UW Control (In Progress)

[SomeRandomDude]

Well...Legacy has a lot to offer at the control table. For one, it has some pretty sweet combos with a certain Coldsnap card.

Counterbalance

And so the idea was born. What if we could manipulate the top of our deck to ensure a spell of the right cost was there so that it could auto counter?

Enter 2 cards.

Brainstorm
Sensei's Divining Top

So pretty much, this is the combo for keeping all your cheap spells shut down. However, how do you deal with the big spells? Well, the answer is...

Orim's Chant! So, it could get countered, but usually counters are run about 2-4 mana in Legacy. Not very expensive. So, you run a concentration of 1-4 mana cards in the deck, as well as some removal, and you should be set up for a good control style. Let's take a crack at it.

1 mana

Sensei's Divining Top x 4
Brainstorm x 4
Orim's Chant x 3
Swords to Plowshares x 2

2 mana

Counterbalance x 4
Isochron Scepter x 4

3 mana

Eyes of the Watcher x 2
Oblivion Ring x 4
Kira, Great Glass Spinner

4 mana

Force of Will x 4
Swans of Bryn Argoll x 4

5 Mana

Razormane Masticore x 4
Archon of Justice x 4

Its a work in progress, I'm having trouble finding good finishers. Any help before I put together a mana base? I'm currently running Archon of Justice, Razorman Masticore and Swans to finish.

[SomeRandomDude]

I think I'm going to branch out into a bit of red, like, run the RW and RU duals, with the onslaught plains/island nabber. That way, I can run Lightning Angels and Numot, dropping Swans.

22 lands

Flooded Strand x 4
Tundra x 4
Plateua x 4
Volcanic Island x 4
Nimbus Maze x 4
Hallowed Fountain x 2

1 mana

Sensei's Divining Top x 4
Brainstorm x 4
Orim's Chant x 3

2 mana

Counterbalance x 4
Isochron Scepter x 4
Counterspell x 4

3 mana

Oblivion Ring x 4

4 mana

Force of Will x 4
Lightning Angel x 4

5 Mana

Razormane Masticore x 2

6 Mana

Numot, The Devestator

So, the strategy is to run the Counterbalance engine for counters, Orim's Chant freeze, and then swoop in and finish 'em off via Lightning Angels, Masticores, or Numot.

[SomeRandomDude]

Dang, this deck is unstoppable! I mean, seriously, I can usually either get a Brainstorm, Counterbalance or a Counterspell on a Scepter. I just trashed red burn. He had me down to 3 life, but I was messing around with a Sensei's Divning Top and an Isochron Scepter on my deck to counter all his 1 and 2 drop burns. He finally came up with Flamebast and met a Counterspell from Isochron Scepter. I wanted to play around with Lightning Helix, but its working, so I don't want to fix what isn't broken.

Another game, Aether Vial ate an O-ring and imprinted Orim's Chant + Kicker hosed the Goblins,.

Against control, Counterbalance gave the edge I needed to do everything, then 3 Lightning Angels finished them off.

Against white aggro, I just ran Counterbalance like typical to kill everything.

Combo Charbelcher ate a Force of Will, then got slammed via Lightning Angels/Counterbalance.

[FM]

Problem is, Goblins, Red Burn and even 2-Land Belcher are all tier 2 decks from the format (and I'm not even sure White Aggro is tier anything). Another tier 2 you might want to look into is Counterslivers, although that has not been played in a while.
Check Threshold, Dredge, IGGy Pop, Oath, Friendless, Landstill, and see if you can survive those.

[SomeRandomDude]

Question on IGGy Pop, if I was to stack a Lightning Angel on top of my deck, could I use it to counter all Tendrils of Agony?

And also, can you explain how those decks play? I know IGGy pop, Threshold and Dredge, but not the others.

[FM]

No, because Counterbalance triggers when a spell is played, and only ONE copy of Tendrils is being played. The other are simply put onto the stack, so Counterbalance won't trigger to try and counter them. Also, have you checked the banned/restricted list lately? Or was it just in Vintage that Brainstorm got restricted?

[FM]

Landstill is also known as 43Lands.dec. It's basically an amalgam of useful lands, Crucible of Worlds, disruption and Standstill. Oath is Oath of Druids and Forbidden Orchard combo. Friendless is a deck designed by an acquaintance of mine, popular in Brazil but not very well known out of here. It's a package of Disruption and LD'ing that simply won't let you play.