I looked at the deck you linked and TBH, I think it's a little schizophrenic. To start with it's not a control deck. It's not really a tempo deck either. It's more like UW midrange, like the Hipster decks in the primer only with a lot more dorks. I do not believe Bontu's Monument to be viable in any competitive environment and the rest...IKD. It kind of looks like a Wizards/Angels Tribal deck. Some of these cards are very good -- Lyra, Unferi, Raff, etc., -- and good cards will always give you good moments, but Naru is terrible, as is Release to the Wind. Just as you may drop Lyra and ride her to a win, you are just as likely to play Naru and die horribly. Consistency is what you want. Balance in all things, especially magic.
As I consider it more, I think it's just a messed up version of Hipster. If you are tired of Approach and want to do something different, then Hipster is a decent place to start. You might find you miss the I Win factor of the older deck though. Maybe Jim Davis' Bant Approach would be good? I've really enjoyed playing it myself.
Of course, the truth is that we never really left. With a few short blips (I’m looking at you, Ramunap Ruins), UW Control decks have been viable for the last year or more. Now that some new high profile tools have been added to the arsenal, the archetype isn’t just viable, it’s fashionable. And what a variety of fashions we have available to us. Do you like outright control? Got you covered. Want to enjoy that dirty combo feeling? Let me introduce my friend Approach of the Second Suns. Feel like turning dorks sideways? (Yuck!) Well, we’ve even got that covered thanks to the Historic options. You can pick the poison that most appeals to you. Moreover, you can even pick up a few extra cards and then use them to change up your deck from week to week to keep your friends at your LGS off balance.
One of the factors helping UW Control rise to prominence is the lack of Combo in the format. There are a couple of combo decks around, but – with the exception of Combat Celebrant-based GPG decks – they are generally inconsistent and thus not putting up any numbers worth talking about. The neutering of the Aetherworks Marvel and Saheeli Rai combos has left us with only one real threat vector, allowing us to focus our deck on beating aggro. There is even a shortage of burn spells that go to the dome, so we don’t have to worry about losing to a flurry of Lightning Bolts. In the meantime, we have been gifted with half a dozen sweepers, a ton of point removal and a zillion counters. As things stand right now we have all the tools required to deal with whatever aggro cards our opponents may throw our way.
So dose the goblets with Iocane Powder and sit back because we are going to be drawing, playing a land and saying “go” a lot.
The Cards
There are a minimum of three distinct variants of reactive UW Control decks making noise right now. Rather than repeat myself a lot, I’m going to look at the cards that are common to all three and then break out into separate sections to address some of the differences. I’ll provide recent decklists for all three. Due to the sheer weight of legit card options for these variants I am sure I will miss lots of cards. Please feel free to discuss them in the thread. I don’t have time to write War and Peace right now, so I will add some match-up analysis over time.
Win Cons
“Unferi” has almost single-handedly put UW back on the map and is probably the top end of any decent UW control deck you will see. Lots of “pros” and try-hards saw Teferi and thought “Hey, maybe I’ll play with basic Island.” Just like skinny pants and beards, we are back on the cover of Vogue or GQ or whatever. Some people are even calling him the GOAT planeswalker. While I think this is hyperbolic to the point of silliness, there is no debating the fact that he is an amazing – and possible format-defining – weapon for UW players.
There are a ton of other articles on the Internet espousing how good he is and I’m not going to waste your time repeating them.
Very briefly:
+2 ability – drawing a card AND untapping two land – basically makes him a three mana planeswalker you can’t cast before T5. Those two untapped lands can be used to protect him with Seal Away (conveniently in his colors) or to protect you with Essence Scatter, Negate or a weak Syncopate. The only place this doesn’t quite apply is in mirror match where you might have to engage in a counter war over him. Later in the game you get access to other interesting Azcanta synergies. (The only thing better than drawing three cards per turn is drawing four cards per turn.)
-2: removes a permanent, which is great from a board control perspective, but also works as a win con. Target himself to put him on top of your deck and you’ll never deck out. Just watch out for enemy Ipnu Rivulets.
-8: The ultimate is insane in a deck with lots of card draw. Indeed, some people are running Commit//Memory strictly for the synergy with Unferi’s ultimate.
You won’t always see Gearhulk in UW, but it’s effective enough that you probably should. I don’t really even think of him as a win condition and sometimes don’t bother to attack with him even when I can. (yes, it’s lazy play and you should always attack with him when you can, but the point it that you’ve already gotten value from him when you cast him. Everything else is a bonus.) I prefer to think of him as a Settle the Wreckage, a Disallow or a Hieroglyphic Illumination with a 5/6 body. You can attack with him though. And a lengthy G1/2 may put you in a spot where you have to rush things.
Yes, it’s a land and could be in the lands section. But with the high number of UW mirrors we are starting to see you have to be prepared to win another way. Rivulet attacks your oppo’s deck directly and a milling win is as good as any other win. The fact that it’s a land makes it very hard to interact with. The drawback of course is that taking damage for each blue mana you draw from it is something you want to be careful about in an aggro heavy format. Make sure you consider your expected meta when deciding how many to run. Think of it as a mill 4 card that also taps for mana.
Gideon does pretty much everything you want a PW to do in a control deck. He forces your opponents to extend into your Wrath effects, he can attack to add a decent clock and then there’s the whole “you can’t lose the game” emblem thing which completely messes with your opponent, forcing them to deal with Gideon before they can deal with you.
Note that all of these win cons attack the opponent from very different vectors. They are also all multi-faceted resources – giving you a lot of flexibility in how you use them. This variety and flexibility are the strengths of the UW deck right now.
Removal
There’s a lot of removal available to UW right now. This is one of the primary reasons the deck is so good in an aggro heavy format. I’m not going to break down each card here as they are all pretty self-explanatory. The only real questions come when discussing numbers and that is about the variant and your meta.
Counterspells
The Hipster versions of the deck often don’t run Disallow, but it’s easily the best counterspell available to us right now and enough do that it makes the list of ubiquitous cards. In the mirror, this may be your best out to Ipnu Rivulet.
Hard counters at two mana are almost always going to be decent. In this format, if you are playing UW and not running at least some Scatters you are probably losing.
Card Advantage
Yes, Unferi could probably slot in here, but he does so much more than just draw cards.
It’s worth noting that some of the top decks in the last week or so have moved away from running either of these cards, instead favouring Pull from Tomorrow. However, many, many fashion conscious pilots are still working with the tried and true. Glimmer lets you see fur cards, while Illumination is better in the early game, especially if you are mana constrained. Pull from Tomorrow is the worst card to get you out of trouble on T3, but usually a blow-out on T10. All three are good with Unferi’s ultimate, but Pull is the clear winner in that particular scenario.
This may be one of the best cards available to us and is easily one of the best Magic cards printed in the last three to five years. As an enchantment it improves your draw quality. It has helped me find land and the Settle I desperately needed on more than one occasion. And casting a pseudo Impulse every turn is pretty sweet past-flip. The fact that it turns into a land should not be overlooked either. It can provide the land you need for Fumigate/Approach. And, as many others have pointed out, it combos nicely with Unferi’s +2 ability.
Lands
What’s really to say here? You play some blue lands. You play some white lands. You play some blue AND white lands. These cards should total at least 25 and maybe as many as 27. You do not want to miss land drops. This has been true since The Deck introduced us to Hate Magic in 1993. Beyond that there are a few (a very few) decisions to make.
How many God Pharoah’s Gifts do you expect to see? Right now, I imagine it should be a lot. In addition to the metagame’s UW mainstay there are perfectly viable UR and mono-R GPG decks. In fact, although it’s not made a splash yet, there’s a pretty good UGr GPG deck too. These latter variants, which feature Combat Celebrant to combo off with infinite attack steps, offer the format’s most effective combo decks. While they can work without the GY, attacking the graveyard denies them their explosive end game and is the best way to slow them down.
There are several legit targets for this right now, so it makes sense to pack one or two. With the prevalence of the mirror match enemy Azcantas are going to be plentiful. In a pinch, FoR can also help you find a plains if you need a second white source.
Both are late game cards, and it’s not usually hard to get the City’s Blessing with all the Seal Aways and [card]Cast Out[card]s we have so the deciding factor usually comes down to how many colourless lands you are already running. You really, really need to hit WW on T4. Between Scavenger Grounds and Ruin, you may not have room for another.
Sideboards
History of Benalia – Lose G1? You may need to go aggro to finish the next two in time. History is great for this, giving you two dorks and a cute little bonus for three mana.
Nezahal, Primal Tide – Awesome in the mirror. Uncounterable and dodges removal while also drawing you cards!
Negate – In this Meta? This was mentioned as a main board option, but you really want to be able to go to at least three Negates after boarding. Think of it as reading “Counter target Unferi.” Plus there’s all the other annoying crap you may need to stop.
Lyra, Dawnbringer – No, she is not Baneslayer Angel. She is really good though. In addition to providing a short clock, her lifelink ability makes her truly excellent against the wide decks. Largely replaced Regal Caracal in this slot.
Sorcerous Spyglass – shuts down vehicles (Heart of Kiran) and enemy planeswalkers (Chandra, Karn) for 2 mana. You also get to see what’s coming and plan your sequencing accordingly.
Authority of the Consuls – Really good against the red decks that get around your Gideons and Fumigates with haste creatures. Almost singlehandedly beats the Combat Celebrant-based GPG combo decks.
Forsake the Worldly – You need some Artifact/Enchantment hate. Cycling is useful and the Exile ability is relevant as God Pharoah’s Gift can be pulled back from the grave.
Options:
There are a lot of excellent cards available to UW right now – too many to detail them all.
Ixilan’s Binding – Not ubiquitous, but it may become more prevalent. Locking out the first threat and then all copies of that threat is really good. For example, bind a Chandra and then never worry about another. Or Bind Unferi and then only have to fight over enemy Cast Outs.
Baffling End – Replaced by Seal Away in the vast majority of decks, but still a reasonable option at CMC2.
Blink of an Eye – Better than Baffling End primarily because it’s more flexible. The extra card is nice when kicked. Think of this card more as a generic control option than a creature removal spell.
Desert’s Hold – Playing a lot of Rivulets and Scavenger Grounds? Then the three life this offers can be very nice in some match-ups.
Karn, Scion of Urza – I’ll be honest. I don’t get this one. He’s amazing in Vehicles and some other decks, but I don’t think he offers anything special to UW Control. I’m certainly not cutting removal or counters for him – and he definitely doesn’t get an Unferi slot! But, as you’ll see in the decklists below, he is showing up here and there so maybe I just don’t know what I don’t know. Hopefully thre will be some healthy debate in the comments.
Commit//Memory – Any deck running Unferi should probably have at least one of these. It’s a decent – though not great – counterspell, but as I mentioned above the Aftermath ability is amazing with Unferi’s ultimate. the knock on Wheel of Fortune was always the fact that you had to give your opponent seven cards too. But what do you care if they get to refill their hand if you Armageddon them at the same time?
Syncopate – A lot of decks are showing up with two or three of these lately. It may not be Powersink, but it’s still an excellent counter as long as you have a lot of mana. If you decide to go with less than 25 lands, don’t even think about Syncopate.
I mentioned in the Intro that there are half a dozen sweepers available to UW right now. The two we have talked about are the best but if you really need to add more you can think about these others: River’s Rebuke, Hour of Revelation, Slaughter the Strong, Urza’s Ruinous Blast. Rebuke is playable, though better in the UGx decks, but exercise caution when sleeving up the others. Hour and Blast are non-bos with our enchantment-based removal and Slaughter won’t kill everything.
So let’s talk a little about the three main variants of UW control in the current metagame.
*The decklists all read “M@lcontent’s Deck.” They aren’t mine, I’m just wrestling with the technology and I’ve given credit to their pilots as appropriate.
Classic Look
Let’s start with the business casual of UW Control variants. These are the decks that have been putting up most of the numbers in Top 8’s. They are buttoned down, with clean lines and a subdued confidence that can be brutally intimidating. This guy is like a lawyer and gets the most joy out of the oh crap look that splashes across your opponent’s face when he sees you play T1 Irrigated Farmland. This guy is playing lock down and sacrifices win-cons to make more room for pure control cards. He will have more counters and more removal than the Hipster.
Note the addition of more Planeswalkers. In fact, some of these decks take an almost superfriends approach to the game, picking up a lot of incremental value and forcing opponents to play into their advantages. For example: Gideon of the Trials forces opponents to commit more dorks to the board making Fumigate better. Along with Unferi, this guy is likely to show up with some Torrential Gearhulks. some players are even running Dovin Baan as another pseudo Gideon, and/or Karn, Scion of Urza.
Strategically, this deck runs out like UW has for more than two decades. Counter stuff, wrath stuff and eventually win with whatever you feel like.
Here is Ben Weinberg’s Classic Look deck that took down the SCG Classic (kind of fitting) on May 20th. It’s worth noting that there is almost no difference between this deck and the one piloted by Leo Lahonen to a runners up slot at GP Birmingham and that the top 4 of GP Toronto (Teams) included 2 decks that were almost identical.
There are a couple of variants of the hipster deck, which aims to play a soft control game to stave off a bad outcome before dropping a dork and turning it sideways a few times. Here’s a recent 5-0 list from MOL league piloted by Mathey. Following that is the so called Historic Deck piloted by Kevin Jones to 4th at an SCG Classic a few weeks back that features main deck Raff Capashan, Ship’s Mage so all your dorks (and Unferis) have flash.
Strategically, this decks plays a little differently to the Classic Look. The Hipster shortens the clock a lot with a more aggressive approach to the game. History of Benalia in the main offers both a way to interact on the ground and a way to attack in the early game while Lyra, Gearhulk and Raff bring the beats. Thanks to Raff, you are able to put more emphasis on playing on your oppo’s end step.
The Athleisure deck takes the hard control of the Classic Look and adds a combo-ish end game: Approach of the Second Sun. These decks have been around for more than a year and before Unferi showed up they made up the majority of UW control decks.
It has always seemed strange for UW to win with a 7 CMC Sorcery – that you have to cast twice, no less – but this is more than viable.
There is already a discussion thread dedicated to UW Approach so I’m not going to go into a ton of detail about it here.
Marion Johnson recently won a PPTQ in Roanoke with Approach and, although a lot of his choices are questionable, a good day out is hard to argue with so his list is below. For more thoughts on this deck, check out the UW Approach thread.
Because the three decks are so different it’s hard to go into a lot of detail on match-ups and game plans. There’s a lot of strategy in the card discussions, but I’ll be looking to add match-up info over time. Hopefully there will be some great discussion and we’ll just add the best stuff to the primer and make it a real community project.
I am not sure cutting Spring is ever correct with this variant. I haven't missed it though so I am not sure whether I should put it back in or not. I really like Compass, but having three in the deck always felt clunky and the card I cut it for -- Unferi #2 -- does a lot more for me.
You are definitely right about needing the 3rd Fumigate in the MD. I don't know what your meta is like, but I've got a lot of decks going low and wide as hard and fast as they can so cutting a wrath just feels super wrong to me. And this is why I am not comfortable about cutting Spring -- if your oppo has Shalai your Settles are dead (especially if he's smart enough to hold it back and keep is away from your seals), so you need to Spring on T3 into Fumigate on T4 (hopefully). And cutting a Spring makes that less likely.
My board is pretty much all over the place too, but the core pieces are the same as yours.
[card]3 Negate
3 Lyra
1 Nezahal (I really like this card)
2 Desert's Hold
3 Naturalize (there are no many good targets for this right now)
1 Unferi
2 Flex[/card]
The flex slot could be a lot of things. It rally depends on what looks like it's problematic as the meta evolves. Right now I like Spyglass, another Binding and Commit//Memory. I also think we may want more GY hate. The R and RU GPG deck can be very fast and it can win out of nowhere.
There's a 5-0 list from yesterday that is interesting. It's quite different from Davis. There are a few weird decisions in the list like the Grow from the Ashes and the Hostile Desert, but I've always been fond of the Gift of Paradise.
i'll definitely keep all that stuff in mind. i do like spyglass too. just need to find the ones i have. i like your reasonings behind things too. thanks! i've been testing blink of an eye instead of essence scatter and seem to like it a lot.
i have been thinking of axing search for azcanta. i seem to be siding it out in a lot of matchups and i know that it's helpful but i feel like there's better options out there. but that might be wrong. still new to this deck (and standard in general).
Thanks!
I'm going to test Blink in those slots too. I'm not super excited about Scatter. Even if your oppo knows you have them, they probably know you don't have many so it's never the right play to worry about them. You just go hard and try to get there and if they have one of their two scatters then they do. The math says you gamble, so you do. besides...the mono W player I lost to on Monday was running Sram's Expertise into the Benalish dude so I couldn't counter him even if I wanted to. If I was going to run MD counters I'd have to look at Negate, Disallow or Syncopate. I think we have enough board management for the creatures anyway.
I'd keep the SfA. We have very little to do on T2 and scrying every turn has helped my mana development or helped me find key pieces. You may want to side it out against Aggro, but I think you want to keep in in the deck.
I am not sure cutting Spring is ever correct with this variant. I haven't missed it though so I am not sure whether I should put it back in or not. I really like Compass, but having three in the deck always felt clunky and the card I cut it for -- Unferi #2 -- does a lot more for me.
You are definitely right about needing the 3rd Fumigate in the MD. I don't know what your meta is like, but I've got a lot of decks going low and wide as hard and fast as they can so cutting a wrath just feels super wrong to me. And this is why I am not comfortable about cutting Spring -- if your oppo has Shalai your Settles are dead (especially if he's smart enough to hold it back and keep is away from your seals), so you need to Spring on T3 into Fumigate on T4 (hopefully). And cutting a Spring makes that less likely.
My board is pretty much all over the place too, but the core pieces are the same as yours.
[card]3 Negate
3 Lyra
1 Nezahal (I really like this card)
2 Desert's Hold
3 Naturalize (there are no many good targets for this right now)
1 Unferi
2 Flex[/card]
The flex slot could be a lot of things. It rally depends on what looks like it's problematic as the meta evolves. Right now I like Spyglass, another Binding and Commit//Memory. I also think we may want more GY hate. The R and RU GPG deck can be very fast and it can win out of nowhere.
There's a 5-0 list from yesterday that is interesting. It's quite different from Davis. There are a few weird decisions in the list like the Grow from the Ashes and the Hostile Desert, but I've always been fond of the Gift of Paradise.
I started with the Davis list, then cut a compass and a spring for Teferi #2 and Settle #4. I find I am not drawing enough White mana, so I'm thinking about cutting a Forest for a white cycling desert or a 2nd Grove. out of 15 or so games, I have failed to hit WW on T4 at least three times and lost the game twice because of it.
I am starting to see a lot of Brontodons -- which you would think would be bad for a deck that relies on up to 10 enchantment-based removal spells -- but more often than not, the creature you got rid of with the Seal Away on T2/3 is actually worse than the 3/4 Brontodon, so they wait until they can free up a Benalish Crusade dude, or Hazoret or something like that and that gives you the time you need to win. I haven't played against BW Knights yet, but I am not worried about anything else I've run across yet.
I played Bant Approach last night with him at 2 and 1 in the board. I ran into mono-W aggro and got mana screwed G2 and colour screwed G3. That deck is not a thing though...it autoloses to Chainwhirler.
I was really surprised by that too. I bet he got a lot of concessions off the Commit//Memory. You get the Unferi emblem and then flash that back out of the GY to remove 7 of your oppo's lands and it game over.
I really like the Bant Approach decks. I think not playing Unferi is categorically incorrect though, so I like your change. I would add another. I think I would cut Spring//Mind.
Taking the UW mirror to the next level...if Ipnu Rivulet ends up being the best weapon in the mirror, when do we start splashing a tiny bit of G and boarding in two Gaea's Blessing? Or does Bant end up being the best version of the deck?
Anyhbody have any guesses how people will shake the meta up to combat all the control decks now? probably going to see lots of Carnage Tyrants.
And what are your guys' take on mirror matches? What do you like to run?
Carnage Tyrant, Serpopod, Duress, Ipnu, Search for Azcanta and planeswalkers are all good against control decks. I don't think aggro is something we really need to worry about it any form right now though. I honestly think that it's really hard to go under UW right now, given all the great removal we have access to. Thus the best way to attack us is going to be another control deck, and then outplay/outsmart/outdraw us. That said, Llanowar into T2 Serpopod is going to be unpleasant. If that happens you need Fumigate, Cast Out or hope they are dumb enough to attack with it, thus exposing it to Seal Away.
In the current meta, I am going to give Flash a shot like darknsith. However, I am not giving up my Ipnu Rivulets. I think this may be our best option because the current format has absolutely no way to defend against this. In all, I run eight Deserts in my MD (4 Ipnu, 2 Scavengers and one each U and W cycling deserts), giving me access to a significant amount of mill. This also has the elegance of taking advantage of the thing our oppos want to do most, draw lots of cards. I'll be siding in 3/4 negates and keeping all my MD counters. I *think* I will keep my Approaches in the deck, as I'll be looking to try to trigger a counterwar on their EOT with a Gearhulk and then untap into Approach, but that really depends whether or not I see Rivulet in their deck G1. You just can't anticipate Approach being live when they can mill them away after you cast them.
One thing you really need to consider in the current meta is hard counters. I run 4 Supreme Will in my MD, but in a control match-up they are not very effective as counters. It is highly likely that you and your oppo both will have 8-10 land in play before either of you cast anything. You need Disallow, Negate, Essence Scatter, etc. Whichever one of you is able to access more of these cards will probably win. The other thing you need is patience. Do not rush things. It has been said that the 1st person to tap mana in the mirror loses. This is a bit exaggerated, but not really incorrect.
Thanks Meecht. So, if that's the whole argument in favour, to me it appears categorically inferior to Champion.
An unanswered champion won't win games against control. And at best it's a buffer against aggro. An unanswered history will win games against control forcing them to interact and tap out allowing you to do your thing main phase. The benefit is while it won't gain you life, it *can* be brought in against aggro.
It is most definitely *not* inferior to sunscourge. History is ridiculous. Play it and you'll see
I am not sure why people like History of Benalia. It's significantly better against aggro and control. Can anyone help me understand why HoB doesn't suck?
Once again, the bolded part is what I want to emphasize. Control mirrors usually side out some removal, not all. If a turn 3 history resolves...from my playtesting it will put that player at a significant advantage or just outright win. Not even exaggerating here. It's that strong. Against aggro ot isn't ridiculous however it is viable and will protect you and your walkers. I encourage you to sleeve it up and give it a go
Champion costs 7 mana (3+4) and 2 cards (itself + embalm) to gain 6 life. Both "modes" give you one body (2/3 and a 4/4) with no extra abilities after the ETB. If -X/-X removal becomes common (Fungal Infection and/or Vicious Offering) your opponent can respond to the ETB to reduce the amount of life you gain.
History is 3 mana for two 2/2s with vigilance that probably eat removal or chump block a couple of dudes. However, chump blocking is pseudo-lifegain that scales with the creatures attacking you and can't be prevented by Rampaging Ferocidon.
In general, having 2 creatures on the field is better than having 1, especially with a decent amount of Menace running around.
So where to start here...
1) If you are going to edit the original post then say so. The part you bolded was not related to History but the way you have edited suggests it was. I am sure this was not intentional, but it is confusing.
2) An unanswered Swamp Mosquito will beat control. Any "unanswered" threat will win the game. Thus, an "unanswered Champion won't beat control" cannot be what you meant to say.
I am not going to try to read your mind, however I will be more than happy to address the control match-up. If you are bringing in dorks against control then I think you are doing it wrong. I could see going with some kind of flash strategy in G2 (Raff, Gearhulk, Lyra, etc) if that's what you want to do, but I'd be trying to win with Gearhulks and Rivulets backed up by extra negates. Try to stick Teferi and drown them in card advantage. Gideon is also pretty good here. I am also not opposed to keeping Approach, but I am highly unlikely to bring in Champion in that match-up. There are only so many cards you want to take out (you have to respect the fact that a lot of Control players are either on flash or will move into it so you can't take out all your removal) and I am already bringing in 3/4 negates, a Gideon, a Dinosaur fish, a Gearhulk and -- most likely -- a couple of Lyras.
I do see your point that the enchantment is going to be an easier play against control than Sunscourge. I think it *might* be marginally better there. However, that's not the match-up I want to dedicate that slot to. Besides...what does that game plan look like? Do you try to slip in History on T3? Do you wait and try to bait a counterspell with it on T8 before trying to win a fight over Teferi? Isn't forcing them to deal with an EOT Gearhulk or Gideon just as good or better? Especially given the fact that - with Gearhulk at least -- you might be able to untap and stick Tef?
3) "At best it's a buffer against aggro." Ummm...I really don't want to come across like a jerk, especially as I am tremedously appreciative of the time you've taken to try to help me out, but this statement makes me wonder if you have a lot of experience playing control decks. Against aggro our goal is to buy time to get to Settle/Fumigate/Approach. I am not siding in dorks so I can try to win the battle my oppo has built his deck to fight. A "buffer" is exactly what we want. A buffer that often gains 2 life, trades, gains 4 life and trades again is pretty sweet. Especially against RDW and other decks that are really low to the ground. The new Vehicles decks definitely fall into this category. Our gameplan is to trade resources for time. Both these cards do that, however I think Sunscourge is more effective. The only drawback to these cards in this situation is that they may turn on enemy removal that would otherwise stagnate in the oppo's hand.
4) "History is 3 mana for two 2/2s with vigilance that probably eat removal or chump block a couple of dudes. However, chump blocking is pseudo-lifegain that scales with the creatures attacking you..." So how is this functionally different than Sunscourge then? All of these statement are pretty much true of that card as well. Except embalmed Sunscourge may block and survive combat rather than just chumping and its life gain is real rather than pseudo.
5) "In general, having 2 creatures on the field is better than having 1, especially with a decent amount of Menace running around." This is a good point. But isn't the difference here really marginal? One could argue that the lifegain blanks an attack anyway.
6) Finally: I am not trying to say everyone should play Sunscourge. I am just using it as an analogue for a white three drop that appears to do a similar job to History. I've played Sunscourge in most on my tourneys for the last 9 months or so and have been very happy with them (except when Ferocidon was legal, they got replaced during that period). I've played History a few times now in testing and I absolutely hate it. I think it's a total waste of a slot. However, I have seen it in a bunch of lists and wondered if I was missing something. I am far from perfect and miss all kinds of stuff. Considering I just bought 3 x Teferi and 2 x Lyra, plus Seal Aways and trading for another Lyra, I needed to find out if History was yet another card I misjudged before dropping even more cash on them. I very much appreciate the responses I got. You guys have saved me a pile of money. In September/October History may be important, but I think I'll wait to see what future sets bring us before resorting to them.
And I can relate to the financial pressures. This is not a cheap game to play. The Seal Aways and Raffs are uncommon so you should be able to find them for $1. Not everyone runs 4 Settles, but if you don't then move the Fumigate from the SB to the main. That card also only costs a couple of bucks so you could always consider going 3/3.
Also, if you got Lyra, Karn and Tef in your box then you did very well. Hopefully you got some other stuff you can trade for some of the pieces you still need.
So, I see what you mean, by "it's not optimised." ;-)
I do have some initial thoughts for you.
1) You need more focus. You have a bunch of really odd quantities for your cards and in many ways UW is very forgiving of that, but the reality is that you will struggle for consistency. For example: You are better off running another Cast Out in the Invoke slot. Cast out hits artifacts/enchantments, but is more versatile. The lifegain is not relevant. What are you going to use it against? Bromat Courier? Ballista? Yeah, that's not going to do much for you. Heart is certainly a live target for you as is Harvester, but Cast Out is legit here and you should be running more Seal Aways for that anyway.
2) I'm not going to fuss about your counter suite. Counters are counters and as long as they are getting the job done, that's all that matters. I would run more Disallows over Unwind though, and prolly bump up Essence Scatter over Negate -- at least in the MD.
3) Your removal is a mess. In this format, you should have 4 Settles. Things are already looking very, very aggro. I already mentioned Seal Away. Run 4. You need to interact with aggro decks as soon as you can.
4) Helm of the Host: I get what you are trying to do here, and it's...cute. This card costs four to cast and 5 to equip. Is it amazing if you can make it happen? Sure. But IMHO this is a stunt best left in your EDH deck.
5) Zhalfirin Void: If you are going to run lands that don't produce coloured mana then they are either Field of Ruin, Scavenger Grounds or Arch of Orazca. Nothing else gets a slot. And you should probably not run more than 4 of these in any combination. You want UU of T3 for Disallow and WW on T4 for Settle. That doesn't leave a lot of room for lands that don't help you out with your colours.
6) Wincons: If you are going to win with dorks, then you are going to need some more of them. Lyra +1, Raff +2 and Gearhulk + 2. The reason the creature-based UW control deck is winning right now is because it does everything on it's oppo's turn and sits back on counters and removal for everything else. Your current list wants to survive for awhile and then cast a big, vulnerable dork.
7) Transitional Superfriends Board: There is absolutely nothng wrng with playing control G1 and then switching into Approach for G2. Most of us are doing this the other way round, so you might run into people who think you are playing approach and SB for that anyway (just because they didn't see it, doesn't mean they can ignore it) which will hurt you. The PWs are okay, but again, you need more consistency. Personally, I am a big fan of Dovin Baan. I played him in 4C cntrol last year and really liked him. He's not in my deck now only because Teferi and Gideon are much, much better and because 4 mana is an awkward CC in the current meta. So...more Teferi. Also...unless you are planning to do something with the energy...consider replacing the Glimmers with Hieroglyphic Illumination. Depends on how much you value the scry over the flexiblity of cycling if you are mana screwed.
Last thought: lands -- you need more W sources. Remember what I said about needing ww on T4 for Settle.
I looked at the deck you linked and TBH, I think it's a little schizophrenic. To start with it's not a control deck. It's not really a tempo deck either. It's more like UW midrange, like the Hipster decks in the primer only with a lot more dorks. I do not believe Bontu's Monument to be viable in any competitive environment and the rest...IKD. It kind of looks like a Wizards/Angels Tribal deck. Some of these cards are very good -- Lyra, Unferi, Raff, etc., -- and good cards will always give you good moments, but Naru is terrible, as is Release to the Wind. Just as you may drop Lyra and ride her to a win, you are just as likely to play Naru and die horribly. Consistency is what you want. Balance in all things, especially magic.
As I consider it more, I think it's just a messed up version of Hipster. If you are tired of Approach and want to do something different, then Hipster is a decent place to start. You might find you miss the I Win factor of the older deck though. Maybe Jim Davis' Bant Approach would be good? I've really enjoyed playing it myself.
/M
Of course, the truth is that we never really left. With a few short blips (I’m looking at you, Ramunap Ruins), UW Control decks have been viable for the last year or more. Now that some new high profile tools have been added to the arsenal, the archetype isn’t just viable, it’s fashionable. And what a variety of fashions we have available to us. Do you like outright control? Got you covered. Want to enjoy that dirty combo feeling? Let me introduce my friend Approach of the Second Suns. Feel like turning dorks sideways? (Yuck!) Well, we’ve even got that covered thanks to the Historic options. You can pick the poison that most appeals to you. Moreover, you can even pick up a few extra cards and then use them to change up your deck from week to week to keep your friends at your LGS off balance.
One of the factors helping UW Control rise to prominence is the lack of Combo in the format. There are a couple of combo decks around, but – with the exception of Combat Celebrant-based GPG decks – they are generally inconsistent and thus not putting up any numbers worth talking about. The neutering of the Aetherworks Marvel and Saheeli Rai combos has left us with only one real threat vector, allowing us to focus our deck on beating aggro. There is even a shortage of burn spells that go to the dome, so we don’t have to worry about losing to a flurry of Lightning Bolts. In the meantime, we have been gifted with half a dozen sweepers, a ton of point removal and a zillion counters. As things stand right now we have all the tools required to deal with whatever aggro cards our opponents may throw our way.
So dose the goblets with Iocane Powder and sit back because we are going to be drawing, playing a land and saying “go” a lot.
The Cards
There are a minimum of three distinct variants of reactive UW Control decks making noise right now. Rather than repeat myself a lot, I’m going to look at the cards that are common to all three and then break out into separate sections to address some of the differences. I’ll provide recent decklists for all three. Due to the sheer weight of legit card options for these variants I am sure I will miss lots of cards. Please feel free to discuss them in the thread. I don’t have time to write War and Peace right now, so I will add some match-up analysis over time.
Win Cons
“Unferi” has almost single-handedly put UW back on the map and is probably the top end of any decent UW control deck you will see. Lots of “pros” and try-hards saw Teferi and thought “Hey, maybe I’ll play with basic Island.” Just like skinny pants and beards, we are back on the cover of Vogue or GQ or whatever. Some people are even calling him the GOAT planeswalker. While I think this is hyperbolic to the point of silliness, there is no debating the fact that he is an amazing – and possible format-defining – weapon for UW players.
There are a ton of other articles on the Internet espousing how good he is and I’m not going to waste your time repeating them.
Very briefly:
+2 ability – drawing a card AND untapping two land – basically makes him a three mana planeswalker you can’t cast before T5. Those two untapped lands can be used to protect him with Seal Away (conveniently in his colors) or to protect you with Essence Scatter, Negate or a weak Syncopate. The only place this doesn’t quite apply is in mirror match where you might have to engage in a counter war over him. Later in the game you get access to other interesting Azcanta synergies. (The only thing better than drawing three cards per turn is drawing four cards per turn.)
-2: removes a permanent, which is great from a board control perspective, but also works as a win con. Target himself to put him on top of your deck and you’ll never deck out. Just watch out for enemy Ipnu Rivulets.
-8: The ultimate is insane in a deck with lots of card draw. Indeed, some people are running Commit//Memory strictly for the synergy with Unferi’s ultimate.
You won’t always see Gearhulk in UW, but it’s effective enough that you probably should. I don’t really even think of him as a win condition and sometimes don’t bother to attack with him even when I can. (yes, it’s lazy play and you should always attack with him when you can, but the point it that you’ve already gotten value from him when you cast him. Everything else is a bonus.) I prefer to think of him as a Settle the Wreckage, a Disallow or a Hieroglyphic Illumination with a 5/6 body. You can attack with him though. And a lengthy G1/2 may put you in a spot where you have to rush things.
Yes, it’s a land and could be in the lands section. But with the high number of UW mirrors we are starting to see you have to be prepared to win another way. Rivulet attacks your oppo’s deck directly and a milling win is as good as any other win. The fact that it’s a land makes it very hard to interact with. The drawback of course is that taking damage for each blue mana you draw from it is something you want to be careful about in an aggro heavy format. Make sure you consider your expected meta when deciding how many to run. Think of it as a mill 4 card that also taps for mana.
Gideon does pretty much everything you want a PW to do in a control deck. He forces your opponents to extend into your Wrath effects, he can attack to add a decent clock and then there’s the whole “you can’t lose the game” emblem thing which completely messes with your opponent, forcing them to deal with Gideon before they can deal with you.
Note that all of these win cons attack the opponent from very different vectors. They are also all multi-faceted resources – giving you a lot of flexibility in how you use them. This variety and flexibility are the strengths of the UW deck right now.
Removal
There’s a lot of removal available to UW right now. This is one of the primary reasons the deck is so good in an aggro heavy format. I’m not going to break down each card here as they are all pretty self-explanatory. The only real questions come when discussing numbers and that is about the variant and your meta.
Counterspells
The Hipster versions of the deck often don’t run Disallow, but it’s easily the best counterspell available to us right now and enough do that it makes the list of ubiquitous cards. In the mirror, this may be your best out to Ipnu Rivulet.
Hard counters at two mana are almost always going to be decent. In this format, if you are playing UW and not running at least some Scatters you are probably losing.
Card Advantage
Yes, Unferi could probably slot in here, but he does so much more than just draw cards.
It’s worth noting that some of the top decks in the last week or so have moved away from running either of these cards, instead favouring Pull from Tomorrow. However, many, many fashion conscious pilots are still working with the tried and true. Glimmer lets you see fur cards, while Illumination is better in the early game, especially if you are mana constrained. Pull from Tomorrow is the worst card to get you out of trouble on T3, but usually a blow-out on T10. All three are good with Unferi’s ultimate, but Pull is the clear winner in that particular scenario.
This may be one of the best cards available to us and is easily one of the best Magic cards printed in the last three to five years. As an enchantment it improves your draw quality. It has helped me find land and the Settle I desperately needed on more than one occasion. And casting a pseudo Impulse every turn is pretty sweet past-flip. The fact that it turns into a land should not be overlooked either. It can provide the land you need for Fumigate/Approach. And, as many others have pointed out, it combos nicely with Unferi’s +2 ability.
Lands
What’s really to say here? You play some blue lands. You play some white lands. You play some blue AND white lands. These cards should total at least 25 and maybe as many as 27. You do not want to miss land drops. This has been true since The Deck introduced us to Hate Magic in 1993. Beyond that there are a few (a very few) decisions to make.
How many God Pharoah’s Gifts do you expect to see? Right now, I imagine it should be a lot. In addition to the metagame’s UW mainstay there are perfectly viable UR and mono-R GPG decks. In fact, although it’s not made a splash yet, there’s a pretty good UGr GPG deck too. These latter variants, which feature Combat Celebrant to combo off with infinite attack steps, offer the format’s most effective combo decks. While they can work without the GY, attacking the graveyard denies them their explosive end game and is the best way to slow them down.
There are several legit targets for this right now, so it makes sense to pack one or two. With the prevalence of the mirror match enemy Azcantas are going to be plentiful. In a pinch, FoR can also help you find a plains if you need a second white source.
Both are late game cards, and it’s not usually hard to get the City’s Blessing with all the Seal Aways and [card]Cast Out[card]s we have so the deciding factor usually comes down to how many colourless lands you are already running. You really, really need to hit WW on T4. Between Scavenger Grounds and Ruin, you may not have room for another.
Sideboards
History of Benalia – Lose G1? You may need to go aggro to finish the next two in time. History is great for this, giving you two dorks and a cute little bonus for three mana.
Nezahal, Primal Tide – Awesome in the mirror. Uncounterable and dodges removal while also drawing you cards!
Negate – In this Meta? This was mentioned as a main board option, but you really want to be able to go to at least three Negates after boarding. Think of it as reading “Counter target Unferi.” Plus there’s all the other annoying crap you may need to stop.
Lyra, Dawnbringer – No, she is not Baneslayer Angel. She is really good though. In addition to providing a short clock, her lifelink ability makes her truly excellent against the wide decks. Largely replaced Regal Caracal in this slot.
Sorcerous Spyglass – shuts down vehicles (Heart of Kiran) and enemy planeswalkers (Chandra, Karn) for 2 mana. You also get to see what’s coming and plan your sequencing accordingly.
Authority of the Consuls – Really good against the red decks that get around your Gideons and Fumigates with haste creatures. Almost singlehandedly beats the Combat Celebrant-based GPG combo decks.
Forsake the Worldly – You need some Artifact/Enchantment hate. Cycling is useful and the Exile ability is relevant as God Pharoah’s Gift can be pulled back from the grave.
Options:
There are a lot of excellent cards available to UW right now – too many to detail them all.
Ixilan’s Binding – Not ubiquitous, but it may become more prevalent. Locking out the first threat and then all copies of that threat is really good. For example, bind a Chandra and then never worry about another. Or Bind Unferi and then only have to fight over enemy Cast Outs.
Baffling End – Replaced by Seal Away in the vast majority of decks, but still a reasonable option at CMC2.
Blink of an Eye – Better than Baffling End primarily because it’s more flexible. The extra card is nice when kicked. Think of this card more as a generic control option than a creature removal spell.
Desert’s Hold – Playing a lot of Rivulets and Scavenger Grounds? Then the three life this offers can be very nice in some match-ups.
Karn, Scion of Urza – I’ll be honest. I don’t get this one. He’s amazing in Vehicles and some other decks, but I don’t think he offers anything special to UW Control. I’m certainly not cutting removal or counters for him – and he definitely doesn’t get an Unferi slot! But, as you’ll see in the decklists below, he is showing up here and there so maybe I just don’t know what I don’t know. Hopefully thre will be some healthy debate in the comments.
Commit//Memory – Any deck running Unferi should probably have at least one of these. It’s a decent – though not great – counterspell, but as I mentioned above the Aftermath ability is amazing with Unferi’s ultimate. the knock on Wheel of Fortune was always the fact that you had to give your opponent seven cards too. But what do you care if they get to refill their hand if you Armageddon them at the same time?
Aether Meltdown – Think of it as Seal Away 5+.
Syncopate – A lot of decks are showing up with two or three of these lately. It may not be Powersink, but it’s still an excellent counter as long as you have a lot of mana. If you decide to go with less than 25 lands, don’t even think about Syncopate.
I mentioned in the Intro that there are half a dozen sweepers available to UW right now. The two we have talked about are the best but if you really need to add more you can think about these others: River’s Rebuke, Hour of Revelation, Slaughter the Strong, Urza’s Ruinous Blast. Rebuke is playable, though better in the UGx decks, but exercise caution when sleeving up the others. Hour and Blast are non-bos with our enchantment-based removal and Slaughter won’t kill everything.
So let’s talk a little about the three main variants of UW control in the current metagame.
*The decklists all read “M@lcontent’s Deck.” They aren’t mine, I’m just wrestling with the technology and I’ve given credit to their pilots as appropriate.
Classic Look
Let’s start with the business casual of UW Control variants. These are the decks that have been putting up most of the numbers in Top 8’s. They are buttoned down, with clean lines and a subdued confidence that can be brutally intimidating. This guy is like a lawyer and gets the most joy out of the oh crap look that splashes across your opponent’s face when he sees you play T1 Irrigated Farmland. This guy is playing lock down and sacrifices win-cons to make more room for pure control cards. He will have more counters and more removal than the Hipster.
Note the addition of more Planeswalkers. In fact, some of these decks take an almost superfriends approach to the game, picking up a lot of incremental value and forcing opponents to play into their advantages. For example: Gideon of the Trials forces opponents to commit more dorks to the board making Fumigate better. Along with Unferi, this guy is likely to show up with some Torrential Gearhulks. some players are even running Dovin Baan as another pseudo Gideon, and/or Karn, Scion of Urza.
Strategically, this deck runs out like UW has for more than two decades. Counter stuff, wrath stuff and eventually win with whatever you feel like.
Here is Ben Weinberg’s Classic Look deck that took down the SCG Classic (kind of fitting) on May 20th. It’s worth noting that there is almost no difference between this deck and the one piloted by Leo Lahonen to a runners up slot at GP Birmingham and that the top 4 of GP Toronto (Teams) included 2 decks that were almost identical.
1 x Gideon of the Trials
4 x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Spells
3 x Cast Out
3 x Seal Away
3 x Blink of an Eye
1 x Commit//Memory
4 x Disallow
3 x Essence Scatter
2 x Pull from Tomorrow
3 x Settle the Wreckage
2 x Syncopate
2 x Search for Azcanta
2x Fumigate
5 x Island
7 x Plains
2 x Field of Ruin
4 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Ipnu Rivulet
4 x Irrigated Farmland
2 x Meandering River
1 x Memorial to Genius
2 x Sorcerous Spyglass
1 x Authority of the Consuls
4 x History of Benalia
1 x Seal Away
2 x Invoke the Divine
3 x Negate
1 x Gideon of the Trials
1 x Fumigate
Hipster
There are a couple of variants of the hipster deck, which aims to play a soft control game to stave off a bad outcome before dropping a dork and turning it sideways a few times. Here’s a recent 5-0 list from MOL league piloted by Mathey. Following that is the so called Historic Deck piloted by Kevin Jones to 4th at an SCG Classic a few weeks back that features main deck Raff Capashan, Ship’s Mage so all your dorks (and Unferis) have flash.
Strategically, this decks plays a little differently to the Classic Look. The Hipster shortens the clock a lot with a more aggressive approach to the game. History of Benalia in the main offers both a way to interact on the ground and a way to attack in the early game while Lyra, Gearhulk and Raff bring the beats. Thanks to Raff, you are able to put more emphasis on playing on your oppo’s end step.
2 Lyra Dawnbringer
4 Merfolk Trickster
2 Torrential Gearhulk
Instant (16)
2 Commit // Memory
1 Forsake the Worldly
1 Gideon's Reproach
2 Glimmer of Genius
1 Negate
2 Settle the Wreckage
1 Supreme Will
2 Syncopate
4 Wizard's Retort
4 History of Benalia
3 Seal Away
Land (26)
2 Field of Ruin
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Irrigated Farmland
8 Island
2 Memorial to Genius
6 Plains
Legendary planeswalker (3)
3 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
1 Field of Ruin
1 Forsake the Worldly
3 Negate
2 Authority of the Consuls
1 Cast Out
2 Fumigate
1 Jace's Defeat
2 Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Torrential Gearhulk
2 Walking Ballista
3 Lyra Dawnbringer
2 Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
Planeswalkers
2 Gideon of the Trials
3 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Spells
1 Cast Out
4 History of Benalia
4 Seal Away
1 Blink of an Eye
1 Commit//Memory
1 Disallow
1 Glimmer of Genius
1 Negate
2 Settle the Wreckage
2 Supreme Will
2 Syncopate
4 Island
10 Plains
1 Field of Ruin
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Irrigated Farmland
1 Meandering River
2 Memorial to Genius
2 Authority of the Consuls
2 Forsake the Worldly
1 Glimmer of Genius
1 Jace's Defeat
3 Negate
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
2 Fumigate
1 River's Rebuke
1 x Gideon of the Trials
1 x Fumigate
Athleisure
The Athleisure deck takes the hard control of the Classic Look and adds a combo-ish end game: Approach of the Second Sun. These decks have been around for more than a year and before Unferi showed up they made up the majority of UW control decks.
It has always seemed strange for UW to win with a 7 CMC Sorcery – that you have to cast twice, no less – but this is more than viable.
There is already a discussion thread dedicated to UW Approach so I’m not going to go into a ton of detail about it here.
Marion Johnson recently won a PPTQ in Roanoke with Approach and, although a lot of his choices are questionable, a good day out is hard to argue with so his list is below. For more thoughts on this deck, check out the UW Approach thread.
2 Torrential Gearhulk
Planeswalkers
1 Dovin Baan
3 Gideon of the Trials
2 Karn, Scion of Urza
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Spells
2 Cast Out
4 Censor
3 Disallow
3 Essence Scatter
2 Glimmer of Genius
1 Pull from Tomorrow
4 Settle the Wreckage
1 Search for Azcanta
2 Approach of the Second Sun
2 Fumigate
7 Island
6 Plains
2 Field of Ruin
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ipnu Rivulet
4 Irrigated Farmland
1 Scavenger Grounds
3 Authority of the Consuls
3 Forsake the Worldly
1 Jace's Defeat
3 Negate
2 Lyra Dawnbringer
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
1 Fumigate
Match-ups
Because the three decks are so different it’s hard to go into a lot of detail on match-ups and game plans. There’s a lot of strategy in the card discussions, but I’ll be looking to add match-up info over time. Hopefully there will be some great discussion and we’ll just add the best stuff to the primer and make it a real community project.
Thanks!
I'm going to test Blink in those slots too. I'm not super excited about Scatter. Even if your oppo knows you have them, they probably know you don't have many so it's never the right play to worry about them. You just go hard and try to get there and if they have one of their two scatters then they do. The math says you gamble, so you do. besides...the mono W player I lost to on Monday was running Sram's Expertise into the Benalish dude so I couldn't counter him even if I wanted to. If I was going to run MD counters I'd have to look at Negate, Disallow or Syncopate. I think we have enough board management for the creatures anyway.
I'd keep the SfA. We have very little to do on T2 and scrying every turn has helped my mana development or helped me find key pieces. You may want to side it out against Aggro, but I think you want to keep in in the deck.
You are definitely right about needing the 3rd Fumigate in the MD. I don't know what your meta is like, but I've got a lot of decks going low and wide as hard and fast as they can so cutting a wrath just feels super wrong to me. And this is why I am not comfortable about cutting Spring -- if your oppo has Shalai your Settles are dead (especially if he's smart enough to hold it back and keep is away from your seals), so you need to Spring on T3 into Fumigate on T4 (hopefully). And cutting a Spring makes that less likely.
My board is pretty much all over the place too, but the core pieces are the same as yours.
[card]3 Negate
3 Lyra
1 Nezahal (I really like this card)
2 Desert's Hold
3 Naturalize (there are no many good targets for this right now)
1 Unferi
2 Flex[/card]
The flex slot could be a lot of things. It rally depends on what looks like it's problematic as the meta evolves. Right now I like Spyglass, another Binding and Commit//Memory. I also think we may want more GY hate. The R and RU GPG deck can be very fast and it can win out of nowhere.
There's a 5-0 list from yesterday that is interesting. It's quite different from Davis. There are a few weird decisions in the list like the Grow from the Ashes and the Hostile Desert, but I've always been fond of the Gift of Paradise.
It's about 2/3rds of the way down the page at: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-standard-constructed-league-2018-05-14
/M
I am starting to see a lot of Brontodons -- which you would think would be bad for a deck that relies on up to 10 enchantment-based removal spells -- but more often than not, the creature you got rid of with the Seal Away on T2/3 is actually worse than the 3/4 Brontodon, so they wait until they can free up a Benalish Crusade dude, or Hazoret or something like that and that gives you the time you need to win. I haven't played against BW Knights yet, but I am not worried about anything else I've run across yet.
/M
Carnage Tyrant, Serpopod, Duress, Ipnu, Search for Azcanta and planeswalkers are all good against control decks. I don't think aggro is something we really need to worry about it any form right now though. I honestly think that it's really hard to go under UW right now, given all the great removal we have access to. Thus the best way to attack us is going to be another control deck, and then outplay/outsmart/outdraw us. That said, Llanowar into T2 Serpopod is going to be unpleasant. If that happens you need Fumigate, Cast Out or hope they are dumb enough to attack with it, thus exposing it to Seal Away.
In the current meta, I am going to give Flash a shot like darknsith. However, I am not giving up my Ipnu Rivulets. I think this may be our best option because the current format has absolutely no way to defend against this. In all, I run eight Deserts in my MD (4 Ipnu, 2 Scavengers and one each U and W cycling deserts), giving me access to a significant amount of mill. This also has the elegance of taking advantage of the thing our oppos want to do most, draw lots of cards. I'll be siding in 3/4 negates and keeping all my MD counters. I *think* I will keep my Approaches in the deck, as I'll be looking to try to trigger a counterwar on their EOT with a Gearhulk and then untap into Approach, but that really depends whether or not I see Rivulet in their deck G1. You just can't anticipate Approach being live when they can mill them away after you cast them.
One thing you really need to consider in the current meta is hard counters. I run 4 Supreme Will in my MD, but in a control match-up they are not very effective as counters. It is highly likely that you and your oppo both will have 8-10 land in play before either of you cast anything. You need Disallow, Negate, Essence Scatter, etc. Whichever one of you is able to access more of these cards will probably win. The other thing you need is patience. Do not rush things. It has been said that the 1st person to tap mana in the mirror loses. This is a bit exaggerated, but not really incorrect.
So where to start here...
1) If you are going to edit the original post then say so. The part you bolded was not related to History but the way you have edited suggests it was. I am sure this was not intentional, but it is confusing.
2) An unanswered Swamp Mosquito will beat control. Any "unanswered" threat will win the game. Thus, an "unanswered Champion won't beat control" cannot be what you meant to say.
I am not going to try to read your mind, however I will be more than happy to address the control match-up. If you are bringing in dorks against control then I think you are doing it wrong. I could see going with some kind of flash strategy in G2 (Raff, Gearhulk, Lyra, etc) if that's what you want to do, but I'd be trying to win with Gearhulks and Rivulets backed up by extra negates. Try to stick Teferi and drown them in card advantage. Gideon is also pretty good here. I am also not opposed to keeping Approach, but I am highly unlikely to bring in Champion in that match-up. There are only so many cards you want to take out (you have to respect the fact that a lot of Control players are either on flash or will move into it so you can't take out all your removal) and I am already bringing in 3/4 negates, a Gideon, a Dinosaur fish, a Gearhulk and -- most likely -- a couple of Lyras.
I do see your point that the enchantment is going to be an easier play against control than Sunscourge. I think it *might* be marginally better there. However, that's not the match-up I want to dedicate that slot to. Besides...what does that game plan look like? Do you try to slip in History on T3? Do you wait and try to bait a counterspell with it on T8 before trying to win a fight over Teferi? Isn't forcing them to deal with an EOT Gearhulk or Gideon just as good or better? Especially given the fact that - with Gearhulk at least -- you might be able to untap and stick Tef?
3) "At best it's a buffer against aggro." Ummm...I really don't want to come across like a jerk, especially as I am tremedously appreciative of the time you've taken to try to help me out, but this statement makes me wonder if you have a lot of experience playing control decks. Against aggro our goal is to buy time to get to Settle/Fumigate/Approach. I am not siding in dorks so I can try to win the battle my oppo has built his deck to fight. A "buffer" is exactly what we want. A buffer that often gains 2 life, trades, gains 4 life and trades again is pretty sweet. Especially against RDW and other decks that are really low to the ground. The new Vehicles decks definitely fall into this category. Our gameplan is to trade resources for time. Both these cards do that, however I think Sunscourge is more effective. The only drawback to these cards in this situation is that they may turn on enemy removal that would otherwise stagnate in the oppo's hand.
4) "History is 3 mana for two 2/2s with vigilance that probably eat removal or chump block a couple of dudes. However, chump blocking is pseudo-lifegain that scales with the creatures attacking you..." So how is this functionally different than Sunscourge then? All of these statement are pretty much true of that card as well. Except embalmed Sunscourge may block and survive combat rather than just chumping and its life gain is real rather than pseudo.
5) "In general, having 2 creatures on the field is better than having 1, especially with a decent amount of Menace running around." This is a good point. But isn't the difference here really marginal? One could argue that the lifegain blanks an attack anyway.
6) Finally: I am not trying to say everyone should play Sunscourge. I am just using it as an analogue for a white three drop that appears to do a similar job to History. I've played Sunscourge in most on my tourneys for the last 9 months or so and have been very happy with them (except when Ferocidon was legal, they got replaced during that period). I've played History a few times now in testing and I absolutely hate it. I think it's a total waste of a slot. However, I have seen it in a bunch of lists and wondered if I was missing something. I am far from perfect and miss all kinds of stuff. Considering I just bought 3 x Teferi and 2 x Lyra, plus Seal Aways and trading for another Lyra, I needed to find out if History was yet another card I misjudged before dropping even more cash on them. I very much appreciate the responses I got. You guys have saved me a pile of money. In September/October History may be important, but I think I'll wait to see what future sets bring us before resorting to them.
/M
And I can relate to the financial pressures. This is not a cheap game to play. The Seal Aways and Raffs are uncommon so you should be able to find them for $1. Not everyone runs 4 Settles, but if you don't then move the Fumigate from the SB to the main. That card also only costs a couple of bucks so you could always consider going 3/3.
Also, if you got Lyra, Karn and Tef in your box then you did very well. Hopefully you got some other stuff you can trade for some of the pieces you still need.
So, I see what you mean, by "it's not optimised." ;-)
I do have some initial thoughts for you.
1) You need more focus. You have a bunch of really odd quantities for your cards and in many ways UW is very forgiving of that, but the reality is that you will struggle for consistency. For example: You are better off running another Cast Out in the Invoke slot. Cast out hits artifacts/enchantments, but is more versatile. The lifegain is not relevant. What are you going to use it against? Bromat Courier? Ballista? Yeah, that's not going to do much for you. Heart is certainly a live target for you as is Harvester, but Cast Out is legit here and you should be running more Seal Aways for that anyway.
2) I'm not going to fuss about your counter suite. Counters are counters and as long as they are getting the job done, that's all that matters. I would run more Disallows over Unwind though, and prolly bump up Essence Scatter over Negate -- at least in the MD.
3) Your removal is a mess. In this format, you should have 4 Settles. Things are already looking very, very aggro. I already mentioned Seal Away. Run 4. You need to interact with aggro decks as soon as you can.
4) Helm of the Host: I get what you are trying to do here, and it's...cute. This card costs four to cast and 5 to equip. Is it amazing if you can make it happen? Sure. But IMHO this is a stunt best left in your EDH deck.
5) Zhalfirin Void: If you are going to run lands that don't produce coloured mana then they are either Field of Ruin, Scavenger Grounds or Arch of Orazca. Nothing else gets a slot. And you should probably not run more than 4 of these in any combination. You want UU of T3 for Disallow and WW on T4 for Settle. That doesn't leave a lot of room for lands that don't help you out with your colours.
6) Wincons: If you are going to win with dorks, then you are going to need some more of them. Lyra +1, Raff +2 and Gearhulk + 2. The reason the creature-based UW control deck is winning right now is because it does everything on it's oppo's turn and sits back on counters and removal for everything else. Your current list wants to survive for awhile and then cast a big, vulnerable dork.
7) Transitional Superfriends Board: There is absolutely nothng wrng with playing control G1 and then switching into Approach for G2. Most of us are doing this the other way round, so you might run into people who think you are playing approach and SB for that anyway (just because they didn't see it, doesn't mean they can ignore it) which will hurt you. The PWs are okay, but again, you need more consistency. Personally, I am a big fan of Dovin Baan. I played him in 4C cntrol last year and really liked him. He's not in my deck now only because Teferi and Gideon are much, much better and because 4 mana is an awkward CC in the current meta. So...more Teferi. Also...unless you are planning to do something with the energy...consider replacing the Glimmers with Hieroglyphic Illumination. Depends on how much you value the scry over the flexiblity of cycling if you are mana screwed.
Last thought: lands -- you need more W sources. Remember what I said about needing ww on T4 for Settle.
I hope this is helpful.
/M