Help crafting a RUG Deck/ A deck to meet my play style

Thanks! I'd like to have a good base deck so I can build and add to it as the next sets come out. Hopefully turn it into a competitive deck half way through Theros. Until then it unfortunately won't see much play. All my friends focus their time on Legacy decks and EDH, which I also need to build, although in multiplayer games I know I prefer running extort and similar effects that target all opponents at once. I'm thinking of making Jarad my commander for that.

Yeah. I've looked into legacy/modern, and while I can see some cool things to do, I just don't have the cards for it and it would cost too much.

I am still a little confused as to exactly how that deck works. I just watched the final game from the Dallas open where the deck wins and how he was playing it. He had a lot of card draw, which is good and I get that, and I can see how all the creature removal/creature damage cards work. I'm a little confused on how he was using aetherling. It looked like he would pump and make unblockable to swing for damage, but it also looked like he would exile him during his own turn, as well as during the other players turn?

If you're seriously interested in the deck reddit/r/spikes has some good posts about the UWR deck to research.

In ken's deck the win cons are a little lite imo.  I think i'd want to see at least one more Ætherling in the deck, maybe a 2nd assemble.  Ral Zarek might be good in it too.  Ken even said in a post on reddit that the deck was a meta call and that he'd like to make some changes to it. 

To make the point, my friend net decked the exact deck the next FNM and had a match where he actually lost because he couldn't draw a win condition

Putting your own touch on a deck is usually good, but be careful and remember that these guys that build these decks usually have a really good understanding of the game and it'd be hard to do much better than they have.  It's like that old adage, "someone else has already said it better", someone has already built it better so stick to the decks plan and don't change too much.

Couple huge problems with the deck.

It's got 12 lands.  A control deck needs 24-26 lands to be effective.  I hope this is just a constructional transitional phase of the deck and not the actual plan for the manabase.

It's 4 colors.  A 4 color deck can work, BUT, you have to have a completely divers mana base.  You have to have a very specific plan for why you need the 4th color.  YOU need to decide which color to drop. 

Honestly copying a ling is a bad idea.  You can't use one of it's most powerful abilities which is the exile ability.  If you exile a token, poof, it's gone, and if you exile the mimic you have to copy something else again when it comes back into play.

Note on some of the cards in the deck. you can probably cut all/most of these.

Electrickery - only good as a sideboard card against token decks and some aggro decks.
Dispel - sideboard card against control decks
Smite - situationally good, but requires a defense creature base to work, not good in this deck
Spell Rupture - situationally good, only works in a deck where your creatures can have a healthy power, Bant hexproof is an example.
Annihilating Fire - searing spear, and pillar are better options for now.
Riot Control - you don't need to fog, you need to remove the creatures from the board, either by bouncing them or destroying them
Essence Backlash - kind of expensive for the effect, dissipate and syncopate are the counters you want to run. Perhaps essence scatter or negate depending on what you face.
Clan Defiance - mizzium is just so much better right now.
Urban Burgeoning - uhh... why?
Runner's Bane - see, riot control
Inaction Injunction - it stalls, it draws a card... I'd rather have think twice.
Verdant Haven - if you go green, this is not the ramp you want to run, if you go green you want elves, both arbor and pilgrim, or farseek.
Thespian's Stage, transguild promenade - <obi-wan kenobi> these are not the lands you're looking for </obi-wan kenobi> , you would rather run gates and basic lands over these, and a lot more of them.

taking the lists I gave you below that was more mid-rangy here's some substitution options if you're on a budget.

Creatures (3)

    1 Aetherling
    2 Snapcaster Mage - auger of bolas

Planeswalkers (2) - no subs here

    1 Jace, Architect of Thought
    1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Lands (26) - gates > basic lands

    1 Island
    1 Plains
    3 Clifftop Retreat
    1 Desolate Lighthouse
    4 Glacial Fortress
    4 Hallowed Fountain
    4 Sacred Foundry
    4 Steam Vents
    4 Sulfur Falls

Spells (29)

    1 Assemble the Legion - not an expensive card, no reason not to trade for it
    1 Detention Sphere - 5 bucks, not too bad to get. oblivian ring can sub here.
    3 Azorius Charm - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    2 Dissipate - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    1 Essence Scatter - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    2 Searing Spear - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    4 Sphinx's Revelation - no real substitute here, sphinx's is in a class of it's own
    1 Syncopate - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    3 Think Twice - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    2 Turn - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    2 Warleader's Helix - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    1 Mizzium Mortars
    2 Pillar of Flame - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    3 Supreme Verdict - no real substitute here either.
    1 Terminus - no real substitute here either.

    Sideboard
    1 Aetherling
    3 Clone
    1 Oblivion Ring
    2 Negate
    2 Renounce the Guilds
    1 Turn
    1 Jace, Memory Adept
    2 Pillar of Flame
    2 Terminus

Creatures (10)

    2 Snapcaster Mage - Auger of Bolas
    2 Ætherling - better than the mimics trade for em if you can
    4 Boros Reckoner
    1 Angel of Serenity
    1 Aurelia The Warleader - something big and scary, with wings?, assemble the legion perhaps

Planeswalkers (3) - no subs here

    1 Ral Zarek
    1 Jace, Architect of Thought
    1 Tamyio, the Moon Sage

Lands (25) - gates > basiclands

    2 Cavern of Soul's
    3 Clifftop Retreat
    4 Glacial Fortress
    4 Hallowed Fountain
    3 Sacred Foundry
    1 Slayers' Stronghold
    4 Steam Vents
    4 Sulfur Falls

Spells (22)

    3 Azorius Charm - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    1 Dissipate - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    2 Searing Spear - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    2 Sphinx's Revelation - no substitute here.
    1 Syncopate - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    3 Turn//burn - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    2 Warleader's Helix - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    2 Mizzium Mortars
    2 Pillar of Flame - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em
    2 Think Twice - uncommon/common, no reason not to get em

    Sideboard
    2 Clone
    3 Izzet Staticaster
    1 Counterflux
    1 Dispel
    2 Negate
    2 Purify the Grave
    2 Pillar of Flame
    2 Supreme Verdict

I've been posting regularly on deckbox for a little while.  My view of helping people on here understand the game and why the competitive players make the choices they do is that it makes the whole community that much better at the game when you educate someone about why a card does what it does.

To your questions.

Smite has a condition attached to it.  What if you don't have a blocker?  It's a dead card in your hand regardless of the cost in that situation. In a control deck these days you usually run just a handful of powerful creatures and depending on having a creature and smite at the same time to use the card creates unfavorable odds. A straight removal spell is preferred to this even if it cost a mana or two more.

Urban burgeoning, is a terrible terrible card.  Yes it's only "that" land.  I can't imagine an instance in which I would want to use it. Multiplayer games?  maybe?

Runners bane does sort of qualify as removal.  It might stop some aggro decks.  But it won't stop over 50% of the cards being played in standard right now.  The card is to restrictive.  If a player plays creatures that are only 4 power or more?  or if they have a way to pump their creatures? sac them?  What if the creature just has  a great ability like deathrite shaman?  it can't stop any of that.  Where as for the same mana cost you can cast searing spear that kills something, or mizzium mortars... kills something... or think twice, which can draw you a card that kills something... or azorious charm which has multiple uses... Runners bane has limited value against a limited number of decks, against a limited number of creatures in those decks.

Transguild promenade, think about it like this... this is a concept called tempo. the amount of resources you have are cumulative.  So on turn 1 you have 1 mana, turn 2, 2 and so on.  see below.

Tempo is a term used in Magic: The Gathering to indicate the advantage gained when a player is able to play more or stronger cards in a shorter period of time due to efficient resource allocation.[1] A companion concept to card advantage, it is sometimes defined as the means by which a player gains additional options or decreases the options possessed by the opponent by means not directly pertaining to respective numbers of playable cards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_%28M … thering%29

turn 1, 1
turn 2, 2
turn 3, 3
turn 4, 4

That's a total of 10 mana over 4 turns.  if you pay for trans guild promenade on turn 2 then your costing yourself mana.

turn 1, 1
turn 2, 0 - because you have to use your other land to pay for the promenade
turn 3, 3
turn 4, 4

Now you're down a 2 mana play while you're opponent probably played something on his 2nd turn.  Now obviously gates hurt your tempo but not as bad, in the same scenario your only down 1 mana if you played a gate on turn 2 instead of the promenade.  yes the promenade "fixes" your colors but at the cost of tempo.  That's bad, tempo is important, Especially in a control deck.  The ramp decks work on positive tempo gains. Like elves and farseek.  So that if you play farseek on turn 2 you get the example below.

turn 1, 1
turn 2, 2
turn 3, 4
turn 4, 5

that's twelve mana available, and farseek "thins your deck", by pulling a land out, you accelerate your available mana, and you limit the possibility of drawing a land as card.  You'll draw more "stuff" instead.  The best thing to do in the current meta is to have the "shock lands" (2 damage to come in untapped) and the check lands, that look to see if you have a mountain,forest, island, etc... in play to come in untapped. These "dual" lands fix your mana and let you maintain your tempo.

Last edited by elpablo (2013-06-21 19:05:05)

I'm a little confused on how he was using aetherling. It looked like he would pump and make unblockable to swing for damage

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