UR Control
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Good morning/evening/afternoon/night everyone! First time poster, been learning vintage MTGO in the play rooms, but found a local opportunity to play for a mox this coming weekend. I have come up with the following brew to play, which is a null rod based take on Blue Moon. I found the mana denial elements of Blood moon and Null rod to be what I want to be doing, and I have ended up at this list:
Mana Sources:
8 Snow Covered islands
1 Snow Covered Mountain
3 Volcanic Island
7 Fetches (4 Scalding tarn, 3 blue others)
1 Library of alexandria (not Great to include a colorless land and a nonbasic, but too good for grindy blue control decks).
1 sol ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black LotusNotes: Been pondering strip mine to be able to add to the mana base to strip my opponent's basic before I slam blood moon.
Mana Denial:
3 Blood Moon
2 Null RodNotes: Both of these cards shine in different ways, and have different niches (Moon decent (not great) against dredge, but amazing against the gush decks, and most general manabases in vintage, null rod great against the combo decks, as well as control decks, and decks that are leaning on top, vault/key, etc). I have been very happy with this configuration, and wouldn't mind getting a third null rod in the main, but I am playing it in the sideboard.
Counterspells
4 Mana drain,
4 Flusterstorm
4 force of willNotes: My goal here is to avoid playing into mental misstep, as its tempo is amazing against a deck that is looking to keep your opponents from playing spells in a non conventional (I.E. Non shops) way. Because of that I opted for 4 fluster. It could be split with a mindbreak trap or two, just to play around caverns on leovold, TKS, etc.
Removal:
2 Sudden Shock
2 Rolling EarthquakeLight removal package to play around delver and pyromancer/mentor. rolling Earthquake has been priceless against mentor decks, being able to clean up mentor for X=3 (along with the tokens) and then being able to redirect if necessary to kill jace or lingering dack fadens. Also worth noting you can't kill yourself with your own rolling earthquake if you have a walker in play, as you can redirect it to the walker.
Kill conditions:
2 Consecrated Sphinx
3 Jace the Mind Sculptor
1 Keranos, God of stormsNotes: This is the best kill condition package I have been able to find while avoiding swords to plowshares out of all the white decks, as well as Fatal Push out of the black decks. This package is a bit soft to Pyroblast, but Jace is so flexible that I wouldn't play less than 2.
Kill conditions tested:
Bedlam reveler
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Chandra Flamecaller
Chandra, the Torch of defiance
Stormbreath Dragon (might have been the most effective, flying, nonblue, can't be plowed, jace is meh against it I have just been searching for a card advantage finisher as well).
Koth of hammer (not enough mountains)
Lone Revenant (i was desperate)
Thing in the Ice/Young Pyromancer (not enough spells)
Scab-clan Berserker (not enough fast mana to make it scary)Other Generic Card Advantage/filtering
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Dig Through Time
1 treasure cruise
1 fact or fiction
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 time walk
2 Dack Fayden
The rest of the cards here are just too strong not to play in some quantity.Sideboard:
Anti Dredge:
3 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of ProgenitusNote: Tried Tormods crypt and didn't like it, haven't tested ravenous trap, but leery because I can't cast it, and have splashed for Containment priest to deliever beats, but might be better to splash for Rest in Peace. however, if they can kill the first RIP and you blood moon, you can't cast the rest, rather dangerous.
Anti Shops:
2 Energy Flux
3 Ingot chewerNotes: Tried different spell based things with snapcaster (shattering spree (not enough red) Vandal blast (weak to chalice 1 and rather slow) Rack and Ruin (Sloooooooowwwww), and hurkyl's (we aren't wheeling, so it is tricky to keep the stuff out of play) and they weren't enough, but this is the best I could think of.
Anti the Rest:
1 Rolling earthquake
1 Null rod
1 Roast
2 PyroblastNote: these all have obvious different purposes:
RE is good against aggro opponents for cleanup duty
Null Rod against the things null rod is great against, not a surprise
Pyroblast for blue things, and could be combined with Dack Fayden for thefts.
Roast is for Leovold and TKS. That is all.Any additional help of things that I may have missed would be greatly appreciated. I am sure I am missing something, and would love some input from others. have a wonderful day everyone!
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@bigdeezyrider Blue Moon decks typically want to land Blood Moon ASAP as it prevents opponents from fetching their one or two basics. I know you want to avoid Moxen because of Null Rod, but have you considered 1-2 Ancient Tombs? You generally don't need 3 Volcanic Islands as they just become Mountains after Blood Moon - just 1-2 to fetch when needed but in most cases you want to fetch an Island.
Given that you are only running two real 1 drops, (not counting Flusterstorm), I'm surprised Chalice is in the deck. It's functionally the 3rd null rod on the play and can be game ending as most decks don't have real answers to in their main decks. It also protects you Sphinx and Jace from Pyroblast, which Blood Moon doesn't do. Speaking of which, 4 Flusterstorms is a lot and I would run MBT as you mentioned.
Just my $0.02.
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Played against you last night (I was on BUG fish), got pretty soundly beaten. I definitely agree that Chalice, Ancient Tombs, and some number of Mindbreak Traps would be good main, since your interaction is pretty weak on early turns, especially with no Misstep. Accelerating out Null Rod/Chalice/Moon more consistently helps with that.
Have you found the SB Roast to be worthwhile? I felt the 4 life from Dismember to be more than worth instant-speed at a mana cheaper, but I also wasn't running as much self-damage with the Rolling Earthquakes.
Also a rules clarification: you cannot redirect damage from sources you control to your planeswalkers (as you mention re: Rolling Earthquake). I'm guessing you've tested some in solitaire, where I believe you are your opponent for the purpose of game rules. I was very disappointed when I realized I couldn't actually chew up my Dacks to get more land plays with Fastbond!
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@ChubbyRain I did consider Ancient Tomb and chalice, I just haven't mentally figured out the correct slots for them. MBT I feel like would be a better 2-2 split with fluster (4 is a lot) and trap can hit things like troublesome tangle wires if shops opens with Power, as well as being able to clear Flusters and other items that could cause problems. that Idea is completely reasonable!
My thought there would be:
-1 Volc
-1 Island (7 should be enough)
+2 Ancient Tombthis does make casting drain a little harder, but c'est la vie.
As far as the chalice and the mindbreak traps are concerned
-2 Flusterstorm
+2 Mindbreak Trap
-1 Jace
+1 Chalice.Thank you for these excellent suggestions.
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@Solemn_Storm The Sideboard Roast hasn't been great, and with Ancient tomb and Rolling earthquake it would make dismember very hard. I am really just looking for a spell that can kill Leovold that wouldn't get tripped by a misstep (otherwise bolt would be amazing).
Thank you for the info on Rolling earthquake. That does make it a little less awesome, but it is still better than the need of RR for Anger of the Gods.
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@bigdeezyrider rending volley would fit the bill for killing Leo (and mentor), but it's pretty narrow outside of that.
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Have you tested scab clan berserker as a kill con? Fantastic vs combo and can stall mentor? Why didn't stormbreath work for you?
