Hey guys I have been looking at ways that control can try to keep up in tempo with aggro decks in the meta and I was looking at brain in a jar which has the ability to not only save us on mana cost of our spells but deliver instant speed salt via field wipes on our opponents turn. I realized how strong brain in a jar into yahenni's expertise into oath of liliana was as it took out all the small creatures + sacced a vehicle that had been crewed all for 1 mana. The same could be said about using it into baral's expertise into another spell, giving you huge plays on your opponents turn for 1 mana while keeping stuff open for counter spells. I am not sure which colours operate best for this as planar outburst from white deals with all creatures and red has some nice sorcery spells as well, but I wanted to see what you guys thought about using brain in a jar and making a deck centered around it.

My issue with that is it is easily removed by artifact removal that being tossed around and it is a 2 of card, on the other hand I feel like the decks would do good without it but it would still enhance the decks if it came out earlier on in the game. A dream type play would be getting to cast fatal push, telling time, any 3 cmc counter, 4 mana draw spell or field wipe, 5 mana field wipe. The other argument for brain in a jar is it eliminates colour screw for the card you are casting giving you an easy way to cheat out some spells with a bad initial hand. Let me know what you guys think about the card and what deck ideas you have based around it.

Arti hate is big right now. Plus its a rare so building a consistent deck around it is borderline impossible. That said, I think its seen some high level play in Esper (WUB) control. Maybe use it in a deck with PWs and the new 2-drop flyer that adds counters to things to build it up faster? The GB snake might be interesting to try with it, too, tho I think Esper or maybe Jeskai are the best choices for spell based control.

Grixis is the way if you're wanting spell based shenanigans, be it Brain or Dynavolt.

You should stick with that Mono Blue deck, I wanna see it in action.

I used it in my esper control before kaladesh (see showdown vol. 3) and it was absolutely great. Then with aggro becoming dominant i could not afford it anymore, because it was a bad top deck, on the draw against aggro or with a bad hand it got stuck in my hand, and even playing it on turn 2 sometimes i needed to use all my mana with a counter or removal and i could not tick it up losing a turn for it.
That said i love this card, it was insane in control mirror. Fatal push is a good removal to play along with jar, since you have cards for any turn of jar and can help using it against aggro. I will test it again in my esper control.
Your worries are understandable, artifact hate is common but removals don't stop us to play baral or little jace in control. Maybe a control deck is good enough without it, but it is worth a try.

I have a question about how Part the Waterveil would act, if cast on an opponent's turn with Brain in a Jar.

I believe you just get your own turn, and the spell is wasted.

Nope. You'd just get the extra turn before your regular one.

Thanks for the replies guys I am gonna test it out to see how it runs and I'll let you know. BBB I doubt my fliers will soar above the competition, I will likely plummet against vehicle aggro but I made that deck to have some fun and that is what magic is for damnit! Thanks for the support man .

Ah, okay... there is another extra turn card that would fail, I forget which one, sorry about that.

if it is worded "take an extra turn after this one" it won't fail, now the red ones like warrior's oath would only give you one turn but that's for obvious reasons

Yeah, that's the kind of wording, for some reason, I thought we were working with.

I've been playing with a Brain deck for a while now and it's probably my favorite versus deck. It wins a very high percentage of games, but the only drawback is that the games tend to take forever (20 minutes on average, I would say, but I've had games go closer to 40).

Contrary to what other here are suggesting, I recommend not going three colors and staying just U/B. I used to run a Grixis version but the deck is very greedy for double black (Grasp, Languish, Yehenni's Expertise, etc.) and double blue (big Jace, counterspells) and mana issues were a real problem. The U/B version is much more focused on pure control, with only a few wincons. The only reason I would consider trying Grixis again is because of Dark Intimations. I would even consider splashing red just for that card and will probably try that out in the near future to see how it works.

The main wincon in the deck is Rise from the Tides. The basic idea is to stall with your plethora of removal, sweepers, and counterspells until you get a Brain on 5 counters, and then cast Rise on the opponent's end step and attack for lethal with a 10+ zombies. If you can't find a Brain (happens pretty often with only 2 in the deck), casting Rise on your turn is also an option, but not an ideal one. The secondary wincon is Thing in the Ice, but it's not as reliable because, being the only creature in the deck, it tends to eat removal pretty quickly. But this deck flips Thing very easily and if you can protect it and/or the opponent has no answer for it, it gets you free wins occasionally. It also makes for a nice early blocker against aggro.

The key card for fueling the deck is Pieces of the Puzzle. It lets you find the answers you need while also filling your graveyard for a big Rise finisher.