Countering Scepter

by clashingsword on 02 January 2014

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (17 cards)

Enchantments (1)

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How to Play

Board control: Scepter+Silence or Arcane Lab+Scepter+any counter
Draw engine: Scepter+Accumulated Knowledge/Brainstorm/Azorius Charm or Honden
Finisher: Words of War

Deck Tags

  • Azorius
  • Control
  • Legacy
  • Creatureless

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

1
Like

This deck has been viewed 763 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

429070

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Not Legal in Modern
  • Not Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Countering Scepter

Pretty good, but what if they squeak out a 1 or 2 drop and one of your 3 creature removal spells isn't on hand?

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Posted 03 January 2014 at 10:38

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Maybe take out the two Shrine for 2 more Brainstorm.

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Posted 03 January 2014 at 11:03

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Here is what I see could help. Make it more red heavy. You have 11 white cards and only 2 red Cards. Cards like Reverberate to copy spells would be nice. Lighting bolt for Scepter. Here me out, I think this would be a killer and quick red/blue deck, running white only for Silence.

Add:
3 Brainstorm. You want 4 copies of this in your deck. With Words of War in play, Brainstorm does 6 damage for 1 blue mana. That is awesome!

4 Burning Inquiry. Same as Brainstorm. With Words of War in play, it does 6 damage for 1 red mana.

Add Lighting Bolts and Reverberate (I would only run 8 counterspell cards, I mean, you have Scepter to copy one of them if need be. 14 counterspell cards is too many).

Dream hand for me would be:.. 1st turn Lightning bolt for 3 damage. 2nd turn. Mana Leak (Mana leak is awesome in multicolor, Good job) their crap. 3rd turn Words of War. 4th turn. I would play these cards (considering a perfect world where I played 3 mountains and 1 island during my 4 turns). Brainstorm. Burning Inquiry. Reverberate the Brainstorm. Your opponent was at 17 life and just received 18 damage on turn 4! Game over.

And why run only 2 Words of War if it is your win card? I would run 4.

I like your deck. Don't take my critique too roughly. I liked your deck. I just looked at it and it gave me ideas how Words of War would be very deadly in a Blue/Red deck.




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Posted 03 January 2014 at 11:31

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Hey guys, thanks a million for your critique!

@ Jessie: The funny thing is, this deck used to be blue/red and I wanted to bring in white just because I love the Scepter/Silence combo. So I tried blue/white... but I like your idea of a blue/red deck with only a hint of white.

Your strategy of playing the deck sounds more aggressive than what I imagined when this deck was constructed. Not saying this isn't something to consider, victory in turn 4 sounds great, but I think you're forgetting that activating Words of War costs one colorless mana every time you would draw a card. So, if you want to use it with a Brainstorm, it costs 3 plus one blue mana. So, I think you have to wait a little longer, play it safe, to actually make enough damage for the kill. Hence why Words of War aren't or weren't so important up until now in the early game (hence, I played only two, maybe 3 would be a good compromise). In the beginning you just don't have your draw engine ready and usually enough work with the opponent's creatures.

Even still, I think there's no way around 4 Brainstorms, just because it's handy in the beginning and in an extreme situation, you can use it with Words of War (thanks for that combo, I never thought of it as the deck has other draw engines). A down point would only be that you empty your hand, which is something you don't want in a counter deck.

Burning Inquiry: The same thing... I just don't think there's enough mana for the quick kill, it would also cost 3R. Plus, in a normal situation this won't help - other than Brainstorm, which has a nice sorting and drawing effect.

Lightning Bolts, yes, of course. Only thing I thought about was if in this deck you might wanna go for Magma Jet? Imprinted on the Scepter, you get the side effect of Scry two - every turn. Or: Fire // Ice. You'd have an option every time you cast it from the scepter. Or, if no scepter AND no red mana is around, it's still useful. In a perfect mana world, I'd play Lightning Helix (as in my other Scepter deck http://www.mtgvault.com/clashingsword/decks/lightning-scepter/).

I would shy away from Reverberate just because it costs RR, although I think it's a cool idea. But the deck has already three colors, it just brings in an extra risk of not having the mana for it. Or do you think it would be worth it?

Maybe 14 counterspell cards is too many.... up until now, this was a deck that played safety first, also because it runs no creatures of its own, which I want to keep this way because that just makes so many of my opponent's cards useless.

Anyway thanks so much for your input, I'll work out another version soon!

@ d3Necromaster: 3 Detention Spheres, 2 (imprinted) Swords to Plowshares + 1 (imprinted) Azorius Charm should deal with the first turns' drops (if the won't be countered, which of course is the ideal case). Plus 2 Words of War, but as I said more in the later game.

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Posted 03 January 2014 at 15:59

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It might also be a good idea to make it more blue-heavy generally. The lightning bolts AND the silences are all possible blockers in the beginning if you can't play them. Echoing Truth would stall things, especially if imprinted...

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Posted 03 January 2014 at 16:47

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Oh crap, you are right, I didn't see the extra mana cost on Words of War. My Bad. My example would not work, my bad. Sometimes i fail to read all the cards fine print. lol.

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Posted 03 January 2014 at 21:10

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