Darksteel Reactor Control Deck

[slurpbro]

3x Darksteel Reactor
4x Energy Chamber
2x Power Conduit
3x Magistrate's Scepter
4x Fabricate
4x Counterspell
2x Foil
2x Sunken Field
2x Rewind

2x Glacial Wall
4x Fog Bank
2x Stinging Barrier
4x Coretapper
2x Disruptive Pitmage

20x Island

Simple enough. Stall with walls while you counter anything threatening with counterspells. Then get out Darksteel reactor and some other methods of getting counters, build up to 20, and win. This is the first control deck I've built. Any help?

 

[jorael]

Very nice deck. I really like it. Coretapper for the win!

I'd swap some creatures (not coretapper ) for some mass removal. Evacuation or something or add a color like red and add pyroclasm or slice and dice (perhaps even prophetic bolt for creature control and card selection).

Sunken Field and disruptive Pitmage don't seem to be very spectacular in this build. Maby replace them with Sun Droplet? It's a great lifegainer to gain extra time (especially with the other 'counter'-cards). Becomes even better in multiplayer or with multiple turns

Speaking about Magistrate's Scepter, have you tried playing 4 copies? It seems like a game winning card.

 

[slurpbro]

Thats a great Idea! When I think of Sun Droplet, I not only think of stalling, I think of Power Conduit with it to speed up the Darksteel Reactor Process. I was just thinking I needed more charge counter generators in thins deck. Without the sunken feild and disruptive pitmage, I need more counterspells, though. I was thinking Daze because I can't afford Force of Will or more Foils. Also, how about Mana Leak? It is just a slightly worse Counterspell in this deck, so it would definitely help.

3x Darksteel Reactor
4x Energy Chamber
3x Power Conduit
4x Magistate's Scepter
4x Fabricate
4x Counterspell
3x Daze
3x Mana Leak
4x Sun droplet

4x Fog Bank
4x Coretapper

20x Island

Going creatureless is bad, but I think this deck can win fast enough (for a control deck) it won't be a problem. Sun Droplet will help big time. It can turn any damage I take into counters for the Reactor, via power conduit. Eventually people will be afraid to damage me if they can't kill me in one fell swoop. Now that I like. Thanks for the idea, Jorael.

Oh, yeah. I took out the Foils. I can't afford them. ( This deck is only on paper as of now.) You know what? This deck could be fast enogh and efficient enough to be a new archtype. (I hope) I can't wait to try it out.

I like building decks with some non-basic land. Any ideas? I was thinking instead of 20x Island it looked like this:

4xOasis
4xStrip Mine
12x Island

That helps in the stalling process.

 

[jorael]

Oasis? They don't give mana. Strip mine? they are restricted (1 max) in type 1 and banned in other formats.

You'll need more mana sources than 20 too. The last thing you want is not being able to cast your spells on time.

I'd go for 24 mana producing lands not one less.

With only artifact and blue spells cloutpost (Mirrodin) is nice:

20 Islands
4 cloudpost


The urzatron can be an option (urza's mine, tower, powerplant, 8th edition) if the deck has less blue spells:

12 Islands
4 urza's tower
4 urza's powerplant
4 urza's mine

Myr retriever might be a good creature: block an attacker, return an artifact. 2 together can block one attacker all day long.

Energy chamber is nice, but not spectacular. Coretappers and power conduit should be enough counter sources

I would try something like this:

28 Artifacts
4 Magistrate's scepter
3 Darksteel Reactor
2 power conduit
4 sun droplet
4 coretapper
4 myr retriever
4 bottle gnomes
3 skeleton shard

8 Blue spells
4 mana leak
4 fabricate

24 lands very basic:
14 island
10 swamp

OR something like:
8 islands
4 salt marsh
4 urza's tower
4 urza's powerplant
4 urza's mine

This version has 12 creatures and the skeleton shard can recur them all. I love bottle gnomes, they are a good blocker & life gain package.

PLUS: Coretapper + skeleton shard + magistrate's scepter = infinite turns.

 

[Istanbul]

You know, I was going to suggest putting in Hinder over Mana Leak and replacing two Swamps with Islands, but it occurs to me...if this deck doesn't win quickly enough that Mana Leak would work just fine, it's probably not going to win. On the other hand, since you're going to be tapping out to play your permanents, something like Daze is probably a good idea; don't want to get caught with your pants down, after all. (I'm pretty sure that's a match loss.)

Play on, playa.

 

[jorael]

Originally posted by Istanbul
You know, I was going to suggest putting in Hinder over Mana Leak and replacing two Swamps with Islands, but it occurs to me...if this deck doesn't win quickly enough that Mana Leak would work just fine, it's probably not going to win. On the other hand, since you're going to be tapping out to play your permanents, something like Daze is probably a good idea; don't want to get caught with your pants down, after all. (I'm pretty sure that's a match loss.)

Play on, playa.

yeah, you're right and the build I proposed is not very fast.

Ah whell... I don't feel like completely finetuning this deck. It is a fun deck, but needs some time. Good multiplayer material.

 

[Homestar]

i kno ur goin for a conntrol theme but, maybe splash like 4 red mana sources for 4 dismantle? speeds up the reactor by like 6-10 turns! maybe even use city of brasses to get the red mana or something.