This week wizards gave us our first spoiler from Conspiracy 2 in the form of a new Planeswalker, Kaya. Considering the last Planeswalker we got from a conspiracy set was vintage playable I had pretty high hopes and Wizards did not disappoint me. The day she dropped I decided I wanted to find a home for her and after some trial and error (and some help from our Brew Corner expert Aaron Gazzaniga) I ended up with list list.
Kaya Kontrol
When I first started brewing I really wanted to go with a creature heavy build that focused on ETB triggers and was Junk. I quickly realized that the deck I was making was extremely clunky and far too slow to do well. So I quickly nuked that list and decided to try an Esper Control shell. Anyone who knows me knows that Miracles, Esper Stoneblade and other Control decks are kind of the bane of my existence. I just don’t like them and I don’t think they’re that good so I decided to use this as an opportunity to try to make a control deck I actually like.
Creatures
The creature package is pretty clearly inspired by both Miracles and Esper Stoneblade. I’ve always loved when Miracles sometimes have the one of copy of Venser, I think he’s a great card and I love the idea of using Kaya’s zero to get his ETB trigger multiple times. Kaya’s zero ability makes Snap, Stoneforge, Clique and Venser all stronger which I think is great. Those cards are great as they are, being able to get multiple ETB triggers from any of them is great. I love the idea of Snapcaster coming back during my upkeep to recast a Brainstorm or a Swords to Plowshare or a Clique coming back to once again be able to take something out of my opponents hand. The only creature without an ETB trigger is Thalia, Heretic Cathar, a card that I think is made for Legacy Control decks. There are not many Legacy decks that don’t depend on duals, creatures or both so she really helps shut down our opponents.
Spells
The spell suite is all about control with plenty of countermagic, card draw and removal. You’ll find removal in the form of Council’s Judgement, Supreme Verdict and Swords to Plowshare, making it pretty hard for our opponents to get a threat to stick. To back that up we’re also running 4 Force of will and 3 Spell Pierce, between the two I’d be pretty impressed by any deck that was able to consistently stick spells. In addition to all of that I have put in 3 Thoughtsieze’s to really have control over everything our opponent is trying to do. As part of the Stoneforge package I’ve included Batterskull, Sword of Feast and Famine and Jitte as way to quickly close out a game.
Planeswalkers
This deck has 6 awesome Planeswalkers main board. There is the obvious 3 Kaya since she is the inspiration of the deck. Her ability to eat our opponents hand, eat at their life total and remove creatures as needed makes her, in my opinion, pretty strong. I’ve included a Tamiyo, Moon Sage as a one of for a multitude of reasons. One is she combos really well with new Thalia and two she really adds another strong control element. Lastly I’ve included two copies of Jace, the Mind Sculptor which I’m not sure needs any explanation, he’s as strong as it gets when it comes to an affordable Control Planeswalker.
I plan on giving this deck a shot as soon as I can get my hands on some copies of Kaya, I think it has some potential. More importantly maybe I’ll find a control deck that I don’t just find slow and obnoxious.