UW Control

[Ravager Sam]

I don't really know too much about highlander...all I know is that a store near me plays highlander once a month and I decided to put a deck together in preparation for the upcoming tourney.

Lands (37)
9 Island
4 Plains
Academy Ruins
Adarkar Wastes
Arid Mesa
Celestial Collonade
Faerie Conclave
Flagstones of Trokair
Flooded Strand
Glacial Fortress
Halimar Depths
Hallowed Fountain
Karakas
Library of Alexandria
Lonely Sandbar
Marsh Flats
Maze of Ith
Mishra's Factory
Mystic Gate
Polluted Delta
Riptide Laboratory
Scalding Tarn
Secluded Steppe
Tolaria West
Tundra
Wasteland

Mana Artifacts (3)
Talisman of Progress
Everflowing Chalice
Mind Stone

Other Artifacts (10)
Crucible of Worlds
Engineered Explosives
Isochron Scepter
Pithing Needle
Phyrexian Furnace
Sensei's Top
Solemn Simulacrum
Sword of the Meek
Thopter Foundry
Vedalken Shackles

Creatures (14)
Aven Mindcensor
Baneslayer Angel
Court Hussar
Eternal Dragon
Exalted Angel
Glen Elendra Archmage
Kitchen Finks
Man-O-War
Mulldrifter
Sower of Temptation
Teferi, Mage of Awesomeness
Trinket Mage
Vendillion Clique
Venser, Shaper Savant

Other Busted Things (9)
Bribery
Control Magic
Cryptic Command
Decree of Justice
Elspeth, Knight Jesus
Jace Beleren
Jace, the Second Coming of Christ
Tezzeret, the 1337
Treachery

White Removal (
Day of Judgment
Disenchant
Faith's Fetters
O-Ring
Martial Coup
Path to Exile
Swords to Plowshares
Wrath of God

Card Advantage/Selectivity (5)
Ancestral Vision
Brainstorm
Fact or Fiction
Gifts Ungiven
Ponder

Counters (9)
Condescend
Counterspell
Daze
Force of Will
Mana Drain
Mana Leak
Miscalculation
Misdirection
Remand

Other Utility (5)
Future Sight
Into the Roil
Merchant Scroll
Muddle the Mixture
Repeal

Thanks for any and all comments!

[Tabris]

Yummy U-based control decks are my favourite but I am a little bit lazy right now so just a few suggestion. I understand that this deck should be competetive?


Add:

Tolarian Academy (Good tutor (explosives, tabernacle/maze/wasteland/Pact of negation))
Maze of Ith (obvious)
Tabernacle at the Pendrell Vale (If money is a problem forget it but I see a LoA so maybe you got this kind of stuff)
Wasteland (obvious)
Academy Ruins (its important for recursion like getting shackles back, explosives etc)
Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek (great combo which is easy to access and easy to revive)
Muddle the mixture (search sword of the meek, thopter foundry, martial coup)
Martial Coup (Wrath + dudes and tutorable with muddle)
Isochron Scepter (obvious since counterspell, mana drain, sword, path, brainstorm, into the roil etc. are imprintable) even tutorable with tezz the leet
Into the roil (good bounce spell which is imprintable in isochron scepter and get you a card if you pay the kicker)
Condescend (counter which manipulate your library)
Crucible of Worlds (enables all your fetchis to moar brokeness and works great with maze/wasteland and get your combo with academy ruins back)
Future Sight (AWESOME!)
Enginered Explosives (is even good with 2 colours bc its most of the time vs token or fast decks like boros or elves)
Misdirection (is needed these days with mind twist on the road)
You could also add Reveilark since you could play the combo with mirror entity karmic guide venser body double but its not so strong without survival support

soo...as I said I am lazy right now so just short notes on the cuts w/o arguing about

Azorius Chancery
Temple of the False God
Coalition Relic
Nev's Disk
O-Stone
Azorius Guildmage
Grand Arbtier Augustin IV
Thada Adel, Acquisitor
Standstill
Chain of Vapor
Echoing Truth
Momentary Blink
Repeal

[pyyhttu]

There's a reference build at http://magicplayer.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1803 which might give  you some ideas.

[Ravager Sam]

Thanks Tabris!

I can find myself agreeing easily with most of your suggestions, except for the fact that tolarian academy is banned and you meant tolaria west  

One thing that doesn't seem so obvious to me is why cut the Karoo and the Temple of the False God?  Also, is 37 lands good?

EDIT: I saw that deck Pyy...and it just seemed bad to me.  First and foremost, there are lands missing.  Second, a lot of the cards are narrow and were suggested in other threads here to be removed from their respective decks (annul and stifle for example).  Third, a lot of seemingly good cards are simply missing - Decree of Justice, Exalted Angel, and Eternal Dragon just to name a few.

[Mythrandir]

As requested here goes:

Well, as far as the land count, i would probably go around 37 with some mana artifacts. But you really have to test this out. Land counts, at least for me, is a bit hard to work in vaccuum..

Lands:
For a two colored deck, i think you pack too much nonbasics:
cut: -chancery (a really chance to lose tempo here, if you get wastelanded)
- nimbus maze
- skycloud expanse
- kor haven (maze of ith is better)

add:
wasteland
maze of ith
cycle lands (U and W)
also tolaria west

mana artifacts:
seems fine, but i prefer talismans over signets

artifacts:
- nev. disk 8too slow)
-o-stone too slow

add:
EE (although only two colors, is good vs aggro and fetchable with trinket)


creatures:
cut: - grand augustin (too slow, no immediate impact on the game, too killable)
- aven riftwatcher
- looter il-kor (better in a more aggro focused deck)
- thada

might consider:
magus of the tabernacle
meloku

other things to cut:
standstill (better in more aggroish decks)
echoing truth (unless you have problems with tokens)

things to consider:
-impulse
- muddle the mixture
- misdirection
- btb
- moat
- aven mindecensor (a must)

Also Tez alones doesnt seemed very good in there, IMO. Also regarding artifacts lands in there i believe to be bad, since they can be destroyed with deeds, pridemage, etc...

Also a UW deck just surfaced in a tournament, it grab the 5th place, take a look:

http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php?topic=391.msg3744#new

[Ravager Sam]

I've taken all things into consideration and updated my original post.

Some of the changes include:

-GAAIV
-Blink
-Looter Il-Kor
-Kor Haven
-Skycloud Expanse
-O Stone
-Nev's Disk

+Wasteland
+Cycle Lands
+Maze of Ith
+E Explosives
+Sword/Thopter
+Martial Coup, Condescend, Misdirection, Scepter
+Aven Mindcensor
+Crucible

Thank you very much, Myth!

I'm currently contemplating the addition of Tectonic Edge.

[TeKo]

Imo Dust Bowl > Edge.

- kor haven (maze of ith is better)

Of course it is but this is highlander why not play both?
I hate Maze for not producing mana.

[Mythrandir]

Imo Dust Bowl > Edge.

- kor haven (maze of ith is better)

Of course it is but this is highlander why not play both?
I hate Maze for not producing mana.

yeap, but you'll hate it more when you have to waste 3 manas every turn to prevent damage from 1 creature.
Buy, yes, you can play both. But in terms of maze VS kor. maze is way better, IMO.

[Ravager Sam]

Imo Dust Bowl > Edge.

- kor haven (maze of ith is better)

Of course it is but this is highlander why not play both?
I hate Maze for not producing mana.

yeap, but you'll hate it more when you have to waste 3 manas every turn to prevent damage from 1 creature.
Buy, yes, you can play both. But in terms of maze VS kor. maze is way better, IMO.

Part of the issue was a high non-basic land count...especially non-basic lands that don't tap for any mana, let alone colored mana.

[Anime1]

Well you don't count maze as a land its 0 spell that costs you land drop.

[Ravager Sam]

I ended up being unable to go to the tournament but my friend went 3-1.  The only match he lost was against goblins when he got greedy and learned the hard way that Goblin Piledriver has protection from blue...when he could have just Wrathed instead and secured his late game survival.

The thing that amazed both of us the most is how many cards don't actually matter.  For example, he didn't do thopter/depths at all the whole tournament and never drew library of alex!

Thank you all for your help!