Note: I only own 1 Restoration Angel and 1 Snapcaster Mage at present, and 0 copies of baby Jace so perhaps that will clear up some confusion in that area.
I've never written a report before so apologies if this is poorly formatted or isn't of much use to anyone but I thought I'd share nonetheless since I have received some great tips from this community in the past few weeks. Also, my memory is a bit hazy and I didn't take notes but the following is my best recollection:
R1 - Bw Devotion/Vampires, I'm on the play...
G1: She comes out really fast with a bunch of Vampires, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx fueling all of her mana needs, but I decide not to pop Ghost Quarter when most of her hand is in play and I could make better use of the mana. She manages to get me down to 5 before I dig into a Verdict and destroy her board (main deck board wipes FTW). Wall of Omens and I think a Kitchen Finks block Bloodghasts while Vendilion Clique and Celestial Colonnade do their thing.
G2: Her IoK missed when I kept a hand with lands and Cryptic, Verdict, Elspeth 1.0 (maybe I should have sent it back? Verdict + the mana to cast it + Command + win con seemed likely to be good enough to get there). Detention Sphere on multiple Bloodghasts was sweet, while my two Verdicts swept up wave 1 and wave 2 of her army. My Elspeth died to her Athreos, God of Passage (I think) when she had the Path for my blocker. A pair of Cryptics bounced the God for a couple turns in a row (and drew more cards) while Clique and Finks (and I think a Colonnade attack) got the job done.
2-0
R2 - UR Storm, I'm on the play...
G1: He mulled to 5. I let him cast all the card selection/cantrip cards he wanted to. He played back to back Goblin Electromancers and passed the turn. I cast Verdict the following turn, wrecking his plan to go off. He just plays more cantrips and passes. I draw and pass as well, holding up mana for Clique/Command. He casts a couple of Pyretic Rituals and tries for Past in Flames, which I Cryptic. I play it safe and play draw-go, leaving mana up for Leak/Snare/Cryptic. I tapped down to 2 mana on one of his end steps to play Clique. Once I hit enough mana to play Elspeth 1.0 and still have Leak+Snare up, I put her out there to speed up the clock and the game was over soon after.
G2: He mulls to 5 again! I felt bad for him. He plays cantrips into Defense Grid while I have only Spell Snare up and I no longer feel bad for him lol. He plays Goblin Elecromancer and Pyromancer's Ascension. I Path the Goblin on my next turn and deploy a threat (Clique grabbing a Past In Flames if my memory serves correct). He spends his next couple turns sculpting and trying to get Ascension online (having to re-deploy it once) but I bounced it twice with Cryptics and continued to draw cards. When I feel it's safe to turn the corner, I activate Colonnade to help out Clique on offense and get there in a couple turns.
2-0
R3 - Ad Nauseum, I'm on the play again!
G1: Colonnade go! He plays a Gemstone Mine and a Serum Visions. I decide I'm in no real hurry to deploy Wall and would rather keep up counter mana. His turn 2, he tries for Pentad Prism which I Spell Snare to slow him down. He continues sculpting his hand. I eventually Clique him and get a clock into play, taking something relevant. He goes for Angel's Grace into Ad Nauseum. I Mana Leak. He casts Pact of Negation but I have the Cryptic Command (which draws me into another piece of counter magic). He spends some turns cantripping/filtering while I just swing with Clique. I think I play a second Clique at some point to take something relevant again. He tries to deploy Phyrexian Unlife at some point and I have the Leak for it. GG
G2: I'm happy to have taken game 1 and am feeling good about G2 since I'm boarding out 9 dead cards for 4 more counters (5 if you count Glen Elendra Archmage), 2 Stony's (for his Prisms and Lotus Blooms), and 2 Spellskites. I don't remember much about this game, but I know he goes turn 1 Lotus Bloom. I Negated his turn 2 Pentad Prism. Turn 3 he sculpts and my turn 3 I don't have the Clique (guess I can't have one every game when I only run 2 copies ). He sculpts some more on his turn 4, and I leave up my mana for Snapcaster Mage into flashback Negate. On his turn 5, Bloom comes off suspend and I feel like my best chance is to try to counter the Bloom (pretty sure in hindsight, I should have kept this for the AN I was expecting). Anyway, he has the Pact of Negation for my Negate and I'm tapped out when he sacs it for Angel's Grace into Ad Nauseum. Punt?
G3: Crazy game! I keep a mitt full of counter magic (literally all I have in my hand, but I figure my probability of drawing into a threat by the time I'm ready to deploy it is decent). I play draw-go for a while and just counter all of his relevant stuff. I continue to draw into more counters while he sculpts. Eventually I play Clique and see Angel's Grace, Ad Nauseum, Supreme Verdict and something irrelevant (in this situation) like Lightning Storm. I decide that I have enough counter magic that I should be able to keep him from winning the game with the AN, and protecting my clock from the uncounterable kill spell is my priority (*more on this below). I proceed to beat him down for 3 a turn for like 5 or 6 turns in a row. When I think I might have it, he casts Darkness to prevent the lethal damage. I think I might have it again next turn, he announces Angel's Grace and puts it on the stack. I brain fart and go for the counter (which I can't actually do so we rewind, essentially just giving away information). Grace resolves, then he goes for Silence. He's got the mana for Ad Nauseum and almost certainly has the card in hand at this point so I feel like it's a must-counter. I go for Dispel, he responds with Pact. I respond with Mana Leak and have 4 mana left open. Silence is countered but he has the mana and decides to go for Ad Nauseum anyway, which I have the counter for. *handshake*
My opponent tells me he made a mistake by casting Ad Nauseum on my turn; he says if he would have waited until his turn, he would have had it. I'm not really sure how it would have made a difference, since I'm pretty sure I had more counters than he had spells I needed to counter but I assume he knows his deck better than I do and feel a bit lucky to get away with a win.
He also mentioned that I made a misplay when I Clique'd away his Supreme Verdict while he was holding Ad Nauseum and Angel's Grace. I said I had a ***** ton of counters in hand that were all live against his deck and only Clique in play as my clock. My line of thinking was "protect the clock, win the counter war, win the game". Is this correct? Or is it generally considered that if the opponent has an AN in hand, the only correct play is that you take that? And how does that change if they're holding 2 copies of AN but only 1 copy of their damage-mitigation spell (Grace or Unlife)? Do you take 1 of the AN or the Grace/Unlife?
Anyway, 2-1
R4 - ID with the only other 3-0 player to split prize money.
3-0-1
Given my matchups, the MVP's were (probably unsurprisingly) Vendilion Clique and counter magic (especially Cryptic Command!). Celestial Colonnades beat some good face as well. Overall the deck felt good to me, but maybe that's just because I was winning and things seemed to be going my way (e.g. Storm opponent mull'ing to 5 in both games and never found a Blood Moon, drawing Clique in like every game he was important lol).
I saw Elves, Merfolk, another UW midrange-y deck, and Burn on nearby tables but no idea what the other 15-ish players were on. I'd like to go back again but am considering some changes to the SB:
Is it a mistake to not play Disenchants? I felt a little lucky when my storm opponent reminded me that they play Blood Moon and I realized I forgot to consider this card when I was putting my SB together before the tourney. My only outs would have been counter it before it hits plays, or D-Sphere/Cryptic after it lands and Cryptic seems unlikely. Disenchant hits Worship, Blood Moon, Pyromancer's Ascension, Jeskai Ascendancy, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Phyrexian Unlife, Aether Vial, Ghostly Prison, Cranial Plating, Steel Overseer, 8-rack kill cons, Wild Defiance/Rancor/Inkmoth Nexus, Defense Grid out of some boards lol, anything else of note?
For Chalice, although I have no way to accelerate it into play, it seems like it could really do some damage against a lot of decks, even if it's not coming down until my turn 2:
Storm x=1: Gitaxian Probe, Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions, Thought Scour, Lightning Bolt. Extra copy on x=2 for Electromancers, Ascensions, Rituals, Manamorphose, Echoing Truth out of the board
Ad Nauseum x=0: Lotus Bloom and Pact of Negation. x=1 counters Angel's Grace, Silence, Spoils, 8 Cantrips, 1 copy of Gigadrowse lol
Elves x=1: Nettle Sentinels, Heritage Druids, Elvish Mystics, Llanowars
Burn/Zoo x=1: Bolts, Guides, Spikes, Nacatls, Swiftspears, Kird Apes, Path to Exile
Tron x=1: Maps, Stirrings, Stars, Spheres, Nature's Claim out of the board
Affinity x=0 on the play, or possibly x=2 if you're afforded the time with blockers/Verdicts?
Living End x=0
Infect.dec x=1
Boggles.dec x=1
Lantern.dec x=1
Anyone tried Chalice in their board? If so, how many Path/Snare/Dispel did you run in your 75? Thanks!
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WUBG Atraxa Superfriends WRBG Saskia's Angry UBRG Yidris Valuetown WUBR Breya "not just for infinite combos anymore" Etherium Shaper
mana]W[/mana]UR Narset the Nerfed WBG Ghave counters madness BRG Prossh, Token Master UBG Tasigur Seedborn Control WU Brago Bouncy Castle WB Karlov Voltron B Erebos/Drana MBC R Feldon jank
Note: I only own 1 Restoration Angel and 1 Snapcaster Mage at present, and 0 copies of baby Jace so perhaps that will clear up some confusion in that area.
I've never written a report before so apologies if this is poorly formatted or isn't of much use to anyone but I thought I'd share nonetheless since I have received some great tips from this community in the past few weeks. Also, my memory is a bit hazy and I didn't take notes but the following is my best recollection:
R1 - Bw Devotion/Vampires, I'm on the play...
G1: She comes out really fast with a bunch of Vampires, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx fueling all of her mana needs, but I decide not to pop Ghost Quarter when most of her hand is in play and I could make better use of the mana. She manages to get me down to 5 before I dig into a Verdict and destroy her board (main deck board wipes FTW). Wall of Omens and I think a Kitchen Finks block Bloodghasts while Vendilion Clique and Celestial Colonnade do their thing.
G2: Her IoK missed when I kept a hand with lands and Cryptic, Verdict, Elspeth 1.0 (maybe I should have sent it back? Verdict + the mana to cast it + Command + win con seemed likely to be good enough to get there). Detention Sphere on multiple Bloodghasts was sweet, while my two Verdicts swept up wave 1 and wave 2 of her army. My Elspeth died to her Athreos, God of Passage (I think) when she had the Path for my blocker. A pair of Cryptics bounced the God for a couple turns in a row (and drew more cards) while Clique and Finks (and I think a Colonnade attack) got the job done.
2-0
R2 - UR Storm, I'm on the play...
G1: He mulled to 5. I let him cast all the card selection/cantrip cards he wanted to. He played back to back Goblin Electromancers and passed the turn. I cast Verdict the following turn, wrecking his plan to go off. He just plays more cantrips and passes. I draw and pass as well, holding up mana for Clique/Command. He casts a couple of Pyretic Rituals and tries for Past in Flames, which I Cryptic. I play it safe and play draw-go, leaving mana up for Leak/Snare/Cryptic. I tapped down to 2 mana on one of his end steps to play Clique. Once I hit enough mana to play Elspeth 1.0 and still have Leak+Snare up, I put her out there to speed up the clock and the game was over soon after.
G2: He mulls to 5 again! I felt bad for him. He plays cantrips into Defense Grid while I have only Spell Snare up and I no longer feel bad for him lol. He plays Goblin Elecromancer and Pyromancer's Ascension. I Path the Goblin on my next turn and deploy a threat (Clique grabbing a Past In Flames if my memory serves correct). He spends his next couple turns sculpting and trying to get Ascension online (having to re-deploy it once) but I bounced it twice with Cryptics and continued to draw cards. When I feel it's safe to turn the corner, I activate Colonnade to help out Clique on offense and get there in a couple turns.
2-0
R3 - Ad Nauseum, I'm on the play again!
G1: Colonnade go! He plays a Gemstone Mine and a Serum Visions. I decide I'm in no real hurry to deploy Wall and would rather keep up counter mana. His turn 2, he tries for Pentad Prism which I Spell Snare to slow him down. He continues sculpting his hand. I eventually Clique him and get a clock into play, taking something relevant. He goes for Angel's Grace into Ad Nauseum. I Mana Leak. He casts Pact of Negation but I have the Cryptic Command (which draws me into another piece of counter magic). He spends some turns cantripping/filtering while I just swing with Clique. I think I play a second Clique at some point to take something relevant again. He tries to deploy Phyrexian Unlife at some point and I have the Leak for it. GG
G2: I'm happy to have taken game 1 and am feeling good about G2 since I'm boarding out 9 dead cards for 4 more counters (5 if you count Glen Elendra Archmage), 2 Stony's (for his Prisms and Lotus Blooms), and 2 Spellskites. I don't remember much about this game, but I know he goes turn 1 Lotus Bloom. I Negated his turn 2 Pentad Prism. Turn 3 he sculpts and my turn 3 I don't have the Clique (guess I can't have one every game when I only run 2 copies ). He sculpts some more on his turn 4, and I leave up my mana for Snapcaster Mage into flashback Negate. On his turn 5, Bloom comes off suspend and I feel like my best chance is to try to counter the Bloom (pretty sure in hindsight, I should have kept this for the AN I was expecting). Anyway, he has the Pact of Negation for my Negate and I'm tapped out when he sacs it for Angel's Grace into Ad Nauseum. Punt?
G3: Crazy game! I keep a mitt full of counter magic (literally all I have in my hand, but I figure my probability of drawing into a threat by the time I'm ready to deploy it is decent). I play draw-go for a while and just counter all of his relevant stuff. I continue to draw into more counters while he sculpts. Eventually I play Clique and see Angel's Grace, Ad Nauseum, Supreme Verdict and something irrelevant (in this situation) like Lightning Storm. I decide that I have enough counter magic that I should be able to keep him from winning the game with the AN, and protecting my clock from the uncounterable kill spell is my priority (*more on this below). I proceed to beat him down for 3 a turn for like 5 or 6 turns in a row. When I think I might have it, he casts Darkness to prevent the lethal damage. I think I might have it again next turn, he announces Angel's Grace and puts it on the stack. I brain fart and go for the counter (which I can't actually do so we rewind, essentially just giving away information). Grace resolves, then he goes for Silence. He's got the mana for Ad Nauseum and almost certainly has the card in hand at this point so I feel like it's a must-counter. I go for Dispel, he responds with Pact. I respond with Mana Leak and have 4 mana left open. Silence is countered but he has the mana and decides to go for Ad Nauseum anyway, which I have the counter for. *handshake*
My opponent tells me he made a mistake by casting Ad Nauseum on my turn; he says if he would have waited until his turn, he would have had it. I'm not really sure how it would have made a difference, since I'm pretty sure I had more counters than he had spells I needed to counter but I assume he knows his deck better than I do and feel a bit lucky to get away with a win.
He also mentioned that I made a misplay when I Clique'd away his Supreme Verdict while he was holding Ad Nauseum and Angel's Grace. I said I had a ***** ton of counters in hand that were all live against his deck and only Clique in play as my clock. My line of thinking was "protect the clock, win the counter war, win the game". Is this correct? Or is it generally considered that if the opponent has an AN in hand, the only correct play is that you take that? And how does that change if they're holding 2 copies of AN but only 1 copy of their damage-mitigation spell (Grace or Unlife)? Do you take 1 of the AN or the Grace/Unlife?
Anyway, 2-1
R4 - ID with the only other 3-0 player to split prize money.
3-0-1
Given my matchups, the MVP's were (probably unsurprisingly) Vendilion Clique and counter magic (especially Cryptic Command!). Celestial Colonnades beat some good face as well. Overall the deck felt good to me, but maybe that's just because I was winning and things seemed to be going my way (e.g. Storm opponent mull'ing to 5 in both games and never found a Blood Moon, drawing Clique in like every game he was important lol).
I saw Elves, Merfolk, another UW midrange-y deck, and Burn on nearby tables but no idea what the other 15-ish players were on. I'd like to go back again but am considering some changes to the SB:
Is it a mistake to not play Disenchants? I felt a little lucky when my storm opponent reminded me that they play Blood Moon and I realized I forgot to consider this card when I was putting my SB together before the tourney. My only outs would have been counter it before it hits plays, or D-Sphere/Cryptic after it lands and Cryptic seems unlikely. Disenchant hits Worship, Blood Moon, Pyromancer's Ascension, Jeskai Ascendancy, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Phyrexian Unlife, Aether Vial, Ghostly Prison, Cranial Plating, Steel Overseer, 8-rack kill cons, Wild Defiance/Rancor/Inkmoth Nexus, Defense Grid out of some boards lol, anything else of note?
For Chalice, although I have no way to accelerate it into play, it seems like it could really do some damage against a lot of decks, even if it's not coming down until my turn 2:
Storm x=1: Gitaxian Probe, Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions, Thought Scour, Lightning Bolt. Extra copy on x=2 for Electromancers, Ascensions, Rituals, Manamorphose, Echoing Truth out of the board
Ad Nauseum x=0: Lotus Bloom and Pact of Negation. x=1 counters Angel's Grace, Silence, Spoils, 8 Cantrips, 1 copy of Gigadrowse lol
Elves x=1: Nettle Sentinels, Heritage Druids, Elvish Mystics, Llanowars
Burn/Zoo x=1: Bolts, Guides, Spikes, Nacatls, Swiftspears, Kird Apes, Path to Exile
Tron x=1: Maps, Stirrings, Stars, Spheres, Nature's Claim out of the board
Affinity x=0 on the play, or possibly x=2 if you're afforded the time with blockers/Verdicts?
Living End x=0
Infect.dec x=1
Boggles.dec x=1
Lantern.dec x=1
Anyone tried Chalice in their board? If so, how many Path/Snare/Dispel did you run in your 75? Thanks!
Amazing write up! Thank you for this, further proving how formidable this approach is (my fav as you can read from my comment above).
I've yet to try Chalice in the board, but may be counter-productive for us unless we're playing it at '0'.
I currently run 4 Path, 2 Snare, 2 Dispel in the 75.
I think Disenchant, or any Enchantment/Artifact removal effect, is important for UW in the side. Good call.
Are you on FB? If so, have you seen my UWx community? It would be awesome if you could share this write up there!
I want to bring the following UW Conrol deck, that was piloted by Yuuya Watanabe to a 10th place finish at the 2015 World Championship, to your attention. As some of you know, I'm an avid fan of this approach for UW and have been advocating it as one of the best ways to play it in Modern, most notably vs Eldrazi (as I discussed in the following article: https://cardknocklifepodcast.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/the-resurrection-evolution-of-modern-uw-control/) As myself and others have noted, it functions like a value-based reactive Jund/Junk Midrange Control deck.
Yuuya Watanabe
World Championship - 8/27/15
Record: 10th Place
Though this was played in August of 2015, the meta looked more or less what it may revert back to post-Eldrazi. Let's take a look at the top performing decks of that tournament:
1. Bogles - Seth Manfield
2. Affinity - Owen Turtenwald
3. Affinity - Samuel Black
4. Affinity - Paul Rietzl
5. Living End - Magnus Lantto
6. Living End - Martin Miller
7. UR Pyromancer - Shaun Mclaren
8. Junk - Thiago Saporito
9. Merfolk - Ondrej Strasky
10. UW Control - Yuuya Watanabe
Below 10th were more Affinity, Bogles, and Living End. Burn, Jund, and Tokens also rounded out the rest of the Top 32. There were some Twin, too, but that was banned.
Other decks we can expect to see post-Eldrazi are Tron, Infect, Junk, Company/Chord, and a rise in UWx Midrange/Control decks. Eldrazi may also stick around, but it won't be the dominant menace it's been. We're well-positioned vs this meta, but Tron will be one of the most difficult - as it's always been.
What does this all mean for us? We'll continue to be relevant because of our versatility and adaptability.
Paul Cheon from Channel Fireball did a deck tech on Yuuya Watanabe's UW Control deck a month later, but his changes were -2 Dragonlord Ojutai for +1 Restoration Angel and 1 Gideon Jura. He also changed some numbers and cards in the board.
If you're unsure of what kind of UWx deck to play, especially for GP Charlotte, consider this one or a variation of mine, which is similar in design as Yuuya's:
Neo7thinker, I played a list very similar to your Clash of the Titans for the local Modern Monday. I'd say it's a decently competitive meta (couple of guys have been to the Pro Tour), so felt like I got some good games in. The list was based on what's posted here: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/382264#paper
Went 4-0, which was my first time doing so. Previously had topped out at 3-1. Matchups were:
Abzan Company 2-0
Game 1 I was able to wrath a couple of times and keep him off the combo. Eventually the board was clear and Gideon got in for 3 swings and GG
Game 2 was closer. He got an infinite life combo off. However, I was able to wipe his board clear of creatures afterwards, and eventually started recurring Ghost Quarter with Sun Titan to keep him off all mana. He eventually conceded to me.
Affinity 2-0
Game 1 he started off rather slowly and I was able to wrath on turn 4 with lots of life. He played out the rest of his hand on turn 5, which met another wrath. From there, a Gideon came down and closed it out
Game 2 he kept a one lander. I was stuck on two lands for a while, but was able to Spreading Seas his nexus and then keep his Mox Opal turned off. I found lands, he didn't and the game ended pretty quickly
Living End 2-0
Game 1 was back and forth. He got me down pretty low, but I was able to find some well timed Cryptics and stay alive. Gideon was able to soak up lots of damage for me, and after he played his fourth living end, I was able to wrath and close it out
Game 2 he got stuck on lands early. I was getting in some decent beats with Gideon and should have closed the game out when he Violent Outburst'ed. Instead, I punted hard and Cryptic Commanded that instead of waiting for Living End. He got me down a bit lower, but I was able to regain control and close the game
Infect 2-1
Game 1 I think he killed me on Turn 3 or 4. I was stuck on three lands with a wrath in hand, but he had Inkmoth + Become Immense so I was dead anyway.
Game 2 I got a Runed Halo down the turn after he played a Blighted Agent and then when he followed up with Glistener a couple turns later I was able to find my second Halo. Some running Ghost Quarters and a hand full of answers kept his Inkmoth off line and Gideon/Clique did the beat down
Game 3 was similar. No Halo's, but my answers lined up well with his protection spells. Condemn+Path+Dispel made it tough sledding to get through for any damage.
Overall, I felt the deck played really well. I never saw Venser in any game, and only saw Knight Errant once (the game against infinite life, so she was kind of useless). I had fun playing it (helps when you're winning), but can't wait to run it out again
Neo7thinker, I played a list very similar to your Clash of the Titans for the local Modern Monday. I'd say it's a decently competitive meta (couple of guys have been to the Pro Tour), so felt like I got some good games in. The list was based on what's posted here: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/382264#paper
Went 4-0, which was my first time doing so. Previously had topped out at 3-1. Matchups were:
Abzan Company 2-0
Game 1 I was able to wrath a couple of times and keep him off the combo. Eventually the board was clear and Gideon got in for 3 swings and GG
Game 2 was closer. He got an infinite life combo off. However, I was able to wipe his board clear of creatures afterwards, and eventually started recurring Ghost Quarter with Sun Titan to keep him off all mana. He eventually conceded to me.
Affinity 2-0
Game 1 he started off rather slowly and I was able to wrath on turn 4 with lots of life. He played out the rest of his hand on turn 5, which met another wrath. From there, a Gideon came down and closed it out
Game 2 he kept a one lander. I was stuck on two lands for a while, but was able to Spreading Seas his nexus and then keep his Mox Opal turned off. I found lands, he didn't and the game ended pretty quickly
Living End 2-0
Game 1 was back and forth. He got me down pretty low, but I was able to find some well timed Cryptics and stay alive. Gideon was able to soak up lots of damage for me, and after he played his fourth living end, I was able to wrath and close it out
Game 2 he got stuck on lands early. I was getting in some decent beats with Gideon and should have closed the game out when he Violent Outburst'ed. Instead, I punted hard and Cryptic Commanded that instead of waiting for Living End. He got me down a bit lower, but I was able to regain control and close the game
Infect 2-1
Game 1 I think he killed me on Turn 3 or 4. I was stuck on three lands with a wrath in hand, but he had Inkmoth + Become Immense so I was dead anyway.
Game 2 I got a Runed Halo down the turn after he played a Blighted Agent and then when he followed up with Glistener a couple turns later I was able to find my second Halo. Some running Ghost Quarters and a hand full of answers kept his Inkmoth off line and Gideon/Clique did the beat down
Game 3 was similar. No Halo's, but my answers lined up well with his protection spells. Condemn+Path+Dispel made it tough sledding to get through for any damage.
Overall, I felt the deck played really well. I never saw Venser in any game, and only saw Knight Errant once (the game against infinite life, so she was kind of useless). I had fun playing it (helps when you're winning), but can't wait to run it out again
Awesome job, especially vs Living End! Thanks for the report. Looking forward to more feedback.
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I'm also an Admin for one of the premier Modern communities on Facebook:
I'm actively recruiting a team of experienced players who are proficient in, and are playing, UW Midrange Control, which is more or less based off of Yuuya Watanabe's shell that took 10th at the World Championship last year:
I'm capping off at 20 people for the team. We'll be discussing and optimizing this archetype, adapting it to the meta, prep for FNM and events (i.e. GP Charlotte), share tournament results, and more.
If you're interested, please comment below and share your years of experience and list you're playing. If you qualify, I'll PM you.
So well, basically I built this deck as an answer to my hyper aggressive locals and I must say it worked even better than expected. I feared that so much counter magic would actually be a crutch, but I myself am awed at the plays it was actually able to put off. I am posting it again 'cause I fear it may have been lost as the last post of the previous thread.
So by now it is quite clear my meta is real aggro. I had no trouble with any match (not even Infect, which has been a historical auto-lose for me). All the creature interaction is simply amazing. I fear what would happen against hand control, but fortunately that is rare these days save for the ugly Eldrazi. I suspect this deck will still be relevant after the ban, especially since 4x Spreading Seas and 4x Ghost Quarters controls the Infect and Affinity match a great deal.
It may be painfully obvious that I completely forgot my side deck for the event. Even then, it was not really needed. I was even told why would I want a Side deck when all my Main is a Side Deck lol. Made my feel somewhat proud of myself.
Thanks for the primer write-up. I'm in the process of assembling pieces for this deck, with my prior experience having piloted several variations of 8Rack and Merfolk. I did have general questions to help clarify what this deck does.
i) Where do we draw the line between UW control and UW superfriends(e.g. http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/385314#paper)? Is it 6 or more planeswalkers, namely Jace, Architect of Thought? Or the lack of counters and Cryptic Command?
ii) Why do some UW control lists play ~15 creatures with Supreme Verdict? This seems counter-intuitive to me, as you are opening up a vulnerability of being caught off-balance by having to wipe your own board state or else having a dead card in hand.
iii) What is the general feeling towards Serum Visions? It's rarely seen in lists, but I would like to know what other cards would play well with it. Here's a list that did well with a playset in the main: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/388112#online
Thanks for the primer write-up. I'm in the process of assembling pieces for this deck, with my prior experience having piloted several variations of 8Rack and Merfolk. I did have general questions to help clarify what this deck does.
i) Where do we draw the line between UW control and UW superfriends(e.g. http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/385314#paper)? Is it 6 or more planeswalkers, namely Jace, Architect of Thought? Or the lack of counters and Cryptic Command?
ii) Why do some UW control lists play ~15 creatures with Supreme Verdict? This seems counter-intuitive to me, as you are opening up a vulnerability of being caught off-balance by having to wipe your own board state or else having a dead card in hand.
iii) What is the general feeling towards Serum Visions? It's rarely seen in lists, but I would like to know what other cards would play well with it. Here's a list that did well with a playset in the main: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/388112#online
#2. This actually isn't counter productive in this type of deck. Omens/Finks force over-extension, which synergize with Verdict. It's ok if Omens dies and Finks/Verdict is one of our best plays as it gives a body after it dies. Then we have Resto to blink it or Elspeth to pump it (5/4). Some builds even have Sun Titan to recover what was lost.
The deck is good vs Aggro/Midrange as it is capable of stabilizing, but can also beat down and apply pressure vs Combo/Control via Snap/Clique/Resto + Counters. It's a hybrid Control deck with a core gameplan of interaction + pressure. It's like a value-based attrition deck that can be refered to as 'Reactive Jund/Junk'.
I've written about this approach and I believe it's one of the best for UW in Modern just as it was for Standard with Delverless and Titan Control.
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#3 Serum visions is a great card for smoothing out draws when you are not planning on tapping out turns 1-4 for things like finks/wall of omens. Moreover, snapcaster mage really likes having serum visions around to give a wall of omens impression with better selection (at 3 mana of course). I've found Myth Realized to be a great way to increase the value of maxing snapcaster and serum visions. Getting myth up to 6/6 around turn 5 is a good estimate, and turn 3-4 attacks into your open mana and untapped myth gets questionable. Serum visions helps you tuck extra verdicts or threats, dig for the answer or SB card you need and pump myth.
Most players were trusting in the tried and true wall/finks build before eldrazi became a thing, and the switch to lots of planeswalkes is likely going to decrease once eldrazi is less common in the meta.
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
Hi all! I am a faeries player and want another competitive blue control deck to play with and I saw the popularity of UW control and thought it would be a fun deck to play. I am working and testing on a list right now so I'll be back with some insights over this weekend. Thanks!
Amazing write up! Thank you for this, further proving how formidable this approach is (my fav as you can read from my comment above).
I've yet to try Chalice in the board, but may be counter-productive for us unless we're playing it at '0'.
I currently run 4 Path, 2 Snare, 2 Dispel in the 75.
I think Disenchant, or any Enchantment/Artifact removal effect, is important for UW in the side. Good call.
Are you on FB? If so, have you seen my UWx community? It would be awesome if you could share this write up there!
Thanks. I guess I was thinking that the damage Chalice does to our own deck is generally going to be far less than the damage it will do to the decks you'd bring it in against. For some matchups, you could even board out some of the cards that will be shut off (Paths and/or Snares when your plan is to set at 1, Walls and/or Leaks when you want x=2). And for matchups like Infect where you can't afford to board out the potentially-dead cards like Path, you keep both for redundancy. If you resolve Chalice first, you probably don't really care all that much if you draw into a dead Path when you're shutting off that much of their deck, right? Maybe I'm wrong but if no one really has any insight to offer on this front, I think I'll at least test it out.
And thanks for the invite, but I'm not on FB.
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WUBG Atraxa Superfriends WRBG Saskia's Angry UBRG Yidris Valuetown WUBR Breya "not just for infinite combos anymore" Etherium Shaper
mana]W[/mana]UR Narset the Nerfed WBG Ghave counters madness BRG Prossh, Token Master UBG Tasigur Seedborn Control WU Brago Bouncy Castle WB Karlov Voltron B Erebos/Drana MBC R Feldon jank
Results from a 40-person Modern event at my lgs. Meta was quite diverse, with a skew towards Living End and Abzan. Of note, just to confirm it's dominance, there were four Eldrazi variants registered, and 3 of them made t4 - 75% conversion. The only reason the 4th did not make it was that he showed up late and suffered a match loss. Our Modern meta is full of spikes, with a few rogue/brewers out there. I consider most Modern events here highly competitive.
Game 1 I'm on the play, and I don't know what he's playing, but I am familiar with his deck choices and they usually involve Red. I see Wall/Finks/Image and am happy to keep. I open with a fetch, he goes fetch/shock/Nacatl. I play Wall, he fetch/shocks into Goblin Guide and Swiftspear, netting me a land and him first blood (wall blocking Nacatl). I cast Finks, he casts a Boros Charm and swings. I block SS with Wall and Finks trades with Nacatl, dropping to 11. Finks persists, and on my go I copy Finks with Image back to 15. He casts Lava Spike, and swings. My notes are not clear on the sequence here, but I did follow up with Gideon and then Sun Titan, burying him in value/lifegain.
G2 I keep a risky hand, that in hind sight I should have mulled: 4 lands, Engineered Explosives, Restoration Angel and I think Supreme Verdict. My thought process was that EE would keep him from spamming the board with 1-drops, buying me some time to establish a board/find a Finks to play with Resto. The problem was if he had all gas in burn spells, or if I drew lands. He had gas, starting with Nacatl, which, after getting hit twice I had to EE. He followed up with a Lavamancer, which ate a Path. He had Boros Charm and Bolt to the face, dropping me to 7. I flash-blocked a Swiftspear with Resto, but he had a landfall powered Searing Blaze to finish it and drop me to 4. Wall of Omens was not good enough for me to survive another Searing Blaze and a suspended Rift Bolt.
G3 I have a much better hand with Finks, Image and Condemn, which all ensure I survive the initial onslaught of Nacatl (turn 1 all three games!), Swiftspear, Bolt, Spike, Boros Charm, Bolt. Finks and Image (Finks) finish him off.
Round 2 vs Bant Company (no combo, Knight of the Reliquary, Voice of Resurgence, Eternal Witness et al.)
G1 on the draw, but he mulls to 5. He bluffs by commenting that he couldn't keep a six of 4x Mimic and 2x Endless One – he's an out of town player so I did not know what he might be playing. I keep a reasonable double Finks hand with Path, and after I cast my first one, he plays Image copying my Finks. We trade blows for a bit, and he has Intrepid Hero and a Birds, while I land Resto to reset Finks. Resto does some work, and after I remove his Intrepid Hero, he has no way to survive Colonnade beats.
In: 2x Dispel, 1 Wrath of God, 1 Vendilion Clique. Out: 1 Condemn, 1 Wall of Omens, 1 Elspeth, 1 Journey to Nowhere
G2 This was a more average grindy game – I wasn't sure exactly what his deck was doing since I didn't see a whole lot g1. He had a slow start even with Heirarch. I had Finks into Image, gaining me 8 life along with Resto. He cast Meddling Mage, naming Cryptic Command after I had cast a Path on his Voice of Resurgence. He followed that up with two Phantasmal Images, both copying MM. One named Blade Splicer (which I don't run) and the second named Verdict. I drew a Detention Sphere and felt pretty good about exiling 3 for 1. Ran away with the game after that, and closed with Colonnade beats over a large Scavenging Ooze and dorks + Gavony. Having Ghost Quarter was important here, as without that the Gavony Township would have beaten me.
Round 3 vs Naya Burn (No Nacatls)
G1 I'm on the play, and have Finks/Snap/Path, which I like. He opens with Goblin Guide, which nets me something like 3 lands in a row. He has a strong hand with Boros Charm, Helix, R Bolt, Lava Spike, which all drop me to 4 very quickly despite the 2 life off Finks. He won't kill Finks, but I have to play extremely conservatively with a Cryptic in hand to keep me alive vs Boros Charm or haste + burn spell. I let a Swiftspear hit me down to 3, but have a second Finks to come back to 4 after fetching. Finks and Snapcaster beat him down, with Colonnade delivering the final blow.
Sideboard same as round 1.
G2 I see the perfect possible hand vs a burn opponent: Island, Plains, Wall of Omens, Kitchen Finks x2, Phantasmal Image and Dispel. Of course I need a second white source, but with Wall, being on the draw, and the potential to Image Wall, this hand is ideal. I drew a Glacial Fortress on his turn one off GG
He has GG to start things off, which unfortunately nets me a land, meaning my land-go first turn results in a discard. I had to choose Image for the discard. He is able to drop me to 10 with Swiftspear and Rift Bolt, but double Finks with a critical Dispel on his Atarka's Command allows me to get there. He cast an Eidolon of the Great Revel with me at 10 and him at 3, which I think may have been wrong. He just traded with a Finks, but he did take 2 from a second Swiftspear. I was able to deal lethal thanks to a Phantasmal Image copying a Goblin Guide for hasty beats vs his tapped out team.
Round 4 vs U/R Blue Moon
G1 on the draw, was a horribly slow affair, with each of us playing Clique and him having many counters to slow my offense. Verdict was awful in this matchup, but Finks did serious work, chipping slowly at his life total while being a poor target for his Bolts and Burst Lightnings which went to my face instead. I basically had two Finks going to town for the whole game and he had a late Blood Moon.
G2 was a frightening affair, with an early Blood Moon getting Negated, and my Finks getting leaked. He had a lot of burn+Clique to get me down below 10 quickly. The game dragged on with each of us making land drops but little in the spell department. I naturally drew and played 3 Islands, so Cryptic was live through the second Blood Moon that landed (he had Spell Snare for my Snap-Negate). This was critical to counter his Pia + Kiran, which was the only source of burn he had after 2 consecutive Bolts dropped me to 2. I was able to land a Clique of my own, and Detention Sphere on his Blood Moon made sure that Colonnade could finish the job.
Rounds 5 and 6 were ID's to lock T8, 2nd seed. Took time to go back to my place and make some food and relax.
T8 decklists are available on mtgtop8 via my decklist link. I played the R/G Eldrazi list.
G1 Was decent, with him mulling to 6. I had a strong opener with 2 Verdict and Wall/Finks, 2 fetches and 2 GQ. Finks did work, as did the second. He had t2 Reshaper into Mimic off Cavern of Souls and basics. Eye of Ugin came down along with a Smasher – this met a Verdict and my Finks kept swinging. He cast Thought Knot – I cast Cryptic Command to bounce my Wall of Omens and draw a card. He saw: 2x Supreme Verdict, Phantasmal Image, Path to Exile, Wall of Omens and land. He took a Verdict, I slammed Image copying Thought Knot, Path'd the TKS and he drew lands. 1-0
In: 1 Elspeth, 1 Wrath of God, 1 Vendilion Clique, 2 Spreading Seas. Out: 3 Restoration Angel (a HUGE mistake – I made up this sideboard guide the night before because I hadn't had a chance to test the m/u, but I totally blanked on the fact that Cavern makes Cryptic quite bad – should have taken out Cryptics here instead. My thought process was that Resto is too “cute” for this m/u, that the slight advantages gained off Wall/Finks are not enough to combat the powerful, fast Eldrazi. I still believe that to be correct, but CC is just worse), 1 Sun Titan (also bad), 1 Snapcaster (fine).
G2 was painful... My hand was strong enough with Seas, 2x Path and Finks, but I totally missed what the lands were – 1 Colonnade and 2 Glacial Fortress.....t1-3 tapped lands. I keep and regret immediately. He goes Stirrings into Eye of Ugin, t2 Matter Reshaper, t3 Reality Smasher. I Seas his Eye and Path the Smasher, but he has another Stirrings for Reality Smasher. And while I happily have Detention Sphere, he follows up with World Breaker, removing D-Sphere and killing me a turn later.
G3 He has Stirrings for Smasher and a second Stirrings on t2 for Temple. I have Clique and then Seas to slow things down, but I drop to 12 on turn 4 from Reshaper/Smasher. He casts World Breaker, and I get to Verdict (Reshaper hits Obligator into play). When I Seas his Temple, he sacs it for WB, returning it to hand. I Clique on his draw step and see: WB, Obligator, Bolt, land, land. I have a D-Sphere in hand, and I really want to Sphere the Breaker. I get locked into a decision between putting WB or Obligator away, trying to decide whether getting a 2-for-1 D-Sphere on the two Obligators is better than removing a WB (and losing a land). I plan too far ahead and am blind to the fact that I die to Obligator taking Clique, swing and Bolt. I put WB on the bottom and die.
I punted these games pretty hard, and I'll chalk it up to a complete lack of testing vs Eldrazi. I think this deck in some ways has game vs them, and it's a slightly moot point anyways. I did, however, experience that unless they are stumbling in some manner, it feels like playing from behind the whole game.
Top 8 was satisfying, and I was happy with the build overall. Changes I think I would make to this version moving forward would be: -1 Glacial Fortress +1 Coloured Source (probably Seachrome, maybe Fountain), -1 Journey to Nowhere +1 D-Sphere, -1 Elspeth +1 Cryptic or Knight Errant. -1 Surgical Extraction +1 Relic of Progenitus.
Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated. I am going to goof around with a full draw-go with a top end of Ojutai and PW's for a bit until Eldrazi leaves and the dust begins to settle.
I played a Modern event today for Expeditions and went undefeated to claim a Misty Rainforest. I usually play Merfolk; after getting a feel for the decks in the meta for the last event 2 weeks ago, I came across this list (http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=11774&d=267147&f=MO) which I liked and tweaked it to my own liking. I was expecting a mix of Merfolk, UR Eldrazi, Black Eldrazi, Burn, Ad Nauseum, Jund, Infect, and Affinity (about 70% of those decks were present). Here's what I ran:
Round 1, I won 2-1 against UR Delver. Wasn't much to say about this; the one game I lost was mostly due to mana issues. Pretty easy and the heavy creature removal is useful here.
Round 2, I won 2-0 against Red Deck Wins. I was paired down for this round; he was a playing a mono-red variant of RDW with Hellspark Elemental. Game 1 was pretty easy to take control of once I resolved Sphinx's Revelation for a lot. Game 2, he mulled to 6 and started with a Leyline of Punishment. Despite this, I had basically the perfect mix of removal and counterspells to stabilize long enough for Elspeth to get online, and ended the game at 3 life.
Round 3, I won 2-1 against Black Eldrazi (the processor version). He wasn't super familiar with either deck and ended up taking a significant portion of the clock (I knew both lists pretty well and was keeping it moving as fast as I could). In game 3 we got to time with me having an Elspeth on board with Cryptic, Snapcaster, Verdict, and Tec Edge in hand to his 1-2 cards in hand, Eye, and a few 2/2s, which was pretty clear cut in my favor. He ended up conceding the game which I think was reasonable considering his disproportionate amount of time used and the fairly solid lock I had on that game.
Round 4, I ID-ed with my opponent (who I ended up playing in the finals).
Top 4, I won 2-1 against Lantern Control. I nearly had him in game 1; he got an Ensnaring Bridge online and I had a two-turn clock ready with 2 Cryptic Commands in hand. I bounced his Bridge at end of turn, attacked him for 9, and passed. I had just enough mana so when I played my land drop next turn, I'd have lethal after using Cyptic at his end step on Bridge once he replayed it. He then proceeded to topdeck Surgical Extraction, nailed the Cryptic in the yard, and out the window went my shot at winning game 1. Game 2, I sided in 11 cards and went with a much more aggressive plan. I played 3 2/1 creatures and countered his Bridge twice before he died. Game 3, I kept a hand with 3 land in it including one Flooded Strand. Played a Colonnade T1, then he Inquisitons me, and then casts Pithing Needle on Flooded Strand after seeing it in my hand. My next two draws are both Flooded Strands (>.<). However, I proceed to draw a 4th mana, and I'm sitting with an Ojutai's Command and a Cryptic Command in hand. He proceeds to mill off a bunch of cards including Snapcaster Mage and Hurkyl's Recall, giving me a Lone Missionary, some Colonnades, and other lands to draw each turn as he amasses a large number of mill-rocks and 3 Bridges on board. I waited until I had about 16 cards left in my deck (having around 13-14 lands in play by now including 3 Flooded Strands still being Needled), wait for him to tap out in his main phase (he has 4 lands including 1 Glimmervoid and no Opals), cast Ojutai's Command, reanimate Snapcaster Mage, then cast Hurkyl's Recall, completely wiping his board. I attack him, he tried to replay Needle on my Colonnades, which I counter, and proceed to kill him the next turn. It took forever, but Ojutai's Command in my starting hand ended up being the game winning card. This matchup is awful to play and took an eternity to get through.
Finals, I won 2-1 vs GB The Rock. My opponent took game 1 after I proceed to flood out (ended up with 10 lands to his 5). He played it very carefully; never overdeployed and just forced me to 1-for-1 him on each threat before dropping the next one. Game 2, He Thoughtseizes me turn 1, and turn 2 I draw Elspeth with a clear path to play her on turn 6. He was absolutely not prepared for the carnage that she delivered Game 3 was very grindy. I ended up missing my 4th land drop, but managed to find the 4th land on turn 5, which turned on a bunch of cards in my hand, and I was eventually able to start fighting my way back into the game. I got him down to 2 cards in hand, and from there I resolved a Revelation for 3 and that was pretty much where it finally turned around for me. This was an extremely grindy match and there were definitely points at which he could have drawn a Liliana of the Veil which likely would have locked me out of the game, but fortunately he seemed to be flooding the same way I did in game 1.
I really liked the 4/2 split on Path to Exile / Condemn, both cards did amazing work for me. Ojutai's Command was also surprisingly good and enabled some rather unique lines of play after turns 5 and 6. I'm almost kinda sad that the meta is about to change as I really like this deck. Hopefully it endures whatever the new metagame will look like, because it felt really powerful today.
I really like your build, and tested it out. It preforms much better than the lists with bounce/resto packages, because it is more focused on control. You never have a conflict of interest (do I wipe the board?) The decision is always clear. Ojutai's Command works very well. It is great game 1 vs burn. Helps you get a win sometimes. Countering a creature and returning a wall is pretty efficient too. Happened once. I like jace. He preformed well every time. Same with Elspeth.
However, I found that the list struggled against other control decks, both game 1 and in the sideboard matches. 3-color control decks have better lands than us, more man lands, more reach, and more versatility. I like my chances against everything else, but I wanted something more here. So, what can you do to crush a control deck? Use this card: Alchemist's Refuge This card is great against control. You will notice that in the list below, I took out the glacial fortresses for 2 Refuges, a Temple Garden, and a Breeding Pool. With the amount of fethes we run, this is enough to reliably have Refuge online by the time we need it. It is also useful against midrange decks if we want to flash in a Supreme Verdict, or a Jace that would otherwise die before we untapped with it. Additionally, it only takes 5 lands to flash in a baby Jace or a wall, which is very nice. This list is still U/W control because it does not actually run any green cards. It just needs a couple green sources for Refuge, and stays true to the U/W control shell. NOTE: There is a new archtype that uses Eerie Interlude with Collected Company to abuse ETB abilities to an extreme. Flashing in boardwipes is NEEDED against Eerie Interlude, which basically gives all sorcery-speed boardipes the finger. For those unaware, Eerie Interlude can bounce an entire field, and if they have Eternal Witness, they can do this indefinitely. It's no joke.
In addition to the Refuge package, I have made these changes:
-2 Sphinx's Rev:
I don't like this card in modern. It's great when it's good, but it's sad when it's bad. And let's face it: it's bad most of the time. With the Alchemist's Refuge, you have a mana dump for EOT effects, so this will not missed even if you do have a lot of mana on hand.
-3 Mana Leak:
I don't like having to leave 2 mana up for counters when I need to tap out for something. It makes all my 4 drops 6 drops, and forget about casting Elspeth against control. (Don't even think about winning with collonade against control. They will path it, tec-edge it, or something else.)It's irrelevant vs. weenies and goblins, and also against the new ETB-Eerie Company decks that are popping up, and will surely dominate after Eldrazi gets the hack.
+1 Terminus:
Not sure how I feel about this one. Still testing it, but others seem to like it so I'm willing to try. Results have not been fantastic but I'm a believer so I'll keep testing. I may change this out for a 4th Spell Snare.
+3 Spell Snare:
I want my counters to be 1 mana. If it's not a 2-drop, I can deal with it on-board. However, more than often I need to cast a threat with mana open against a counterspell. Sometimes I am playing second and need to counter their turn 2 play. There's a reason why this is a popular card in Modern. I wouldn't be so hasty not to run it. A lot of times against control, it just comes down to, who has Cryptic + protection for cryptic? (spell snare)
+1 Cryptic Command:
This is a pure control deck, so we should be running 4 of these. End of story. I don't know why people stopped doing this. Here is a reminder of why we need 4:
1) counter + draw = raw card advantage
2) Bouncing something relevant, even a land, is a versatile option to have. No card advantage lost if used with draw option.
3) Tapping an enemy army while at the same time digging for a boardwipe esta papa.
4) If you tap the enemy team, it makes them more likely to overextend after they deal no damage, by casting yet another creature. Even pros make mistakes.
You know how good of a card it is. You know you always want it when you have 4 mana and don't need to supreme verdict. Every single game. So run 4.
I changed the sideboard to reflect what I face. Stony silence because affinity and those darned top control decks. With Refuge added, we are likely to win game 1 vs control now, so 2 Dispels is enough. I almost never bring in detention sphere, and feel like Auriok Champion might be a better choice because the deck suffers vs. burn, and goblin bushwacker. Champion is also good vs. Jund and Grixis-style decks. Runed Halo is great against Boggles and Burn. Against combo you can name Conflagrate or Grapeshot, depending on which combo you face, and it will be easier for you to win. Conflagrate decks sometimes run Echoing Truth, which is another reason Spell Snare is good. Celestial Purge is amazing against liliana, but also against goblins, and all sorts of other things. Love it.
I love your addition of Condemn. I have even condemned my own Collonade to gain 4 life and stay out of reach against a burn deck when we were both grinding and I was very low on life. Having 6 spot removals is amazing. I never have to worry about infect...that deck just dies to this list. Affinity is a lot more favorable too.
Overall great list. It inspired me to tweak it an I now have a deck I like to play.
Congratz on your Rainforest!!!
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Results from a 40-person Modern event at my lgs. Meta was quite diverse, with a skew towards Living End and Abzan. Of note, just to confirm it's dominance, there were four Eldrazi variants registered, and 3 of them made t4 - 75% conversion. The only reason the 4th did not make it was that he showed up late and suffered a match loss. Our Modern meta is full of spikes, with a few rogue/brewers out there. I consider most Modern events here highly competitive.
Game 1 I'm on the play, and I don't know what he's playing, but I am familiar with his deck choices and they usually involve Red. I see Wall/Finks/Image and am happy to keep. I open with a fetch, he goes fetch/shock/Nacatl. I play Wall, he fetch/shocks into Goblin Guide and Swiftspear, netting me a land and him first blood (wall blocking Nacatl). I cast Finks, he casts a Boros Charm and swings. I block SS with Wall and Finks trades with Nacatl, dropping to 11. Finks persists, and on my go I copy Finks with Image back to 15. He casts Lava Spike, and swings. My notes are not clear on the sequence here, but I did follow up with Gideon and then Sun Titan, burying him in value/lifegain.
G2 I keep a risky hand, that in hind sight I should have mulled: 4 lands, Engineered Explosives, Restoration Angel and I think Supreme Verdict. My thought process was that EE would keep him from spamming the board with 1-drops, buying me some time to establish a board/find a Finks to play with Resto. The problem was if he had all gas in burn spells, or if I drew lands. He had gas, starting with Nacatl, which, after getting hit twice I had to EE. He followed up with a Lavamancer, which ate a Path. He had Boros Charm and Bolt to the face, dropping me to 7. I flash-blocked a Swiftspear with Resto, but he had a landfall powered Searing Blaze to finish it and drop me to 4. Wall of Omens was not good enough for me to survive another Searing Blaze and a suspended Rift Bolt.
G3 I have a much better hand with Finks, Image and Condemn, which all ensure I survive the initial onslaught of Nacatl (turn 1 all three games!), Swiftspear, Bolt, Spike, Boros Charm, Bolt. Finks and Image (Finks) finish him off.
Round 2 vs Bant Company (no combo, Knight of the Reliquary, Voice of Resurgence, Eternal Witness et al.)
G1 on the draw, but he mulls to 5. He bluffs by commenting that he couldn't keep a six of 4x Mimic and 2x Endless One – he's an out of town player so I did not know what he might be playing. I keep a reasonable double Finks hand with Path, and after I cast my first one, he plays Image copying my Finks. We trade blows for a bit, and he has Intrepid Hero and a Birds, while I land Resto to reset Finks. Resto does some work, and after I remove his Intrepid Hero, he has no way to survive Colonnade beats.
In: 2x Dispel, 1 Wrath of God, 1 Vendilion Clique. Out: 1 Condemn, 1 Wall of Omens, 1 Elspeth, 1 Journey to Nowhere
G2 This was a more average grindy game – I wasn't sure exactly what his deck was doing since I didn't see a whole lot g1. He had a slow start even with Heirarch. I had Finks into Image, gaining me 8 life along with Resto. He cast Meddling Mage, naming Cryptic Command after I had cast a Path on his Voice of Resurgence. He followed that up with two Phantasmal Images, both copying MM. One named Blade Splicer (which I don't run) and the second named Verdict. I drew a Detention Sphere and felt pretty good about exiling 3 for 1. Ran away with the game after that, and closed with Colonnade beats over a large Scavenging Ooze and dorks + Gavony. Having Ghost Quarter was important here, as without that the Gavony Township would have beaten me.
Round 3 vs Naya Burn (No Nacatls)
G1 I'm on the play, and have Finks/Snap/Path, which I like. He opens with Goblin Guide, which nets me something like 3 lands in a row. He has a strong hand with Boros Charm, Helix, R Bolt, Lava Spike, which all drop me to 4 very quickly despite the 2 life off Finks. He won't kill Finks, but I have to play extremely conservatively with a Cryptic in hand to keep me alive vs Boros Charm or haste + burn spell. I let a Swiftspear hit me down to 3, but have a second Finks to come back to 4 after fetching. Finks and Snapcaster beat him down, with Colonnade delivering the final blow.
Sideboard same as round 1.
G2 I see the perfect possible hand vs a burn opponent: Island, Plains, Wall of Omens, Kitchen Finks x2, Phantasmal Image and Dispel. Of course I need a second white source, but with Wall, being on the draw, and the potential to Image Wall, this hand is ideal. I drew a Glacial Fortress on his turn one off GG
He has GG to start things off, which unfortunately nets me a land, meaning my land-go first turn results in a discard. I had to choose Image for the discard. He is able to drop me to 10 with Swiftspear and Rift Bolt, but double Finks with a critical Dispel on his Atarka's Command allows me to get there. He cast an Eidolon of the Great Revel with me at 10 and him at 3, which I think may have been wrong. He just traded with a Finks, but he did take 2 from a second Swiftspear. I was able to deal lethal thanks to a Phantasmal Image copying a Goblin Guide for hasty beats vs his tapped out team.
Round 4 vs U/R Blue Moon
G1 on the draw, was a horribly slow affair, with each of us playing Clique and him having many counters to slow my offense. Verdict was awful in this matchup, but Finks did serious work, chipping slowly at his life total while being a poor target for his Bolts and Burst Lightnings which went to my face instead. I basically had two Finks going to town for the whole game and he had a late Blood Moon.
G2 was a frightening affair, with an early Blood Moon getting Negated, and my Finks getting leaked. He had a lot of burn+Clique to get me down below 10 quickly. The game dragged on with each of us making land drops but little in the spell department. I naturally drew and played 3 Islands, so Cryptic was live through the second Blood Moon that landed (he had Spell Snare for my Snap-Negate). This was critical to counter his Pia + Kiran, which was the only source of burn he had after 2 consecutive Bolts dropped me to 2. I was able to land a Clique of my own, and Detention Sphere on his Blood Moon made sure that Colonnade could finish the job.
Rounds 5 and 6 were ID's to lock T8, 2nd seed. Took time to go back to my place and make some food and relax.
T8 decklists are available on mtgtop8 via my decklist link. I played the R/G Eldrazi list.
G1 Was decent, with him mulling to 6. I had a strong opener with 2 Verdict and Wall/Finks, 2 fetches and 2 GQ. Finks did work, as did the second. He had t2 Reshaper into Mimic off Cavern of Souls and basics. Eye of Ugin came down along with a Smasher – this met a Verdict and my Finks kept swinging. He cast Thought Knot – I cast Cryptic Command to bounce my Wall of Omens and draw a card. He saw: 2x Supreme Verdict, Phantasmal Image, Path to Exile, Wall of Omens and land. He took a Verdict, I slammed Image copying Thought Knot, Path'd the TKS and he drew lands. 1-0
In: 1 Elspeth, 1 Wrath of God, 1 Vendilion Clique, 2 Spreading Seas. Out: 3 Restoration Angel (a HUGE mistake – I made up this sideboard guide the night before because I hadn't had a chance to test the m/u, but I totally blanked on the fact that Cavern makes Cryptic quite bad – should have taken out Cryptics here instead. My thought process was that Resto is too “cute” for this m/u, that the slight advantages gained off Wall/Finks are not enough to combat the powerful, fast Eldrazi. I still believe that to be correct, but CC is just worse), 1 Sun Titan (also bad), 1 Snapcaster (fine).
G2 was painful... My hand was strong enough with Seas, 2x Path and Finks, but I totally missed what the lands were – 1 Colonnade and 2 Glacial Fortress.....t1-3 tapped lands. I keep and regret immediately. He goes Stirrings into Eye of Ugin, t2 Matter Reshaper, t3 Reality Smasher. I Seas his Eye and Path the Smasher, but he has another Stirrings for Reality Smasher. And while I happily have Detention Sphere, he follows up with World Breaker, removing D-Sphere and killing me a turn later.
G3 He has Stirrings for Smasher and a second Stirrings on t2 for Temple. I have Clique and then Seas to slow things down, but I drop to 12 on turn 4 from Reshaper/Smasher. He casts World Breaker, and I get to Verdict (Reshaper hits Obligator into play). When I Seas his Temple, he sacs it for WB, returning it to hand. I Clique on his draw step and see: WB, Obligator, Bolt, land, land. I have a D-Sphere in hand, and I really want to Sphere the Breaker. I get locked into a decision between putting WB or Obligator away, trying to decide whether getting a 2-for-1 D-Sphere on the two Obligators is better than removing a WB (and losing a land). I plan too far ahead and am blind to the fact that I die to Obligator taking Clique, swing and Bolt. I put WB on the bottom and die.
I punted these games pretty hard, and I'll chalk it up to a complete lack of testing vs Eldrazi. I think this deck in some ways has game vs them, and it's a slightly moot point anyways. I did, however, experience that unless they are stumbling in some manner, it feels like playing from behind the whole game.
Top 8 was satisfying, and I was happy with the build overall. Changes I think I would make to this version moving forward would be: -1 Glacial Fortress +1 Coloured Source (probably Seachrome, maybe Fountain), -1 Journey to Nowhere +1 D-Sphere, -1 Elspeth +1 Cryptic or Knight Errant. -1 Surgical Extraction +1 Relic of Progenitus.
Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated. I am going to goof around with a full draw-go with a top end of Ojutai and PW's for a bit until Eldrazi leaves and the dust begins to settle.
Thanks for reading!
Care! Hey, man. Nice report and good job! You're part of my community on FB. This list is awesome. That's exactly what I was referring to regarding the deck my team and I are most proficient in and optimizing for the meta and prepping for events, including FNM's. This is exactly the style of control I believe is best suited for UW Control in Modern - the attrition, value-based style that can interact + pressure, giving it versatility and adaptability, while remaining cohesive. You're not restricted into a linear or one-dimensional gameplan. It's like a reactive Jund/Junk. Post-Eldrazi, we may move to more counters in the main, but thid contingent on how the meta looks after April.
Durdling isn't a favorable position to be in and this happens with the 'All-In Control' deck that runs Jace, Snap, Omens, Clique, Ojutai's Command, etc. While it's one of the best ways to play UW in Modern, it hardly applies pressure and that can be an issue when trying to capitalize on windows of opportunities, but instead...you keep drawing into air, while giving your opponent a chance to come back. Players have lost because of this. It's also why I don't prefer that style. Paul Cheon from Channel Fireball streamed it yesterday and the deck suffered from this issue - durdling. It needs more pressure.
Can you post your results on FB in our community? That would be appreciated. We'll discuss it further there. Thanks!
I think you're right to point out the nebulousness of the UW control <----> UW midrange strategy spectrum. I'm not sure exactly how you mean to separate them out.
Any deck playing Supreme verdicts maindeck seems to qualify as control. This is where I choose to make the distinction in the OP - in part because this thread exists and notably omits Verdict.
UW control is highly customizable to answer specific meta conditions such as increased aggro presence with more tap-out-border-on-midrange style, or increased combo/control presence with a more draw-go approach.
If you have a better metric to define between the aforementioned UW midrange and UW control I'm interested to hear it.
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I'm eager to hear if other UW control players feel the same: does playing finks/resto put your deck in the mid-range category or is it still UW control.
To be clear, BGx running sweepers maindeck, in my mind, could be called control (or at least moving on the spectrum towards control). I'm not sure we have decks in the format that fit into the categories (aggro, midrange, control, combo) cleanly.
To me, maindeck sweepers is where the line makes sense. But we have at least one dissenting opinion. I look forward to more input.
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I'm eager to hear if other UW control players feel the same: does playing finks/resto put your deck in the mid-range category or is it still UW control.
To be clear, BGx running sweepers maindeck, in my mind, could be called control (or at least moving on the spectrum towards control). I'm not sure we have decks in the format that fit into the categories (aggro, midrange, control, combo) cleanly.
To me, maindeck sweepers is where the line makes sense. But we have at least one dissenting opinion. I look forward to more input.
As evident in articles by Pros, tournament results, etc., it still qualifies as Control. There is also such a thing as Tapout Control. The ones with creatures, like Delverless (for instance), are historically Midrange Control decks. They still run counters, removal, disruption, etc. They just aren't a linear permission-based, mostly reactive Draw-Go type of Control deck, but they certainly implement control elements; they're just not all-in. This makes them more flexible, versatile, and adaptable - as we see with decks like Junk/Jund. In fact, I explain just that in my article:
"As I’ve adamantly advocated, the hybrid Midrange (Tempo/Attrition) Control approach, is one of the best ways to play UWx. In fact, I sometimes joke that Jund/Junk players make better UW players. I’ve adopted their design philosophy for UW and it has benefited because of that – interaction/disruption + pressure.
We’re also like a variation/evolution of Sam Black’s UW Delverless list from 2012. This particular design is a formula that works in this format as it’s non-linear and adaptable. It’s rare to feel out of the game and are never locked into a linear, one-dimensional gameplan. To an experienced UWx player who knows the meta, skill often trumps variance. This is a virtual advantage.
I recently had a good discussion with a good player about this and we agreed with the following: “In Modern, it’s becoming clear that the decks that can do well are the ones that can disrupt your opponent while applying pressure. Midrange and Control decks, historically, need to be able to adapt and this takes time. They’re not as inherently powerful as linear strategies, but they do allow you to outplay your opponent. You win off slim margins. You have to pick your battles.”
From my knowledge and experience, the deck doesn’t have many unfavorable match-ups. We can be 40/60 to 60/40 across the board with this style but fast mana and Combo decks present the most challenges. We don’t commonly blow decks out either, but it is possible with this direction. On the other hand, it’s a deck that requires and rewards finely-tuned skills, knowledge of your deck, and the ability to adapt to an ever-changing meta. In other words, the pilot definitely makes a difference.
Ultimately, this direction will remain one of the best, and most relevant, for UWx in Modern."
Between main and side, this type of deck can transition into whichever gameplan it needs to be on, which is contingent on the MU. You need more counters? Check. More removals? Check. You need to beat down and race? Check.
This adaptability is inherent in its balanced/hybrid design.
And, yes - I'd consider Jund and Junk Midrange Control decks, with or without Damnation in the main.
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Why would it close the discussion? He is just one poster. As are you. Others should weigh in as the discussion is most certainly not closed. We could probably tone down the snark as well.
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And, yes - I'd consider Jund and Junk Midrange Control decks, with or without Damnation in the main.
That close the discussion.
In evidence that, here, Midrange and Control are the same thing. Which is wrong. And Tap-out Control is another thing. Tap-Out Control is the Biava's version of Azorius Control, to make an example. Being flexible, versatile, and adaptable doesn't qualify a deck such as Control. Neither we're talking about which is better, or if one is more fitted for a certain metagame. We're just discussing about classification.
But, hey, your article says the opposite. It's obvious that I'm on the wrong side, then.
So, Affinity is a Burn deck because it has Galvanic Blast, is a Control because it can draw off Thoughtcast, and Combo because Plating and Ravager interacts well with all the other spells. Way to go, Affinity players!
The Affinity example is incorrect and not reflective of a hybrid. The same can be said about any deck that uses a minimal number to attack from X angle. For instance, just because my deck plays Dismember or Surgical Extraction doesn't immediately categorize my deck as Esper.
When this deck isn't playing the Midrange game (interaction + pressure through creatures), it does play cards similarly to a more traditional Control deck, like counters and removals (and not just a playset of each). In fact, post-board, a hybrid like this can run a full set of Verdicts, 6-8 spot removals, and 8-12 counters. Not all Midrange are alike, but UW can be considered one whether you're on 2-12 creatures or 12-18, though the latter is often referred to as UW Midrange Control or UW Tempo Control. Some Control decks are more aggressive than others, and not all have counters (Tron). Infect, for instance, is considered a Combo deck even though it doesn't have any traditional Combo cards except creatures + pump effects. It isn't as black and white as it seems.
3x Celestial Colonnade
4x Flooded Strand
4x Ghost Quarter
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Island
3x Plains
Planeswalker (3)
1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Gideon Jura
Creature (13)
4x Kitchen Finks
1x Restoration Angel
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Sun Titan
2x Vendilion Clique
4x Wall of Omens
3x Cryptic Command
3x Mana Leak
4x Path to Exile
3x Spell Snare
Sorcery (4)
4x Supreme Verdict
Enchantment (2)
2x Detention Sphere
2x Dispel
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Kor Firewalker
2x Negate
2x Rest in Peace
2x Spellskite
2x Stony Silence
I've never written a report before so apologies if this is poorly formatted or isn't of much use to anyone but I thought I'd share nonetheless since I have received some great tips from this community in the past few weeks. Also, my memory is a bit hazy and I didn't take notes but the following is my best recollection:
R1 - Bw Devotion/Vampires, I'm on the play...
G1: She comes out really fast with a bunch of Vampires, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx fueling all of her mana needs, but I decide not to pop Ghost Quarter when most of her hand is in play and I could make better use of the mana. She manages to get me down to 5 before I dig into a Verdict and destroy her board (main deck board wipes FTW). Wall of Omens and I think a Kitchen Finks block Bloodghasts while Vendilion Clique and Celestial Colonnade do their thing.
G2: Her IoK missed when I kept a hand with lands and Cryptic, Verdict, Elspeth 1.0 (maybe I should have sent it back? Verdict + the mana to cast it + Command + win con seemed likely to be good enough to get there). Detention Sphere on multiple Bloodghasts was sweet, while my two Verdicts swept up wave 1 and wave 2 of her army. My Elspeth died to her Athreos, God of Passage (I think) when she had the Path for my blocker. A pair of Cryptics bounced the God for a couple turns in a row (and drew more cards) while Clique and Finks (and I think a Colonnade attack) got the job done.
2-0
R2 - UR Storm, I'm on the play...
G1: He mulled to 5. I let him cast all the card selection/cantrip cards he wanted to. He played back to back Goblin Electromancers and passed the turn. I cast Verdict the following turn, wrecking his plan to go off. He just plays more cantrips and passes. I draw and pass as well, holding up mana for Clique/Command. He casts a couple of Pyretic Rituals and tries for Past in Flames, which I Cryptic. I play it safe and play draw-go, leaving mana up for Leak/Snare/Cryptic. I tapped down to 2 mana on one of his end steps to play Clique. Once I hit enough mana to play Elspeth 1.0 and still have Leak+Snare up, I put her out there to speed up the clock and the game was over soon after.
G2: He mulls to 5 again! I felt bad for him. He plays cantrips into Defense Grid while I have only Spell Snare up and I no longer feel bad for him lol. He plays Goblin Elecromancer and Pyromancer's Ascension. I Path the Goblin on my next turn and deploy a threat (Clique grabbing a Past In Flames if my memory serves correct). He spends his next couple turns sculpting and trying to get Ascension online (having to re-deploy it once) but I bounced it twice with Cryptics and continued to draw cards. When I feel it's safe to turn the corner, I activate Colonnade to help out Clique on offense and get there in a couple turns.
2-0
R3 - Ad Nauseum, I'm on the play again!
G1: Colonnade go! He plays a Gemstone Mine and a Serum Visions. I decide I'm in no real hurry to deploy Wall and would rather keep up counter mana. His turn 2, he tries for Pentad Prism which I Spell Snare to slow him down. He continues sculpting his hand. I eventually Clique him and get a clock into play, taking something relevant. He goes for Angel's Grace into Ad Nauseum. I Mana Leak. He casts Pact of Negation but I have the Cryptic Command (which draws me into another piece of counter magic). He spends some turns cantripping/filtering while I just swing with Clique. I think I play a second Clique at some point to take something relevant again. He tries to deploy Phyrexian Unlife at some point and I have the Leak for it. GG
G2: I'm happy to have taken game 1 and am feeling good about G2 since I'm boarding out 9 dead cards for 4 more counters (5 if you count Glen Elendra Archmage), 2 Stony's (for his Prisms and Lotus Blooms), and 2 Spellskites. I don't remember much about this game, but I know he goes turn 1 Lotus Bloom. I Negated his turn 2 Pentad Prism. Turn 3 he sculpts and my turn 3 I don't have the Clique (guess I can't have one every game when I only run 2 copies ). He sculpts some more on his turn 4, and I leave up my mana for Snapcaster Mage into flashback Negate. On his turn 5, Bloom comes off suspend and I feel like my best chance is to try to counter the Bloom (pretty sure in hindsight, I should have kept this for the AN I was expecting). Anyway, he has the Pact of Negation for my Negate and I'm tapped out when he sacs it for Angel's Grace into Ad Nauseum. Punt?
G3: Crazy game! I keep a mitt full of counter magic (literally all I have in my hand, but I figure my probability of drawing into a threat by the time I'm ready to deploy it is decent). I play draw-go for a while and just counter all of his relevant stuff. I continue to draw into more counters while he sculpts. Eventually I play Clique and see Angel's Grace, Ad Nauseum, Supreme Verdict and something irrelevant (in this situation) like Lightning Storm. I decide that I have enough counter magic that I should be able to keep him from winning the game with the AN, and protecting my clock from the uncounterable kill spell is my priority (*more on this below). I proceed to beat him down for 3 a turn for like 5 or 6 turns in a row. When I think I might have it, he casts Darkness to prevent the lethal damage. I think I might have it again next turn, he announces Angel's Grace and puts it on the stack. I brain fart and go for the counter (which I can't actually do so we rewind, essentially just giving away information). Grace resolves, then he goes for Silence. He's got the mana for Ad Nauseum and almost certainly has the card in hand at this point so I feel like it's a must-counter. I go for Dispel, he responds with Pact. I respond with Mana Leak and have 4 mana left open. Silence is countered but he has the mana and decides to go for Ad Nauseum anyway, which I have the counter for. *handshake*
My opponent tells me he made a mistake by casting Ad Nauseum on my turn; he says if he would have waited until his turn, he would have had it. I'm not really sure how it would have made a difference, since I'm pretty sure I had more counters than he had spells I needed to counter but I assume he knows his deck better than I do and feel a bit lucky to get away with a win.
He also mentioned that I made a misplay when I Clique'd away his Supreme Verdict while he was holding Ad Nauseum and Angel's Grace. I said I had a ***** ton of counters in hand that were all live against his deck and only Clique in play as my clock. My line of thinking was "protect the clock, win the counter war, win the game". Is this correct? Or is it generally considered that if the opponent has an AN in hand, the only correct play is that you take that? And how does that change if they're holding 2 copies of AN but only 1 copy of their damage-mitigation spell (Grace or Unlife)? Do you take 1 of the AN or the Grace/Unlife?
Anyway, 2-1
R4 - ID with the only other 3-0 player to split prize money.
3-0-1
Given my matchups, the MVP's were (probably unsurprisingly) Vendilion Clique and counter magic (especially Cryptic Command!). Celestial Colonnades beat some good face as well. Overall the deck felt good to me, but maybe that's just because I was winning and things seemed to be going my way (e.g. Storm opponent mull'ing to 5 in both games and never found a Blood Moon, drawing Clique in like every game he was important lol).
I saw Elves, Merfolk, another UW midrange-y deck, and Burn on nearby tables but no idea what the other 15-ish players were on. I'd like to go back again but am considering some changes to the SB:
2x Disenchant
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
2x Spellskite
Is it a mistake to not play Disenchants? I felt a little lucky when my storm opponent reminded me that they play Blood Moon and I realized I forgot to consider this card when I was putting my SB together before the tourney. My only outs would have been counter it before it hits plays, or D-Sphere/Cryptic after it lands and Cryptic seems unlikely. Disenchant hits Worship, Blood Moon, Pyromancer's Ascension, Jeskai Ascendancy, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Phyrexian Unlife, Aether Vial, Ghostly Prison, Cranial Plating, Steel Overseer, 8-rack kill cons, Wild Defiance/Rancor/Inkmoth Nexus, Defense Grid out of some boards lol, anything else of note?
For Chalice, although I have no way to accelerate it into play, it seems like it could really do some damage against a lot of decks, even if it's not coming down until my turn 2:
Storm x=1: Gitaxian Probe, Sleight of Hand, Serum Visions, Thought Scour, Lightning Bolt. Extra copy on x=2 for Electromancers, Ascensions, Rituals, Manamorphose, Echoing Truth out of the board
Ad Nauseum x=0: Lotus Bloom and Pact of Negation. x=1 counters Angel's Grace, Silence, Spoils, 8 Cantrips, 1 copy of Gigadrowse lol
Elves x=1: Nettle Sentinels, Heritage Druids, Elvish Mystics, Llanowars
Burn/Zoo x=1: Bolts, Guides, Spikes, Nacatls, Swiftspears, Kird Apes, Path to Exile
Tron x=1: Maps, Stirrings, Stars, Spheres, Nature's Claim out of the board
Affinity x=0 on the play, or possibly x=2 if you're afforded the time with blockers/Verdicts?
Living End x=0
Infect.dec x=1
Boggles.dec x=1
Lantern.dec x=1
Anyone tried Chalice in their board? If so, how many Path/Snare/Dispel did you run in your 75? Thanks!
WUBG Atraxa Superfriends
WRBG Saskia's Angry
UBRG Yidris Valuetown
WUBR Breya "not just for infinite combos anymore" Etherium Shaper
mana]W[/mana]UR Narset the Nerfed
WBG Ghave counters madness
BRG Prossh, Token Master
UBG Tasigur Seedborn Control
WU Brago Bouncy Castle
WB Karlov Voltron
B Erebos/Drana MBC
R Feldon jank
Amazing write up! Thank you for this, further proving how formidable this approach is (my fav as you can read from my comment above).
I've yet to try Chalice in the board, but may be counter-productive for us unless we're playing it at '0'.
I currently run 4 Path, 2 Snare, 2 Dispel in the 75.
I think Disenchant, or any Enchantment/Artifact removal effect, is important for UW in the side. Good call.
Are you on FB? If so, have you seen my UWx community? It would be awesome if you could share this write up there!
Facebook.com/groups/mtgmodernuwx
Thanks!
[Deck Discussion - UW Midrange Control] [Deck Tech - Yuuya Watanabe's UW Control] [2015 World Championship] [Meta Discussion] [Post-Eldrazi] [GP Charlotte 2016]
http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=90628
I want to bring the following UW Conrol deck, that was piloted by Yuuya Watanabe to a 10th place finish at the 2015 World Championship, to your attention. As some of you know, I'm an avid fan of this approach for UW and have been advocating it as one of the best ways to play it in Modern, most notably vs Eldrazi (as I discussed in the following article: https://cardknocklifepodcast.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/the-resurrection-evolution-of-modern-uw-control/) As myself and others have noted, it functions like a value-based reactive Jund/Junk Midrange Control deck.
Yuuya Watanabe
World Championship - 8/27/15
Record: 10th Place
3 Restoration Angel
1 Sun Titan
4 Wall of Omens
2 Dragonlord Ojutai
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Island
3 Plains
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Mystic Gate
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
3 Cryptic Command
4 Path to Exile
2 Remand
4 Spell Snare
3 Supreme Verdict
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Spellskite
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Stony Silence
3 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dispel
2 Negate
Though this was played in August of 2015, the meta looked more or less what it may revert back to post-Eldrazi. Let's take a look at the top performing decks of that tournament:
1. Bogles - Seth Manfield
2. Affinity - Owen Turtenwald
3. Affinity - Samuel Black
4. Affinity - Paul Rietzl
5. Living End - Magnus Lantto
6. Living End - Martin Miller
7. UR Pyromancer - Shaun Mclaren
8. Junk - Thiago Saporito
9. Merfolk - Ondrej Strasky
10. UW Control - Yuuya Watanabe
Below 10th were more Affinity, Bogles, and Living End. Burn, Jund, and Tokens also rounded out the rest of the Top 32. There were some Twin, too, but that was banned.
Other decks we can expect to see post-Eldrazi are Tron, Infect, Junk, Company/Chord, and a rise in UWx Midrange/Control decks. Eldrazi may also stick around, but it won't be the dominant menace it's been. We're well-positioned vs this meta, but Tron will be one of the most difficult - as it's always been.
What does this all mean for us? We'll continue to be relevant because of our versatility and adaptability.
Paul Cheon from Channel Fireball did a deck tech on Yuuya Watanabe's UW Control deck a month later, but his changes were -2 Dragonlord Ojutai for +1 Restoration Angel and 1 Gideon Jura. He also changed some numbers and cards in the board.
https://youtu.be/9R11Q92ZQ3Q?list=PL04lbfeNAaS9g6c3UNh0VU40ThLUGBM9e
If you're unsure of what kind of UWx deck to play, especially for GP Charlotte, consider this one or a variation of mine, which is similar in design as Yuuya's:
'UW Clash of the Titans'
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/382264#paper#online
The list has been revised since then as I've been refining it for the post-Eldrazi meta.
Stay tuned for updates!
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My changes (largely due to budget):
Mainboard
-2 Mystic Gate
+1 Seachrome Coast
+1 Polluted Delta
Sideboard
-1 Spellskite
-1 Vendilion Clique
-1 Glen Elandra Archmage
-1 Batterskull
-1 Disenchant
+1 Wrath of God
+2 Condemn
+2 Tormod's Crypt
Went 4-0, which was my first time doing so. Previously had topped out at 3-1. Matchups were:
Abzan Company 2-0
Game 1 I was able to wrath a couple of times and keep him off the combo. Eventually the board was clear and Gideon got in for 3 swings and GG
Game 2 was closer. He got an infinite life combo off. However, I was able to wipe his board clear of creatures afterwards, and eventually started recurring Ghost Quarter with Sun Titan to keep him off all mana. He eventually conceded to me.
Affinity 2-0
Game 1 he started off rather slowly and I was able to wrath on turn 4 with lots of life. He played out the rest of his hand on turn 5, which met another wrath. From there, a Gideon came down and closed it out
Game 2 he kept a one lander. I was stuck on two lands for a while, but was able to Spreading Seas his nexus and then keep his Mox Opal turned off. I found lands, he didn't and the game ended pretty quickly
Living End 2-0
Game 1 was back and forth. He got me down pretty low, but I was able to find some well timed Cryptics and stay alive. Gideon was able to soak up lots of damage for me, and after he played his fourth living end, I was able to wrath and close it out
Game 2 he got stuck on lands early. I was getting in some decent beats with Gideon and should have closed the game out when he Violent Outburst'ed. Instead, I punted hard and Cryptic Commanded that instead of waiting for Living End. He got me down a bit lower, but I was able to regain control and close the game
Infect 2-1
Game 1 I think he killed me on Turn 3 or 4. I was stuck on three lands with a wrath in hand, but he had Inkmoth + Become Immense so I was dead anyway.
Game 2 I got a Runed Halo down the turn after he played a Blighted Agent and then when he followed up with Glistener a couple turns later I was able to find my second Halo. Some running Ghost Quarters and a hand full of answers kept his Inkmoth off line and Gideon/Clique did the beat down
Game 3 was similar. No Halo's, but my answers lined up well with his protection spells. Condemn+Path+Dispel made it tough sledding to get through for any damage.
Overall, I felt the deck played really well. I never saw Venser in any game, and only saw Knight Errant once (the game against infinite life, so she was kind of useless). I had fun playing it (helps when you're winning), but can't wait to run it out again
Awesome job, especially vs Living End! Thanks for the report. Looking forward to more feedback.
MTG Modern - Competitive: UWx Midrange/Control
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I'm actively recruiting a team of experienced players who are proficient in, and are playing, UW Midrange Control, which is more or less based off of Yuuya Watanabe's shell that took 10th at the World Championship last year:
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Restoration Angel
1 Sun Titan
4 Wall of Omens
2 Dragonlord Ojutai
2 Vendilion Clique
Spells (18)
2 Detention Sphere
3 Cryptic Command
4 Path to Exile
2 Remand
4 Spell Snare
3 Supreme Verdict
3 Island
3 Plains
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Ghost Quarter
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Mystic Gate
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Crucible Of Worlds
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Spellskite
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Stony Silence
3 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dispel
2 Negate
More Examples:
JB2002
MTGO PTQ - 2015
Record: 7-0
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/306730#paper
Francesco Neo Amati
David Saucier Therrien
GP Detroit - 3/4/16
Record: 10-4-1
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/382264#paper
The Resurrection & Evolution of Modern UW Control - Francesco Neo Amati
https://cardknocklifepodcast.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/the-resurrection-evolution-of-modern-uw-control/
I'm capping off at 20 people for the team. We'll be discussing and optimizing this archetype, adapting it to the meta, prep for FNM and events (i.e. GP Charlotte), share tournament results, and more.
If you're interested, please comment below and share your years of experience and list you're playing. If you qualify, I'll PM you.
Thank you!
#TeamUW
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ModernTeamUW/
MTG Modern - Competitive: UWx Midrange/Control
Facebook.com/ModernUWxControl
MTG Modern - Competitive: UWx Midrange/Control Community
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I'm also an Admin for one of the premier Modern communities on Facebook:
Magic the Gathering: Modern Meta Masters
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1x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Gideon Jura
1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Creatures
3x Snapcaster Mage
Sorceries
4x Supreme Verdict
Instants
3x Condemn
4x Path to Exile
4x Mana Leak
4x Remand
4x Cryptic Command
1x Sphinx's Revelation
4x Spreading Seas
2x Detention Sphere
Lands
4x Celestial Colonnade
4x Flooded Strand
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Ghost Quarter
3x Island
1x Plains
It may be painfully obvious that I completely forgot my side deck for the event. Even then, it was not really needed. I was even told why would I want a Side deck when all my Main is a Side Deck lol. Made my feel somewhat proud of myself.
i) Where do we draw the line between UW control and UW superfriends(e.g. http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/385314#paper)? Is it 6 or more planeswalkers, namely Jace, Architect of Thought? Or the lack of counters and Cryptic Command?
ii) Why do some UW control lists play ~15 creatures with Supreme Verdict? This seems counter-intuitive to me, as you are opening up a vulnerability of being caught off-balance by having to wipe your own board state or else having a dead card in hand.
iii) What is the general feeling towards Serum Visions? It's rarely seen in lists, but I would like to know what other cards would play well with it. Here's a list that did well with a playset in the main: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/388112#online
EDH - Obzedat, Ghost Council of VALUETOWN BW
Modern - Rack Disruption BR
My Trading Post
#2. This actually isn't counter productive in this type of deck. Omens/Finks force over-extension, which synergize with Verdict. It's ok if Omens dies and Finks/Verdict is one of our best plays as it gives a body after it dies. Then we have Resto to blink it or Elspeth to pump it (5/4). Some builds even have Sun Titan to recover what was lost.
The deck is good vs Aggro/Midrange as it is capable of stabilizing, but can also beat down and apply pressure vs Combo/Control via Snap/Clique/Resto + Counters. It's a hybrid Control deck with a core gameplan of interaction + pressure. It's like a value-based attrition deck that can be refered to as 'Reactive Jund/Junk'.
I've written about this approach and I believe it's one of the best for UW in Modern just as it was for Standard with Delverless and Titan Control.
MTG Modern - Competitive: UWx Midrange/Control
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Magic the Gathering: Modern Meta Masters
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Most players were trusting in the tried and true wall/finks build before eldrazi became a thing, and the switch to lots of planeswalkes is likely going to decrease once eldrazi is less common in the meta.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
UB Faeries
U Taking Turns
BGW Abzan Midrange
EDH Decks
MonoU Sakashima the Impostor and the Clone Army
UG Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Dralnu, Lich LordUBR Kess, Dissident MageAnd thanks for the invite, but I'm not on FB.
WUBG Atraxa Superfriends
WRBG Saskia's Angry
UBRG Yidris Valuetown
WUBR Breya "not just for infinite combos anymore" Etherium Shaper
mana]W[/mana]UR Narset the Nerfed
WBG Ghave counters madness
BRG Prossh, Token Master
UBG Tasigur Seedborn Control
WU Brago Bouncy Castle
WB Karlov Voltron
B Erebos/Drana MBC
R Feldon jank
My list for reference: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=11885&d=267995&f=MO
R1 vs Naya Burn (including Nacatls)
Game 1 I'm on the play, and I don't know what he's playing, but I am familiar with his deck choices and they usually involve Red. I see Wall/Finks/Image and am happy to keep. I open with a fetch, he goes fetch/shock/Nacatl. I play Wall, he fetch/shocks into Goblin Guide and Swiftspear, netting me a land and him first blood (wall blocking Nacatl). I cast Finks, he casts a Boros Charm and swings. I block SS with Wall and Finks trades with Nacatl, dropping to 11. Finks persists, and on my go I copy Finks with Image back to 15. He casts Lava Spike, and swings. My notes are not clear on the sequence here, but I did follow up with Gideon and then Sun Titan, burying him in value/lifegain.
In: 2 Dispel, 2 Negate, 1 EE, 1 Glen Elendra. Out: 1 V-Clique, 1 Sun Titan, 1 Elspeth, 3 Cryptic Command.
G2 I keep a risky hand, that in hind sight I should have mulled: 4 lands, Engineered Explosives, Restoration Angel and I think Supreme Verdict. My thought process was that EE would keep him from spamming the board with 1-drops, buying me some time to establish a board/find a Finks to play with Resto. The problem was if he had all gas in burn spells, or if I drew lands. He had gas, starting with Nacatl, which, after getting hit twice I had to EE. He followed up with a Lavamancer, which ate a Path. He had Boros Charm and Bolt to the face, dropping me to 7. I flash-blocked a Swiftspear with Resto, but he had a landfall powered Searing Blaze to finish it and drop me to 4. Wall of Omens was not good enough for me to survive another Searing Blaze and a suspended Rift Bolt.
G3 I have a much better hand with Finks, Image and Condemn, which all ensure I survive the initial onslaught of Nacatl (turn 1 all three games!), Swiftspear, Bolt, Spike, Boros Charm, Bolt. Finks and Image (Finks) finish him off.
Round 2 vs Bant Company (no combo, Knight of the Reliquary, Voice of Resurgence, Eternal Witness et al.)
G1 on the draw, but he mulls to 5. He bluffs by commenting that he couldn't keep a six of 4x Mimic and 2x Endless One – he's an out of town player so I did not know what he might be playing. I keep a reasonable double Finks hand with Path, and after I cast my first one, he plays Image copying my Finks. We trade blows for a bit, and he has Intrepid Hero and a Birds, while I land Resto to reset Finks. Resto does some work, and after I remove his Intrepid Hero, he has no way to survive Colonnade beats.
In: 2x Dispel, 1 Wrath of God, 1 Vendilion Clique. Out: 1 Condemn, 1 Wall of Omens, 1 Elspeth, 1 Journey to Nowhere
G2 This was a more average grindy game – I wasn't sure exactly what his deck was doing since I didn't see a whole lot g1. He had a slow start even with Heirarch. I had Finks into Image, gaining me 8 life along with Resto. He cast Meddling Mage, naming Cryptic Command after I had cast a Path on his Voice of Resurgence. He followed that up with two Phantasmal Images, both copying MM. One named Blade Splicer (which I don't run) and the second named Verdict. I drew a Detention Sphere and felt pretty good about exiling 3 for 1. Ran away with the game after that, and closed with Colonnade beats over a large Scavenging Ooze and dorks + Gavony. Having Ghost Quarter was important here, as without that the Gavony Township would have beaten me.
Round 3 vs Naya Burn (No Nacatls)
G1 I'm on the play, and have Finks/Snap/Path, which I like. He opens with Goblin Guide, which nets me something like 3 lands in a row. He has a strong hand with Boros Charm, Helix, R Bolt, Lava Spike, which all drop me to 4 very quickly despite the 2 life off Finks. He won't kill Finks, but I have to play extremely conservatively with a Cryptic in hand to keep me alive vs Boros Charm or haste + burn spell. I let a Swiftspear hit me down to 3, but have a second Finks to come back to 4 after fetching. Finks and Snapcaster beat him down, with Colonnade delivering the final blow.
Sideboard same as round 1.
G2 I see the perfect possible hand vs a burn opponent: Island, Plains, Wall of Omens, Kitchen Finks x2, Phantasmal Image and Dispel. Of course I need a second white source, but with Wall, being on the draw, and the potential to Image Wall, this hand is ideal. I drew a Glacial Fortress on his turn one off GG
He has GG to start things off, which unfortunately nets me a land, meaning my land-go first turn results in a discard. I had to choose Image for the discard. He is able to drop me to 10 with Swiftspear and Rift Bolt, but double Finks with a critical Dispel on his Atarka's Command allows me to get there. He cast an Eidolon of the Great Revel with me at 10 and him at 3, which I think may have been wrong. He just traded with a Finks, but he did take 2 from a second Swiftspear. I was able to deal lethal thanks to a Phantasmal Image copying a Goblin Guide for hasty beats vs his tapped out team.
Round 4 vs U/R Blue Moon
G1 on the draw, was a horribly slow affair, with each of us playing Clique and him having many counters to slow my offense. Verdict was awful in this matchup, but Finks did serious work, chipping slowly at his life total while being a poor target for his Bolts and Burst Lightnings which went to my face instead. I basically had two Finks going to town for the whole game and he had a late Blood Moon.
In: 2x Dispel, 2x Negate, 1 Disenchant, 1 Glen Elendra. Out: 1 Elspeth, 4x Verdict, 1 Journey to Nowhere.
G2 was a frightening affair, with an early Blood Moon getting Negated, and my Finks getting leaked. He had a lot of burn+Clique to get me down below 10 quickly. The game dragged on with each of us making land drops but little in the spell department. I naturally drew and played 3 Islands, so Cryptic was live through the second Blood Moon that landed (he had Spell Snare for my Snap-Negate). This was critical to counter his Pia + Kiran, which was the only source of burn he had after 2 consecutive Bolts dropped me to 2. I was able to land a Clique of my own, and Detention Sphere on his Blood Moon made sure that Colonnade could finish the job.
Rounds 5 and 6 were ID's to lock T8, 2nd seed. Took time to go back to my place and make some food and relax.
T8 decklists are available on mtgtop8 via my decklist link. I played the R/G Eldrazi list.
G1 Was decent, with him mulling to 6. I had a strong opener with 2 Verdict and Wall/Finks, 2 fetches and 2 GQ. Finks did work, as did the second. He had t2 Reshaper into Mimic off Cavern of Souls and basics. Eye of Ugin came down along with a Smasher – this met a Verdict and my Finks kept swinging. He cast Thought Knot – I cast Cryptic Command to bounce my Wall of Omens and draw a card. He saw: 2x Supreme Verdict, Phantasmal Image, Path to Exile, Wall of Omens and land. He took a Verdict, I slammed Image copying Thought Knot, Path'd the TKS and he drew lands. 1-0
In: 1 Elspeth, 1 Wrath of God, 1 Vendilion Clique, 2 Spreading Seas. Out: 3 Restoration Angel (a HUGE mistake – I made up this sideboard guide the night before because I hadn't had a chance to test the m/u, but I totally blanked on the fact that Cavern makes Cryptic quite bad – should have taken out Cryptics here instead. My thought process was that Resto is too “cute” for this m/u, that the slight advantages gained off Wall/Finks are not enough to combat the powerful, fast Eldrazi. I still believe that to be correct, but CC is just worse), 1 Sun Titan (also bad), 1 Snapcaster (fine).
G2 was painful... My hand was strong enough with Seas, 2x Path and Finks, but I totally missed what the lands were – 1 Colonnade and 2 Glacial Fortress.....t1-3 tapped lands. I keep and regret immediately. He goes Stirrings into Eye of Ugin, t2 Matter Reshaper, t3 Reality Smasher. I Seas his Eye and Path the Smasher, but he has another Stirrings for Reality Smasher. And while I happily have Detention Sphere, he follows up with World Breaker, removing D-Sphere and killing me a turn later.
G3 He has Stirrings for Smasher and a second Stirrings on t2 for Temple. I have Clique and then Seas to slow things down, but I drop to 12 on turn 4 from Reshaper/Smasher. He casts World Breaker, and I get to Verdict (Reshaper hits Obligator into play). When I Seas his Temple, he sacs it for WB, returning it to hand. I Clique on his draw step and see: WB, Obligator, Bolt, land, land. I have a D-Sphere in hand, and I really want to Sphere the Breaker. I get locked into a decision between putting WB or Obligator away, trying to decide whether getting a 2-for-1 D-Sphere on the two Obligators is better than removing a WB (and losing a land). I plan too far ahead and am blind to the fact that I die to Obligator taking Clique, swing and Bolt. I put WB on the bottom and die.
I punted these games pretty hard, and I'll chalk it up to a complete lack of testing vs Eldrazi. I think this deck in some ways has game vs them, and it's a slightly moot point anyways. I did, however, experience that unless they are stumbling in some manner, it feels like playing from behind the whole game.
Top 8 was satisfying, and I was happy with the build overall. Changes I think I would make to this version moving forward would be: -1 Glacial Fortress +1 Coloured Source (probably Seachrome, maybe Fountain), -1 Journey to Nowhere +1 D-Sphere, -1 Elspeth +1 Cryptic or Knight Errant. -1 Surgical Extraction +1 Relic of Progenitus.
Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated. I am going to goof around with a full draw-go with a top end of Ojutai and PW's for a bit until Eldrazi leaves and the dust begins to settle.
Thanks for reading!
I really like your build, and tested it out. It preforms much better than the lists with bounce/resto packages, because it is more focused on control. You never have a conflict of interest (do I wipe the board?) The decision is always clear. Ojutai's Command works very well. It is great game 1 vs burn. Helps you get a win sometimes. Countering a creature and returning a wall is pretty efficient too. Happened once. I like jace. He preformed well every time. Same with Elspeth.
However, I found that the list struggled against other control decks, both game 1 and in the sideboard matches. 3-color control decks have better lands than us, more man lands, more reach, and more versatility. I like my chances against everything else, but I wanted something more here. So, what can you do to crush a control deck? Use this card: Alchemist's Refuge This card is great against control. You will notice that in the list below, I took out the glacial fortresses for 2 Refuges, a Temple Garden, and a Breeding Pool. With the amount of fethes we run, this is enough to reliably have Refuge online by the time we need it. It is also useful against midrange decks if we want to flash in a Supreme Verdict, or a Jace that would otherwise die before we untapped with it. Additionally, it only takes 5 lands to flash in a baby Jace or a wall, which is very nice. This list is still U/W control because it does not actually run any green cards. It just needs a couple green sources for Refuge, and stays true to the U/W control shell. NOTE: There is a new archtype that uses Eerie Interlude with Collected Company to abuse ETB abilities to an extreme. Flashing in boardwipes is NEEDED against Eerie Interlude, which basically gives all sorcery-speed boardipes the finger. For those unaware, Eerie Interlude can bounce an entire field, and if they have Eternal Witness, they can do this indefinitely. It's no joke.
In addition to the Refuge package, I have made these changes:
-2 Sphinx's Rev:
I don't like this card in modern. It's great when it's good, but it's sad when it's bad. And let's face it: it's bad most of the time. With the Alchemist's Refuge, you have a mana dump for EOT effects, so this will not missed even if you do have a lot of mana on hand.
-3 Mana Leak:
I don't like having to leave 2 mana up for counters when I need to tap out for something. It makes all my 4 drops 6 drops, and forget about casting Elspeth against control. (Don't even think about winning with collonade against control. They will path it, tec-edge it, or something else.)It's irrelevant vs. weenies and goblins, and also against the new ETB-Eerie Company decks that are popping up, and will surely dominate after Eldrazi gets the hack.
+1 Terminus:
Not sure how I feel about this one. Still testing it, but others seem to like it so I'm willing to try. Results have not been fantastic but I'm a believer so I'll keep testing. I may change this out for a 4th Spell Snare.
+3 Spell Snare:
I want my counters to be 1 mana. If it's not a 2-drop, I can deal with it on-board. However, more than often I need to cast a threat with mana open against a counterspell. Sometimes I am playing second and need to counter their turn 2 play. There's a reason why this is a popular card in Modern. I wouldn't be so hasty not to run it. A lot of times against control, it just comes down to, who has Cryptic + protection for cryptic? (spell snare)
+1 Cryptic Command:
This is a pure control deck, so we should be running 4 of these. End of story. I don't know why people stopped doing this. Here is a reminder of why we need 4:
1) counter + draw = raw card advantage
2) Bouncing something relevant, even a land, is a versatile option to have. No card advantage lost if used with draw option.
3) Tapping an enemy army while at the same time digging for a boardwipe esta papa.
4) If you tap the enemy team, it makes them more likely to overextend after they deal no damage, by casting yet another creature. Even pros make mistakes.
You know how good of a card it is. You know you always want it when you have 4 mana and don't need to supreme verdict. Every single game. So run 4.
Without anything further, here's the list.
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
Creatures (10)
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Wall of Omens
Spells (21)
2 Condemn
4 Path to Exile
1 Cyclonic Rift
3 Spell Snare
2 Ojutai's Command
4 Cryptic Command
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus
4 Flooded Strand
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Island
2 Plains
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Kor Firewalker
3 Stony Silence
2 Runed Halo
2 Celestial Purge
2 Detention Sphere
2 Dispel
2 Rest in Peace
I changed the sideboard to reflect what I face. Stony silence because affinity and those darned top control decks. With Refuge added, we are likely to win game 1 vs control now, so 2 Dispels is enough. I almost never bring in detention sphere, and feel like Auriok Champion might be a better choice because the deck suffers vs. burn, and goblin bushwacker. Champion is also good vs. Jund and Grixis-style decks. Runed Halo is great against Boggles and Burn. Against combo you can name Conflagrate or Grapeshot, depending on which combo you face, and it will be easier for you to win. Conflagrate decks sometimes run Echoing Truth, which is another reason Spell Snare is good. Celestial Purge is amazing against liliana, but also against goblins, and all sorts of other things. Love it.
I love your addition of Condemn. I have even condemned my own Collonade to gain 4 life and stay out of reach against a burn deck when we were both grinding and I was very low on life. Having 6 spot removals is amazing. I never have to worry about infect...that deck just dies to this list. Affinity is a lot more favorable too.
Overall great list. It inspired me to tweak it an I now have a deck I like to play.
Congratz on your Rainforest!!!
Care! Hey, man. Nice report and good job! You're part of my community on FB. This list is awesome. That's exactly what I was referring to regarding the deck my team and I are most proficient in and optimizing for the meta and prepping for events, including FNM's. This is exactly the style of control I believe is best suited for UW Control in Modern - the attrition, value-based style that can interact + pressure, giving it versatility and adaptability, while remaining cohesive. You're not restricted into a linear or one-dimensional gameplan. It's like a reactive Jund/Junk. Post-Eldrazi, we may move to more counters in the main, but thid contingent on how the meta looks after April.
Durdling isn't a favorable position to be in and this happens with the 'All-In Control' deck that runs Jace, Snap, Omens, Clique, Ojutai's Command, etc. While it's one of the best ways to play UW in Modern, it hardly applies pressure and that can be an issue when trying to capitalize on windows of opportunities, but instead...you keep drawing into air, while giving your opponent a chance to come back. Players have lost because of this. It's also why I don't prefer that style. Paul Cheon from Channel Fireball streamed it yesterday and the deck suffered from this issue - durdling. It needs more pressure.
Can you post your results on FB in our community? That would be appreciated. We'll discuss it further there. Thanks!
MTG Modern - Competitive: UWx Midrange/Control
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Magic the Gathering: Modern Meta Masters
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This is still Control, but a differeny brand of it. It still interacts well but can also apply pressure.
MTG Modern - Competitive: UWx Midrange/Control
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Any deck playing Supreme verdicts maindeck seems to qualify as control. This is where I choose to make the distinction in the OP - in part because this thread exists and notably omits Verdict.
UW control is highly customizable to answer specific meta conditions such as increased aggro presence with more tap-out-border-on-midrange style, or increased combo/control presence with a more draw-go approach.
If you have a better metric to define between the aforementioned UW midrange and UW control I'm interested to hear it.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
To be clear, BGx running sweepers maindeck, in my mind, could be called control (or at least moving on the spectrum towards control). I'm not sure we have decks in the format that fit into the categories (aggro, midrange, control, combo) cleanly.
To me, maindeck sweepers is where the line makes sense. But we have at least one dissenting opinion. I look forward to more input.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
As evident in articles by Pros, tournament results, etc., it still qualifies as Control. There is also such a thing as Tapout Control. The ones with creatures, like Delverless (for instance), are historically Midrange Control decks. They still run counters, removal, disruption, etc. They just aren't a linear permission-based, mostly reactive Draw-Go type of Control deck, but they certainly implement control elements; they're just not all-in. This makes them more flexible, versatile, and adaptable - as we see with decks like Junk/Jund. In fact, I explain just that in my article:
https://cardknocklifepodcast.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/the-resurrection-evolution-of-modern-uw-control/
"As I’ve adamantly advocated, the hybrid Midrange (Tempo/Attrition) Control approach, is one of the best ways to play UWx. In fact, I sometimes joke that Jund/Junk players make better UW players. I’ve adopted their design philosophy for UW and it has benefited because of that – interaction/disruption + pressure.
We’re also like a variation/evolution of Sam Black’s UW Delverless list from 2012. This particular design is a formula that works in this format as it’s non-linear and adaptable. It’s rare to feel out of the game and are never locked into a linear, one-dimensional gameplan. To an experienced UWx player who knows the meta, skill often trumps variance. This is a virtual advantage.
I recently had a good discussion with a good player about this and we agreed with the following: “In Modern, it’s becoming clear that the decks that can do well are the ones that can disrupt your opponent while applying pressure. Midrange and Control decks, historically, need to be able to adapt and this takes time. They’re not as inherently powerful as linear strategies, but they do allow you to outplay your opponent. You win off slim margins. You have to pick your battles.”
From my knowledge and experience, the deck doesn’t have many unfavorable match-ups. We can be 40/60 to 60/40 across the board with this style but fast mana and Combo decks present the most challenges. We don’t commonly blow decks out either, but it is possible with this direction. On the other hand, it’s a deck that requires and rewards finely-tuned skills, knowledge of your deck, and the ability to adapt to an ever-changing meta. In other words, the pilot definitely makes a difference.
Ultimately, this direction will remain one of the best, and most relevant, for UWx in Modern."
Here are a couple of examples:
UW Control - Yuuya Watanabe (10th)
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=10388&d=259479
UW Control - JB2002 (7-0)
http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/306730#paper
Between main and side, this type of deck can transition into whichever gameplan it needs to be on, which is contingent on the MU. You need more counters? Check. More removals? Check. You need to beat down and race? Check.
This adaptability is inherent in its balanced/hybrid design.
And, yes - I'd consider Jund and Junk Midrange Control decks, with or without Damnation in the main.
MTG Modern - Competitive: UWx Midrange/Control
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KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
The Affinity example is incorrect and not reflective of a hybrid. The same can be said about any deck that uses a minimal number to attack from X angle. For instance, just because my deck plays Dismember or Surgical Extraction doesn't immediately categorize my deck as Esper.
When this deck isn't playing the Midrange game (interaction + pressure through creatures), it does play cards similarly to a more traditional Control deck, like counters and removals (and not just a playset of each). In fact, post-board, a hybrid like this can run a full set of Verdicts, 6-8 spot removals, and 8-12 counters. Not all Midrange are alike, but UW can be considered one whether you're on 2-12 creatures or 12-18, though the latter is often referred to as UW Midrange Control or UW Tempo Control. Some Control decks are more aggressive than others, and not all have counters (Tron). Infect, for instance, is considered a Combo deck even though it doesn't have any traditional Combo cards except creatures + pump effects. It isn't as black and white as it seems.
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