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 Human – Esper Midrange
Takao, Shota
2nd place at GP Shizuoka 2013 Top 8
Lands (25)
Creatures (24)
Other Spells (11)
Sideboard
This deck got a lot of heads turning at Grand Prix Shizuoka on Dec. 22nd. Esper Midrandge or Humans piloted by Shota Takao, so named for its interactions between its humans paired up with Xathrid Necromancer. It is based on the more recent Orzhov Midrange strategy that evolved out of Paul Rietzl Orzhov Midrange at Pro Tour Theros. Takao was running into problems against Pack Rat so he added blue for Detention Sphere which also give him access to Lyev Skyknight. Adding the third color did not make the mana worse by taking full advantage of all the duals in Hallowed Fountain, Watery Grave, Godless Shrine, Temple of Deceit and Temple of Silence.
Esper Midrange has a strong match up against the three major decks in the format: Mono-Blue Devotion, Mono-Black Devotion, and Blue-White Control. The interaction between Whip of Erebos with Obzedat, Ghost Council is very important in these matches. You use the Whip to bring Obzedat back into play from the graveyard, then by stacking the triggers properly you can exile Obzedat to his trigger and return him back into play on your next turn.
As two-drops Takao opted to make a metagame call with a singleton Cartel Aristocrat which is strong against Domestication used mostly in Mono-Blue Devotion, Imposing Sovereign to slow down aggro decks and Daring Skyjek to speed up the clock especially when paired up with Lyev Skyknight, Desecration Demon or even Mutavault to activate Battalion. Adding a set of Detention Sphere allows him to drop the Hero’s Downfall that can get awkward to cast on the double black. Accompanied with a singleton of these removal spells Doom Blade, Ultimate Price and Far // Away again a metagame call.
Blood Baron of Vizkopa can be devastating against white and black based decks like this one, but Takao has answers like a Far // Away and two Supreme Verdicts in the main as well as access to Thoughtseize and another Far // Away and Supreme Verdict in the sideboard. Imposing Sovereign is also interesting as it stops Blood Baron but only for the turn it was summoned.
Overall Shato Takao got a lot of attention with this deck as it kept winning him round after round giving him a 14-1 record going into Quarterfinals, but finally losing in the finals to the GP Shizuoka champion Ryo Nakada piloting Orzhov Human.
Orzhov Human – White Weenie
Ryo Nakada
1st place GP Shizuoka 2013
Lands (22)
Creatures (29)
Other Spells (9)
Sideboard
Ryo Nakada piloted this Orzhov Human list to take down the final Grand Prix of the year in Shizuoka. The first thing we notice about the deck is that it is basically a White Weenie deck with a splash color similar to the Boros ‘white weenie’ that Ben Lundquist used to win SCG L.A. in November. This time we see a black splash instead of red for Xathrid Necromancer and Orzhov Charm in the main as well as a plethora of answers in the sideboard.
Generally White Weenie comes out of the gates fast, but then is weak to sweepers like Supreme Verdict and Mizzium Mortars. Enter Xathrid Necromancer which can be dropped on turn 3 making your opponents sweepers awkward to use by leaving an army of 2/2 Zombies behind to deal with. The Orzhov Charm in the main is used as cheap instant removal to clear the path for your team or can also be used to bring back a 1-drop in your graveyard onto the battlefield. The black becomes more then a splash once you look into the sideboard, with all black except for a singleton Pithing Needle. Bringing in Dark Betrayal against the strong and popular Mono-Black Devotion decks. A fourth Xathrid Necromancer to use against sweepers from UW and Esper control decks. Profit // Loss against the mirror and other popular ‘White Weenie” versions and probably also good against burn decks like Boros Burn. I imagine the Sin Collectors are used to get your opponents removal and sweepers. The Thoughtseize and Pithing Needle is the decks only answers to planeswalkers.
This version of White Weenie curves out almost like its predecessor with the exception of a turn 3 Xathrid Necromancer instead of Ajani, Caller of the Pride or Frontline Medic. Orzhov Humans starts off with a turn 1 Boros Elite, Dryad Militant or Soldier of the Pantheon followed on turn 2 with a Daring Skyjek, a Precinct Captain or an Imposing Sovereign and finally comes turn 3 with a Banisher Priest to clear the path for more beats or Xathrid Necromancer to “protect the team”. Spear of Heliod helps speed your clock by pumping your team and can act as removal against big threats. And in classic White Weenie fashion Brave the Elements protects your team against targeted spells or helps push through an alpha strike for the win.
