Note: Please mark decks as "Premium" if you use Premium cards in your deck builds. Thank you.

If I left anything out or you see any errors please let me know.

Source: Atharva's Decklists & Strategies Thread

I just won a game with this deck I just made. Had both Charmbreakers out and went infinite. Every turn Time Warp + Spider Spawning.

"Time Traveller" (no premiums)
4 Golgari Guildgate
4 Swamp
4 Island
2 Mountain
7 Forest
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1 Time Warp
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4 Necromancer's Assistant
4 Gravedigger
3 Rescue from the Underworld
2 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Shadowborn Demon
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2 Charmbreaker Devils
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4 Elvish Visionary
4 Satyr Wayfinder
4 Cultivate
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Spider Spawning
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4 Traveler's Amulet


My only regret is that I had to cut Guard Gomazoa.

edit: Just won against U/W.
Funny thing about Chasm Skulker, its tokens have islandwalk. So cheap! Its a good thing I managed to avoid killing it the whole game.

On second thought maybe this deck doesn't even need Time Warp. I hadn't meant for it but returning Spider Spawning with Charmbreaker every turn is crazy! A GBR version of this deck might be more ideal.

Well this idea comes from a discussion in the grixis thread, both myself and Hakeem both wanted to test a green splash for ground assault as it is possibly the best removal spell in the game.



The main reason why a deck like this works is mana efficiency, using my mana better than you use yours. It is a simple theory and can be used in a couple of different ways. The first is to use all of your mana every turn, an example of that would be my RDW, you tap out turns 1 to 5 and aim to kill them before they get going.

This deck aims to utilise the other side of mana efficiency, I will trade 1 for 1 with my opponent but my answers are cheaper than their threats.

Shock will usually kill a 2 or 3 drop, dissolve will be countering a 4+ drop, same goes for ground assault and anger of the gods can trade with multiple spells. So what do we do with all of this extra mana, well we draw cards of course, think twice, inspiration and even traumatic visions make sure we do not stumble and that we are use our extra mana to stay ahead in resources.

A lot of our spells have multiple modes too, perfect for the early or late game. Resounding thunder, traumatic visions, banefire, treasure find and obelisk of Alara allow us to have options vs aggro or control. Even ground assault can be a shock in the early game or does a great murder impression in the late game.

In the grixis deck we had sphinx bone wand. We can easily play obelisk here and have more versatility.

Speaking of obelisk of Alara, the card is amazing and should be in every control deck. It does everything from keeping you alive to finding more gas to even winning the game. I have been very impressed with the card.

The key card that makes this mana work is traumatic visions. It is very important early but also gives us 7 hard counters.

Void snare is our catch all, it gives us an out to anything.

Then we have Kozilek as the ultimate finisher plus getting all the burn spells shuffled back in the deck helps close out the game. You can even discard him to the obelisk if needed.

The demons are important as they provide a lot of value and are important for grabbing key cards in a pinch. Kozilek and titan are also great value even if they die immediately

The removal suite is very diversified. This is helped by the utility of demon and treasure find. It means we have an answer to almost everything.

Kozilek is a creature.

All jokes aside, though, I can't wait to get online and test this list. Very productive brewing session we just had, IMO.

And please capitalize the P!

Pretty unique looking list guys. I'll throw it together and get to bashin

Any testing help is appreciated, let us know how it goes.

Fixed, they were my notes from before our chat.

Mortivore, let us know how you get on. I think we are pretty close to a very good deck with this list. I just need to make sure the mana is ok. From there it can be tweaked based on the meta.

Our mana sources are as follows:

2
14
8
14
7

Of our 25 lands, only 12 enter the battlefield tapped. Looks good to me.

Esper artifacts kept the board clear taking minimal (2) damage. Inferno Titan closes the game out with enough counters to ensure my opponent casted nothing after my Titan hit

Gruul battledriver type deck was time for good ol mana screw. Took (8) in one attack then denied any further board presence. Scary for moment but a win nonetheless

Goblins tough early game having to spot remove instead of sweeping. Goblins dumps hand is unsuccessful then leaves me to pick apart the ai

Only three games but from my small test sample I can tell I'm playing with a smooth beast. I was concerned about being slowed down by the abundance of shards but my concern proved unfound as I tore through my opponents with relative ease. Control piles are most enjoyable and as I was playing I couldn't help but think of 14's Dodge and burn keeping mana open at all times if only to bluff a counterspell. Phantom card advantage is my favorite

I'm running to dinner but I'll play some more later on. I warn you that not one of my opponents felt like sticking around to the end which seems par for control piles. It was pretty fun though

This is pleasing news because Monk and I discussed individual card choices for about an hour before we had to build a functional manabase (which is arguably the most important part of deck construction).

Smooth is good.

Mortivore I can't thank you enough for testing this as neither me or Hakeem can due to the 360 bug.

I'm happy it is running smooth, like Hakeem said it took us over an hour of discussion to put the deck together. We then spent a fair amount of time putting the mana base together.

I'm playing some single-player to whet my appetite and the deck feels really good. Traumatic Visions is amazing. Control decks want to hit land drops and have permission spells and Visions fulfills both roles.

Cycling Resounding Thunder is pretty broken, too.

Do you guys feel that tribute is really needed here as a 1 of? Maybe the 4th inspiration could be better overall here?

I mean I see that there is plenty of removal for it to be effective often enough for life gain. But still?

It's nice to have a toolbox when you're including Rune-Scarred Demons and Treasured Find. Having access to an Edict is nice and being able to either tutor or reuse it is amazing. Certain cards require specific answers so it's nice to have them in your deck.

Also, don't forget that in addition to Think Twice and Inspiration we can draw cards by cycling Visions and Thunder as well as by casting Kozilek. This deck has plenty of draw power so adding the last Inspiration doesn't really add much. If anything, this deck probably could overdraw its hand.

There are certain cards we can't answer very well, terra stomper being one of them. It is nice to have an out to it. Also we wanted another spell to gain life in addition to the obelisk. Tribute fits in nicely. If anything tribute could be a 2 of but I like 1 for now.

Edit, I have added a bit more to the deck description, just to explain more theory behind it.

Great, either way I really like it. I posted a similar type of build a while ago in Jeskai that I would love input on or discussion on tweaking it too.

I can't seem to hit removal when I need it in this deck... early game I'm just getting spanked by arggo.... I'm going to remove 2 counters and play with some other cards... I dunno could be my shuffle luck tonight also

I've been playing really well with this deck. Removal usually there when I need it. Even for bluered goblin decks. I tend to be burning ALL my removals early. Played a mill deck also. Almost lost because he put my Kozilek back in my hand.. /castagain +counterspell saved me.

Been getting compliments on removal for this deck "The Monkeem Project" Only mana dry once in 8 games so far.

Mmk I'm falling in love with resounding thunder. Against other control decks I see your ten million counterspells and raise you ten million counterspells and uncounterable damage

Played 11 games online with the Project, lost 2. It works, but is not very fun to play. You cast spell after spell after spell and nothing is going on. I play control a lot, but this one is not only long and tedious, it takes a lot of clicking and counting ("OK I, let's count how many assorted lands I have in play... Uhhh something like 10 or 11. Now if I cast this and that, how much mana is left and which colors?") It's just tiring, and most games last 15+ minutes.

Also, played 4 games against an AI Abzan Lifegain and went 1-3.

Edit: on the losses, the first one was a mono-green beatdown with Mycoloth, I was screwed of red mana and just couldn't keep up. The second one was a Naya weenie; his creature-to-land draw ratio was better than my removal-to-other-crap. I died by turn 15+ when I couldn't kill his next 2/1. Funny that most of the damage was done by a Young Wolf, which the opponent saved from my Anger with a Sigil Blessing and then I didn't want to spend two removal on it, because I was kinda short. It only died to the second Anger something like 10+ turns/damage later. To think that a single Wall would have prevented this :-)