I'm having great results with Safe Passage in an aggro flyers / evasion shell (max Cloudfin Raptor, Loyal Pegasus, Triton Shorestalker etc.).

It's basically Time Warp, except cheaper and you can run four of them. It also works exceptionally well with Bident of Thassa, as you can force their team to attack, fog, eat some of their guys, then counterattack for a ton (most likely drawing into another one). I know fog effects are usually terrible, but the extra turn(s) this buys has swung games for me because of all the evasive damage / attack-draw.

Can post a list if you'd like, but I mainly wanted to highlight this one card. MVP.

That sounds reasonable, especially considering it also covers your weakness to Anger of the Gods.

How about something like this ?

12x Island
8x Plains
4x Azorius Guildgate

2x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Squadron Hawk
2x Reprisal
2x Divine Verdict
2x Angelic Edict
2x Planar Cleansing

4x Think Twice
4x Negate
4x Nullify
3x Dissolve
2x Inspiration
1x Time Warp

3x Warmonger's Chariot
1x Elixir of Immortality

Edit.: Chariot is not all that great, but it's the best equipment one can tutor...

Im' testing this ultra-control-very-slow version of Azorius. It seems solid and funny, what do you think about it?

10x Island
9x Plains
4x Azorius Guildgate

3x Lone Missionary
3x Wall of Omens
1x Archaeomancer

1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Resolute Archangel
1x Soul of Ravnica
1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

3x Arrest
3x Divine Verdict
2x Planar Cleansing
3x Negate
3x Nullify
3x Dissolve
3x Voyage's End
4x Think Twice
2x Inspiration

If you play big bombs, you have to play Counterlash
It's just a huge tempo swing when you counter someone's creature on turn 6 and also put down one of your own oversized threats.
With Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, it also lets you draw 4 card as well.

Overall, it's great in a kill-counter-bigthreat deck.
Actually, I would run more Archaeomancer

That card is just way too good in any deck with a big amount of spells.
I'd probably replace the Lone Missionary for more Archaeomancer

You could also run some Cloudshift. It comboes very well with Wall of Omens, Archaeomancer and Resolute Archangel

You will not draw four cards if you cheat out Kozilek with Counterlash because it's not an EtB but a "when you cast" triggered ability. I got a sweet UW list from mobius and made a few small changes, I'll post it later today.

Counterlash says you get to cast the card, so yes you should get the 4 cards off of Kozilek.

Where are all the control builds!?! Here let me help out:
4 x Azorius Guildgate
12 x Island
8 x Plains
3 x Wall of Omens
4 x Lone Missionary
4 x Think Twice
2 x Negate
4 x Nullify
3 x Voyage's End
3 x Dissolve
4 x Archaeomancer
1 x Time Warp
2 x Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 x Angelic Accord
1 x Seance
1 x Bident of Thassa
2 x Roil Elemental
1 x Baneslayer Angel


I can't really take much credit for this deck as its inspired by one a friend of my runs and I took an absolute beating from it. Basically you want to get a Seance and an Angelic Accord on the field. The Seance will bring back creatures like Archaeomancer, Wall of Omens and Lone Missionary which are all advantage basically giving you an extra set of each of those cards. With the Archaeomancer you can got a lot of turns off of a Time Warp while giving Roil Elemental turns to steal creatures and just pound your opponent. With the huge assortment of counter spells you will protect your board position. Voyage's End is there for the scry to help you find the cards you need.

Look at me giving reading lessons when I apparently can't read myself. Whoops, sorry!

It happens to all of us Hakeem. Heck, for the past 2 years I thought Guttersnipe could hit creatures.

Here is the list to which I was alluding:

4 x Azorius Guildgate
11 x Island
10 x Plains

4 x Cloudshift

4 x Think Twice
4 x Voyage's End
3 x Wall of Omens

3 x Guard Gomozoa
3 x Dissolve
2 x Mentor of the Meek

4 x Archaeomancer
2 x Talrand, Sky Summoner

1 x Baneslayer Angel
1 x Time Warp

2 x Planar Cleansing

1 x Sphinx-Bone Wand

1 x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth


There's so much synergy in this deck that it's unreal. The core of the deck is the Archaeomancer plus Cloudshift combo which really lets you abuse Talrand and the Wand.

Don't be afraid to Cloudshift your Walls early because Archaeomancer gets them back, and shifting a Wall with Mentor in play is a two-mana instant-speed Divination. I'm not going to list all the interactions and synergies, but trust me you'll learn them as you play the deck. It's really powerful and a lot of fun.

If you want the original mobius version then sub out the playset of Voyage's End for Brimaz, King of Oreskos and three copies of Reprisal; I don't recommend it though, because Reprisal is a lategame card and is often dead in hand.

I took that out for a spin, and, as expected, it was pretty great. I kind of want to sneak in another wand, but there's not really any fat to trim for it. Maybe Koz, since I've been seeing more people playing creature removal vs artifact removal

You could probably cut the Time Warp; it can win you the game under certain circumstances, but it can also just be Explore. With that said, you really don't need a second Wand because you have the pair of Talrands making a huge army of drakes with Shift plus 'Mancer and Time Warp is great with a bunch of drake tokens on the board.

Yeah, 6 games in, and I've not seen warp once. I did get 2 of the wins with the wand on board, just shifting Archaeomancer over and over again. Really, just another great deck from you!

I wouldn't change a card. Time Warp is such a unique effect and is never dead. It can also let you win from nowhere, I have won a number of times from being dead on board with time warp.. As Hakeem said credit goes to mobius for this one we just made some adjustments.

I would really like to know why you (and others) prefer Voyage's End over Vapor Snag (1 less mana and -1 HP) or even Void Snare (also 1 mana and can be used to bounce stacked Beastmaster's Ascension or enemy Sphinx-Bone Wand)?

Is the Scry really worth it? How do you use it?

Wouldnt some basic removals like Righteous Blow, Banisher Priest or Angelic Edict be better as they provide at least 1 for 1 and not only "tempo"?

Vapor Snag is a wonderful card and very optimal in a aggro build, when it comes to control seeing what is on top of your deck (Scry) and removing it is very valuable information.

For the bounce option, you want it instant speed so you can leave think twice or dissolve open so void snare is out. Although I could see a 3-1 split for versatility. Scry is one of the most important abilities for a control deck especially this version which is almost combo-control. You need to find certain answers to certain situations and the scry improves those chances. Also sometimes you bounce your own creature either before you cleanse or sometimes just to fog repeatedly with archeomancer. Losing 1 life whilst doing this is terrible. Hope that helps.

Hakeem what do you think of 1 void snare instead of 1 voyages end?

Regarding the other removal options, they are not needed, the walls take care of the small threats and cleansing or dissolve deal with the late game threats. But to be honest even if we did need done extra removal the options we have are pretty bad. Righteous blow is to situational, angelic edict is too slow and inefficient and banisher priest whilst being good is not reliable early as we are more heavily blue. Brimaz got cut for the same reason, you don't always get WW really enough. Also priest is not the best with cleansing.

Thanks for the explanations. Makes sense in a control deck.

@monk, I hate the word "sorcery" with every essence of my being. Void Snare gives you versatility, but I haven't seen any non-creature permanents in the metagame that are so threatening that I need to consider it. What targets do you have in mind?