Con-Troll

[Killer Joe]

After last night's disaster with the Weird U/G deck, I got to thinking about what U/G decks in the past have had mild success. Adrian Sullivan put together one of my fav's, "ConTroll". I won a couple of small local tournaments with that one and I was just thinking, could it be viable again?
Alright, his deck had Palinchron, so I used Mahamoti Djinn. He used 4x Counterspells, 4x Miscalculation and 3x Annul, I'm using 4x Counterspell, 4x Prohibit and 2x Thwart (Damn Obliterate!). The hero of his deck was Albino Troll, I'm using Horned Troll. Here's the list:

"Con-Troll"

Creatures
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Gaea's Skyfolk
4x Horned Troll
2x Mahamoti Djinn

Other
4x Counterspell
4x Prohibit
2x Thwart
2x Dominate
2x Repulse
3x Rushing River
4x Brainstorm
3x Harrow

Land
2x Dust Bowl
5x Forest
12x Island
1x Rath's Edge
3x Yavimaya Coast

Now I've been "Goldfishing" this thing all morning and I like what I'm drawing. In ten opening draws I usually have at least 3 lands and a counterspell and half the time I am with BoP. This can be a land hungry deck (Rushing River/Harrow/Rath's Edge/Dust Bowl) so I'm thinking of increasing the land count to 26, adding one more Coast and an Island and Forest each, but not sure of what to take out.
Dust Bowl should be extremely usefule in the new T2 environment due to the Massive popularity of the new painlands <a-hem>. Rath's Edge can still be a great finisher if not a way to break out of a deadlock or rid myself of pesky Apprentices or Disciples.
I really like U/G but I hate Opposition decks, I don't know why,maybe it all has to do with my childhood and being afraid of little squirels <maybe >.
Any thoughts or harch criticism ?

 

[rkoelsch]

I think that brainstorm is good in decks that shuffle themselves alot. so how about this

-1 Rushing River
-4 Brainstorm

+2 Fact or Fiction
+3 Land

You might want to consider taking the rushing river out and putting in Confiscate. If I remember correctly and inportant card for con-troll was treachery.

 

[galtwish]

I played ConTroll for quite a while in T2. With River Boa and Vine Dryad gone, it is a little easier to play, but I think you are discounting Fires burn potential. Here's my version of the deck, taking into account that big monsters ruin your day:

4 Opt
4 Rampant Growth
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Counterspell
4 Temporal Spring
3 Mystic Snake
3 Fact or Fiction
1 Ghitu Fire
4 Wall of Ice
4 Jungle Barrier
2 Mahamoti Djinn
2 Mountian
4 Yavimaya Coast
8 Forest
9 Islands

SB
4 Stinging Barrier
4 Quicksilver Dagger
4 Illusion/Reality
1 Thwart
1 Mystic Snake
1 Ghitu Fire

It still needs a lot of work, maybe more towards the "counter-sliver" school of beatdown and counters. Lots of card choices make building innovative decks difficult (i.e. as T2 has 6 expansions and 7th right now, only the strongest cards survive. Look at T1.), but the addition of certain cards makes this an interesting archetype to re-examine.

Erik

 

[Zadok001]

Neat. I always liked ConTroll and the similar midgame beatdown decks with control elements.

Personally, I absolutely abhore Prohibit. It ranks as one of my LEAST favorite counters. I'd rather have Jaded Response, but really, better to have neither. At four mana, Thwart or Foil is almost always better. Unfortunately, two and three mana counters are at a premium right now. Fortunately, an often overlooked counterspell is available: Rethink. It acts very much like the greatly missed Power Sink, but often actually costs less mana. It's very good early game (especially with mana acceleration), and not too shabby late game. I'd drop the Prohibits for those, personally, but that may just be my vendetta against Prohibit.

 

[Killer Joe]

You got to be kidding me about Prohibit, it counters a ton of 2 cc spells let alone the entire aray of 3cc's and 4cc's, and that's WITHOUT the UU for casting. It's great for the early AND late game. Rethink is a good, solid, and often overlooked card and may warrent further exploration in this deck, thanks for the tip!
RED in the deck, hmm, for a finisher? I don't know. But, axing Brainstrom and using FoF/Opt/AK for digging, is a great idea! I'll experiment more with those.
I've been "Goldfishing" all-day with this thing and "YES", Fires will kill it in a New York second (and that's FAST!), but I need more convincing.
Wall of Ice sure does make sense, in fact, it's become quite the popular card (for an uncommon) down at the shop. I love Jungle Barrier but GEEZSH, it costs alot!
Rampant Growth over Harrow, ....why? Wouldn't you think that Harrow would be giving you land advantage and therefore speed up the tempo of you game and smooth out mana? I like that new one from Apocalypse; Lay of the Land
I think it's called. It's a Sorcery for <G> the allows you to search your library for a basic land of your choice and puts it in your hand, didn't play a land this turn? Play this card and put that land into play, all for the cost of one tiny green morsel. I know my BoP's are vulnerable, so an alternate choice may be needed.
Okay, not having at least 10 counter magic cards "...makes me about as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs" <Michael J. Fox -from some sappy movie>. I's gots ta have more than just 4x Counterspell and 3x Snake Counters!
Dominate, this is a good card, always has been. Confiscate is way too expensive and that new Ench. Creature that gives it +2/+2? or something like that? Nah, I'll take Dominate any day.
I'll tell ya what, I'll take this pile-o-heap down to the shop this Tuesday, and see how it goes.
Thanks for the interesting suggestions!

 

[Sammy Dead-O]

Definitely try Rethink, and don't overlook Exclude. Running 4 (as I'm attempting in my CounterElf deck) might be a mistake, but...well, it can be incredibly helpful (against the right deck, of course).

 

[galtwish]

Rampant Growth puts a basic land into play for 1G. It ramps you up just as fast as Harrow, but doesn't give you the mana that turn. It is strictly superior to Harrow against any deck with counterspells, as the sacrifice of Harrow is part of the casting cost. Jungle Barrier is a meaty body, and with the Growths it can come out on turn 3. The deck is meant to take advantage of the low CC spells (Growth, Opt, AK) by casting two cards a turn as early as possible, while rendering the opponents tempo/win conditions suboptimal with huge Walls, Temporal Spring/Rampant Growth tempo changing and card drawing.

A beatdown deck with Skyfolk and Temporal Springs might be good.

Erik