UB Control: Dragons, Eldrazi, or Lands?
Standard forum
Posted on Oct. 24, 2015, 11:14 a.m. by capriom85
Which iteration of UB control is strongest in the current standard meta?
Lands: this is pretty self-explanatory. Ruinous Path and Scatter to the Winds make your lands into creatures that you smash with. It probably makes sense to play the Esper version here so you have the "everything but lands" board wipe and access to shambling vents, as well.
Dragons: this is when you play Dragonlord Silumgar, Icefall Regent, and Silumgar, the Drifting Death as win cons. This is nice because we get Silumgar's Scorn as a Counterspell and Foul-Tongue Invocation gains us life and gets around hexproof and indestructible. (It can also be argued that the Esper version is better and to replace Icefall with Dragonlord Ojutai). Crux of Fate is a huge all-star in this version.
Eldrazi: this one is where we play Sire of Stagnation and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as win cons. We get access to Titan's Presence here and that is a pretty good play when you most likely have something power 7-10 in your hand. These finishers end the game fastest and you don't have to do anything to generate massive advantage off of them. I'd even be tempted to play an Oblivion Sower in this mix. The downside is we don't get to take full advantage of ANY of the bonuses and some of the good UB stuff becomes useless: No reason to play Scorn at all. No lifegain from Invocation, and the awaken mechanics are just weaker because you are trying to play 10 cmc creatures and making yor lands killable just seems counterproductive.
The shell is pretty consistent on these: lots of removal: Ruinous Path, Languish, wipes where applicable, Foul-Tongue Invocation.
Counters: Scatter to the Winds and Clash of Wills are best. Horribly Awry, Dispel, and Disdainful Stroke in the side are always helpful.
The rest is basically a lot of draw: Dig Through Time, Anticipate, Dragonlord's Prerogative, and maybe Ugin's Insight all get mentions here.
Other inclusions: we usually see these guys pop up in 1-2 of slots: Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Ob Nixilis Reignited.
what do you all think is the stronger version of UB control right now? Before BFZ the Dragon version was the only way to go: now we have options.
I had insane success with the dragons version before BFZ. I will not use Jace bc despite what people say I don't like him. I wish it were Architect of thought honestly.
I just have never seen Jace dominate in any match I have seen. I'm not sold on him and I feel like I'm missing the point, but oh well.
You really think Dragons and Eldrazi are weak though? The way I look at it, every other deck is beat by removal. Pack enough of that and your just sitting back and waiting to drop Ulamog
October 24, 2015 11:44 a.m.
I have to say I agree. Lands is especially weak vs other control decks.
October 24, 2015 11:45 a.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #5
I agree that Eldrazi isn't in the same conversation as the other two.
I see Dragons as the stronger build mainly because of the power of cards like Silumgar's Scorn & Foul-Tongue Invocation that are enabled by the Dragons. The Dragons themselves also do a better job of shutting the door once you've stabilized. I 2-0'd an Awaken deck with my Aristocrats deck last week despite the fact that my opponent seemed close to stabilizing in both games as I was able to hack through his Secure the Wastes tokens (13 in one game) and wear him down.
ducttapedeckbox says... #2
I don't think the Eldrazi version is on par with Dragons or straight up control. The sad part about either remaining deck is that they get a lot of their power from Jace, Vryn's Prodigy Flip, which isn't in a lot of budgets (mine included). Both decks also want to be Esper over U/B in most situations as well.
Esper Control has been top 8'ing more frequently than Dragons, so that's another consideration.
If we're just talking at an FNM level, either deck is fine with an experienced pilot and it comes down to preference, although straight up control might be the better deck.
October 24, 2015 11:31 a.m.