The week’s over and I’ve got a couple of drafts and a Standard tourney under my belt now that Theros is legal. I can’t say I’ll miss the bogeymen of the last year’s standard. Good riddance Thragtusk, Farseek, Restoration Angel, and Snapcaster Mage. Don’t get me wrong these were great cards, I played with them, but I’m glad to see them go. They were crutches for a boring metagame. And certainly not cards that tested skill as much as allowed for mistakes. I could write an entire article on matches that went to time because life gain prevented wins but gummed up the board and the only viable win condition was Nephalia Drownyard.
Terrible.
I won’t but I could.
As a dedicated control player there is only one important rule: play with a decision making level that does not put you in a situation where you go to time. In other words, KNOW YOUR DECK. If you are gonna play the “60 card mill plan” realize that it’s gonna take a little longer to win and that you’ll need to have a non-zero amount of familiarity with the format as well as you and your opponent’s deck. Thankfully, lapses in skill are no longer mitigated by 5/3 beasts. If you don’t have a knack for decision making and know which spells to counter you’ll end up with a 0-2-2 record, and hopefully never try to cast Sphinx’s Revelation again.
Ok. Ok. I’ll end my rant.
Here’s a quick recap of Friday’s Draft.
Friday afternoon, I sat down for a draft at 20ss. My first of the new set. I suspected that drafting Theros would be a much much faster format that its sealed counterpart. I also suspected that most players will start off thinking otherwise. This set has a lot of traps. All these giant Monsterous creatures that beg you to get to 7-9 mana to “win the game” are suspect in my opinion. I decided I was gonna try an aggro build and let the plebs fight over the shiny new Monsterous mechanic, while I focus on the Heroic in W/x.
Why White/X? Aside from white having some of the best Heroic cards, there was another theory than I wanted to test. M14’s White cards were so lackluster that I figured there would still be a collective hive mind against playing white in a new set. M14’s meta was so slow I was hoping that my fellows in this 8 man pool would shy away from it hard. I was rewarded with a bounty of White creatures between 1-3 mana and plenty of Red spells and weenies to make a really aggro 40 card deck.
Between heroic’s low curve and my abundance of scry cards I decided to play 16 lands. It was a solid decision. This deck hit the ground running and never looked back. Most games I started with Akroan Crusader and just attacked in. Some games I was lucky enough to follow him up with an Ordeal of Purphoros. Swinging for 3 and leading the board with 2 creatures in play to follow up my next turn with a Dauntless Onslaught, in for 7 more. Most of my opponents had midrange or slower style deck builds. The removal in this set is so slow there wasn’t much time for them to get any value before I had activated heroic 2-3 times on a guy.
I have to say Labyrinth Champion is my person hero. That guy did so much work. I cast him on turn 4 against an opponent playing B/W. The next turn I he tapped out for a 2/2 lifelink Harpy. Gitty as a schoolgirl I cast Ordeal onto my Champion TWICE! Shocking two x/2 critters. I swung in with my now 4/4 champion and some 1/1 soldiers that had been brick walled for a few turns. The next turn nothing of note was played by my opponent. I untapped, attacked with the lab Champion again both Ordeals blasted out for 6 plus my attacking 6/6. That game didn’t end well for my opponent. I X-0’d the draft quite handily. If you’re looking for good advice about this format look no farther than Hugh Kramer’s format primer on this very site.
On to Standard. I had a particular good few days at work this week, so I decided to pick up everything else I’d need for Esper Control. Seeing that Sunday’s Star City event in Worcester was flooded with Control and Aggro with a touch of Midrange. I decided to make my deck a little more creature resilient (as the aggro decks are cheaper to build and this is week one after all). Here’s my 75. I played this at Montasy on Monday.
Esper Control
| Lands (26) 1 Swamp 2 Plains 4 Hallowed Fountain 1 Azorius Guildgate 5 Island 4 Watery Grave 2 Temple of Deceit 3 Temple of Silence 4 Godless Shrine Creatures (5) 1 Thassa, God of the Sea 1 Aetherling 3 Omenspeaker Spells (29) 2 Warped Physique 1 Hero’s Downfall 2 Far // Away 3 Sphinx’s Revelation 3 Supreme Verdict 3 Syncopate 2 Dissolve 4 Azorius Charm 2 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion 2 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver 2 Jace, Architect of Thought 3 Detention Sphere | Sideboard (15) 1 Doom Blade 2 Glare of Heresy 1 Duress 2 Jace, Memory Adept 2 Clone 1 Thoughtseize 2 Dispel 2 Notion Thief 2 Last Breath |
In the first round I faced off against Dan playing Rock. The first game I was able to control the board pretty easily via wraths and Azorius Charms. Eventually, casting Elspeth and ultimating her and swinging in for a ton. At one point I had the whole Legion of Doom out (Eslpeth, Ashiok and Jace). For what it’s worth Desecration Demon really doesn’t stack up well against Sun’s Champion. Sacing her Soldiers allows her to steadily gain value while still upticking, and if she needs to she can Retribution of the Meek to remove other threats and they’ll eat it too. In the second game Dan was able to kill Elspeth with Vraska (who was threatening to ultimate) and I had to (sigh) rely on Aetherling for the win. I suspect that Golgari Charm could even the odds a bit for this deck. Vraska seems like she has some added value with the number of Planeswalkers and Detention Spheres in the meta increasing over the next few weeks.
Derek and I faced off in the second round. He was on U/W control. After a bit of struggle in game one I scooped to to his Elspeth to save time and moved to boarding. Bringing in 10 cards (everything but Doom Blade, Glare of Heresy, and Last Breath). My stance here was to move to a more “Must Answer” deck. On my fourth turn I passed and Derek cast Azorius Charm for a card. I snapped in Notion Thief, and took the card. “Cute!” Derek laughed. Notion Thief sat on my side of the board for most of the rest of the match as Derek sat with various card draw spells in hand. Eventually, I cast my Elspeth and ended the game. The third game was a little more tricky. We got into a race with my Aetherling and his Daxos and Mutavault. Ætherling was taking large chunks out of Derek’s life but Daxos and Mutavault had been working on me for a couple turns. Exiling the Aetherling would leave it open to removal so I aimed ahead and smashed in. In the final swing Daxos flipped a land and Derek conceded as Aetherling was pushing for lethal the next round. What a grinder! I’d definitely give Notion Thief a little better look.
The third round I played against local ringer Waid. His G/R “Little Kid” deck just annihilated me. The first game Domri Rade ultimated, that was pretty much it for me. The second game I was blown out by Ruric Thar and Domri and Chandra. When I tried to get back in the game with a Far//Away he cast Ranger’s Guile, aka The Green Counterspell, and I extended my hand. Decks like this are reasons why Planar Cleansing might need a spot or two in my board. I was flat out back pedaling for both games. Each card was just designed to laugh at my strategy.
The final round I lost to an Izzet Deck running Pyromancer’s Gauntlet and burn spells. That’s gonna happen from time to time. I think after playing all three rounds I sideboarded wrong. I should have brought in my Notion Thief. Thoughtflare and Steam Augury out-classed me after several poorly timed spells were cast on my end. A simple Notion Thief after a tap out for Thoughtflare would have been beautiful.
2-2 not terrible but I definitely want to make some changes. Omen Speaker was simply lackluster. It blocked fine but frankly didn’t do much else. Scry 2 is not a card. In times when I had the board clear dealing 1 damage a turn to my opponent was worthless. They had to go. I wasn’t impressed with Warped Physique either. In general I had way too much creature removal (and I never even played RDWs). I decided to move my board around too. After a little testing some threat diversity seems like a good plan.
Prognostic Sphinx is a real boss in limited. But he seems like a total heartthrob in control. Flying 3/5s block well. They survive Mizzium Mortars. He can go Hexproof in a pinch which is pretty great. This means he comes down a full two turns earlier than Aetherling. And a 3 power doesn’t get offed by our own Elspeth. Scry 3 is insane. Each turn. You’ll almost always get through to something you need. He’s in as a one of. I made a few alterations to the deck for Sunday’s GPT. Here’s my new 75:
Esper Control 2.0
Notably, I added Gideon, Champion of Justice and Blind Obedience to the Main deck. As well as a pair of Thoughtseize. In the board I removed some chaff and added 3 Returned Phalanx for the Aggro match-up as it blocks and kills most threats. The second copies of Sphinx and Ætherling might be too much so those spots are in flux. I added a third Notion Thief and changed the Dispels to Negates to deal with Rakdos’s Return and the like. These may become Swan Songs.
So that’s it for my week in Magic. Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Montasy for this GPT. I already have two byes, but its a Standard tourney and I want to see what’s out there. I can’t ignore the 3x multiplier on the event either. Good luck out there.
Zac Clark, Durdle Magus
Developments in Durdling is a Hipsters of the Coast column about the Playing control in a midrange world. Focused on Standard with occasional asides to Legacy and Modern, it is a commentary of the current trends in Constructed magic and a place that Zac Clark vents about weekly defeats.