This is my new control deck. It obviously shares many cards with my older Weissman-style control deck, but this deck branches off in a new direction. It is, I'd like to think, wholly my own creation, although it can be seen as a combination of a couple different styles.

The point of the deck is raw control, pure and simple. It goes after control in two ways: permanent-based control and countering. My deck attempts to meld old-style blue countering control with new-style red environmental control.

Here's what the deck wants to do:

• Lay down Blood Moon, and begin drawing cards.
• Play Jester's Cap, and remove cards such as Disenchant and Gorilla Shaman from opponent's deck.
• Recycle counters and non-permanent-based card manipulation spells. Attempt to thin the deck to the point where Gaea's Blessing-based churning nets useful cards once or twice each turn.
• Use Mirror Universe with Vampiric Tutor to kill opponent. (Use Zuran Orb to obtain sufficient life to pay for the Tutor if needed. Use Mirror for life gaining if needed, and use it for the kill with City of Brass if there's no Blood Moon in play.)
• When sideboarding, trust the deck to provide tutors. Sideboarding is all about aggression and active control, after an initial game where you feel out your opponent's deck (and perhaps study it in depth with Jester's Cap).

Recent Changes

Sideboard:

Removed one Jester's Cap, one Ivory Tower, one Gorilla Shaman, and one Disenchant. Added one Tormod's Crypt, one Diabolic Edict, one Blood Moon, and one Zuran Orb.

Justifications:

I've already got one Cap main deck, which may already be one too many. That's mainly a measure targetted at control decks, anyway, and I've got ample meat for control decks without an additional Cap. The Blood Moon and the Tormod's Crypt being added MORE than make up for the Cap.

The Ivory Tower is undeniably powerful, and may well make it back into the deck at some point, but for now Zuran Orb seems more immediately useful. It's quicker life under any but ideal circumstances. Generally I don't care about losing life, but when I get down to the bottom, sometimes the Tower isn't rapid enough to save me.

Mox Monkeys are nice, but two in the sideboard is enough, especially with tutoring available. One might be enough, which would leave room for the Ivory Tower again. We'll see... For now, I'll run two.

While being able to go to four Disenchants is ideologically nice, it's not essential, and dropping one from my sideboard frees up a slot.

Adding Tormod's Crypt helps me combat control decks. They'd ought to already be unhappy because of the main deck Blood Moons and Jester's Cap, and Tormod's Crypt will only make them unhappier still. It's also good for any sort of recycler decks out there; Map Breaker, for instance, or churning/recursing decks...

I've found that I'm having more trouble than I like with heavily creature-based decks, so having more creature control would be nice. I'd like to add more Abysses, but I only own two, and they're already in the main deck. Diabolic Edict is better for untargettables, anyway, and it has reasonable synergy with The Abyss. Plus, watching an opponent with multiple Frenetics deal with Edict is amusing.

Adding the fourth Blood Moon is perhaps gratuitous, but I enjoy watching my opponent whimper when I drop a first-turn Blood Moon, and having four helps against decks that side in Disenchant and/or Emerald Charm. I always play multiples of Blood Moon anyway. It doesn't hurt.