In the past whenever I’ve played an Emperor format I liked to go with UR Control like Counter-Hammer or Counter-Phoenix for the Emperor. The burn for creature spot removal and the blue to counter anything I couldn’t burn. For the Lieutenants I liked them to play some kind of GW aggro-control with life-gain spells and both spot removal and mass creature removal in the form of STP’s and Routs (to play Rout like an instant is awesome!). Their creatures can be like Blinding Angels, Exalted Angel or Eternal Dragon. The Blinding and Serra Angels were the choices back in the day.
As of late, I have been liking the power of UBR control. I have built several common decks and have had much success. One of the decks used all Mirrodin/Darksteel commons with Affinity common critters. It’s very good! So here’s my current Emperor deck. This is loosely based on the old “Nether-Go” deck from several years ago.
UBR “Emperor” deck
Land (24)
1 Crosis’s Catacombs
8 Island
1 Keldon Necropolis
1 Mirrodin’s Core
2 Mountain
1 Reflecting Pool
4 Salt Marsh
1 Shivan Reef
1 Underground River
4 Urborg Volcano
Creatures (2)
2 Nether Spirit
Spells (35)
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Barbed Lightning
4 Counterspell
2 Decree of Pain
2 Fact or Fiction
4 Fire/Ice
3 Isochron Scepter
1 Mind’s Eye
3 Prophetic Bolt
2 Suffocating Blast
3 Terminate
4 Undermine
The removal spells are just killer, Terminate being, IMHO, the best common spot removal there is (Diabolic Edict is a very close second but not good enough for multi-player). A Terminate imprinted on a Scepter is just devastating to your opponents. Fire/Ice is another Scepter candidate as it can be either a card drawer and save you from some creature damage or just plain ‘ole plinks to your opponent’s heads or small creatures. A Sceptered up Counterspell or Accumulated Knowledge is good but I don’t recommend it for this deck (but at least it’s an option).
Other spells in this deck are key also, Prophetic Bolt is a classic finisher or getting them closer to being finished off as well as searching for that second bolt or Barbed Lightning. Barbed Lightning is cool because not only do you get rid of a mid-sized creature but it’s mother takes three, too. Suffocating Blast SUCKS! But in this format it’s a “Two-fer” (Two cards for one) It says, “Um, NO and bye-bye.” to a key spell and a mid-sized critter. Fact or Fiction is huge for this deck as just about every card you draw is exceptional plus it could put a Nether Spirit right into the graveyard which means right into play for free at the beginning of your next upkeep. Mind’s Eye is a monster card drawer but having more than one would be tough for me to justify (it’s actually THEE 61st. card in the deck and may be removed).
Decree of Pain, what can I say? If the board is getting too hectic for me or my comrades to handle then I need to sweep the board via cycling or hard casting (in which case I get cards, too).
The two Nether Spirits are really a ‘token’ gesture to my fellow Magic players that I DON’T hate creature spells. Actually, they make nice colorless damage via Keldon Necropolis.