Standard Corner: American Control (post-BotG)

Hey guys! It's been a while since I've sat down to talk about ACTUAL Magic. For the upcoming excursions that we're conducting to promote our organization across Florida, I really wanted to make use of the new CNG feline/soldier token that my friend, Felicea designed and build a Standard deck so I could play in FNMs and use it to facilitate communication with players. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is a shoe-in. I also remember all the fun I had playing the oppressive Jund deck with Huntmaster of the Fells so I could abuse our adorable wolf tokens. However, my Jund party was always interrupted by the absolute bane of my existence every tournament: Sphinx's Revelation.

If I was going to play Standard this go around, I would be sleeving up Sphinx's Revelations and Supreme Verdicts without hesitation. Alongside Elspeth, maybe I could be an FNM ruler?? This week, I wanted to give you guys a take on a deck I've been playing with for the past month, American (U/W/R) Control:

Spells (34):
4x Izzet Charm
4x Counterflux
4x Supreme Verdict
4x Sphinx's Revelation
4x Detention Sphere
2x Last Breath
2x Mizzium Mortars
2x Turn // Burn
4x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1x Assemble the Legion
1x Elixir of Immortality

Lands (26):
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Steam Vents
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Temple of Triumph
2x Temple of Enlightenment
7x Island
1x Plains

The deck accomplishes a few things very well including completely dominating control mirrors. Access to both 4 copies of Izzet Charm and 4 copies of Counterflux ensures your opponent doesn't resolve a threat or Elixir of Immortality easily. Game 1 is heavily favored because of your superior countermagic and the mirrors are generally slow enough that winning Game 2 or Game 3 isn't necessary because of time constraints on the round. Instant-speed removal like Last Breath and Turn // Burn isn't completely blanked against U/W Control decks because they still rely on Mutavault as one of their win conditions and access to Red gives us Assemble the Legion in our main and Sideboard that dies only to their 4x Detention Sphere and Glare of Heresy among the 75 while the latter has lost favor in the past few months. Assemble the Legion can easily steal games away if it goes unanswered and is incredibly difficult for Mono Black Devotion to fight against. Our Red splash also gives us access to Mizzium Mortars which has increasingly been one of my favorite removal spells since it answers both Blood Baron of Vizkopa and Stormbreath Dragon. The fiery mortars also act like copies 5 and 6 of Supreme Verdict because of its Overload cost (since RRR isn't too difficult to get). Speaking of the benefits of our Red splash...

Izzet Charm is one of my favorite inclusions that we have access to when adding a splash of Red. I'll admit that I wasn't convinced at first of this R/U Charm over the more popular Azorius Charm. Izzet Charm has a good deal of utility with all 3 modes.

1) Deal 2 damage to target creature: Obviously useful for killing 2 toughness creatures in aggro matchups, kills Pack Rat on turn 2, Voyaging Satyr/Elvish Mystic, kills Mutavault, kills your own Soldier token when targeted by Bile Blight against a Desecration Demon (relevant!)

2) Negate unless they pay 2 colorless: Although not a hard counter, it helps push timings back against Underworld Connections, opposing Jace, Architect of Thoughts, Detention Spheres, other Sphinx's Revelation, fights off other countermagic, Planeswalkers, and other random anomalies that demand an answer. Don't try this mode on Abrupt Decay; it isn't very successful.

3) Faithless Looting cards away: Although you are ultimately down on cards after resolution, the idea is similar to Azorius Charm and it draws you specific answers when you need them late game or lands to hit Supreme Verdict or other answers you need at the moment. Sacrificing a card for the opportunity to react ideally to a situation isn't a terrible trade-off.

Although Azorius Charm replaces itself with its draw mode, I think the extra draw on Izzet Charm along with the support of Scry lands to generally increase the quality of your next draws pays dividends in the late game where card advantage can be compensated via Revelation and Jace. The Griptide ability on Azorius Charm is very useful and isn't dependent on size like Izzet Charm's Shock mode, however both spells interact favorably against hyper aggressive decks that those modes are used for. Although Azorius Charm can setup sweet interactions against Obzedat, Ghost Council and has solid game against any-sized creature in combat, it's usefulness is limited by forcing the creature in combat, so it can't touch mana dorks easily and is easy to play around. I find that Izzet Charm catches people off-guard and often I've had an opponent have to read all of its abilities >:D

American Control also has a solid game plan against Aggro decks and Midrange decks alike. Since most of the format's 'relevant' creatures are generally more expensive than previous formats (Desecration Demon, Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Stormbreath Dragon, Master of Waves to name a few) and most players are sleeving up Scry lands to their heart's content, we can be greedy with our three-colored mana base and use Supreme Verdict and Detention Sphere to get ahead on board when we fall behind in the early game and obviously Sphinx's Revelation and Jace, Architect of Thought to refill our hand after expelling a bountiful amount of removal spells on creatures/things and gain some necessary life.

Here's a quick look at the Sideboard:

Sideboard (15):
1x Last Breath
1x Daxos of Meletis
4x Gainsay
2x Negate
1x Warleader's Helix
2x Assemble the Legion
2x Wear // Tear
1x Aetherling
1x Fated Retribution

One of the spicier cards in this list is Fated Retribution. After a suggestion from my friend, Jules and losing to a myriad of Planeswalkers courtesy of Alan Simons, Planeswalkers posed a real threat for me. Outside of countermagic, the mere 4x Detention Spheres would often allow decks packing walkers on walkers to reach their ultimate ability uncomfortably often. I brought in Fated Retribution often and I'm almost considering moving it to the main-deck since it's useful for killing almost every threat in the format. I really like this wrath effect and over Planar Cleansing because it doesn't hurt my own Detention Spheres I've setup and can be cast at Instant-speed.

I'll admit that I'm not too competent with this Sideboard and that I've been looking into incorporating some additions including:

Celestial Flare - for hard to kill beaters
Thassa, God of the Sea - card selection for the mirror
Revoke Existence - against Gods/opposing Detention Spheres
Mizzium Mortars (3rd copy) - for reasons
Pithing Needle/Encroaching Wastes for Maze's End
Plea for Guidance - to grab Detention Sphere and Assemble the Legion
Assemble the Legion (4th copy) - if Mono Black Devotion is still a problem
Stormbreath Dragon - for midrange/control opponents

A couple of the weaknesses I've found with the deck is card disruption from Black decks in G2 and G3. Although G1 is heavily favored, the side-boarded games are very difficult and fighting off their myriad of threats including Pack Rat, Nightveil Specter, Desecration Demon and worst of all, Underworld Connections can be difficult. Matchups against Planeswalker-heavy decks have also been problematic, so looking into adding another copy of Fated Retribution might be just what the doctor ordered.

Thanks for taking a look at my U/W/R Control list for this post-Born of the Gods Standard format. I'll be playing with Sideboard and numbers in the maindeck to find the most appropriate proportions. Try out American Control at your next FNM and let me know what you think. Until next time, Magic players!

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-David J.

Modern Mastery: Scrambled Eggs

With the new bannings out this week, I thought it would be fitting for another Modern Deck Tech showcasing an old favorite of mine: Eggs. For those of you interested in a cheap deck to play for this year's modern season, there are a bunch of viable tier 1.5-2 decks out there to choose from. There's Living End, Zombie Hunt/Seismic Assault, Martyr Proc, Infect, and... Eggs. I'm going to give you an argument of why Eggs may not be a dead archetype and why it might be worth your time to take a closer look at it.

So why is it called Eggs, anyway? Well, there was and old Extended deck that used the ally-colored mana rocks from Odyssey (Sungrass Egg, Darkwater Egg, etc.) as a way to draw cards just like today's version. Thus the deck was appropriately, and somewhat harmlessly, dubbed "Eggs." I was piloting Eggs back when it was Tier 1 in 2012-2013, and since the banning of Second Sunrise, I have attempted to recreate a competitive list. Conley Woods posted an article last year about Eggs 2.0 and what he thought was a good list. I found many of the main deck choices to be rash and not perfectly thought out, so I developed a chart comparing my old list (which I Top 8'd a PTQ with back in early 2013), my current list sans Second Sunrise, and Conley Woods's suggested list.

There are many criticisms to Eggs and that it is too slow and boring to play against. Non-interactive Magic make most players cringe, but combo players thrive on it. Eggs is a combo deck whose purpose is to do one thing: reduce interaction. After Eggs gets to a certain level of incremental advantage, it explodes with an infinite or uncounterable way to kill the opponent. It uses artifact cards like Chromatic Sphere, Chromatic Star, Ichor Wellspring, Terrarion, Elsewhere Flask, and Conjurer's Bauble to draw cards and gain a board state of artifacts. The deck then uses cards like Krark-Clan Ironworks, Reshape, and Lotus Bloom to create fast mana, which is subsequently spent on Faith's Reward and Open the Vaults. The two cards then begin a cycle of slow torture until a win condition is found to put opponents out of their misery. This is just how we like it.

I will first point out the major differences between what old Eggs lists were good at and why we made the changes to the new card choices. There were two main decklists for Eggs running around when Second Sunrise was still around: one used Krark-Clan Ironworks and the other did not. Stanislav Cifka popularized the KCI-less version with his Pro Tour Return to Ravnica victory. I used his list with a few minor variations, such as Noxious Revival, Silence, cantrips in the main deck, and replacing some of his sideboard cards with Spell Pierces. Other than that, Cifka had a marvelous understanding of this deck and what cards he wanted to optimize his draws. The KCI version looks similar to what we have in the Woods column, but we have a few very curious--and in my opinion dubious--main deck decisions.

His list looks really clean and crisp to the untrained eye, but nothing has been optimized. We have 4 copies of almost every card, which is great when you want to draw all of those cards, but some of these cards aren't that good in our new game plan. KCI is a tool, not a crutch. We don't need it to win, so why rely on it so heavily? His win cons reflect why he has 4 in the main deck, but we'll revisit that in a moment. KCI pushes the deck to use more artifacts with "leaves the battlefield" triggers. This makes Ichor Wellspring our best card; it replaces the old Elsewhere Flasks (our worst card in the old list) and becomes a little cantrip for us. Speaking of cantrips, what happened to all of the one-mana draw spells in our new list? Isn't digging necessary?

Our best card in the old version was by far Sleight of Hand. Serum Visions was great for digging, but you really just wanted better card selection provided by Sleight of Hand. However, we're curiously missing almost any card draw in the new list. The cantrips have been removed in lieu of Thoughtcast. Thoughtcast, in combination with KCI, allows us to use Terrarion, Ichor Wellspring, Chromatic Star, and even Mox Opal and Darksteel Citadel to great effect. KCI helps draw extra cards and making a crucial extra bit of mana makes a huge difference in what turn the deck can go off. All of these small synergies make this deck very consistent. We cut out those pesky Adarkar Wastes from Woods's list to increase those consistent synergies. Ghost Quarter makes extra mana, but only when you can find more basics. Adarkar Wastes clunked up the draws.

The elephant in the room here is the replacement of Second Sunrise by Open the Vaults. Open the Vaults is twice as much mana and occurs at Sorcery speed, which pushes our deck from going off around turn 3.5 to probably a solid turn 4. Open the Vaults necessitated the switch to the more explosive mana version of Eggs. Lastly we have the win conditions, of which we have myriad of options. Pyrite Spellbomb, Banefire, and Grapeshot are all great ways to use all the mana we are creating to kill our opponents. Yet for some reason, Woods decided that a two-card combo was a better way to kill his opponent. I think this was a crucial and dubious mistake. I made room for two more Mox Opals by cutting out a win condition and a land, which provided the deck with nice mana ramp leading to earlier combos. I also ended up cutting a Terrarion or two in favor of a Silence and a Conjurer's Bauble. Why just one? If Melira Pod, Soul Sisters, or another deck with semi-infinite life manages to go off, I can still kill my opponent. I feel the lack of Conjurer's Bauble was a huge oversight in Woods's list. You just can't win some games without going infinite. This one card slot makes a big difference.

So let's talk matchups. This deck doesn't like interaction, so it main decks a couple of Silences to make sure you can go off uninterrupted. Our worst matchups are probably Infect, Hatebears, Martyr-Proc, UWx Control, and Faeries. Faeries may make a comeback with the unbanning of Bitterblossom. I don't think the addition of black will scare us, we don't mind discarding a few cards to a fair deck, and Silence hedges us in this matchup. These matchups hurt us most due to the high density of counter-magic and access to sideboard Rest in Peace or Stony Silence. Infect is just too fast sometimes; we need to win the die roll to have the best chance.

Sideboard plans usually involve cutting some number of Thoughtcast, Terrarion, and KCI, adding up to seven cards from the sideboard. Any more than seven cuts make it really difficult to stay consistent. If on the draw, you can cut an Island to maybe slide an additional sideboard card in. Against fair decks without countermagic, we bring in Grapeshot and probably a couple of Echoing Truth. Against BGx decks with a lot of disruption, Leyline of Sanctity is our best friend, potentially alongside Grapeshot. Against any of the white decks, we have to respect the hate and bring in those Echoing Truths. The Pact of Negation and Spell Pierce come in against control in lieu of Leylines. They function as extra copies of Silence when necessary and can sometimes snag a piece of hate on the stack. Unfair matchups like Splinter Twin, Infect, Storm, etc. are combated nicely with the Echoing Truth and counter-magic package. Lastly, the Pithing Needle is good for green decks. Deathrite Shaman is gone, but that means that Scavenging Ooze will see more play. Grafdigger's Cage is great against reanimator and Birthing Pod strategies.

I hope you guys enjoyed my reminiscing on Eggs. I may even be taking a similar list to this year's Modern PTQ season. Thanks for reading!

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-Stephen Poindexter