A few weeks ago, my friend SWB pointed out a cool 5-0 deck from the MTGO Leagues.

Contraption League 5-0 White Control | Premodern | syntheora

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Eternal Dragon
• 4 Exalted Angel

• Instants (16)
• 4 Abeyance
• 4 Disenchant
• 4 Renewed Faith
• 4 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Decree of Justice
• 4 Wrath of God

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Tsabo's Web

• Lands (24)
• 20 Plains
• 4 Temple of the False God

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Cleansing Meditation
• 3 Sacred Ground
• 3 Spiritual Focus
• 3 Tormod's Crypt
• 3 Warmth

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Some really poor reporting in a variety of venues have variously claimed that Parallax Tide was banned in Premodern as a result of more serious players trying the format, or just the increased volume of games presented by Contraption Leagues on Magic: The Gathering Online. This has clearly not been the case, but there have certainly been some cool new decks uncovered, and this is one of them.

Syntheora's White Control drew my eye immediately. I've always loved decks like these, and this particular build compacts twenty card draw spells and cantrips into what looks, initially, like a slow and ponderous board control strategy. I loved the free value the deck got from cards like Tsabo's Web (take that Mishra's Factory) and Abeyance main-deck (you too, Phyrexian Dreadnought).

Renewed Faith was such a favorite of Kai Budde's back in the day. I loved how the contrarian position of actually casting it for three mana could be so good in certain matchups (we haven't forgotten about you, Jackal Pup).

I identified two problems with the deck, one of them being more solvable than the other.

This deck is obviously a dog to mass mana control in Game 1 - Parallax Tide in the format or not - and any deck that tries to win with Armageddon or Cataclysm is going to be able to Disenchant a Sacred Ground first. Put that aside. The other issue being how the deck could contend with Dreadnought decks sideboarded. Sure, you can Disenchant, Swords to Plowshares, or especially Abeyance around 12/12s in Game 1... But without Counterspells? How do you beat Brain Freeze?

Another player answered the question in a surprising way:

Contraption League 5-0 White Control | Premodern | esqpoe

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Eternal Dragon

• Instants (11)
• 3 Ray of Revelation
• 4 Enlightened Tutor
• 4 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (12)
• 2 Decree of Justice
• 2 Winds of Rath
• 4 Rout
• 4 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (9)
• 4 Humility
• 1 Peace of Mind
• 4 Seal of Cleansing

• Artifacts (31)
• 1 Mishra's Helix
• 2 Cursed Scroll
• 4 Ensnaring Bridge
• 4 Fellwar Stone
• 4 Grafted Skullcap
• 4 Icy Manipulator
• 4 Marble Diamond
• 4 Mind Stone
• 4 Phyrexian Furnace

• Lands (45)
• 1 Forest
• 20 Plains
• 2 Kjeldoran Outpost
• 3 Dust Bowl
• 3 Kor Haven
• 4 Mishra's Factory
• 4 Rishadan Port
• 4 Thawing Glaciers
• 4 Wasteland

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Abolish
• 1 Cursed Totem
• 4 Disenchant
• 1 Ivory Mask
• 2 Peace of Mind
• 1 Ray of Revelation
• 1 Sacred Ground
• 1 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Zuran Orb

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I had tried Gaea's Blessing in syntheora's deck, but that was only okay. For one thing, an informed opponent could just wait and Counterspell Gaea's Blessing if you ever drew it (and had to cast it); and even if they got "caught" by Gaea's Blessing during a big Brain Freeze, it would be late enough in a game that they'd probably have a Stifle or two to avoid deck damage disaster.

The second, very different, White Control by esqpoe sidestepped so many things. I mean for one thing this is just a different deck with a very different proactive plan...

... But for another, the solution to decking was so elegant. Just don't get decked. Be so big they can't reasonably deck you. This solves a lot of problems. At least if you're focused on The Vital Skill That Magic is Quietly Losing.

The Vital Skill That Magic is Quietly Losing

... Is of course decking the opponent.

I don't mean Mill decks.

I don't mean decks that build a Mill combo into their decks.

I mean figuring out a game plan that exhausts your opponent's library as an alternate way to win.

"Mill" decks, dedicated Mill decks, decks that try to win by running the opponent out of library aren't exactly new. Mike "Loco" Loconto won the very first Pro Tour with a Millstone Blue-White deck. Contemporary Standard features a number of generally misguided ways to try to exhaust your opponent's library, some of which have the actual keyword "exhaust" on them.

There's nothing elegant about any of that, and whether it's a good idea to spend valuable card slots trying will vary greatly in performance.

A different (and much more skillful) way of thinking about this is to bend existing resources into a sneaky way to win. Siding one or two copies of Brain Freeze into your 12/12 combo deck is actually a cool thing to try to do, because it is such a different route to victory (that is hard to prepare for) and you are still threatening a lethal threat on the second turn.

What's even cooler is decking your opponent with a seventy-five like this:

This Girl 2006 New York State Champion | Mike Flores

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Court Hussar
• 4 Firemane Angel
• 4 Lightning Angel
• 4 Serra Avenger

• Instants (4)
• 4 Lightning Helix

• Sorceries (12)
• 4 Compulsive Research
• 4 Demonfire
• 4 Wrath of God

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Confiscate

• Artifacts (4)
• 2 Azorius Signet
• 2 Boros Signet

• Lands (23)
• 2 Island
• 2 Plains
• 1 Adarkar Wastes
• 1 Izzet Boilerworks
• 2 Steam Vents
• 3 Boros Garrison
• 4 Sacred Foundry
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Flagstones of Trokair

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Mana Leak
• 4 Repeal
• 4 Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
• 3 Fortune Thief

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What Makes Decking So Skillful?

When I won New York States back in 2006 with This Girl, I had to get through a pseudo-mirror against Jonathan Rubin in my Top 4 matchup. Rubin had arguably superior control elements relative to my deck (Think Twice where I had no such card drawing; Remand where I had no main-deck Counterspells). But he showed me Think Twice and Remand. I could make some educated guesses.

Like, I had four copies of Demonfire. Demonfire is the kind of card I could imagine someone cutting to three copies. If you were making room for Think Twice and Remand - both cards that would help you draw into more cards for - would you have room for four copies of Demonfire?

Demonfire seemed like a good card to decide the matchup was all about. Specifically, I didn't want Rubin to lace together two Demonfires and nug me for 30 with 20 lands in play, over two turns. So, I made my Firemane Angels nuisances that drew Demonfire exile; and I made a big deal about spending mine to do the same.

Again, because Jonathan had superior control elements in his deck (like no copies of Serra Avenger, which was essentially a non-card), he spent all of Game 1 with six or seven cards in hand, whereas I only had three most of the game.

I ended up winning because I convinced my opponent this mirror was going to be about Demonfire (a card I had four of that I didn't think he had four of). He had to draw up to find more Demonfires to keep pace with my extra copy, and to find a way to interact with the life gain represented by my Firemane Angels. Again, this is a card that demands Demonfire or bust.

Thirty or so turns in, I won with a double Compulsive Research... on him. It was slow and ponderous, careful... But ultimately super exciting at the finish. I swerved again to win Game 2 going super beatdown. Jonathan realized I only won Game 1 because he played into my plan, so went very conservative in Game 2; which in this case was the same as making yourself vulnerable to a fast beatdown.

Decking is a cool way to win because it doesn't require any special cards (Compulsive Research was a card people just played to dig to their own key cards); and in fact exploited the fact that the opponent had even more card drawing and cantrip action than I did.

I feel like this is becoming a lost art because the cards are so good, and the threats compact so much value immediately, you just don't have time to work the opponent into exhaustion. If you try they might run you over.

More-sies

More-sies is the concept of having more answers than your opponent has in their deck. Battle of Wits decks could conceivably win by answering all the opponent's threats and then watching them fail to draw the 61st card... with over 100 left in their own libraries.

Some decks have natural more-sies in certain matchups. That first White Control deck with 4 Abeyance, 4 Disenchant, 4 Swords to Plowshares (and kinda sorta 4 Wrath of God) just has more ways to prevent getting hit twice by a 12/12 Phyrexian than a Dreadnought opponent has Dreadnoughts.

Let's look at a Pauper Terror deck, specifically Dimir Terror:

Dimir Terror | Pauper | Michael Flores

• Creatures (11)
• 3 Gurmag Angler
• 4 Tolarian Terror
• 4 Sneaky Snacker

• Instants (29)
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 3 Cast Down
• 4 Abandon Attachments
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Counterspell
• 4 Mental Note
• 4 Snuff Out
• 4 Thought Scour

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Deep Analysis
• 4 Lorien Revealed

• Lands (15)
• 10 Island
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Ice Tunnel
• 3 Contaminated Aquifer

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Nihil Spellbomb
• 2 Annul
• 2 Steel Sabotage
• 2 Blue Elemental Blast
• 2 Hydroblast
• 2 Suffocating Fumes
• 2 Unexpected Fangs
• 1 Arms of Hadar

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For a while I was absolutely obsessed with the card Thought Scour, specifically in Dimir Terror v. Mono-Blue Terror. Thought Scour is usually used to reduce the cost of your own Tolarian Terror (or Cryptic Serpent in Mono-Blue). But what if we turned this card against the opponent? What if we "accidentally" Milled a Terror or two of theirs?

We'd still get some cantrip action, it's just that our Terrors might be a little slower coming out. On balance, our opponents would have fewer Terrors available in their decks. They'd have Mental Note. They'd be Scouring their own Thoughts. We'd add to the random Milling.

At the same time, we'd have many Cast Downs and Snuff Outs. We could block their Serpents with our own 5/5s. Might they run out of cards? Compared to just eight big guys? We'd naturally have More-sies!

I didn't think this would work nearly as well against another Dimir deck, because Milling them with Thought Scour might increase the number of Sneaky Snackers they'd have access to. But straight Mono-Blue? While we'd have to be wary of Sleep of the Dead, it didn't seem like the worst plan.

Using each Thought Scour as a weapon (rather than an enabler) asks a lot of the daring Dimir player. First of all, can they contend with the speed of the opponent? We play Thought Scour the way we usually do because it is synergistic with how our deck is "supposed" to play. We might make the opposing Terrors even faster.

Getting our own 5/5s out might take an extra turn or so, or even worse, we might give them the route to double spelling far before we could. Answering each 5/5 or 6/5 the opponent played might be within our total available resources... But not necessarily in the time allowed.

Even worse? They might even get some big ideas to copy our plan!

I did say I was obsessed with this "for a while" ... And though I do think it could work out, so far I kept winning (and sometimes losing) the regular ways, which I suppose is natural if you can make a 5/5 Ward for one mana and then refill Ancestral Recall-like with your one mana cantrip.

I do think it's something to keep in mind as a Plan B (the way I used it sneakily back in the Lightning Angel days). Which, in its way supports our thesis, that given the speed of today's cards, it might be hard to practice this skill even when you're trying to.

LOVE

MIKE