Deck of the Week
Shannon Lindsey, August 14, 2012

After a long break from writing, due mostly to internet issues, I am back with not a hypothetical deck, but one I have actually been using and won 80% of my matches with so far. If I still had a major tournament close before rotation, I would take this deck, not only because it would be unexpected, but because it has a tendency to roll opponents with major tournament archetypes.

Selesnya Champions

The White and Green champions deck is an aggro deck that utilizes the synergy between the Champions of the Parish and Lambholt with cards that provide multiple creatures and also with cards that give 1/ 1 counters. I give it the guild name because of the surprisingly high number of tokens it creates, combined with the heavy religion theme of the creatures.

Selesnya Champions
Creatures (29)
3 Hero of Bladehold
3 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
4 Champion of Lambholt
4 Grand Abolisher
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Ulvenwald Tracker
3 Fiend Hunter
4 Doomed Traveler

Spells (7)
3 Increasing Devotion
4 Gather the Townsfolk

Land (24)
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Gavony Township
8 Plains
4 Forest

Sideboard
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Celestial Purge
3 Corrosive Gale
3 Ranger’s Guile

Every Card Has A Role

This decklist is actually very tight, as every card plays an important roll in reaching victory. The cards fit four roles; multi-creature, frustration, pumps, and Must-Kill. Part of the success of this deck is that the best pump and frustration cards are also must-kills. I also avoided Razorverge Thicket, because this deck can afford an enter tapped land turn 1 or 2, but not on turn 4 or 5.

Multi-Creature cards

The first role is filled by cards that give me multiple weenies, that can both pump the champions, as well as become deadly by receiving 1/ 1 counters. These are Doomed Traveler, Gather the Townsfolk, and Increasing Devotion. The cards also provide fast recovery against board sweeping, as the travelers become spirits, and Devotion can be flashed back.

Frustration

The Frustration cards are Fiend Hunter, Grand Abolisher, and Ulvenwald Tracker. Since they are all creatures, they also pump the champions when they enter the battlefield and can receive 1/ 1 counters. Fiend Hunter is simple creature removal; he enters, and they go away. Grand Abolisher is a bit more specialized and subtle. He is primarily meant to derail tempo and control strategies by preventing them from casting or activating on my turn, which is spectacular against both Delver decks and Control decks. Ulvenwald Tracker is removal via the fight mechanic, and also counts as a must-kill, because if he remains on the field, he can snipe an entire opposing field over many turns.

Pump

There are two cards that function in the role of 1/ 1 pump. The first is the land Gavony Township. On turn five, when this land can be activated, I frequently have a field of many creatures, and the ability to make them bigger any turn I don’t cast anything is a huge boon. This land’s dual role is why I ran 24 land instead of 22. In this deck, there is a lot I can do with extra mana in the mid and late game. The other pump is Mikaeus, the Lunarch. Since he can spread 1/ 1 love to other creatures, or make himself bigger, he also counts as a must-kill, especially since once he is on the field, he no longer needs mana to pump other creatures.

And a Lot of Must-Kill

Probably the biggest reason this deck is so successful is the large number of cards that can end the game if they aren’t killed quickly. Mikaeus and Ulvenwald Tracker have already been discussed, but the other eleven are the creatures that really do the damage most of the time. Champion of the Parish may be the second best one drop in standard after Delver of Secrets. The ability to get bigger from other humans entering the battlefield can’t be overstated, especially with so many human tokens coming in. Champion of Lambholt is a green improvement to Parish, not only getting larger on any creature instead of just humans, but also by preventing opposing creatures that are smaller from blocking, giving the deck outstanding evasive capability. Finally, Hero of Bladehold’s place as a powerful win condition is already well established, and the fact that it spawns more creatures to pump Lambholt along with its Battle Cry ability is just gravy.

The Sideboard of More Frustration

All of the sideboard is meant to more acutely frustrate decks by improving the frustration element in games 2 and 3. Thalia’s enhanced frustration of tempo is well known, and the uses of Oblivion Ring, Celestial Purge, and Corrosive Gale are very self explanatory. Ranger’s Guile is my favorite to actually get to use. It frustrates removal by not only making the spells miss, but also making the target bigger for a turn, which is devastating in a deck with so many threats already.

Conclusion: My 5-step Program

Step one: lay Cavern of Souls naming human, cast Champion of the Parish
Step two: lay Plains and cast Gather the Townsfolk. Attack for 3.
Step three: lay Sunpetal Grove and cast Champion of Lambholt.
Step four: lay Forest and cast Hero of Bladehold.
Step five: lay Gavony Township and cast Increasing Devotion. Attack for 34. Win game.

See you in the game store.

Deck of the Week
Shannon Lindsey, May 15, 2012

“At the end of your turn, I flash cast Deceiver Exarch. I untap, draw my card, play a mountain, and cast splinter twin, enchanting my deceiver exarch.” How many of us remember these very words from last standard season? It was the only deck that could hold its own against Caw Blade before the bannings of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic. It was the definition of what makes a combo deck. Today, I am discussing a less potent combo deck that we have in standard right now.

Heartless Lich

The Heartless Lich deck plays off an “unfair” interaction between 3 cards, allowing a constant stream of 2 damage to any creature or player for every mana spent into it.

Heartless Lich
Creatures (11)
4 Havengul Lich
3 Myr Superion
4 Perilous Myr

Enchantments (4)
4 Heartless Summoning

Spells (23)
3 Black Sun’s Zenith
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Think Twice
4 Negate
4 Ponder
4 Tragic Slip

Land (22)
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
3 Ghost Quarter
7 Island
3 Swamp

Sideboard
4 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Black Sun’s Zenith
4 Surgical Extraction
2 Go for the Throat
2 Doom Blade
2 Geth’s Verdict

The Heart(less) of the Combo

The idea of this deck is to drop a turn 2 Heartless Summoning, cast a Perilous Myr for free, which dies immediately due to the enchantment doing 2 damage to target creature or player, then casting Havengul Lich on turn 3, and thereafter using his ability to pay 1, resurrect the myr only to have it die immediately doing two more damage, and repeat as long as there is open mana until opponent’s take lethal damage.

The Backup Plan

Due to the nature of this combo, it puts a big bull’s-eye on Havengul Lich for removal spells, so this deck also exploit’s a nice synergy between Heartless Summoning and Myr Superion, allowing you to get a 4/5 creature for free from your hand or for 1 from the graveyard. I call that a bargain.

Good Combo Decks Know How to Dig

This deck features twelve cards to sift through the library. Combo decks are different from control decks in regard to card advantage. Control decks need to turn one card into multiple cards to win. Combo is different. Combo decks need to turn a sifting card into the right card to win. In this situation, while Ponder and Think twice are good in both forms, combo better utilizes Forbidden Alchemy. I don’t favor this card in control, because the cost of the flashback to gain advantage is so high. However, since this deck utilizes not only its cherry picking of the best of four cards, but also makes use of what it chooses to dump in the graveyard, this card becomes the primary digging engine of this deck.

Protection for the Combo

Negate sits in this deck for two reasons: first to counter enchantments and artifacts this deck can’t deal with once they enter the battlefield, second to counter things that kill pieces of the combo.

And Some Black Removal Can’t Hurt

The constant stream of Perilous Myr death makes Tragic Slip’s morbid effect constantly active, and therefore very efficient. Of course, with the limited number of total creatures. A swarm could present a problem, so this deck also brings Black Sun’s Zenith to sweep the board.

And One Cavern

This deck features a single Cavern of Souls in its land base. The purpose is in the odd event of running into a deck that still wants to counterspell creatures. The lich is too important to the combo, so simply calling “zombie” with this land will guarantee the lich at least hit’s the field.

The Grave Sideboard

Between mirror matches against this deck, and other decks abusing the graveyard, this deck features two protections in the board. First is Nihil Spellbomb, which makes an entire graveyard disappear while possibly drawing a card. Second is Surgical Extraction, which is deadly against decks like this and Re-animator. The sideboard kill cards are intended for situations where the main deck ones don’t work optimally.

Conclusion

When running right, this deck can be infuriating to play against since it can dispose of an opponent pretty quickly. F you choose to run this, have fun making some opponents squirm. I won my Friday Night Magic main event this past Friday, and will be playing the upcoming PTQ with the same deck, so expect it sometime soon, but not for a few weeks.

Deck of the Week
Shannon Lindsey, May 7, 2012

Last week, I discussed the the two agro versions of Red Deck Wins, Funny thing: RDW is not always an aggro deck. There was a while before last rotation when Zendikar block was still legal that a combo version of RDW got strong. It was built around Kiln Fiend, burn spells, and Assault Strobe. Now, with the new set Avacyn Restored available to us, there may be a new combo version of RDW available to us. I haven’t tested this, so I am not sure if it will actually work, but it does curve well, so it has a chance. Meet RDW (Combo) 2012:

RDW (Combo)

This version of RDW is very different from the previous ones, as it is based off an interaction that allows a very large and focused amount of damage all at once.

RDW (Combo)
Planeswalkers
3 Tibalt the Fiend Blooded

Creatures
4 Chandra’s Phoenix
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Goblin Gaveleer

Artifacts
3 Sword of War and Peace
2 Runechanter’s Pike

Spells
1 Past in Flames
4 Reforge the Soul
3 Incinerate
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Shock
2 Assault Strobe

Land
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
12 Mountain
2 Kessig Wolf Run

Sideboard
3 Vulshok Refugee
4 Ancient Grudge
4 Ranger’s Guile
4 Naturalize

Extreme Synergy is the Key

The goal of this deck is to equip a sword of war and peace to one of the three creatures in this deck, cast a Reforge the Soul, and nail them for an extra seven damage in addition to the combat damage while gaining seven life. The rest of the deck features cards that have nice interactions with this combination that can push it near or over 20 total damage.

The Creature Choices

Chandra’s Phoenix is fairly common in RDW deck’s anyway, but its ability to return from the grave combined with its evasive flying makes it a prime choice as a sword carrier. Stormblood Berserker’s natural evasiveness, bloodthirst or not, makes him also a strong sword choice. My personal favori9te is Goblin Gaveleer, not only because he is cheap, but because he gets so much better with a sword, jumping from a 1/1 trample to a 5/5 trample. The best part is only 1 point of this trample damage getting through makes the sword still trigger. This extra boost from equipment combined with the phoenix’s desire for burn spells makes Runechanter’s Pike an easy inclusion as well.

Finally a Red Deck for Tibalt!

Even though the aggro versions don’t like him nearly as much, Reforge the Soul plays nicely with his second ability, giving another seven points of damage. This damage can then be used to bring any phoenix’s back from the graveyard. His first ability is also not a total wash since discarded phoenix’s can be brought back, and since instants and sorceries can feed the pike.

A single past in flames for the win

Are you stuck on 19 damage dealt? If you draw this in a protracted game, or if it has been dumped into the graveyard, it can be cast to throw some (Galvanic) blast from the past, which is nice with high odds off having dropped three artifacts in a long game. While this deck does a lot of interaction with the graveyard, it doesn’t depend on it, so if somebody boards in grave hate, it increases the odds of the primary strategy winning anyway.

So Did Anyone Catch the Assault Strobe Mention Early On?

Assault Strobe is still standard legal, and very nasty with an equipped creature. It isn’t a primary combo piece in this deck, just a nice addition when timed right, so it gets a two of, but I can definitely make a strong case for running four.

Ranger’s Guile* should be a green staple!

In this deck, Ranger’s Guile* is critical against decks with very high removal counts. In that situation, it functions as a green counterspell for spot removal. With Cavern of Souls already in the format to hurt Mana Leak, expect removal heavy deck to increase in number, and this card to be a great defense against it.

I know I originally put Sheltering Word*, but I completely spaced on the existence of a one cost card in standard that achieves a similar effect that should instead rise to prominence.

Honorable Mention Not Included

Signal Pest almost makes a strong addition, but this deck needed a higher burn count, so four creatures were too many, and this guy does no damage by himself, so he barely misses the cut.

Conclusion

This deck has strong potential to take many surprise matches. The thought of a sworded Gaveleer doing twelve points of damage followed by Tibalt second ability for an extra seven makes me feel a little fuzzy inside. If this deck performs well in someone else‘s hands, I may give it a try later. Then again, to feel fuzzy, one must have a heart, and someone asked me to do heartless, so next week I will discuss a version of a heartless deck.

Deck of the Week
Shannon Lindsey, April 30, 2012

With another new large set releasing officially Friday, and with some of the new cards already in our binders courtesy of the prerelease, this week I will dive into two different versions of the same deck that tends to rise to the surface early every time a new large set comes out. For those of you who are inexperienced, that deck is Red Deck Wins, or RDW for short

RDW (Creature Version)

Red deck is a different kind of aggro. RDW exploits red’s access to burn spells, which can function as either creature board control, or as damage. RDW is about using maximum efficiency to push an opponent’s life total to zero through any means available.

RDW (Creature)
2 Koth of the Hammer
4 Hellrider
4 Vexing Devil
4 Stromkirk Noble
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Fireslinger
4 Shrine of Burning Rage
4 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Copperline Gorge
3 Rootbound Crag
12 Mountain
3 Kessig Wolf Run

Sideboard
4 Vulshok Refugee
4 Ancient Grudge
3 Traitorous Blood
4 Naturalize

Some Cards are universal in RDW

When building RDW, Half of the spells are universal to both versions due to their efficiency. Those five are: Stormblood Berserker, Goblin Arsonist, Goblin Fireslinger, Shrine of Burning Rage, and Galvanic Blast. The creatures all play nicely together, since not only do they fall 1 and 2 in the curve, but the two 1 drops have guaranteed damage on turn two, assuming they survive. This guaranteed damage means that the berserker is guaranteed to arrive with two 1/ 1 counters, and a 3/3 who can only be blocked by two or more creatures for only two mana is definitely great value. Galvanic Blast is cheap, easy, and should always be included in a deck running red. As for the shrine, it gives a backup win condition if the deck stalls out. Even if you are unlucky enough to hit a land flood, an early shrine can still win you the game if it charges long enough. Also, in a pinch, it can be used to burn something that is protection from red, since it counts as a colorless source.

Koth and Hellrider are best friends

Hellrider is the go-to finisher of creature heavy RDW, because of his direct damage ability for attacking creatures. Koth’s first ability plays into this, giving an extra creature to Hellrider every turn.

Also, Koth can throw a powerfully good Bonfire (of the Damned)

Koth has two powerful and equally strong interactions with Bonfire. If Bonfire miracles, then Koth’s underused second ability can give you the mana to still cast spells in your turn, allowing your lands to all be tapped for the Bonfire, which clears the road for your creatures to swing through. The second possibility is using Koth’s ability to pump the extra mana into a Bonfire that may have been in the starting hand, giving it an almost as strong bang for its buck.

Wolf Run Wins

This deck splashes a small amount of green mana for sideboard enchantment hate and a flashback, so why not also use it WITH KOTH to make something really big and trampling, like maybe a Stromkirk Noble.

And now for part 2
RDW (Burn)

RDW burn is built around the idea of greater efficiency through extra burn spells that can’t be blocked like creatures can. It runs on a faster clock, only curving to 3 mana cards. As a result, it runs two fewer mountains than RDW (Creature) since Koth isn’t in this version to necessitate a higher mountain count.

RDW (Burn)
4 Chandra’s Phoenix
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Fireslinger
4 Shrine of Burning Rage
4 Thunderous Wrath
4 Dangerous Wager
4 Brimstone Volley
4 Incinerate
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
10 Mountain
2 Kessig Wolf Run

Sideboard
4 Vulshok Refugee
4 Ancient Grudge
3 Traitorous Blood
4 Naturalize

Eight Fewer Creatures

Of the sixteen creatures in this version of RDW, twelve of them come from the list of cards universal to the deck. The only exception in Chandra’s Phoenix, which is a 2/2 flying, haste for 3 mana. It also bears a special ability exploited perfectly by this deck. Every time one of your burn spells damages an opponent, it returns from your graveyard to your hand to be cast again. It just doesn’t stay dead.

Sixteen Burn Spells and a Shrine

The benefits of the shrine have already been discussed. The extra burn spells give this deck a fast edges, since they can be used to wipe swarms of creatures, or to knock your opponent’s life down directly. If they do kill one of your creatures, Brimstone Volley becomes even better against them. Thunderous Wrath is the real star of the burn spells. Most of the time, you will be able to miracle it, giving you a nice 5 for 1. Even if you don’t it is still a decent finisher if the game drags on and you have to cast it at 6.

I wager this will be good

Dangerous Wager is an awesome card for this deck. The biggest flaw with RDW is that it tends to run out of gas. Not anymore. The best time to cast this spell is on your opponent’s turn when the rest of your hand is gone. This way, you get an extra dip at a miracle Thunderous Wrath. Even if it comes as the second card, you should be more than half of the way to the six mana to cast it outright.

A Deeper look at the Sideboard

The use of Ancient Grudge and Naturalize against artifacts and enchantments should be obvious. Traitorous Blood is for creatures that are too big to burn. Instead you take them and use them against their owner. As for the refugee, well what if you face another RDW?

Where is Tibalt?

Romeo killed him. Seriously. Ok, the truth is his first ability’s at random discard is very bad for both of these decks that need to get maximum efficiency out of all their cards. He isn’t right for these decks.

Two Weeks of Red

Try these red decks and see if you like them. Next week I will be talking about red…say what?…

Deck of the Week
Shannon Lindsey, April 23, 2012

As a brewer of deck ideas, my main enemies are money and time. Money is a problem because I can’t afford every card I would like to build a deck with. Time is a problem because even if I had the money, I can’t play in enough Magic tournaments to give everything its due. Also, if the tournament is anything other than FNM, I would rather go with my established best deck than an experimental one anyway, if only because good prize support is good prize support, and I am best off playing what I already know of all the subtleties. Another contributing factor to the deck this week is the upcoming release of Avacyn Restored. With spoiler season well underway, I am already slotting future new cards into existing decks when I see them, so I had to pick a deck that was unlikely to see any new cards added. I went with this one, only to a day later seeing one of the most powerful and versatile rares being spoiled, which sent any idea I had of not including new cards straight out the window, since this card forces itself into 76% of all my current theoretical decks. That is not a made up number; that is a factual statistic. The good news is this deck is playable without the new card, it just would go better with it, just like almost the entire standard environment. Here are the currently underused and under supported elves.

Elves

Many of the regular tribes got the shaft in Innistrad block, and Elves are right at the top of the list. However, just because there aren’t any new elves being printed until the next core set doesn’t mean that they aren’t getting help from Innistrad block in the form of other spells and specialty lands. In fact, almost all of the elves we still have are playable together.


Elves
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Copperhorn Scout
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Viridian Emissary
4 Ezuri’s Archers
4 Increasing Savagery
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Beast Within
2 Cavern of Souls*
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Kessig Wolf Run
8 Forest

Sideboard
3 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Creeping Corrosion
3 Fresh Meat
3 Corrosive Gale
4 Naturalize

*new card from Avacyn Restored.


The Creatures

The fact that all of the creature cards have to be drawn from core set and Scars of Mirrodin block may seem hopelessly limiting, but we have a surprisingly good base to work with. Ezuri is a powerful 3 drop legendary elf who not only can regenerate any other elf, but give them an Overrun effect as well. Copperhorn Scout effectively makes the rest of your elves vigilant, which gives this deck a nice defensive boost. Ezuri’s Archers may seem like a sideboard card, but actually is still a solid contributor even when not facing flying. The real surprise star of the deck, however, is Gladecover Scout. Being hex proof can be a boon, and this deck features great support cards to get maximum value out of this one drop common elf.

Support Spells

Increasing Savagery is Gladecover Scout’s best friend. Since it is a flashback spell, it can drop a whopping 15 1/ 1 counters on the little hexproof guy. The presence of 12 mana ramping elves makes casting this spell twice easily feasible. If you need to find him, or any of the other elves, Green Sun’s Zenith is standing by to search for them and bring them directly into play. Are you worried about a deathtouch chump blocker? Don’t be, because this deck has a land to answer that.

Awesome Land

Just because there are no red spells doesn’t mean we can’t splash 8 Red-Green dual lands to use the powerful Kessig Wolf Run. It can give the Elf an extra X/ 0 and Trample, so just pump him to the point the Trample damage finishes your opponent off. Just watch out for first and double strike. Then you will be better playing for Exuri’s Overrun. Wait, they are playing control!!! No problem, you have the new superland!

Cavern of Souls:
Land (Rare)
As Cavern of Souls enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Tap: add 1 to your mana pool
Tap: add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells of the chosen creature type. If this mana is spent on a spell, that spell can’t be countered by spells or abilities.

This land in play means your elves will always hit the field when you cast them. Mana Leak may yet get your support spells, but as long as you call elves with this card, you can be certain to get them down safely. Simply put, this card is insane! Most decks want to run this card now, and it will see a lot of play in almost any kind of deck.

Sideboard

Your sideboard should reflect the place you are playing, but this is a good sample of what would work well in a competitive environment. Thrun works great against decks that run heavy amounts of creature removal. If they like board sweeping, then Fresh Meat is a great way to give you a 3/3 beast for every creature they just took away from you, which is probably the end of them since they likely lost their creatures as well. Corrosive Gale is the card of choice to deal with spirits and other flying intensive decks. Creeping Corrosion is the best answer to Tempered Steel and other artifact and metal craft focused decks. Finally Naturalize is the long time standard of Artifact and Enchantment removal.

Conclusion

If you like aggressive swarms, or making big creatures, this deck may be what you want. You can experiment with some or all of the cards in here to see if you like it. The next two weeks, I will be tackling two very different yet powerful versions of the deck that always surges when large sets come out, Red Deck Wins. See you in the game store!

Deck of the Week
Shannon Lindsey, April 15, 2012

Welcome to the blog! I have been toying with the idea of doing this for a while, but the upcoming workshop has inspired me to reach out for the people who want to get better the way I wanted to get better. My biggest obstacle was always not having somebody properly mentor me in how to win at magic. Until last summer, I didn’t have the card base or the knowledge base to do it. As with all competitive things, I believe it will thrive and give you better opportunities if you can nurture it and keep it selling to a larger audience. With that said, since I am inherently a deck brewer who frequently produces decks that put up good numbers, while being the kind of thing metagamers usually avoid, this series of blogs may be useful to you, the Magic player. I am not a pro, just the guy who more often than not finishes with a single loss in your Friday Night Magic tournament, and this is the first of my deck ideas I will discuss.

Classic Blue White Control

While I usually will share decks I don’t plan on running myself, I will actually start with the deck that has been kindest to me of late. In the past few months, this deck has put up a better record than anything else I have run, including Delver, including a perfect Early Bird last week.

Blue White Control
2 Gideon Jura
2 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Sun Titan
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Pacifism
3 Day of Judgment
4 Mental Misstep
4 Dissipate
4 Ponder
4 Mana Leak
4 Think Twice
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Haunted Fengraf
4 Evolving Wilds
5 Island
3 Plains

Sideboard
2 Spellskite
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Day of Judgment
4 Celestial Purge
2 Flashfreeze
4 Negate

Classic control decks like this one want to do four things: establish card advantage, counter spells for value tempo disruption, control the board state to get rid of things that sneak through, and drop and attack with an awesome creature that ends the game quickly once it starts swinging. Cards that can do more than one of these things are a huge power boost to the control deck, which leads me to say:

Gideon Jura and Consecrated Sphinx are great cards!

Let’s take a look at these two control powerhouses. Gideon’s first two abilities control the board state by keeping your opponents creatures from attacking you and killing a creature, while his ultimate makes him a 6/6 undamageable powerhouse. Meanwhile, the sphinx is not only a 4/6 flier, but also gives you at least an extra 2 cards for every one of your opponents turns it stays on the table.

Card Advantage

Card advantage is when you can take one card and turn it into two or more other cards, thus giving you more resources to work with than your opponent. This is why good control decks are so frustrating to play against. They use these card advantage cards to increase their odds of having the right answers for your threats. In this deck, there are two sources of card advantage; the Consecrated Sphinxes and Think Twice. While think twice is only a one for one card the first time you cast it, it becomes advantage when it is flashed back, gaining you a card without giving one up. Furthermore, since it is instant speed, it can be saved for a turn you don’t have to counter or are unable to counter something. Instant speed is important enough that it is the reason people use Think Twice and Blue Sun’s Zenith instead of Divination in constructed decks. It should be noted that Ponder is not card advantage, since it is one for one, but instead is a cheap way to dig for a certain card, and still good since it costs a single blue.

Counter Spells for Tempo Advantage

This main deck features 3 different counterspells. First is Mana Leak, the best counter in standard. Mana Leak works best when used against something that costs two or more early in the game. I hate using it against 1 cost spells, because it is making my mana usage very inefficient. Dissipate is the best of the 3 cost counters, since it makes flashback and graveyard based things go into exile instead. Mental Misstep is a special choice. It stops powerful one drops early, but can also deal with the cheap stuff long after Mana Leak can no longer stop them. The sideboard features a fourth counter, Negate. It’s purpose is to come in for mirror matches to win counterspell wars.

Control the Board State

Cheap board control is critical for any control deck, since cheaper spells leave enough mana open for spells to be countered. Oblivion Ring is truly awesome in its ability to exile anything that isn’t a land, but unfortunately 3 is too much to qualify for the cheap control role. While Pacifism isn’t at all flashy, it does only cost 2, it keeps an attacker or blocker out of the way, and it has a little trick to it with Sun Titan. When the white titan returns it to the battlefield from the graveyard, it does not count as a spell or an ability, which means that it can attach itself to something hexproof. A very useful trick against Invisible Stalker, Dungrove Elder, or Thrun. Day of Judgment shines in this deck, because it sweeps aggro swarms right out of the way without costing you a single creature when timed right. Gideon’s first two abilities round out the board control of the deck, by giving it a reusable killing machine. You may have noticed the fourth Oblivion Ring and Day of Judgment in the sideboard. They aren’t in the main deck for mana curve reasons, because even a control deck must follow the rules of mana curve. Still, having four of either is good in some matchups, so they sit on the bench, waiting for their best time to come in and shine.

Attack With an Awesome Creature

This deck features three different finishing creatures. The strengths of Gideon and Consecrated Sphinx have already been discussed, but now let’s look at Sun Titan. He is a 6/6 Vigilance, which is great to begin with. He gives an added bonus of being able to return Pacifism and Oblivion Ring to the field. Most often, though he gets used with the land cards, Evolving Wilds, Ghost Quarter, and Haunted Fengraf. With Evolving Wilds, he becomes a mana acceleration engine, giving massive amounts of late game mana for use with multiple counters or board controllers as needed. With Ghost Quarter, he turns one shot land removal into reusable land removal. The most evil, however, is the synergy with Haunted Fengraf. Titan dies, no problem. Odds are he is the only creature in the graveyard, so sack the Fengraf to get him back, and when he returns to the field, get the Haunted Fengraf back into play to be used again.

Notable Omissions

Snapcaster Mage- While Snap is good, the number of enchantments used in this deck makes him much more inefficient than in most blue builds, so he got cut.

Blue Sun’s Zenith- The Sphinx and think twice are enough.

Frost Titan- The card advantage of the Sphinx makes it better than the board control bonus of the blue titan

Wurmcoil Engine- The artifact titan lacks the synergy of the creatures that made the cut.

Conclusion

I hope this helped you, the reader learn something about control decks. Don’t forget to come to the workshop at Legends of Vincennes on Sunday, April 22 at 1 pm for a workshop on control decks. I hope to see you there.