Sniper Control (Standard)

To tell you the truth I thought so as well, but when I had him in he was too slow, he didn't do the deck as much good as I thought he might, I took him out and it ran much smoother.

Master of Waves from Theros granting +1/+1 to the element tokens mite make it faster.

Hmmmmm, that's an idea, do you think it's be wasting his ability tho since I have no permanents with blue symbols in them other than the owl? And it's kill me to take any spells out for another creature. I was thinking that x spell that exiles creatures into boars, I can take theirs out and strengthen mine

Now that I think about it Curse if swine will def. be making its presence in this deck when i get them. Anything you else in theros i need to keep an eye out for or consider? For sure i think ill put in magma jet

Gainsay is definitly a sideboard option, Peak Eruption is another possible sideboard card.
Voyage's End and Lightning Strike are mainboard options.
I really like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx too, but I doubt it'd be good in this type of deck.

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Gainsay is definately going in the sideboard. Voyages end i will consider, scry and return is tempting. I was looking at lightning strike instead of shock, weighing the option of 1 drop burn over 2 drop burn with one more point of damage. I really really really want that land, not for this deck but i really want it, haha i dont have enough permanents to use it for in here.

What do you think of trying to get like 2 chain to rocks? idk yet because thats one less spell and another permanent, not to mention if i plan to run curse of the swine i dont know if i will need it.

Shock MUST stay. The power of a turn 1 removal spell out weighs the extra damage of Lightning Strike. If possible,try run both.

Chain to the Rocks is an awesome spell, but doesn't fit this type of deck. Mostly because it won't trigger your key card's (Sniper) ability. M14's Celestial Flare fits better, though it requires 2 white :?

hmmmm, good point, I know I'm trying to get 2 more cyclonic rifts to replace the 2 disperse i have in here. Shock will most likely stay then, now I gotta think what 2 cards to take out if i run curse of the swine, its getting harder to take stuff out

I've also thought about azorious charm, what you think?

Azorius Charm's "draw a card" and "put target attacking or blocking creature on top of its owner's library" will hep a lot.

if you concentrate more on Guttersnipe doing damage and control, removing Dragonshift and Molten Birth will open spots for Curse of the Swine and Azorius Charm (and Lightning Strike). I personally see the Dragonshift and Molten Birth 'combo' as a little gimmicky, a mass removal Spell (Supreme Verdict?) would work better. Also some Mutavault is good in most control decks I've gone against.

I find our conversation weird. I (almost) never play blue, and by extension control. All my suggestions come from my experience playing against control decks :p

Haha, I never play control, it's my first try at a serious control build so I know your feeling haha. I wanna keep at least 2 Dragonshifts, they've been too helpful for killing flyers and for a wick 6 damage with guttersnipe, maybe remove all the molten birth and 1 dragonshift to make room for azorius charm, and I was thinking perhaps out with 1 negate and mmaaaybbbeeee 1 shock for 2 curse of the swine but I'm not sure yet.

I have done serious thinking about supreme verdict, I might try to get at least 1 for this deck.

I'm an aggro player at heart, so playing this has been a challenge haha

Seems we're brothers in arms (I'm an aggro player too) :p

I wouldn't drop below 3 Shocks. I'd even put the 4th in the sideboard with 2 to 3 Electrickery. White weenie's creature base tend to have 1 to 2 toughness (before the pump comes out) and Humans tend to follow the White Weenie pattern. I think Humans will be a big thing in Theros.

yea, im def going to make sure at least 3 shocks are in here, ill probably keep all 4 and take from another area to add anything else in. This deck as is has done great in the play test, it controls the field extremely well, and the funny thing is guttersnipe hasnt been the one taking wins for me as much as i thought, people go all out to make sure he isnt on the field and half the time ill let them kill him and not waste a counter (half the time only). awaken the ancient, judges familiar, dragonshift, and boros charm have taken the win for me 70 percent of the time, if guttersnipe stays on the field then he easily takes a kill for me haha, counter you spell and 2 damage, return to hand 2 damage, put on top of library and 2 damage ha


Yea im gonna have to think about my sideboard, electrickery will be there for sure

Glad to see you've had some good playtests. I find the best thing you can do with a new deck is playtest it to see what actually does and does not work.

I think i might need some better counters, negate has held me back on a few games, I needed to counter master biomancer, and i had 2 negates, and an izzet charm. I was wondering if taking 2 negates out for 2 cancels would be a good idea. I was also thinking i cant wait to get curse of the swine because of moments like that. so maybe waiting for theros to put in 2 or 3 curse of the swine will be a good idea instead of messing with it now.

the biggest problems i had was with master biomancer, because then i had to counter every creature even the chumps that dont deserve it.
And blood baron was a BIG problem, if they sneaked one of those into play then my game was screwed up. and even curse of the swine wont help me there, im glad i have cyclonic rift to overload for messes like that.

This situation is exacly what sideboarding is for. Master Biomancer decks are generrally creature based (like most of standard), so until Theros comes out, Essence Scatter will be a nice filler for Gainsay.

yep, i need to get on that sideboard haha

Interesting, i hadnt even thought about adding a planeswalker, that is something to consider, i'd have to get that chandra, i dont own her yet. I considered turn and burn but went against it, i have cyclonic rift and azorius charm to return and plenty of counters, not to mention when i get curse of the swine, thank you tho for your opinion

Chandra seems very good in your deck. Not only does it 'draw' you an extra card each turn, it will help you lots against control which seems to be your weakest matchup (you can't answer their threats and they can easily kill yours). If you want to have a bit of fun, try out Epic Experiment. With half of your deck being instants, it will hit 1.5 targets if you cast it for 3 on turn 4. An ideal play would be;

T1 Judge's Familiar
T2 Instant/Sorcery (kill a threat or something)
T3 Guttersnipe
T4 Epic Experiment for 3. They take 2 (from guttersnipe) and then as I said before you get 1.5 activations (those spells, then in turn trigger guttersnipe for 0-6 damage).

I would also reduce the number of counterspells and other than bouncing and then negate, you have no way of dealing with noncreature permanents. I would look into some sort of removal for that. Perhaps add some more removal such as magma jet, it will be amazing, not to mention scrying seems excellent in this deck so try and add some scrylands.

The only thing about chandra is that she wont give me card advantage, ill be exiling the top card and chances are that it'll be something to control like a counter and it'll be useless to me since i cant cast it after my turn.

Epic experiment sounds kind of fun actually, I dont have alot of burns so it might end up being 3 counters and 1 useful card so not sure about it either unless i add more cards beneficial to it like burn.

I'd like to replace disperse with 2 more cyclonic rifts when i get ahold of them, but they are my non creature permanent control, i can return it and counter it when they try to play it again.

The scry lands are too slow, coming into play tapped will put me a turn behind that i need to stop the opponents from going off. Magma jet is definitely i want to add in, i also am thinking about curse of the swine.

Thank you for the advice

Definetly play rift over disperse as they can both hit nonland permanents. I would also reduce the number of counterspells such as negate and maybe a few copies of syncopate to accomodate epic experiment and magma jet. Adding more burn and having less counters makes Chandra better as well. I know you might not always reveal a card you want with it but it is still good. Chandra is also burn to the face and can kill one toughness creatures or deal that one extra damage allowing your shock to kill 3 toughness creature. I would also add Lightning Strike.

Probably just take out 2 negates. Also, I don't think you have enough creatures to make dragonshift good. Even if you did, Dragonshift is almost always bad. It actually downgrades your Awaken the Ancients.

Ok thanks, I went with 1 negate and 1 dragonshift, dragonshift does come in alot of handy with guttersnipe and judges familiar, but you are right that i dont have alot to run with it so i took one out. Still wanna keep two in there at the moment and see how it does.

What you think about replacing both dragonshifts with assemble the legions instead?

That seems alot better. Assemble is amazing against control and it produces bodies that your deck needs. If your mana can handle it, go for it.

I've had an opponent ulti Jace, Architect of Thought to fetch Assemble from his own library (forget what he fetched from mine). I died soon after.

Also, Cyclonic Rift and Mizzium Mortars mite help with board control until Assemble comes out.
A few Detention Sphere wouldn't hurt, even if only in the sideboard.

I think assemble will go great in here, They will definitely be the better option to replace dragonshift with and a feared force once its on the field, I agree that I need a better presence on the board since I wont be able to keep every creature off the board every game and assemble the legion can give me the necessary presence fairly quick for a control deck.

Dedwards- I am def. trying to get 1 or 2 more cyclonic rifts and maybe another mortars, I agree it's some of the best board control in standard that wont hurt my side. Detention sphere I've thought about, they are certainly hard to get ahold of if you don't just order them online, I'm not 100% convinced it'll be as good as cyclonic or mortars in here tho, I might be wrong, especially against these new gods that are indestructible so I'll have to consider it and see if i can find any.

Problem with basing such decks arounf a creature is it limits the type of spells that can be played. Cyclonic Rift, for example, actually does make for a good pseudo mass removal that will not remove Guttersnipe. Mizzium Mortars is arguably better, but Rift can 'remove' creatures with toughness higher than 4. I guess the use of these would be up to personal preference though. Rift is an instant and can make for interesting combat response :p

I havent gotten any theros yet so i havent so i havent considered too many options from there yet, I've thought about curse of the swine and i did see swan song and that seemed interesting as well. as for the scry counter I doubt I'll add it, it's just too slow, I dont like it costinng 3 mana, 2 of which are blue making it alot more constricting for me. I will keep the owls because It's a nice turn 1 drop flyer for me that lets me play guttesnipe turn 3 fairly safely without concern of removal.

The chimera is pretty cool but I don't want to get too much away from the spell heaviness of this deck with too many creatures, I think awaken the giant, guttersnipe, and assemble the legion are plenty for win conditions, not to mention boros charm does a nice 4 damage punch too.

The land base of upping tthe duals to 4 each would probably help, but i only have 3 of each right now and I havent had a problem in a game yet of getting my 1 white mana, since everything with white only has 1 in its cost.

Electrickery is gonna be a sideboard card for me, against weenie and tokens i'd put it in but i dont think it's worth a main decking, and I'm not fond of the 1 drop 1 damage scry, does too little, scry is cool but if I'm gonna scry I'd rather go with magma jet for the scry 2, and magma jet is a huge consideration for me, just not sure what i'd take out for it, it might be a sideboard option for when i face aggro decks that come out too quickly for me to counter.

Thank you for your advice I'll take it all into consideration though

Dedwards- you have it right on it limits what i can do, most my spells have to protect and help guttersnipe, I cant afford to lose him with something like supreme verdict, everything had to be counters for the most part with some creature control to keep me alive, the mortars and rift will be my best friend in here. I'm glad I made this deck with awaken the giant and now assemble the legion, so guttersnipe isnt the lonely win condition, wouldnt want a slaughter games to cause me to lose.

Talking about Supreme Verdict, instant speed indestructable would be good for that and in these colours, Boros Charm fits perfectly, but if you feel you need more Indestructible, Rootborn Defenses mite be worth considering, especially with Asseble now being an apotion. Still think a Jace or 3 would fit in here nicely :p I've found Gidion to be a nice destraction and I think Chandra's 0 ability could help as a pseudo 'draw', just need to wach the timing.

Yea boros charm is one of my favorite cards in this deck, it does so much to help it, doublestrike awaken the ancient, gives everything indestructible for mass removal prevention, and that 4 damage to a player is a huge shot, especially with guttersnipe out. =] I doubt Ill add any rootborn defenses in just because I'd have to take out something important if i did and that isnt completely necessary, i might tho try and add in a 4th boros charm. Ohhhh jace, he is pretty nice for control, i just dont know if I'd want him for sure or not, one I'd have to acquire him and two i think i like guttersnipe, assemble the legion, and awaken the ancient to get the job done, I'm kinnnddaaaa find of gideon, he'd be a really neat card in this deck. But for chandra idk, I'm just not too fond of this chandra, her ability is neat to say the least but i dont wanna end up with too many dead pseudo draws, especially if i cant use them and its a waste.

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I'm not yet sure how well it'll work, but I'm wanting to try the new scry spells along side Chandra to add a little more control over her 0 ability, problem is getting more of her to test it with. Last I checked, she's sold out from any online store I'd purchase from.

maybe with some scry yea, I can see that being more beneficial for her, you'd have to run 4 magma jets, pretty sure scry 2 is the highest theros went. And ya, finding her online will be hard, same thing for cyclonic rifts and mizzium mortars

Personally I'm not fond of permanently animating a land. Only replacements I can suggest are cards I've seen used against me. Mutavault and Haunted Plate Mail are ofven in the same deck (gets arounf Sepreme Verdict) and sometimes Assemble the Legion. All 3 are quite dangerious if the correct removal spell isn't played and that's only if said removal isn't countered. Best I can suggest for now.

Haunted plate mail, thats brilliant! Im going to get 2 of them, great suggestion! Having my land at risk scared me, granted a 7/7 haste for 4 was awesome but I just cant take that risk

I decided to sideboard haunted plate mail for when facing control decks. I main boarded spellheart chimera, decided he could be a game winner in here, just keep him in my hand til like turn 5, 6, or 7 and drop him out as like a 5/3 or more, this gives me the advantage of dropping him with mana open to protect him and hitting for big damage next turn. =p

Forgot about the Chimera :|
It's actually a perfect fit here.