Locations
Magic Con Vegas is this weekend! With my ticket bought and travel plans in the works, I was ready to battle in some Final Fantasy Sealed PTQs. That is, until both events sold out a month before the event. Luckily, I snagged one entry for the Saturday event, leaving me with an open schedule on Friday. But what to do with a free full day of Magic?
It's time for one last hurrah.
As I get older and have less time for competitive Magic (as I balance my personal life and career), I've found I play way more casually and less emotionally attached than ever. It's not like I don't have the competitive drive, especially after my close run at a Pro Tour invite at the Minneapolis Regional Championship. However, my relationship with Magic is definitely changing.
I almost didn't sign up for any PTQs at Magic Con Vegas, to instead focus on drafting as much Final Fantasy as humanly possible. Instead, I'm splitting my time, by entering one PTQ and competing in the Standard Cup on Friday. What better way to close out the last competitive event of this rotation cycle with ol' reliable?
Azorius Control | FIN Standard | Roman Fusco, Standard Cup, Magic Con Las Vegas
- Creatures (6)
- 3 Beza, the Bounding Spring
- 3 Marang River Regent
- Planeswalkers (3)
- 1 Elspeth, Storm Slayer
- 2 Jace, the Perfected Mind
- Instants (14)
- 1 Change the Equation
- 1 Dreams of Laguna
- 1 Negate
- 2 Elspeth's Smite
- 2 Ride's End
- 2 No More Lies
- 2 Three Steps Ahead
- 3 Get Lost
- Sorceries (8)
- 1 Day of Judgment
- 1 Split Up
- 2 Ultima
- 4 Stock Up
- Enchantments (3)
- 3 Temporary Lockdown
Export Arena
Azorius Control gained one major new tool for the current Standard environment: Ultima. Ultima, albeit a five casting cost wrath effect, gives Azorius Control an effect the archetype hasn't had since Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty - the ability to widespread kill multiple card types at once.
This is so potent against the format boogeyman, Izzet Prowess not only because it kills Cori-Steel Cutter, but because it also cuts off Izzet's ability to quickly rebuild. One criticism I have about the removal suite in Standard is that it's hard to catch up to decks like Izzet because they attack you from so many different angles. They have an aggressive package with Monastery Swiftspear, Slickshot Show-Off, and Monstrous Rage. Even worse, is that Izzet can win the long games with Stock Up and Stormchaser's Talent - you know, if they didn't already defeat you with a turn two Cutter on the play. Vivi Ornitier lets the deck do even more broken things than before!
Cards like the soon to be rotating Temporary Lockdown don't always cut it because of Into the Flood Maw, and every other playable wrath effect only deals with creatures (and doesn't also really protect you against haste and Sunspine Lynx). Did I mention they also have Ral, Crackling Wit?
I tried to mitigate this constructive removal suite by playing Jeskai Control at the last RC, due to the fact Shiko, Paragon of the Way can be a huge tempo play by putting a giant flying dragon into play in addition to getting back a free Lightning Helix. I also played Abrade and Spell Pierce to not flat out lose to a resolved Cutter on turn two.
There's really no good way to deal with artifacts profitably in the current Standard for Control decks, and it's why some lists have resorted to cards like Loran of the Third Path and Exorcise post-board. This is a very long way to explain why Ultima is good, I know!
The rest of this deck's build is pretty Standard, but it's interesting to see Azorius Control creep up in numbers over the past few weeks while Jeskai Control has kind of fallen to the wayside. Azorius Control is just so good at beating Jeskai, but the mana base is the real issue of the deck. Jeskai will probably remain king post-rotation due to how powerful Shiko, Paragon of the Way is (especially coupled with cards like Stock Up and Split Up), but I also think due to how some potential bannings might affect Standard, we might have to worry less about dying to turn two Cori-Steel Cutter.
This deck kind of has a weird split between threats, but I think one issue I had playing Jeskai Control was not being able to close out games fast enough, and feeling pressed to have a way to win the game if I ever had to surveil away a Shiko, Paragon of the Way or Jeskai Revelation. Azorius can win through multiple ways. My favorite (which I've played since Control reemergence in Standard about a year and a half ago) being the double Jace plan - milling your opponent out for 30 cards. While this isn't always consistent, it's a way that I like to set up and quickly end games, especially if you distract your opponent long enough they thin their deck to 30 before it's too late.
Aside from Jace there's also a singular Elspeth - this is kind of my backup plan/way to distract my opponent to set up double Jace. Elspeth can stall long enough and draw enough attention to enact your Jace plan, but also synergizes with most cards in your deck. I agree that Deduce might be better than Dreams of Laguna for this reason, but I like the idea of getting an extra look at cards, especially when searching for a Temporary Lockdown that'll save your life. Marang River Regent is sort of like a weird Memory Deluge that also is a threat Izzet has a hard time dealing with, besides just going wide or bouncing. Marang usually sets people back far enough that it can swiftly end games - it's a flexible card that I think I'll be including even post-rotation in my Control decks.
There's not a ton to say about the sideboard, although I'm having conflicting feelings on some cards. I feel like I've never actually been happy with a graveyard hate card from the Control side. Rest in Peace is too easily removed, Kutzil's Flanker is costly and only solves short-term problems, and Ghost Vacuum can get eaten by Temporary Lockdown and Ultima (granted you might be boarding those cards out in matches where Vacuum matters). Rest in Peace just feels like the easiest to include, and it's actually another reason why I might go back to Deduce over Dreams of Laguna.
Even for this weekend and going forward I'm very wary of how powerful Mono-Red is. Even if we do see a Cutter banning, Red is the most obvious choice for the next best deck in the format, especially because they lose practically no cards post-rotation. This is why I think Control decks should be playing multiple Change the Equations, or at least Flashfreeze post-rotation just to not lose to Sunspine Lynx. Lynx is the card that really makes or breaks the matchup, as it can just one-shot you out of nowhere. Losing Change the Equation during rotation sucks because you can still play it maindeck and have it be playable - it even counters cards that matter against Azorius Omniscience. However post rotation we have to go back to Flashfreeze, which is much more inflexible.
Standard is definitely at a crossroads. One on hand, I love playing Standard and walking into a local tournament to fight against a variety of different decks. However, recent data has shown us the best performing decks revolve around Monstrous Rage and Cori-Steel Cutter, and I'd expect at least one card to get banned in the coming month. With Standard rotation on the horizon I'm giving a final sendoff to Azorius Control as I know it this weekend at Magic Con Vegas, and I hope you get to play a couple of more matches with the deck as it stands before we lose fan favorites like Jace, the Perfected Mind and Temporary Lockdown to the sands of time.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope to see you this weekend at Magic Con Vegas!
-Roman Fusco
