Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I know I said that these would be weekly, and I know this means that the third chapter won’t be out until after GP Philly. I can tell you all the reasons it didn’t come out on time, instead I will get right to the article.
Last time I discussed the far left of the Aggro-Control spectrum, now I’ll discuss the more moderate decks. These decks come out of the gate with threats, then sit on their control elements.
I’ll start with the most popular moderate deck, Counter-Sliver. Counter-Sliver uses creatures that feed off each other symbiotically making each creature more powerful with each different one you play. It then uses Blue and White control cards to stop opponent’s threats. All of this is brought together with the incredible searching power of Demonic Consultation.
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Winged Sliver
4 Acidic Sliver
4 Hibernation Sliver
4 Crystalline Sliver
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
3 Demonic Consultation
3 Disenchant
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Tropical Islands
4 Underground Sea
4 Tundra
4 City of Brass
4 Flood Plain
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Undiscovered Paradise
I chose this list because it is my favorite of the popular lists. This deck plays its creatures for the first several turns, then sits on counters. All the slivers are great in this deck, but Hibernation and Crystalline are usually the most important. These are the slivers that protect all your creatures. Hibernation can also be used in conjunction with Force of Will. I came up with a slightly different list using the same concept as Ped Bun’s Oath deck.
2 Hibernation Sliver
1 Abundance
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
1 Worship
1 Sylvan Library
1 Victual Sliver
1 Acidic Sliver
1 Aura of Silence
1 Forbid
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
3 Brainstorm
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Null Rod
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Winged Sliver
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Crystalline Sliver
3 City of Brass
4 Tundra
4 Flood Plain
2 Underground Sea
2 Savannah
4 Tropical Island
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Volcanic Island
This deck, while a little more control oriented but works on the same concept. Rather than going for multiple copies of good cards and searching with Consult, this deck goes for single copies of good cards and searches with Enlightened Tutor. The plus to this is less card slots. The minus is you are restricted to Artifacts and Enchantments.
The next deck I’ll discuss is Fish. This deck didn’t see a lot of good finishes until Madrid. In this Grand Prix, Xavier Gonzalez navigated it to the finals.
4 Manta Rider
4 Merfolk Trader
2 Sandbar Merfolk
4 Suq’ata Firewalker
3 Waterspout Djinn
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
2 Annul
1 Forbid
3 Winter Orb
3 Curiosity
This deck greatly improves one aspect of Slivers, while weakening two others. The improvement is the mana base. The fact that this deck is mono-color improves the consistency. One problem is that the creatures are not as good. The other is you are restricted to Blue and Artifact spells. The use of Winter Orb is interesting in this deck. It is used to lock down control decks so even though you number of counters is lower, you can still contend in counter wars.
The final deck I am going to look at is 5-color-Green.
3 Winter Orb
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Arcane Denial
2 Force of Will
1 Gilded Drake
2 Merfolk Looter
3 Opposition
2 Tradewind Riders
1 Sliver Queen
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Llanowar Elves
2 Quirion Ranger
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Wall of Roots
2 Fire Whip
1 Ghitu Slinger
2 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Monk Realist
1 Peacekeeper
1 Radiant’s Dragoons
4 City of Brass
4 Savannah
2 Taiga
4 Tropical Island
2 Undiscovered Paradise
This deck is much more complex than the other two moderate decks. This deck relies on Survival of the Fittest to get it’s control elements out. Squee in combo with Survival is what breaks this deck. The use of Winter Orb in this deck is slightly different than the Fish deck. Orb in this deck is used to lock the opponent with Opposition.
That is a synopsis of the dominant moderate decks in this format. These decks are not for the lower skill players. These decks are harder to play than another, as they rely on always doing the right thing at the right time. This is not always obvious, and since you don’t know your opponent’s hand it is not always possible to know the right move. These decks are about percentage plays.
So ends this installment of Aggro-Control Digest. Tune in next week as I explore the far right.