The Apprentice's Workshop - Episode 17 (Two Deck Edition)

The Apprentice's Workshop

KrazyCaley

11 May 2013

1288 views

Welcome.

Today we'll be taking a look at two decks. The first is:

Aggro Flyers Can Control

Standard* theperson98

SCORE: 3 | 8 COMMENTS | 1391 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

What is this deck's main idea?

There are a lot of control pieces here; we have wraths, Detention Sphere and counterspells, as well as a suite of creatures and some support pieces.

Like all control decks, we need a win condition, and this one uses a bunch of flyers. Specifically we have 10 flying creatures (13 if you count Azorius Keyrune ).

My problem is not with the number of creatures, but rather with the KINDS of creatures we have. In a control deck, our comparative advantage, granted us by our control tools, is that we can afford to take our time and develop a large mana base, enabling us to use more powerful cards. Drogskol Captain is good and gives us a direction to build toward (i.e., use spirits that can gain hexproof with him). Drogskol Reaver benefits from the Captain, and is an excellent finisher.

But Stormbound Geist and Vassal Soul, I'm not so sure of, especially with us running four copies of Supreme Verdict. We want cards to cast AFTER a Supreme Verdict, not before, and also cards that won't interfere with our smaller control tools, mana-curve-wise. I can live with the Favorable Winds and Midnight Haunting combo, but I'd like to see one more copy of Winds.

So let's cut the Geist and Soul, and add one copy of winds. This gives us four slots to work with.

Three of these I am putting toward land slots. We have only 22 land in this control deck, which, even WITH Azorius Keyrune, is woefully insufficient. 25 is more like it, and I'll select Hallowed Fountain as the land in question. If this is too expensive, other dual lands, or merely basic lands, should suffice nearly as well; fixing is not a serious problem for this deck.

The last card I'm spending on another copy of Drogskol Reaver to give our deck just a little more late game kick.

The sideboard

The sideboard also needs a bit of work. Redirect I do not find to be a particularly serviceable sideboard card. All the Talrand cards don't seem to be here to deal with any particular matchup, and Stormbound Geist we talked about in the mainboard. This leaves us with four copies of Oblivion Ring, two copies of Smite, and nine slots to fill. Let's first go up to four copies of Smite to deal with more aggressive decks.

Let's also put in four copies of the invaluable Nevermore, and three copies of the always-useful Pithing Needle, and voila, we have an excellent sideboard.

KrazyCaley's Recommended Changes

-3x Stormbound Geist

-2x Vassal Soul

+3x Hallowed Fountain

+1x Drogskol Reaver

Sideboard:

-2x Redirect

-1x Stormbound Geist

-4x Talrand's Invocation

-2x Talrand, Sky Summoner

+2x Smite

+4x Nevermore

+3x Pithing Needle

Next deck

Our next deck is....

deck-large:make-a-wish-you-only-get-three

This is a Modern faeries deck.

Faeries.

Modern isn't my main game, but Faeries is a familiar-enough archetype, and this one is already well-constructed. In fact, I only have one complaint for this entire deck:

Remand.

True, Remand is often found in other Faeries builds, but it is usually accompanied by a few more counterspells. Here, since we have such strong early-game answers, I would prefer to see a more powerful counterspell. Cryptic Command *list* fits the bill perfectly, and I think we'd be better served by three copies of it over the notoriously temporary Remand.

Other than that, your guess is as good as mine in Modern.

KrazyCaley's Recommended Changes:

-3x Remand

+3x Cryptic Command *list*

Be sure to tell the deckbuilders what you think, and I'll catch you all next time.