Christian with www.wizardden.com and Team Rogue T3ch here to talk to you about this past weekend's Pro Tour. This is something we have all been waiting for since the release of Khans and at this event we saw some familiar faces and some interesting new comers and after hours of watching feature matches on youtube I want to talk about one deck in particular; Owen Turtenwald and Team Channelfireball's Blue/Black Control.
Now I want to explain. The top eight decks were all awesome and played well, but, what can we at Wizard Den say about Jeskai Tempo/Wins and Abzan Midrange/Aggro aka SiegeRhinoBeats.dek that hasn't already already been said? The decks are very good and I forsee them being pillars of the
standard meta game for as long as people like playing those colors. I have been the proud caster of many a siege rhino over these past few weeks, but I digress...
Okay. Back to the control list. I feel obligated to explain why I picked Owen's list over Ivan Floch's, despite Ivan making top eight and Owen falling out of it into top 16. My reasoning behind this is mainly due to Owen's inclusion of Pearl Lake Ancient in the mainboard. I know from personal experience and testing that "Big Fish", as he has come to be called around the shop, can be a savage beating. A 6/7 body is nothing to shake a stick at and with prowess and flash how could it get better? Oh yeah, it can bounce itself to dodge removal and to do this you only has to return three lands to your hand. Quite a draw back right? Wrong. As anyone who watched the pro tour will tell you, it allows you to setup additional scry triggers or even gain you (much needed most of the time) life with the new common cycle of dual lands from khans. Let's also not forget the common from M15 core set, Good 'ole radiant fountain.
On to the biggest question control players had going into this new standard format. Where is our wrath? Looking at Owen's list you will see you don't have one, at least, not in a traditional sense. With only one Aetherspouts mainboard Owen and the Pantheon made use of another card that has yet to see any love in standard; Perilous Vault. I have to agree I did not see that coming. Watching the coverage it actually makes a lot of sense. Answers fleecemane lion and the like, very nicely, and there is not a lot of artifact hate floating around in mainboards these days.
With all that being said I have one more thing before posting the list and you can see what I am talking about. Dig through time. That card is a house. People have been arguing it is better than sphinx's revelation. I don't necessarily agree with that but card selection is definitively very important without a traditional board sweeper in the format to stabilize the game for you. All in all I have to the say that Owen's list plays a lot closer to mono-black control than a traditional blue/white or esper-style control. It looks like it is very important to know and play the deck well to get any success as each decision can make the difference between win or loss. Downfall or Dissolve that threat? Dig through time or jace's ingenuity? Delve the murderous cut or save it for a future dig? These are the questions you will be asking yourself after sleeving up this list.
Mainboard:
3 Thoughtseize
4 Bile Blight
2 Disdainful Stroke
4 Dissolve
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Perilous Vault
2 Murderous Cut
3 Jace's Ingenuity
1 Ætherspouts
2 Pearl Lake Ancient
4 Dig Through Time
1 Radiant Fountain
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Temple of Deceit
6 Island
5 Swamp
Sideboard:
1 Thoughtseize
1 Disdainful Stroke
4 Drown in Sorrow
4 Jorubai Murk Lurker
3 Negate
2 Pharika's Cure
That's the list. Looks super sweet right? I have to say that I am not a control player. I would rather cast a raging goblin over an aetherling 99.9% of the time. I can't explain why but this deck caught my eye and I've been having some serious thoughts about switching it up and sleeving-up some good 'ole blue/black control...
Thanks for reading, that's all I got for now.
Until next time,
Christian
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