BOOOYAH!
I cracked a Sorin so obviously I want to play it. I mean, who wouldn’t?
Every Magic player can relate to cracking open packs, and this weekend, after buying close to 30 packs of Dark Ascension, I finally got one. Sure, with all that money spent, I could’ve just bought one, but the feeling wouldn’t be the same. I remember when I was a kid and I got my first job. The first thing I thought when I got my paycheck of $75 was, WOW, that’s a box every week! Insane! And just like a Magic player, I spent all my money on Magic. I was 14 and didn’t think about saving for a car or putting it into the bank. I just thought about getting those booster boxes so I could build new decks. Fourteen years later, not much has changed.
Now, I didn’t actually want to build a black-white deck because I cracked a Sorin, but it might have pushed me into putting together the deck, which will come a bit later in the article.
Besides cracking a Sorin, this weekend was a blast. Doing commentary for the StarCityGames.com Open in Richmond was a bonus, since I got to see Dark Ascension make its first impact on Standard. The deck of the tournament was mono-green. Only a handful of players ran it, and the numbers it put up were strong. I also managed to play the deck before and after the tournament.
The list I ended up playing was much closer to Max Brown’s deck. He finished in the top 16 with a variant that featured only 21 lands. His list was as follows:
Creatures (27)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
- 4 Dungrove Elder
- 4 Skinshifter
- 1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 4 Strangleroot Geist
- 3 Wolfbitten Captive
- 2 Predator Ooze
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (21)
- 21 Forest
Spells (8)
I like this list more than the others because of the lower land count. Max opted not to play with Green Sun’s Zenith because he chose to be more aggressive and didn’t want to spend an extra mana on creatures, which I can get behind.
This deck matches up well against Delver and Humans but can lose its edge if players are ready for it. For instance, Sword of Feast and Famine could make a return along with Day of Judgment, which would combat the mono-green strategy nicely.
Another deck that surprised the metagame was Ali Aintrazi U/B Heartless Summoning deck. The deck’s engine, Heartless Summoning, plays the role of mana ramp, enabling him to cast big creatures for a reasonable cost. His list was as follows:
Creatures (18)
- 4 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Frost Titan
- 2 Wurmcoil Engine
- 2 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 2 Phantasmal Image
- 3 Rune-Scarred Demon
- 2 Sphinx of Uthuun
- 2 Havengul Lich
Lands (26)
Spells (16)
Sideboard
This deck can be very explosive and hard to play against. Most decks have no removal for Heartless Summoning. With the lack of Day of Judgments running around, this deck can drop any number of fatties without much fear. Ali also included two copies of Havengul Lich, which is quickly becoming one of the most impactful cards in Standard from Dark Ascension.
Both of these decks are something different, and both proved to be powerful, placing in the top 16 of last weekend’s StarCityGames.com Open. After seeing the metagame and the lack of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and Lingering Souls, I decided to write about my Black-White Control deck that I think will do very well in the metagame. The list is as follows, and I will go over what you want to do in each matchup.
Creatures (2)
Planeswalkers (10)
Lands (25)
Spells (23)
This deck is a bit different from control decks you might be more familiar with. I decided a few things.
- In this format, it is better for a control deck to have Distress than Mana Leak.
- Snapcaster Mage is not very good in most control decks.
- There is no longer a planeswalker I want to be playing in blue.
These are a few of the reasons I think B/W might be a better call than Esper for control. Sure, you miss out on Think Twice and Forbidden Alchemy, but based on how fast the format is, you sometimes just can’t waste your early turns cycling. Instead, you need cheap cards like Distress, Tragic Slip, and Ratchet Bomb to slow down your opponent. With a strong mid to late game, you don’t really miss out on anything.
The deck matches up fairly well against the most popular decks, and your game plans are pretty straightforward.
Let’s use Ben Isgur’s list from 2nd place in Richmond.
Creatures (14)
Lands (20)
Spells (26)
Ben’s deck is straightforward, and your plan against it is to remove every threat you can until you drop a Curse or just try to run them out of resources and then take control of the game with a planeswalker. You have enough early removal to handle a fast Delver and enough ways to stop Geist of Saint Traft. Lingering Souls clogs up the board, leaving them with no choice but to try to push through with a piece of equipment. I feel this is a matchup that you would be favored in if you play correctly.
You don’t have much to board in against Delver besides the two Revoke Existences, two Timely Reinforcements, and the third Curse. Some people I talked to said they didn’t really like Timely Reinforcements in this matchup, but I disagree. Timely will buy you a few extra turns until you can get a planeswalker, Titan, or Curse online.
The Ghost Quarters are mainly in there against Wolf Run and control, but if you choose, you can bring them in to stop Moorland Haunt. You want to take out your Karn Liberated and your Day of Judgments, since they will most likely be playing around them. Besides, they are not the best in this matchup anyway.
Humans are still all over the map, and this is where all your controlling cards shine. One of the reasons Humans always had a good matchup against control was because most of the control decks didn’t really have cheap removal and sweepers. Our black-white deck has almost everything you need in the matchup minus a couple of Doom Blades, but Tragic Slip takes that spot. Here, unlike the Delver matchup, Elspeth is very powerful, since most Humans decks don’t have much evasion outside of Spirit tokens. Also most Human decks don’t play any Mana Leaks.
For sideboarding, you want to bring in the same cards you would bring in against Delver. What you take out depends on how you feel they are going to board and what they see in game one. Since you are a rogue deck, they might not know how many creatures you have. For example, you can win game one with a Sun Titan, and then they might think that’s how you normally win and will board one way. Or you can win with Karn Liberated without seeing any creatures, and they might think Karn is your path to victory.
Distress is less good against Humans, so don’t be afraid to cut some of them. However, just remember that Distress is very good against your opponent’s Revoke Existences, since they will most likely be holding them to combat your Oblivion Rings and Curses.
Tempered Steel just won the Open so there is a good chance it will see a lot of play in Hawaii and next week’s Open in Cincinnati. We will use the winning decklist for reference.
Creatures (20)
Lands (20)
Spells (20)
I would say you are heavily favored in this matchup. For starters, your removal is great and makes it really difficult for your opponent to know how much to commit to the board. Besides that, Tragic Slip takes out about half of your opponent’s creatures even without morbid.
Day of Judgment and Elspeth are board-changing cards that your opponent will also have to try to play around; otherwise they will get crushed.
Your discard isn’t really the best in this matchup and should be sided out. You want all three Revokes in this matchup, Timely, and the extra Curse.
In most creature matchups, you board almost the same.
Your matchups versus any other creature deck, including mono-green and tokens, are solid as well. Control is where it gets a bit tricky.
Let’s take a look at the Solar Flare deck that top 4ed last weekend.
Creatures (5)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (27)
Against a control deck like this, a lot of removal spells are somewhat useless, and fighting through Mana Leak and Dissipate with Snapcaster Mage backup is rough. Your plan is to try and resolve an early Liliana the Veil. If that doesn’t work, then you want to use Distress to help force through threats. Lingering Souls can be annoying for your opponent, but it will be difficult for your tokens to go the whole way without a planeswalker resolving and sticking around.
You do get better after board. You want to bring in:
2 White Sun’s Zenith
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Surgical Extraction
And some number of Revoke Existences to combat their Oblivion Rings. After board, Surgical Extraction helps you see exactly what your opponent has while disrupting their game plan. White Sun’s Zenith gives you an instant-speed threat they will have to answer. If they do, this will probably give you an opening to resolve one of your powerful spells; if they don’t have a counter for it, then they will need a Ratchet Bomb or some sweeper effect.
The last deck I’d like to review is Mono Red.
Creatures (21)
- 3 Grim Lavamancer
- 2 Hex Parasite
- 1 Moltensteel Dragon
- 4 Chandra's Phoenix
- 4 Stormblood Berserker
- 3 Goblin Fireslinger
- 4 Stromkirk Noble
Lands (21)
Spells (18)
- 3 Incinerate
- 1 Ancient Grudge
- 3 Galvanic Blast
- 2 Arc Trail
- 4 Volt Charge
- 4 Shrine of Burning Rage
- 1 Devil's Play
Sideboard
I have never been a fan of Mono Red, but Kevin Heath managed to finish in 20th place with this list. You’re well positioned in this matchup, and it just gets only better after board, since you are bringing in Celestial Purge, Timely Reinforcements, and a couple of Revoke Existences.
Overall, I believe that B/W Control can be a competitive deck in the current metagame. Feel free to try out cards that I did not have in the list, but start here. I think giving the B/W deck a shot will be fun and different.
After watching all the matches that I did last week, Delver feels like the best deck still; however it can be hated out.
Post here if you have any thoughts on what changes you guys would make to the list.
Thanks for reading,
Gerard