Deck of the Week: Modern U/W Control
Welcome to Deck of the Week, a new feature where we break down an interesting deck from the preceding week in Magic.
It won’t always be a deck that wins a GP, PT or even a CT, but success will play a role in determining whether a deck makes the cut. If you see a deck that you think might be a worthwhile candidate, email it to claughman@gmail.com.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at this week’s deck:
U/W Control (Modern), by Greg Orange, 1st place, GP San Antonio
I normally wouldn’t pick a deck from a Unified event due to the possibility that it might not be the optimal build, but given the decks that Greg Orange, Adam Jansen and Andrejs Prost chose to win GP San Antonio, I feel confident that Greg’s deck wasn’t cannibalized to build the others.
Messing with Mana
The first thing that jumps out about this deck is the mana denial package. Four Spreading Seas, four Ghost Quarter and a Crucible of Worlds do some pretty serious work in a format that is as dependent on nonbasic lands as Modern. Ghost Quarter + Crucible is a potential hard lock against decks that don’t run any — or very few — basic lands. (Lookin’ at you, Death’s Shadow, Affinity and Bant Eldrazi.) And if your opponent does grab a basic or two, you can turn them into Islands and get to draw a card. Seems entirely reasonable. I do wonder if a Sun Titan would be good in here because of its ability to recur all of the land hate pieces, as well as being another potential finisher. It does turn on removal that would normally be dead, though.
Stayin’ Alive
The biggest issue for control decks is those times when they simply die a horrible screaming death before being able to stabilize. In a format full of cheap threats and conditional removal, that issue is even more pronounced.
Condemn is seeing more play, and with good reason.
Although it’s not as objectively powerful as Path to Exile, Path’s drawback is very real, especially when you’re running a mana denial package. Condemn has a drawback as well, but control decks don’t care too much about their opponent’s life total as long as it doesn’t end up being, say, eleventy bajillion. Condemn’s drawback is actually a plus against Death’s Shadow; I’m literally giggling at the thought of Condemning a Tarmogoyf and forcing its owner to gain enough life to kill a Death’s Shadow.
Supreme Verdict might just be the best reset button in Modern; Wrath of God gets around regeneration, but that’s pretty much irrelevant these days. Affinity might be able to save a creature with Welding Jar against Verdict, but you don’t have to worry about Verdict being Spell Pierced.
Blessed Alliance helps keep you alive against aggro decks and gets around hexproof or protection against Infect. Detention Sphere is a nice catch-all against troublesome non-creature permanents, hits creatures, and is fantastic against tokens.
Permission and Card Advantage
Ancestral Vision is tailor-made for control decks, because being able to basically draw three cards for free is raw card advantage that few other decks in Modern can match. Between Ancestral Vision and Serum Visions, you should have a one-mana draw spell to suspend or play more often than not on turn 1. Serum Visions isn’t anywhere near as good as Ponder or Preordain, but sometimes you just have to play the best thing available.
Cryptic Command is, well, Cryptic Command. Seeing four untapped mana is terrifying against any deck running Cryptic, and this deck is going to be in that position more often than not. Mana Leak and Spell Snare are both great tempo plays, because they’re usually trading for something more expensive. Snapcaster Mage makes all three of the counterspells even more difficult to play around.
Jace, Architect of Thought is pretty good 
at helping you stay alive and pretty good at helping you dig for what you need. Being able to double up the clock with Jace’s +1 comes in handy against aggro, and he’ll soak up some damage himself along the way.
Finishers
As with most control decks, this build doesn’t have a lot of finishers, but the ones it does have are strong. Elspeth, Sun’s Champion is a bomb on an empty board, and her wrath effect can help make sure the board is empty. Very little planeswalker removal is played in Modern with the exception of things such as Maelstrom Pulse, so resolving an Elspeth can just be lights out.
Celestial Colonnade is expensive, but worth it. Vigilance gives it the ability to attack while still keeping up Path/Condemn mana. It can be Fatal Pushed, however, so watch out for that.
Mana
The big advantage to U/W versus Jeskai or Esper is the quality of the mana. Nine dual lands and four fetches make it possible to run the full four Ghost Quarters while still maintaining the ability to cast spells with UU, UUU, WW, and WWU in their converted mana cost.
The downside of Seachrome Coast is a little less pronounced in this deck because you’ll usually have mana open. It can be a disadvantage if it’s your only choice for a fourth land drop and you have Cryptic in hand, but the odds are good you’ll have something else to do as well.
Sideboard
The sideboard takes full advantage of white’s depth as a sideboard color in Modern. Kor Firewalker is phenomenal against Burn; Stony Silence is great against Affinity; Celestial Purge is a two-mana answer to Tasigur, Gurmag Angler, Liliana (either one), Death’s Shadow, Siege Rhino, Dark Confidant and so on. Rest in Peace is good against any graveyard strategy, at the cost of shutting off your Snapcaster Mages. Porphyry Nodes makes it hard for opponents to establish any kind of battlefield presence. Dispel, Negate and Vendilion Clique are multi-format staples for a reason.
Final Thoughts
One of the big advantages of this deck is that it’s good against Death’s Shadow, which is critical in Modern these days. While it may be less favored — or a dog — against other strategies, this much card advantage, removal and flexibility allows a capable pilot the ability to have game against anything. Modern has been crying out for a strong control deck for a long time, and this just might be it.
Deck of the Week is a breakdown of an interesting deck from the preceding week in Magic. Email deck suggestions to claughman@gmail.com.
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