Standard

Exact 75: Controlling Your Fate

Magic is a game of skill and luck, the former being far more important than the latter. While in some scenarios variance can decide a game (mulligans, good draws,playing a bad matchup), the majority of games are won by the better players. Therefore, better players will often choose a deck that requires a little more skill to play but if played properly, will allow for a consistently high win rate. When examining decks in our current Standard format, a deck that is extremely skill-intensive but powerful is UB Control. Although the deck is not as dominant as it was in years before, it is still among the top decks in the Standard metagame, consistently performing in MTGO dailies and other large events.

Now a lot of you may be wondering what a less experienced player like myself is doing writing about a deck as complicated as UB control. As I have not been playing Standard regularly in the past six months (with Sealed and Modern being the PTQ formats of the day), I’ve been playing UB Control since January and have given myself the chance to understand how to play and tweak the deck optimally. Since I was qualified for the World Cup Qualifier events and I needed a deck to play, I began to look into the format. After toying with RG Aggro, RG Ramp, Naya Pod, BWG Ramp, and WB Tokens (I didn’t approach Delver, given that I did not have enough time to test it and did not feel I could play the mirror at an optimal level all day), I ended up reverting back to UB. Come Saturday morning, I submitted my list. There are a few interesting choices, but I’ll explain them later.

[deck title=UB Control circa Jake Meszaros]
[Creatures]
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Grave Titan
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Mana Leak
4 Think Twice
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Black Sun’s Zenith
3 Curse of Death’s Hold
3 Tragic Slip
2 Mimic Vat
2 Tribute to Hunger
2 Go for the Throat
1 Karn Liberated
1 Dissipate
1 Surgical Extraction
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
3 Ghost Quarter
3 Nephalia Drownyard
7 Island
6 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
2 Negate
2 Dissipate
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Life’s Finale
1 Nephalia Drownyard
2 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Sorin’s Thirst
1 Batterskull
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Originally, I had two [card]Elixir of Immortality[/card] in the sideboard for RG and the mirror, but I cut it late when I realised it was terrible and replaced it with [card]Sorin’s Thirst[/card] (which I ended up not liking either). I ended up finishing 5-2 in the event, good enough for 13th place, but I was unhappy. Despite playing fairly well for the majority of the day, I made two key errors in game three of rounds two and six, costing me a spot in the top eight. Aside from those two rounds (I lost to RG aggro and Naya Pod), I was happy with my play and a 5-0 score demonstrated the deck’s power level. I went undefeated against Delver (3-0) throughout the day, thus affirming the statement I made earlier in the day that the Delver matchup was very good. Unfortunately, I did not get to play against Ramp (quite possibly UB’s best matchup) all day, but crushing two Esper Control decks (another very good matchup) made it all okay! After a fun day, it was back to the tweaking table.

When I began to look at the deck the following day (I couldn’t play the PTQ as I worked that afternoon), I looked through my notes and made the following conclusions:

  • [card]Grave Titan[/card] isn’t that good in this format post-board.
  • [card]Sorin’s Thirst[/card] is terrible.
  • [card]Batterskull[/card] isn’t very good.
  • [card]Curse Of Death’s Hold[/card] is the stone cold nuts.
  • My deck needs more [card]Phantasmal Image[/card].
  • Since Avacyn Restored is about to come out, I should wait for the full spoiler to come out before making an updated list.

Sure enough, the following day the complete spoiler was released and I knew Wizards was tapping into my brain! As I scrolled through the spoiler, a lot of cards looked like they could possibly fit into UB Control. However, no card stood out more than [card]Barter in Blood[/card], a reprint that gives UB the extra push it requires to make a argument for being the second best deck in the format. Since the RG decks are bringing in cards like [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card] to make life difficult, having sac-effects make him a lot easier to manage. With a few other tweaks here and there, I concluded on the following 75:

[deck title=Updated UB Circa Jake Meszaros]
[Creatures]
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Grave Titan
2 Phantasmal Image
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Mana Leak
4 Think Twice
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Black Sun’s Zenith
3 Curse of Death’s Hold
2 Tragic Slip
2 Mimic Vat
1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Go for the Throat
1 Karn Liberated
1 Dissipate
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Barter in Blood
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Nephalia Drownyard
7 Island
6 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
2 Negate
2 Dissipate
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Life’s Finale
1 Nephalia Drownyard
2 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Go for the Throat
1 Tribute to Hunger
1 Tragic Slip
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

This list has some very unconventional choices, so let’s examine them.

[card]Mimic Vat[/card]: Also known as “Gimmick Vat”, [card]Mimic Vat[/card] is one of the main win conditions in this version of UB. Mimic Vat allows a control player to do what a control player loves most: keep mana open on an opponent’s turn. Once a creature is placed in the Vat, it can be used as a means to block ad nauseam or as an aggressor (by making the token at the end of end step). Note that [card]Mimic Vat[/card] cancels undying, but only when the undying creature is removed on their turn, thus placing the [card]Mimic Vat[/card] trigger on the stack after the undying trigger.  Given that the format is almost solely based on death by creatures, [card]Mimic Vat[/card] becomes a very good choice for the current 75.

2 [card]Phantasmal Image[/card]: The newest addition in the deck, [card]Phantasmal Image[/card] is a card that is very good when you’re “behind” and can be kept in hand while you’re ahead. It is good against all the cards that are annoying for UB to deal with ([card]Strangleroot Geist[/card], Thrun, [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card], [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card], etc.) and is also great in conjunction with [card]Mimic Vat[/card] (“Infinite” clone effects seem pretty good!)

3 [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card]: With the format revolving around X/1 creatures ([card]Birds of Paradise[/card], [card]Delver of Secrets[/card], [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], Spirit tokens, etc.), [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] becomes an instant must in the deck. Having access to three [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] in the mainboard makes life extremely difficult for decks like Delver and RG Aggro, given that they revolve around a lot of small creatures. It’s also huge against the ramp decks, making it impossible for them to activate an [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] and kill you via the poison route.

2 [card]Barter in Blood[/card]:  As previously mentioned, [card]Barter in Blood[/card] is really good as it gets rid of pesky hexproof creatures like [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card], [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card], and [card]Invisible Stalker[/card]. In addition, many decks in the format only have one or two creatures in play at a time, making [card]Barter in Blood[/card] a pseudo-[card]Wrath of God[/card] effect.

26 Lands Mainboard, 2 Sideboard: Personally, I believe 26 lands to be sufficient in the deck, but there are matchups (RG Ramp) that require bringing in an additional [card]Ghost Quarter[/card] to deal with lands like [card]Kessig Wolf Run[/card] or [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card]. The fourth [card]Nephalia Drownyard[/card] in the board is for control mirrors where the plan is to play infinite lands and mill them out with mana open every turn.

Since the last time I’ve written an article, one of the most important things I’ve learned is to not follow a specific sideboarding plan for every matchup. Although boarding plans are fine against stock lists, it doesn’t take into account the changes people make to their lists. Therefore, while examining the matchups of our deck, I will simply list out the cards that are good in the matchup and cards that are really bad, the cards that COULD be cut will be looked at more specifically.

Delver

Since I’ve started playing UB, I’ve lost a total of two sanctioned matches out of fourteen against Delver. Because our deck packs so many sweepers and sacrifice effects, their hexproof guys lose a lot of value against us. In addition, having three [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] mainboard is really beneficial.

The Good Cards: [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card], [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card], [card]Barter in Blood[/card], [card]Tribute to Hunger[/card], [card]Nephalia Drownyard[/card]

The Bad Cards: [card]Grave Titan[/card], [card]Karn Liberated[/card], [card]Go For the Throat[/card]

Cards to Bring In: [card]Ratchet Bomb[/card], [card]Tribute to Hunger[/card], (1) [card]Jace, Memory Adept[/card], [card]Surgical Extraction[/card]

This leaves two more cards to take out. Cards that could be considered are:

[card]Phantasmal Image[/card]: It only really hits [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card], but it is a solid removal spell for one.

[card]Dissipate[/card]: You don’t usually counter stuff besides the Artifacts in this matchup and since they’re pretty light on lands, [card]Mana Leak[/card] usually does the job.

[card]Think Twice[/card]: Since you have so many answers, you can arguably take out a draw spell for more answers.

RG Aggro

The RG Aggro matchup is very dependent on whether they have multiple [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card]s; the card is a beating for our deck. Luckily, cards like [card]Mimic Vat[/card], [card]Phantasmal Image[/card], and the plethora of removal spells mean [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card] is a bit more manageable. The only other card in this matchup that is frustrating is [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card] on turn two.  The rest of the deck is very manageable (beware [card]Devil’s Play[/card]/[card]Red Sun’s Zenith[/card] late-game – don’t get caught off guard!)

The Good Cards: [card]Phantasmal Image[/card], [card]Mimic Vat[/card], Sweepers, [card]Barter in Blood[/card], [card]Tragic Slip[/card]

The Bad Cards: [card]Grave Titan[/card], [card]Surgical Extraction[/card] (on the draw), [card]Mana Leak[/card] (on the draw), [card]Karn Liberated[/card] (on the play)

Cards to Bring in: [card]Life’s Finale[/card], [card]Tragic Slip[/card], [card]Go for the Throat[/card],(1) [card]Jace, Memory Adept[/card], [card]Tribute to Hunger[/card] (on the draw), [card]Ghost Quarter[/card] (on the draw)

While on the draw you have the exact number of cards to bring in and take out, on the play two more cards are required to take out.

[card]Think Twice[/card]: Since you have infinite answers, you want to draw actual answers over draw spells. No more than one should be boarded out though.

[card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card]: One can be taken out in the matchup in favor of more effective sweepers, but it is definitely fine in this matchup.

RG Ramp

Fortunately, people are beginning to play ramp again but with more board sweepers ([card]Slagstorm[/card] and [card]Whipflare[/card]) which is great for us. I hate to say that this matchup is a bye, but we are definitely heavily favoured barring certain setbacks (milling a [card]Devil’s Play[/card] that deals lethal, variance).

Good Cards: [card]Mimic Vat[/card], [card]Phantasmal Image[/card], [card]Mana Leak[/card], [card]Dissipate[/card], [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card], [card]Go for the Throat[/card], [card]Barter in Blood[/card]

Bad Cards: [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card], [card]Tragic Slip[/card], [card]Grave Titan[/card]

Cards to Bring in: [card]Life’s Finale[/card], [card]Surgical Extraction[/card], (1) [card]Jace, Memory Adept[/card], [card]Dissipate[/card], [card]Go for the Throat[/card], [card]Ghost Quarter[/card]

Since this matchup is already pretty good, there’s only one more card to take out, options include:

[card]Tribute to Hunger[/card]: I don’t really like taking one out but some people don’t like it. If your opponent is on a ramp list that runs [card]Birds of Paradise[/card], then [card]Tribute to Hunger[/card] may be the card you decide to cut.

[card]Mana Leak[/card]: A singleton [card]Mana Leak[/card] can be taken out, given that you’re bringing in 2 more [card]Dissipate[/card]. This line is more favourable if you’re on the play because you’ll have more mana up and are bringing in more answers for their guys ([card]Go for the Throat[/card], [card]Dissipate[/card], etc.)

[card]Karn Liberated[/card]: I like [card]Karn Liberated[/card] in this matchup because you can sandbag it until your opponent is behind, then you slam it down, steal something and threaten to restart the game. However, some players would just rather have the mana up, so if you feel it should be cut go for it.

Naya Pod

The Naya Pod matchup can be approached from two different angles. One can either choose to shoot all the creatures before they are “podded” (usually with their come into play abilities on the stack) or wait for them to start chaining and simply kill the final product. Both routes can be used, but there are clear indicators as to when to take each route. Generally if by turn four your opponent does not have a [card]Birthing Pod[/card] in play, you want to kill every creature he has on the board. However, if he has a turn 2-4 [card]Birthing Pod[/card], you generally want to let him start podding until he hits the [card]Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite[/card] (unless there’s lethal damage on board of course).

The Good Cards: [card]Mimic Vat[/card], [card]Phantasmal Image[/card], [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card], [card]Barter in Blood[/card], [card]Go for the Throat[/card], [card]Tragic Slip[/card]

The Bad Cards: [card]Mana Leak[/card] (on the draw)

Cards to Bring in: [card]Life’s Finale[/card], [card]Go for the Throat[/card], [card]Tragic Slip[/card], [card]Surgical Extraction[/card]

On the draw, the boarding plan is decently obvious. However, on the play there are some choices to make:

[card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card]: Given that the deck doesn’t revolve around big drops, I think you can afford to take one out; three may be too many. An argument can be made for taking them out entirely, but in conjunction with sweepers, they can be very beneficial.

[card]Grave Titan[/card]: [card]Grave Titan[/card] is an enigma in this matchup. While it can win the game on its own, it’s also rather easy to deal with and can even become a [card]Birthing Pod[/card] target with [card]Act of Aggression[/card]. Generally, I take it out, but there is an argument to be made for leaving it in.

[card]Think Twice[/card]: Once again, it comes down wanting draw spells or outs. Cutting one is fine, I don’t see cutting more as being good.

[card]Tribute to Hunger[/card]: On the draw, I think it’s correct to keep it in as the lifegain can be relevant, but on the play, you already have a lot of answers and [card]Tribute to Hunger[/card] is the most situational of them all.

Esper

With Esper being played more and more, UB Control becomes a better deck choice. This matchup is very good for us, as long as you play decently well, keep mana up and drown them out!

The Good Cards: [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], [card]Nephalia Drownyard[/card], [card]Phantasmal Image[/card], [card]Dissipate[/card], [card]Surgical Extraction[/card], [card]Karn Liberated[/card]

The Bad Cards: [card]Grave Titan[/card], [card]Tragic Slip[/card], [card]Barter in Blood[/card], [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] / [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card] *

Cards To Board In: [card]Dissipate[/card], [card]Negate[/card], (2) [card]Jace, Memory Adept[/card], [card]Nephalia Drownyard[/card], [card]Surgical Extraction[/card], [card]Go for the Throat[/card]

*Keeping in both [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card] and [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] is definitely wrong, but which to take out depends on the build. If the deck is more like Solar Flare ([card]Unburial Rites[/card], [card]Sun Titan[/card], etc.) then [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] is bad. However, if it’s more like tap-out ([card]Lingering Souls[/card], no Unburial Rites, and planeswalkers) then [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card] is slightly worse.

Other cards to consider cutting include:

[card]Tribute to Hunger[/card]: If they are playing a lot of [card]Lingering Souls[/card], [card]Tribute to Hunger[/card] loses a lot of value.

[card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card] / [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card]: You can cut one of whichever you leave in, but it’s up to you.

[card]Ghost Quarter[/card]: You can bring one out if you’d rather remain on 26 lands, to avoid flooding. Being flooded isn’t so bad in this matchup, though.

[card]Mana Leak[/card]: I believe you can cut one Leak here, since you’re bringing in so much other countermagic. Just by having mana up, he’ll be slightly more reluctant to do things and opt to [card]Think Twice[/card]/Alchemy at the end of his turn.

UW Humans:

For every easy matchup, there’s a hard one and for UB Control, it’s UW Humans. Creatures like [card]Loyal Cathar[/card] and [card]Doomed Traveler[/card] are really annoying for us since they give the UW player a lot of value. However, the most crucial card to counter in this entire matchup is [card]Honor of the Pure[/card] since it accelerates their clock considerably. With a [card]Mimic Vat[/card], some [card]Phantasmal Image[/card]s and a sweeper or two, we can deal with multiple copies of their “value-creatures”, but if they land [card]Honor of the Pure[/card], they can race very quickly and efficiently.

The Good Cards: [card]Barter in Blood[/card], [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card], [card]Black Sun’s Zenith[/card], [card]Phantasmal Image[/card], [card]Grave Titan[/card].

The Bad Cards: [card]Karn Liberated[/card], [card]Tribute to Hunger[/card], (1) [card]Mana Leak[/card], [card]Dissipate[/card],

Cards to Bring In: (2) [card]Ratchet Bomb[/card], [card]Life’s Finale[/card], [card]Tragic Slip[/card]

For this matchup I’m saying stick to this boarding plan, as after board, I think we have just enough redundancy of sweepers to push the scales in the matchup slightly.

Although there are many other viable decks in the format (WB Tokens, GW Aggro, etc.), I can’t go over every matchup. Therefore if you plan on playing the deck and require additional boarding notes, feel free to contact me via Twitter (@kidhyper75) and I’d be more than happy to go over things with you.

Well until the end of the PTQ season, (I’ll be focusing on playing rather than writing) have a great season.  Maybe some of you will even consider playing UB Control at your PTQs!

Jake Meszaros

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