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By: walkerdog, Tyler Walker
May 06 2015 12:00pm
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I haven't played Standard in quite a while. It is relatively easy to keep up with Standard without owning any cards, between birding local events and playtesting sessions, online deck databases, strategy sites, and Twitch streams, and so I probably could tell you most of the top 5-10 decks of each of the past few standard formats without too much sweat. Most people who are even passingly interested in Magic have that opportunity. Lately though, the kids have been getting older, and as my wife gets closer to finishing her Masters, I will have a little more time to play in Magic tournaments.

I also really liked the look of Tarkir as a block - I didn't pick up much in the way of Khans or Fate cards, but I was enjoying reading about the sets and brainstorming. Dragons of Tarkir looked a little bit lackluster to me to play with, but I liked the various Commands, I liked the Charms, and there WERE cards like Narset, Ojutai Exemplars, Tasigur, the various dragons that might be playable (I loved the Regent cycle, even if the Green and White feel just a little off of what they could have been), and the removal options in this format.

I decided I was going to jump back into Standard. I liked the cards I was seeing played in RDW.  The upside with RDW is that you can usually build a very competitive deck that isn't quite tier 1, while the downside, is, uh, it's not quite tier 1 and who wants to ONLY play RDW? The cards aren't exactly super flexible staples of multiples decks, generally speaking. I made a fairly deliberate decision to avoid decks that would rely much on cards from Theros block - as the rotation is coming, and I wasn't sure how many standard matches I'd be able to play before then, I decided to focus on a deck, or decks, that would probably survive rotation mostly intact.

RDW at the time was heavily reliant on Goblin Rabblemaster, who is unlikely to be around this fall (although he obviously COULD see print in Magic Origins), so I decided against it. I didn't want to pick up a somewhat limited deck that was also losing a key component. Later results would go to show you don't really even NEED Rabblemaster, but that was then.

I started buying and trading for cards from Shaheen Soorani's UBw Dragons deck. On March 13th, Shaheen posted an article about his Esper control deck. You kind of have to take Shaheen's articles with a grain of salt. He is very good at playing control, and he seems to consistent succeed with control even when control is bad, so sometimes it can be a bit of a mistake to get too excited to play his decks. They may be miserable due to your metagame, or just the format in general, and Shaheen will figure out how to run them to wins, while you or I will die a lot looking at a lot of lands in play, cards in hand, and no way to live another turn. Here is his starting point from that article on Starcitygames.

 

 

If you enjoy math, you probably added up the numbers and realize he's on 59 cards. I'm pretty sure he had 1 more Dismal Backwater or Urborg. When I looked at his list, I loved the cards he was building with. I had come to an independent conclusion that Ugin, Elspeth, Ashiok, and possibly some of the new dragons were Sweet Cards, and I decided I was also willing to play some mixture in a control deck as my finishers. Even if I was underestimating the viability of blue-based control in this format, my enthusiasm for the cards combined with Shaheen's deck made me ready to give it a go.  Sure, Ashiok and Elspeth are rotating, but I don't hate having a random extra planeswalkers or two from an old standard as much as I do 4 Rabblemasters.

Shaheen was all over Narset. He felt she was going to have a similar impact to Jace. He also did not appear as enthusiastic as he would later become about The Juice, Dragonlord Ojutai. For a pretty early draft, this deck is surprisingly close to where the deck appears to be ending up - sure, he didn't quite realize the impact of slamming The Juice on turn 5, and he probably is overdoing it on Anticipate, while not yet diversifying his removal up between Ultimate Price and Bile Blight, which he would turn to at a later point, but this isn't far off.

At this point I started trading for the cards I wanted to play. I looked at Ojutai online, but waited - at $7 he wasn't exactly a bad buy, but I wondered if I'd even play him, if I would play him well, and if he wouldn't just die to some dumb removal spell every time I attacked with him.  If Shaheen was a little off on him, I was more off. I did finally knuckle under and pick him up at $13/copy, so I didn't exactly screw myself based on his price now, but still, I could have had twice as many for the same cost!

I ordered some cards I hadn't found locally, and then Pro Tour DTK occurred. Three different UB control decks posted very impressive results. Adrian Sullivan had a somewhat old-school creatureless control deck, using 5 planeswalkers as his only real win conditions. His deck was leaned very hard on controlling the board, shooting down creatures with spot removal, and then cleaning up with 3 Perilous Vault, 2 Ugin, and 1 Crucible of Fate. Shota Yasooka took a UB Dragons deck to the finals, building his in a similar fashion to the Shaheen Esper build, but without getting into White for The Juice, Narset, Utter End, and the sideboard options you might play. The final was the UBw Dragons builds sported by Andrew Ohlshwager, Josh Utter-Leyton, and other pros, which was a lot like Shaheen's deck, except for cutting Narset, who was almost universally panned in tournament reports, and playing with the numbers one removal spells, counters, and draw spells.

I should reference Andrew Cuneo's UW deck - the only reason I didn't just go with it is that it seemed dangerous to rely on just the planeswalkers-as-kill-conditions when you're Tyler Walker, not one of the foremost control players in the world, Andrew Cuneo. I liked that the Dragons builds appeared capable of just jamming dudes on turns 5-7 and forming a wall while going to town on the opponent.

As my cards came in, I caught word that we had a PPTQ in town. Normally, I really like to compete in these sorts of events every chance I get, but my wife has been finishing up her masters, and this was finals week. With just one more semester to go, it wasn't reasonable to be sure I could play on a Saturday if she needed help so she could finish off her finals. However, it worked out that there was a bit of a lull in her schedule, and I was able to plan to attend. 

A few days before-hand, in visiting with some of the locals, it sounded like Dragons was going to be heavily played.  This almost made me just skip the tournament - why subject oneself to a possibly-miserable-control-mirror day when I could just NOT do that instead, especially when I had no practice with the deck?

I was able to play a couple of games against Mike, a local who was running UBwg dragons - it was basically the logical precursor to the deck Mike Flores played. Mike was splashing for Dromoka with Temples and Haven of the Spirit Dragon. I don't think he was on the Crucible plan, but it was a beating to play against, and it taught me a lot for the mirror.

I also forced myself to watch some of the amazing (good and bad) twitch streams that played Dragons, and a few matches from the Pro Tour. Honestly, the most educational thing was watching people made idiotic mistakes on streams, as it was the sort of stuff I would probably do, and seeing them occur slowly in front of me was almost as traumatic as just making the same mistake myself in a match. "No, don't counter that irrelevant spell! You'll tap out! HE CAN'T BEAT YOU WITH THAT NOOOOOOOO!!!!"

I watched a few games from the Pro Tour as well, and studied the various builds that players had come up with - the UB build seemed great against aggressive and midrange creature decks, both dragons and non-dragons versions, while the UBw deck seemed to have a card in Ojutai that can still win quickly against aggro decks but also just come down quickly against slower decks and end the game, rather than demanding that I play Pro Tour-caliber quality of play to win with a control deck.

Watching other people play the deck also helped me decide on my mana-base and sideboard. One of the harder things to do with a deck like this is to play your lands in the right order (when there even is a "right" order) and also to build a sideboard plan that will benefit you, instead of being a simple swap of like cards or cards that don't actually make the matchup better.

Here are the goals that I wanted to accomplish with my mana-base:

  • The deck wants UU on turn 2, BB on turn 2, and UU and BB on turn 3. It is pretty difficult to always have all of those things, unless you just get a UB land on turn 1 every time and Urborg any time you want.  You don't always need both of these thing every time every game though, but you want to be able to consistently get to the color combinations that you need on time.
  • The deck wants to be able to pay 3UW and/or 3BB on turn 5 each game. You may not actually play something on those turns, but you want to when you need to.
  • The deck needs to be able to start casting 2 spells a turn on most turns after turn 4. This will mostly be accomplished during the games when you're paying mana, but the mana-base needs to be capable of supporting this.
  • The deck wants to hit its first 8+ land drops. The deck really needs to hit its first 5-6 land drops to win. 
  • The deck needs enough fetches to support Dig Through Time and any other Delve cards you play, but basic lands kind of suck for the deck, and losing life to fetches is actually really relevant.
  • Scry lands and Dismal Backwater, while slow, are very important for finding the cards you need, and staying alive. I won 2 games in the swiss after Dismal Backwater(s) kept me from dropping below 1 life. I would probably not have won them if they had just been untapped lands.

I ended up cutting Caves of Koilos. They don't make blue mana, so they're useless at being able to play on turn 2 to support Counterspell, while they hurt enough without helping out Dredge, that they just felt bad. I went 12 Temples as they seemed to be the best option. They helped with low-land hands, they helped find untapped lands for later turns, and they helped find spells when you need them. The one thing they didn't do was fill the graveyard for Dig Through Time, but I was okay with that - they helped me find things to do that job. I MIGHT cut one Temple of Silence for a Flooded Strand, but I'm not set on that.

For my sideboard, I wanted to play just a few alternate removal spells, such as Drown in Sorrow, Utter End, Icefall Regent, Dragonlord Silumgar, and Foul-Tongue Invocation. This allowed me to swap "like-for-like" but drastically shift away from ineffective cards in specific matchups. I also wanted my deck to be at a solid point in game 1 for the mirror. This meant that I wanted the second Haven of the Spirit Dragon, I wanted maindeck Thoughtseize, and I wanted Narset. I chose to play 3 Foul-Tongue Invocations in the main. While the cards is a little bit inefficient compared to Bile Blight and Ultimate Price, it hits "everything," and was my one flexible concession to aggressive decks while being fine for the mirror.

On the morning of the tournament, I went to the shop a little early. As I sat, visited, and loaned/borrowed cards, I noticed that of the 10 or so folks there, only TWO were not playing some sort of UBx deck. I went ahead and retooled my deck a little, then went up and registered. I expected lots of UBx, a couple of aggro players, and then 5-10 Abzan and Bant Juicers, basically decks that wanted to play GW cores but couldn't decide on their third colors. Here is where I ended up:

 

 

Obviously Dismal Backwater isn't a spell, and while Haven IS a spell, it is also a land. And Urborg is a land. So we're at 27 lands. I think that with this many scry-lands, you could cut 1 land, but I have no idea which one I would cut. Probably a Swamp or Island, but that seems like a hard cut to make. I suppose if you swap one for Anticipate, that might work out well, as Anticipate has a similar effect (making land drops and casting spells on time) while helping you find the right card at the right time, plus fueling dredge, but honestly, Anticipate kind of sucks, man. It's just never that exciting to cast in this format. This could change.

 

For the first round, I was matched up with Chase (I think, it could have been Chance). I kept a hand with Thoughtseize and stuff. The turn 2 Thoughtseize saw that he had Dig, 3 Silumgar's Scorn, and, I believe, a Hero's Downfall. I took Dig. I'm not sure if that's correct, as sometimes they only have 1 more answer to your threats than you have total threats, so you might need to kill Scorn, which is one of those answers. We played draw-go for a few turns, and then he had a Dig. I had no response, and then tried Dig a turn or two later. He countered. He got Ojutai out, and I used a Downfall to take it out when it attacked. The game went on a long time, with both sides exchanging Ugin and Silumgar. After resolving his fourth Dig (counting the one I discarded), he Anticipated, and a bystander stopped us, and got a judge.

Apparently my opponent, used to Dig, had picked 2 cards from Anticipate and had to take a game loss as I (and the bystander) weren't sure which of his 4 cards in his hand were the right 2. This was a pretty bad beat as I was only slightly ahead at this point, sitting at a few points of life with Silumgar in play and a Scorn in hand, but he would have had 4 cards (after drawing for his turn) to start his turn with.

I sided -1 Bile Blight, -2 Ultimate Price, -1 Hero's Downfall, -2 Crux of Fate, +1 Ashiok, +1 Duress, +1 Utter End, +1 Narset, +1 PLA, and +1 Stroke, I believe. We only had 14 minutes left, plus a 2 minute extension from the judge call. This time the game when fairly in my favor - I was able to discard as early dragon to make his Scorn dead. He stuck Risen Executioner, but wasn't able to protect it from Utter End. I then got Silumgar to hit him a few times, while he stabilized with Silumgar and tried to mount his own offense with a second Executioner. This worked for a couple of turns, but then Ugin came down and was in the process of cleaning up, taking him to 3 life on the 5th turn.

1-0

My second match was against one of the best players in the region, Brook Gardner-Durbin. He was on UWB as well. He stuck a quick Ashiok and rode it to victory in G1. I sided out similarly to R1. In G2, he stuck a turn 2 Grindclock. I'll give you a minute to read that.

Mhhmmm... seems good in the control mirror! He starts upping counters, but I do have Ashiok this time, followed by Narset. Narset ticks up, drawing me nothing (I think? I might have had 1 hit), but Brook scoops to her ultimate. In game 3, I brought in 1 more Utter End to fight the tick-tock of time. 

Brook again had the turn 2 clock, and while I had Utter End for a long time, I whiffed on White sources and died around 10 turns later.

1-1

In round three, I was paired with Brett. He was running Ojutai Bant. He started off with some Deathmist Raptor action, then Mastery of the Unseen, giving him a really good threat-base. Luckily, he was a little light on lands, and I was able to stick Ojutai to start the cards flowing to my hand. He had a Valorous Stance, but I had a second Ojutai, and outraced him to finish it up.

I sided in Duress, both dragons, and an Utter End, cutting an Ultimate Price, two Dissolve, and a Downfall. Basically I wanted to get perfect information/discard early on if I could, and then just out-race him. I believe he just ran me over in game two. I can't remember exactly how it went. In the final game, I was a bit light on mana, missing my 5th land drop, then my 6th, while I tried to hold back the hordes of Deathmist Raptors and company. I was able to semi-stabilize with Foul-Tongue Invocation, recouping some of my lost life and attacking with Ojutai, countering Valorous Stance when it tried to kill The Juice.

His Mastery of the Unseen was a big threat, but it was a touch too slow to race my 5 power in the air backed up by removal. The game came down to Brett, with a Manifested 2/2 in play for a few turns, using Mastery on my EoT to get a second 2/2. I killed it with Hero's Downfall that I'd just found with my Ojutai attack, and, I believe, it was Den Protector (aka the way to swing for lethal AND cash in for another card from his GY to kill OJ even if I could kill it).  Killing it was a basic play, but I had ALMOST killed the Manifest creature in play for a turn or three for no reason, so I guess I'm pretty basic.

2-1

In round four, I was paired with Cody Trafton, a local who I worked with at Hastings years ago. Cody is up there with Brook as far as being a pretty high-quality opponent most of the time. He was on Ojutai Bant as well. He started off fairly quickly, and Fleecemane Lion threatened to quickly overwhelm me. I tried to find answers and failed to find them quickly enough - my Invocations were not revealing Dragons, and they also lacked targeted spot removal to support them, so they were just killing Raptors that came right back.

I sided similarly to round 3, but I think I swapped Duress for Stroke in the cards I brought in, as I wanted to be able to pick off Ojutai, but I'm not sure I stayed with that. In game two I think I just got Ojutai out on-curve. I don't remember if Cody's mana was very good this game though. He had Ojutai too, but I got Silumgar, however, I think I actually screwed Cody over this game - I attacked with both dragons against his manifest 2/2 and his Ojutai, and after he blocked Juice on Juice, said, "Okay, so your board is wiped?" noting both dragons trigger Silumgar, however, while Cody was relatively quick to block Ojutai, after thinking about it later that evening, I think I should have been much quicker to note the triggers from Silumgar, as they would have affected the board (killing the manifested creature) and, I should be clearly announcing my triggers. He allowed it and flipped his Fleecemane Lion to keep it, but after thinking about it, I shouldn't have been even thinking about "getting" him in that way - it's not reasonable or honest, even if it's something we would have praised 5 years ago on Starcity... the rules now are much better, and there is much letter, "getting" people, which is a superior game, fun-wise. The game was probably a win for me either way, because I had removal in my hand had he attack with Ojutai instead, but it certainly was a painful situation for him, and I didn't like how I'd played it out.

 Game three was similar to game one, as he got Lion out and just sat back on it. I finally got a second black source the turn AFTER Cody could activate Fleeceman Lion. I had to counter a threat and then he got to Monstrous Lion. This was problematic as he had an Elf out to protect Lion from the Invocation I had. We got to where I was at low life, with Silumgar in play facing off the Elf and the Lion, and, uh, I missed just attacking at then after the Elf dies, Invoking. I burned a couple of Invocations to stay healthy, and eventually I found Ugin to end the game.

There was one spot in that game where Cody did call a judge, after he attacked with Elf and Lion, and I felt I'd indicated my block on Lion with Silumgar, as it was across from the Lion, and I'd either touched it or gestured toward it after attackers, but Cody felt I hadn't declared my blocks. I understand his point of view - we went to damage and I said, "Take 1?" while he said, "Take 5?" which would have been lethal. The judge ruled that we'd rewind to declare blockers, so I lived through the turn, and was very clear to note my blockers with both verbal statements and hand motions each time after that. That night, I was thinking about this when it dawned on me that he should have called a judge for the previously described situation, not as much this one - it was the previous one that I feel is more questionable, and that if he gets to rewind (or if the judge just ruled I'd missed my trigger), might have worked out better for him.

3-1

In round 5, I was paired with Dan Burcham, another great player from the area. He was on UB Dragons. We agreed to a draw into top 8.

3-1-1

I finished 4th, and get to pick to go first against Koby. He is on BGW control. He effortlessly shreds me in 2 games - there isn't much to say about it. He had Den Protectors and Raptors both games, while I was a little short on mana in game 1, and had a few Dragon-reliant spells and no dragons after he Thoughtseized away my dragon on turn 2. I feel like they are the favorite if they're playing a lot of discard (and he had 4x Thoughtseize plus Duress after board, which isn't quite a LOT, but is certainly more than I'd prefer!). At the same time, if I were playing a version with Perilous Vault, I think it might be more in my favor - as the wrath/exile effects increase, the slow(ish) version of UGW with Raptor/Protector gets a bit worse.

Overall, it was a fun tournament, and I really liked the deck and the format. The mirror was not miserable, and even the less-favorable matchups didn't feel bad with the deck. I went 2-0 vs Bant Ojutai, which is supposed to be favored against Esper Dragons. I certainly think their deck can present troubles for Esper, but I didn't think it felt that unfavorable - similarly, Koby's BGW deck was tough, but he played well too, and I didn't, plus I got a little unlucky. I'm not too upset to lose 1/3 of my matches in matchups that people feel good about against me.  If you are curious about Brook's list (or any of them), feel free to check out a new blog created by some of the Bozeman, Montana-area players and judges. It's a bit rough right now, as they just put it up a couple days ago, but the lists are posted.

I hope you enjoyed the deck, and I'd recommend it going forward, albeit with plenty of tweaking for your expected metagame.