Celestus Control

"Morning light, morning light, Chase away the fears of night."

Wizard tribal control deck that draws a lot of cards, and duplicates your creatures as you go. The main combo of the deck being The Celestus and Firmament Sage which once it gets going is pretty fun. Some things might need to be tweaked based around the current meta but overall it’s a fun deck to pilot, though be prepared for some long games.

The Creatures:

Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration is a solid 1 drop that usually has to be dealt with, while you shouldn’t bank on him transforming when you need it to, he can win games on his own if luck is on your side. He also is a great target for your opponents early removal spell, giving you the time to set up more.

Academy Loremaster is a lot of fun, especially in multiples. If your opponent chooses to partake in the ability, it really makes your counter spells more potent, but early on it gets you more draws for setting up the deck. It’s nice that you get to draw first before the ability triggers, seeing how your turn will play out and if it’s worth taking another card. You can operate on your opponents turn so it really depends on what your hand looks like.

Triskaidekaphile or Malevolent Hermit // Benevolent Geist, both are worth the slot so it really depends on your play style, Trisk has an Alt-Win ability that people tend to forget about as well as another source for a draw late game, also the no hand limit is really nice when things get going. While main decking the Hermit can give you the upper hand verses other counter decks, as well as some more counter spells in the form of its creature ability, for me Trisk wins out because of the alt win ability, something the deck needs a bit of as it’s a little lacking in win con department.

Aether Channeler is one of the best Wizards ever! So many options here, draw a card, bounce a non-land permanent, or create a 1/1 flyer. He is a Swiss army knife in what you need and with the decks ability to copy creatures, he will be a MVP for your control aspect of the game.

Firmament Sage is the card that inspired me to build this version of a control deck. With The Celestus in play, this card will activate constantly, giving you heavy card advantage. I do wish it was a 3/3 but the spells can help out with that.

Also Side note, card makes a great image for the deck box in Arena

The Spells:

Shore Up and Slip Out the Back are great cards for defending you creatures and the untap ability on the first one really can catch your foe off guard if done right.

Fading Hope really good for stalling a turn or rescuing an important creature you have that is about to be destroyed. The scry also helps when you are about to draw a card

Make Disappear is the early counter for the deck, you have to use it wisely and remember you can Casualty it if things look really dire.

Dissipate is a good card for this slot, but any solid counter can work in this here as well.

Devious Cover-Up is a Straight up counter spell that recycles nicely and helps with us not decking ourselves in the long run, which can be a big concern.

The Other Stuff:

The Celestus a mana rock and then some. The life gain and draw/discard really makes this card choice pic in a lot of deck, but in this case we also have Firmament Sage how also combos off the day/night trigger of this card, which can get very plentiful. (Had x4 in the deck but dropped to x3 for testing adding in another counter spell)

Vesuvan Duplimancy makes the deck interesting and nets you a lot more options, copying your creatures at a whim and adding more abilities to the battlefield.

Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim is a good wincon if you can protect him, he works well with all the draw in the deck

The Gameplan:

The goal is to draw a lot of cards and copy your creatures for effects and get bodies on the field. Use Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration to stall until you can play you 2-3 drops with protection at the ready. As always with Mono Blue, try to keep mana open and get some combos going. The Celestus and Firmament Sage will give you a big card advantage, or Vesuvan Duplimancy with one of the 10 spells that trigger the duplication ability on top of whatever else activates. Most those 10 spells also get to be reused when you cast Devious Cover-Up and put them back into you deck with hopefully another Devious Cover-Up to keep the loop going. This deck is a long grind at times to pull off the win but a lot of options while doing so.

Feel free to comment if you would like to see more my decks and please link here and give me a shout out if you used this deck and had fun.

Update: added Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim and adjusted some numbers on other cards to smooth out the mana curve.

Update 7-5-23: Trying some new things out with the build.