I’m going to begin this article by apologizing. I had decided to go off the radar a little after a few disappointing events, hence the lack of articles. This lead to me playing a lot more poker until the lead up to Nationals. However, I’ve just arrived home from Australian Nationals, and I think I have a lot to share.
My lead up for Nationals made me believe that the field would consist of Kithkin, Elves, Fairies, Five-Color Blood, and Five-Color Control, and very little else (and in this order of popularity). As Chaplin said, Red is like drinking rancid milk.
Of the Tier 1 decks, the one which stood out and impressed me was Elves. It plays a lot like Extended Elves, and is quite hard to stop if played correctly and around board sweepers. Fortunately, many different control decks were tested in my home. As I live in the center of Sydney, my apartment has become the hotspot for testing. During the two weeks leading to Nationals, we had 6-10 people most nights. I had to learn to play the deck very defensively, to never allow your opponent to blow you out, if able to do so, as it becomes much harder to lose.
There were 2 cards I tested separately in the Elf deck which I think are both interesting:
Door of Destinies (as a three-of over 1 Primal Command and 2 Regal Force), and…
Skullmulcher (as a two-of)
Door of Destinies was used to allow the deck to play more aggressively, as it is very hard for Faeries to counter this spell, and it takes most mass removal in the format offline. It is also very useful against Kithkin. Once you have Door in play, your opponent requires flying creatures to win. However, this deck list is tight, and it forced us to take out some combo pieces (essentially it changed the Elf deck to a bad beatdown deck). Before anyone asks, no, you cannot play Coat of Arms as it makes your opponent’s tribal decks better. As for Skullmulcher… Play two copies of this card in your elf deck and you can go infinite: use Chaplin’s list and remove 1 Cloudthresher and 1 Regal Force (also take out the two Windbrisk Heights for 1 Mosswort Bridge and 1 Forest) to make space for these cards.
Why would you want to go infinite as opposed to casting Primal Command five times and playing your whole deck?
Infinite means you win the mirror game 1. It also means if you have a long card advantage game against Control, where they get to 10 land, and they can’t untap and Hallowed Burial you because you could only Primal Command five of their lands to the top of their deck (believe me, this can and does happen). Skullmulcher is a bad Regal Force in function, but it is usually fine in the deck and plays just like Regal Force. I have not had many issues with it being clunky.
That’s enough about Elves… I rant sometimes.
So, I haven’t talked about the deck I played yet. ‘Manipulation.’ This name is not just due to the card (Soul Manipulation), but also due to the ways in which you exploit your opponent with this deck. The deck was built by my close friend Rhys Gould, and was closely worked on by myself and our testing group. Above all the other control decks, this deck made me most aware of the fragility of Elves, while having a good matchup against Kithkin and a great transformational sideboard.
Creatures (21)
Lands (25)
Spells (14)
Sideboard
The current problem Control decks have, at least pre-U.S. Nationals, is a lack of good card advantage. To be fair, Mulldrifter is just an Inspiration if it can’t be recycled, and the five-mana draw-three-card rares are just bad Tidings… and Tidings itself is certainly not a premium draw spell. When this deck was built, card advantage was our first consideration.
Soul Manipulation is a card that has been begging for a home. It creates card advantage and counters most of the format, while making Mulldrifter a good Inspiration (Makeshift Mannequin helps with this also), but for this card to be truly abused it needs more creatures. In the creature-heavy environment, Shriekmaw and Sower of Temptation receive immediate ticks, and the other creatures found their own way into the deck based upon the metagame. Our thoughts were Kithkin would be the most popular deck, followed by Elves and Faeries, and thus our deck list reflects this.
The cards that don’t really gain card advantage are Baneslayer Angel and Stillmoon Cavalier. At first we wanted to try Baneslayer Angel in the same functional slot as Reveillark. Lark never made the deck because the Baneslayer is awesome. Up against a number of decks, you can slap your Angel down and he is a must-handle four-turn clock (he beats Chameleon Colossus and Great Sable Stag very badly, while even giving you a way to beat cards like Anathemancer. His only drawback is running into Cloudthresher). I think a partial reason why we liked Baneslayer so much was because our opponents were forced to use their removal on our Sowers and other little critters, which gave him free reign to steal games. Lifelink with First Strike attached, and the Kitchen Finks effect, are really relevant for this deck as Red decks, White Weenie, Five-Color Blood, and Faeries all look to push though damage. Stillmoon Cavalier is a trump card for Faeries, Kithkin, and Five-Color Blood, all of which have either very few ways to deal with him or are just cold (he can become a very good Makeshift Mannequin target against Five-Color Blood, once they’ve used up their Lightning Bolt).
The removal package is sweet… Shiekmaw, Sower of Temptation, Infest, and Planar Cleansing. I would like to say I personally found Shiekmaw to be particularly amazing in the current format (games against Elves and Kithkin, where you evoke this guy and Soul Manipulation him back a turn later, are very difficult to lose). Sower is good times in any creature matchup, and can really stuff your opponent up in combat due to Mannequin. Infest can blow both Kithkin and Elves out of the water (it was a great maindeck card because it was so unexpected). Sometimes against Kithkin, after a Planar Cleansing, Infest comes back online and is more like Damnation. Cleansing was very good, as it deals with Honor of the Pure, large Elf boards that didn’t fully combo, Planewalkers, Bitterblossoms, etc. It also kills our creatures and puts them in the bin for Mannequin, which Hallowed Burial does not do. Cleansing does have a hard mana cost, being 6 mana and 3 White… I’m not 100% sure if I’d play it again, as it seems often to be unnecessary. Cryptic Command actually is the filler card in the deck, and it also may not be necessary. In fact, the manabase could improve a lot without the stress of triple Blue and triple White, which would mean Anathemancer would not be so problematic. What it would also do is allow for Duress and Thoughtseize to be cast more often on turn 1. I would probably replace the Cleansings and Cryptics with a third Infest and three Thoughtseizes (to adjust for an Elves/Faeries meta). Of course, your mileage may vary, especially since the Control-heavy U.S. Nationals Top 8.
I’m going to run through the matchups and how to sideboard (however, I think the deck should be tuned differently for other events, as Elves was the top dog in my testing, which brings Faeries right back up the top… until U.S. Nationals kicked the metagame in the teeth).
Elves
-4 Kitchen Finks, -3 Stillmoon Cavalier
+ 1 Baneslayer Angel, + 2 Infest, + 4 Thoughtseize
The main deck elf matchup is not favorable, as too many of your cards are working on setting the little White men a mile behind. However, a well timed Infest, or a barrage of Sowers and/or Shriekmaws can be all she wrote. The game feels a little bit like your Soul Manipulation versus their Primal Command game 1 (Primal Command is by far their best card, and Ranger of Eos comes in second place). Most elf players decided not to bring Great Sable Stag in against us. They pretty much just bring in Cloudthresher to deal with your Sowers and hopefully eat an Angel. As we side out Finks, Stag improves in these games, but Angel can usually catch that life back.
After sideboarding, this matchup gets pretty bad for the elf player. They simply have nowhere to hide. If they don’t try to extend they get eaten by Shriekmaws, Sowers, and your card advantage engines. If they try to extend they have to be really concerned about Infest or Cleansing crushing them. An evoked Shriekmaw and Sower taking an Archdruid can be enough sometimes, you also have Thoughtseize, which means you don’t get Primal Commanded nearly as often. By now, if you are an elf deck, you should know that your little men are fragile and your combo requires many factors. Also, due to lack of consistency, you regularly have to keep pretty bad hands that could get crushed by a single Thoughtseize.
For the record, I lost this matchup to Jeremy Neeman (at Australian Nationals) in 5 games after winning game 1. I did however mulligan six times in five games (I should have mulliganed seven times), and drew 1 Shiekmaw and 2 Infests in the entire five games. I also never evoked a Mulldrifter. Magic can be a cruel mistress.
Faeries
-2 Infest, -4 Kitchen Finks, -2 Planar Cleansing
+2 Duress, + 4 Thoughtseize, + 1 Vendilion Clique, + 1 Stillmoon Cavalier
Fairies is tough game 1. You have the tools to beat them, but running Cryptics or Mistbind Cliques combined with an early Bitterblossom can overwhelm you. In this matchup you should look to get Stillmoon down and fighting. If your opponent does not drop turn 2 Bitterblossom and you resolve this guy on the table, you are in the driver’s seat. Right now, Faeries are playing some bad cards like Peppersmoke (which is necessary for them to beat Elves) that just don’t affect you. Also they have no real card advantage, and are more dependant than you on drawing well. Be aware that you are ahead in the Sower wars with a full playset, and try to use this to your advantage (I have heard stealing Scion is good times).
After you board, you have a really tight deck against them. Remove Bitterblossom from the equation and then outcard them.
Kithkin
-2 Cryptic Command, -1 Mulldrifter -1 Makeshift Mannequin
+1 Infest, +1 Stillmoon Cavalier, +2 Baneslayer Angel
This matchup is just nasty for your opponent, your whole deck is good against theirs and they are likely to only have Stillmoon in the sideboard against you… It’s like you start the matchup as a post sideboarded control deck! Evoke Shiekmaws, draw some cards, wipe their board and then ride Stillmooon and Angels to victory.
Five-Color Blood
-2 Infest, -4 Shiekmaw, -1 Cryptic Command
+2 Baneslayer Angel, +1 Stillmoon Cavalier, +4 Thoughtseize
Depending upon their list, this matchup could be anywhere between good and horrible for you. Anathemancer and Putrid Leech are the two cards that stand out in my mind as being really difficult for this deck to beat. Anathemancer at the moment is just in some sideboards, because against Elves and Kithkin he is just terrible. If this guy is main, as it may be after U.S. Nationals, you’re in a spot of trouble. I think that, of all the top decks, I am most concerned about this matchup. They seem fast and efficient while being erratic and unpredictable.
Your main plan in this matchup is to force them to waste removal on your dudes, and then drop an Angel and try and ride him all the way. From the sideboard you get more angels and Thoughtsiezes to disrupt them but I don’t think this strategy is optimal.
Five-Color Control
-2 Infest, -4 Kitchen Finks, -2 Shiekmaw, -2 Sower of Temptation
+ 2 Duress, +4 Thoughtseize, +2 Scepter of Fugue, +1 Vendilion Clique, +1 Stillmoon Cavalier
This matchup is the worst. Perfect timing after the U.S. Nationals Top 8, but what can you do? It is anywhere from difficult to unwinnable game 1, as your cards are just not good against them whilst most of theirs are fine against you. Make sure you play game 1 quickly and be prepared to scoop it up as soon as it seems unwinnable (probably when they cast a Cruel Ultimatum). Remember, it will take you a long time to win a control mirror. The deck’s design certainly leaves it flawed to some strategies, so when you feel this way, be prepared to play with your enhanced deck in games 2 and 3.
After boarding, you have a lot of tools and no bad cards. Play like any other control mirror… if you can resolve Scepter, you keep them in very bad shape all game.
Red decks
-2 Infest, -4 Sower of Temptation
+2 Duress, + 2 Baneslayer Angel, +1 Ajani Vengeant, +1 Stillmoon Cavalier
They are in front again game 1 (damn…). But slam Angel and get there. You have Finks as well, and he has many lives (maybe only one if they have Boggart Ram-Gang). After siding, you improve a lot (don’t forget Ball Lighting does not do much to a first striking Stillmoon Cavalier). When I was testing Kithkin, I found Ajani to be ridiculous against the Red decks, and usually resulted in them running out of fuel or me gaining a whole lot of life, so it ended up being the 15th card in the sideboard to shore me up in this matchup. If your opponent is Red/Black, your sideboard plan will change a fair bit because they have Goblin Outlander. Perhaps it’s best to keep a few Infests in here.
Some final thoughts…
All these matchups that I have described are presuming that your opponent knows your deck, which is something most of our opponents did not know. Usually, I have found this can make a big enough difference that I win games in which I know I am behind. I also prefer to look at things pessimistically when testing a new deck.
This is a deck that still needs refining. It’s like Five-Color Control: the list that wins this week is probably going to be different from the list that wins next week. However, I think it is a good choice if it is prepped for the right environment, and it’s lots of fun manipulating your opponents. While the Five-Color Control isn’t great, there are many other decks out there, and this one can prey on those that have set their sights on the new elephant in the room.
I certainly hope someone crushes a Nationals event with this year’s Aussie tech. Good luck!
Aaron