I like to play control. Generally I choose one of thenon-counterspell sort, but I’m not too picky if counters are the way it has togo. I also hate mirror match (especiallyin those counter wars). Basically,I’m all about killing creatures and winning in a few monumental turns. I’ve played type 2 control in manyways, let’s take a quick look at my history as I can remember it:
Onslaught Block: Both BG Oversold Cemetary aggro-control andUW Control
Mirrodin Block: UW control and Tooth and Nail (controlversus Affinity)
Kamigawa: 5 Color Control, UG aggro-control
Ravnica: WUg control (This one was expensive…friggin’ duals)
Coldsnap: Mono-Red Control, BW(g) control (Martyr of Sands)
Time Spiral: BW control, BWg control, BWu Control
And recently, away at school, witha budget, and a Mac (no MTGO), I’ve been at somewhat of a loss. But with summer coming up, I’ll be ableto change this. With a new setjust coming out, this seems like a sign from God (or whatever gives signs toatheists) that it’s time to find my control deck again.
You’ll notice that many of thesedecks weren’t the most popular decks of their formats. This has a lot to do with my disdainfor mirror-matches, and the joy I have in making my own decklists. And in this tradition, I’m looking again.
Duringthis search, I just realized my favorite little interaction from the new set;Godhead of Awe and Desert. I wantthis to happen. And, I’m notafraid to search it out because Godhead is usually a 4/4 flyer for 5 and Desertis usually a Faeries thwart—so they’re both “good” on their own. So I set out to choose how I wanted tomake this work. Godhead is blue orwhite or both, so I just thought of how I’d combo colors with these and if anyof these combos worked well with what I thought a control deck needed to havein this day and age.
First I tried the (kinda) obvious UW Godhead:
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Godhead of Awe
2 Aeon Chrnoicler
2 Ajani Goldmane
2 Sacred Mesa
2 Crovax the Ascendant
(15)
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Wrath of God
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Condemn
4 Coldsteel Heart
3 Cryptic Command
(21)
4 Adarkar Wastes
3 Faerie Conclave
3 Desert
4 Mystic Gate
4 Boreal Shelf
4 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Snow-Covered Island
(24)
SB:
I can see the possibility of a transformational sideboardwith this deck. It’s currentlyvery “Big Mana”-esque and this is mostly because, like I said, I dislikecounter wars. Also, I wanted toplay godhead and too many main phase spells work well with it to rely onplaying on their turns. However, Itraditional sideboard is also very possible, depending on what you’re expectingfrom the meta. I’ll refrain fromposting sideboards for these guys from now on because this is mostly just amental experiment at this point, and I’d rather not suggest a SB for a meta Idon’t know and for a deck I haven’t tested yet.
This version has many of the thingsI love about control decks; big, powerful spells, lots of card draw, lots ofremoval, and some good life-gain for stall. Most of you will complain for the lack of counterspells in ablue control deck, but as I said, I did this because I don’t like counterspells(I’m just not good at them). Ichose command because it’s the most powerful counterspell in the format, itcantrips, controls, and/or clears out blockers in the way of a chronicler or crovax. A downside to this deck is that it isslow, and may well just die out to the fast format we have now. I’ll have to test to see if my deserts,finks, and onion rings can hold off until I get my setup. I can see this having trouble againstfaeries like ‘lark does, and that’s the opposite of what I wanted.
So, next I tried GW:
4 Wall of Roots
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Cloudthresher
2 Oversoul at Dusk
2 Godhead of Awe
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
1 Akroma, Angel of Vengeance
(17)
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Condemn
3 Harmonize
3 Garruk, Wildspeaker
2 Primal Command
4 Into the North
(19)
4 Arctic Flats
4 Brushlands
3 Horizon Canopy
3 Desert
3 Treetop Village
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Mouth of Ronom
3 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Snow-Covered Forest
(24)
Withall of the “comes into play tapped” and that reminder text “doesn’t tap forcolored mana” that some people choose to disregard on some special lands, Ichose Into the North over Search for Tomorrow and chose to avoid the new filterland because of this (and nonbasic hate) as well. Most of the rest of this should make sense (the wraths wouldgo in the sideboard) except for the godhead—she seems to just be in therebecause I wanted to use her (which is exactly the case). Basically, she’d probably be better offas more oversouls or tarmogoyfs or something. So, while this is one of my favorite ideas for her, it seemstoo forced to be optimal. Also,she doesn’t have any protection…even the 3 counters of the first deck feltsafer than this just throwing her out there.
So, in considering this“protection” dilemma, I came to the conclusion that perhaps counterspells haveto be the way. But, to me, whiteis too mainphase oriented right now for this, so I tried red:
UR Godhead:
3 Godhead of Awe
3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfirs
2 Sower of Temptation
2 Aeon Chronicler
(10)
3 Ancestral Vision
4 Pyroclasm
4 Rune Snag
3 Delay
3 Sulfurous Blast
3 Cryptic Command
2 Think Twice
2 Cancel
1 Pact of the Titan
1 Pact of Negation
(26)
3 Faerie Conclave
4 Shivan Reef
2 Tolaria West
1 Urza’s Factory
1 Desert
1 Vesuva
1 Mouth of Ronom
1 Calciform Pools
6 Snow-Covered Island
4 Snow-Covered Mountain
(24)
WithBlast and ‘Clasm, the desert aspect of Godhead-Desert is kinda already coveredby the spells. But, this is a goodthing because there are fewer mana fixes for opposing colors. I decided to play tolaria west to getthe desert in those few cases where I really feel like I need it, and I’veadded a few other options to tutor for as well. This version has counters, card draw, and destruction, butit has no life-gain (bad when RDW takes a turn for the popular) and I’dpersonally like to avoid counterspell decks if I could. Of course, I could just get over itwith the counterspells and play dragon’s claw and/or bottle gnomes for the RDWmatches. As with the others, we’llsee.
Irealize there are many other possible options, and I encourage you all to trythem out as well as these ones, but I’ll close with the final list I’m thinkingabout right now. This is myfavorite color combo of the last few years; BW control.
WB Godhead
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Dusk Urchins
2 Shriekmaw
2 Godhead of Awe
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
1 Sacred Mesa
(14)
4 Coldsteel Heart
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Wrath of God
2 Scarscale Ritual
2 Ajani Goldmane
2 Liliana Vess
2 Profane Command
1 Grim Harvest
1 Mind Shatter
1 Loxodon Warhammer
(22)
2 Urborg, Yawgmoth’s Tomb
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Urza’s Factory
2 Desert
5 Snow-Covered Swamp
8 Sno-Covered Plains
2 Horizon Canopy
(24)
This one looks good to me, but I do have a few qualms withit. It again seems to have theproblem of trying to fit godhead into a deck that doesn’t need it (and may noteven need it’s color, as I said before, MBC is very good now). Also, with fewer color fixers, white isthe default main color, but with urborg it tempts me to do evil things. It’s hard no to just play al the goodMBC cards and forget the white—which might not be all that bad, really, but itwould make this not fit into the blog theme. Also, without a good “infest” or “massacre,” godhead andswamps don’t go as well together as I had hoped.
All-in-all,Godhead seems to be a powerful card, but she may just not have the place Ihoped she would in any decks nowadays. I’m not ready to give up, and I hope you readers aren’t either. As far as I can tell, white lovesgodhead; Ajani makes your 1/1s win fights, Crovax does the same and kills theirguys, and Sacred Mesa is even better when their guys are just as big as yourpegasi. I’ll do some testing andkeep people posted, but I welcome your help if one of these (or some other)Godhead decks speaks to you. Ilove fun and competitive magic, so I’d be happy to bring that back to type 2.
Many thanks for reading,
-Nicholas “the_deck_tech” Weiss
Tags: Godhead Of Awe Control
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