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Stars & Stripes Forever

If you’re looking for something to play at SCG Standard Open: Cincinnati this weekend, check out the U/W/R Control deck that Mark Nestico recommends!

Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.

Navratilova and Evert.

Nicklaus and Palmer.

These are some of the greatest feuds in all of sports, but every one of them pales in comparison to the single most important battle of our generation.

Do you remember where you were when you saw it?

The waves crashed against the hull of the USS Intrepid. Thousands of fans were in attendance, and their cheers could shake the heavens. There was but one task at hand, and the pride of a nation was at stake.

Elite defensive goon and Stanley Cup winner Peter Taglianetti failed.

All-Decade standout of the 1980’s offensive linemen Bill Frallic couldn’t do it.

NBA champion and first man drafted first in two different sports Scott Burell wasn’t up to the challenge.

Each man wasn’t able to handle the task at hand, and that task was our freedom.

The event was about to end, and the fans hung their heads in shame. The name of our country had been smeared. They were all laughing at us—the Cold War might have been over, but the rest of the world was about to look at us like we were very weak.

Then it happened.

In the distance, the faint silhouette of a helicopter could be made out. As it rushed toward the aircraft carrier, those aboard the ship quivered in anticipation. Was this our savior? Would it be this person who restored our national pride?

As it landed, a man clad in red, white, and blue emerged from the helicopter. His blonde hair danced in the breeze as the sun gleamed off his bulging muscles. The fans could hardly contain themselves. This was it—it was really going to happen!

The announcers reached a fevered pitch as he swiftly made his way to the center of the destroyer.

Then it happened.

Lex Luger body slammed Yokozuna.

You might have thought a mini earthquake had happened, but in fact it was “Mr. Made in America” driving the over 600-pound behemoth into the mat. The crowd was on fire. Chants of “USA, USA, USA” rang throughout the night and carried across the vast seas. Our dignity was restored.

I was seven.

It was the single greatest thing I had ever seen in my life.

Pardon my patriotism, but some things just resonate with you.

It was this monumental event that inspired the following deck because I think there are a lot of parallels between Standard and the greatest most patriotic body slam in history.

Mono-Black Devotion is Yokozuna. It’s silent, consistent, and usually able to overpower the opponent through sheer redundancy. Gray Merchant of Assphodel. Banzai!

Finding a proper Lex Luger is a little harder, but the answer is right in front of us. We need something sleek and powerful that people can rally behind.

We need stars and bars.

We need red, white, and blue.


My unhealthy love of Sphinx’s Revelation is well documented within the pages of SCG, so explaining to you why I like this deck is like a fish explaining why it swims.

However, I think this kind of strategy will be outstanding going forward. Let me tell you why!

When a new set comes out, what do people want to do? Play new cards—duh!

Preying on the nice people that want to test out different and innovative strategies are the next levelers playing aggressive decks. This fun police aims to kill you before you can even lift off.

That’s why we’re playing U/W/R Control. We are going to next level the next levelers.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s a storm count of two levels. It’s time to go inception all up on this format. We need to go deeper.

U/W/R is notorious for being powerful against creature strategies, and when you check out this list, right off the bat you see that we’re doing as much as possible to not lose to the decks trying to kill us with critters.

Here’s the breakdown of some of the less conventional cards since there are only so many ways to beat you over the head with how good Sphinx’s Revelation is. (Pro Tip: It lets you draw a lot of cards.)

Keranos, God of the Storm is a profoundly interesting card to me. Despite being five mana to cast, against most midrange and control decks this card is outrageous. When uncontested for more than a few turns, Keranos will either draw you extra cards or start firing off Lightning Bolts at your opponent’s dome, planeswalkers, or creatures. Turning this God on is actually worse than just letting it play the role of powerhouse enchantment, so in this kind of deck it excels.

Its first ability—”Reveal the first card you draw on each of your turns. Whenever you reveal a land card this way draw a card.”—is probably one of the most underrated abilities on a God in all of Theros block. Control decks always want to draw lands in order to ramp up to bigger Sphinx’s Revelations, so this basically means that if you reveal the land you probably wanted anyway, you’re also able to draw a card along with it, helping you generate even more card advantage. Getting ahead of decks like Mono-Black Devotion after a flurry of discard spells will help you stay in the game before eventually taking it over.

Its second ability (at least in game 1 against aggressive decks) will allow you to shut the door on your opponent. Like I said, this deck is meant to brutalize creatures, so following up a Supreme Verdict with Keranos is potentially going to end a lot of games on the spot. Revealing a spell (which is already bad news for the opponent) means shooting down one of their threats. Now you have a spell and have killed something without casting a single card.

Izzet Charm and Dre have a lot in common because people act like they forgot about them. At the moment it feels like Azorius Charm is severely underpowered, whereas Izzet Charm does a lot of the things we want a card to do right now. The ability to kill smaller creatures is very strong as opposed to just putting them on top of the owner’s library. Helping to prevent mana flood, it can also be used to get rid of a couple extra lands or useless spells from your hand and yield two fresh cards.

Lastly—and I can’t stress this enough—the amount of people who have cast a noncreature spell against me only to have it get countered is staggering. Izzet Charm is an early answer for Pack Rat or Underworld Connections against Mono-Black Devotion. Against other U/W Control decks, it’s always going to help you win a counter war or catch them off guard when they go for a big Sphinx’s Revelation. I’m always happy to have this card in my deck.

The rest of the maindeck is all the normal tools U/W Control, but new to the fold is Temple of Epiphany. One of the key reasons Esper was able to do so well during Born of the Gods Standard was that it was able to play the full twelve Temples, meaning that each draw step was as strong as possible. Other control decks couldn’t make the same boast, so if you weren’t Esper or U/W for the most part you had to watch from the sidelines.

Now that U/W/R can play the same amount of Temples, the deck can replicate those powerful draws while still maintaining consistency. When you’re packing cards like Assemble the Legion and Keranos, God of Storms in your deck, being able to cast all your spells regularly and without fail is going to be the key to victory.

In the sideboard are some pretty spicy numbers. Counterflux is there for the control decks that always seem to be at the top tables. Sometimes just saying “no” is one of the best things you can do against these people. Reprisal is this deck’s answer to Mistcutter Hydra and Obzedat, Ghost Council, and Wear//Tear only gets better the more enchantments they print, especially when it’s going to help you fight through Burning Earth, Banishing Light, and any other enchantment you want blown up.

Deicide is one of the cards that really excite me, and I think it’s a perfect fit in this kind of deck. With all the tools to eliminate planeswalkers and creatures, Deicide is going to take care of a lot of cards like Thassa, God of the Sea; Master of the Feast; and Underworld Connections before they even get a chance to go active. Imagine your opponent casting a Master of the Feast. Sure, it resolves! After you draw, your card you exile it. This is a huge tempo loss for your opponent. Now you’ve drawn a card and killed a 5/5. Sounds sweet to me!

One of the best reasons to play this deck aside from how good it is against creature decks is that it boasts a surprisingly strong matchup against Mono-Black Devotion. With so many tools at your disposal, you’re often able to invalidate their discard strategy, which means what you’re doing is going to be leagues more powerful than what they’re doing, and you’ll be shrugging off their creatures with your superior removal spells. One of the reasons prior to Journey into Nyx to play this deck was that it was so strong against Mono-Black Devotion, and I feel like it has gained so much while Mono-Black Devotion has gained so little.

All of these reasons make me feel like U/W/R Control is exactly where we want to be right off the bat.

. . .

This past weekend I was able to partake in a Journey into Nyx Prerelease, and I can honestly say this set is gas.

From a design standpoint, Journey feels like exactly what I want from a Limited set. With bombs, tricks, and tempo-oriented cards, Journey makes it feel more like fun and less like building the biggest Voltron with bestow creatures.

Luckily, I was able to put together an undefeated run at my event on the back of some pretty powerful rares. I chose black because I thought Doomwake Giant was the best promotional card to have, and behind him sat King Macar, the Gold-Cursed. My next pack gave me an Abhorrent Overlord, so after I finished dancing around the room like a small child, I assembled an extremely curvaceous G/B deck with multiple Golden Hind, Sip of Hemlock, and other awesome toys. My deck was pretty outrageous.

The games that I watched all played out a little more skill intensively and a little less based on jamming Hopeful Eidolon on Wingsteed Rider. The extra pack really helps tone down the swingy nature of pre-Journey Limited.

If you asked me a week ago if I was interested in going to Grand Prix Atlanta, I’d have laughed in your face. After this weekend I’ve already made plans to head up there with friends. I think the format is that good.

I hope your weekend was every bit as fun as mine.

It’s time to start sleeving up Keranos, God of Storms and Temple of Epiphany. The next few weeks should be extremely interesting, and I look forward to seeing if U/W/R Control makes a splash at the SCG Standard Open in Cincinnati coming up this weekend.

Channel your inner Lex Luger. Get aboard The Lex Express, travel to Cincy, and body slam the competition. The Fourth of July is coming up pretty soon, so I think it’s time we break out those red, white, and blue shirts and make “Made in America” something to be proud of once again!