Ever since there was Counterspell and Wrath of God, there has been some form of blue/white control. From "The Deck" to Millstone to CounterPost to Prison, Control has always been a top contender. But somewhere along the line things changed. Typical control strategies have fallen by the wayside, and ever since Fires, untap, Saproling Burst meant I win, there really hasn't been a dominating White/Blue deck around. ([Here] is the newest U/W control deck I could find...) With Fact or Fiction leaving Standard, and viable counterspells being few and far between, tools are hard to come by for a deck of this type. But one card may just bring back this powerhouse of old...

My Onslaught pick #3 is...

Mobilization $SOON
Set	Onslaught
Cost	2W
Color	White
Card Type	Enchantment
Rarity	R
Card Text	Attacking doesn’t cause Soldiers to tap. 2W: Put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token into play.
Artist	Carl Critchlow

No, it's not an Outpost. Yes, it can be countered. Yes, the first Soldier is expensive. But when you can leave counter mana open and produce 1-2 tokens at the end of your opponent's turn, the card has the potential to make losing difficult. It already has one great plus: it can come out turn three before you get Mind Sludged and just win the game.

When making the deck I scaned around our forums for other Mobilization decks, and also looked at some Counterpost decks of the past. The biggest problem I noticed is the lack of pure counters, and competing against the speed of U/G builds. This forces you to play suboptimal cards like Force Spike, or take you chances.

Counter Mobilize Ray Moore
	Format: New_Type2
»Apprentice Format«
Read the article that included this deck HERE
Main Deck	Sideboard
4 Æther Burst 4 Complicate 3 Compulsion 4 Counterspell 3 Cunning Wish 4 Force Spike 3 Mobilization 4 Renewed Faith 4 Wrath of God 4 Adarkar Wastes 4 Flooded Strand 10 Island 6 Plains 3 Skycloud Expanse	1 Chastise 2 Disenchant 1 Funeral Pyre 1 Hibernation 1 Mana Short 1 Opportunity 1 Plagiarize 1 Read the Runes 3 Shared Triumph 3 Wonder
Total deck value: $
Notes:
NONE
Average Casting Cost (ACC)= 2.67 Spells by Color: Cards by Type: *Hover mouse cursor over pie chart to see ==>> COLOR/TYPE : # CARDS : % OF CARDS. *Left click on pie chart or legend to isolate a field.

Many decks are trying to get greedy, trying to add Mirari's Wake to pump out a ton of 2/2 soldiers. I'm just not convinced that the sacrifice in consistancy is worth adding a third color, or if its really necessary. You can Cunning Wish for a Disenchant in the case of a tutored for Engineered Plague, and add Shared Triumphs after sideboarding.

Here's a rundown of the Top 5 list so far...

Chain of Smog
Words of Wind
Mobilization

Tune back in tomorrow. Until then.

Respond Here: [http://www.brainburst.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=47694]

Ray Moore