[imachampion]

So here is Evan Erwin's decklist that he is running.

Cruel Control

Lands: 26 3 Island 1 Cascade Bluffs 2 Flooded Grove 2 Mystic Gate 4 Reflecting Pool      2 Sunken Ruins 4 Vivid Creek 3 Vivid Grove 3 Vivid Marsh 2 Vivid Meadow

Creatures: 14 3 Fulminator Mage      4 Kitchen Finks 4 Mulldrifter      2 Shriekmaw 1 Nucklavee

Spells: 20 1 Condemn 2 Negate 2 Pyroclasm 3 Bant Charm 1 Firespout 3 Esper Charm 2 Wrath Of God 4 Cryptic Command            2 Cruel Ultimatum

Sideboard: 15 3 Condemn 1 Bant Charm 2 Jace Beleren 1 Makeshift Mannequin 3 Memory Plunder 2 Cloudthresher 1 Cruel Ultimatum 2 Mind Shatter

This looks like it has quite a bit of potential. Not only as a competitive deck...it looks like a pretty good shell for upcoming 5 Color Control decks.

What do you think?

[dute]

My thoughts:

Why is the third Cruel Ultimatum in the SB? In what circumstance do you want to put it in? That is, why not main?

I also think that Swerve could have a place in this deck. If your goal is to resolve Cruel Ultimatum, it's great countermagic that also gives you an extra effect. And the manabase can handle it, though it may take a tweak or two.

I've also found that the four Mulldrifters can be a bit of a problem. I've actually had quite a few instances where between Mulldrifter and the Ultimatum, I end up just discarding 3-4 cards after Ultimatum resolves. That seems suboptimal, to say the least. And though there is some light graveyard recursion in this deck, it's not enough to make dropping a bunch of creatures into the graveyard worth it.

I just started playtesting a very similar deck. So my thoughts about it are in their earliest stages.

[imachampion]

I appreciate the feedback. I am still in the early stages of testing myself...not even enough to recommend changes. Evan Erwin seems to have some pretty good ideas...but they can usually use some tweaking. Continue to post your results.

[MN Nick]

I ran a version of this at FNM last week and went 5/0. My particular version ran Flashfreeze in sideboard and I have to say that it was pretty awesome. With so many people going to multi colored formats, it was like a variable second color counterspell for me all night.

I also mainboarded Ajani Vengeant and found it very much to my liking. He provided me with just enough control at times to lock a game in, and then if he didn't die, bammo, roach lands and drop a Cruel Ultimatum that they cant stop.

One thin I am curious about is running the RGB ultimatum, because that can be brought back with Nucklavee as well and running one copy instead of the three Cruel's I ran might be worth experimenting with.

What didn't work: Pyroclasm. At no point did I even need it, really. I would much rather have had Infest I think. I got caught behind a couple regenerating Trolls that sucked to play around. I really don't know, I never needed it, but I would sideboard it perhaps. I didn't have to run against Kithkin, so that might be a good thing to have. Still, I cant see why someone wouldn't just play Firespout.

Great deck and a lot of fun to play though.

[MN Nick]

Also, running Oona's Grace isn't a bad idea. I ran into a couple late game land drawing pockets that slowed me down.

[Wolfstalker]

seems interesting to play, maybe ill try it out =)

[MN Nick]

Still has nothing to stop faeries. Ran into two decks, one against a good player and one against a player who was average, and really it was just missing something against both of them. I'll have to do some more testing, but it needs a little re-tooling for that match.