I feel w/ Voice of Resurgence being everywhere, 4 Pillar's are a must in the 75. I initially didn't use Assemble the Legion but with some recent testing it's just awesome and I like having it along w Aetherling as win-cons. Izzet Charm is nice for its diversity...And could be so valuable mid-late game to help you dig for your wincon. Cavern of Souls is huge against the control mirror. And 4 Geists in the SB has been amazing for me. Most players don't expect those Games 2 or 3 and they've won me games single-handedly because they often foil whatever sideboard plan my opponent puts in. Counterflux and Render Silent mostly for the control mirror to give some options.
I was playing a x1 Dramatic Rescue for a while, and it was pretty good, but decided to take it out in favor of a 3rd Pillar main. Warleader's Helix and Sphinx provide enough life gain.
This deck is awesome and can deal with just about anything your opponent throws at you. Jace, AoT is too good not to be a 2-of in this deck IMO.
jace is really good but its hard for me to play without tamiyo
Game 1
Guy was playing a pretty janky Esper control. Game 1 he's on the play. He goes land, go. I play a tapped Steam vents and pass. He plays Contaminated Ground on my Vents. I proceed to draw nothing but W/R Lands and double blue counter spells. Luckily he's really not doing much of anything. He plays 1 mana discard spells and Dimir Charms the top of my deck to keep me off blue. Eventually I get to my blue and play out my draw spells till I hit triple blue to drop an Aetherling gg.
Game 2
He plays a turn 1 Grafdigger's Cage. I have 2 snapcaster, Restoration Angel, Warleader's Helix, and and a think twice. My snaps are effectively Ambush Vipers now, so I just shift gears to play more aggressively. He eventually he hits a Mind Grind for 3 taking Dissipate, Sphinx's Rev, and Warleader's Helix. Topdeck an Aetherling and its gg.
Match 2 vs. Jund (2-0)
Game 1
Game 1 was a very epic battle. He plays a turn 3 Huntmaster which I have no answer to so I dissipate. Turn 4 he lands a Thragtusk. I draw turn and burn and at this point I have no counters I turn and burn it on his attack step. He lands a Garruk Primal Hunter. This thing is going to take over the game. I'm burning through my removal to try and get through to the Garruk, but he keeps ticking up. I drop a snap and and Angel, play out some more removal on the tokens. By the time the Garruk hits the magic 6, I manage to drop Aetherling. He decides to ultimate seeing Garruk's days are numbered. Had he drawn cards instead he probably would have won, but I wouldn't say he misplayed. He was basically saying if you don't have a verdict, I win. He took the gamble and lost, I had the verdict. Garruk is off the board and all the creatures are gone besides my Aetherling and a beast token off another of his thragtusks. I have a Sphinx's Rev in hand, things are looking great but then he drop Sire of Insanity. There go all my cards. I draw Restoration Angel, play it and do some Aetherling shenanigans. He has a Kessig Wolfrun in play. He swings in with the token and pumps. I trade for my angel. Aetherling and Sire + Wolfrun are left to go at it mano y mano I manage to squeeze out the win, even when he was at 30 some life and I was down to 16. At this point I was thoroughly impressed with how my deck played out
Game 2
He brings in pithing needle for my Aetherling. I don't remember much of the details of this game but by the end I have a ton of life, mana, and cards, and never see sire or garruk. I take the game with a vanilla Aetherling and a combination of angel beats and warleader helix's flashed back by snaps.
Match 3 vs. Aristocrats Act II (1-2)
Game 1
He's on the play, Turn 1 doomed traveler into turn 2 aristocrat into turn 3 Lingering souls. I'm basically throwing all my burn at him but he just sacs tokens. Turn 4 he flashes back souls and plays blood artist. gg
Game 2
Similar start but he has no Blood artist. I manage to Verdict away his board. He has a follow up Falkenrath Aristocrat. I take some damage but I'm able to stabilize with a war leader's Helix. He concedes to my sphinx's rev.
Game 3
I keep a hand of 3 buddy lands double pillar and double izzet staticaster. Amazing cards for the match up but the buddy lands are a very slow start. Its a risky keep but I'm on the draw, so I'm hoping I can draw a Shockland or he just might have a slow enough start that the hate cards can get through. He goes turn 1 Doomed traveler, I could really use a Red shock here! No such luck. play a tapped land and pass. He has turn 2 aristocrat. My pillars are now sorcery speed shocks. I try to pillar but he sacs. Play another tapped land and pass. Turn 3 Lingering souls. There's that amazing start again. I play a THIRD tapped land and attempt to pillar again, he sacs a token. He drops Intangible virtue, making it so I need both staticasters out to ping his tokens. I get stuck at 3 lands and I only get to play out 1 staticaster before I'm just dead.
Match 4 Intentional Draw
The standings worked out so that all the 2-1 players could agree to intentionally draw so we all make top 8.
Match 5 vs. Naya Midrange (0-2)
Game 1
Get stuck at 3 mana while he plays his value creatures like Thragtusk and Restoration angel bouncing Thragtusk.
Game 2
Open with a double Supreme Verdict hand and some card draw. Get stuck at 3 mana again somehow but I'm able to stave off his initial attacks. Eventually hit Supreme Verdict mana but he plays another Thragtusk and a mana dork. At this point he has a wolf run out, 3 cards in hand, I've drawn into a third Supreme Verdict, and my life total is pretty low so I verdict again. I'm finally at the point where I can stabilize but he drops a sire of insanity. I discard my hand and lose to a Sire + token.
Overall the deck performed okay, although I was very impressed with it in that jund match. Aristocrats was a tough match up for me and I lost match 5 to mana screw. That's how luck goes sometimes. What would you guys recommend for the Aristrocrats match up so i can tweak for next week?
Terminus and renounce the guilds have been good against aristocrats for me with renounce hitting both aristocrats as well as boros reckoner and terminus being another boardwipe and hopefully an early and cheap one
dont play boros reckoner hes too midrangey. on t3 ud rather just counter or remove their threat most times. id add jace and 1 more land and maybe another aetherling
I like this color combination. The version I tried out and built opted Reckoner with Harvest Pyre and Blasphemous Act kills. Someone said Helix? I ran Boros Charms. I could pull off the Infinite Life trick actually (w/ Azorius, Boros Charm, and Reckoner) It could finish with the Pyre trick...or Searing Spear, Boros Charm, Snapcaster, Boros Charm. knockouts in no time. But the colors are always very strong in just plain keeping everything they do, absolutely irrelevant.
They cant keep a creature on the board and its suddenly lategame with your last cards in hand being Sphinx's. Thats another thing. My deck was heavy with 3 Verdict and 1 Blasphemous Act, with 4 Searing Spear, 2 Detention Sphere...you did not keep stuff. 3 Boros Charm. Eff your planeswalkers.
Just imagine scenarios where you swing with Reckoner, they block with something big (like an Advent Wurm token) and you Boros Charm making him Indestructable. Throw the five in his face. End of his turn Harvest Pyre your Indestructable Super-Reckoner and put, what, 12-13 more to his face.
That sounds like an interesting combo of UWR midrange and the aristocrats with the combos it has. A little different than the draw-go strategies that the players piloting this deck type to big finishes have been trying, but it sounds interesting for sure
Fair point. I haven't played a control deck since last standard, and even then it's been longer since I've played one with counters.
Suppose I were to swap it out. What should replace it? An Assemble and what? I'd do a Memory Adept, but I don't have another one just yet.
you could always go with another board wipe or sphinx's rev or something like that. maybe a 4th snapcaster? Id just cut it for more consistency with a spell that you always find yourself looking for. For me, thats supreme verdict because i want it on turn 4 every game, and sometimes more than 1.
Because the only players that I might board it in against also have answers for Assemble. Those being the Esper Control and Jund Midrange players who also board in Curse of Death's Hold.
If they kill the Enchantment itself, it didn't really matter what I played, but I'd rather not have 2-3 of my win cons shut down by one card (at least until I draw a Sphere/Ring).
I will probably switch one Curse for an Assemble before tomorrow, though. I've loved Assemble since they spoiled it.
Yeah, if you feel a deaths hold coming just wait two turns, cast assemble on 7 mana then counter deaths hold? remember you're playing control not aggro or midrange. If you fear an answer or threat, just dont play the card until you have the means to protect it. With the amount of removal and boardwipes we have thats exactly what you want in games 2 and 3, if not 1.
With the results this deck is putting up in current events (especially the 1st in the SCG Open) I feel like its time this thread migrates to competitive...
I've been testing the deck list that came in first at Saturday's SCG Open in Dallas. The only changes I've made is -1 Sphinx's Revelation and +1 Snapcaster Mage. I felt 2 Snappys weren't enough and I wanted more opportunities to flash stuff back.
I've had a lot of success with the deck, more than I was with American Midrange. Pure control is definitely really fun to play when you know your in control of the game and can end the game whenever you want. My favorite wins are from Tamiyo's ult.
I'm poor at deciding what to sideboard against certain matchups. Side boarding has always been my weak spot and would love to improve this as I believe side boarding plays a big role after game 1.
These are notes that I've written down on my phone to sort of help me with side boarding against certain matchups.
I haven't tested any of these sideboard changes, but let me know what you guys think and if these changes seem reasonable.
EDIT: How good does Ral Zarek fit into here? It feels like any planeswalker you put into this deck has the potential to be another win con. Once you have control of the board it becomes super easy to ultimate your planeswalker. He seems a bit slow to be in the main deck but could possibly be SB material for slower midrange decks and other control decks.
Ral Zarek has now been determined by me at least to be bad in the main 60 or more percent of the time. Sideing out verdict against jund seems like a big mistake as they can do something like a t2 farseek into a t3 olivia or hunts and t4 same thing where you are now staring down a developing board and you could crush it with one card and be left a full hand of options instead of needing all those renounce the guilds. Those are very good against jund, but i feel like taking out supreme verdict should only happen against control. Its probably the card that causes my opponents to scoop the most often.
The less creature direction is also what I'm testing, currently rocking 3 snaps and 2 aetherling. Also moved ral to the sideboard (hes good against midrange so sometimes you actually do want to side him in.)
So, a UWR control deck is in top 4 at Starcity Dallas. Here's the list. May be worth adding he decklist to the primer once we find out how well it ends up doing. It seems solid.
He won. American Control ftw! Haha I'll put it in the primer later. Surprised by the number of snapcasters in it.
Yeah I mean its pretty much just Jund which is in the competitive section, thats probably why you havent gotten much response. With that said my input is I like Garruk and Nighthawk in jund personally
Where's the blind obediance (in the sideboard)? Also Sin Collector is good enough to probably make the main board in my opinion. Eats sphinx's rev, counters, board wipes, burn, whatever else.
jace is really good but its hard for me to play without tamiyo
Terminus and renounce the guilds have been good against aristocrats for me with renounce hitting both aristocrats as well as boros reckoner and terminus being another boardwipe and hopefully an early and cheap one
dont play boros reckoner hes too midrangey. on t3 ud rather just counter or remove their threat most times. id add jace and 1 more land and maybe another aetherling
That sounds like an interesting combo of UWR midrange and the aristocrats with the combos it has. A little different than the draw-go strategies that the players piloting this deck type to big finishes have been trying, but it sounds interesting for sure
There is a large thread on U/G evolve already
you could always go with another board wipe or sphinx's rev or something like that. maybe a 4th snapcaster? Id just cut it for more consistency with a spell that you always find yourself looking for. For me, thats supreme verdict because i want it on turn 4 every game, and sometimes more than 1.
Yeah, if you feel a deaths hold coming just wait two turns, cast assemble on 7 mana then counter deaths hold? remember you're playing control not aggro or midrange. If you fear an answer or threat, just dont play the card until you have the means to protect it. With the amount of removal and boardwipes we have thats exactly what you want in games 2 and 3, if not 1.
Ral Zarek has now been determined by me at least to be bad in the main 60 or more percent of the time. Sideing out verdict against jund seems like a big mistake as they can do something like a t2 farseek into a t3 olivia or hunts and t4 same thing where you are now staring down a developing board and you could crush it with one card and be left a full hand of options instead of needing all those renounce the guilds. Those are very good against jund, but i feel like taking out supreme verdict should only happen against control. Its probably the card that causes my opponents to scoop the most often.
He won. American Control ftw! Haha I'll put it in the primer later. Surprised by the number of snapcasters in it.