Need help with Azorius Control (Standard)
Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 27, 2014, 8 p.m. by JagmanJohn
The deck is completed, but something feels wrong when I play it. I've never experienced control that durdles for so long, so I'd like some guidance, T/O. Please, help me make my W/U Deck better. It will be a New World Thank you.
JagmanJohn says... #3
I love the list that's been going around, but while I feel uncomfortable with my current list, I do like it. What I'd like to know (from your personal opinion) is this deck where it needs to be to dominate a local FNM?
January 27, 2014 10:47 p.m.
Oh yeah, the UW control shell is plenty strong for FNM.
Based on what your local meta is like you might want to shift around a few choices - control is always going to need to tune its answers to the expected environment. If you expect to see more Boros Elite and Rakdos Cackler than Thoughtseize it might be wise to transition the Divination into Last Breath and maybe shift 1 Dissolve down to Syncopate . Just to give yourself some more early interaction.
January 27, 2014 10:55 p.m.
JagmanJohn says... #5
Thanks. Very recently, my local meta was literally just MRD. I played against it 4 times and then dropped, because it got so damn annoying to lose to them (I was playing G/W Aggro). From what I saw, there was still one U/W control that made top 8 at least. To be prepared for this meta, would you keep Blind Obedience around?
January 27, 2014 11 p.m.
I've had decent enough experiences with it, but I wouldn't call it a necessity. A little extort here and there and the virtual life it gains from stopping haste attacks can really add up.
The downside however is that it doesn't ever truly trade with any of your opponents cards. On some level it's not actually any different from running a card like Heroes' Reunion , it's just going to gain/save you a certain amount of life over the course of a game. If that life amount is sufficiently high, like 15+ then it's arguable that that's worth being down an answer to your opponents hand.
Slycne says... #2
Heh, that's not even the durdlest control deck. 4 win-cons and Mutavault in quite aggresive compared to the 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Elixir of Immortality plan around a few weeks back.
Personally I really like the Saito UW control list that's been going around lately, it just won the GP on Sunday. It runs 6 black scry lands so that it can run some removal out of the board in matches that Detention Sphere tends to get taxed and also features an aggressive sideboard plan of bringing in 4 Archangel of Thune once your opponent sides out all their removal. That might be more to your style if you feel this list isn't active enough.
A few general suggestions:
Cyclonic Rift can be something better. You don't really need tempo, the game plan is to keep trading cards and let your top decks take over late game. That's much harder when you're at a card disadvantage.
Sphinx's Revelation run all 4. There's a lot of discard around and far fewer hyper aggressive decks, and will likely be even less post-BNG. It's arguably the best card in the deck, and running all 4 even lets you start firing off small ones earlier.
Rapid Hybridization is really not where you want to be. 3/3s are still quite the clock and you're going to have to be 2-for-1-ing yourself to get them off the board. There are far fewer Blood Baron of Vizkopa running around these days, and don't forget you already run 6 mainboard answers to them.
Elixir of Immortality you seem to balk at the deck being durdle. If you're unfamiliar with that kind of control deck I would recommend against it. This really promotes you to split the deck into different plans.
January 27, 2014 10:01 p.m.