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The metagame post Worlds was a bit stale. Everyone was playing Doran, Dragonstorm, Elves or Mana Ramp. Mannequin was there but it was losing power day by day. By then I was taking a break from Magic. It was boring and I had no intentions of innovating at all. Then two things happened, Morningtide came out and Jon Finkel won PT Kuala Lumpur. I had all of the motivation I needed from that PT and from the release of a new set.

 

 

After the release of a new set, ideas always start flowing and new archetypes are born. As you all know I love Control decks because I like card advantage and to have options and I were in a desperate need of something like that because Permission was no longer viable. Then Reveillark combo was born.

 

 

Reveillark had all the tools to become a Tier 1 deck. It had card advantage, recursion, and a game winning combo. It had also some control elements and that was enough to convince myself of playing it. I started testing and tweaking, by this time Morningtide was released on MTGO. I’ve never built a deck on MTGO before but Reveillark had me so excited and gave me butterflies in my stomach that I actually needed to test it online.

 

 

I started testing online because I lack of good local playtest partners. I thank Robin aka RoninX for playing against me a few times and watching some of my games. I played a bunch of games in the Tournament Practice room and I was getting back in shape. My insight was better and my knowledge of the format got better and better. Then GP Shizouka happened and probably the best active player in the world right now, Kenji “Lucky Master” Tsumura was piloting a Reveillark deck to almost a perfect record. He lost in the semis to Olivier Ruel and his faeries. I wanted Reveillark to win but it was good this way as people was going to shift towards Faeries because it won and therefore I would have a easier metagame to predict.

 

 

My metagame is full of “net deckers” that just copy exact lists card by card, even the SB which is unforgivable because SB are designed with a metagame in mind. The least they can do is tweak the SB. I knew that my “first” tournament will feature faeries. I was ready to take this information to my very own advantage.

 

 

Faeries are a really bad matchup because of their aggressiveness and their permission. Crovax is perhaps the best card against Bitterblossom but its high cost hurts my eyes, still it hurt the deck in overall and I got him in my team. Remove Soul is so good in this format full of critters that it is almost an auto inclusion. My friend Fras aka Inquisitor said this last month and I agreed; now I can agree again. After spending a few days thinking and testing, also predicting a possible metagame, I decided to play this:

 

 

// Lands
4 [FUT] Nimbus Maze
4 [10E] Adarkar Wastes
7 [UNH] Island
5 [UNH] Plains
2 [10E] Faerie Conclave
1 [TSP] Urza's Factory

// Creatures
4 [MOR] Reveillark
3 [PLC] Body Double
2 [LRW] Mirror Entity
1 [FUT] Venser, Shaper Savant
3 [TSP] Riftwing Cloudskate
4 [LRW] Mulldrifter
2 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
3 [PLC] Aven Riftwatcher

// Spells
2 [TSP] Momentary Blink
4 [10E] Mind Stone
3 [REW] Wrath of God
4 [CS] Rune Snag
2 [TSP] Careful Consideration

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [FUT] Venser, Shaper Savant
SB: 1 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
SB: 2 [PLC] Stonecloaker
SB: 2 [PLC] Crovax, Ascendant Hero
SB: 3 [10E] Remove Soul
SB: 1 [LRW] Ajani Goldmane
SB: 1 [FUT] Pact of Negation
SB: 1 [TSP] Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
SB: 3 [PLC] Porphyry Nodes

And now I was ready to make a comeback to tournament play.

Round 1: Kithkin Game 1: He had somewhat of a weak hand. He overcommitted the board way too much. I mean six critters and you have all the signals that I’m playing a Wrath of God. I cast Wrath of God wiping the board clean and proceeded to combo out.

SB: Nothing because from the look of is eyes he was inexperienced and I could win this via better decisions.

Game 2: I took damage until he got me to 8 life. I cast Wrath of God and evoked and Mulldrifter. He cast two more critters. I stole one with Sower of Temptation and bounced the other one. I won via beats. 1-0 (2-0)

 

 

Round 2: Mirror (Old Version) Game 1: He suspended a Riftwing Cloudskate and I suspended mine too. He got stuck on two lands. He bounced my Conclave and swung. I bounced his Conclave and played a Mulldrifter. He swings and I traded. I played a Body Double as Riftwing Cloudskate bouncing his Conclave. He condemns my Riftwing Cloudskate. I play another one a turn later bouncing his Conclave. Then on the next turn I played Mirror Entity and a new Body Double copying his Reveillark in the graveyard that he discarded a few turns back

SB:
-3 Aven Riftwatchers
-1 Body Double
-1 Mirror Entity
-3 Wrath of God
+1 Venser, Shaper Savant
+1 Pact of Negation
+1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
+2 Stonecloaker
+3 Remove Soul

 

Game2: This game was interesting and a bit long. I play Venser at end of turn bouncing his land. I swing. He plays a land and pass. I swing again. He goes foe Teferi, I respond with a Rune Snag. He goes for a Reveillark evoked, I play Rune Snag again. I play Body Double copying Teferi, it was a better play rather than the Reveillark because I wanted to stop Blinks or Vensers. He plays Sower of Temptation stealing my “Teferi”, he evokes Mulldrifter. I play Sower of Temptation and get my “Teferi” back. I swing with Mulldrifter and Venser so they can die. He goes foe evoked Reveillark, I play my third Rune Snag. I play a land and passed. He goes for Mirror Entity. If it resolves I lose the game, if I play Snag he has 8 plus 2 more to pay. I evoke Reveillark at instant speed and bring back Venser and Mulldrifter. Mirror Entity goes from stack to hand and then he replayed it. I cast my last Rune Snag and won the next turn via combo. 2-0 (4-0)

 

 

Round 3: This guy is one of my friends and we decided to tell the TO to put a win on whoever he wanted. I would’ve won this match anyways because we tested a couple of days before and I beat him 3-1

 

 

Round 4: BR Goblins Game 1: Not much happened here. I countered a couple of Epochrasites and Siege Gang Commander. A few turns later I completed the combo.

 

SB:

-1 Mirror Entity
-1 Body Double
-1 Riftwing Cloudskate
+3 Remove Soul

I could’ve SB better but I thought only that was necessary.

Game2: I played a Mulldrifter followed by a Riftwing Cloudskate a turn later. He played Siege Gang Commander. I wrath the board and he looks at my graveyard, sign of Extirpate coming. He takes out my Riftwing Clodskates and founds out I only had two. I dropped a Reveillark and proceeded to win via beats. 4-0 (8-0)

The Last Mile

Quarterfinals: Mono Blue Control

This guy was talking a lot of non sense, and was getting on my nerves.

Game 1: I kept a random hand with a couple of lands, Wrath of God and a Reveillark. He suspended a Riftwing Cloudskate, and then he played a Guile and started talking more non sense. I tried Mirror Entity and he casted Pact of Negation. He tried to humiliate me. I’m usually very friendly with people but he started to get personal I got arrogant. I said, “Feeling lucky just because you beat Reveillark. Let me give you two quick lessons and proceed to smarter opponents and win this.”

 

SB:
-3 Aven Riftwatcher
-3 Wrath of God
+1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
+1 Pact of Negation
+3 Remove Soul
+1 Venser Shaper Savant

 

Game 2: I evoked a Mulldriftrer and got countered. He played his third land in the form of Tolaria West. I played a Venser when he tried to cast Think Twice at end of turn. He replayed the land and I started beating. He tried for Teferi, I responded with Remove Soul. He then played a Scapelexis, yes you read right Scapelexis. I played Body Double targeting Teferi and a turn later a Reveillark. He conceded.

 

 

Game 3: I managed a quick start and I snuck a Teferi. Then played part of the combo and drew cards until I had counters. He played Scapelexis again. I went for the combo activating it two by two, then just attacked with Conclave. He was mad and conceded. My last words to him were, “I’m the beatdown”

 

 

Semifinals: BR Goblins

Game 1: This was practically the same game as when we first faced. I cleaned the board and proceeded to win via beats.

SB:
-3 Riftwing Cloudskate
-1 Body Double
-2 Careful Consideration
+3 Remove Soul
+1 Ajani Goldmane
+2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero

 

Game 2: I managed to evoke a couple of Mulldrifters and played an Aven Riftwatcher. He played a Shriekmaw and killed my Aven Riftwatcher. I played a Reveillark. He played Stupor followed by Extirpate to remove my Mirror Entity. He was in shock again to see only two Mirror Entities and I said, “Your Extirpates are rather weak.” I played a Crovax that died to an Eyeblight’s Ending. A turn later I played a Body Double copying Crovax instead of the Reveillark that he killed at the start of my turn. He drops me to 4. I cast Ajani Goldmane and gave Vigilance to all my critters and in response he killed my Mulldrifter but forgot that my Aven was now 4/5 and he was at 4 life too.

 

 

Finals: Mirror (Old School w/ Commands)

I haven’t played this guy but he beat my friend in the semifinals. I guess he got lucky because he is not that good of a player.

 

Game 1: It was a complete battle. I evoke, you evoke. There was a moment that I was close to going off but he beat me one turn earlier.

SB:

3 Wrath of God
-3 Aven Riftwatchers
-1 Mirror Entity
+3 Remove Soul
+2 Stonecloaker
+1 Venser, Shaper Savant
+1 Pact of Negation

 

Game 2: Was a bit better on my side because my rune Snags prevented anything critical from the other side of the table. This game was quick because I started to attack his mana base but at one point, I got into trouble. He tried to play a Body Double, he had two Tormod’s Crypt in play and I had 2 Rune Snags in the yard. I casted a third Rune Snag and he replied with a Pact of Negation. I let it resolve to use my last Rune Snag and he had two mana up with two Tormod’s Crypt in play. He forgot to activate those Crypts and save his card so I proceeded to win

 

 

Game 3: This game a bit more interesting but he had very few blue sources while mine were growing more and more. I risked a Reveillark, and he let it resolve this was a sign of Sower of Temptation. Indeed. I cast pact of Negation. I pay my upkeep and swing. He then plays another one but he was left tapped because he tried Mulldrifter before. I cast my own Sower of Temptatiion leaving two mana up. He went to dig for answers. I swung again. He then tried Blink on Sower and I responded with a blink on my Reveillark and an end of turn Careful Consideration to discard the remaining pieces of the combo. I combo next turn and he conceded.

 

 

This deck has proved to be a powerful deck. The key to master the worst matchups this deck has it to be one step ahead. On the next blog I will post solutions for difficult matchups and ways to approach to them. I want to thank Fras and Robin for their help lately. Maybe it seems like you guys haven’t helped but you actually have. Thanks to the guys in the forums that come up with the craziest of the ideas that work. And last to Kevin aka Hazared for finally jumping to the Light side. Next time and remember, your will is bigger than any projected metagame, and you can beat anything no matter what.

Tags: Reveillark Magic Standard

Last time I talked about certain card choices for my control deck was on part 2. After scouting a couple of States lists I saw some players in Top 8 with many of the choices I discussed in that article. The core of the deck was accepted by many players and I felt it was a good work.

 

 

Just before Krakow, a guy in the forums posted his list and said that he liked how Ironfoot was doing for him. I replied that I wanted to test Ironfoot idea since it was appropriate. Krakow was done after that and a couple of decks were playing the 3/4 snow artifact creature. I decided to integrate him to my build at that time.

 

4 Calciform Pools
3 Nimbus Maze
4 Adarkar Wastes
2 Urza's Factory
8 Snow-Covered Island
4 Snow-Covered Plains

 

2 Aeon Chronicler
2 Jace Beleren
1 Purity
4 Phyrexian Ironfoot

 

3 Condemn
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Wrath of God
4 Rune Snag
4 Cryptic Command
4 Ancestral Vision
1 Sacred Mesa
3 Faerie Trickery

 

SB:

1 Sacred Mesa
1 Oblivion Ring
4 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
3 Brine Elemental
4 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir

 

 

The addition of Ironfoot really helped against aggro matches and against man lands. Sometimes he was useful against control too since he was an early beater. I predicted Pickles was going to be really popular, and there were just too few choices to win against it. I decided to add Pickles of my own in my SB.

 

 

I went to FNM and went 4-0 in the Swiss and won the whole thing without dropping a single game. The Pickles plan worked wonders against other control decks since it was the element of surprise. I didn't make any changes since I thought the deck was in optimal shape. I went to next FNM and onto the Finals to face a MUC. Game one I lost because I was a bit behind card advantage and was screwed for the first 6 turns. Second game I won because I successfully sneaked a Teferi into play. Game three was another mana screw and very slow draws.

 

 

I lost because of mana screw and in a certain point in game three I could've sneak a Teferi into play because he tapped for double Think Twice. I decided not to because of Sower of Temptation, I ignored the fact that I could've remove from the game that Sower of Temptaion with an Oblivion Ring and still have plenty of mana open for another Ring if he decided to counter the first one.

 

 

That loss made me feel really bad. I decided to draft the whole weekend. On Sunday I was thinking if MUC could become a good matchup. I tested more and more and found out that it was near impossible to win it. The metagame was changing and we needed to adjust, but how?

 

 

Kryptonite for a Control Metagame

 

 

The decks I was having trouble with were being heavily played, Pickles and MUC. I think Pickles is more winnable than MUC, because you can still Wrath their creatures. MUC was another story, it was really hard. No offense Wafo Tapa, I think you are a phenomenal player but I hate to adjust to you designs, they are just masterpieces. So I needed to find spot where I could beat the controls deck of the moment and not lose to any other favorable matches. Where can I find the Kryptonite?

 

 

Both decks play a similar style of draw and go. So by obvious logic they would have similar weaknesses. From experiences of the past I know that cheap threats and uncounterable cards could beat this strategies. Now I think I have a small idea where the Kryptonite is, i just needed to rebuild.

 

 

Rebuilding the Broken

 

 

My build was optimal for a aggro metagame but not against the rise of this control metagame. Practically I was fighting with a broken gun. I needed to design a new weapon that would work. First I needed to focus some spells on aggro.

 

 

4 Rune Snag
2 Remove Soul
4 Wrath of God
4 Oblivion Ring

 

 

This provides us six cheap answers to aggro, four spot removal, and the typical four board sweepers. I think I would've added two more Remove Soul but I didn't wanted to over commit. Now I needed ways to deny spells or to make control matchups easy.

 

 

2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
4 Cryptic Command
3 Faerie Trickery
2 Aeon Chronicler

 

 

Now I had my own Teferi to battle this wars. Also the uncounterable draw in Aeon Chronicler which is a bit better than Jace Beleren. Jace is good when it resolves while Aeon draws cards without even resolving. You have to invest some mana on him but that is why I play storage lands too. Trickery and Command are the usual suspects. So far we have 17 answers against Control (counting Remove Soul and Rune Snag) and 18 answers against aggro (counting Commands tapping ability).

 

 

This deck had draw spells in eight slots. Jace Beleren was great but somehow never managed to resolve and it was more of a SB card. Don't get me wrong if he sticks you are definitely going to win. The draw was modified a bit.

 

 

4 Ancestral Vision
2 Think Twice

 

 

I think the draw slots are pretty much staple already. We have eight drawers which is great. We have three remaining slots for win conditions.

 

 

1 Guile
1 Purity
1 Draining Whelk

 

 

I think those are the best three win conditions that we can find. Sacred Mesa was good but if you didn't have control of the game it was a dead card that will just get countered and hit the grave. Also having to design a stable mana base with enough white to make it work and blue to counter, without the Ravnica duals it was painful. Guile is a nice fatty that fits our heavy U deck. I know we can't abuse him ability but we never plan to play him on turn six without mana available to respond. Draining Whelk is a bit underrated. He is slow and clunky but the metagame since it is full of control and expensive stuff I think he deserves a chance. He is weak against aggro but he is SBed against them. If he doesn't work very well he will be changed to Guile or another Purity.

 

 

I'm still missing answers against a resolved Mage of Zhalfir. The best way to deal with him without devoting spell slots is to do it with lands.

 

 

3 Mouth of Ronom
4 Snow-Covered Plains
4 Calciform Pools
8 Snow-Covered Island
1 Urza's Factory
3 Nimbus Maze
4 Adarkar Wastes

 

 

The advantage on game one lies on Mouth of Ronom to kill opposing Teferis. Calciform Pools to the max so you can have advantage of mana and make Rune Snags rather weak. Also suspending Aeon Chroniclers for 5 or six is great against control matchups.

 

 

UW Reborn

 

3 Mouth of Ronom
3 Nimbus Maze
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Calciform Pools
1 Urza's Factory
7 Snow-Covered Island
4 Snow-Covered Plains

 

 

2 Aeon Chronicler
2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Guile
1 Purity
1 Draining Whelk

 

 

4 Wrath of God
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Rune Snag
2 Remove Soul
3 Faerie Trickery
4 Cryptic Command
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Think Twice

 

 

The last thing we needed to rebuild was the SB. We need to make sure we had bullets aggro and against control. We could not afford to take our eyes of aggro ever. They are always a menace.

 

 

1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
2 Brine Elemental
3 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
2 Take Possession
4 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Ajani Goldmane
2 Sower of Temptation

 

 

Against control decks you have the extra Teferi and a small transformational package. Usually players have trouble SBing against transformational strategies because you never know what strategy he will bring. It is a surprise kill. Usually with the Pickles package you try to sneak a Teferi at EOT to make them tap out. On your turn play a Brine Elemental and flip it. Take Possession is needed because Pithing Needle is coming in and will most likely name Ronom. That shuts down our way to deal with Teferi but against a Take Possession there is little what they can do. The only way is for them to bounce Teferi in their turn but hopefully we will have enough mana via Pools to ensure that never happens. The last SB slots were devoted to aggro since they are always a menace. Ajani Goldmane and Aven Riftwatcher are great life gain, so that you can buy enough time to play an essential Wrath of God. Sower of Temptation in the other hand is great versus decks without spot removal.

 

 

It was really a bit of hard work to rebuild a deck to adjust to a new metagame, but that is what Upgrade Your Control is about. There is no deck that can't be tweaked to beat certain metagames. There are always some tools and some designs that can beat the most difficult metagames. It is only a matter of practice and testing.

 

 

Until next time.

Hi and welcome back to the #1 blog series of TCGPlayer.com, counting from bottom to top (Bill_Stark sorry this time you are last). In the last blog I talked about the Pickles matchup and tips on how to play the matchup. I was going to do a sequel that was focused on UB Mannequin but I decided to talk about something else. This time I will try to redefine what is Control and how to read your opponents.

 

What is Control?

 

Control is often defined as a type of deck or archetype. It is the favorite of players who don't like losing in the first 4-5 turns. Most players have a bad definition on what Control is. Some players say itis anything with counters, anything with blue, or anything with mass removal. All of them are close to the reality of some archetypes but not for the meaning of Control.

 

When I started the Upgrade Your Control series, my goal was to talk about tips on how to upgrade your archetype and your control play.As time has passed, I have learned some new things and my perspective has changed. I wanted to inform a wide audience and share my experience so players can improve their game and do I can keep learning more from replies to teach some new things.

 

I completely changed the definition of Control as a result of experiences in the past two weeks. What is Control? Control is a status of the game. It is the driver's seat, the coach of the team, the captain of the boat. To completely dominate the pace of the game and to make opponent's play your game, that is Control.

 

An Aggro player has Control of the game as soon as he starts applying pressure. The Control element of an aggressive  strategy is to get crazy and uncontrollable with combat damage and in some cases pump and burn. It sounds contradictory but if an archetype with controlling cards can't take away that Control status he will lose and feel the pressure of being 0-1.

 

Combo archetypes are know as the Thieves of the Control status. A Combo deck completely ignores that the opponent has Control until he is set. The it is just a matter of precision of the execution, and when you open your eyes after blinking, your Control was stolen. Combo decks are as much similar as a one punch KO can be.

 

Lastly, Control archetypes are the jack of all trades. They are really sneaky in terms of stealing Control. This can be achieved little by little, by trading one for one, or they can counter punch with great power with a big trade.

 

Every time you start a game of Magic, it is race of life totals, a race for a win, and a race for the Control of the game. Having the Control will indeed give you the victory.

 

Reading Your Opponents

 

Any good poker player wins pots by reading their opponents. In Magic it is no different. This is a skill most players overlook. Those who overlook this details are throwing away very valuable info. Gathering information is a valuable tool and I'm not talking about staring at your opponents sunglasses to see his hand.

 

Body signals are your friends. Players have bad habits. They stack their lands depending in the plays or spells they might play. If you see a player stacking [1]:u::u::u:, it is most likely a signal of Cryptic Command. Sometimes they just start piling their lands and don't play any spells.

 

I was in a 8 man Draft after 10pm PT. Sitting next to me was Michael Jacobs and on the other hand was a 1800+ player. My limited game is not as good as my Constructed . I started in TPF drafts and was really bad until I got a 1534 rating. After some good XXX drafts I managed to up my Limited a bit better up to  1586. When the Lorwyn Pre Release came, I went without any losses and won the whole thing. Did two more 8 man drafts and finished 1st and 2nd. I was getting better. Back to the MTGO story, I got completely cut off from blue cards, obviously the best color to draft, and ended up with a GW pile.

 

I was the only "low level" in the table and somehow I got paired against Jacobs. He was playing UBw Faeries/Folk (obviously U). I got pretty bad beaten in the first game. In the second game I got to a point where the next swing would kill him and the next one for me would put me in 2 life. I had a Goldmeadow Harrier, Plover Knights, and a Woodland Changeling. He tapped some lands and untapped them. He went to the combat step and went all in. I had no W so there was no tapping . I was at the mercy of a Surge of Thoughtweft to die. I guess he was waiting for me to block and trade some critters in order to leave me defenseless. I recalled seeing him tap some lands, so to me it was clear he wanted to play a critter. I think he underestimated me because of my rating and tried to bluff for a win. He wasn't even trying to read me, he trusted that I was a "bad" player. I had the information I needed and decided not to block. He scooped after I decided not to block.

 

On another story, I was playing a UW Control mirror and after  losing the die roll, I put 7 cards from the top face down and waited from my opponent to draw his. Since I was playing second I could decide to mulligan after he has kept his hand. I was staring at him for some body language and he seemed like troubled with his hand but kept it. I knew how he acted that he ahd a so-so or weka hand. I kept mine. He was color screwed as he only had one blue. I won that game on that simple advantage. On game 2 I decided to misinform him and I bluffed being upset. He dropped a Jace, I killed it with mine. The game went on me storing some counters and at one point he had 6 mana available and I had 7. He played a Jace. I tried Rune Snag but he Faerie Tricked it. He drew his card and I dropped a Teferi. He was troubled to see the Mage in play. I removed the Jace via Ring and proceeded for the win.

 

Reading your opponents is useful and sometimes misinforming your opponents is good too. This is like a Telepathy without paying mana. There are three things you should look to read an opponent:

 

1. Body Language: good for determining the power of their hand, mulligans, and lack of patience.

2. Land Stacking: Good to know what spells they have available, possible tricks

3. Land Tapping/Untapping: Potential bluffs, pattern of their possible plays.

 

Reading your opponent is a must skill to win many bad matches and if you clearly can master it, then I can say you are one step closer of being a top dog. 

 

Remember: There is no knowledge that is not power.

            &nb sp;       Experience is what makes you better, talent just makes the process faster.
 

Hi and welcome back to the infamous blog focused on Control decks, Upgrade Your Control. Last time I talked in a general perspective on various tools or terms needed to successfully pilot a Control deck. Now I really focus in UW Control but mind that I'm also a Teachings player, Pickles player, MUC player and a GW midrange player. Most of my tips are focused on UW but I also have some tips or tech for other colors as well, so it is healthy to gain knowledge since there is no knowledge that is not power.

 

 

Now GP Krakow successfully gave us a clear idea on how the metagame is going to shape up. I'm going to do an analysis about some archetypes and how to play against them, boarding options and extremely good cards against them.

 

 

Pickles.all flavors

 

 

This was perhaps the most successful archetype in the weekend and it managed to take 17 pilots to day 2. Pickles gained a lot from Lorwyn since the worst card Pickles could face left the format. This deck plays a lot of lands somewhere near 27-28 and it is near impossible to win the race in the land advantage against them. This deck packs heavy countermagic in the Mono Blue versions and a light package in the UW versions. Obviously the win condition is to lock your untap step and win via attacks.

 

 

This matchup is somewhat a nightmare against Control decks since if you tap out unnecessarily, you might have given the game and your head to the opponent. You need to proceed with extreme caution. Plan ahead of them always so that you can be in the driver's seat. If you keep control of the game you should never lose the matchup. This seems pretty obvious but is not as easy as it sounds. Pickles has a trait that once it take the control of the game from your hands or shut down all your tempo you will never gain it back. They play a lot of critters like 15 or so, it is strange for a control deck but once those critters hit play it means they will most likely steal the control of the game. Wrath when necessary and carefully and save your counters. They will most likely throw traps at you like a Morph #1 so they can drop Morph #2 and win. So try to decide or guess which one is which. Remember don't tap without good reasons, plan ahead, and be careful

 

 

Boarding Options:

 

 

Spell Burst: This card
counters all morphs for just one mana and for 4 for buyback. This was used in block season and might see play in Standard.

Trickbind: Somewhat underrated but it works when you are under a Pickle lock.

Vesuvan Shapeshifter: Use their own tools against them. Once they flip their Brine which usually they do on the same turn. Drop your Shifter and give them a taste of their own medicine.

Teferi: This foils their countermagic since they use it to hold and protect they win condition.

Sower of Temptation: Steal their morphs before they unmorph them.

Mouth of Ronom: To deal with their Teferi or Brine Elemental.

Sudden Death: Kill anything in the deck.

Shriekmaw: Everything but Vesuvan dies to this friend.

Take Possession: Seems clunky but it might work to steal Teferi and try to walk with a game.

 

 

Extremely Good

 

 

Well the planeswalkers are extremely good if you are under a lock. Mostly Garruk, Chandra, and Ajani. Garruk is probably the best since he can produce critters and untap you lands. Chandra can clear the board. Ajani produces a weak token but it might work as a blocker. Any card with Vigilance totally ruins their day since they evade the lock completely. Detritivore against UW Pickles builds since they play less basics around 10-14 out of 27 lands. That should do enough damage to hurt their progress and stop their manabase, especially the storage lands which is their main source of advantage.

This is probably a nightmare matchup and you must recognize that this matchup is The Weakness of control decks. Only your Will can save you here, if you really want to win your matchup then you must believe in your plans. Your sideboard is a great tool but your insight is the one that will give you the win.

 

 

Next blog:

UB Mannequin

The Weakness

 

It is pretty much clear that no deck is unbeatable. Even the almighty  Tolaria deck will fold to a Chalice of the Void for 0 in the first turn or a Pithing Needle on Mind Over Matter. The powerful Dredge dies to a Leyline of the Void and Tormod's Crypt. Inside the very core of any strategy there is a bad gene called The Weakness. Every deck has it no matter what anybody says. Now there is absolutely no cure for a genetic illness or syndrome, so our deck will always be sick. The good part is there are treatments and routines that can make things more easier.

 

To Upgrade Your Control you really need to know The Weakness of your deck. i think that is pretty clear that Control strategies hate discard, aggressive strategies, and land destruction. This is perhaps something really fundamental but I will look at them from a different perspective.

 

See Control decks are and exchange of answers as we all know. It is also known that the answer is always worst than the threat. For example a Pull from Eternity is worst than a Detritivore since Vore shines most of the time and Pull only shines when Vore or Aeon are around. Typically when we are trading spells 1-1, 2-1, or even 3-1 we are also gathering information. There is a ton of information going back and forth, like he has an aggressive hand, subpar hand, he is soling confidence, he is making bad choices and so on. When facing the Weakness this information is limited to their strategy but to you there is still a lot of information flowing.  To reach the next level of Upgrade Your Control we need to learn how to interpret this information and use it to our advantage.

 

When The Weakness is facing a favorable matchup, they ignore any signals and just try to win the game based on the numbers they have put to a test. A discard strategy will start attacking a Control's hand so they can knock off most of their answers and key spells. A land destruction tries to dry your land base and aggro tries to rush for a quick kill. They most of the time start casting spells like if they were mindless zombies because they are programmed to do so. The question is will you let them develop or will you stop them by all means?

 

When I'm facing The Weakness I know that my chances of winning are around 20-30% ( there is no such thing as a complete bad matchup ). This is abd for you but it is good for you that your opponent trusts this. A good way to beat bad matchups is by creating misdirection. Since our opponents are casting spell machines and they are confident about it they will fall for dumb traps. I think everybody remembers how bad was a Persecute casted and resolved against a Control deck. I saw myself countering many, sadly some of the hit because I had no answers, and others hit because that was my plan. You might think why I didn't prevent those Persecutes from happening if I had answers. The answer is that I wanted to mislead them into a trap.

 

A played in Regionals tried to cast a Persecute. i had a Cancel, Remand, Rewind, and two lands. His hand was full of spells and I knew he was trying to gain card advantage. This was a risky move but I didn't have a pretty good hand and the matchup was bad. I was untapped and was sending signals that I had counters. I decided to let the spell resolve since I wanted him to think I had no blue. He stopped to think about it and he said White. I revealed my hand and afterwards he slammed the Persecute into his pile. I gave some information in exchange of taking his mind out of the game. I proceeded to win a matchup that was 20% in my favor and changed it to 70%. Another story of misdirection and misleading was against a really fast RG deck.He hit me hard and dropped me to 12. I drew a card at end of turn and put an upset face. Draw my card for turn, dropped a land and passed. He seemed confident and casted the remaining burn in his hand, attacked me next turn and left me in 1. I drew my card with a smiling face took 4 counters out of my Pools and casted a Wrath of God. Then I casted a Faith Fetters to gain 4 life. I was pretty much out of burn range  he drew a card and dropped a land. I draw my card drop a land and passed. He casted a creature. Resolves. I cast Repeal on my Fetters at EOT. Cast Fetters on his critter and the rest is history. I made him took a misleading path and it worked because I made an upset and desperate. If you are playing Control you need to manipulate information at your benefit, that is the true meaning of a Blue Mage.

 

The Weakness is a pretty strong opponent but it can be beaten with good SB strategies and radical ones as I did. If you have The Choice by your side then you will mostly have a better chance against The Weakness. In the many wars you will have against The Weakness you will most of the time be the 20-30%, you need to believe you aren't and you will need a friend that I will discuss in my next blog, The Will. 

 

 

Hi and welcome back to Upgrade Your Control blog series. I have gotten really happy with the outcome of this blog and the reviews I've been getting. Enjoy part 3.

 

Last time I remember talking about knowing yourself and knowing your enemy. I like to point out that particular skill is good in any game, for any player, and for any deck. The advantage of understanding formats and cards is like a boost to reach a high place. When you understand how something works either you can fix it or you can destroy it. Ask me. I know definitely how to make chemical reactions and how to stop them. Knowing how to stop a deck's inevitability or its Fundamental Turn is a great way to start a road to success. Believe me once you get this skill going on, you will definitely become a much better player.

 

Now that we have pretty much pointed out the skills we need outside of the field, what are the tools we need when we are playing? What are the atributes that makes players succeed?

 

The Patience

 

A sniper has to stand in position waiting for its target an undetermined amount of time. His patience dictates the success or the failure of the mission. As soon as he loses his patience the mission is over. If he keeps his cool he will be awarded. I see so many players pilot Controls decks like if they were playing a beatdown deck from Yugioh or an Affinity deck. Drop land go. Tap this and counter, counter. They see two creatures in the board and they hastily cast Wrath of God without noticing they were sitting at 20 life or that they were at a comfortable position. Players that feel they must counter every single spell in the game or kill every single creature. When you lose your patience you start making mistakes. This kind of players start taping the wrong lands because they feel they are in a hurry. Patience is a virtue and patience is needed to play a Control deck effectively. I once played this unknown player that came saying that he was like number three in the DCI ratings in our country. He was trying to set up a mood against me. I'm not going to lie I got a bit nervous. He played a deck of UB Tron and he played Nullstone Gatgoyle. The game started and those thoughts about how high his DCI was started to do some brain damage on me. I lost my patience and he started taking control. I then did a Saito slap. And said out lout " Why I'm I worried. I have to be relax, I'm the Control." I sit back. I got relaxed. Suddenly the game started shifting to my side. I got more Patience and I took home some pride and DCI points. Playing Control requires Patience. Ask Wafo-Tapa or Remi Fortier, their style of play is laid bad and relaxed, and to me they are the most patient players in the World. Now that we have a bit clear how Patience works, we need to go to the brother of Patience.

 

The Choices

 

It is clear that very often we come across certain situation and we totally don't have a clue how to deal with it. This is pretty familiar in Magic while playing Control because we must analyze certain conditions of the game. Do we counter now? Do we cast that Wrath of God? Do I go for the throat with my win condition? Should I cast that discard spell? There are unlimited scenarios and questions you must ask yourself to effectively make a play. As you get familiar with the game, your deck, and your opponent's deck this choices become more easier. I remember something Jon Finkel used to say " There is always one correct play and the others are just mistakes". I have to agree. In order to pick the correct Choice, our knowledge and wisdom will help us. Also we need to be sure of what we are doing and the Patience will help us too. We need to be like a computer, Do you want to cast Wrath of God? Yes? No? Then, Are you sure? Yes? No?

 

The Plan

 

In order to Upgrade Your Control you need certain events to happen so that you can take that game home. This will be The Plan. Most players tend to build wonderful decks or they just copy somebody else's deck but the miss the point of what is the Plan. Tiago Chan, a wonderful player in my opinion, says that in order to win games you need to be certain of your Plan. He said once " I kept a hand full of lands. My opponent casted Duress. He chuckled and said Why do you keep this hand? I replied, well that Duress was pretty weak. After that I won the game". It seems awkward and I'm not saying to keep a hand full of lands but that was his Plan and it worked. If you are playing against an aggro deck you need to be certain what Plan you need in order to win. Control decks tend to be weak if you separate the plays and evaluate them individually. For example, Letting a Tarmogoyf resolve is perhaps rated as Awfully Wrong. But if we take all control plays and evaluate them as a whole being, as a Plan then that play will make more sense if, I let Tarmogoyf resolve, the creatures in play are a total of four, I cast Wrath of God. Now that is a Perfect play since you punched as hard as you could and took away a lot of Tempo and grabbed a whole bunch of card advantage. If you really want to UYC you need to establish a Plan and stick to it. There is nothing more wrong than a pilot taking the airplane to nowhere. Remember that our plays are chronological. Play A, then B, then C to achieve a bomb and then boom. Make sure you plan ahead of turns. A player that can plan one turn is good, one that plans two turns is great, and one that plans three turns is fantastic. Remember again stay sharp.

 

The Lesson

 

Isn't it common that you hear a lot of players complain that they lost even if they played perfectly? Or that they lost because he didn't draw the cards he needed, or he needed one more land? I can accept Mana screw and Mana flood but sometimes I tend to reject them as excuses because they can be avoided. I always say the good players are the ones that say the played awfully even if the won or lose. The ones who say that never made a mistake are the bad players or bad losers. Believe me there are always mistakes. There is no game in Magic that is not a Lesson. To really progress we need to determined why we lost and how, after we know why and how we already have a Lesson. Like I could've done this or I could've call for a mulligan. The Lesson is the father of the experience and experience is the one that makes you better. I say Experience is the one that makes someone better, talent just makes the process go faster. Put MJ in a basketball court with all his talent but without his experience and he will be a chump. There is always room for learning and for improvement. Take every game and every test session as a learning experience, as a Lesson. Even if you win or lose identify the Lesson, there is always something you could improve or something you can learn. As I said in Part 2 there is no knowledge that is not power. The Lesson provides knowledge, experience so then you can have the power to be a winner in your game.

 

This goes like this and forgive me if you don't understand but it'll come together as you keep on learning.

 

You need The Patience to make The Choices that are part of The Plan, so in the end you can learn and get experience from The Lesson.

 

For the next blog I will post some questions that players have sent me via PM and try to answer them. Remember if you have any questions or need advice you can PM me and I will answer your questions.

 

 

After having a nice idea on what to play or convince people to play, I
decided to study the new options and fill the holes. To Upgrade Your Control
you need to know what direction you want to head, if you want power or
consistency, or if you want to play fun or favorite cards. I decided to play
consistent but I was tempted to play my favorite cards. As I said earlier I
picked UW to upgrade since it won me a Champs in 2006 and since it showed to me
a pretty good balance.

Card Analysis

Once we are clear on how we wanted the deck to play and what cards we
probably going to make the cut, we need to do a Deep Analysis on the card pool
depending on the little intel you have about the metagame. I went card by card
of the current Standard making notes and pros and cons about every single
playable card I saw. I pretty much did this like 5 times. It is tiresome but it
will give you a whole lot of ideas and a pretty good concept of what we are
trying to Upgrade. Then cut that list to what fits more on the play style you
chose, either power cards or consistency. I wanted to be consistent and not
have too much power since I don't want to break my game plan in half. I said
earlier I wanted 13 denial or counter spells in my list. I don't want to play
16+ counter spells because that is too much focus on the power of denial and
when I have to deal with a spell that slipped by then I'll have problems. So I
wanted to play 13 I went to the options I wrote down and ended up with:

4 Rune Snag

3 Faerie Trickery

3 Cryptic Command

2 Remove Soul

1 Pact of Negation

I picked some obvious picks and some more controversial. We know how Rune
Snag power level as a card increases as the game goes longer. It is also a
great cheap counter against aggro since you want to trade a couple of times one
for one. Faerie Trickery got many comments in how bad it was. Think about it,
you have a little restriction but you can finally trade Flashback spells one
for one or remove from the game recurring spells like Grim Harvest, Haakon and
Triskelavus. That is one awesome trade. Cryptic Command is triple blue. It is a
great card and every now and then I get replies on why should they go down to
two. I mean many players still play Teferi and they never complain about the
triple blue there. I mean play Cryptic and work your mana it’s not like you are
playing 3 Color Control. This card works as it should be or it was intended to
be. Counter, Fog, Boomerang, and a Cantrip. Its power level is great once you pass
the fourth land drop. Remove Soul was added as an expectation of aggro. Pact of
Negation was added to protect you win condition. If you tap to play your win
condition and leave yourself vulnerable you should have a plan. This is the plan.
Also people often forget how to play around them since they cost nothing.

Now we need to go onto the real control game and that is board control.
Board control is really important because you don’t want to counter everything
and you don’t have infinite counter spells, so we need a way to deal with them.
We need card advantage here so the best card advantage card in white perhaps is
Wrath of God. Also we need cheap and efficient spells to deal with other kind
of threats. Anything chosen here needs to be four mana or less since we don’t
want to kill the curve. Condemn is the new Sword to Plowshares and it is cheap
and efficient. The format has perhaps a couple of critters that survive to it
like Teferi, Troll Ascetic, RedKroma, and Calciderm just to name a few. Two of
them are heavily played so we need to keep an eye on them. Then there is the
golden gift that WotC gave us after removing practically all life gain from
white, Oblivion Ring. This card was at first a one of in my list, then I went
to two and now it stands at three. It does so much for you and the only time I
see them eat bench is when I’m facing Burn. So we have the package that will
hold the fort for us and the most important part of the deck is this one. I had:

4 Wrath of God

4 Condemn

3 Oblivion Ring

At last we need to put gas in the tank and since we are playing blue we have
access to many of the draw spells in the format. Mind that we are being a
reactive deck and a little bit proactive almost none, so we need to do
something at instant speed and some sorcery. Think Twice fills the role here
perfectly as an instant that draws two cards and it’s cheap. We need a big draw
spell and that is good old Tidings. Tidings is a bit controversial since it
gets locked down when Teeg comes into play and that is why I decided to play
only one. Now this choice is debatable, I opted to go for the planeswalker hype
and play Jace. This slot can either be Jace or Aeon Chronicler since both do
what I expect them to do but Aeon has an edge since it’s a win condition too.
Jace proved golden when he managed to slip by and provided me long term card advantage.
I draw three and opponent draws one seemed perfect than spend seven mana to
draw three cards. My draw spells were:

4 Think Twice

2 Jace Beleren

1 Tidings

The last stage of the analysis is the win conditions. I see a lot of lists
go out to play three or two win conditions just to end up with a lot of x-x-3
or x-x-2 since they never managed to finish in time because they never drew the
win condition to finish the already controlled game. I wanted to play five or
seven win conditions. My plan was to control the board in the first seven turns
or so and then drop a big bomb or a win condition. This would help me finish my
games in 12 or 15 turns and with enough time to think the SB options against
the matchup. Time is gold and there is no worst feeling than doing a test with
little time left, and in Magic if the game is tied it feels the same. As far as
win conditions go we needed something recurring and a solid win conditions. I
miss Eternal Dragon and Exalted Angel since they would’ve been golden in this
metagame but I never played Onslaught block anyways I came to the game in
Mirrodin. We needed big creatures and efficient. Purity seems to fit the bill because
it shuffles itself back into the library and is a 6/6 Vanilla flyer. The
ability of Purity seemed as an extra but I always remind people to know the
interactions of their cards. Purity heals you up when you tap mana from those
pain lands and combined with storage lands you will never lose a life. Akroma
seemed to find a spot even if she is way over priced but she gets the job done
and fast. She wrecks opposing Mesa tokens. At last the most popular win
condition since Meloku left, Sacred Mesa. This card is an auto include in this
list because after you have board control and at least eight lands, you are
ready to go beatdown.

2 Purity

2 Sacred Mesa

1 Akroma

SB Choices

People often throw a janky sideboard together just to play by the rules. In
the sideboard we need tools to improve our worst matchups and the popularity of
the metagame you are playing on. I made a SB based on popularity of played
cards and bad matchups.

3 Pithing Needle

4 Bottle Gnomes//Aven Riftwatcher

2 Disenchant

2 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir

2 Pull from Eternity

2 Teferi’s Moat

Pithing Needle is golden since it shuts down control tools and stops
annoying man lands. Bottle Gnomes improve a bad matchup like Rg or Burn decks.
Disenchant against any Mesa or Eyes of Wisent shenanigans. Teferi is golden
against opposing control decks. Pull form Eternity against suspended cards.
Teferi’s Moat is the demise of non flyers. This is a balanced SB that covers
pretty much everything I expected to see. Keep in mind that to UYC, you need a
solid SB. Sideboard makes pretty much like the kryptonite. I bet you are not
going to fight Superman without those.

Metagame Choices

To achieve a good metagame perception you need to pay attention to your
surroundings and have a team that gathers as much intel they can to help you.
You then need to do your own research in the web since most people who do well
at PTQ’s and do bad at PT’s they just copy everything they see. I’m not against
copying I’m against not tweaking a copied list to fit your metagame. I guess
you’ll definitely not play Detritivores if your metagame is full of Mono white
and Mono Red. This is where a bit more of tweaking comes into place since you
need to keep your sight on your goals and a sight on the metagame. I see that
Pickles is being the new force perhaps adding opposing Shapeshifters in the SB
might not be a bad idea, or even splash for some spot removal. If Blink is
being a force perhaps adding the fourth Faerie Trickery and splashing for spot
removal might be good. This is really important if you want to UYC since you
need to have a clear view on what are we going to control.

Know yourself or know the enemy?

This is where all the hard work to UYC comes together. You have your deck
pretty much built. SB choices are clearer and Metagame choices are set. Then
what now? You need to know yourself and therefore your deck. Knowing what your
deck is capable of and what you are capable of is a great thing and useful in
many situations. I get many stories about players that are not comfortable
playing Control since they are slow thinking and they get stuck. These same
players avoid Control at any costs. If you are slow thinking, that doesn’t mean
you can’t play Control. Beethoven was deaf and that didn’t mean he couldn’t compose.
Every skill has a training to improve it. Try playing Sudoku or Chess. Try Brain
Age. These kinds of exercises help you develop fast thinking skills. In Magic
play a lot of games and dedicate yourself to know most of the common options of
certain decks. Once you are familiar with the cards that are played and know
your cards, you can come to fast conclusions on what the better play might be.
I’m not saying do what it first comes to mind, I’m saying create a fast
analysis of options and then execute the one that is most likely to be the appropriate.
Sometimes you will fail but believe me most of the time you will hit the nail
in the head. This is why knowing yourself is so important in Control decks
because you need to know what situations have presented to you and how familiar
you are with them. There is no such thing as knowing your enemy. Most of the
time in tourneys you don’t know the player in front of you, but you might know
his weapon. If you know how to counter his weapon by knowing what you are
capable of and what your deck is capable of, then you have more points in your
side than him. Experience is what makes players better not talent. With
experience you can Upgrade Your Control far better than anybody else, because “There
is no Knowledge that is not Power”.

Stay Tuned for Part 3.

The Patience?

The Choices?

The Plan?

The Lesson?

States is now a thing of the past. I prepared for it a lot even if our country was stripped of Champs I still wanted to develop my skills to a new level after a poor showing at Regionals. Now this is not an easy task. You have to break curses, voodoo dolls that your opponents or enemies have cast on you, and streak of floods in your aura to make it. So this is the beginning of my Upgrade ( I can't use Innovations or Chapin will sue me).

Now everyone who knows me very well, totally agrees that I'm either a Mid-Range or Control deck pilot. I fell in love in Mid-Range right about when Glare came out. played Glare for like a complete season. I then switched to Control. I claimed my States Champ and I felt accomplished by piloting a UW Mesa build. Boy was I wrong. I then fell until the very day today into a bottomless pit. Once you reach certain degree of success, you can't by any means get lazy and trust your reputation. You need hard work. Boxing champs and basketball players, hell any sport player, keep training hard even if they achieved their goals. They just set new ones.

My new goal was to get into Nats level of play and reach Pro Points so I can get out of Amateur status. I wanted to do that in theory and real life. I just couldn't go to any Champs because there isn't any here anymore so I needed to develop certain deck and help a Community to reach a goal for me. I choose UW since it showed to me certain balance. I need to Upgrade my Control for others.

As I started, it wasn't good. I made poor decisions on the first builds. I started using cards like Broken Ambitions and other sub par cards instead of good ones. Here is where I learned to look into the past for answers. I did some research and found a Top 8 list from Worlds by Gabriel Nassif. He had around 5-7 win conditions and 13 counters. I started developing using that skeleton. It seemed logical since you want certain number of counters and big win conditions. 5-8 draw spells would seem also very good.

After I pretty much decided the core of the deck, I needed a gauntlet and certain rules to live by. Here are some of the rules to live by when playing Control :

1. NEVER keep a 2 lander.

2. Play fast and accurately to avoid time issues.

3. Shuffle your deck well after every long game.

4. Be patient.

5. Always have a plan B.

6. Predict the next series of plays not just the next one.

Some of them are pretty obvious but I would like to point out that number two, three, and six are the most important ones. Being ahead of every play will make you execute your plan flawlessly. Don't lie to yourself, if you are losing, you are losing. Don't try to fool yourself just notice why you lost Control of the game. The only reasons you can blame are Land Flood or Land Screw nothing else is important.

Stay tuned for part two.

Part 2 features :

Card Analysis

SB choices

Metagame prediction

Know yourself or know you enemy?