In the week leading up to Regionals, it seems there was a massive lack of innovation. Many Pros publicly voiced that playtesting new decks would be a monumental waste of their time. Seeing as how all the Guildpact guilds turned out better than the Ravnica guilds, shouldn’t Dissension follow suit?
Conform, conform, conform, the Pros chanted with lazy eyes and slack, drooling jaws, almost none of them willing to put her reputation on the line.
Screw them.
Building new archetypes and playing with new cards is fun and adventurous, even if it doesn’t work out all the time. I don’t play for financial gain, I don’t get paid to write, and if Magic wasn’t fun, I’d be doing something else, and then you certainly wouldn’t be reading about Azorius Aggro-Control, or heaven forbid, learning something new.
In an installment of Latest Developments, Aaron Forsythe lead a semi-casual, semi-serious discussion of what exactly the Azorius Guild is supposed to embody. That article inspired me to put Azorius to the test.
The Regionals gauntlet test.
Just what is this little “sub theme” of Azorius flyers, that angered thousands of players, truly capable of?
This is the final build I ended at the day before Regionals. In truth, the deck was quite underpowered, and I knew it couldn’t win on rogue factor alone, but when one accepts a quest, one can’t just drop his sword and shield when the first trumpet sounds for battle.
Aggro-Control doesn’t just happen; it requires some amount of synergy to work. It’s a delicate archetype that requires a balance of lands, threats, and answers all in a relatively short time frame. Normally, this means you need draw-smoothers like Brainstorm, Serums Visions, Sleight of Hand, or even Magma Jet. This lets you draw your cards in a mix that you have calculated is necessary to win. If you sense weakness, get the threat and beat them down harder. If you sense doom, get the answer. In manascrew, a land. All of this wrapped in a low mana curve and a low land count.
These ratios get even more complicated because they start from the bottom up. You can lean heavier onto your Aggro component or your Control component, and there are benefits to both. More aggro means less work for the control and vice versa. In all cases, the deck slots are going to be tight.
Ted Knutson is right on with an observation he made about Sea Stompy - you are never truly winning with Aggro-Control. You just try to get ahead and stay ahead long enough to reach the finish line.
This concept of being one step ahead of your opponent should be familiar - it was recently Tempo Week at MagictheGathering.com. I like to think of tempo as the pace of executing a strategy in relation to your opponent's ability to respond to this strategy (or to execute his own). Playing threats faster than your opponent can answer them (Frog in a Blender), wildly swinging a damage race (Armadillo Cloak), or simultaneously “undoing” an opponent's action while netting something for yourself (Man-o'-War, Aether Mutation, Remand) all net you some amount of short-term tempo. If this is still confusing, check out Scott Johns's explanation, which made me think of music.
I read a post by someone more observant than me that most Pros never consider building toward the Aggro-Control archetype unless it's completely overpowered and builds itself (U/G Madness, Ponza). They always build to the extreme of Aggro, the extreme of Control, or the extreme of Combo. Another hybrid archetype that is shunned is what I call a Midgame deck - a high-curving creature deck with utility creatures, fatties, good mana-sinks, and a strong matchup against Aggro decks (Ghazi-Glare, Secret Force). Being a Green mage, I build Midgame decks all the time.
With Azorius Aggro-Control, there were simply too few spaces in the list for all that I wanted. Here’s a card-by-card breakdown of what I was able to squeeze in:
4 Lantern Kami
3 Suntail Hawk
These are what I like to call the Azorius Wild Mongrels. If you play with the deck, this analogy becomes obvious. Suntail Hawk enables all your other cards. However, unlike Wild Mongrel, Suntail Hawk can’t do all the work himself.
4 Azorius Guildmage
After just a few games with Azorius Guildmage, she went up to four and stayed there. This Blue lady makes her annoying presence known if the game stalls out by negating many popular cards like Keiga, the Tide Star; Sakura-Tribe Elder; Transmuted Dimir House Guard; and Umezawa’s Jitte with her game text. I know Azorius Guildmage seems to stick out like a sore thumb, but her easy cost as a makeshift Ninja enabler, and the ability to protect herself and others, go very well with the “deploy and protect” game plan of Aggro-Control. Every time I have activated Azorius Guildmage, I felt it was mana well spent.
4 Pride of the Clouds
Pride of the Clouds is the reason to play Azorius Skies. This card is not too far from a flying Selesnya Guildmage in execution. The Forecast ability makes Pride of the Clouds effective at many stages of the game. Even paying four to block a Keiga every turn isn’t the worst thing in the world, when you aren’t using cards to do it.
Everyone I’ve talked to seems completely turned off by Forecast, but I feel R&D costed this card correctly and it’s very thought-intensive. This is not your typical beatdown deck. You must think an entire turn in advance of what is going to happen, and decide what to do during the previous turn’s upkeep. For example, a Flores-style Critical Mass deck will usually not do anything relevant until it hits five or six mana. That means up until then, you deploy, then put your guard up against Meloku and Keiga. However, against a Gruul deck, a turn 2 Ninja is terrible because everything in their deck trades with it or better. Instead, you have to put your guard up at the beginning to keep Burning-Tree Shaman from connecting as long as you can, because he devastates all your activated abilities. You have to find an opening to get a Jitte online, or Meloku active, because otherwise they are just faster than you without multiple Pride of the Clouds.
Pride of the Clouds allows the deck a god draw of turn 1 Hawk, turn 2 Pride, turn 3 Hawk and Pride, turn 4 any two flyers. A turn 4 kill with the possibility of counter-backup.
For all its merit, Pride of the Clouds has a few kinks in its armor. For example, a Pyroclasm, Electrolyze, Savage Twister, or Wildfire is usually more than enough to take him and the rest of your team down. Paying four mana for a 1/1 flyer without using a card isn't going to pull you back into the game from an increasingly losing board position, but it's better than paying WU for 1/1 flyer.
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
Ninja of the Deep Hours is a prime threat against control and combo, crashing into Sakura-Tribe Elder and Jushi Apprentice and forcing an answer before taking the game away. Untapping on turn 3 with a Deep Hours and Remand in hand leads to massive blowouts that are rare and atypical. Usually, you will surge ahead depending on how many counterspells you draw or how useful a Guildmage is at tapping potential blockers. Other times, you will draw a bunch of Suntail Hawks and your opponent may not even notice.
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
A support creature in every regard, Kira is exactly what you want to curve into against decks packed to the gills with targeted removal like Faith’s Fetters, Lightning Helix, Mortify, Putrefy, and the rest. She makes your Jitte worse, but your creatures better, against removal. She is also the only three-mana Blue spell in the deck to pitch to Disrupting Shoal (foreshadowing...).
2 Sky Hussar
Pronounced "Sky Huh-ZAR," this is a fairly costed card that makes your excess Suntail Hawks more exciting. This card can break a control deck over its beak with card advantage, and sometimes there’s little to nothing they can do to stop it. I will usually opt for a card instead of two damage against a control deck.
3 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Everyone knows that Meloku is a superb creature, an offensive and defensive threat generator, a resource converter and game-winning card. You've seen him create armies and decimate them, win Pro Tours and earn the title of 'Best five-drop Creature Ever'. But have you seen a Meloku in action in a deck like this?
Meloku is even better than all that. In this deck, Meloku is absolutely nuts.
Remember how Suntail Hawk is akin to Wild Mongrel? Remember how Suntail Hawk has synergy with Pride, Ninja, Jitte, and Sky Hussar? Well, Meloku creates Suntail Hawks. Lots of them, very quickly. Then Pride of the Clouds explodes into a 10/10 while you draw two cards a turn from Sky Hussar. Meloku is a spike in the mana curve at five mana, but there’s simply no better card in the game you could play.
4 Remand
While some might claim Remand is the best card in Standard, Dark Confidant earns my vote... but Remand is second, then Umezawa’s Jitte. I like to think of Remand as the most brutal card ever printed that doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t kill your opponent or answer a threat; all it really does is cost the opponent some mana. But that’s mana that they might not have before they die. Then there are the stack tricks and Remanding your own spells, truly pushing Remand over into unfair territory.
3 Mana Leak
I see far too many Spell Snares flying into maindecks of this archetype. When did Mana Leak all of a sudden turn to rust? I feel that Mana Leak answers the spells that matters to the deck the most, including Wrath of God, Savage Twister, Electrolyze, Meloku, and more, and still has the option of working against two-mana cards in the short term. If you are trying to build a critical mass of countermagic for a control deck, survive the early game against an aggro deck, or win a counter war against a combo deck, then yes, Spell Snare has merit. Otherwise, I put it in my sideboard.
2 Disrupting Shoal
I believe I leaped too quickly for free countermagic with this inclusion. While it can lead to blowouts, it’s simply too difficult to use effectively unless you are nearly mono-Blue.
4 Umezawa's Jitte
Jitte is an essential tool for most Aggro-Control decks across multiple formats. It’s cheap, effective, and protecting it is often enough to win the game.
There is this Golden Rule that seems to have emerged in Standard - if your deck relies or dies to Jitte, then it can't be a top deck. All the best decks can shrug off or at least contain a Jitte, but this deck can't. It relies heavily on Jitte to bring the beats, while also simultaneously preventing itself from losing to Jitte. This is because it plays creatures for their game text, not their raw combat stats.
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Adarkar Wastes
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Eiganjo Castle
5 Plains
5 Island
The land count is low as per Aggro-Control rules. I've tried Tendo Ice Bridge and I found it to be neither strictly better nor worse than basics. Sometimes you have to operate on very little land and almost everything is splashable.
Sideboard
4 Wrath of God
4 Spell Snare
3 Descendant of Kiyomaro
3 Pithing Needle
1 Azorius Chancery
I came up with a fairly straightforward sideboard for Regionals. There’s actually merit to playing some number of Wrath of God in the maindeck, because the deck can stall and draw quite a lot of cards for a weenie deck.
Notable Benefits
There are some nice things I discovered when building this deck.
Low Curve — Playing with a low curve (Aggro in general) means you will win games simply because your opponent randomly manascrews. This is worth mentioning because there are some decks out there that cannot defeat manascrewed opponents. I recently won a sanctioned Standard game after mulliganing to five and missing my first five drops against a Firemane Angel deck. Phoenix Control is a prime example of a deck that can’t kill manascrewed opponents.
New Cards — Some players will not know exactly what my new cards can and can’t do. This opens up doors for my opponents to make mistakes. Now, some might argue that good players never make mistakes, so this logic is flawed, but that’s just wrong. Every Magic player makes mistakes. Give your opponent an opportunity to make a game-losing mistake, and he might surprise you. I believe the single greatest card ever printed for this is Gifts Ungiven.
Fun — If the deck wasn’t fun, I’d be doing something else with my free time. Swinging with Ninjas is much more fun than Dragons.
Notable Problems
My build of has considerable problems that became apparent in testing.
Lack of Power — I play seven Suntail Hawks. My opponent will cast a Loxodon Hierarch, and my answer will be Suntail Hawk. A remedy to this would be some number of Glorious Anthems, which I would be happy to play when Jitte rotates.
Finishing the Opponent — This isn’t such a big deal because most of my team flies, the Guildmage taps blockers, and I’ve got card drawing and disruption to keep up the gas.
Targeted Removal — The amazing one-for-one removal spells in Standard are not so amazing against this deck, because most of its threats are very cheap and it can draw a lot of cards. More Kira would help.
Wildfire — Owns your team, but easily counterable. It can help to fake Shining Shoal (instead of Disrupting Shoal) the whole game.
Wrath of God — Owns your team. This is not an insane sweeper, since it’s not hard to counter and it takes up their whole turn while a Ninja has already hit them a couple of times.
Meloku the Clouded Mirror — Owns your team, so counter it or play your own.
Umezawa’s Jitte — Owns your team, so counter it or play your own.
Savage Twister — Owns your team, so counter it.
Electrolyze — Owns your team hard, so counter it.
Pyroclasm — Owns your team really hard, so counter it.
Orzhov Pontiff — Owns your team very hard, so counter it.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind — Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind is the single best card in Standard against my build. He is a flying, card-drawing Wrath of God every turn for the rest of the game. It doesn’t matter if you have Meloku, Sky Hussar, and a Jitte, you are still going to lose to Niv-Mizzet. You must never, ever let Niv-Mizzet rise from the Steam Vents, because no matter good your board position is, it’ll be completely decimated in a single turn of active Niv-Mizzet rampage. And don’t get fancy with, “I’ll just Jitte it next turn” or “I can Wrath it away” because you’re one Repeal or Disrupting Shoal away from scooping to an opponent at one life. Cast those counters, Wrath your Meloku, do whatever it takes.
Now you know the basics, theory, and the concepts, and that leaves the execution. How does my build do in action? How does it sideboard? Why can’t I just tell you everything so there’s no thinking involved?
Ah, you would be requesting a tournament report. You are in luck; I played this build at Regionals to an expected 5-4 record.
Southeast Regionals
May 20, 2006
Gwinnett Center
Duluth, GA
Format: Standard (9th, Champions of Kamigawa-Dissension)
Round 1 - Rusty Dodgins (Mono-Black Spiritcraft)
Rusty's deck is based on abusing Horobi, Death's Wail with Kami of the Waning Moon. He elects to play.
Game 1
What's the 1B two-drop of choice at Regionals? That's right, folks... it's Ashen-Skin Zubera, followed by Kami of the Waning Moon times two. Meanwhile, I just sit on my land-heavy hand and don't feel obliged to Mana Leak any of these beatdown machines. Things look a bit more normal when Rusty drops and equips a Jitte, which I'm perfectly cool with. He tells me I should “read what this card does” since it's obviously bad news. I flash him two Jittes in my hand and assure him I know what it does. I begin Forecasting Pride of the Clouds to make birds to hold my second Jitte. My two Jitte draw beats his one Jitte draw. Such is the Aggro mirror match.
Sideboarding:
None.
I fake like I'm sideboarding things but I change nothing. I notice the game to my right is Orzhov Control versus some kind of Izzet deck.
Game 2
I have a Plains, Eiganjo Castle, and a Guildmage, so I keep. My opponent has a turn 2 Wicked Akuba to my Guildmage. I get more White mana but still no Blue. The Guildmage eats a Rend Flesh after some tap action. The Blue mana shows up and I'm reminded just how effective turn 2 Nantuko Shade is against a hand of Remands and Mana Leaks. Meloku tries to get me back into the game, but tapping out makes his Devouring Greed lethal.
Sideboarding:
-1 Disrupting Shoal
+1 Azorius Chancery
I pray to the Mana gods to bless me, since I must be the only player at the tournament with an Azorius Chancery in his sideboard.
Game 3
I have a Hawk then a Remand on his Wicked Akuba. I add a Lantern Kami, and again Remand. Jitte hits and remains active the rest of the game, killing a motley crew of spirits as Meloku makes an unnecessary appearance.
This match proves that Lantern Kami is indeed better than Suntail Hawk, because it can't be Rend Fleshed. I guess R&D used up all its power points on the Expert Expansions and left the Core Set with the chaff.
Game Record: 2-1
Match Record: 1-0
After we fill out the slip, I take some time to de-sideboard. Most of the table is clear, but the match to my right is still underway. I lean over for a closer look, and my jaw drops. It's Wafo-Tapa versus Orzhov Control all right, but it's not your typical Orzhov Control build. It's my kind of Orzhov Control. You see, control decks in Standard seem to think that it's okay to just fling big Legends onto the table at the first opportunity. Those Legends are efficient win conditions, but they aren’t robust. They sometimes eat a removal spell that has been rotting in your opponent's hand just itching for a target. It all seems so reckless.
What if you don't do that? What if you trim out all those win conditions and fill the deck with an answer to everything?
Being slower than every other control deck has its advantages. This is a deck where having two Arenas can be a bad idea even with plenty of life because you are just decking yourself. You just need the answers to flow as quickly as their threats while the Church of Deals relentlessly drains. Once they are defenseless with no board position or hand, deck them with Neverending Torment, which is ironically the “fastest” card in the deck.
Eight players at Southeast Regionals 2006 scooped to Neverending Torment, as played by Junior Super Series competitor M "Fetters your Wood Elf" G.
I thought this deck had cornered the market for the Slowest Deck in Standard, yet here I am gaping in awe at its successor. In the game to my right, the Orzhov Control player is still in game 1 because he has somehow designed a control deck using the one win condition in Standard that is slower than Neverending Torment. His kill card is slower even than The Church of Deals.
He is killing his opponent with Reito Lantern.
What I'm staring at here is a masterpiece. Three Phyrexian Arenas, a white Honden, Ivory Mask, Night of Souls' Betrayal, and the deadly Reito Lantern plus two dozen lands on the Orzhov Control side. Sixteen or so lands for Wafo-Tapa. Time in the round is winding down, and it's game 1.
"Draw four, lose 1 life. Land, Castigate? Transmute House Guard for House Guard. Done, discard some lands."
The Wafo-Tapa player is keeping pace with Mikokoro plus Minamo and some Researches/Tidings, and seems to be able to deal with a test spell like Castigate or Cranial Extraction every turn from the Orzhov Control player, who is very diligent with restocking his library with four cards from his graveyard each turn. He is even doing a redundant Transmute just to shuffle his library! Meanwhile, the Wafo-Tapa player's library is dwindling very low. A Honden of Night's Reach hits the table and there's some Repealing to keep it off the table each turn. When Niv-Mizzet hits, it gets bombarded with infinite removal spells and falls down the Moaning Well.
The life total changes for Orzhov Control spans a full column. Wafo-Tapa's life total changes are 20, 24.
No Dragon. No Church of Deals. Not even Dimir House Guard beatdown.
I don't think Neverending Torment truly knows its own name.
Round 2 - Joe Booth (Rox Control/Triad Control/Beach House - Hierarch plus Phyrexian Arena plus House Guard.dec)
Game 1
I begin with a control-destroying turn 2 Ninja, while Joe makes his tapped land drops. He tries a Punishment for two and immediately realizes it kills neither the Kami nor the Ninja. He wants to take it back and I just Remand it anyway, since I'm holding tons of Jittes and need a fourth land... and I find a Plains. He does Punishment for two, and means it this time, killing Jitte. My second Jitte meets the same fate and he adds a Castigate. My hand is utter gas with Jitte, two Azorius Guildmage, Kira, and Pride of the Clouds, and he takes Kira. His Descendant of Kiyomaro is tiny and I add Azorius Guildmage and tap it to keep up the Ninja beats. He finally hits a Wrath of God and a Phyrexian Arena. I get a fat Suntail Hawk out there and he plays Hierarch to climb to a respectable eight. Another Ninja connects and another Azorius Guildmage keeps his Hierarch out of combat. He dies with me holding three Pride of the Clouds, a Jitte, and a Meloku that I didn't need. He comments how Ninja dominates his deck.
Sideboarding:
None.
I make no changes since the game was such a blowout, and I might do something wrong.
Game 2
I again have a Ninja, but this time Joe tries to Condemn it once he gets his White source online. I have a Remand and he doesn't have a second White source. He surprises me with a Hypnotic Specter, which is a card that simply doesn't see enough play. Jitte goes onto my Hawk and he Condemns the Ninja and blocks the Hawk, and Hippie goes down. I add Azorius Guildmage, but she eats a Fetters. Another Azorius Guildmage prompts a Punishment for 2, which hits the Jitte as well. Joe's final gas is an Arena that delivers him two Hierarchs, and I'm too far behind to come back so I scoop when my top card isn't Meloku.
Sideboarding:
-2 Umezawa's Jitte
+1 Wrath of God
+1 Azorius Chancery
He’s piled on the Jitte hate it seems, so I board cards that could be useful.
Game 3
Joe manascrews hard, while I have a Hawk into a Guildmage. I attack seven times for the win behind some Remands. He scoops at nine life, since there's absolutely nothing he can do to get back in the game. My philosophy on manascrew is just that, "It happens."
Game Record: 4-2
Match Record: 2-0
Round 3 — Morgan Miscally (Heartbeat Combo)
Game 1
I begin with a Hawk into an Azorius Guildmage. I use up my countermagic early just to keep him backpedaling. The Guildmage taps a Tribe-Elder, and I add Jitte to my side. Morgan gets down to lethal in a turn, and I have plenty of land but no countermagic. He sacs his Elder which I counter, then plays Heartbeat and Transmutes Drift which I counter, then pops his Top which I also counter. His last card is Weird Harvest, and it’s lethal.
Sideboarding:
-4 Umezawa’s Jitte
-3 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
+4 Spell Snare
+3 Pithing Needle
I go for more disruption and take out some slow/tapping low cards.
Game 2
I keep a no-disruption hand, but I keep because at least I have some beats and land. I play Hawk, Pride of the Clouds, then a Hawk and a Chancery. This increases my clock considerably, but the Chancery makes me have only a single untapped land. His turn 2 Tribe-Elder finds a Mountain, and he Savage Twisters my team away for 1. I lose shortly after that, gripping a useless Spell Snare and a Sky Hussar. I wanted the Chancery out of my hand to possibly play my Sky Hussar since I have no disruption and bluffing just never seems to work when I try it. I asked Chris if he still would have Twistered, and he said he would have waited to protect it, but then again the increase in my clock was worth it and prompted the Twister anyway. Elder for Mountain, cast Savage Twister was the only punishing play he had.
I’m somewhat distraught, because I was convinced I had at least a decent Heartbeat matchup.
Game Record: 4-4
Match Record: 2-1
Round 4 — Paul Sotter (Phoenix Control)
I start out with some Azorius Guildmage beatdown that becomes a Ninja. Paul has a Boros Garrison to discard Firemane Angel, so my slow clock is even slower. Paul’s attempt at Faith’s Fetters is triple Remanded, and I add random Suntail Hawks to the table instead of discarding. Paul runs a Gifts Ungiven into a Mana Leak and seems to simply have all the wrong cards at the wrong time. A Wrath of God also hits a Mana Leak, but the second Wrath sticks. He’s uses Compulsive Research to discard another Firemane Angel, but I begin a slow but unstoppable Forecast parade of Pride of the Clouds and Sky Hussar. My Ninjas hit Helixes, and my Jitte gets a Fetters, but I’m drawing so many cards that I soon start making two Pride tokens a turn.
After a few turns of Forecasting, I begin to make a dent into his life total that was up to 24 when I started Forecasting. Make two tokens, tap them to forecast, five to attack. Two more tokens to forecast, seven to attack. A hardcast Firemane Angel is tapped by a backup Azorius Guildmage and I alpha strike for the win with 1/1 flyers against a creature-hating deck that started at 50 life.
Sideboarding:
-3 Umezawa’s Jitte
+2 Pithing Needle
+1 Azorius Chancery
I like to keep just one Jitte against a Fetters deck, and the Needles are for his Angels. The truth is I wasn’t really scared of anything in his deck except for Zur’s Weirding. His deck seemed to have no countermagic at all, just some Compulsive Research, Gifts Ungiven, and Zur’s Weirding on the splash.
Game 2
I get a very slow hand, with a Suntail Hawk that beats for five turns. Paul makes the first move with Compulsive Research, but hits two of my Remands. I begin Forecasting Pride of the Clouds, but Paul soon puts a stop to that with Pithing Needle. I play a Needle of my own on Firemane Angel and I drop the 4/4 Pride to bring the pain. It hits a Fetters.
I’m now faced with a decision that won me the game. I didn’t know it at the time, but I wasn’t aware of what was important in the matchup. I was thinking “I need to protect my beaters so they can go the distance.” I’m holding Kira and a second Pride of the Clouds. The Pride is big, but it could hit another Fetters. If I play Kira, it makes his targeted removal whiff and then I could then drop the Pride, but that’s walking into a Wrath.
I decide to drop Pride of the Clouds and take chunks of seven out of his life total and keep Kira back. Paul has two Firemanes in his bin and he’s more than ready to start reanimating them, so he goes for a Terashi’s Grasp on my Pithing Needle. By random luck, or pure skill, I happen to have Kira in my hand to pitch to Disrupting Shoal. A couple of turns later, and Paul dies to my army while I’m holding two Melokus in reserve.
Another thing I do too often is play safe. On the last turn, I had the kill on the board if I were to Disrupting Shoal Paul’s Lightning Helix to live a turn, but I simply said go because he had another card in his hand (which turned out to be dead). He seemed miffed that I would not kill him given the chance, but I didn’t know what that last card was.
Game Record: 6-4
Match Record: 3-1
Round 5 — Grant Christopher (Ghost Husk)
Game 1
I begin the game curving from Azorius Guildmage into Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, while Grant makes a Kami of Ancient Law into a Nantuko Husk. I think carefully about what to do next, and just settle for a Jitte, mostly to prevent his, leaving two mana up. Grant thinks for a long time and calls my bluff with an Orzhov Pontiff against my no counterspells. Grant correctly haunts his own Ancient Law, Wrathing my board and crushing me for lethal a couple of turns later.
Nice matchup.
Sideboarding:
-4 Umezawa’s Jitte
-4 Lantern Kami
-3 Suntail Hawk
-4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
+4 Wrath of God
+4 Spell Snare
+3 Descendant of Kiyomaro
+3 Pithing Needle
+1 Azorius Chancery
Ghost Husk is such an abysmal matchup that I’ve got a 15-card sideboard against it. I take out most of my little guys and morph into a bad Azorius Control deck.
Game 2
Grant starts off strong with Isamaru into Dark Confidant, and plays a Last Gasp on my Azorius Guildmage. He is very surprised by a Wrath of God, and seems to visibly adjust his gameplan. He has a Ghost Council, but I make a large Descendant of Kiyomaro. I follow with two Melokus, and he doesn’t have a second Mortify. Meloku is enough to kill him while my large Descendant holds off most of his army, despite some Pontiff shenanigans.
Game 3
I keep a land light hand but I have the Spell Snare for his turn 2 Dark Confidant. Despite how absolutely godlike this exchange is, I muster a Guildmage and a Descendant but Grant’s Basilicas put him higher on cards. By the time I draw some more lands to potentially do some of many things, such as Forecast or Wrath or Meloku, Grant has a Ghost Council active and I simply die to it in the long run, just like all Wrath-based control decks do.
Game Record: 7-6
Match Record: 3-2
Round 6 — Richard ? (Rox Control)
This random is playing another version of the popular WGB Control deck that revolves around Loxodon Hierarch, Phyrexian Arena, and Dimir House Guard. Adding the Dimir House Guard engine makes it into a real deck; I personally don’t consider Nassif’s “Beach House” deck a true deck, as it’s merely a collection of powerful rares.
Game 1
I fool Richard into thinking I’m some kind of Blue control deck with the powerful plays of Island, go for a few turns. He makes some Golgari Signet love and transmutes Dimir House Guard into Nightmare Void, and begins slamming it into my Remands, drawing me some White mana. I get some Hawks and a Pride online, and when the Nightmare Void connects it bins my Meloku. I get a Jitte active and he takes a couple turns to play out a Phyrexian Arena and Transmute for an obvious Faith’s Fetters. I can’t do much about it, and just get another attack in, prompting a Wrath of God. I start my army again with some Forecast and a Suntail Hawk that attacks past a Loxodon Hierarch for a Ninja.
A Bottled Cloister comes online for him, but the lifegain is noticeably absent. A Debtors’ Knell hits, and I get him down to two life. My Meloku joins his team, and my alpha strike is rendered ineffective by some extremely hideous tokens that all regenerate because of Loxodon Hierarch. I scoop just a damage shy, with a Ninja in my hand.
He comments that I got off to a slow start. It’s just that my Aggro-Control deck delivered up the control and the aggro showed up late.
Sideboarding:
-3 Umezawa’s Jitte
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Wrath of God
+1 Azorius Chancery
I make some random changes to just see what’s more useful in the matchup.
Game 2
I get out a Ninja and Kira, but then lose my entire hand to a Persecute Blue. That’s the end of that match.
Game Record: 7-8
Match Record: 3-3
Round 7 — Joe Garrison (Hand in Hand)
Well, at least it’s not Ghost Husk.
Game 1
Joe starts with Plagued Rusalka into Dark Confidant into Descendant of Kiyomaro. I have Azorius Guildmage to tap the Descendant, but my Jitte is rendered ineffective because of Plagued Rusalka. He adds some protection Knights, and while I spend some countermagic here and make a Pride of the Clouds there, the combination of Dark Confidant and Descendant of Kiyomaro dominates me with resource replenishment.
Sideboarding:
-4 Umezawa’s Jitte
-4 Lantern Kami
-3 Suntail Hawk
-4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
+4 Wrath of God
+4 Spell Snare
+3 Descendant of Kiyomaro
+3 Pithing Needle
+1 Azorius Chancery
Game 2
I make a poor decision to keep a two Plains hand. By the time a Hand of Cruelty is swinging for lethal with a Jitte, I have played two Plains, two Adarkar Wastes, and I’m holding triple Remand, some Mana Leaks, and a Meloku. Not casting spells loses me this one.
Game Record: 7-10
Match Record: 3-4
Round 8 — Brian Eason (Heartbeat Combo)
Brian is young enough for the Junior Super Series and doesn’t have nearly the refined play of Morgan Miscally, my round 3 opponent.
Game 1
Brian plays first with a Top, but I have the turn 2 Ninja. On turn 4, I attempt a Guildmage, and we have a Remand war that I win. He is confused about how I can Remand my own spells to counter his Remand, but a nearby judge gives what I consider a rather poor explanation.
Brian drops a Drift, which I tap after casting my Guildmage. He can’t seem to find anything useful and gets a Transmute countered by the Guildmage on the next turn. His desperation Early Harvest is Mana Leaked, and it’s time for game 2.
Sideboarding:
-3 Umezawa’s Jitte
+3 Pithing Needle
I was rather unimpressed with Spell Snare from my last match. You have to get in a counter war for it to do anything, and during testing I decided the best plan in game 1 is to use my counters at the first opportunity to slow the Heartbeat player down, because what I really needed was more attack phases, not a counter-war over Maga. Using the counters early seems to align with what my deck is trying to do. Saving up for a counter war means I have to worry about Determined and Gigadrowse, and some other things that my deck isn’t supposed to care about.
Game 2
Brian starts with a Top and a Kudzu, signaling he has gone for the man plan. I have an Azorius Guildmage and he adds a Jitte to his side. I simply tap his equipped Kudzu every turn and swing while he manascrews. This continues for six straight turns, and I make land drops the entire time. Brian’s deck delivers him some land, and soon enough he feels compelled to Punishment my Guildmage and his Kudzu plus Jitte away. I play a second Guildmage, still making land drops.
At seven lands, he attempts a Meloku. I Mana Leak, and he Remands his Meloku. Still in response, I Remand my Mana Leak, then play Mana Leak again targeting Meloku. Brian is very confused again, but one of his onlooking friends assures him I can do that. I make a Pride of the Clouds and Brian follows with Keiga, which gets tapped. After eleven consecutive land drops, I play Meloku and Fireball Brian out with Pride of the Clouds.
Game Record: 11-8
Match Record: 4-4
Round 9 — Allen Chang (Azorius Skies w/ burn)
Game 1
Allen drops two Azorius First-Wings — mirror match! I answer with Azorius Guildmage and two Pride of the Clouds. He adds Glorious Anthem, but I’m able to contain his poor draw with Guildmage taps and large Pride beatdown. I’m at two life from burn, but he can’t pull a Helix or Char to finish me off. Neither of us drew a Jitte during the match.
Sideboarding:
-4 Lantern Kami
-3 Suntail Hawk
-4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
-1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
+4 Wrath of God
+4 Spell Snare
+3 Descendant of Kiyomaro
+1 Azorius Chancery
Did I come prepared for the mirror match or what?
Game 2
We both begin with Azorius Guildmage, but Allen adds Azorius First-Wing and a Glorious Anthem. I use my Guildmage for chump-and-tap action, but Allen doesn’t commit more to the board. My Wrath of God hits and once again, my opponent is very surprised. I begin to forecast my Pride of the Clouds, but when I play one out it gets Spell Snared. I’m forced to Wrath again, taking a pain down to one life. Allen doesn’t draw a burn spell before I untap with Pride of the Clouds and Meloku for the Fireball-style kill.
We spend the rest of the round comparing builds and going over our previous matches. Allen’s build hits much harder, but doesn’t have my late game. He also lacks Jittes because his friends had to share them. It’s interesting that we both our builds went 4-4 and had similar matches.
Game Record: 13-8
Match Record: 5-4
...
In retrospect, I don’t think I was far enough along in the deck’s evolution before subjecting it to the Regionals test gauntlet after just a week of testing.
It’s interesting how a 4/3 flyer that untaps your team for five mana is often completely irrelevant. There were times when casting this guy would literally do me nothing because it would turn off my countermagic, my card drawing, and still lose in a fight against a Dragon. Sky Hussar’s forecast can be very powerful but he needs a team out there. He is a sideboard card at best.
An example of a successful Skies build is this deck piloted by Robert Cuvelier to a 1st place finish at Regionals in Orlando, FL:
Very aggro main, can board into a “deploy and protect” strategy, and tight on slots. At least for two people I know of, angering thousands of fans was worth it, Mr. Forsythe.
And there you have it — my week long endeavor to break Azorius Aggro-Control. Why not try something new, something rogue, or “another direction” for a guild? After all, how can you expect anyone to read your report if you “just played Heartbeat”? Would you know who Ben Goodman was if his Honolulu list wasn’t so lovable?
I don’t think so.
If he had “just played ‘Tog” in Extended, would John Friggin’ Rizzo be regarded as a deck-building genius?
I don’t think so.
He would still be searching for Jamie Wakefield. Instead, at long last, he has found him.
While I keep searching...
Kenneth Nagle
NorrYtt
NorrYtt@gmail.com
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