Creatures (16)
Spells (18)
Sideboard
And so with the final SCG Tournament for Theros Standard we have the usual suspect taking down the tournament with Mono-Black Devotion. This was a forgone conclusion by the end of the semi-final round as the last two wizards left battling were both devotees on The Path of the Pack Rat. And while we wait to see if Born of the Gods will shake up a new Standard format we are left to enjoy what was with this weeks offering.
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
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.
