I was frustrated. Cards like Krark-Clan Ironworks and Roar of Reclamation beckoned for me to turn them into strong competitive Type II decks and yet all my attempts at doing just that had ended in failure. Eventually in disgust, I threw down my Fifth Dawn combo decks and started looking around for a deck that would fit my mood. Something evil. Something that would make all those casual players on Magic Online concede without typing"GG." Something with a lot of counter spells and discard effects. Oh and if I could blow up some lands while I was at it, that would be even better.

A deck that began as just an attempt to let off some steam actually turned out to show far more promise than any of my tries at breaking any of the Fifth Dawn combo cards. After some play testing with various builds and sideboards, I eventually settled on this build.

Specters of Death.dec
14 Swamp
9 Island
1 Polluted Delta

4 Hollow Specter
4 Silent Specter
2 Quicksilver Dragon

4 Wayfarer's Bauble
4 Night's Whisper
4 Death Cloud
4 Mana Leak
4 Condescend
4 Echoing Truth
2 Annul

Sideboard
4 March of the Machines
4 Persecute
3 Infest
3 Terror
1 Annul

Yeah, I know the name is cheesy, especially if you lower your voice when you say the final"Death" like I do. If that's beneath your dignity, feel free to call the deck something generic like U/B Death Cloud or Blue/Black control. The strategy for this deck is relatively straightforward:

1) Counter anything that is threatening.
2) Whittle away your opponent's life and hand with your creatures.
3) Death Cloud when it's necessary or advantageous.

Card by Card Analysis
Hollow Specter
Versus control and combo decks, this card is gold. Yeah, it only does two damage a turn, but discarding cards isn't something most decks want to be doing. Versus aggressive decks, it isn't nearly as good (which is why it usually comes out after sideboarding), but it is still a viable win condition after a Death Cloud. Yes, it's three-mana as opposed to the two-mana cost of Cabal Interrogator and Headhunter, but hey, it deals more damage than either, doesn't have to worry about random ground blockers, and doesn't tie up your mana as much as the Interrogator (discard cost is X as opposed to XB).

Silent Specter
The main (creature-oriented) win condition of the deck. It comes out for cheap after a Death Cloud or when you want to keep mana open for counters. Once unmorphed, it puts your opponent on a five-turn clock by itself. That may seem like a long time, but when you consider that your opponent is losing two cards a turn and you most likely have a couple of counter spells in hand to protect your position, it's not nearly as long as it may seem.

Quicksilver Dragon
The least impressive of the deck's creatures, the Quicksilver Dragon still packs a mean punch. He shares the morph advantages of Silent Specter and puts the opponent on a slightly shorter clock, albeit without the very useful discard ability. Basically, it's in here to offer support for the Specter in games 2 and 3 for those instances where you side out your Hollow Specters (four creatures just isn't enough of a win condition for this deck).

Death Cloud
Here's our most powerful and versatile spell. It can act as a finisher, clears the board of annoying attackers, and at times it manages to leave your opponent with a whole lot of nothing. Besides just being a very strong card in general, Death Cloud has great synergy with the other cards in the deck: Wayfarer's Baubles and Night's Whisper help the Cloud come out big and early and every card in the deck can be cast for three mana or less (very useful after you've gone back down to three lands after a big Death Cloud).

Mana Leak and Condescend
I don't think there's really any debate that these are the best two general counterspells in Type Two at the moment. It's important to note that counterspells are your primary answer to anything threatening that your opponent plays. Although it may be tempting to tap out to unmorph one of your big creature and start attacking, usually it's best to wait and see if your opponent plays any threatening first and if not, unmorph your Specter at the end of their turn.

Echoing Truth
Bounce goes well with discard. Bounce also goes well with counterspells. Bounce also protects your creatures from nasty Wraths of God and Shrapnel Blasts. Echoing Truth is the best bounce spell in Type Two in the moment (although a case could be made for Boomerang in a mono-Blue build) and thus it's our bounce spell of choice.

Annul
Yes, occasionally it's a dead card and so there are only two copies of it in our main deck. However, in the vast majority of the games you'll play, it'll find a good target whether it's Solemn Simulacrum, Mindslaver, Oblivion Stone, Astral Slide, Oversold Cemetery, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Crystal Shard, or one of the many Ravager Affinity cards.

Night's Whisper
Testing has proven Night's Whisper to be much more useful than Phyrexian Arena in this deck. It's cheaper and less color dependant allowing you to play it in the early game while still keeping up mana for counters. More importantly, it gives you the cards immediately and doesn't carry a risk of a slow and tortuous death if the game lasts longer than you expect.

The Sideboard
The cards in the sideboard are pretty straightforward. March of the Machines comes in against anything that relies on artifact lands. Persecute comes in against control decks and mono color decks. Terror and Infest come in to help fight the creature hordes and the single copy of Annul adds a little extra defense against Ravager Affinity and anything else with threatening artifacts.

General Strengths and Weaknesses of Specters of Death
Before we get into specific matchup analysis, it's worth taking an objective look at our deck's specific strengths and weaknesses. On the positive side, the deck has a solid mana base with 24 lands, card draw and land fetchers, cards that work well both in the early and late game, and no double colored mana costs in the support color. The deck features few permanents and almost no artifacts which means that the deck suffers little in the way of splash damage* (i.e. opponents are unlikely to have many good sideboard options to bring in against you since the deck isn't very similar to the current leading decks). The deck's answers can deal with a wide variety of threats meaning you rarely have a completely dead card in hand. Like most Blue/Black decks combining discard and counter spells, your matches against combo decks and other control decks tend to be rather favorable. After sideboarding, the deck is able to bring in powerful cards like March of the Machines and Persecute which have the ability to devastate certain decks.

On the negative side, the deck runs a fair number of cards that cost life to use making any opposing aggressive deck's task that much easier. That's not to say that matches against aggressive decks are hopeless, just that the deck tends to have a harder time than a Blue/White control deck featuring Wrath of Gods and life gain would have. Although the deck has a number of different ways to gain card advantage, it has little in the way of outright card drawing. That means that in the long run, cards advantage engines like Eternal Witness + Crystal Shards, Phyrexian Arena, Oversold Cemetery, and Eternal Dragon can spell defeat for your deck if not countered immediately. Finally, the general inability of counter spells to deal with threats once in play applies in full force here.

Match up Analysis**
Affinity:
Game One - The first game is usually rough. Sometimes you can manage to slow them down with counter spells and then blow them away with Death Cloud (and since Affinity runs few lands, it's relatively easy to Death Cloud all their lands away), but more often than not, you get overwhelmed by their speed. Even if you do manage to cast Death Cloud, you're not assured victory (especially if they have an Aether Vial in play).

SB:
+4 March of the Machines
+3 Infest
+1 Annul
-4 Hollow Specter
-4 Condescend

Games 2 and 3: After sideboarding, things get much better as March of the Machines is especially powerful against them. However, playing March of the Machines isn't necessarily an automatic win since they'll probably have some creatures out and maybe a Vial as well. Infest and Death Cloud can serve to clear the board after March is in play and Echoing Truth can hopefully deal with any Disciples or Ravagers that manage to break past your counterspells.

Big Red:
Game One - With 24 lands and 4 Wayfarer's Baubles, their land destruction shouldn't hurt too much, however if they cut you off from Blue mana, you're in big trouble. Your Hollow Specters aren't going to last long against all their burn, so try to save them for after you manage to empty their hand with Death Cloud. You have to be especially careful of your life total in this game since cards like Shrapnel Blast and Pulse of the Forge can take you down to zero in a flash.

SB:
-4 Hollow Specter
-2 Annul
-1 Echoing Truth
+4 Persecute
+3 Terror

Games 2 and 3 - Play defensively until you manage to play Persecute or Death Cloud since otherwise, your morphs will most likely just get Bolted or Pyroclasmed to death. Terror works well against any Arc-Sloggers (and Rorix, if they're playing him) that get through your counters and Echoing Truth can help against an early Slith rush.

Tooth and Nail:
Game One - This is probably our easiest matchup as far as the most popular decks are concerned. If you get the chance, an early Specter will usually spell victory, while Death Cloud and your counters make it difficult for them to get off any of their big spells.

SB:
+2 Persecute
+1 Annul
-2 Quicksilver Dragon
-1 Echoing Truth

Games 2 and 3: Depending on the build of Tooth and Nail, it may make sense to bring in all of your Persecutes and maybe even some Infests. For the most part, games 2 & 3 ought to be easy wins: Tooth & Nail dislikes discard, counters, and Death Cloud and you have all of those in your deck.

Goblin Bidding:
Game One - Probably the deck's worst matchup. Game one is practically an automatic loss. Basically your only hope (and it's a slim one at that) is to Death Cloud their board away before it's too late. Or pray that your opponent mulligans several times.

SB:
-4 Hollow Specter
-2 Annul
+3 Infest
+3 Terror

Game Two and Three - After sideboarding, things get much better, however it's still very tough. If possible try to hold off on casting Infest until you can leave mana open to counter the inevitable next turn Siege-Gang Commander or Patriarch's Bidding.

U/W Control
Game One - Here you get to be the aggro-control player. If the game lasts too long, they'll eventually start doing evil things with Eternal Dragon, so you need to finish the game before that. Try to get a Specter out as soon as you can adequately protect him from their Wrath of Gods and you'll be fine.

SB:
-2 Quicksilver Dragon
-2 Annul
+2 Terror
+2 Persecute

Games Two & Three - Follow the same basic strategy as in game one: get a Specter out and protect it with counter spells.

G/W Witness:
Game One - This matchup is pretty similar to the one against U/W Control. On the plus side, you don't need to worry about opposing counter spells - on the negative side, you do have to worry about Astral slide and Eternal Witness (both of which must be countered at all costs).

SB:
-2 Quicksilver Dragon
-1 Echoing Truth
+2 Persecute
+1 Annul

Games Two and Three - Once again, post-sideboard is pretty similar to the first game. On the plus side, you get to bring in an Annul to help deal with Astral Slide and some Persecutes to eat away their hand. On the negative side, they probably will bring in some anti-control cards like Mindslaver and Plow Under so it tends to balance out.

U/G Shard:
Game One - This is one of the few decks that actually has the advantage against you when it comes to counter spells, since they usually have more mana than you and they can recur their counters with Eternal Witness. Unlike the U/W and W/G matches, you don't have to worry much about protecting your Specters once they're in play, so you can afford to be a little more aggressive here than you would against those decks.

SB:
+1 Annul
+3 Persecute
-2 Quicksilver Dragon
-2 Echoing Truth

Games Two and Three - Since the two decks are pretty evenly matched, it all comes down to card advantage here. As long as you can prevent them from resolving their big card advantage engines (Thirst for Knowledge, Eternal Witness, and Crystal Shard), you should be fine. Make sure not to forget about the possibility of death by Rude Awakening as well.

Conclusion
As a longtime lover of Blue/Black control decks, I'm glad to see that Fifth Dawn and its cheap card draw (Night's Whisper), mana acceleration (Wayfarer's Bauble), and counter spells (Condescend) make the deck archetype a viable option once more. The deck will have to evolve as Type Two changes with the removal of Onslaught block and the addition of Champions of Kamigawa in the near future, but as many of the most powerful spells in the deck are from Mirrodin block, no doubt a competitive Blue/Black control build can be developed in that format as well.

Robert Boyd
rwb36@hotmail.com

* See Mike Flores excellent article"Splish Splash" if you're unfamiliar with the term and theory behind splash damage.

** My apologies in advance if your favorite tournament deck is not listed here; these are just some of the more popular decks that I run into on a regular basis. Also keep in mind that I play primarily on Magic Online; your local metagame will no doubt differ.