Standard U/B Playability Assessment

[Phi]

Hey guys,

I am new to Magic, although I have been watching Tap Tap Concede for a very long time. I decided to start playing and built a B/U control deck for standard. I call it "The Drifting Gary", and it focuses on starting off with defensively, then remove the opponent's creatures and take away their lives. I imagine it won't be fun to play against, perhaps.. But I dislike fast-paced aggro decks, so I wanted to build something that will work well against such decks Anyway, here it is:

Creature (22)
3x Erebos, God of the Dead
4x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4x Grim Guardian
3x Sigiled Starfish
4x Silumgar, the Drifting Death
4x Typhoid Rats

Enchantment (2)
2x Palace Siege

Instant (8)
3x Hero's Downfall
3x Negate
2x Polymorphist's Jest

Artifact (2)
2x Whip of Erebos

Sorcery (4)
2x Drown in Sorrow
2x Void Snare

Land (22)
4x Dismal Backwater
7x Island
11x Swamp

Sideboard (10)
2x Bile Blight
2x Cancel
2x Crux of Fate
2x Disdainful Stroke
2x Festergloom

Since I am new in this, I am entirely sure about the shortcomings of this deck, as I do not have the actual cards to playtest it yet. Any remarks / suggestions? Thanks a lot

[TheMoatman]

You have waaaaay too many creatures for a control deck. Like, the a bunch of the aggro decks running around don't even run that many. Most of the U/B control decks only have 2-3 creatures (usually Pearl Lake Ancients, but there are some Silumgars now) You want Dig Through Time and maybe Treasure Cruise for card advantage. Murderous Cut should probably be somewhere in the 75, and Hero's Downfall is important enough that you should have 4. U/B control really wants Radiant Fountains to stall against aggro and Temple of Deceit helps with dig.

Crux of Fate should probably be maindeck, as should Perilous Vault. Sweepers are really important with number of aggro decks out there, and Perilous Vault moreso as long as people are running Fleecemane Lion and Rakshasa Deathdealer.

The whip is pretty eh in this deck. It's a turn 4 play that takes away from playing Vault (getting a sweeper out by turn 5 is really important against aggro, mono-red can kill by then and Abzan can turn 3 siege rhino into turn 4 Wingmate Roc), and whip doesn't matter too much if you only have 2 creatures, neither of which can really be killed (PLA basically dodges every removal spell in the format)

If you can afford them, a playset of Thoughtsieze really helps to shut down some decks. Likewise, Polluted Deltas are nice to feed delve cards, but again, expensive.

You have to be really careful if you run Void Snare, there are a fair bit of ETB effects in standard right now, and Siege Rhino -> Void Snare -> Siege Rhino hurts a lot.

Planeswalker or two might like Ugin or Ashiok might help, but I'm not sure how much.

There are people who are more knowledgeable on this than me and can likely help you tune it more, but less whips and creatures, more vaults will all be part of their advice.

[ForOhFor Error]

In addition to the above, I feel like having 4 Silumgar is too many. Generally, you don't want that many of any legendary card, especially at 6 CMC.

[Duckay]

The thing is that the decklist reads more like a midrange deck than a control deck - Gary and Whip still could have a place, but I think if you're taking that approach you're better off pairing black with green instead, giving you access to mana ramp and beefier creatures to recur.