Before I decided to play Faeries in Kyoto, I was set on playing Five-Color Control. I played it a lot, and I was pretty happy with my matchup against everything except for Faeries. It’s radically different from Nassif’s list — for one, it has a good matchup against that version. After Kyoto I’ve adapted some technologies, though mostly in the sideboard since the maindeck remains almost the same, and this is the list I’ve been playing when I don’t feel like playing Faeries:
Creatures (6)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (26)
Spells (25)
This sideboard is just a reference for when I talk about sideboarding — there are plenty of different cards you can play depending on your metagame.
I still think Faeries is a better deck, but a lot of people don’t like Faeries, and I’ve been asked more than once what I’d play for a non-Faeries Cryptic Command deck… this is the answer. This list was played by my friend Paulo Cortez in Kyoto, as well as by Marcio Carvalho, the only difference being -1 Fallout +1 Plumeveil, and they both went 6-2 in the Standard portion – I recommend you give it a try if you like this style of deck.
Some of the differences from Nassif’s list:
First, I’m not playing Walls. This is bad against Red decks, but I believe it’s better against everything else. Not running Walls means you can run Wrath of God, which is good versus most other archetypes, and especially good versus Bant/Doran decks, or decks with Forge-Tender. Plumeveil is not as good as it used to be, now that they know you have many.
I also have much more mass removal than his deck, courtesy of not playing many creatures myself. I believe that the mass removal suite is up for debate — before Kyoto, we were playing 3 Wraths and 2 Fallouts, and I’ve played 2 Wraths and 3 Fallouts before, but I believe right now that three of each is correct. The important thing is that I believe you need at least five of them, and at least two of each — the rest depends on what matchups you expect.
The two Cloudthreshers were in the first version, and they never really left the deck. I started with both Cloudthreshers and Broodmate Dragons, and in the end I cut one Broodmate, then both, and the Cloudthreshers stayed. I think it’s important to have many answers to Faeries and to Spectral Procession, and Cloudthresher is a fine answer. Of course, it’s strictly worse than Fallout in that aspect, but it also doubles as a kill condition, which I need since I don’t play Broodmates.
I’ve never really been a fan of Broodmates, to be honest — sure, they are good, but I don’t think they are needed. In a deck that is more of a tap-out kind of deck, like Nassif’s, they seem better because you stall the board with Walls and then kill them, but once you have access to Wrath it doesn’t look that essential anymore. I believe I’d play a third Ultimatum before I played a Broodmate. Cloudthresher is also better in the mirror. I am of the same mind as Gerry Thompson, in that I like my kill conditions to be more than just kill conditions, and though I believe Ultimatum is too important not to play and an exception to the rule, I don’t think the same of Broodmate. This brings me to my other “kill condition,” Ajani Vengeant.
I believe playing 3 Ajani Vengeant is the reason this build is good. When Ajani was released I didn’t think he was very good, but after extensive playing I came to appreciate him a lot. It’s a key card in the mirror — so much that if they don’t draw Pithing Needle the matchup becomes very lopsided. It is something that demands an answer — it sits in play and you don’t have to do anything for the rest of the game until they do. Against Aggro decks, it’s also very good, gaining life or acting as the Icy Manipulator in the Icy-Wrath combo. The fact that it does all that – being versatile and good against almost everything and also doubling as a kill condition of sorts – makes me believe it’s the correct decision to play him in a Five-Color Control build. For a moment I even considered four, and I wouldn’t blame you if you chose to play the full amount.
There is also the very important factor of killing their Ajanis. Since it’s so good against you, it’s nice to have more answers to it in your deck.
Remove Soul is another difference, and in my opinion it comes down to either Remove Soul or Negate, but you must play one of them maindeck. We came upon Remove Soul when we started losing some games to RW decks that had Fulminator Mage. Remove Soul proved invaluable in the matchup, enabling Wrath/Counter turns, which were the key plays. Since then it proved to be good against pretty much everything, including the Mirror (though in some matchups Negate is obviously better), and I can definitely recommend them. Negate is better against the Mirror and Faeries, and post sideboard it’s better against B/W too (though pre-board you don’t care as much about their non-creature threats as you do post-board), and Remove Soul is much better against RW, Lark, Doran, etc — overall I like Remove Soul better.
Three Terrors are a necessary evil. Basically, Terror aims to kill three cards — Figure of Destiny, Mistbind Clique, and Treetop Village. It’s bad against B/W and bad against the mirror, but that can’t be helped. It’s possible that one Celestial Purge is a good addition to the deck, but I see nothing to take out, and I think the third Terror is better than the first Purge so I prefer leaving them in the sideboard.
Playing Five-Color Control can be sometimes very frustrating. You don’t draw enough lands, you draw too many lands, you draw lands but they are of the wrong color, you draw all counters when they are killing you with guys already in play, or you draw all removal when they are killing you with spells — this is one of the reasons I didn’t play it in Kyoto. If you play it, you will have to keep in mind that you’ll lose a lot of games to yourself. That is balanced by the fact that you have theoretical good matchups against everything except for Faeries, but you could lose to anything easily if your mana doesn’t cooperate. It’s true that Cloudthresher poses some mana problems — it basically conflicts with Esper Charm, which is a price I’m willing to pay. I don’t remember the last time I had 7 lands and no mana to cast Ultimatum, though — for that to happen, you need to have three of Island/Bluffs/Gate and no other Filters, or Orchard against a GW deck without the filters – so if Ultimatum is your concern, you can play Cloudthresher just as well.
One thing I’ve learned is that managing your lands in real life is a lot worse than online. Online, my lands with counters are the same size as my lands without counters. I can move them quickly and without worry — in real life, there are all those counters messing up my movements. Maybe it’s a problem that only I have because I’m not used to it, but I end up just tapping the first lands I find that produce the colors I need because of that, and it sometimes harms me. Sometimes I tap a Cascade Bluff because it’s right in front of me, and then I have to remove a counter from a Vivid, and then ten turns later when I want to play Cloudthresher + Command end-of-turn and then Ultimatum + Command, I’m lacking a color, etc. If you play Five-Color Control you should pay a lot of attention to your lands, and I recommend playing a lot with the deck — no matter against what — even if just to figure out what you can or can’t do with specific lands. During Worlds, when playing against Antoine Ruel in the swiss, he removed a counter from his Vivid Marsh to play Plumeveil when he had Sunken Ruins, Marsh and Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]. In the quarters, Jamie removed a counter from Vivid Grove to play Guttural Response; those are experienced players, and if they can mess up their lands that easily, then so can you.
It’s also relevant that the lands you keep untapped will usually signal something. For example, if you have a White and a Black Vivid, and you tap the White leaving only the Black untapped, you likely don’t have Condemn — but you could have, as you can still cast Condemn off Vivid Marsh. If you tap Cascade Bluffs and leave two Vivid Creeks and an Island untapped, you likely don’t have Fallout, but again, you could have. You have to keep in mind that the lands you tap will sometimes make them think you are sitting on something or not, and it might be interesting to tap (or not) those lands with a goal in mind, and not by chance. If you don’t care about the counters, you can potentially sacrifice some of them to mislead your opponents. Of course, it’s not always going to be relevant, but if it doesn’t cost you anything then there is no reason not to do it. It’s basically “leave UU open even if you don’t have Counterspell,” but on a different scale.
Against Faeries, you are not favored. It’s not as bad as it used to be, because of Volcanic Fallout, but it’s still your worst matchup.
Against Faeries, your plan is to outland them, and to play more bombastic spells than they can deal with. For that, you need to draw cards — make sure you don’t expose your card drawing to easy countering. You don’t care much about what they do, so you don’t have to worry about tapping your mana in your turn or in their upkeep. Take this scenario, for example: they are on the play, they have Mutavault and two Islands. It’s interesting to play Esper Charm on their upkeep in here — if you let them draw, they might play another Mutavault and then Spellstutter the Esper Charm (which would most likely be the correct play for them). I still wouldn’t go as far as playing Charm to draw two when they have Blossom, though… unless my hand is a very specific amount of Volcanic Fallouts and Cloudthreshers that I think I can just race them, I’ll kill the Blossom.
The matches you win usually play out like this — you play lands, draw spells, they play some creatures, you counter/kill Mistbind Clique, and then you play Volcanic Fallout and reset the game, except you have more lands and cards but less life. At some point, you’ll have enough lands and cards that you will be able to resolve an important spell and win. You aren’t in a hurry — the longer the game takes, the better for you. The matches you lose are usually blowouts — they play creatures and counter your reaction, rebuilding or killing you with Vaults if you have Fallout.
Good sideboard cards against them are extra copies of Fallout and Cloudthresher, Scepter of Fugue, Pithing Needle, and Wydwen, the Biting Gale. I hadn’t thought of Wydwen here, but it’s awesome against Faeries, being pretty much unkillable unless they leave Agony Warp (in which case I’ll take my chances in the matchup even if they kill my Wydwen). It survives Fallout and Cloudthresher, and it hits hard and through almost anything. Negate is also good against them.
There isn’t much you can remove, though. Wrath of God is bad, so you can remove all three, and Ajani is not bad but the next worst card, so you can remove another three. That’s only six cards; I’m against cutting the Remove Souls against them, since they’ll most likely have Vendilion Clique and it’s the best answer against those, but I can see it being done. Until sometime ago I was taking out those six four-mana cards for two Wydwen, two Negate, and two more mass removal spells, but I learned that Scepter is good against them as well, so you have to take out something else if you play all those cards and want them all in. Right now I’ll keep the Scepters out, and if they prove to be as good as I was told, I’ll have to figure out a new sideboard plan for this matchup, because it makes no sense to have this many cards when I’m taking out cards that are good against them.
The mirror is basically the reason to play this version. The only card that worries you and that you don’t play is Pithing Needle, and if they play it maindeck it’s usually only one, so you should be pretty favored in game one. In this matchup, you are more of the control deck. You have more powerful cards, more counterspells, and your threats can be played at the end of their turn. Most builds don’t have a lot of answers to Cloudthresher, so it’s a reasonable card to provoke a fight at the end of their turn. From them, all you have to fear is Cruel Ultimatum, which they also have to fear from you, except they must counter your Ajanis and there is nothing from them you must counter other than the Ultimatum itself.
From this logic, it might seem better that you should just not counter anything and save your counters for the Ultimatum, like the old Psychatog fights, but I’ve learned that countering the card drawing is good early on. The deck needs a ton of lands to operate, and when you Cryptic Command an Esper Charm turn 4 it’s a three-card swing. You’ll end up drawing other counterspells by the time you have to fight over their Ultimatum, especially if you just denied them two cards that would bring them closer to the card, the mana to cast it, or the counter to force it through. If you don’t Broken Ambitions their Mulldrifter turn 3, you’ll probably not be able to use it to defend your own Ultimatum later, because they’ll have more lands — it’s not like you are playing Counterspell, so you have to use them while you can.
In the sideboard, Ajani trumps everything that is not Pithing Needle. It trumps Jace, trumps Scepter, trumps Shusher, but Pithing Needle trumps all the Ajanis. While looking for answers to Needle, I found what I think is almost the perfect card — Oblivion Ring. It deals with Needle but it also deals with Scepter and their own Planeswalkers. It’s a downside that they can Esper Charm it, but I don’t think I’m ready to play Shatter just because of Needle and Scepter yet; I’d rather have the versatility of O-Ring. It’s also good against any slower Planeswalker deck, as well as Doran, Bant, and Swans. Keep in mind that if you get a Planeswalker and they play another, you can always Cryptic your O-Ring, or even Esper Charm it, to kill both.
Wydwen is a good card, but if they have as much as a single Wall, it’s terrible — you don’t want to have to fight over cards that wouldn’t ordinarily matter. If you see no Walls game 2, I’d board in the Wydwens — or board them in and then take them out if I see Walls, which frankly they have no reason to keep in. Some people like Banefire in the mirror, so they leave in Wall of Reverence, but that doesn’t make much sense to me — since everybody has Scepters, the Banefire plan seems a lot worse because you can’t just sit on it until you find fifteen lands.
There are plenty of cards to take out — Wrath, Fallout, Terror, Cloudthresher, depending on what you have in your sideboard. If you take out Cloudthreshers, it must be for Wydwen — Wydwen is better if they don’t have Walls, and Thresher better if they keep them in. I’d board out 2 Threshers, 3 Fallouts, 3 Terrors, and 1 Wrath for 3 Scepter, 2 Negate, 2 Oblivion Ring, and 2 Wydwen. If you don’t see Broodmates game 2, or if you know they’ll take them out, you can take out all the Wraths.
Against B/W you usually just counter what you can game 1. There isn’t much secret in this matchup. Fallout and Wrath are huge here, and with those, Cloudthresher, Cryptic Command, Ajani and Cruel Ultimatum you can race Blossom since, unlike Faeries, they can’t stop any of those from happening most of the time. Still, I’ll always counter/kill Blossom here if I can, since, much like Faeries, a lot of their cards get better when they have it in play. It’s about an even matchup.
After sideboard, you have to be mindful of Head Games. They’ll have more Planeswalkers, but you’ll have more answers to them. Scourglass is a concession to this matchup alone — I also hadn’t thought about it until I saw it in Manuel’s sideboard. It’s a very powerful card against them, getting rid of the problematic Planeswalkers and Enchantments, and I believe it’s better than Austere Command. Both reset the board on turn 6, but Scourglass gets rid of Elspeth too and you don’t have to choose between killing the Anthem, the tokens, or the Cloudgoat. It’s also relevant that you get to have your lands untapped after you reset the board, and thus can answer their follow up.
Side in 1 Cloudthresher, 1 Fallout, 2 Scourglass, and 2 Negate for 3 Terror, 3 Ajani; if you have something else instead of the Scourglasses, you can bring in the Rings over them, but you shouldn’t bring both Ring and Scourglass. Taking out the Remove Souls for the Wydwens is also a good possibility. Wydwen is good against them because it blocks most guys, attacks to kill Planeswalkers, and survives most of your removal.
R/W is a much easier matchup, and if they don’t have Mind Stone and Fulminator you’ll probably not lose. Earlier on, I was losing some games to Mind Stone/Ajani/Big Threat combinations, but that’s not very common for them to play, and now I have Remove Soul. You lose this matchup in three ways — Figure of Destiny, Ajani of Reveillark. Reveillark is the easiest to deal with, since it costs five and you have ten counters, and Figure the hardest to actually die to — you can usually find a way to kill it before Figure kills you by itself — so beware of Ajani. You should always play your Ajani if you can if you can lock them their fifth Land away for that turn, since the worst thing they can do about it with four lands is playing their own Ajani. This is the matchup where you use the discard mode of Esper Charm the most, so always be mindful of this possibility.
You should board +2 Celestial Purge for 1 Terror and 1 Mulldrifter. I like at least four ways to deal with Figure of Destiny early, and Purge is just better than Terror in this matchup since it also deals with Ajani and removes Siege Gang. Mulldrifter is not bad, but it’s worse than the other cards — you never want to tap out to play it since sitting out on counters until you can Ultimatum their hand away is a better plan here. The fourth Fallout is not very good — it doesn’t deal with that many things in this matchup and they might board in Forge-Tender, you’re fine with three plus Wraths since, unlike against B/W, you don’t get swarmed but lose to singular threats when you do.
For a time we had 2 Primal Commands + 1 Broodmate Dragon package against Red aggro decks, but I no longer play it since, as I said, I believe Red decks have been out of favor. The matchup is still not bad, though it’s worse than Nassif’s. It’s a price I’m willing to pay. You still have Purge, Negate, and Wydwen against them, so you should be fine. If you expect a lot of mono-Red, you can play the package over something else and the matchup gets very good, since you usually lose to the burn and this helps you by both gaining 7 life and killing them faster.
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That’s about it for the most common matchups, I guess. I hope you enjoyed the article, and if you like the style of the deck, give it a try — you won’t be disappointed.
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