Martial Law and Supreme Verdict are a devastating pair of cards that no aggro player wants to see. Shutting down your best creature every turn is a powerful effect, but it becomes truly heartbreaking when your entire second string has just been wiped off the face of the earth. A play set of each of these cards will only cost you about $30 altogether, making a solid base for a budget W/U control deck. Here's the list I came up with:

"Lone Ranger Control"

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Lone Revenant

• Spells (31)
• 4 Dissipate
• 4 Inspiration
• 4 Syncopate
• 4 Think Twice
• 4 Supreme Verdict
• 3 Cyclonic Rift
• 4 Martial Law
• 4 Oblivion Ring

• Lands (25)
• 9 Island
• 9 Plains
• 3 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Azorius Guildgate

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Rewind
• 4 Dispel
• 4 Archon of the Triumvirate
• 3 Tormod's Crypt

Buy This Deck

The Deck

Dissipate and Syncopate form a solid wall of counterspells to make it difficult for your opponent to resolve anything threatening. Syncopate performs some extra work early in the game, allowing you to counter spells for only 2 mana when your opponent fails to play around a Force Spike. Later in the game, Dissipate ensures that you can counter anything you need to, while Syncopate still continues to be fairly effective due to your instant-speed card-draw, which allows you to hit all your land drops and leave all your mana open on your opponent's turn.

Oblivion Ring can take care of anything that makes it past your counterspells, from Loxodon Smiter to Ajani, Caller of the Pride. Detention Sphere is a small upgrade if you can get your hands on a few, but the difference is marginal enough that I don't think it's a priority.

Think Twice and Inspiration provide the card-draw that keeps the deck rolling while still allowing you to leave mana open for counterspells. These two are key parts of being able to counter or kill every threat your opponent puts out. They also help you find Lone Revenant and can often dig up a second one if the first is killed by a sweeper of some sort.

Lone Revenant is the solitary win condition for this deck (pun intended). Although it doesn't dish out as much damage as some of the other options and doesn't have any kind of evasion, I think that having a win condition with hexproof is critical for this deck. Hexproof allows you to run your win condition out there without having to wait until you have 8 or 9 mana to protect it with a counterspell. Although it unfortunately can still be killed by an overloaded Mizzium Mortars or a miracled Bonfire of the Damned, it's still immune to the vast majority of the removal spells in the format. In addition, Lone Revenant's Impulse ability will usually allow you to find another counter or removal spell every turn, ensuring that you can keep the path clear for your Spirit.

The Sideboard

Archon of the Triumvirate can provide some extra win conditions if you're worried about counterspells or Mizzium Mortars. Alternatively, you can swap it in for the Revenant once your opponent has sided out all his removal, giving you a more powerful win condition to work with.

Tormod's Crypt gives you some extra insurance against Unburial Rites decks, stopping them from doing any shenanigans while you've tapped out for a Lone Revenant or Martial Law. The Crypt will usually be more effective than something like Grafdigger's Cage since you'll still generate value from it if your opponent has a Naturalize, and being free to cast doesn't hurt either.

Playtesting

Jund Midrange – Game 1

I drew an Island, played my Plains, and passed the turn. My opponent played another tapped Overgrown Tomb and passed back.

I drew Azorius Guildgate, played it, and passed the turn. My opponent played Dragonskull Summit and cast Vampire Nighthawk. I let it resolve, and he passed the turn.

I drew Lone Revenant, played an Island, and cast Martial Law. I ended my turn. My opponent attacked for 2 with the Nighthawk, then played a Mountain and cast Olivia Voldaren. He ended his turn, and I detained Olivia during my upkeep.

I drew an Azorius Guildgate, played it, and cleared the board with Supreme Verdict. I passed the turn. My opponent went back down to 20 to put a Blood Crypt onto the battlefield untapped, then cast a Thragtusk to go up to 25. He ended his turn, and I detained the Thragtusk during my upkeep.

I drew a Plains, played it, and cast Lone Revenant. I ended my turn. My opponent cast Rakdos's Return for 3, emptying my hand and dropping me to 25. He then passed the turn.

I kept Thragtusk detained and drew Supreme Verdict. I attacked with Lone Revenant, dropping my opponent to 21. I grabbed a Syncopate off the top before ending my turn. My opponent passed the turn with no play.

I detained Thragtusk again on my upkeep, then drew an Azorius Guildgate for my turn. I attacked with Lone Revenant, dropping my opponent to 13 and grabbing a Dissipate. I played the Guildgate passed the turn. My opponent played a Forest and cast Mizzium Mortars for its overload cost. I countered it with a Syncopate for 2, and he ended his turn.

Thragtusk was detained again, and I drew another Lone Revenant. I attacked with the one on the battlefield, grabbing Inspiration from the top of my library. I passed the turn. My opponent cast Vampire Nighthawk, and I let it resolve. He passed the turn, and I cast Inspiration, drawing another Supreme Verdict and an Island.

I detained Thragtusk again and drew a Plains. Oblivion Ring took out Vampire Nighthawk, and Lone Revenant came crashing in again. I took another Dissipate off the top, then played my Island and passed the turn. My opponent cast a Thundermaw Hellkite, which I Dissipated, then passed back.

I kept the Thragtusk under lock and key and drew another Lone Revenant. I dropped my opponent down to 1, grabbed an Oblivion Ring off the top, and ended my turn. My opponent drew his card and conceded.

Sideboarding:

−4 Lone Revenant

+4 Archon of the Triumvirate

I decided to bank on my opponent siding out all his removal save Mizzium Mortars, and I switched to a win condition that was immune to it.

Game 2

My opponent played a Woodland Cemetery and cast Farseek to grab a Blood Crypt. He passed the turn. I drew Syncopate, played a Plains, and ended my turn.

My opponent played a Forest and cast Slaughter Games, naming Lone Revenant. I revealed my hand and library and couldn't hold back a smirk as my opponent discovered my switch. He passed the turn. I drew Inspiration, played an Island, and ended my turn.

My opponent played Kessig Wolf Run and passed his turn. I drew Cyclonic Rift, played my Plains, and cast Martial Law before passing back.

My opponent played a Swamp and cast a second Slaughter Games, exiling my copies of Archon of the Triumvirate. After thinking for a bit, I decided to go for the win, hoping to survive the next forty turns or so and kill my opponent by targeting him with Inspirations. My opponent passed the turn, and I drew another Inspiration and passed back.

My opponent attacked for 5 again, and I took the damage. He passed the turn, and I drew Think Twice and passed back, discarding it.

My opponent played a Woodland Cemetery and swung for 6, and I bounced the Keyrune with Cyclonic Rift. He ended his turn. I drew a Plains, played it, and passed the turn.

My opponent played a Blood Crypt tapped and cast the Keyrune again before passing the turn. I drew Cyclonic Rift and passed back.

My opponent played another Blood Crypt and swung with the Keyrune again. I bounced it with Cyclonic Rift after he pumped it up with the Kessig Wolf Run, and he passed the turn. I drew Dissipate and passed the turn.

My opponent cast the Keyrune again, and I countered it with Dissipate. Since I only had white mana left, he used the opportunity to cast a Rakdos's Return for 5, dropping me to 5 and making me discard everything but a Syncopate. He ended his turn. I drew Azorius Guildgate, played it, and passed the turn.

My opponent cast a Thundermaw Hellkite, and with 5 mana left untapped, Syncopate didn't stand a chance of countering it. He attacked with is hasty Dragon and killed me.

Sideboarding:

−3 Cyclonic Rift

−1 Archon of the Triumvirate

+4 Lone Revenant

After the double–Slaughter Games blowout, I decided to bring in both threats, making it impossible for a single copy to get rid of all my win conditions.

Game 3

I drew Syncopate, played my Island, and passed back. My opponent played Woodland Cemetery and ended his turn.

I drew an Island, played a Plains, and passed the turn. My opponent played a Mountain and passed the turn.

I drew an Island, played it, and cast Martial Law. My opponent played a Mountain, cast Rakdos Keyrune, and destroyed my Martial Law with Golgari Charm.

I drew a Plains, played it, and passed the turn. My opponent played a tapped Overgrown Tomb and cast Slaughter Games, exiling my Archons. He ended his turn.

I drew Lone Revenant, played my Island, and passed the turn. My opponent cast Thundermaw Hellkite, which I countered with Syncopate. He ended his turn.

I drew a Plains, played it, and passed the turn. He went for a Thragtusk next, which I Dissipated. He ended his turn.

I drew another Lone Revenant and cast Supreme Verdict. I ended my turn. My opponent played another Huntmaster of the Fells, following it up with Rakdos Keyrune. He passed the turn.

I drew and played a Plains, cast Lone Revenant, and passed the turn. My opponent overloaded a Mizzium Mortars, but I countered it with Syncopate. He ended his turn.

I drew a third Lone Revenant and attacked with my first. My opponent traded his Huntmaster and Wolf token for it. I played another Revenant and ended my turn. My opponent played Olivia Voldaren and passed the turn.

I drew Martial Law and attacked with my Lone Revenant. My opponent took the damage, and I grabbed a Syncopate off the top. I cast Martial Law and passed the turn. My opponent attacked me for 3 with Olivia, then cast Vampire Nighthawk. I cast Syncopate for 4 on it, forcing him to tap low enough that he couldn't activate the Keyrunes.

On my turn, I detained Olivia and drew Inspiration. I attacked with Lone Revenant, which traded with Vampire Nighthawk. I played another Revenant and passed the turn. My opponent played another Vampire Nighthawk and passed the turn, and I cast Inspiration, drawing Azorius Guildgate and Supreme Verdict.

I detained Olivia on my turn, then drew and cast Inspiration, drawing Dissipate and a Plains. I played my Guildgate and passed the turn. My opponent played Dragonskull Summit and went for a Rakdos's Return on his turn, but I had the Dissipate to stop him.

He passed the turn, and I detained Olivia again before drawing Oblivion Ring. I cast it on Vampire Nighthawk and attacked with Lone Revenant, dropping my opponent to 14 and grabbing a Syncopate. My opponent cast another Rakdos's Return on his turn, and I countered this one as well.

I detained Olivia and drew Dissipate. Lone Revenant dropped my opponent to 6, and I drew a Martial Law, casting it before passing the turn. My opponent passed back with no play.

I kept Olivia tied up and drew a Plains and attacked with Lone Revenant, putting him to 2 and grabbing a second Oblivion Ring.

My opponent passed the turn with no play again, and I drew Think Twice after detaining Olivia. I cast Oblivion Ring to exile his Keyrune and attacked with Lone Revenant. He cast Golgari Charm on the Oblivion Ring that was exiling his Vampire Nighthawk, but I countered it with Dissipate, and that was the end of it.

(Interesting aside: If the trigger for the final attack had resolved, I would officially have gone through my entire library, and I would have started seeing the cards I put on the bottom from previous triggers. It might be worth paying a bit more attention to what order you put things on the bottom in case this happens.)

Wrap-Up

Although it does have an unexpected weakness to Slaughter Games, this deck proved that it has the power to control almost every move your opponent makes, especially once you have a Lone Revenant up and running. The card-draw in the deck was even more important than I had imagined. Not seeing much of it in the second or third games really hurt, and I believe this partially led to the minor mana screw and mana flood, respectively. If you're a big fan of old-school control or if you've been eager to give Lone Revenant a shot, try this deck out at your next Friday Night Magic.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can find me on the forums under Twinblaze, on Twitter under @Twinblaze2, or simply leave a comment below.