Chain of Command

I'm here to tell you: Supreme Will is the real deal. Holding three mana up means that I always have an option and unless my opponent was really fast, I could dig my way out of a lot.

For some reason, both Jason and Fuz have come up with Bant wall decks for me to push up against and in both cases I've been able to stop their key spells and protect my combo to win.

It's not just the 'don't die' decks that I found myself in a stronger position against. Because of the Impulse and Supreme Will suite of draw and countermagic, I found answers when I needed them. Ixalan's Binding and Voidstone Gargoyle did great work in games 2 and 3 to help me cut off their lines of play.

And Ultra Magnus has been doing OK in multiplayer games too. I learned a quick lesson about being OK with letting a land enter the battlefield tapped, if I could hold up countermagic on turn two vs Thalia. But again: the soft lock assembly kept my opponents away from me and towards each other.

I even got a reminder that Reverence works on creatures with power two or less. I've been focusing so much on what Godhead of Awe did I just thought everything had to be set to one. Turns out, there are a lot of creatures with two power that find themselves stuck behind a Reverence, whether or not Godhead is out.

All in all, I feel really good about where this deck is at. A few mana tweaks and the addition of Supreme Will have set Ultra Magnus in a far, far better spot than when I started, so I think it's time to move on.

3 Meadowboon
2 Voidstone Gargoyle
3 Godhead of Awe
3 Thalakos Seer
2 Riftwing Cloudskate
1 Restoration Angel

3 Reverence
3 Ixalan's Binding

3 Counterspell
2 Absorb
2 Peek
4 Momentary Blink
3 Impulse
3 Supreme Will

3 Azorius Chancery
7 Island
6 Plains
4 Prairie Stream
3 Port Town

Strange Visitors

The road testing of Ultra Magnus is going about how I expected, with new changes and old cards kinda-sorta meshing but maybe not?

It's the kind of experience I get a lot when trying new stuff, really hewing down to what works. Multiple games against Jason and I still wasn't comfortable with how certain lines of play should extend. That a deck needs to be practiced isn't a problem, however. I like it, I like looking for those interactions that I hadn't seen before.

Jason taught me a definite lesson about being able to interact. Godhead of Awe is pretty cool but it doesn't really do enough against Glorybringer if I don't have a Reverence out.

I was disappointed in my card draw effects, too. I think Mulldrifter is as cool as the next person but as a turn three play, it just wasn't doing what I hoped.

"But it draws you cards, man. You need it," Jason pointed out. "Plus, it's a flyer so you can swing for damage." And he's right on both counts. The problem with Mulldrifter doesn't go away, though. It's not a great turn three play, and I need to get Ultra Magnus online as soon as I can.

"I think I need to take out Hindering Light," I tell him. I don't want to: This card draws cards for me and protects my lock. It's all winner, right?

But it's too reactive. I need it after turn five, when, hopefully, I've set up my Reverence/Godhead lock. Before then, it doesn't help. In a deck with one and two drops, the Hindering Light could shine! In a deck with four and five turn plays, not so much.

So where to go? Well, thanks to my games of Battlebond I have a new collection of Impulses that need a home. And this might just be the time for a card I've been waiting to shine, Supreme Will.

With that suite of card draw effects that don't dilute (much) my ability to counter spells (three mana is usually a heavy enough tax that it functions like a hard counterspell), hopefully this will enable Ultra Magnus to assemble the pieces I need in order to push my gameplan forward.

Persuasion

After a checkup at Deckstats, the mana ratios looked pretty good-tilted slightly towards blue but given I wanted UU on turn two, I felt good about that. Even so, I thought I should update that base so I could more reliably have double blue on turn two, so I've added in Port Town to help with that.

I took the deck up against Jason for a day. It made for some interesting games but he said a few things at the end.

"I was least scared of Venerable Monk."

Well that's fair.

"And you're only running how many Reverence? Dude, your combo is Godhead/Reverence!"

Good point. OK. Let's evaluate: I haven't even looked into creatures that blink my stuff but there's bound to be some help in that area, too.

Restoration Angel and Deadeye Navigator both seem like solid possibilities-the Angel more than the Navigator. Deadeye is expensive to cast and, while abuseable via repeat activation, I'm not sure it'll be worth running.

Riftwake Cloudskate might be helpful solving permanents I can't get around, bouncing non-creatures. Ixalan's Binding should contribute to a space Jason said was sorely lacking: interaction with my opponent. Plus, it helps reinforce the control elements set by Voidstone Gargoyle. So that's the direction I'll take this in.

Ultra Magnus

Named after the great Autobot second in command, what...what was I doing with this deck?

4 Venerable Monk
4 Mulldrifter
4 Meadowboon
2 Voidstone Gargoyle
3 Godhead of Awe
4 Thalakos Seer 

2 Reverence
2 Counterspell
2 Absorb
2 Peek
2 Hindering Light
4 Momentary Blink
2 Familiar's Ruse 

3 Azorius Chancery
3 Skycloud Expanse
7 Island
6 Plains
4 Prairie Stream

I suppose it's worth admitting that it's a pie in the sky kind of deck. Get Godhead of Awe out, blink critturs for protection, use Reverence to keep my opponent's creatures off my back.

It's not a bad plan, really: there's a notion to control the board and win by making my elements thrive under that control by reusing Meadowboon's leave's play ability. I have cheap thematic countermagic in Familiar's Ruse, Momentary Blink to both save my creatures and take advantage of Thalakos Seer or Voidstone Gargoyle's abilities, Hindering Light to protect Godhead of Awe.

Effectively, I feel a lot better about the skeleton of this deck than I did when I started reviewing the last deck, Longshots. Putting this one through the wringer should be fun.