I don't know how many times the charm this makes, but I have now successfully qualified for yet another Regional Championship with trusty Azorius Control. While I've still been a bit out of competitive Magic as of late, I've still been traveling my fair share of Regionals and RCQs, and I happened to qualify again this past weekend through RC Vegas.

Let me set the scene for you. After doing probably next to no Modern testing, and picking up a deck lent to me that I hadn't piloted until a day prior, I found myself at an unsurprising 0-2 record after the first two rounds of the Vegas Regional Championship. Look, this is about how I figured the day would go for me. While I'm a competent enough player, I hadn't really prepared myself for this Regional, and to be fair, I mainly went because it was a free requalification from my performance at the last Standard RC, a quick road trip away from Los Angeles, and an expensive Aerith Gainsborough participation promo - how do I say no to that?

While how much I've cared about my performance in competitive Magic has waxed and waned over the last year, as I came extremely close to a Pro Tour invite at the last RC, I've chosen to pick and choose my battles. As I get older and find myself having other responsibilities, the importance of competitive Magic: the Gathering to me has definitely changed over the last few years. Instead, I try to pinpoint specific events to give my all, whether that be having an airtight list, or just knowing the ins and outs of the format before I even sit down for round one. I think this is slightly inspired by Mike Flores' ability to show up to a RCQ-level event and just win it. To quote him, "if I wanted to qualify I would."

As soon as I hit my second loss in the Modern RC I was elated. I quickly unsleeved my deck and pulled from my bag the deck I had secretly been hoping I would get to play during the weekend - Standard Azorius Control. If you've read even one of my articles on CoolStuffInc.com, you're probably aware I'm a Control aficionado, and I excel in solving the puzzle that is how to play the best reactive decks in Standard. I like to play Magic from this angle, analyzing formats and coming up with the best list possible to stop my opponents' gameplan dead in their tracks - which is especially fun during the release weekend of a new set, like Avatar: The Last Airbender.

My decklist for the ReCQ event was pretty Standard Azorius Control, with a few new cards from Avatar.

Azorius Control | Standard | Roman Fusco, Standard ReCQ - SCG Con Las Vegas /2-1

• Creatures (6)
• 1 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 1 Wan Shi Tong, Librarian
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Marang River Regent

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Elspeth, Storm Slayer

• Instants (16)
• 1 Essence Scatter
• 3 Three Steps Ahead
• 4 Consult the Star Charts
• 4 Get Lost
• 4 No More Lies

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 1 Split Up
• 2 Stock Up
• 2 Ultima

• Enchantments (4)
• 2 Aang's Iceberg
• 2 Seam Rip

• Lands (26)
• 4 Island
• 4 Plains
• 1 Agna Qel'a
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Fountainport
• 2 Multiversal Passage
• 3 Restless Anchorage
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Meticulous Archive

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Authority of the Consuls
• 2 High Noon
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Voice of Victory
• 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 1 Devout Decree
• 1 Lyra Dawnbringer
• 1 Negate
• 1 Riverchurn Monument
• 1 Sphinx of the Final Word
• 1 Tishana's Tidebinder

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I only actually played two rounds of this event, getting a bye in the first round to even out the competitors (as it was a single-elimination event), defeating a Mardu Aristocrats-style deck, and losing in three games to Simic Ouroboroid, with Badgermole Cub. I learned a few key things from this event that led me to win the following ReCQ.

1. Aang's Iceberg is the Gospel Truth

In the first round I actually played I faced off against a unique build of a Mardu deck, akin to the Raise the Past deck that's shown up here and there over the last year. My opponent attacked from different angles, with creatures that left behind bodies, like Infestation Sage, to value creatures like Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER, all the way to pesky enchantments that snowballed, such as Windcrag Siege.

Aang's Iceberg was monumental in this matchup, as it allowed me to lock up creatures that had triggered abilities upon dying and enchantments without having to use a Get Lost to net them map tokens. While three mana is a lot, overall the flexibility of this card is important, as it can hit cards like Enduring Curiosity and Kaito, Bane of Nightmares without netting your opponent value. There's more to this card that I want to discuss, but let's save that for a bit later...

2. Wan Shi Tong, Librarian and Agna Q'ela are Unnecessary

I boarded out Wan Shi Tong in both matches, and honestly, this card seems incredibly overrated. Wan Shi Tong is a worse draw spell and creature than the ones you already are playing, and it has embarrassing stats if you don't cast him before turn six. This means Wan Shi Tong rots in your hand, whereas other cards in your deck are so much more flexible, or take over the game quicker.

In a similar vein, Agna Q'ela is a pretty lackluster land, as it just felt like a worse Fountainport or Restless Anchorage. I'd rather have the extra threats in another copy of one of those cards, and honestly I don't think I activated it even once over the course of both ReCQs. With Hallowed Fountain on the horizon in Lorwyn Eclipsed, I doubt this card will be needed until better lands rotate out of Standard.

3. The Format is Much Faster and Creature-Dense than I Anticipated

The Simic player I lost to in round three ended up winning the event, and while I came close to beating him, losing the die roll in our match put me a turn off from effectively wrathing his board while also having a clean answer for his leftover creature-land. When looking at my list after I lost, I figured if people were going to be more low to the ground with Badgermole Cub, I also needed to adapt. Thus, I cut an Elspeth, Storm Slayer and Wan Shi Tong, Librarian for an extra Day of Judgment and Aang's Iceberg, respectively - although I should've considered a third copy of Seam Rip.

I jumped back into the fray an hour later in the 4:00pm ReCQ with a slightly updated list. To combat Badgermole Cub even further I added a Flashfreeze, and wary of various aggro decks I cut Sphinx of the Final Word for Herald of Eternal Dawn, a card I ported over from my RCQ-winning Four-Color Control list - although that one did have Mystical Teachings to fetch for it...

Azorius Control | Standard | Roman Fusco, Standard ReCQ - SCG Con Las Vegas /5-0

• Creatures (5)
• 1 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Marang River Regent

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Elspeth, Storm Slayer

• Instants (16)
• 1 Essence Scatter
• 3 Three Steps Ahead
• 4 Consult the Star Charts
• 4 Get Lost
• 4 No More Lies

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Split Up
• 2 Day of Judgment
• 2 Stock Up
• 2 Ultima

• Enchantments (5)
• 3 Aang's Iceberg
• 2 Seam Rip

• Lands (26)
• 4 Island
• 4 Plains
• 1 Agna Qel'a
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Fountainport
• 2 Multiversal Passage
• 3 Restless Anchorage
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Meticulous Archive

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Authority of the Consuls
• 1 Flashfreeze
• 1 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Voice of Victory
• 1 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 1 Devout Decree
• 1 Lyra Dawnbringer
• 1 Negate
• 1 Riverchurn Monument
• 1 Herald of Eternal Dawn
• 1 Tishana's Tidebinder

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Well this tournament went much, much better. I had the pleasure of playing against a lot of off-meta decks in this event, which I think is what led me to victory. I luckily dodged Dimir, the other 5-0 and qualifying player, but I did have some tough matches on my way to victory.

Against a Naya Yuna player in round two I discovered an incredibly cool line. I had won game one, and in game two they had pressured my lifetotal with various cards, especially Overlord of the Boilerbilges. The missed on milling another copy, and with a Cavern of Souls on human and me at four life, I was in a bit of a pickle if my opponent either milled a copy of Overlord and had an uncounterable Yuna, or was able to draw into one. With my opponent at 26 life I had to figure out a way to win, and fast.

Then it hit me.

With an Impended Overlord of the Mistmoors on my side I cast an Aang's Iceberg, locked up my own Overlord, used a few of my Elspeth, Storm Slayer tokens to waterbend to release it from the enchantment, and on my turn used Elspeth's 0 ability to buff my team and hit for more than lethal. While it's a line that is pretty to spot in hindsight, in the moment I felt like an above-average magician for finding the line.

I had another interesting match against an Orzhov Control deck. On paper I thought I was a dog in the matchup, with my opponent having multiple copies of Demolition Field and Fountainport, alongside Restless Fortress - a card Aang's Iceberg can't hit. However, in game one I was able to bait his Demolition Field with my Restless Anchorage, draw my own Demolition Field to hit his Fountainport, then found my copies of Fountainport off a kicked Consult the Star Charts. While their deck definitely had advantages in the mirror, the card selection and draw Blue offers is definitely the breaker in the mirror. I actually won game two by taking some pretty aggressive lines, pressuring my opponent and forcing them to have consecutive wraths. I also did the Overlord/Iceberg trick here, which net me a lot of burst damage, leading to my eventual victory.

In the finals I played against a big Mono-Red deck, which was pretty scary considering my opponent had four copies of maindeck Sunspine Lynx. My opponent still had Hired Claw and Burnout Bastronaut to keep me in check, but his deck also had a pretty solid long-game plan, with Zhao, the Moon Slayer and Electro, Assaulting Battery.

He got me game one pretty quickly, attacking from multiple angles of warped Nova Hellkite and Soulstone Sanctuary, and while I got game two, game three was a slogfest. While there has been a lot of discourse over the relevancy of Authority of the Consuls in this day and age, I have to say, this card single-handedly won me this match.

Authority was crucial in shutting off Nova Hellkite, netting me a few extra lifepoints in the face of my opponent's Sunspine Lynxes, and most importantly turned off my opponent's Avatar Roku from making enough dragon tokens to block the Lyra Dawnbringer that eventually secured my invite to the next round of Regional Championships.

Lyra Dawnbringer, I will never doubt you. This is a card that people don't always expect, and I like it against aggro decks that are too fast for Ultima. Lyra is a card I've played across formats, even in previous Standard eras, and I always want this effect in my Azorius Control sideboard, even if just a one-of - make them respect it!

I feel both grateful and relieved to be done with another round of RCQs (I can only travel to one of the two) so early into the format. Standard is evolving at a fast pace, and the new Avatar set is already making waves. With the World Championship coming up soon it's nice to win an event in a new meta, especially on a day where I played against a different archetype every round. I'm not sure if Azorius Control is the best thing to be doing in this format, but the deck absolutely has a stake in this format, especially if everyone's Badgermole Cubs are duking it out.

Going forward, I'd be a little more wary of how fast some decks are, especially with the Bant Airbending Combo deck around. This leads me to believe you want four copies of Seam Rip in the 75, maybe even in the maindeck, just to be prepared. At the end of the day, I'm a huge proponent of playing the deck you like and tuning your list as opposed to just defaulting to the "best deck," at least at the RCQ-level.

I hope this list or something similar qualifies you for your next Regional.

-Roman Fusco