your opponent's turn. I...think...

No card advantage, deck matchups, sideboarding (what's a SIDEBOARD?) or anything that I now take for granted. My first deck was a Saproling Overrun deck. Mono-green, no removal whatsoever except a single Wear Away which was part of the snake deck I started with.

It sucked. I went 2-2 at Arena though, because other people sucked just as much as me.

Then, the best thing that would ever happen to me, happened. The thing that would sculpt me into a competitive player, the thing that rocketed me into FNM and into competition.

What was it? A staggering insight? An awesome mentor?

Well, actually, I lost my deck.

Because I lost my crappy Saproling deck, I had to build another deck, and I figured "Why not make it Standard legal?"

At this point, all I knew of Standard and Extended was that Standard was Time Spiral, Lorwyn, and Tenth Edition, and FNM was Standard. My deck was Extended. Whatever that meant.

So from the little I'd heard about Lorwyn I decided to make a Kithkin deck, since I figured it'd be budget.

4 Goldmeadow Stalwart, 4 Wizened Cenn, 4 Knight of Meadowgrain, 4 Cloudgoat Ranger made up the core of my deck. I can't remember what else I had, but I do remember it was a deck I played for months.

It rocked. I tore through Arena. And then, next week, I showed up and there was nobody there, so Manuel said he'd put me in FNM and see how I fared.

I came 3rd. I went 3-1. Of course, the competition at my store was FAR, FAR less at this point, but I didn't know that. I was on top of the world. Two months later, I won my first FNM.

Two months later, I tanked at Regionals. In fact, I got a disqualification for insufficient randomization. See, the store owner knew I wasn't good enough at shuffling so he told me to manaweave before each round started: but then I didn't shuffle it as well as he'd hoped: I only cut the deck, albeit numerous times. The end result was that when my deck got taken away (for a random deck check or someone reported it was shady, I'll never know) it was found that my deck had a near perfect land-creature distribution. I said I understood.

It was the worst day in my Magic career. Ever. I vowed to stick to FNM from then on. The months went by. I continued to do well. I even won again. And then, OMG showed up.

Team OMG (originally standing for Omega Games) were pros. They came with netdecks. They came with tech. They creamed us all. Ben was the first to rise up, but the rest of us were slow to follow. As for me, I maintained my 'netdecks are evil' policy for quite some time. I did, however, start to study the metagame in depth. I learnt about Faeries, about Quick 'n' Toast when it first came out, about Reveillark, about Red Deck Wins.

I fell in love with Red Deck Wins. It was like Kithkin, but it had removal! And it WINS! I built it, and won once with it. OMG weren't there. Then things got really tough.

Other people started netdecking. They built good decks. I was not to win another FNM for a year.

I built a red shaman deck next. It had Rage Forger, Incandescent Soulstoke, and lots of one-drop and two-drop elementals. It was frighteningly fast, but it DIED to a Wrath of God. I remember winning a game on Turn 4...through a Pro-Red creature. The problem was it didn't even have burn. It had 32 creatures and 4 Shared Animosity. This was a 50c rare that nobody knew about til I bought it.

Creatures I controlled got +1/+0 for each other attacking creature. It was amazing. I built the deck to power out 3-4 elementals by Turn 3, then drop Rage Forgers or Shared Animosity for the win. It did pretty well. Except against OMG.

Alara Reborn came out. By now I knew about aggro and control and combo, and I had some idea of my own inadequacy as a player. So I played aggro. I built a R/G deck with Giantbaiting, Bloodbraid Elf, Hellsparks, and Boggart Ram-Gang. Essentially, every card could go to the face (which was pretty nuts with Bloodbraid Elf). Shame I couldn't cascade into Flame Javelin.

Then I opened 3 Pulses over 3 weeks. These were chase rares, and I knew this, having gone ape about the card when it was previewed. I decided then and there to build a Jund deck. Next week, I asked my teammate Jeremy if he had a Jund deck I could use. He then took a deck out of his bag, and told me it was Five-Color Blood, which was similar.

I didn't see the point of splashing UUU for one card. The world soon followed suit. I took out the Cryptics and Cruels, and added in more aggro. It did great. I loved it.

Then Jeremy lost the deck. I went back to playing R/G Aggro while I collected the cards for Jund. Shortly before M10 came out, I managed it.

I got better at Jund, learnt it, added Bolts to it...and then made this blog. I wrote a lot about Jund in my early days. Everything went great.

When Zendikar rolled out, I went with the punches. I'd finally gone full-circle. Lorwyn was gone, I'd now been around for the release of all of Standard. I won again, two weeks ago. OMG weren't there, but I triumphed over some great players.

Jund is everywhere now. As is Soldiers, Vampires, and control builds. As I look around the room every Saturday, I realise it took me 18 months to catch up to the level I used to be at: but now I'm 20 times better at the game. I owe OMG more than I ever could have fathomed. And the store owner, Manuel, was right. I had no idea of how much I had to learn. Now, as a player, I realise how far I still have to go.

But that's Magic for you: the game of a lifetime.

Next bonus post, I'll talk about three kids who I decided to mentor, and how their stories have affected me, and made me into the player, and person, I am today.

Miniseries Series 1: W/U Control Part 2

Hi guys, and welcome back to the W/U Control Miniseries. Last week we discussed the theory of W/U Control. Today we're going to do a slight amount of theory, and then move into deckbuilding.

What are the four aspects that make up any blue-based control deck?

The answer is:

Card advantage, removal, finishers, and countermagic.

We're going to need all of these in our deck, so we're going to run through it element by element, discussing the different cards that might be good for each. Then, afterwards, we'll work out how many of each type we want, and then finally build the deck.

Card Advantage


Ior Ruin Expedition: This card from Zendikar is essentially a time-delayed 2-mana 2-card spell. The problem is, it's a terrible topdeck.Worth considering if there's a lack of other good options.

Jace Beleren: The best card advantage spell in Standard right now, by far.

Elspeth, Knight Errant: While it doesn't actually give us cards, it gives us fractions of a card every turn and stymies the opponent's attempts to kill her.

Divination: Unplayable.

Hindering Light: We won't be playing many creatures, so this card isn't really worth it.

Mind Spring: We absolutely need 2-3 of these in here. They can pull a game in your favor instantly.

Removal


Path to Exile: Absolutely. Best removal in the format, and an automatic 4-of.

Journey to Nowhere: Also good, takes care of most creatures permanently. It also doesn't trigger Cascade if it's broken, since the spell isn't being played. Add to the fact that Pulse costs more than it, and we have a good card.

Celestial Purge: Most decks nowadays with White are maindecking a couple of these, and I'm going to follow suit.

Oblivion Ring: Probably more of a sideboard card.

Finishers


Baneslayer Angel: Best creature in Standard, and the first choice for finisher.

Sphinx of Jwar Isle: A good choice, and can certainly close the game away.

Sphinx of Lost Truths: Card advantage, flying, and a beefy toughness. What's not to love?

Conqueror's Pledge: Not really playing to it's strengths in this kind of deck.

Countermagic


Flashfreeze: This card has targets against virtually all decks in the metagame right now. I think I'll try two.

Essence Scatter + Negate: Both good, situational, 2-mana counters. I think they make the cut: most decks in Standard have a nice balance between creatures and spells. Negate is slightly better though since it gets rid of cards that can't be stopped in other ways.

Offering to Asha: Too expensive.

Cancel: Also too expensive.

Mindbreak Trap: Essentially Double Negative, this card might be worth a sideboard option.

Other:


Day of Judgement: A hybrid of removal and card advantage. We'll want to play four.

Wall of Denial: Excellent for holding off big creatures. Hard to kill except with Gatekeeper.


Now we go on to the deckbuilding phase.

First we're going to want about 25 lands in this kind of deck, so that leaves us with 35 cards.

In today's Standard, I think we'll want about 6-7 finishers. Today's Control can't stall the game forever, so we want to stall it long enough to play our big cards.

IN: 4 Baneslayer Angel

4 of the finishers simply have to be Baneslayer. Baneslayer is that good.

IN: 2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
IN: 1 Sphinx of Lost Truths

I'm going to go with 7 finishers, and I'd like to have a 2-1 ratio since I think Jwar is better, but I'm not entirely sure.

28 slots remaining.

We'll now go with removal. I'd say we'd want about 10-12 pieces of removal, including Day of Judgement.

IN: 4 Day of Judgement
IN: 4 Path to Exile

Path and Day are both very good cards, and should be featured. Next, we'll want to add a couple of purges:

IN: 2 Celestial Purge

I'm going to leave the last piece of removal open, since I'm not sure how many I'll want. I'm going to base that on how many other cards I add to the deck.

18 slots left.

Now on to card advantage. We're going to want 3 Jaces, no question. 4 is too many, since you can only have one out. The fourth should go in the side.

IN: 3 Jace Beleren

We'll then want a couple of Mind Springs:

IN: 2 Mind Spring

And lastly, we want about 2-3 other card-advantage providers. The question is, what?

IN: 1 Mind Spring
IN: 1 Ior Ruin Expedition

Mind Spring is better than Ior Ruin, but 4 is too many, so I'll add one.

11 slots remaining.

That leaves us with 9-10 slots for Wall of Denial and countermagic. Based on that, I think we'll want about 6 counterspells. I don't like Essence Scatter since we'll have so many anti-creature cards, so:

IN: 4 Negate
IN: 2 Flashfreeze

Now we have 5 slots left. I think we'll want 4 Walls, since almost every deck plays quite a lot of creatures nowadays.

IN: 4 Wall of Denial

Which leaves us with our last card:

IN: 1 Journey to Nowhere

So let's look at the deck we have.

Lands (25)

2 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 Glacial Fortress
8 Island
7 Plains
4 Sejiri Refuge

Creatures (11)

4 Baneslayer Angel
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
1 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Wall of Denial

Spells (24)

2 Celestial Purge
4 Day of Judgement
2 Flashfreeze
1 Ior Ruin Expedition
3 Jace Beleren
1 Journey to Nowhere
3 Mind Spring
4 Negate
4 Path to Exile

Now, we'll need a sideboard.

My first step in a sideboard is adding extra copies of cards in the main that aren't 4-of's, and are situational.

IN: 1 Jace Beleren
IN: 1 Mind Spring
IN: 2 Celestial Purge
IN: 2 Flashfreeze

Next, we'll want some anti-Jund cards, since Jund is just dynamite at the moment. We have Celestial Purge and Flashfreeze, so we don't need too much.

IN: 3 Devout Lightcaster

Now some anti-control:

IN: 3 Luminarch Ascension

Which leaves us with three slots to go. For this, I'd like to use a catch-all Oblivion Ring.

IN: 3 Oblivion Ring.

So here's the final list:

Lands (25)

4 Glacial Fortress

9 Island

8 Plains

4 Sejiri Refuge

Creatures (11)

4 Baneslayer Angel

2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

1 Sphinx of Lost Truths

4 Wall of Denial

Spells (24)

2 Celestial Purge

4 Day of Judgement

2 Flashfreeze

1 Ior Ruin Expedition

3 Jace Beleren

1 Journey to Nowhere

3 Mind Spring

4 Negate

4 Path to Exile

Sideboard (15)

2 Celestial Purge

3 Devout Lightcaster

2 Flashfreeze

1 Jace Beleren

3 Luminarch Ascension

1 Mind Spring

3 Oblivion Ring

And here's our (probably horrible) W/U Control list. I'll test it out tomorrow, and give you my thoughts! See you for the finale!