MTG Salvation

Quote from PimpDonny »

Im gonna try and get a stream up of sorts for this 3am daily, I lost r1 to boss sleigh I had maybe 6 turns the entire game, pretty much a miserable matchup all around when they curve out.

Edit;
Lost r2 to UB control, I just chalk this up to a bad night, Ill continue ot do 2- mans if anyone wants to jump on stream and view my log later:
http://www.twitch.tv/pimpdonny

I have no mic or cam yet but you can watch how my games play out.

Yeah sorry to hear that because that does sound like a pretty bad night but it happens, has happened to me a lot of times when I would playtest on cockatrice in just about any format I play in. I am pretty sure I've lost about 8 or 9 rounds in a row(won probably just two games in that entire stretch) playtesting esper control the night before I took it to an scg standard open last season which I went 7-2-1 in. I've also have been noticing that there is a lot of players that are playing ub control on mtgo so I'd suggest some negates in the maindeck at least like 2-3 and maindeck like four pearl lake ancients since they are uncounterable while you could also run a couple of cranial archives so you can shuffle back in the cards that you lost to thoughtseize/despise. I dunno just some crazy suggestions I just thought of.

Quote from GREW »

Found this during my daily UW control google sesh:
http://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments/2jsj3h/standard_uw_control/

Nice list putting up some pretty good results. Worth a look at I think

Nice work at finding that it may not be quite the list I am searching for but it seems like his game day list is definitely similar to the list me, pimpdonny and others has been working on. It's nice to have more people agree with what we have been working on over here. I haven't had much luck yet but this is definitely a pretty good place to start searching thanks GREW.

With that said, it takes a collected group of magic players to make uw control a force to be reckon with in standard not just one or two people.

Yeah, i'd like to see the uw control decklist that made day 2 as well at GPLA and from what I saw it was performing really well on day 2. Hopefully someone that knows about the decklist could post it in here.

Oh nice, well I am glad that someone decided to play uw control at the gp good job though. So apparently the coverage site was wrong or something because they said there was a person that day 2'd the gp with uw control as well and I think I saw him going deep in the second day as well. Hopefully he'll also come post in here or someone could possibly find his list and also post it in here.

I also agree that uw control still has a place though.

Yeah, they showed a glimpse of the match on camera, it was a live look in. They definitely showed a bunch of abzan decks, pretty sure it was almost half of the field going into day 2 which is obviously not surprising. I only checked out the feature matches from time to time.

Edit: Anyway, I definitely think based on gp LA results that uw control is definitely well positioned. The deck is also customizable so it can definitely adjust fairly easily.

He lost in the final round playing for top 8 unfortunately but at least we know that uw control still has what it takes to compete in this standard format.

I just checked the gp coverage for gp los angeles just now and there was only one person that was playing uw control in the entire tournament and that person actually ended up making day 2 hopefully we'll get to see that person's list and hopefully that person will do well on day 2.

Yeah, I saw brimaz being played on a jeskai aggro player on camera for scg boston yesterday and I thought brimaz was going to get there and the jeskai player had to use two burn spells to kill it which is something I could get behind if I am the one playing brimaz for sure. It was definitely a must answer for the jeskai aggro player. I also really like the fact that brimaz can also race a mantis rider quite easily too, I definitely think brimaz is definitely a substantial threat against jeskai tempo/aggro.

Quote from Sonic_striker »

I played at game-day yesterday, and it was a total disaster, i won nothing.

I had matches against:
- Abzan Midrange, the threaths kept coming until i died
- Jund, got mana screwed (both ways, to few and to much land) and died.
- a bye
- 4-color ascendancy combo, answers came at wrong times.

That last bit was how the whole day went when i think of it, no pressure and answers at the wrong time makes you lose most games.
The games where i won, the opponent had problems, so i had enough time to get the answers

I think uw control is a fun deck to play, but not worthy yet for anything else than FNM.

Sorry to hear that, but I dunno, that's the nature of playing a dedicated control you tend to lose a lot when you draw the answers at the wrong time. It has happened to me plenty of times but since I play control a lot, it doesn't really bother me that much anymore, I just keep on going. I think I will probably will continue working on uw control no matter what even if it's not a top tier deck. I am pretty sure I've lost more then I have won with control. I remember when I played uw control with sphinx of revelation for a stretch of 4 or 5 weeks with zero top 8's in those 4 or 5 fnms. Also I've lost countless games to mana screw while playing control too. All of that can definitely make you upset which is understandable but what can you do.

For those of you that are still interested in playing uw control competitively, I'd definitely would still recommend it. Especially if your still posting up solid results with it. I will also be working on uw control from time to time whenever I have some free time.

I finally got to see transformers 4 like 3 or 4 weeks ago. Now I am still planning on seeing x-men: days of futures past sometime in the near future.

Hey its totally cool either way Tequila. I just think it's pretty cool that there are people that are willing to try uw control and that's why I decided to share this deck in the first place. It just gives more people more options to choose from when finding a standard deck. UW control is definitely not one of the top decks in standard and it's probably not the best choice for any given tournament but I feel it's good enough to where it can put up good results in any given tournament and it's a fun deck to play for us control players. It may not be as absurd as abzan midrange or jeskai aggro but I feel it's one of the safest choices to choose from in standard which is good enough imo.

Oh alright, that's cool.

I hope anyone that's playing uw control at game day or even the GP LA or the scg boston open going on this weekend are performing well. With that being said, I definitely like what I have been seeing on here which is people working on uw control and also playing it as well in tournaments.

Well, let me put it this way I like your list in context that it's a good starting point and good foundation to build your future decklists off of. I mean, as the standard format evolves we need to adjust our uw control decklists accordingly.

Anyhow, I personally don't really like running a whole lot of fetches in two color decks anyway, 4 flooded strands is plenty. I also like running like 2-3 dig through times in uw control. I have settled on two for now though and been happy with just two. I also haven't been a fan of the scry lands with the fetches but of course i'll still run both as they are some of the best mana fixing we have in standard.

As for the double blue off of nullify I haven't really had trouble with casting it when I need to counter something on turn 2 or 3. I just think nullify is just really good right now with all of those abzan agro and jeskai everywhere your bound to find plenty of targets from turn 2 and so on with nullify. Considering, if your on the draw you'd definitely want to counter brimaz, mantis rider, and anafenza on their turn 3. I just believe nullify is just too good not to run at least one copy and it could actually make a pretty big difference when you have at least one nullify.

@wujo: your welcome.

Quote from TequilaFlavor »

Hi everyone ! As someone who greatly enjoyed playing Azorius Control last season, it's fun to see some people trying to make it work even when most of our best cards rotated.

Here is my first take on it, please keep in mind that this list is not tested yet and is not "metagamed", aka I'm trying to run a "traditional" pure Control deck that aims to do well in an "open meta" where I could be paired against "anything". Especially the 2 Dissipates are "flex slots" in my mind and could be used for anything from Prognostic Sphinxes (to pressure Control/planeswalkers or block Stormbreath Dragons), to Fated Retributions (against Midrange), more Disdainful Strokes, more Last Breaths etc.

I didn't included a sideboard yet because I'm really not sure how the meta will shake up at this point and the sideboard depends almost entirely on that.

Here's the list:

4x Flooded Strand
4x Temple of Enlightenment
4x Tranquil Cove
4x Radiant Fountain
5x Island
5x Plains

2x Disdainful Stroke
2x Last Breath
2x Font of Fortunes
2x Dissipate
4x Dissolve
4x Banishing Light
4x Devouring Light
2x Jace's Ingenuity
4x End Hostilities
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Resolute Archangel
1x Pearl Lake Ancient
4x Dig Through Time

Yeah, I really loved uw control as well during last season played it for most of the season but played sphinx of revelation the whole time it was out. So it's only fitting that I am trying to make it work in this one. I haven't regretted my decision yet though because the people that have played uw control have done pretty well with it.

I definitely like the looks of your list though, I think if you want to play four dig through times though, I may suggest adding additional fetches for the main that can fetch out the deck's respected basics like polluted delta and windswept heath. I also would suggest two nullifies instead of two dissipates as well. I find nullify to be pretty awesome in testing. But even without the additional fetches I think a playset of dig through times could definitely be reasonable I mean the third or fourth one will probably not be casted until later in the game but that's fine since dig through time is pretty good at any point of the game you can cast it.

Quote from GREW »

Did some testing last night with a 1 of Aegis Angel in the board to protect Elspeth from incoming Hero's Downfalls. Worked surprisingly well, give it a go in your flex spot in the side guys.

The deck honestly seems to be shaping up really well. Might try and test out Silent Sentinel too. The idea being switching out Divination for Fonts and having a steady stream of CA late game. It can also possibly bring back old Banishing Lights too. Dunno if it'll be a bit janky, but I'll let you all know how it goes.

With all this talk on SB's might aswell post my thoughts

SideboardMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
2 Glare of Heresy 2 Negate 4 Nyx Fleece Ram 3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos 2 Devouring Light

Those are really the only solid spots ive found atm. Extra Disdainful Strokes in the side is a trap ive found. I find I'm getting stuck on them in my hand and they can't counter Downfalls mainly.

Glare because as discussed, its a house against many common threats.

Negate for any midrange matchup with blue.
(Because they're bringing in Stubborn Denial)

Ram for aggro

Brimaz is in g2 against pretty much everything. He's a real powerhouse. G2 my early game plan is to just protect him and usually it works.

Devouring Light is there mainly for Mantis Riders, Sarkhan/dragons, well, any threat really. Its a pretty handy card.

Loving UW right now. Thanks Kevin and Donny for all your input towards the deck so far. Its helped heaps.

Oh nice to hear, I haven't tried aegis angel yet but I think I am going to the angel seems interesting.

I also agree on brimaz but the reason why you don't see them in most of my lists is because I can't really afford them right now. But i'd run them if I had them and that's the beauty of uw control it's pretty good for budget players too.

You are also welcome too. I definitely try.

I am actually pretty comfortable with talking about people's decks in other threads but I just want to keep this thread clean of anything that's not uw control discussion. This is a competitive forum afterall and so I want to be professional about it. I also would like to mention that this thread isn't about me it's about the people that are interested in strictly uw control.

But ok fine, i'll answer your question just this once then please discuss jeskai or any other splashes somewhere else and not here. For now on any splashes that are discussed in here I won't tolerate it and there is a pretty high chance I will ask a moderator to step in as well. This is a warning. The main reason why I won't tolerate it is I've spent a lot of time on this thread and have dedicated a lot of time in making uw control able to compete so if people talk about splashes in here then I feel they are stealing my time as well as other people's time too where I could be doing something else instead. I don't mean to be critical about this but I feel I have to mention this. Also one more thing is I won't stand for people arguing with me about this either because I will report you if you do so.

Anyway, now that I got that out of the way to answer your question, in your uwr deck i'd highly suggest replacing the two lightning strikes with two anger of the gods in the board and this is how I would generally sideboard with your deck.

Against mono black aggro:

In: 2 Anger of gods, 1 Resolute Archangel, 4 Nyx-fleece Ram
Out: 2 Disdainful Stroke, 4 Dissolve, 1 Jace's Inguinity

Against Red sligh:

In: 2 Anger of gods, 4 Nyx-fleece ram, 1 Negate, 1 Resolute ArchangelA
Out: 4 Dissolve, 2 Disdainful stroke, 1 Jace's Inguinity, 1 Dig through time

Against Abzan Aggro:

In: 1 Glare of heresy, 4 Nyx-fleece Ram, 1 Clever Impersonator
Out: 4 Last breath, 1 dissolve, 1 Disdainful stroke

I would also like to note that there is a good possibility that I will be able to write a primer for uw control here in the next week or two after my exams. It's not for certain as of yet but i'll try.