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Daily Digest: Jace’s Verdict

The more players say that control decks aren’t feasible in Modern, the more the true control players try to make it happen. And don’t look now, but someone has done it again here!

Shadows over Innistrad Prerelease April 2-3!

I love this deck!

Avignon took down a Magic Online PTQ this past Saturday with a U/W Control deck in Modern.

Clearly there’s a lot of attention being paid to Eldrazi in the construction of this deck, but even after the bannings there’s a chance anemic Eldrazi builds will stick around, and I suspect that aggressive strategies will still be the kings of Modern.

This strategy is really great at killing creatures. Avignon wasn’t messing around, sporting the full four copies of Supreme Verdict and going out of the way to keep casting sweepers by utilizing Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy.

Jace is awesome in this deck, not only for flashing back removal spells, but by working great in tandem with Ojutai’s Command. This combo is not just good enough for Standard.

You may have thought you misread that copy of Elspeth the first time, as we are often more used to seeing her Knight-Errant form appear in Modern, but no, that’s Elspeth, Sun’s Champion.

Not many fair decks can ever hope to break through or even contain Elspeth, Sun’s Champion. She is not a common threat that folks are prepared for, and she can very easily completely dominate a game. Again, this U/W Control deck all about killing everything and then going late, and that’s exactly what Avignon did this weekend.

The sideboard of this deck is mostly a nod to the fact that the maindeck is so adept at killing creatures. There is a lot of cheap countermagic present as a means to fight against other and likely leaner blue decks in addition to various combo strategies. Rule of Law is a pretty sweet piece of tech against Storm or Ad Nasueum, and Glen Elendra Archmage in particular is a card that I enjoy playing with that doesn’t get enough respect. Not only is it a durable form of pressure that can quickly add up alongside a Vendilion Clique, but it basically insures that you can eat two whole turns or combo pieces from your opponent.

If this is what ultimately evolved to fight the Eldrazi, then I’m okay with that. This is just someone who won a tournament by playing clean and honest Magic.


Shadows over Innistrad Prerelease April 2-3!