So States has come and gone. Some people have emerged victorious, while others ran home with their tails between their legs. I usually see a lot of new brews at States, but this time was an exception. I saw a lot of established decks, like Solar Flare, Wolf Run Ramp, Solar Flare, Tempered Steel, Mono Red, Solar Flare, Tezzeret, and did I mention Solar Flare? That deck was everywhere. I played it five times out of eight.
I had to forgo Virginia States this year, since we were celebrating my girlfriend’s birthday on Sunday, so I figured it wasn’t worth the trip, since all I could do was play in States and not the PTQ the next day. I ended up going to South Carolina States where they announced they would be doing two flights. If you don’t know what that is, it’s when you have two round ones and two round twos all because you have too many people playing. I was contemplating the idea of leaving, but thankfully I didn’t have to when 30 people just got up and left. That allowed us to just have one flight, thankfully.
I ended up playing Ali Cats and going undefeated in the Swiss portion. Once I had made top 8, I got crushed within the first five minutes thanks to Mono Red. This is the list I played.
Creatures (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (30)
I got some controversial feedback last time with people thinking the deck was bad or not good enough. That was one of the main reasons I played it, to prove a point. It also felt like I was playing draw-go Psychatog again. I edited the deck with Solar Flare and Wolf Run Ramp in mind. If you play against a Solar Flare deck that has no counterspells, it’s pretty much a bye. The only way they can beat you is by playing the control game and milling you with Nephalia Drownyard. In order to play the control game, they need counters. The only two games I lost to Solar Flare were when they milled me. The rest of the time was a cakewalk.
I had the sword package in the board for the slower decks, again like Solar Flare and Wolf Run Ramp. This is how I sideboarded against Wolf Run Ramp:
-1 Visions of Beyond
-1 Blue Sun’s Zenith
-1 Sever the Bloodline
-1 Army of the Damned
-2 Day of Judgment
+2 Sword of Feast and Famine
+1 Inkmoth Nexus
+1 Dissipate
+2 Azure Mage
The games usually involved my countering their relevant spells and flashing in a Snapcaster Mage, which countered another spell or just acted as a 2/1 creature with flash. I would then follow it up with a Sword of Feast and Famine and go to town. After boarding, the only creature that is really scary is Thrun, but you have ways to deal with it: Swords, Tribute to Hunger, and White Sun’s Zenith.
Against Solar Flare, this was my plan:
-3 Doom Blade
-1 Tribute to Hunger
-2 Day of Judgment
-1 Oblivion Ring
-1 Visions of Beyond
+2 Sword of Feast and Famine
+1 Witchbane Orb
+1 Inkmoth Nexus
+3 Azure Mage
+1 Dissipate
The plan is similar to Wolf Run where you want to counter their relevant spells and finish them off with a small creature like Inkmoth Nexus, Azure Mage, or Snapcaster. They should be on the plan to mill you; otherwise they don’t stand a chance. This is why we cut Visions of Beyond but not Blue Sun’s Zenith, since it shuffles back in. Witchbane Orb may look unnecessary, but it protects us from the Drownyard. This is extremely relevant.
In this matchup, you can be aggressive with your Nexi, since they probably cut most of their removal after only seeing Snapcaster game one. I’ve gotten my opponent to five poison; then we had a huge counter war over an Unburial Rites on Sun Titan that ended up bringing back two Phantasmal Images and an Oblivion Ring for my Sword of Feast and Famine. He ended up losing next turn to my casting Batterskull and putting it on my Nexus.
I was very pleased with the deck, but when I got back home, I saw that U/B won Grand Prix Brisbane, and I was in love. I’m sure you’ve all seen it, but here it is anyway.
Creatures (9)
Lands (27)
Spells (24)
I’ve noticed I have a problem when I look at a new card. I’ll quickly dismiss the card if it’s an inferior card to a card from the past. For example, Disperse and Into the Roil; Into the Roil and Cryptic Command; or Disfigure and Wring Flesh. I need to get out of that habit, since Wring Flesh seems to solve many problems like Inkmoth Nexus, any one-drop from Mono Red, and all the mana dorks.
This deck seems like a nightmare to go up against. So many counters and answers to almost everything you do. Against the control decks, it goes up to a whopping four Drownyards—that would bury Ali Cats. If I don’t play this in Baltimore, I’ll play something that has some game against it.
The best way to attack this deck is with creatures, planeswalkers, or recurring threats. Creatures need to have shroud or hexproof. So Neurok Commando, Dungrove Elder, Thrun, the Last Troll, Geist of Saint Traft, pretty much any black creature, and Mirran Crusader are all good candidates. If you can slip one in early enough, you should be able to punish them.
Remember that article on weakness I wrote awhile back? Where I said if a good deck knows its weakness and can solve it, it does really well? Jeremy was ready. He has Phantasmal Image in the board for creatures with hexproof—sadly most good creatures with hexproof are legendary. So planeswalkers or a recurring threat like Chandra’s Phoenix might be the better route.
It seems like the best way to beat this deck is to play Mono Red. Mono Red has recursion in the form of Chandra’s Phoenix, planeswalkers in the form of Koth of the Hammer, and huge threats that are cheap like Shrine of Burning Rage. Most of the other tier one decks are too midrange to combat it successfully. If I were to rebuild Esper Control, I would build it with this deck in mind. It would look something like this.
Creatures (6)
Lands (27)
Spells (27)
Against a true control deck, all you really need is a small creature to stick, and you can ride it all the way with protection. With the help of some counterspells and having a lot of small, cheap creatures, this deck should do fine against U/B Control. It’s definitely not in its optimal stage, but it’s a very good starting point.
Midnight Haunting lets you make dudes at their end step. If they counter it early, you can punish them by sticking a Sword of Feast and Famine or a Druidic Satchel. I could also see Midnight Haunting carrying you all the way to victory without any swords. When 5-color control and Faeries were a deck, Fae could cast a turn 2 Spellstutter Sprite at their end step and could ride it to victory with the help of counterspells. I know all Fae’s creatures had flash, but you have seven of your own with flash and Snapcasters that can act like a pseudo Cryptic Command. I’m not sure if this is the way to go, but it’s definitely a start.
Some other excellent ways for decks to combat U/B are:
Druidic Satchel — This colorless artifact works like a planeswalker that can’t be killed. It will continuously give card and board advantage. This card can even be used in U/B to shore up the mirror match.
Mimic Vat — Here we have another colorless artifact that is quite amazing vs. control decks. U/B can’t touch a resolved Mimic Vat without the help of Ratchet Bomb or Karn Liberated. Karn probably comes a little too late to the party, and the same thing can be said about Ratchet Bomb if they don’t see Vat coming.
Birthing Pod — Yet another artifact that is pseudo colorless which combats U/B very well. The only problem with Birthing Pod is you really have to build your deck around it. You could even build a Birthing Pod list that runs both Pod and Mimic Vat for the times you can’t seem to draw Birthing Pod.
Discard effects – Sadly we don’t have access to a cheap Duress effect, but we do have Despise. Despise can be used turn 5 or later to strip the U/B deck of its few creatures. Remember when I said I write cards off because they seem to be worse than past cards? Well Distress fits that bill perfectly. The card just seems overcosted but may be the correct answer. The last decent discard spell we have access to in Standard is Mind Rot. Mind Rot is not the best card ever, but it does do well vs. Control decks. We’ve seen Mind Rot do some real work in the past with the help of other discard spells like Blightning.
And that’s alllll, folks! Hopefully you’ve gained some knowledge on how to beat the new boss in town. Maybe you have some of your own tech? If you’re willing to share, I’d be more than happy to hear! The answer could even be in a States deck that top 8ed. We will just have to wait and see! Sometimes States results take forever to trickle in.
Well I’ll be in Baltimore for the Open event this coming weekend! Stop by and say hi; I’d love to meet you. I promise I won’t bite… Much. :]
Ali the Defiled
P.S. I’ll get off Ali Cats soon I promise.