Justin Brickman: Taking Control of SCG Regionals
It sounds crazy that Modern decks can do anything other than completely ignore what the opponent is doing and kill on the third turn of the game. Thankfully those days are (almost) behind us!
With the banning of Gitaxian Probe and Golgari Grave-Troll, as well as the printing of Fatal Push, we have seen that decks such as Death’s Shadow Aggro, Infect, and Dredge are less consistent now and are not putting up the same results as they were before. This opens the door to more interactive decks taking their place at the top of the metagame.
The principle of interaction in Modern
usually starts with one card: Lightning Bolt. I don’t need to go into depth about how important it is that if you want to be interacting with your opponent in Modern, you should have the chance to do it as soon as possible. One-mana removal spells such as Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, Fatal Push and even Dismember are critical parts of building your midrange or control deck in Modern.
As you continue to decide what ways you want to interact in Modern, the next important piece of your deck is your form of disruption. This aspect can come in several forms, whether it’s trying to strip them of resources with cards such as Thoughtseize or Liliana of the Veil, or using cards such as Remand and Snapcaster Mage to gain tempo and card advantage. It’s at this point where your play style and comfort zone really help you gravitate towards a specific choice.
While Dark Confidant is a card I hold near and dear, I generally prefer control decks such as Grixis or Jeskai as opposed to midrange strategies such as Jund or Abzan. The best part of building an interactive deck in Modern is that there are so many ways to build your deck for any given metagame, and that flexibility is why I always want to have access to cards such as Cryptic Command and Snapcaster Mage. Between two SCG Tour Classics, the MOCS, and The NRG CT over the last few weekends, we have seen several different flavors of control.
Grixis Control, by Corey Burkhart, 1st place, MOCS, Jan. 22
This list is from just before the release of Fatal Push on Magic Online; however that doesn’t change the game plan of Grixis to be trading one-for-one early and often. When you have Ancestral Vision in your deck, you want to be using your resources effectively so you’re not forced to discard down to hand size when you get to draw three extra cards.
Grixis has two major appeals. First is the combination of Snapcaster Mage and either Kolaghan’s Command or Cryptic Command. Both of these cards are huge in the long-game plan that this deck has. Both allow you to leverage huge amounts of card advantage by returning Snapcasters to your hand from either the graveyard or the battlefield and using those spells again.
Second is how this deck
uses Thought Scour the most effective way any deck ever could. Flipping cards into the graveyard for Snapcaster Mage is great, and milling cards you don’t want shuffled back into your deck off a scry from Serum Visions is fine. The real prize is a Dark Ritual that draws you a card, enabling you to cast a Turn 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang with assistance from one of the many fetchlands in the deck.
This gives you the ability to present a incredibly quick clock. Other control decks have to grind for quite some time before they can come close to winning the game through the combination of Snapcaster Mage and Lightning Bolt or Celestial Colonnade beat downs. Presenting one of your few threats on turn 2 isn’t a problem, because if it gets answered by a swift Terminate or Liliana of the Veil, you will always have access to it by means of a Kolaghan’s Command.
Jeskai Control has been
one of the preferred choices for control enthusiasts in Modern ever since the printing of Sphinx’s Revelation back in 2012. To this day the deck exists in several variations. The main game plan of Jeskai strategies is to use cheap interaction such as Remand and Mana Leak to trade resources in the early game and make land drops every turn for the first 10 or so turns.
This is where it gets scary from the other side of the table, because at that point, the possibilities can become endless. Sphinx’s Revelation for as little as three or four cards can just seal the deal right there, or powerful planeswalkers such as Ajani Vengeant or Nahiri, the Harbinger plus countermagic, plus Celestial Colonnade make short work of closing out the game. One of the best reasons to gravitate towards white in Modern is the access you get to some of the best sideboard options available in the format.
Jeskai Control, by Vincent Adinolfi, 2nd place, NRG CT, Jan. 28
Seeing this deck in the finals of the NRG CT this past weekend restored my love of control decks in Modern. When Vincent had the resources to work with, I rarely felt like he was in a situation where he couldn’t recover.
This list is approximately 73/75 that Shaun McLaren used to win Pro Tour Born of the Gods three years ago, and it is still good today. This is a hard control deck; all it wants to do is make its land drops, stay alive just long enough to cast a massive Sphinx’s Revelation and take over from there. Every nonland (and Tectonic Edge) is some form of interaction. With this in mind, the philosophy behind this specific deck is that if I’m alive, I can win.
One of the reasons I like gravitating towards this particular build is how well the sideboard is constructed. Every card in there has a specific purpose but is still so flexible that you’ll never be short of options, no matter the matchup. Relic of Progenitus turning off opposing Snapcaster Mages and Tarmogoyfs is great, but the ability to have some graveyard hate to combat Dredge to some capacity is perfect. Rest in Peace simply isn’t an option considering how important Snapcaster Mage is to the deck.
Crucible of Worlds is a huge role-player in grindy matchups by always being able to keep making land drops by way of fetch lands, recurring Celestial Colonnade, and Stone Raining your opponent every turn through Tectonic Edge. Porphyry Nodes is a strange card (along with several other “color shifted” cards) that sees rare amounts of play, but when your game plan is keep the board clear, sometimes all you need is a Drop of Honey. This card makes a strict rule that as long as it is in play, the board stays clean. The best part about this is that it doesn’t target, so get those annoying Slippery Bogles and Gladecover Scouts out of here.
Looking forward to SCG Regionals, Modern is back to a vibrant, diverse format where you can play anything you wish. At the NRG CT, 99 players registered 39 different decks, ranging from Jund to Jeskai Ascendancy Gifts to R/G Land Destruction. Whether your preference is casting Tarmogoyf, attacking with massive Ornithopters, or just making your opponent completely miserable by locking them out of the game, there is a deck for you.
Justin Brickman is an SCG Tour grinder from suburban Chicago who began playing Magic during Innistrad block. His Magic accomplishments include an SCG Regionals Top 16 and a Super Sunday Series Top 4. He can be reached on Twitter @BrickerclawMyr.
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