Creatures (28)
Planeswalkers (2)
Spells (5)
Sideboard
Well, well…the more things change the more they stay the same. This happens to be one of only two decks in the top 32 to not feature at least one new Born of the Gods card in its 75, the other being also Mono-Blue Devotion. The telling sign is that both of those decks were in the top 8 finishing first and seventh. But the major players were UW Control and GR Monster which combined for almost half of the top 32 pushing most of the devotion decks to the wayside.
Azorius Control
Alexander Hayne
GP Vancouver Champion
Lands (27)
Creature (1)
Other Spells (25)
Planeswalkers (7)
Sideboard
Local Montreal hero and perennial golden boy Alex ‘Insayne’ Hayne went on to win yet another Grand Prix tournament in what is turning into an illustrious and formidable young career. As you may have already heard that makes three such victories in the past six months. If he keeps this up there’s no telling where he and his team ManaDeprived will soar to this year. And to mention his team Alex had to battle fellow teammate and Montrealer Jon Stern, who has also been making waves on the Pro circuit, in the semifinal in a tough battle spotlighting the talent emerging from ManaDeprived and Montreal alike.
Mono-Blue Devotion
Tyler Wilkerson
1st Place at Star City Games Orlando Standard Open on 01/11/2014
Lands (25)
Creatures (28)
Planeswalkers (2)
Spells (5)
Sideboard
And again we find that devotion is such a powerful strategy in the current Standard meta. While we wait for some new power players to emerge with the release of Born of the Gods we still have three more weekends to go before they will be working to forge a new face of Standard.
This deck is aggro through and through but uses Thassa, her Bident and Jace to help the deck keep the pedal to the metal. It all starts curving out smoothly through the one drops with Cloudfin Raptor and Judge’s Familiar. Then we move through the two drops from Frostburn Weird and Tidebinder Mage into three drops Nightveil Specter and Thassa herself. That all works to push out max devotion to drop Master of Waves. There is just a tiny bid of support in one-ofs from Domestication, Cyclonic Rift and Rapid Hybridization. All together the deck is able to pack a formidable punch that shows why it has been so dominant the last few months.
Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
ejseltzer@hotmail.com
UB Control – Dimir Control
Yasooka, Shouta
4th place GP Shizuoka 2013
Lands (26)
Creatures (4)
Other Spells (24)
Planeswalkers (6)
Sideboard
After what was becoming a stale Standard meta abundant with Mono-Blue, Mono-Black and UW Control reigning supreme the Japanese Grand Prix in Shizuoka showcased for us more somewhat fringe decks. I’ve already broken down two new top decks with the GP champion Orzhov Human by Ryo Nakanada and second place Esper Human/Midrange by Shota Takao. These new decks are tuned for the meta with favorable match ups against those top three decks in Standard, something you’d expect when the Japanese start brewing. I wanted to call this deck Dimir Devotion because of it’s Master of Waves, but this is definitely much more then your standard UB control deck using a plethora of removal, counters, draw and disruption coupled with it’s finishers: Master of Waves and Prognostic Sphinx. Blue and Black has a very nice mana base with Dimir Guildgate, Watery Grave and Temple of Deceit so Shouta was able to add the full set of Mutavaults.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver could be considered a finisher, but his role is more against aggro decks where he slows them down by using +2 ability to exile the top three cards, followed by his -X to bring one of opponents creatures that was exiled to the battlefield usually as an additional blocker. He could become a problem for UW Control if you just keep using his +2 ability mill all his answers and hopefully their Elixir of Immortality till you finally ultimate which is usually good game. What you want to do against midrange and other control decks is bring in your Pack Rats from sideboard and flood the board with rats. Our next planewalker in the list is the good ole MVP for all control decks with a set of Jace, Architect of Thought who’s just great at slowing down the beatdown from aggro as well. Continuing down the list we see more answers against aggro with a plethora of black removal such as singletons Devour Flesh, Doom Blade and Ultimate Price as well as three Hero’s Downfall. Shota also added Domestication which has been gaining popularity in Mono-Blue builds with so much creatures with under 4 power like Master of Waves and Nightveil Specter making them a good catch-all. Another very interesting addition main deck are the three Ratchet Bombs to easily take care of tokens from Pack Rats, any Zombies from Xathrid Necromancer or Elementals from Master of Waves. Yasooka added more originality to his deck with a couple of Warped Physique. There probably mainly used as removal, but I wonder if he ever pumped a Prognostic Sphinx for the win.
It wouldn’t be much of a blue control deck without any counters. Yasooka opted for three Dissolve and Syncopate with a singleton Essence Scatter which sounds good to me. Finally with a couple of Opportunity as draw for late games as every blue control deck does just little less in this one.
The sideboard is tweaked to the metagame with two Gainsay and a Negate to bring in against UW control along with three Duress which seem very sound to me. Let’s not forget the Pack Rats in the sideboard against deck with little or no answers to a turn two Rats, they work especially well with the set of Mutavaults. The rest of the sideboard is pretty much self explanatory with Tidebinder Mage against Green or Red and Gainsay obvisously against Blue decks.
The Blood Baron of Vizkopa have been a common issue lately, but this deck had a lot of counters like Essence Scatter to stop it from resolving and a Devour Flesh main deck. I would prefer Far & Away for it’s versatility cause if the opponent has only two creatures and one of them is the Baron then you bounce the other so the Away resolves with opponent sac’ing the Baron. Another use Far is to bounce opponents creature like a Blood Baron and Thoughtseize it. This deck looks like a fun list, if you like control and your tired of the do-nothing draw-go cycle of UW Control you should try this one out. If anyone sees any more issues with this deck leave comments, i’m sure a lot more people got to test it by now.
Happy New Year everyone
Gregoire Thibault
Follow me on Twitter @Gregsterism
Esper mastermind and longtime magic aficionado Shaheen Soorani battled last weekend at the SCG Invitational in Las Vegas to a third place finish. Fighting through a field of 299 qualified participants he was able to slaughter most every mage who stood in his way. The Invitational, much like the Pro Tour, is a multiformat tournament requiring proficiency in both Standard and Legacy to find success. In true Soorani fashion his weapon of choice for both formats was blue, white and black control style concoctions. With the two byes he had been awarded he drudged to a final swiss record of 12-3-1, the last round an intentional bye with Thea Steele to clinch the top 8 berth. The competition was fierce with hard wins against Tom Ross, Tim Landale, Erik Smith and Jeff Hoogland. Some tough losses came at the hands of Matt Nass the last round of day 1 playing for the perfect 8-0 and against eventual winner Max Brown entering the second leg of Legacy putting Shaheen on the ropes fighting to maintain a top positioning. In the top 8 he was immediately put to the test against Brian Brawn-Duin but dispatched him easily in three games but was knocked out by Greg Hatch after a hard fought five game battle.
Planeswalkers (6)
Spells (25)
Creatures (8)
Planeswalkers (3)
Sideboard
Planeswalkers (4)
Spells (30)
Sideboard
The title of this deck is a little misleading as it really is a UW Control deck with a tiny splash of red mainly to gain a little edge in the control mirror and for some extra options out of the sideboard. The core of the deck is the standard UW classics with full sets of Sphinx’s Revelation, Supreme Verdict, Azorius Charm and Detention Sphere which work overtime to control the board, draw through your deck and regain lost life once you stabilize. The primary wincons come through the always powerful planeswalkers Elspeth and Jace, with a pair of Mutavault to plink in as well. The control package sports pairs of Dissolve, Syncopate and the reason for the red splash Counterflux. There are two one of artifacts with the new hotness Elixir of Immortality to recycle your used spells back into the deck and Ratchet Bomb which can take care of numerous permanent problems especially rat or soldier tokens in a pinch. We finally get to a little bit of cuteness in the deck with Quicken which while limited in targets does make Verdict into a surprise sweeper or turns Divination into an instant speed Concentrate.
Spells (27)
Planeswalkers (7)
Sideboard
UW Control – UW Planeswalker Control
Stanislav Cifka
Grand Prix Vienna – Top 8
Lands (27)
Creatures (0)
Other Spells (26)
Planeswalkers (7)
Sideboard
I have to admire this very traditional feeling UW Control deck. While technically creature-less it does use Elspeth as a primary win condition with Mutavault as backup. The permission comes in the form of Dissolve, which works with the Temples to provide some dig with Scry, and Essence Scatter to fight off troublesome creatures. The deck then boasts a rather robust amount of removal starting with Supreme Verdict to sweep away aggro swarms, Detention Sphere is very versatile in controlling all other threats, and Last Breath is the spot removal that can handle most of the threats in standard currently. Azorius Charm is a useful with all it different modes either as another spot removal, to cycle for another draw or as a way to gain some quick life. The deck is topped off with Sphinx’s Revelation which is without a doubt one of the keys to the success of the UWx Control strategies. This list of Cifkas also included a very interesting sideboarding plan with Archangel and Fiendslayer capitalizing on a lifegain theme to build on a heavy creature package that’s brought in to combat the red decks.