Evolving Control

Hi again!

For someone who was disappointed to see Jace removed from standard, I've actually been playing far more constructed Magic than before July 1st. The real life format will quickly be shaken up by the release of Magic 2012, but online we will be able to enjoy the current Standard for several more weeks.

I've been playing my Esper Best Friends list a lot, learning plenty of lessons about the format in the process, and have applied this knowledge to my list.

1. The Wellsprings

1a. Why they are awesome

First of all, this engine is awesome. Playing a control deck without Preordain seemed like a risk, but the card advantage and velocity provided by Wellsprings easily covers the lost utility. The life gained from Phyrexia's Core is relevant in many situations too, and is a nice bonus when it is the sacrifice effect you are mainly after. I even upped the Phyrexia's Core count to make sure that I would see one each game.

1b. Why I dropped them from the deck

Three reasons. Playing a Wellspring on turn two is often too low impact, especially if you don't already have a Day of Judgment in hand to sweep away an early offence. Wellspring into one for one removal is generally a losing proposition, and against a typical aggro hand will leave you struggling to defend your five-drop planeswalker.

Secondly, there is a definite limit to how many colourless lands you can play in a three colour deck, even with a high artifact count. With Valakut a major player there is no way I want less than four Tectonic Edge; that squeezes our capcity to play Phyrexia's Core, and along with it a lot of potential value from the Wellsprings.

The final reason is that Preordain is still legal, and the single mana is a lot easier to fit in around the other cards you want to play. I still like the engine and its time will come, but that time is not right now.

2. The Five Mana Planeswalkers

2a. Why they are awesome

Um, because they are planeswalkers?

Okay, they provide repeatable effects that quickly equate to more value than the mana invested in them. They change the way your opponent has to play the game, and will provide you the means to win the game if unanswered. Having two or more planeswalkers in play will normally result in a game win unless you are already in single digits against a burn deck.

2b. Why I dropped them from the deck

Five mana is a long wait in the current Standard. The game can often have slipped out of your control by that point, especially if turns two and three were spent using Wellsprings to find the fourth and fifth mana sources. Even at five mana, the planeswalkers were not always immediately effective if you had drawn the wrong one for the job at hand.

Gideon Jura is a house against creature decks, but he won't help against Valakut, Pyromancer Ascension, Splinter Twin or even just a hand of Lightning Bolts.

Elspeth Tirel is also great against creatures when you need to generate chump blockers, or gain some life and threaten to blow up the world. She doesn't really help against a rampant Consecrated Sphinx or a pending attack from Primeval Titan.

Venser, the Sojourner is one of the best draws against other control decks, and can quickly be exiling their lands. The problem is that he is very reliant on the rest of your board to provide immediate value, and also to protect him from attack.

3. Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

3a. Why they are awesome

Tezzeret is basically the closest we have to Jace, the Mind Sculptor now. His +1 ability provides reliable card draw in a deck full of artifacts, he can protect both himself and your other planeswalkers with his -1 ability, and the ultimate is usually a game ender. He is so effective that I gradually increased the number in the deck and made it the main focus.

3b. Why I dropped them from the deck

Not because of Tezzeret himself being ineffective so much as the support cards required for the deck to function. It is possible that switching to Torpor Orb might be effective against Splinter Twin, but there are several key holes in any artifact defence it this meta game. Spellskite is effective at slowing the combo decks, but with the wide adoption of Dismember and no other real targets in the deck it cannot be relied on to survive. Pyromancer Ascension is relatively popular online, and none of the artifacts are helpful against this deck (where is my Relic of Progenitus?)

It is likely that Tezzeret will become a monster post rotation, but for now the choice seems to be playing poorly positioned cards, or having him perform under par due to lack of artifact support in the deck. Maybe Solemn Simulacrum will provide the necessary tools in M12.

Rebuilding

4. Contagion Clasp and Tumble Magnet

4a. Why they are awesome

Contagion Clasp is very strong in a deck that can get multiple planeswalkers into play, often gaining a card of more of value for each activation. The synergy with Tumble Magnet works on multiple levels, as the Clasp keeps the Magnet fueled which in turn protects your planeswalkers even further. Using Venser activations to reset either of these artifacts gains plenty of value, and they are fine targets for Tezzeret; both to draw them from the top five, or to convert into 5/5 men.

4b. Why I dropped them from the deck

Deceiver Exarch.

Neither of these artifacts help against this deck, and having your main removal suite be ineffective against the fastest combo deck in the format is just not the right place to be.

A secondary reason is that with the Wellsprings and Tezzeret leaving, there is little incentive to run artifact based removal over the more flexible spells available.

So that's the deck pretty much gutted. Of course, I didn't just scrap it all and start over, these are the results of several incremental changes. The (current) end result is that I decided to drop white and focus on straight blue-black, replacing Days of Judgment with black mass removal spells, but losing access to Leyline of Sanctity.

Rather than an early card advantage engine setting up a steady flow of planeswalkers, I've switched to discard and counters to trade one for one and rely on a Consecrated Sphinx endgame. Liliana Vess and Jace's Ingenuity serve to keep the business coming in the mid game. The removal is configured to be effective against the main decks in the format, and Deceiver Exarch in particular.

Steve Deck Wins
4 Tectonic Edge	4 Preordain	3 Flashfreeze
4 Creeping Tar Pit	2 Gitaxian Probe	1 Negate
4 Darkslick Shores	4 Inquisition of Kozilek	2 Memoricide
4 Drowned Catacombs	3 Despise	1 Dismember
5 Island	1 Surgical Extraction	1 Surgical Extraction
5 Swamp	4 Mana Leak	1 Black Sun's Zenith
26 Lands	1 Negate	2 Spellskite
	1 Stoic Rebuttal	1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Spellskite	3 Dismember	1 Grave Titan
2 Consecrated Sphinx	2 Go for the Throat	1 Karn Liberated
3 Creatures	2 Jace's Ingenuity	1 Blue Sun's Zenith
	2 Liliana Vess	15 Sideboard Cards
	1 Life's Finale
	1 Black Sun's Zenith
	31 Other Spells

I would like to move the Blue Sun's Zenith into the main, as there are plenty of situations where being able to tutor it with Liliana would be great. The most likely switch would be for Spellskite, which is something I aim to test next.

Some plans against the more popular decks:

Vs Valakut
+3 Flashfreeze	-1 Consecrated Sphinx
+2 Memoricide	-3 Dismember
+1 Surgical Extraction	-1 Jace's Ingenuity
	-1 Black Sun's Zenith

The focus is on crippling their plan before worrying about winning ourselves. Either Memoricide or discard/Tectonic Edge into Surgical Extraction for Primeval Titan or Valakut should buy you plenty of time to take control the game. Life's Finale is left in as a functional third copy of Memoricide, and is helpful for extracting their alternative monsters once Valakut has been neutered.

Vs Splinter Twin
+1 Negate	-3 Preordain
+2 Memoricide	-2 Jace's Ingenuity
+1 Dismember	-1 Life's Finale
+1 Surgical Extraction	-1 Black Sun's Zenith
+2 Spellskite

The plan here is to cut the raw card drawing and just have the whole deck be disruption against them. Depending on the build these changes can vary, as Flashfreeze is useful against the straight blue-red versions that also have a set of Inferno Titans. If they are running Grixis Twin and have few win conditions besides Deceiver Exarch I might consider leaving Life's Finale in. I have definitely reached the point where my opponent has literally no way to win the game against me.

Vs RDW
+3 Flashfreeze	-2 Preordain
+1 Negate	-2 Gitaxian Probe
+1 Black Sun's Zenith	-1 Surgical Extraction
+2 Spellskite	-3 Dismember
+1 Wurmcoil Engine	-1 Life's Finale
+1 Grave Titan

Blocking early and not spending life on removal spells is the order of the day. If Liliana enters the battlefield, her first activation should always be to tutor for Wurmcoil Engine. Obviously if they are on a more creature based plan at least some of the Dismembers will stay in.

Vs UB Control
+1 Negate	-1 Spellskite
+1 Grave Titan	-1 Gitaxian Probe
+1 Wurmcoil Engine	-1 Go for the Throat
+1 Surgical Extraction	-2 Dismember
+1 Karn Liberated	-1 Black Sun's Zenith
+1 Blue Sun's Zenith

I like Surgical Extraction mainly as a way to look through their deck, although you should often be aiming to use it as an additional discard spell if possible. This is another matchup where it is often possible to remove all their win conditions before you focus on actually, you know, beating them somehow.

I'll hopefully be back with a draft update soon, and a look at a dedicated Tezzeret list; until then...

Steve