After someone posted a video showing the power behind Risk Factor in a similar deck I figured I would post my take on it. This feels like a good start and can handle almost everything that I believe will be in the meta.
Seal Away is a concession to Monogreen/bg stompy. It scales to late game pretty well, where burn just doesn't cut it against large creatures that happen to get through my counters. Cleansing Nova is a 1 of to deal with threats that don't need to attack. Better safe than sorry. I'll think about 1/1 with banefire/fight with fire. Deafenening Clarion is to deal with boros as that can get out of hand earlier than I'd like to settle. I may cut something in the board for disdainful stroke though.
If I'm playing against this deck and you play Risk Factor, I'm taking four every time. That card is only good in a deck that clocks your opponent so that you can put them into a spot where you're happy with both outcomes. For this deck, I can't imagine your opponent taking four a couple times is ever relevant unless you're sitting with all of your lightning strikes in hand, trying to bait them or something.
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Post Ravnica Allegiance Type 2 - WUB Control
States '09: 14th place. Aiming for better next year.
States '10: 12th place. Aiming for better next year.
If I'm playing against this deck and you play Risk Factor, I'm taking four every time. That card is only good in a deck that clocks your opponent so that you can put them into a spot where you're happy with both outcomes. For this deck, I can't imagine your opponent taking four a couple times is ever relevant unless you're sitting with all of your lightning strikes in hand, trying to bait them or something.
So I draw two of these, youre taking 16 damage? On end of turn mind you, while I'm also taking care of your threats and just happen to hit one lightning strike and counter one spell with ionize. Oh wait you're dead...
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So I draw two of these, youre taking 16 damage? On end of turn mind you, while I'm also taking care of your threats and just happen to hit one lightning strike and counter one spell with ionize. Oh wait you're dead...
As a fellow control player, I will take four several times before I allow you to get cards up on me. I suppose saying EVERY time may have been a bit hyperbolic, but the first Risk Factor is doming me for 8; don't really care about that. Besides, I'll have my own counterspells to fight over things when I feel I need to. No stupid little creatures here
Oh and for what it's worth, I had started a Jeskai Control thread last week which you could've posted this in. Also, on a different topic: why no Glacial Fortress? It would help hitting all of those WW costs on time.
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Post Ravnica Allegiance Type 2 - WUB Control
States '09: 14th place. Aiming for better next year.
States '10: 12th place. Aiming for better next year.
So I draw two of these, youre taking 16 damage? On end of turn mind you, while I'm also taking care of your threats and just happen to hit one lightning strike and counter one spell with ionize. Oh wait you're dead...
As a fellow control player, I will take four several times before I allow you to get cards up on me. I suppose saying EVERY time may have been a bit hyperbolic, but the first Risk Factor is doming me for 8; don't really care about that. Besides, I'll have my own counterspells to fight over things when I feel I need to. No stupid little creatures here
Oh and for what it's worth, I had started a Jeskai Control thread last week which you could've posted this in. Also, on a different topic: why no Glacial Fortress? It would help hitting all of those WW costs on time.
So you'd still be taking 8 from 2 cards.1 of which would probably be a land. And it wouldn't ruin my tempo.shocklands are a thing now and if you had to shock yourself you're down to 10 health. The card is great.
I might throw in a few glacial fortress
I also meant to post this there. I was lazy and didn't see it right off.
So you'd still be taking 8 from 2 cards.1 of which would probably be a land. And it wouldn't ruin my tempo.shocklands are a thing now and if you had to shock yourself you're down to 10 health. The card is great.
I might throw in a few glacial fortress
I also meant to post this there. I was lazy and didn't see it right off.
I don't personally think it's a card that control wants, but I suppose anything is possible. It's hard to properly evaluate cards without getting a lot of reps in so I guess we'll see how things play out.
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States '09: 14th place. Aiming for better next year.
States '10: 12th place. Aiming for better next year.
I can say so far in the limited Arena testing I've done with it, it's working out wonderfully. Now to be fair everyone had their account wiped aside from purchased gems and I had quite a few of those hanging around, so it's not quite a level playing field yet.
After a fair amount of testing, I can say that Risk Factor is a fantastic card, but probably best left in the sideboard. against mono green, or red, or basically any deck that has green or red and a lot of creatures with limited removal options, sweepers and removal with teferi is still the best way to try and win. Now however, with Risk factor, I really like the idea of going burn for games 2-3 against any sort of grindy mid range deck, and the mirrors. In a meta where green stompy is going to be somewhat common, you really can't have both Risk Factor and Chemister's Insight in those numbers, they're too clunky and do too little on very important turns. Risk Factor + Banefire is an incredible win con against B/G/x and other control decks, but just too slow against any sort of creature deck.
Also, Seal Away seems to be a lot worse now, it seems like Enchantment removal is much more common these days. Justice Strike is solid enough, but if the plan is to have the option for burn in games 2-3, I think 4X Lightning Strike and 4X Ionize should be in the main deck. And i mean hey, with greedy shockland use and something like Arguel's Blood Fast burning the opponent out game 1 isn't completely unheard of, especially if you're playing with Dream Eater
I had a similar plan, but I was leveraging Fight with Fire as the finisher instead of Risk Factor. Don't get me wrong, if there's a pure burn deck, Risk Factor will likely be good in it. It's just that there will be times when you need to draw action and they just take 8.
This control archetype has been putting up good numbers recently. It got 14th and 6th place at the first Standard Tournaments of the season, SCG Team Open Columbus http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/124220 and SCG Classic Columbus http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/124282 respectively. I've been tinkering with the deck a bit myself and this is what we're looking at:
My deck is definitely more of a counter/burn control deck with W added in for board wipe and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. I've been debating whether the deck needs one more Teferi in it. I recognize the card's power, and other deck's run it as a "3-4 of." The deck has a lot of built in card draw and we should theoretically have answers for everything most of the time.
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2 Teferi, Hero of Dominarni
2 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
Enchantments (2)
2 Search for Azcanta
Spells (29)
3 Essence scatter
4 Ionize
4 Lightning Strike
3 Seal Away
2 Fight with Fire
4 Risk Factor
3 Chemister’s Insight
2 Justice Strike
1 Cleansing Nova
3 Settle the Wreckage
4 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Clifftop Retreat
3 Negate
2 Sentinel Totem
2 Banefire
2 Deafening Clarion
1 Cleansing Nova
2 Lyra Dawnbringer
3 Legion Warboss
4x Lightning Strike + 2x Justice Strike plus 3x Settle the Wreckage AND 1x Cleansing Nova should be plenty to deal with threats G1. You probably don't need Cleansing Nova MB at all. Your SB + main may have too many sweepers...
Fight with Fire should maybe be a 1/1 split with Banefire, or replaced altogether by Inescapable Blaze.
States '09: 14th place. Aiming for better next year.
States '10: 12th place. Aiming for better next year.
Idaho State Champ: 2011
States '12: 5th place.
So I draw two of these, youre taking 16 damage? On end of turn mind you, while I'm also taking care of your threats and just happen to hit one lightning strike and counter one spell with ionize. Oh wait you're dead...
-Stay Frosty
As a fellow control player, I will take four several times before I allow you to get cards up on me. I suppose saying EVERY time may have been a bit hyperbolic, but the first Risk Factor is doming me for 8; don't really care about that. Besides, I'll have my own counterspells to fight over things when I feel I need to. No stupid little creatures here
Oh and for what it's worth, I had started a Jeskai Control thread last week which you could've posted this in. Also, on a different topic: why no Glacial Fortress? It would help hitting all of those WW costs on time.
States '09: 14th place. Aiming for better next year.
States '10: 12th place. Aiming for better next year.
Idaho State Champ: 2011
States '12: 5th place.
So you'd still be taking 8 from 2 cards.1 of which would probably be a land. And it wouldn't ruin my tempo.shocklands are a thing now and if you had to shock yourself you're down to 10 health. The card is great.
I might throw in a few glacial fortress
I also meant to post this there. I was lazy and didn't see it right off.
I don't personally think it's a card that control wants, but I suppose anything is possible. It's hard to properly evaluate cards without getting a lot of reps in so I guess we'll see how things play out.
States '09: 14th place. Aiming for better next year.
States '10: 12th place. Aiming for better next year.
Idaho State Champ: 2011
States '12: 5th place.
Also, Seal Away seems to be a lot worse now, it seems like Enchantment removal is much more common these days. Justice Strike is solid enough, but if the plan is to have the option for burn in games 2-3, I think 4X Lightning Strike and 4X Ionize should be in the main deck. And i mean hey, with greedy shockland use and something like Arguel's Blood Fast burning the opponent out game 1 isn't completely unheard of, especially if you're playing with Dream Eater
Starting off I like a 75 of something like this:
3 Essence Scatter
2 Syncopate
2 Justice Strike
4 Lightning Strike
4 Ionize
3 Settle the Wreckage
2 Cleansing Nova
Card Advantage
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Chemister's Insight
4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
3 Dream Eater
Lands (27)
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Steam Vents
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Sulfur Falls
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Island
4 Plains
2 Banefire
4 Risk Factor
4 Negate
2 Lyra Dawnbringer
3 Deafening Clarion
Modern: UW Spirits
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Island
3 Mountain
1 Plains
PLANESWALKERS 4
2 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
2 Cleansing Nova
3 Justice Strike
2 Deafening Clarion
2 Lightning Strike
4 Risk Factor
4 Ionize
2 Expansion // Explosion
2 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
4 Chemister's Insight
2 Search for Azcanta
1 Deafening Clarion
1 Ixalan's Binding
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Lyra Dawnbringer
2 Invoke the Divine
2 Settle the Wreckage
3 Lava Coil
2 Expansion // Explosion
My deck is definitely more of a counter/burn control deck with W added in for board wipe and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. I've been debating whether the deck needs one more Teferi in it. I recognize the card's power, and other deck's run it as a "3-4 of." The deck has a lot of built in card draw and we should theoretically have answers for everything most of the time.