03.01.02  - Howdy!
Been having alot of mana trouble with my new deck. I was wondering if you could tell me what type/amount of mana i should have

Card listings are

3 absorbs
4 birds of paradise
4 counterspells
3 fact or fictions
3 iridescent angels
4 memory lapse(may change out for another counter, not sure)
4 mystic enforcers
4 Syncopate
4 Teferis Moats
3 Worships
4 Aether burst

Pretty much use counters/mystics to protect me till i get 5 mana for the moat/worship then when the angel gets on the board its all over 99% of the time unless a person is holding a WoG for some reason. Anyways thanks ahead of time for any help you can offer.

Azalin
Steven wilson
www.saecula.com

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This fix is simple... you've got Green in your B/W control deck silly!  Get rid of it!!

There, mana's all better isn't it?  Just yank those Birds and Enforcers and you're good to go!  Replacements are easy to come by, Meddling Mage and Spectral Lynx would be good choices for creatures if you're set on the Worship idea.  I personally think Iridescent Angel/Worship is groovy but not necessary... the Angel is good enough all by her lonesome and there's plenty of goods besides Worship to keep you alive.

Speaking of keeping alive... tired of all the weenie decks running tons of 1-2 drops that burn you out by like turn 5 that have popped up since Odyssey and Torment?  I've got a funny way to play a control deck that can survive all that early damage... Life Gain!!  =)


Hello?

For those of you that didn't disconnect after seeing mention of playing life gain, I appreciate it!  I can understand why people may be inclined to do so, after all you'd have to be insane to recommend life gain in constructed play.  Well I may indeed be insane, but hear me out ...

All these r/g sligh-type decks do an excellent job of doing what they're meant to do... use all their resources to do 20 damage to the opponent ASAP.  But what if you could somehow actually live past those first few turns?  You'd be guaranteed to win 90% of the time as these decks tend to run out of gas or "fizzle" as they don't have much of a mid or late game!

So exactly how do you accomplish living past the first 5 turns versus these decks?  Life gain I say!!

Still don't believe me?  Here look for yourself:

4 Obsessive Search
4 Life Burst
2 Compulsion
4 Counterspells
4 Absorb
4 Syncopate
1 Dismantling Blow
4 Reviving Vapors
4 Wrath of God
2 Rout

1 Iridescent Angel
1 Millstone

4 U/W Pain Lands
4 U/W Tap Lands
8 Plains
9 Islands

All that life gain, and it's all instant speed!  It's all cheap and effective too... which will help you stay alive versus any early onslaught.  Once the opponent has dumped all his weenies and his hand is empty, Wrath of God is pretty much game.  12 counters is a ton... especially when you have life gain and 6 sweepers.  By playing patiently and only countering REAL bombs you should be able to stop anything the opponent might be able to put together in the mid-late game.  Then it's just a matter of time before you either Mill them out of cards or just attack them 4 times with the Angel.

I really like Compulsion.  It's obviously gonna make late game Obsessive Searches kick butt.  Compulsion is also good in the mirror match or versus another control deck as it only cost 1U so it can hit the table before they can counter it!  Compulsion does a nice job of cycling otherwise worthless cards in certain matchups like Wrath or Dismantling Blow.

Just be careful to protect your 2 lone roads to victory in the Angel and Millstone.  If your opponent can deal with them (if your clumsy) you may be in a world of hurt.  You may luck out versus another control deck and deck them even without Millstone since they'll prolly use Fact or Fiction to burn thru their library for you!  Of course if they don't know your deck they may just concede when they see your life total around 40-50 points!!  ;)

Hope this helps... have fun!
Aaron