So you like U/B Control? You’ve come to the right place…
With U/B taking down the Open in Las Vegas, some may think that it’s U/B’s time to shine again. That’s entirely possible, but I’d rather investigate further. When Innistrad was released, I was excited about U/B Control. Snapcaster Mage, Think Twice, Forbidden Alchemy, Dissipate, and Nephalia Drownyard all seemed great.
I’ve played with several versions of the deck, and I have yet to be impressed. It’s not that the deck can’t win, because clearly it’s a proven tournament winner, but my main issue is that Think Twice and Forbidden Alchemy aren’t very good compared to everything else that’s going on.
Last year at Worlds, U/B saw a lot of success because the deck can be tailor-made to beat certain archetypes, and maybe this year will be more of the same.
Draw-Go
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (26)
How it works: This is the classic archetype that I (and probably everyone else) wanted to bring back. Your card drawing is instant speed, as are the majority of your answers. Each turn, you play a land and pass, answering each of their threats on a one-for-one basis. If there’s ever a turn where they fail to play something, you capitalize by playing a card drawer. At that point, you should bury them.
What it’s good against: In theory, Draw-Go should beat the tar out of midrange decks like Wolf Run Ramp and Solar Flare. However, clever opponents figured out that Thrun was good and that more Thruns would be better and started playing Dungrove Elder. In order to sneak him under countermagic, they played one-drop accelerators, which conveniently protected Dungrove from Edict effects.
Making Solar Flare good against U/B is a bit trickier, but Surgical Extraction is a good tool. U/B puts Snapcaster Mage to good use, but once you Extract their Mana Leaks or Dissipates, their wall of countermagic deteriorates. Nephalia Drownyard out of the Solar Flare sideboard is another great option, since U/B can’t usually race it.
What it’s bad against: Tokens, Mono Red, Wolf Run Green, Infect, and probably Humans. That’s a tall order, and Draw-Go can’t really adapt because the whole “draw, go” strategy is bad against the majority of those decks. They play threats that sneak under your countermagic, and most of their threats are difficult to deal with.
Pitfalls: Your answers aren’t very good. They are all very specific, situational cards, whereas their threats kill you with no reservations. If you ever need to tap out for Black Sun’s Zenith (one of your only good answers to a horde of creatures) or Grave Titan (your other answer), they have free rein.
If U/B had access to a bunch of Oblivion Rings, or a good sweeper like Day of Judgment, then it might be a different story. Obviously players have built U/W splashing black, but the mana base, much like Solar Flare’s, is a huge detriment.
Gaining complete control is the dream. They have no relevant board or hand, you have card drawing ready to go if they don’t play anything, and two hard counterspells in case they peel something. In Standard, gaining complete control is actually just a pipe dream.
There are recursive threats, planeswalkers, lands, artifacts, and enchantments that you need to deal with. You can’t counter them all, so eventually something will sneak through. Nowadays, it’s almost always better to play the Tapout strategy. I hate the play style of those types of decks, but I recognize them as strategically sound.
The mirror is kind of a nightmare also, as it’s all dependent on who draws the first Drownyard, and then the second. Typically I would draw first in such a matchup, but being the first person to activate Drownyard on turn four actually matters a lot. It’s kind of disgusting.
It’s easily solvable for those who care, and that involves playing some combination of Skaab Ruinator, Ghost Quarter (with Surgical Extraction), Praetor’s Grasp, or Elixir of Immortality (with Buried Ruin). If you want to beat the Draw-Go mirror, it’s easily doable, but right now, that isn’t important.
Tapout
How it works: The beloved strategy of everyone named Michael J. Flores is a little better positioned in the format, but not by much. You want to control the early game, but instead of taking complete control, you aim at resolving a fattie that can trump whatever they are doing, like Consecrated Sphinx or Grave Titan. Ramp like Solemn Simulacrum or Pristine Talisman make it happen a turn faster.
What it’s good against: Typically, this strategy is better against aggressive decks. That’s the case here as well, but just because you’re better off than a Draw-Go deck doesn’t mean you’re a favorite. When your entire strategy revolves around trumping someone with a six-drop and they trump you right back, you’ll see that your entire deck is rather pointless.
What it’s bad against: Overrun, Primeval Titan, Angelic Destiny, Sword of Feast and Famine, Brimstone Volley. These cards will largely ignore your adorable little six-drop.
Pitfalls: The cards in Standard are way more powerful than this.
Draw-Go/Tapout Hybrid
Creatures (6)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (26)
Spells (25)
How it works: Jeremy Neeman won another Grand Prix, this time with what largely resembled a Draw-Go deck. The only problem was that he played five six-drops.
Draw-Go decks would rather focus on their strategy of playing everything at instant speed rather than resort to cards like Divination. While Divination is much cheaper than a Think Twice as a whole, it doesn’t fit into the Draw-Go strategy. Tapout decks might rather have the Divination (see Caleb Durward’s top eight deck from Baltimore), but Neeman kept the instant-speed aspect of the deck intact.
What it’s good against: At the time, it was Wolf Run Ramp, the mirror match, and Solar Flare, and Jeremy proved that he could beat all of them.
What it’s bad against: Again, Wolf Run has adapted, and somehow, Jeremy beat the W/G Token deck in the finals of Grand Prix Brisbane. That couldn’t have been a good matchup for him though.
Pitfalls: While in theory, the Hybrid version retains the positive aspects of both versions, it also gains a major downside—a major lack of synergy is created. You have a lot of cards that encourage you to keep your mana open and be reactive, and then a bunch of six-drop sorcery-speed dudes.
Skeleton Blade
Creatures (8)
Lands (27)
Spells (25)
- 4 Dissipate
- 4 Mana Leak
- 4 Think Twice
- 4 Doom Blade
- 1 Stoic Rebuttal
- 2 Sword of Feast and Famine
- 2 Black Sun's Zenith
- 4 Forbidden Alchemy
Sideboard
How it works: Chris Pregent debuted this bad boy in Baltimore. Rather than attempt to gain complete control over a game, Chris took the aggro-control aspects of Caw-Blade and put them in a U/B shell.
What it’s good against: In theory, Reassembling Skeleton and Sword of Feast and Famine give you incidental answers to Dungrove Elder and Thrun. In reality, Kessig Wolf Run, Primeval Titan, and to some extent, Inkmoth Nexus, make you look pretty foolish. You have good answers to the short term, and Ghost Quarter for Wolf Run, but you won’t win a long game.
What it’s bad against: Swarm decks don’t care about Sword or Skeleton, and they certainly aren’t scared of your five hard counters. Mono Red also seems like a tough matchup.
The pitfalls: Your control plan is weak. You have counterspells and removal, but no real trump outside of Sword. That doesn’t do it against every deck, so you’re pigeon-holed into an aggressive role in most matchups.
All of those options sound terrible! Maybe we can find something a little spicier…
Poison Blade
Creatures (12)
Lands (26)
Spells (22)
How it works: It’s basically the same deck as Skeleton Blade, but with Phyrexian Crusaders instead of Skeletons. You have Skithiryx to finish, and your Inkmoth Nexuses actually deal “real” damage now.
What it’s good against: Back in Nashville, I should have played this instead of that mopey Tapout deck. I was scared of Red and therefore went the Tapout route, but I didn’t think of Phyrexian Crusader. The Red and Tempered Steel decks I lost to wouldn’t have been nearly as frightening, and I would have done a lot better in that metagame.
What it’s bad against: Honestly, that seems like a good question. Protection from white is almost as good against them as protection from black is against you. Swarms of dudes are always tough to deal with, but Thrun and Dungrove Elder are more manageable when there’s a Crusader or two in play.
The pitfalls: The same as the Skeleton Blade deck, although you can play Virulent Wound or Contagion Clasp to give you some reach.
Tezzeret
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (22)
- 2 Mana Leak
- 2 Contagion Clasp
- 2 Mox Opal
- 3 Nihil Spellbomb
- 4 Sphere of the Suns
- 2 Sword of Feast and Famine
- 2 Black Sun's Zenith
- 2 Ichor Wellspring
- 3 Forbidden Alchemy
Sideboard
How it works: You play some junky artifacts like Tumble Magnet to not die, and hopefully a Tezzeret shows up to win the game.
What it’s good against: A lot of players won’t know what the hell you’re doing. Most of the artifacts are the same dose of mediocrity, so they won’t be able to guess 40 of your 60 cards.
The pitfalls: Ichor Wellspring isn’t the most powerful card I’ve ever seen.
Tezzeret is a fine deck, and incredibly powerful with the right draw, but most of the artifacts suck. On top of that, they get to board in Ancient Grudge to ruin your day. If Torpor Orb were a maindeckable card, Tezzeret would get a lot better. Right now, Orb is a fine, but fringe card, but you need something backbreaking against the tier one archetypes.
Heartless Summoning
Creatures (19)
- 4 Solemn Simulacrum
- 2 Frost Titan
- 1 Wurmcoil Engine
- 1 Massacre Wurm
- 3 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 1 Entomber Exarch
- 2 Rune-Scarred Demon
- 4 Sphinx of Uthuun
- 1 Evil Twin
Lands (26)
Spells (15)
How it works: Stall the game and drop a fattie, or play a Heartless Summoning, start dropping fatties, and make them respond to you.
What it’s good against: This seems much better against decks like Wolf Run Ramp that are trying to go over the top of you. Good luck beating a bunch of huge fliers.
What it’s bad against: Creature swarms will likely overrun you before you have a chance to stabilize. Even if you manage a turn five fattie, they’ll probably kill it, and kill you.
The pitfalls: The above list really leans on Heartless Summoning. I’m sure there’s a way to build it in such a way that Summoning isn’t as important to your goal, but is awesome when you draw it. I’m thinking some sort of Solar Flare/Summoning hybrid.
Solar Flare
Creatures (9)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (23)
How it works: Forbidden Alchemy a fattie into the yard and bring it back with Unburial Rites.
What it’s good against: You have the power to out attrition any other control deck in the format. You play a Titan, they kill it, they play a Titan, you kill it, but then you start bringing back Unburial Rites and chaining Sun Titan/Phantasmal Image. Most decks can beat that once or twice, but Flare has the ability to put a Sun Titan into play every turn.
What it’s bad against: Control deck decks with lots of counterspells are tough. Brian Sondag Wolf Run Ramp deck is tough, as long as it has Thrun and Garruk, Primal Hunter. If you have Garruk Relentless instead, or no Garruks at all, Solar Flare will probably win that late game. Primal Hunter allows WRR to keep up.
Mono Red is a nightmare matchup. If you lose the die roll, you’ll often die before you’ve cast anything meaningful.
The pitfalls: Honestly, it’s not very consistent. If you want to play Liliana to be more consistent, your mana base will suffer as a result. Flare is also very slow and doesn’t interact very well. Its plan is to trump what the opponent is doing, but does so very clumsily.
It looks like U/B is better off following the U/W model and becoming a Blade deck. Playing control just isn’t a viable option right now. Ratchet Bomb and Curse of Death’s Hold are fine cards for fighting G/W Tokens, but I like Bloodline Keeper.
The comparison to Emeria Angel is there, and Bloodline Keeper might actually be better. You get fliers to attack planeswalkers, a steady stream of dudes to trade with theirs, and a fast clock.
This is what I’m looking at:
Creatures (12)
Lands (26)
Spells (22)
The counter and removal suites could certainly change. It’s all about what you expect to face. I know there are a lot of one-drops and Inkmoth Nexuses running around, so I’m really liking Gut Shot.
Planeswalkers and difficult to kill creatures like Mirran Crusader are what I’m scared of, so Despise seems very good. From turn one, the G/W decks are threatening Crusader, so you need a preemptive answer. There’s the risk of drawing one mid-game when you need something that interacts with the board, but I’m okay with that in this deck. I’m not trying to thrive in the late game.
I like Consecrated Sphinx for the six-drop of choice. Typically when I’m casting Sphinx in these Blade decks, it’s because that’s my last ditch effort. If they kill it, I’m probably dead. At least with Sphinx, if they O-Ring it, I got to peel two extras, and I might still be in it. I like the fact that it flies and will basically cement any game if you’ve got anything else going on. Grave Titan and Wurmcoil don’t do that enough for me.Â
This weekend, I’m flying to California for the Grand Prix and the LAST World Championships. I’ll be grinding 8-mans with U/B Blade at the Grand Prix, and if it all works out, that’s what I’ll be playing at Worlds!
GerryT