by Justin Richardson

After many heart-breaking disappointments, everything finally came together for Justin Richardson as he was able to become the 2010 Provincials Champion of Quebec.  How did he do it?  He details it all here!  If you want to be playing UW in the new Standard format, this is unquestionably a must-read.

A lot of my friends were skeptical on playing UW or any control deck for that matter as the format is wide open and everyone thought Ramp decks with Summoning Traps was going to be the most popular deck, which has a good matchup against control. I decided to play Gerard Fabiano's list of UW because it felt more like a proactive type of control deck compared to the other decks that try to find answers for everyone of the opponent's cards. His deck just wanted to buy time until it could start dropping its own threats in the form of Angels and Planeswalkers and due to the lack of real removal in the format, those threats would usually be good enough. Here's the list Gerard created and what I sleeved up.

3 Tectonic Edge
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
5 Plains
6 Island
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Collonade
1 Seachrome Coast
4 Preordain
4 Oust
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Jace Beleren
2 Gideon Jura
3 Baneslayer Angel
2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Sunblast Angel
4 Mana Leak
2 Everflowing Chalice
4 Spreading Seas
2 Volition Reigns

Sideboard
3 Condemn
2 Revoke Existence
2 Negate
2 Spell Pierce
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Volition Reigns
4 Flashfreeze

Gerard talked about the deck in his last article, but I'm going to go into more details about the individual card choices in the deck and what cards the deck is not playing that a lot of you might question.  I will also talk about how I did at Provincials.

The manabase for the deck is pretty standard although a lot of people are playing 3-4 Seachrome Coast. I feel you only want 1 or 2 in your deck as their good early but sometimes you need to rip a 5th land for a Baneslayer and you really want to minimize the amount of tapped lands in your deck. Most play 4 Tectonic Edge but since there's no Sun Titan you don't need the 4th in the maindeck and can just board it in when you want it and not get colour screwed in the matchups you don't want it. 3 fetchlands is probably 1 too few but I didn't feel comfortable cutting any other land for one. 2 Everflowing Chalice is just to give you a boost in the lategame letting you play more spells in the same turn to protect your big threats with countermagic while helping you get out of Mana Leak range, and Turn 3 Jace, The Mind Sculptor or Turn 4 Baneslayer Angel is pretty hard to beat also.

Oust is probably the card that confuses people the most, I know a lot of my opponents had to read it when I cast it. Gerard Fabiano is a genius for figuring out how good this card is in the format. Using it on an early creature buys you so much time and saves you a lot of life, and it's a beating when you use it on a mana creature like Birds of Paradise or Joraga Treespeaker. This deck just wants to buy itself time with its cheap cards like Oust and Mana Leak before taking over the game with its more powerful cards like Baneslayer Angel and Planeswalkers.

If you're not running Preordain in Control you should get on that. Being able to smooth out your draws and finding the right number of lands is such a subtle advanatge but it is definitely worth the 4 slots in your deck. It also gets extra value from Jace, the Mind Sculptor allowing you to use the Brainstorm ability then putting cards you don't need on the bottom with Preordain. It also makes you have a lot of live draws in the lategame if you get into topdeck mode.

Spreading Seas seems strange now that Jund and company is gone, but it is very good at slowing down ramp and cutting off key cards like Eldrazi Temple/Eye of Ugin, Manlands, Valakut and can even colour screw your opponent every so often. Also getting a cantrip is pretty sweet also. I could see cutting these if Blue Control becomes more popular than the Primeval Titan ramp decks for some extra counterspells like Stoic Rebuttal/Cancel but we will have to see how the Champs results shape the metagame in the months to come.

Linvala, Keeper of Silence is another odd card to see in UW. It pretty much acts like a Day of Judgement + Wall of Omens + Cursed Totem all in 1 card. She will survive and kill most aggresive creatures in combat, and she stops Fauna Shaman and mana creatures like Joraga Treespeaker, making her the best wall you could ever want, and 3/4 flying is nothing to scoff at when she starts attacking. Another great inclusion in the maindeck by Gerard.

Baneslayer Angel is how you are going to win most games with this deck. There is so little removal in the format that aggro decks just can't beat turn 5 Baneslayer right now. I think I won almost every game with Baneslayer, the only exception being the mirror match. Baneslayer is the best reason to play White over Red or Black in Blue Control decks right now, although if Control decks become very popular you might need to switch to Frost Titans, just be aware that once people start doing that aggro will once again take over as the metagame always goes around in a circle.

The miser's copy of Sunblast Angel rounds out the creature suite for this deck. The card is great as a 1 of as you can find it with all your library manipulation and you won't get clunky hands with multiple copies. The obvious synergy with Gideon Juras +2 ability is just icing on the cake and can blow out most aggro decks. The ability to kill mana creatures to slow down green decks is also a plus.

Gideon Jura is the 5 drop Planeswalker of choice in the deck due to its abilities helping your gameplan. It buys you time until your better threats can take over the game and it is a finisher on its own. The +2 ability makes Sunblast Angel a reasonable card choice as I discussed before but when playing Gideon I found myself making it a creature more often than I used the other 2 abilities combined. A 6/6 that can't be killed by any of the removal running around right now is almost imposssible for other decks to beat right now.

Jace the Mind Sculptor is the best card in Standard so you want to play as many as possible, and one of the few ways to deal with a resolved Jace is to play Jace Beleren. Gerard has said that the only card that matters in the Control mirror is Jace and I am inclined to agree, whoever sticks a Jace first is probably going to win as the other player has to play their own Jace to kill yours because if you ever get more than 1 activation out of a Jace you are probably going to win the mirror. The Mind Sculptor also plays a key role in your plan agaisnt Ramp decks which is to counter the early mana acceleration and then start Fatesealing them with Jace as fast as possible to keep them off of Primeval Titan.

Confiscate never saw much play outside of Enduring Ideal but Volition Reins is seeing a lot and that's because of the introduction of Planeswalkers. Stealing a Planeswalker and using it right away is such a huge advantage, especially if you can steal a Planeswalker that is about to go ultimate. Agaisnt aggro the card isn't that great but the untap clause helps, stealing their best guy and being able to block with it even if it is tapped can be very helpful in tight games.

Revoke Existence is kind of a weird card because it is not great in any one matchup but it is very good at removing certain cards that can give you trouble like Quest of the Holy Relic, Luminarch Ascension and Volition Reins. The more popular Volition Reins gets in control mirrors the more you are going to want to have some Revoke Existence but I don't think you will want more than 2 in your sideboard because sometimes it can just be a dead card if they do not have a target.

Cards the deck does not play:

Day of Judgement: Same thing as Wall of Omens, its not good agaisnt the best decks right now and like I mentioned before Linvala does pretty much the same thing as well as being a win condition agaisnt non-creature decks, against whom Day would just sit and clog your hand.

Wall of Omens: There is really no deck that you want Wall of Omens against right now. It is bad in the mirror and agaisnt ramp. You already have such a great game against the aggro decks that it is just a wasted slot in the deck.

Ratchet Bomb: While Poweder Keg saw a lot of play, that was because of how the mana curves of every deck back in the day pretty much stopped at 2, now the mana costs of permanents vary a lot and Powder Keg is too slow and too much of a dead topdeck in the lategame to warrant a spot in the deck.

Journey to Nowhere: I think Oust is just better and costs 1 less mana, it doesn't matter if they get to use the creature a few turns later by that time you should have control of the game.

Sun Titan: This has been considered the UW finisher of choice ever since French Nationals earlier this year, but when you're not running any of the 3 previous mentioned cards there is no point running Sun Titan over any other finishers available to UW.

Elspeth Tirel: I just plain think this card is bad in control. If you're in a position to use its ultimate it means that they did not kill it on their turn by attacking which means they probably don't have any creatures you care about and want to kill with the ultimate, and making 3 tokens is not what you want to be doing when you use 5 mana sorcery speed.

Venser, the Sojourner: This card has an amazing ultimate ability and you probably will not lose if you get it online. The first ability is also quite good but forces you to play cards like Wall of Omens and Sea Gate Oracle which are unnesessary in the deck for the time being. The second ability is almost useless in this type of deck as if you are in a position to attack you are probably winning anyway. If you want to play Venser, play Patrick Chapin's URw Control deck.

On to the Tournament!

62 players showed up to try and become the Quebec Champion which meant we were in for 6 rounds of swiss, just under the cut for 7.

Round 1 – Charles Roberge – Goblins

Game 1

I mulligan into a weak hand with a few cantrips hoping to draw into some action. He leads off with a Basilisk Collar and an Ember Hauler that gets countered, Then plays a Goblin Chieftan and a Goblin Bushwacker with kicker to put me on a clock. I draw a string of lands and dead cards like Spreading Seas, while he plays more creatures and smashes my face. On my last turn I need to draw a Sunblast Angel or Preordain into a Baneslayer Angel, I draw the Preordain and ship 2 lands on the bottom and draw Sunblast Angel with only 5 untapped lands so I scoop.

Sideboarding: + 4 Flashfreeze, + 3 Condemn – 4 Spreading Seas – 2 Volition Reigns – 1 Jace Beleren

Game 2

He plays a Panic Spellbomb, then turn 2 I counter a Kutholda Rebirthing and for some reason he doesn't pay a red with the spellbomb to draw a card and chooses to play a Basilisk Collar. Next turn I counter another Rebirthing and he plays another Collar. Turn 4 I tap out for Jace, the Mind Sculptor and make a mistake and Brainstorm instead of Fatesealing and he kills my Jace with a Lightning Bolt. I play 2 Baneslayers over the next two turns and he just scoops.

I decide to bring in 2 Spell Pierce for my 2nd Jace Beleren and 1 Jace the Mind Sculptor in case he gets an early Rebirthing draw.

Game 3

He starts with a Goblin Guide that reveals a Condemn on top of my deck, which I use to get rid of the Goblin Guide on the next turn and he plays a Warren Instigator. On my turn I Oust the Warren and Preordain into some gas. He doesn't draw much action the rest of the game while Baneslayer and Jace do the clean up work.

1-0

Round 2 – Jonathan Valois – Weird RG Valakut

Game 1

I sit down and he pulls out his deck face up and the top card is an Explore and I see some red lands when he's shuffling so I know I am against Valakut. I mulligan a hand I would normally keep blind but is not that good vs Valakut and keep a mediocre 6 card hand because it has a Preordain. He plays a turn 1 Birds of Paradise which confused me a little and thought maybe he was just playing a weird homebrew or something. I Oust the birds and next turn he plays another and lays a Valakut. I draw a Linvala and decide to play a Chalice for 1 so I can blowout his 2 Birds with my flying Cursed Totem on turn 3.

Next turn, he plays a Rootbound Crag which also confused me as I think you want to maximize your mountains if you have Valakuts in your deck, and he replays his Bird that got Ousted. I play Linvala and he picks the card to read it. Next turn he tries to tap his Birds for mana which I stop him before he plays an illegal spell and shows me a card in his hand, but he doesn't really understand me as he does not speak english very well so I just point to Linvala which he reads again. Next turn I play a Jace Beleren and draw a Mana Leak. Next turn he tries to tap his Birds again but I again point to Linvala, so he just plays another Rootbound Crag and Lightning Bolts my Jace. I Upgrade the dead Jace to a Mind Sculptor and then Leak an Inferno Titan next turn and drop a Baneslayer while his Oracle of Muldaya misses land drops.

Sideboarding: + 4 FlashFreeze + 1 Tectonic Edge + 1 Volition Reigns + 2 Negate -2 Oust – 2 Jace Beleren – 2 Gideon – 2 Everflowing Chalice

Game 2

He draws his 7 card hand then angrily mulligans while I keep. He looks mad about his 6 card hand but keeps for some reason. He plays a Valakut which I Spreading Seas and he continues to miss land drops and not have a green source and just every turn he gets mad and mutters stuff like unbelievable every time he draws a blank, I play a Baneslayer and just counter Wurmcoil Engines and Inferno Titans until he dies.

2-0 

Round 3 – Alex Hayne – UWr Chapin Control

It sucks to have to play a friend early on but what can you do. As we we are shuffling Alex mentions that he has to leave before the tournament is over and I keep this information in case we go to time.

Game 1

This game doesn`t last very long as on Turn 4 or 5 he draws a card and stares at it then tells me I am about to win and calls a judge and gets a game loss for failure to unsideboard from the previous round.

Game 2

This game was a long and drawn out game and I don't remember all the details. We both Spread each other Colonnades early and he eventually he plays a Venser with no mana open. I have a Volition Reins so I let it resolve and he Blinks out his Sea Gate Oracle. I steal the Venser and Blink out my Spreaded Collonade and attack with my Baneslayer Angel. Next turn he plays a Frost Titan and I make a mistake and use one of my 2 Mana Leaks on it instead of keeping 2 counters open for the Volition Reins I know he has because no way would he play Venser if he did not have his own.

I figured with the 1 Leak and Preordain in my hand, the Collonade, Baneslayer and Jace Beleren I had in play I would draw into some gas and would probably win even if he stole back his Venser. I kept Venser at 7 counters on my turn and just attacked with Baneslayer and made us both draw with Jace, but I only drew lands. He stole the Venser back and went up to 9 counters. On my turn I make another mistake and instead of killing the Venser I only attack it with my Collonade and try to deal more damage with my Baneslayer. Eventually he ultimates Venser and I scoop while he is at 2.

Sideboarding: + 2 Negate + 2 Spell Pierce + 1 Tectonic Edge + 1 Volition Reigns + 2 Revoke Existence – 4 Oust – 2 Linvala – 1 Spreading Seas -1 Sunblast Angel

Game 3

We both know this game is going to end in a draw as there is only a few minutes left on the clock. He gets me down to around 14 with Sea Gate Oracle when time is called for the round. I ask him if he wants to concede and he thinks long about it and decides to concede as he can't stay the whole day. Thanks Alex.

3-0

Round 4 – Rob Anderson – UW Control

Booourns another friend, another control mirror.

Game 1

I mulligan to 6 and see a lot of money as my 6 card hand has 3 Jace the Mind Sculptor, a Jace Beleren, a Baneslayer Angel and a fetchland. My 5 card hand has spells I can cast but costs a lot less money. Turn 4 he Ousts my Linvala so I play my 2nd one and he just plays a Jace and Ousts me again so I just concede.

While sideboarding Rob asks me what to take out and being the nice friend I am I show him the sideboard notes I had copied from Gerard's article.

Sideboarding: + 2 Negate + 2 Spell Pierce + 1 Tectonic Edge + 1 Volition Reigns + 2 Revoke Existence – 4 Oust – 2 Linvala – 1 Sunblast Angel – 1 Spreading Seas

Game 2

I force through an early Jace Beleren and he plays his own on his turn but I just upgrade to the Mind Sculptor and force him to use his own again. Later on he gets a Luminarch Ascension to around 2 counters, I have a Baneslayer in play and he plays a Gideon and forces me to attack it. I Volition Reins the Gideon and win the counter war and he draws blanks for the next 2 turns and concedes.

Game 3

We trade counters, Jaces and Baneslayers throughout the game as we struggle to get control. We enter topdeck mode and I see a Jace the Mind Scultpor and Brainstorm with it and see another Jace and a Colonnade. He Volition Reins my Jace and Brainstorms. I attack and kill the Jace and then play the one I had put on top and eventually my Brainstorming becomes too much for Rob to deal with.

4-0 

Rounds 5 and 6 – Intentional Draws

4-0-2 7th Place after Swiss.

Top 8 – William Blondon – WW Knights

Game 1

I keep a sketchy hand with some cantrips but low on land and I pay the price by missing many land drops. He gets me down to 13 and decides to be nice and not level up his Student of Warfare the whole way and kill me but I continue to miss land drops and by the time I get enough lands to play my Sunblast Angel ,he has a Knight Exemplar in play and shows me he plays Elspeth Tirel and Baneslayer Angel which influenced how I sideboarded.

Sideboarding: + 1 Volition Reins + 3 Condemn – 4 Spreading Seas

Normally I would sideboard out some Volition Reins but I figured I might mise a win if I could steal a Baneslayer or an Elspeth that he showed me he was playing instead of killing me.

Game 2

He starts off with Studen of Warfare again and I Oust it, he plays a Honor of the Pure. He plays a few dorks and I get to low life and eventually he plays an Armored Ascension on his Student and forces me to chump with my Linvala while taking a Baneslayer hit. Next turn I play a Jace and Bounce one of his creatures and Oust the other and he cannot recover from the tempo swing created by Jace.

Game 3

His first 3 plays are Elite Vanguard, White Knight and Knight Exemplar, I slow the beating with Oust and a Condemn then stop all his attacks by dropping a Linvala. He plays an Elspeth and is about to move the die to 2 to make some tokens, and I just rest my hand on Linvala indicating that I amm just going to attack and kill the Elspeth so he gains some life and I untap and Volition Reins the Elspeth to make some tokens. Next turn he plays a Baneslayer and I Volition Reins that also and he cannot overcome my overwhelming board presence.

5-0-2

Top 4 – Keiifer O`Connor – Eldrazi Ramp

Game 1

I win the die roll and Preordain while he plays a Joraga Treespeaker. I think about leaving Mana Leak mana open but decide to play an Everflowing Chalice for 1 so I can play a Jace the Mind Sculptor next turn. He levels up his elf and plays an Explore and drops a land. I bounce the elf with Jace and pass the turn. He thinks for a while and plays a Growth Spasm and passes. I draw my card and think for a while and after confirming that he did not play a land I bounce the Eldrazi Spawn token with Jace to keep him off of Primeval Titan mana.

He draws a non-land, thinks and decides to play an Overgrown Battlement and a Joraga Treespeaker. I Brainstorm with Jace on my turn and draw the combination of Gideon and Sunblast Angel. I use the +2 of Gideon and pass. He draws his 5th land, levels up the Treespeaker and drops a Primeval Titan. I Sunblast away his 2 Mana creatures and bounce the Primeval Titan with Jace and attack for 6 with my Gideon. Next turn he thinks and plays a Wurmcoil Engine. I call a judge just to confirm that Gideon's damage prevention will stop Deathtouch and Lifelink. I attack with Gideon and Sunblast Angel and he chump blocks my Gideon and I play a Jace Beleren. I Mana Leak a second Wurmcoil Engine and attack with Gideon and Sunblast Angel and he chump blocks with the other token to fall to 9 life and I play a Baneslayer. He spends his turn playing irrelevant ramp spells and on my turn I confirm that he is at 9 life and attack with my Angels.

Sideboarding: + 4 Flashfreeze + 1 Tectonic Edge + 1 Volition Reigns – 1 Oust – 2 Jace Beleren – 2 Gideon – 1 Everflowing Chalice

Game 2

This game was very anti-climatic. I Oust his turn 1 Treespeaker and he plays an Eldrazi Temple and passes. I Spreading Seas his forest and just the look on his face I know I have won the match. A few turn later he has an Island, 2 Eldrazi Temples an Eye of Ugin and has discarded a few times. I Volition Reigns both his Eldrazi Temples and he extends the hand.

6-0-2

After my last match I watch part of KYT's match, but as me and Alex Hayne can see KYT is going to lose game 3 we go off to the side and discuss sideboard strategies against WW. We decide that I should bring in the Condemns, Revoke Existence and Spell Pierce to slow down his aggresive deck and maybe to Spell Pierce an early Quest taking out mediocre cards like Spreading Seas and Volition Reins.

Finals

Game 1

He starts off with some early dudes like Glint Hawk and Memnite while I am just setting up with some Preordains and Spreading Seas. Turn 4 I drop a Linvala and he stops attacking and then I drop a Baneslayer and a Jace and he dies a few turns later not drawing any outs to my Angels.

Sideboarding: + 3 Condemn + 2 Revoke Existence + 2 Spell Pierce – 2 Volition Reigns – 4 Spreading Seas – 1 Jace Beleren

He starts off the same way but has a Quest of the Holy Relic on turn 3. I Revoke Existence the Quest and drop a Linvala which again stops him from attacking. I play a Jace and start brainstorming. For about 5 turns or so I only draw more Jaces and lands off my Jace and am getting a bit frustrated because I had shuffled lands away with a fetchland and had Preordained 4 lands to the bottom of my deck. Eventually he realizes he should be attacking and swings with everyone and I pick off a creature with my Linvala and he kills my Jace. He does the same thing when I play my next 2 Jaces losing a guy each time and at the end he has 2 1 power creatures and some equipment while I have a Jace with 1 counter and a Linvala. I draw a Baneslayer for my turn and play it and start Fatesealing him. I see an Argentum Armor on top of his deck and I know I have won the tournament. He scoops a few turns later.

Final Record 7-0-2

I take a few pictures for the Tournament Organizer and for Mana Deprived with my new shiny plaque and then go out for supper at Schwartz for some smoked meat. The deck played incredible all day and the only things I would want to change are to add some extra counterspells and maybe a couple of Frost Titans. It sucks that T2 is irrelevant due to the limited PTQ season as now that Jund is gone I feel the format is very diverse and wide open.

Special Thanks go out to Chris Da Rocha and Jeux Face a Face for builing and lending me the deck, to Alex Hayne for conceding to me because he had to leave early even though he only left when the finals had started and to Gerard Fabiano for his amazing decklist. If you have any questions, leave a message in the forums, email me at hellfire2090@hotmail.com or follow me on Twitter @JustinRich236. Good luck everyone at the PTQ this weekend and see you there!

JRich