One Step Ahead - History of U/R and Strobe Red

I blame Jace Beleren.

Ever since that planeswalker was released, I’ve had a sordid history with U/R Control decks. It just so happens that U/R is a good color combination to be in when the decks to beat include control decks, big spell decks, and weenie decks.

First, let’s take a look at previous U/R decks that I’ve played.

U/R Swans

Yuuya Watanabe’s baby that debuted at Pro Tour Kyoto. More accurately, Yuuya debuted his creation at local Japanese tournaments, and thankfully, some internet ninjas found the list and shared it with everyone. Despite being a brand new archetype, I knew exactly what to expect when I played Yuuya round 4 of that Pro Tour, and was able to defeat him because of it.

As a brief aside, that seems like a problem that the Japanese have had lately. Even recently, the Pyromancer Ascension deck they brewed for Pro Tour Amsterdam was a known quantity thanks to KYT of ManaDeprived.com.

Had I attended that Pro Tour, I would’ve known that they had Tarmogoyfs maindeck, no real way to combo, and more creatures in the sideboard to dodge graveyard hate. You can’t afford everyone else to have that type of knowledge at a Pro Tour if one of the main advantages of your deck is the surprise value.

I’d advise the Japanese to hold things a little tighter to their chest in the future, just like the good old days. It used to be that one would show up to a Pro Tour, and people like Adam Yurchick would be clamoring on about how Kenji just bought Angel of Despair and Invoke the Firemind from the dealers at the last GP. Then, he and his barns would go about brewing some absurd deck attempting to use the two.

The same thing happened when the Japanese bought up a slew of Allies, including Jwari Shapeshifter before Pro Tour San Juan. Yurchick could be seen running around Puerto Rico asking every pro player in sight if they’d seen the new Japanese Ally deck.

Most likely, the Japanese were buying those cards because they were cheaper in America than in Japan, or just because they like English cards. I highly doubt it was some great act of misdirection, but either way, it’s always fun watching the chaos it creates.

These days, Yurchick could walk up to someone and excitedly ask, “Have you seen the new Japanese Ascension deck?” That person would then answer, “Yes,” and they would stand there awkwardly for about thirty seconds before walking away.

*end aside*

The great allure of Yuuya’s Swans deck was that it played plenty of sweepers and counterspells. W/B Tokens, Faeries, and 5-Color-Control were the best decks, and Swans was good against all of them. There were some decks out there, like Doran, whose big booty friends could shrug off all the Volcanic Fallouts in the universe. That, combined with their Birds of Paradise, allowed them to play their threats before I could have counter mana open. It just wasn’t fair.

If one were able to dodge those matchups in the early rounds of the tournament, it would often be smooth sailing. It’s the type of risk I like taking. Patrick Chapin taught me that in order to win tournaments, you have to take risks. I was no longer content with playing Rock or Ramp decks and finishing in the Top 32 of every tournament. Winning one tournament a year pays far better than a bunch of mediocre finishes.

Sure, you often need to play two-drop, three-drop, into sweeper against aggressive decks, and find ways to not draw your removal against control decks. Such is the risk of playing a control deck, but at Grand Prix Denver, I did just that and walked away with the trophy.

Now I’m kind of addicted to it. Is their first land drop going to be Secluded Glen, Vivid Creek, Plains, or Forest? Secluded Glen, alright, time to keep it tight. Plains or Vivid Creek? Good luck to my opponent, because you’re going to need it. Forest? Aww, hell, time for
me
to get lucky.

This is the last Swans list I was playing:

3 Swans of Bryn Argoll
3 Plumeveil
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
4 Pyroclasm
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Remove Soul
2 Negate
2 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
2 Seismic Assault
2 Tidings
4 Jace Beleren

4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Cascade Bluffs
4 Shivan Reef
2 Mutavault
1 Ghitu Encampment
8 Island

Sideboard
3 Curse of Chains
3 Pithing Needle
2 Swerve
2 Negate
1 Tidings
1 Plumeveil
1 Volcanic Fallout
2 Banefire

Notice the plethora of varied counterspells with more in the sideboard. The sideboard also contains answers to big guys (Curse of Chains) and answers to planeswalkers (Pithing Needle). Look familiar?

The turning point was when I realized just how powerful Jace was on turn 3. If I used the +2 ability right away, they would typically be unable to attack it for enough to kill it. Once I untapped, I’d be able to use my counterspells and removal to protect Jace. With my own personal Howling Mine, most games were easy to win.

At times, I’d use Jace to Mikokoro on consecutive turns against aggro, and not mind at all. They were left with two poor options: attack Jace or attack me. If they attack Jace, I’ll just Mikokoro again and continue to protect Jace. If they attack me, my Jace has free reign. They’re typically screwed either way.

I played Faeries in a couple block PTQs and did well, but I can’t imagine how easy those tournaments would’ve been if I had four Jaces maindeck. Instead, I was scraping the bottom of the barrel with garbage like Fathom Trawl (which was actually fine, but certainly no Jace).

A few months later, I invented my own build of U/R featuring Demigod of Revenge. That’s right; I created it, not
anyone
else.

U/R/b Demigods

4 Demigod of Revenge
3 Plumeveil
2 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
4 Broken Ambitions
2 Remove Soul
2 Negate
4 Cryptic Command
4 Jace Beleren
2 Sift
1 Terror
1 Banefire
1 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Volcanic Fallout

4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Cascade Bluffs
4 Sunken Ruins
3 Vivid Creek
3 Island
3 Mountain
1 Swamp

Sideboard
3 Pithing Needle
3 Terror
3 Infest
2 Guttural Response
2 Negate
1 Banefire
1 Plumeveil

My Swans were getting Terrored out of W/B Tokens, and my Seismic Assaults were getting Pithing Needled. I was sick of it, and moved on. Demigod provided a nigh-unkillable win condition, and allowed me to switch gears from control to aggro in one turn.

Correctly piloting either of these U/R decks hinges on your ability to know when you should go on the offensive. Sometimes, in a tricky situation, it’s correct to throw card advantage out the window and go balls out aggro. The same was true for the Swans deck.

Do I need to show you a Pyromancer Ascension decklist? By now, similar traits should be emerging. I’ve been picking on control decks and big mana decks for years now employing the same strategies.

U/R Frost Titan

After Jason Ford made Top 4 of a 5k with my U/R Destructive Force deck, I spent a little more time attempting to develop the idea. At first, I assumed that aggro would be all over the place, but apparently everyone likes their U/W Control decks and Primeval Titan decks more than I expected.

Pyromancer Ascension would be the obvious foil, but there doesn’t seem to be a good win condition. Mike Flores created an interesting list with Archive Traps as the kill. I played the list on Magic Online some, and didn’t like the fact that if my opponent chose to not search, killing them was nearly impossible. Mike had Ravenous Traps to combat Eldrazi, but I can’t even imagine the situations that could arise if you don’t have a Trapmaker’s Snare to find all the necessary traps.

In my last article, I described my search for a Mass Polymorph list, but that didn’t pan out either. I decided to revamp my U/R list to be in the same vein as the Demigod deck from years ago. Counterspell, Counterspell, sweeper, fatty was the plan.

This is what Jason Ford used to Top 8 MN States:

U/R Control

Jason Ford

Test deck on 10-17-2010

Standard

Creatures (4)

4 Frost Titan

Planeswalkers (7)

Lands (25)

Spells (24)

Sideboard

His matchups were:

2-0 vs. U/W Control
2-1 vs. R/G Valakut
2-0 vs. U/W Control
2-1 vs. WW Metalcraft/Quest
2-1 vs. Wescoe Elves
2-1 vs. U/W Control
ID
ID
0-2 vs. R/G Valakut

Despite the lack of Pyroclasms, Jason was able to win both game 1s against the aggro decks. The U/W matchups were mostly cakewalks. I saw the first Valakut matchup. Jason Tec Edged his opponent’s first two Valakuts, and played draw-go for quite a few turns. His opponent peeled Oracle of Mul Daya, which Jason allowed to resolve because he was holding otherwise dead burn spells. Naturally, his opponent had both Valakuts waiting on the top of his deck.

Naturally, that was quite the dagger, but Jason still almost ran his opponent out of Mountains. He had control of the game with a Deprive in hand after dealing with all of his opponent’s threats, but couldn’t do anything about a lethal Evolving Wilds off the top. It was the case Mountain, and he was facing down two Frost Titans, so it was kind of lucky, but he had a few live draws.

Jason said he probably could’ve won that game. He ran out a Frost Titan on turn 6 only to see it fall victim to Cultivate plus Valakut. If he waited a turn to Edge the Valakut, that Titan would’ve lived, and the game would have been over in three turns.

The inclusion of Into the Roils was somewhat of a mystery to Jason, but I’ve enjoyed having a couple in every control deck that I’ve played since Zendikar was released. Roil isn’t particularly powerful or worthy of playing in high numbers, but it has good value. Plenty of decks have hard-to-deal-with permanents like Tempered Steel, Argentum Armor, Koth of the Hammer, Volition Reins, Titans, or Eldrazi. Sometimes those slip through the cracks, and you need a way to deal with them once they are in play.

Jason was skeptical at first, and honestly, still skeptical even after the tournament. I watched him put it to good use against the WW Quest deck, U/W, Khalni Heart Expedition, and Leatherback Baloth. I think that once you cut Roils from the deck, you start realizing how much you miss them. While you’re playing with them, and have them in your hand, they don’t seem all that great.

After all, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

The reason decks like these are better as combo/control or Tap-Out Control strategies à la Mike Flores is because you can’t gain full control anymore. There are lands, planeswalkers, and even creatures that give their controllers immense value if they’re active for a single turn.

Most of these are difficult to answer as well. You can’t just jam your deck with answers anymore, as the answers are too narrow. Eventually, your opponent will present a threat that you don’t have the right answer for, and that will be game. Typically, you take control for the first couple of turns, but then there’s a small window for you to slam that door closed. If that window passes, you’re probably too far behind to catch up.

Frost Titan or a growing Mind Sculptor can accomplish this, but Jason really missed having Destructive Force. One in your starting 60 means that you’re almost always drawing live against creature decks. Sometimes you’ll fall behind and have a few turns to play card-drawing spells before they actually kill you, and this way, you have an out to a creature swarm.

A single Destructive Force is something I could get behind, but I’m not going to go buck wild and start adding more big cards like Volition Reins. Drawing two Frost Titans is bad enough sometimes. I don’t want to get out of control.

As always, I’m looking for ways to improve my decks. Nothing is ever perfect. Josh Rayden ran the full amount of Calcite Snappers in his U/W Control deck, which I saw him put to good use. While not something I’d necessarily agree with, it worked out for him. After States, both Jason Ford and Mike Hofmann suggested it as well. The idea intrigued me.

Snapper would point the deck in a different direction, and one that I necessarily didn’t want to make. The way I see it, I already get aggressive with a 1UU threat, only mine is a planeswalker. While not directly killing my opponents, every single one of them should view Jace as a threat.

In order for Jace to be good, I need to constantly draw into a stream of either removal or counterspells, depending on the matchup, in order to protect Jace. The goal of Snapper is to be mindlessly aggressive in some matchups, but I like to have some control over how I play the game. As I said earlier, success comes from knowing when to change roles, but the Snapper dictates that you take one role.

Other than that, I know Deprive is probably the weakest link in the deck. Essence Scatter, where are you when we need you most? Some have said that Deprive should just be another Cancel variant, and that’s entirely possible, but maybe it could be a Flashfreeze as well.

Rather than recommend drastic changes, this is what I would run right now:

U/R Control

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 10-17-2010

Standard

Creatures (4)

4 Frost Titan

Planeswalkers (7)

Lands (25)

Spells (24)

Sideboard

The single Pyroclasm maindeck is there for mostly the same reason as the Destructive Force: I always want to be drawing live. Most of the time, Clasm won’t be that much worse than Burst Lightning, even if you’re killing only a single creature.

As a bonus, I’d like to briefly discuss the list that I would’ve played at States. I didn’t mention it before, as I wanted to give Andrew Lipkin a chance to win. This list gets a little worse if people know what to expect.

Mono-Red Assault Strobe

Gerry Thompson

Test deck on 10-17-2010

Standard

Creatures (12)

Lands (24)

Spells (24)

Sideboard

For once, we have a red deck that isn’t dependent on playing Goblin Guide on turn 1! Any unprepared opponent is likely to think that they’re safe hiding between their plant token and Overgrown Battlement, only to see that your Kiln Fiend is killing them out of nowhere.

Mark of Mutiny on a Primeval Titan (fetching up two Teetering Peaks) will likely be game over at any point. Once you start factoring in Assault Strobe, it gets ridiculous. The Ramp decks are great matchups.

U/W Control is the issue, but again, if they underestimate you, they’ll probably lose. The sideboard is tuned to beat U/W, but it’s still an uphill battle. We tried Masticore, but found that it wasn’t the correct way to fight Kor Firewalker. Not only should most U/W lists not have Firewalkers at all, but Masticore just eats up too many precious resources.

From what I heard, the Strobe deck
won in New Hampshire
and made Top 8 in Massachusetts, but my buddies didn’t fare as well in Minnesota.

Still, if aggro is your thing, perhaps you should consider it for the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Nashville this weekend. If not, I’d definitely sleeve up my updated U/R list if I were going.

Good luck!

GerryT

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