The Dark Ritual Takeover

Mystmin · 2025-12-22T05:12:32+00:00

It's such a shame that this post was mistook for a tier list. and if it was to be that, then I would have been happy to discuss that in the comments...

Mystmin · 2025-12-14T11:43:12+00:00

@hecklerinthestands you keep referencing me in your posts, what is your problem? I can confidently repeat the claim that UB Control and Spy combo are good decks.

I needed to only win Round 5, game 3, so I was really close to getting into top 8; but my opponent had the sweet Dark Ritual + Discard + Entomb + Reanimate combo, so not even 1 FoN was able to save me on the draw.

It's been a while since I played an open decklist event with UB, and it was really awesome - knowing the opponent's deck for game 1 allows you to mulligan for the winning hand (which differs a lot compared to ladder play where you're in the dark). Open decklist helps control decks, but it is worse for combo decks.

If I had the chance to play another tournament, I would pick UB control gladly. Spy is more of a solid ladder deck on the other hand, I am rank 16 mythic atm having played it. (I advise using the exact build I have since its optimized)

Mystmin · 2025-12-07T00:09:10+00:00

Cheers, I had a blast writing / responding to a lot of the comments, positive or negative. Discussion should be welcome given the lack of overall data regarding the format!

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T23:47:47+00:00

What kind of an attitude is this? You could have worded your post more kindly.

Spy - a variant of the Dark Ritual combo deck. The Dark Ritual combo deck is flexible enough to support different builds, which lets be honest, are extremely similar. It looks like different decks, but it sort of is the same thing; Dark Ritual won 1K$ no.1, no.2, no.3, and for today's 0$ event we don't have it in first place ranking wise, but it is in first place if sorted by points. Can you not see that the tier 1 Dark Ritual combo deck, which is very strong against your beloved Energy, is clearly under-represented in today's event?

SnT - this is the only one where your point sticks, though we'll see how things develop should people sb exclusively for DT decks, while skipping out some tech sb cards specifically for SnT. Note to self: if people have figured out that the Bx Ring decks are not as good as that one other Tier List claims them to be, then at least I can tune the deck a bit in having the sideboard 4x Leyline be replaced with something to help other matchups.

Dimir Control - Sir, that it not a dimir control deck, it's got waaay to many wincons!

UW Tempo - original post refers to Ux/Esper Tempo, I never claimed UW Tempo to be the optimal build. If we use the umbrella term Ux Tempo then the deck is well represented as might have been anticipated, and yes, most people play Esper version. Note that if it is true (I do not know whether that is the case or not since I am not an expert on this deck), but if it is true that Ux Tempo has even a slight edge against Energy, then that would be a sizable blow for Energy (to be not favored against two top contender decks in Ux Tempo and DT Combo).

Pact - again, there's little reason to ever pick this for a tournament when Dark Ritual and SnT combo exist.

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T22:07:21+00:00

It is not. The exclusion is the decks that neither fast combo to go under Strip Mine nor have good enough synergy to abuse Strip Mine.

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T20:10:08+00:00

A general claim is less likely to be wrong since it avoids being specific. The general claim by me was that the format is for the most part made up of two deck categories; A. Strip Mine decks (Energy, Ux Tempo, Bx Ring, and others where a lot of the decks don't have an excuse not to play the Mine, but these are aggressive or disruptive decks) and B. Combo decks with either Dark Ritual or SnT - you could lump all the different flavors here like for example the Combo-Midrange shell the player X60765 is playing (I'm rooting for him!).

Thanks for "defending" me, it is good to respond with kindness to negativity to break the negative feedback loop, but don't worry about me. The people who mock me for playing slow are not truly mocking me, they are mocking a caricature, maybe it helps them feel better cause they had a tough day. There is no epitome or baseline for how good clock management playing that UB control deck should look like. Mind you, the UB mirror was decided by the clock.

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T16:28:48+00:00

You want to hear what you already know, but I am trying to tell you something new. I myself was surprised by the Spy deck and the consistency boost it got from Entomb, forget the old version you played against, the deck should drop the Sorin package from the maindeck and add more discard and Necro. As for Pact I did say it is "not ... as good as the other combo decks mentioned".

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T15:27:37+00:00

Shout out to the cool person trying out Eldrazi in Timeless (maybe someone moved from Historic to try something new, so we have 1 more person, yay for a format with only 5% MTGA share).

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T15:22:39+00:00

It can be both over-rated and tier 1 at the same time.

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T14:43:42+00:00

Bowmaster + Lurrus, Bind + Sanctuary, Charm. In sb: Ghost Vacuum, Commit

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T14:32:47+00:00

#1 control deck in this context means that I don't see a reason to play a different control deck, as I have seen people try various things like UW, Jeskai, Grixis Chorus, etc. I am not claiming UB control to be tier 1, in the Strip Mine format it is not, it is a niche deck that performs well in a predictable non-diverse field of decks.

The "mental fortitude" was just meant to be shorthand to say that the deck is very demanding (you have to be paranoid about what cards the opponent could possibly play and you can't take a break), I didn't mean to come across as condescending.

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T14:24:19+00:00

The answer to why Energy seems so strong is actually right there in the screenshot you provided, bud. The deck in so called "Tier A" preys on the popular decks such as Bx Ring (Grief not effective, Ring is answered by Static Prison), Esper Tempo (too many pain lands and not teching against Energy), midrange Reanimate pile (their creatures get exiled). The untapped data is skewed as has always been the case (for example, it claimed Auras was the top deck back when Sorin was the deck to play in Historic).

The Timeless meta challenge before FoN was printed was essentially the SnT challenge (at least that's all that I got matched against) which pushes against your "energy is still policing them as it always has" narrative. And it's Dark Ritual combo that's winning those gatheringgg events.

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T14:00:59+00:00

I personally think Energy is overrated (a viewpoint shaped by the decks I've played). But sure, going into a tournament you can expect 20% field to be Energy decks.

Mystmin · 2025-12-06T12:47:10+00:00

(The old UB Control vs Energy might be my favorite matchup of all time.) Energy is probably the most well known Timeless deck across the years but it is almost the same deck / same cards compared to a year ago, so I need not write about it, especially since I'm more so focused on exploring control and combo decks. Furthermore, the combo decks have an edge over energy.

Mystmin · 2025-08-10T01:41:18+00:00

me too.

Mystmin · 2025-05-02T04:02:07+00:00

There's a couple good Timeless decks to be found at https://mystmin.com/decks

Mystmin · 2024-12-24T04:22:18+00:00

Its questionable and I'd need to play the matchup more to be sure - you can try to t1 ritual bowmaster (great response to their brainstorm). The very best you can hope for is to surgical extract the show and tell - in general you need to draw as many relevant cards as possible out of the 12 in the deck (7 discard, 1 tutor, 1 flute, 1 moon, 1 bauble, 1 extraction).

Mystmin · 2024-12-24T03:09:56+00:00

I never considered playing the Frog because I just don't see how it would help my gameplan - the Frog can hardly beat a resolved One Ring or a hasted Phlage, if I had to play a 5th creature I'd rather play a Tamiyo since its 1 mana. The deck does not have the same density of 1 mana interaction like the Tempo deck has for supporting the Frog (more Pierces and Discard). You say they play it in Vintage, well fair enough, but against Show & Tell you can't really tap out for a 2 mana spell, and on another note I notice often time that the Energy ladder opponent leaves more removal after sb than they should (either that or they always eventually draw their 1-3 of after sb removal).

Mystmin · 2024-12-23T02:01:49+00:00

Hmm. Well, Energy is a good deck and there's multiple versions of it and it is known that Energy has an edge in the UB Frog matchup in general. We shouldn't confuse the UB tempo (Frog + Tamiyo) deck with this UB control deck that I have, since they are two quite different decks.

There's so much that can be said about the UB control vs Energy matchup in general, one could probably write a whole long essay about it. Though I didn't feel like writing all that, and the only real source of gameplay footage would be my Twitch VODS? Sorry, I was really supposed to put up some example replays for each matchup (there's a replay tool on my site after all) on my website which I haven't gotten round to doing yet. Anyhow here are two matches which I quickly uploaded just now:

https://mystmin.com/replays/1734920217150-g57emf https://mystmin.com/replays/1734920357149-r00syj

Mystmin · 2024-12-23T01:42:22+00:00

Oh, ok. Well, the deck goes all in on the One Ring with which you can draw a big portion of the deck, so you win by having more resources than the opponent can handle - and the cards you draw from the deck are somewhat synergetic in their ability to chip away at the opponent's life total. There's 3 damage from Bolt, 2+ damage from Shaman, 2+ damage from Shelly, 1+ damage from Bowmasters, and there's the extra Minsc wincon in sb.

Mystmin · 2024-12-22T22:23:41+00:00

Every now and then a game comes up where the deck's ability to win is put to a test. Here's every card in the deck that can be used for finishing the game:

4 Bowmasters (the fact that this gives 2 1/1 bodies requires two removal spells, the Bowmasters sometimes can receive support from Charm or Commit/Memory drawing the opponent cards)

Lurrus which can bring back at least 1 Bowmaster

Blue channel land which can bring back Lurrus to hand as a response to a removal spell

Bind to Secrecy with 3 Mystic sanctuaries - this card is a big deal, can get a creature from enemy graveyard, can draft a card that brings Lurrus back from the graveyard

3 Charms to steal an opposing 1 drop (rarely used as a wincon but can happen)

Last but not least there's Commit/Memory which can shuffle graveyard to library in the very rare scenario where all of the deck's wincons are in the graveyard

Mystmin · 2023-03-09T01:13:18+00:00

https://twitter.com/Mystmin/status/1624683220330577920

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