Azorius Control, well Control in general, has always been my favorite archetype in Standard MTG. I've always found Control decks intriguing due to how they play out -- answering your opponent's threats effectively until you reach the point you can turn the corner and take over the game.

Control has gone through many iterations in Standard, especially in recent seasons. While its popularity waxes and wanes with every set release, I find it important to keep up with the archetype, to see how it continues to evolve.

As it stands, Control as an archetype is fairly popular in Standard, although we haven't had any recent Standard bannings, a Regional Championship, or a Pro Tour in a few months. Azorius Control in particular has been less popular of late, as Jeskai Lessons and Four-Color Control have taken its place.

Azorius Tournament Play

Even with fewer tournaments in the last couple of months, Azorius still appears from time to time, such as BrainG88's Azorius Control deck, which placed 14th during the 32nd MTGO Standard Challenge:

Azorius Control | Standard | BrianG88, Magic Online Standard Challenge, 14th

• Creatures (6)
• 2 Captain Marvel, Earth's Protector
• 1 Emeritus of Ideation
• 1 King T'Challa
• 2 Wan Shi Tong, Librarian

• Instants (14)
• 2 Consult the Star Charts
• 2 Erode
• 2 Get Lost
• 4 No More Lies
• 1 Spell Snare
• 3 Three Steps Ahead

• Sorceries (9)
• 3 Day of Judgment
• 4 Stock Up
• 2 Ultima

• Enchantments (5)
• 2 Aang's Iceberg
• 1 Rest in Peace
• 2 Seam Rip

• Lands (26)
• 3 Island
• 4 Plains
• 4 Demolition Field
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 2 Gleaming Bastion
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Petrified Hamlet
• 2 Secluded Starforge
• 2 Sunken Citadel

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Annul
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Elspeth, Storm Slayer
• 1 Flashfreeze
• 1 Negate
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Riverchurn Monument
• 1 Seam Rip
• 1 Torpor Orb

Buy This Deck Export text

August will be an interesting month for Standard. We get the next Banned and Restricted announcement on August 10th, as well as the return of the Standard Regional Championship qualifier season.

While Standard might not be played as much in the current Modern RCQ season it's important to keep up with the format as a whole.

The return of the Standard Regional Championship qualifying season also coincides with the next major Magic release, The Hobbit. Further down the road we also get another major set for Standard, Reality Fracture in early October.

With potential bans on the horizon, as well as a couple of new Standard sets, let's take a look at some upcoming spoilers that might define the future of Azorius, as well as other Control decks in Standard.

Standouts From The Hobbit

Riddles in the Dark

Welcome back to Constructed, Fact or Fiction. Riddles in the Dark is probably one of the best draw spells to be put in Standard, which is funny seeing as how we have both Consult the Star Charts and Stock Up currently in Standard. Stock Up is the closest thing we have to Riddles in the Dark, but Riddles is far superior.

The biggest reason Riddles is so strong, especially in the Control archetype is because by having access to it at Instant-speed, you can also feign a No More Lies or Three Steps Ahead in its place.

Not having to be shields-down while having this card in your hand is vital to how Control plays, especially in the early game. You don't necessarily get as much selection as Stock Up, but you can also fake out your opponent in a number of ways with how you split your piles.

This is also a very strong card for Jeskai Lessons, seeing as you can put cards into your graveyard for Accumulate Wisdom and Flashback.

Settle the Wreckage

If there's one card from The Hobbit that I'm even more excited about than Riddles in the Dark, it's Settle the Wreckage.

Settle the Wreckage is by far one of my favorite Standard cards of all time, as it was a key card in Azorius Control decks back during its printing in Ixalan in 2017. Settle the Wreckage is a tricky card to play, but it's one that puts a lot of pressure on your opponent to make the right judgment calls.

Settle the Wreckage is different from most Wrath effects like Day of Judgment, which is currently legal in Standard. It's a conditional Wrath, meaning it doesn't actually cleanly wipe the board, but you get the added bonus that it is an Instant -- and that's where its true potential lies

By holding up four mana on your opponent's turn, you pressure them into making the right attack. If they don't want to lose their entire board to Settle the Wreckage, they might only swing with one or two Creatures to be safe.

During the last Pioneer Regional Championship I played, I remember a match early on day one where Settle the Wreckage helped me out immensely. Since the tournament was open decklist, my opponent was aware of the one copy I had in my sideboard.

In games two and three, they played around Settle the Wreckage, to a fault. They made cautious attacks, and since I also had The Wandering Emperor in my deck, I was able to punish them for only attacking with one or two Creatures.

I think for non-Control players, you can't play around this card forever, but you also don't want to just straight up lose the game by swinging your whole board into four open mana.

Settle the Wreckage isn't a straight four-of in any Control list by any means, but the fact that you have at least one at your disposal in a tournament can put severe pressure on your opponents, which is why this card is one of my favorite defensive spells in Azorius Control. I'm super excited to see it make a comeback in Standard!

Bilbo's Gambit

Another interesting card that's been spoiled from The Hobbit is Bilbo's Gambit. This card is an interesting mashup of Reprieve and Silence, but what's important to note here is that Bilbo's Gambit does not draw you a card.

Cards like Orim's Chant, for example, are popular in Control decks in Modern due to the fact you can Exile it with Isochron Scepter to continue copying Orim's Chant every turn. In Standard, we don't really have that luxury.

Another issue is that this card competes already with cards like No More Lies and Three Steps Ahead. Playing a card like Bilbo's Gambit in a deck like Control is risky, because this card ultimately does not replace itself.

You want these types of effects to draw you cards in addition to the time they buy you by delaying your opponent. This is why cards like Cryptic Command and Remand are standout disruption spells from Control's history.

To make this card worthwhile, you need to have other ways to refill on cards. Ultimately, this card doesn't counter your opponent's spell, it only delays your opponent from casting it for a turn. This means you need cards like Riddles in the Dark to refill your hand, since Bilbo's Gambit doesn't actually permanently deal with whatever spell it targets.

I could see this card being a Control favorite at the start of 2027, when we have Standard rotation. However, for now, I don't think this card will have as much impact as Riddles in the Dark will.

Sound the Trumpets

Sound the Trumpets is an interesting take on Cancel, and it's one I'm still trying to figure out if it's playable or not.

First and foremost, I don't think this card will see any play for as long as Three Steps Ahead is legal: it's just the better and more flexible card of the two. However, we only get Three Steps Ahead in Standard for a few more months, so Sound the Trumpets could be poised to take its place.

I like Sound the Trumpets a bit more than the other three-mana counterspells available in Standard, like Unravel. If you counter a two-mana spell with this card, you not only get to Loot (draw a card, then discard a card), but you also get the chance at a 1/1 token if you discard a nonland card this way.

While Control decks already play a lot of ways to draw cards, having a Looting ability stapled onto your counterspell is a nice addition, as it allows you to dig deeper into your deck for the impactful spells you need while also pitching away cards that are useless in the matchup.

Making a 1/1 token is actually pretty powerful since you can use that token to block and soak up some damage or sacrifice it to a card like Fountainport for extra value.

Overall, this card isn't incredibly powerful by any means, and three-mana counterspells are a little worse in an era with Gran-Gran, Badgermole Cub, and Tablet of Discovery being legal.

However, it's a counterspell I have my eye on, one that might prove to be a main player in Azorius-based Control decks in the near future.

Now, let's take a look at some cards from the next big in-universe set, Reality Fracture.

Upcoming Reality Fracture Cards

The Theorist, Jace Beleren

The Theorist, Jace Beleren is by no means a Jace, the Mind Sculptor. However, I do think he plays an important role in Azorius Control. Jace acts as a personal Howling Mine that must be dealt with.

This is a card you would love to follow up to your turn three Three Steps Ahead or No More Lies. Jace kind of does it all -- he's a card draw engine that requires no additional steps, he can protect himself (either with 1/1 tokens or his -2 Bounce ability), and he has an ultimate ability that can end the game swiftly.

It's worth noting, however, that Jace's -6 ability requires you to have Creatures in play to really reap the rewards from having so many cards in your hand. I think this Jace would pair well with cards like Beza, the Bounding Spring, Elspeth, Storm Slayer, and Fountainport; already good Azorius Control cards.

However, The Theorist, Jace Beleren may be just too slow for Standard. It is alarming to me how fast Badgermole Cub decks can ramp, and by the same token, how fast Jeskai Lessons can turn on Accumulate Wisdom and cast Jeskai Revelation off Tablet of Discovery.

This makes me a bit wary of tapping out for a four-mana Planeswalker that has to survive until your opponent's draw step to even get a card out of him.

I do think Jace is a card worthy of maindeck inclusion in Azorius Control, as soon as he's released in Reality Fracture in October. I think Jace's relevance will depend on if there are any Standard bans in the next BnR announcement in August.

I would love to see a Badgermole Cub-less world (go ahead and ban Jeskai Revelation while you're at it). Nevertheless, The Theorist, Jace Beleren is a card I've got my eye on.

Chandra, Chill of Compliance

Another Blue Planeswalker from Reality Fracture, Chandra, Chill of Compliance is a card that may also be a solid Azorius Control option once she releases in October.

A three-mana Planeswalker that has four different abilities is a pretty strong start, and Chandra is a card that can snowball out of control quickly. And, funnily enough, this card is like a mini version of The Theorist, Jace Beleren.

Chandra's +1 ability can help you draw cards -- and seeing that most of your spells in Azorius Control are noncreature, you probably have an above 50% chance to draw a card with this ability every time you activate. Worst case scenario is that you Surveil a Land into your graveyard you didn't want to draw anyway.

Chandra's other +1 ability can help you ramp into your noncreature spells, just like Jace! This is actually kind of brilliant because you can cast The Theorist, Jace Beleren on turn four, while also playing a Tap Land for the turn, like Meticulous Archive. Otherwise, you can ramp into a spell like Ultima a turn earlier or discount your Riddles in the Dark.

Her -X ability is okay, as it allows you to stun down a Creature or Artifact for a turn or two. Her ultimate ability isn't bad either. -6 is a lot for a Planeswalker that starts at 3 Loyalty, but as long as you can protect Chandra with the cards you draw off of her, it shouldn't be too hard to get there.

My only worry is decking out once you have this emblem active, as you'll have to draw a card every time you cast a spell.

What's going to be interesting to me is how to balance out all these new cards with preexisting spells. Assuming no bans happen in August, I wonder if Azorius can out-perform Jeskai and Four-Color Control decks, seeing as they have access to Jeskai Revelation and flexible removal like Inevitable Defeat.

Conclusion

We're only about a month away from the next Standard RCQ format, and while we still have to wait a bit for cards from Reality Fracture, we'll get access to cards from The Hobbit before we know it.

Azorius Control's place in Standard has always been of interest to me, and while there are other premier Control decks in the format, I do think you can build Azorius to not only beat those Control decks, but to position it well against the other major players in the field.

However, you can't prepare for every different deck in the format, and the Red/Black mana builds might just have a bit better answers and spells. I'm interested to see not only if any cards get banned in the coming month, but how the format will shape with not only a new Standard release in The Hobbit, but with players' attention fixed back on the format at large.

Ultimately, I hope we see some bans that will shake up the format and slow down the overall speed of Standard.

Even with Standard rotation on the horizon at the beginning of 2027, I hope that these kinds of decks can still compete with the powerhouses that are Badgermole Cub and Lessons decks. I'm hopeful that upcoming Standard releases might make the format a bit more interesting to play, especially as a Blue/White mage.