Quick Intro
I’ve recently been in a slump Magic wise so I figured I’d do a semiweekly series where I discuss my thoughts and feelings on the game and detail what I’m trying weekly. The first edition was going to be on Mono-Red Phoenix but the format has changed a bit in the time since then so we’re gonna kick it off with Modern UW Control
I initially wasn’t planning on playing UW Control this close to the printing of a new set as trying to tune a control deck in a shifting metagame often feels like a fool’s errand. However, much to my surprise the format hasn’t really changed much outside of the Hogaak-Vine deck being a new player in town.
The first list I tried was a modification of my friend Brandon Dollaway’s list. The initial changes were the inclusion of 2 Force of Negations cutting a Mana Leak and a Hieroglyphic Illumination. Sideboard wise I decided to play 3 RIP, 2 Timely, and the 3rd Force of Negation.
The Illumination in the md was there to find relevant interaction quickly. But with FON, in theory, we’ll draw free interaction naturally so Illumination isn’t needed as much. Also, it makes finding 2 cmc counter magic less of a priority. Losing the ability to counter creatures with Leak wasn’t that big of a loss to me since the deck ha a stack of creature removal and one of UW’s bigger issues was that you can just awkwardly lose to combo decks in the first few turns in the games you’re slow to get off the ground. Previously I had been playing 2 copies of Narset but I went to 3 because of the ability to find FON off of it to protect yourself going into the opponent’s turn. The 1/1/1 Wrath spit is to play around meddling mage and the 2 md Surgicals were a hedge against Hogaak-Vine The sideboard was mostly just thrown together ideas I wanted to try. 3 Rip was a hedge vs Vine, 2 Timely was just because that card’s just reasonable filler. Up to that point I hadn’t tested much of Gearhulk and decided to give the card a shot. It seemed like a fine hedge for humans but I wasn’t married to the idea. The rest of the sideboard is pretty self-explanatory.
After my first league, the major take away was that Force of Negation was pure high octane gasoline and I wanted more copies. I also found myself wanting a main deck Veto as a safety valve for the mirror. The surgical wasn’t that great so swapping one for Veto seemed like an easy choice. Gearhulk wasn’t really that good for me and got cut immediately for the third FON. I think I ended up playing 2 Verdict because I wanted an additional blue card for FON and I think Humans may be on the decline.
After this league, I kept feeling like FON was nuts and threw together a list with 2 Illuminations and 4 FON. The idea behind this was that I was struggling to enable turn 2 knot and having 4 opt and 2 illumination helps solve that. The other idea behind 2 illuminations was that since I cut the 3rd Narset I wanted another card advantage effect that could be used to offset FON being card disadvantage. The 3rd Narset just made my deck clunky.I found myself tapping out way more than I wanted to and wasn’t happy with that. My draws just needed to be smoothed out.
I ended up abandoning this list because the 4th FON while very good left a hole in my deck. At the time there were 6 negate effects and I was worried that was a bit too narrow so the 4th FON became the 1st D Stroke because I wanted to counter Prime Time and random other big creatures. With 2 Knot and 1 Mana Leak, I think that probably covers big idiots enough to justify not playing Stroke. However, as a sideboard option Stroke seems much better on average.
I did play a league with a list that had 1 timely in the sideboard but I can’t remember what it looked like and I don’t remember what it looked like but the changes weren’t really that drastic and the list was probably only a few cards off of the above one.
After those leagues, I started to hone in on what I think the deck should probably look like.
I still need to jam some matches with the above list to see if there are any glaring issues but I’m happy with what it currently looks like. So let’s run down a few things in quick fashion.
The Maindeck
4 Opt 1 Illumination: I think this is a fine split of cantrips to fiddle around with. I think a lot of players look at Illumination as a 4 cmc spell that you can sometimes cycle, but I look at it as a 1 cmc spell that you can sometimes cast for 4 mana. It helps with early game consistency while also being a late-game thing to cast to offset FON. It’s also fairly common that you’ll cycle the card in the early game then Snapcaster flash it back later on in the game.
4 Path 1 Oust 1 Condemn: I’m still testing this one. Historically this split has been good for me but there is an argument that 2nd oust is better than condemn. However, I think both Oust and Condemn have various situations where each card shines so I’m happy to keep playing the split until I see a reason to lean heavier in either direction. The argument for 2nd Oust is that there are Devoted Druid decks popping up again which makes the attacking creature clause of Condemn pretty bad.
3 FON 2 Knot: Uhhhh, FON is great and 3 seems like the sweet spot to have in the md. You see it enough so that you don’t just die to meme decks, but you don’t get flooded on them and die against the rest of the field. As I mentioned before having 6 negate effects in the 75 is probably too many and we need some diversity. This could very well change in the future.
2 Verdict 1 Wog: This split could be wrong but I’m not 100% sure. If Humans is still going to be a big player in the format then like splitting up my wrath effects to play around Meddling Mage. However, I’ve noticed that Humans players are starting to play FON of their own so WOG could be a liability. Ultimately it’s a tough decision because the split plays around one card but plays into a different one. Though, Humans does have more Meddling Mage and ways to find them than they do FON as well as Phantasmal Images to clone them so I think the hedge is fine for the time being. Against other decks in the format, all of the Wraths read the same unless your opponent has Thrun or something like Golgari Charm.
1 Timely, 0 Snare: Cutting the snare was a last minute decision because I added a 3rd copy of Surgical to my deck and wanted the second Timely as a way to offset the life loss. I think Snare is good, but it’s not an effect I feel the deck needs, but it’s definitely something I look to play if possible. In the coming weeks, I’ll likely be looking to see if I can slot it back into the main but for now, it will be interesting to see if I notice Snares absence. It is possible that the 2nd Timely isn’t good and in that case, I’d likely run the snare of the 7th removal spell. I think of Snare as “the Blue Bird of Paradise” because it’s kind of a way to “steal” the play against opponents who are curving out on you.
0 Surgical: As I tried things I ended up getting to a single copy of Surgical in the md, but I don’t think that as a 1 of it’s worth it at the moment. When Phoenix and Dredge are the GY focused decks dominating the format you have time to find your random Surgical, but the Vine deck doesn’t give you the time to do that. The card feels like a 2 of or bust. I could very well be wrong about this and almost played a Surgical over the Timely. Unfortunately, Surgical is actively bad against most of the format game one. You can find windows to leverage it for value but you aren’t really happy to see it. Timely however is more applicable in a lot of game 1’s and buys you turns to find wraths vs aggressive shells. So while I do lose some equity against the new kid on the block I’m gaining more equity against the rest of the format. The Burn matchup has been winnable with only 1 Timely in the 75 as a life gain option but now that the deck has access to the horizon lands it floods out much less so winning games has become noticeably harder. Making a hedge seems pretty free here.
0 Fact or Fiction: EOTFOFYL is probably still applicable in the format but the card is clunky. In a deck full of super powerful 4 drops and I don’t want to get glutted on them. If you really want to play FOF then cut a copy of Jace. However, doing so cuts your deck lower on ways to win the game and there is a stack of matchups where your plan is just to use Jace to close out the game. So you may have to play more copies of Celestial Colonnade which isn’t something that seems great at the moment. The 1st Fof is likely better than the 3rd Jace but at the moment I don’t really have an interest in having either.
0 Archmage Charm: My deck has 5 colorless lands and there’s going to be a noticeable % of games where I’m not casting this card until turn 4 unless I make changes to my mana base. Having the 4 Fields and 1 Blast Zone is more important than having this card. If you do play charm then cut the Blast Zone for a Mystic Gate. I did watch a friend test charm and wasn’t really impressed with it. A lot of the time it just got cashed in as a draw 2. That’s not really what I’m in the market for though. UW already has enough clunky random cards and filling the deck with more seems like a good way to die.
0 On Thin Ice: Watched a friend play it and I think it’s generally just worse than removal that you can Snapcaster back. Also having removal spells that die to your own Blast Zone or opposing Deputy of Detentions/Knight of Autumn seems like a liability to me.
2 Detention Sphere: Cards not stellar, it’s just a generic catch-all and pseudo sweeper. It hasn’t been bad enough for me to want to cut yet so I’m rocking 2 copies until I see a reason to change that.
0 Snow Basics: There’s literally no reason here to be honest. I mostly play on Modo and am too lazy to buy snow basics because I like my Guru lands. I think it’s a freeroll to play snow basics as to my knowledge there aren’t any playable effects that can punish you for doing so and you may have opponents who play around On Thin Ice which could lead to people potentially sideboarding poorly.
The Manabase:
6 Island 2 Plains: I had 7 islands but enabling turn 2 Logic Knot was somewhat of an issue so I think having the 6th fetch is overall helpful. This could lead to an issue where I run out of basics to fetch with Field of Ruin so that’s something to consider. If that does come up then I’ll just play 7 Islands again.
1 Blast Zone 4 Field: These are the best utility lands you have access too. Ghost Quarter is pretty extraneous especially since the Tron matchup feels really good now that we have Force of Negation allowing us to tap out for Walkers and not just die to Karn on the opponent’s turn. Blast Zone has been very good for me as a utility sweeper and general answer for whatever nonsense is happening on board.
1 Vista: I haven’t tested the card but I want to. I did watch a friend play a list that had 2 copies of the card and the 2nd copy was pretty medium most of the time. One issue with this deck is that you have 5 colorless lands so when you mull to 5 or 6 it’s not uncommon to have hands with Opt, Fetch, Colorless land. With these hands it’s pretty important to have access to Hallowed Fountain so you can cast whatever spells you have. In these spots Vista forces you to choose which color of mana you want to get which more often than not will be a liability.
2 Celestial: A lot of the time this card is just a Guildgate and in faster-paced matchups the ETB tapped clause is an actual liability. Now that control decks have Teferi and Jace as win cons you don’t need to lean as heavily on Celestial.
The Sideboard:
5 Gy Hate:
Do you need to ask?
I’m favoring Surgical with my split here because I think it’s super important to be able to interact with Hogaak on their turn 1-2 while on the draw. Also a lot of lists have a stack of answers for RIP and I like sidestepping their hate a bit.
2 Celestial Purge: This card is just generally good against BGx and Phoenix. Every time I go to 1 copy I end up regretting it and back up to 2.
1 Settle: I like having a 4th Sweeper in the 75 and Settle is Pseudo Grave hate vs Dredge. It’s also a sweeper that Humans is not likely to name with Meddling Mage, however, if the opponent sees it, the card can end up being a 4 mana Path to Exile. Overall the pros outweigh the cons here.
2 Veto: We still want this card not only for the mirror but also because of the majority of combo decks in the format play countermagic of their own so the uncounterable clause on Veto is very relevant for making it out of the early turns alive so you can dominate the mid and late game.
2 Spell Pierce 1 Stroke: Pierce helps you survive the early game against the various degenerate strategies in the format while Stroke keeps you from dying to the big dumb cards that are floating around.
0 sideboard creatures:
5 Mana Angels: There aren’t any matchups where you need the Baneslayer Angel effects. Most of the time they’re just clunky hail mary’s that rot in your hand and you just occasionally get to yeet your opponent out of the game.
Monastery Mentor: I haven’t tested this card yet but there are other cards I’m interested in getting reps with. My friend Thomas “Mechin la Machine” Mechin has liked 2 copies of this card but that was before the printing of FON has added more “must have” slots to the deck so there isn’t really the room for this.
Gearhulk: This card is only really good against Humans and in other matchups its just another clunky card.
Resto Angel : I don’t really want another clunky 4 drop and in order to utilize this card I think you want Wall of Omens in your deck and that’s just not a card I’m in the market for.
0 Flusterstorm: I forgot this card was modern legal but I don’t think we actually needed for any matchup. This card is good in Vintage and Legacy because those formats operate more on an axis of mana efficiency than they do raw power. So it’s more common that players will have a turn that consists of casting multiple cheap cards that will build storm for you. Also in eternal formats a lot of decks are built to hit 2-3 land drops then stop playing lands so a card like Fluster can consistently scale into the late game whereas in modern decks aren’t built around as many instant’s or sorceries and hit more land drops so Fluster is more likely to be a narrow Spell Pierce.
Random Questions:
I think a lot of UW players liked this card because control pilots hate losing control mirrors and take it as an affront to their intellect to do so. In most situations, this card is a Man-O-War that has annoying static text. There aren’t any matchups that this card makes or breaks(outside of the mirror) but in most spots I’d rather have access to the 2nd D Sphere(the card I’d cut for a tef). The City of Solitude text is relevant against decks like Infect or whatever but it’s not really needed. When I tune decks I try to have as many cards as possible that solve actual issues that my deck has or fills important holes in functionality. Teferi just doesn’t really do that and is ultimately an effect that at the end of multiple matches you won’t be telling yourself “man, I really needed Lil LTef”.
However, when you’re staring down a random planeswalker or stack of Empty the Warrens tokens and you’re staring at a Teferi you’ll find yourself saying “Damn, I wish this Tef was a D Sphere”. I will say that I really like the card in a deck like Jeskai Saheeli because that deck can capitalize on the static ability to protect it’s combo finish while control decks don’t do so as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnYhG_ekoH8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JfEJq56IwI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6DNdop6pD8
Addendum 1:
Miracles Package: I’ve played the Miracles package in the past and have had players do well with a list that I’ve worked on https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1382474#paper. The issue with Miracles Builds is that you have to run 6+ cantrips to facilitate Terminus as well as the 3rd copy of Jace which makes the deck clunky. The above list had Ancestral Visions in it which was nice at the time because it allowed you to play a game where you’d tread water long enough for it to go off and could just crush your opponent. The major issue with that plan is that now opposing Teferi/Narset/Veto make AV bad. Before in control mirrors AV was a ticking time bomb, the turn it was going to go off your opponent was forced to leave up countermagic and you could have a mini-war that you’d intentionally lose so that you could slam a walker. That plan doesn’t work when the avg control list has 4+ cards that blank that plan. Additionally, Terminus is a high variance card and the Modern cantrip suite just doesn’t support finding it with regularity. I’d rather build a more consistent deck than one that relies on an over the top “If I hit this I win” cards.
Teferi’s Puzzlebox: The Teferi Narset plan is not Splinter Twin regardless of people say. Box by itself is a terrible card and the combo crumbles if your opponent has a reasonable board state. Part of the reason Twin was good was that it could win the game while you were behind on board.
Narset is already a good card without any assistance. You only make your deck worse by putting bad cards like Box in it just because you can occasionally meme your opponent out of the game.
Also, I hate having cards like Box in my decks. They warp your cantrip decisions and can induce you into taking like that are terrible 9 times out of 10 because you may spike. Don’t play yourself
FON out of Humans: I don’t think Humans should board in FON vs UW. Their hatebear plan is already strong enough to beat us. Fon will just lead to higher variance draws on their end. With that said, I do expect to see Humans players boarding in FON regardless of how bad I think it may be.
Update: I cut the D stroke for a 3rd RIP because MODO is infested with Hogaak and I think that in order to beat that deck with any regularity you NEED to be playing 6 gy hate effects.
I’m also going to test 3 Verdict and accept that Meddling Mage is going to make me a sad panda.
Oh, and Ashiok sux. Don’t play it
Nobody tell my grandfather Jarvis Yu that I use the term “Maindeck”. You should, however, go to his stream https://www.twitch.tv/jarvisyu and donate because all proceeds this month are going to be donated to the American Cancer Society
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Thirst For Knowledge 