Single set block is an extremely high value format on Magic Online. Others have written about this in the past, but the best way to put it is a simple matter of expected value. Assuming each match is a coin flip with an entry of six tickets per event and payouts of 11 packs to 4-0 and 6 to 3-1 packs would have to be worth 2.75 tickets a piece for it to be even value to play in the event.

Now lets leave the realm of theory. Welcome back to the real world. Packs are 3.9 tickets each selling to bots, and you are probably more than 50% to win a match. There is a cost to buy in but you can resell the majority of the price of the deck in mythics at minimal loss. You can often gain value by buying in around now as the demand for those cards is at the minimum and the supply is near infinite due to ongoing drafts. Even silly things like Iona went up from when I bought a singleton for last year.

Moving onto the actual format, here are the defining aspects of the format:

• The Planeswalkers are all game ending and there are not many good answers to them. Attacking with generic creatures isn't an option as the removal is good enough in WU to protect Venser and Elspeth. Elspeth also protects herself just as well as the old version did. Koth can die creatures, but odds are they are just going to race you with him anyways. Evasion and resilience to removal can help. Kuldotha Phoenix can surprise kill a walker sometimes, but Elspeth will have made tokens and Venser jumps to five. Precursor Golem dodges a lot of the removal and blockers, but is still weak to some and can be blocked down by Elspeth. Generic fliers can come down before and prevent them from going too long, but again the whole protected by removal issue shows up as all the real fliers cost more than Arrest. Ratchet Bomb can kill Planeswalkers, but it is way too slow and has the same issue as all spot removal Even if you catch the 'Walker immediately, they get to activate once and two for one you. Lux Cannon is a strong engine but way too slow at this point in time. Volition Reins and Stoic Rebuttal are the only two good answers as they either stop it before it comes in or gain a ton of value.
• The non-Planeswalker threats are all really game changing. They aren't just big guys like Sphinx of Jwar Isle was last year, they are things like Precursor Golem, Molten-Tail Masticore, and Wurmcoil Engine that just demolish an offense. There is removal for each of them, but if one slips through it will end the game extremely fast.
• Contagion Clasp is the format warping card right now. Myrs would be really good, but you can't run them as you will get Clasped. If you can build so that your opponent doesn't kill anything with it, you should. Even if you do this, expect the card to be good against you. While proliferating isn't worth a whole card, Clasp does a good Tome impression, and it will eventually shrink down and kill a guy as it is gaining extra value through Walkers and Tumble Magnets. The next level of this format beyond making consistent decks is dodging this card.
• There is no real card draw, meaning the only way to gain card advantage is permanents, Nekrataals, or cantrips. This means that tight play and proper allocation of removal is rewarded a lot more than usual. Not only do you get a much more important advantage with each value trade, but you don't have a way to dig to more answers if you blow your load too early.

With these things in mind, lets take a look at the more refined good decks.

First off is WU Control. This is the list I have been playing in the latest dailies, simultaneously designed and refined by myself and local ringer Rich Franklin. As of now I would go as far to say it is the defining deck of the format.

"WU Control - Scars Block"

• Creatures (5)
• 3 Glimmerpoint Stag
• 2 Sunblast Angel

• Spells (28)
• 3 Venser the Sojourner
• 3 Elspeth Tirel
• 4 Contagion Clasp
• 4 Revoke Existence
• 4 Arrest
• 4 Stoic Rebuttal
• 2 Tumble Magnet
• 4 Volition Reins

• Lands (27)
• 4 Seachrome Coast
• 12 Island
• 11 Plains

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Halt Order
• 2 Dispense Justice
• 3 Precursor Golem
• 2 Wurmcoil Engine
• 2 Myr Battlesphere
• 2 Tumble Magnet

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This is the good cards deck of this format. You are just playing all the best threats and answers that profitably trade for all the other threats.

Arrest, Tumble Magnet, and Revoke are as unconditional as removal comes in this format. The all also dodge the built in protection of most of the threats. Your opponent won't get to regenerate their Masticore, rebuy their Phoenix, or get two tokens off their Wurmcoil Engine. Contagion Clasp is more conditional, but you have all the ways to extract extra value out of it beyond a single counter. Stoic Rebuttal just stops all the relevant threats for less mana than they cost. Just be aware of the possible threats and try to line up your removal appropriately. Arrest their Wurmcoil Engine so you can Revoke their Precursor Golem or Mimic Vat, Tumble their Kuldotha Phoenix so you can Arrest their Masticore, and consider saving Magnet counters if you have to beat a Putrefax.

The only creatures you play get you immediate value. While Glimmerpoint Stag may not look like much, you often get a full card of value out of it. Whether you are Clasping down another guy, reloading Elspeth so you can make guys another turn in a row, reloading Tumble Magnet, or just resetting their Ratchet Bomb on it's way to five it's worth it. You might even be able to get them and Stag out their Oxidia Scrapmelter with no artifacts in play. The combo with Venser is also yet another way to kill a Planeswalker. For those who haven't played the two, when you blink out Stag with Venser it comes back on your end of turn and triggers after at end of turn triggers. You then remove one of their permanents, which then returns at their end of turn after they could have attacked with it or used planeswalker abilities. Sunblast Angel is one of the few Wraths in the format and happens to outsize most of the other fliers and removal. One thing to be aware of how it interacts with Tumble Magnet, both yours and theirs.

Finally, you have the real threats. Volition Reins is just as good as anything they play, which in this format is very. As mentioned above, the walkers are both insane. Venser's ultimate just kills them, and Elspeth just grinds them out.

This deck plays out exactly the same as all the blue white decks ever. Line up your removal profitably, grind out an advantage, and eventually find some way to kill them. The one weird thing to watch out for when playing the deck is how Volition Reins affects ramping Venser in the mirror. You have to be aware that if you set up to ultimate they can just take it and do the same. Using the -1 ability to keep it out of range is perfectly legitimate. The other ways to dodge this are having Contagion Clasp to jump from 7 to 8 or setting up with counters. Just keep in mind with the first option if they have Clasp they can Clasp up your Venser to 8 at end of turn and use it.

Halt Order out of the board is a blow out against all of the Blue artifact decks. Dispense Justice answers Putrefax and lets you add more cheap removal against White Weenie. Precursor Golem and Battlesphere are the best threats at beating your opponent's walkers in the mirror and let you board in real cards when your removal is dead. Wurmcoil Engine isn't in the main as the White and Blue decks don't really care about it, but all the other decks can't really handle it.

This deck may look like it wants Ratchet Bomb, but that card is way too slow against the current decks. If a very aggressive token deck appears it does a good job of Wrathing them, but until them you don't want a shaky suspend five Vindicate.

One way to handle UW is attack it with threats that dodge the current removal suite, like the Poison bombs.

"Poison - Scars Block"

• Creatures (29)
• 4 Necropede
• 4 Ichorclaw Myr
• 4 Blight Mamba
• 4 Plague Stinger
• 4 Hand of the Praetors
• 4 Corpse Cur
• 4 Putrefax
• 1 Skythrix, the Blight Dragon

• Spells (7)
• 4 Grasp of Darkness
• 3 Untamed Might

• Lands (24)
• 12 Forest
• 12 Swamp

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Contagion Clasp
• 4 Slice in Twain
• 2 Mimic Vat
• 1 Skytherix, the Blight Dragon
• 4 Ichor Rats

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All you want to do is bash. The three drops didn't make the main deck as they are actually worse than fighting through 3/3's than the two drops. While you may seem soft to Contagion Clasp, the x/1's don't really matter. The entire deck is based around the power of Putrefax and Hand of the Praetors. Most decks struggle to beat them. Corpse Cur merely exists to make more of them, and all the two drops are just the bad support cards you play to make them good. Grasp of Darkness is the most efficient removal, and Untamed Might just ends the game if for some reason they are still alive. Skythrix is actually expensive for the deck but you want a 5^th Putrefax so it makes the cut.

Contagion Clasp may seem like a natural fit for the main, but it doesn't actually kill relevant blockers and proliferating them out is too slow and unlikely to succeed against the removal in the format. Out of the board it helps against the decks that can race you and other decks might just board out their artifact hate. Mimic Vat and Ichor Rats are for the decks that are just all spot removal to pull through value. Skytherix performs a similar function, as all you want is more Putrefax there. Slice in Twain the best generic artifact removal spell in case you need that kind of effect and also can help against Volition Reins.

One card that should probably be in here is Mimic Vat. If you can fit it in, infinite Putrefaxes kills them fast.

The hidden upside to this deck is that every time you win a game you get to see the message "X was poisoned!!!", which is always a moral boost and provider of tilt.

The other way to attack UW and by extension all of the mid-range garbage people are playing is just go big.

"Go Big - Scars Block"

• Creatures (18)
• 4 Grand Architect
• 4 Palladium Myr
• 4 Precursor Golem
• 3 Wurmcoil Engine
• 3 Myr Battlesphere

• Spells (17)
• 4 Contagion Clasp
• 4 Stoic Rebuttal
• 3 Tumble Magnet
• 1 Trigon of Thought
• 3 Volition Reins
• 2 Mindslaver

• Lands (25)
• 25 Island

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Contagion Engine
• 4 Halt Order
• 1 Tumble Magnet
• 1 Mindslaver
• 3 Argent Sphinx
• 4 Plated Strider

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Myr Battlesphere and Mindslaver are the two options that legitimately go bigger than a Planeswalker, while Golem and Reins come close. Arbiter and Palladium Myr provide the mana necessary for this while not being Claspable, while the rest of your deck is a concession to the fact some people will try to attack you. Contagion Clasp and Magnet keep you stable against people trying to attack you until a giant artifact monster ends them. Stoic Rebuttal fights their counters as you out mana them and prevents them from getting too far ahead with a Walker early on.

Out of the board Plated Strider may seem strange, but he blocks all of the aggressive creatures and taps to Architect. Engine and Magnet shore up your removal count, while Argent Sphinx and the extra Slaver trade in for the removal when you don't need it. Halt Order is specifically for the mirror.

Finally, there isn't really a good answer to Kuldotha Rebirth. Typically the response would be to Elspeth up some tokens, but if they do it on turn one or two that is often late enough Galvanic Blast can come in and mop up. This list is the least refined one, so I would suggest battling some with it before real events and cleaning it up.

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

4 Memnite

2 Spikeshot Elder

4 Kuldotha Rebirth

4 Iron Myr

1 Perilous Myr

2 Kuldotha Phoenix

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Koth of the Hammer

4 Galvanic Blast

2 Arc Trail

2 Darksteel Axe

3 Mox Opal

4 Panic Spellbomb

3 Necrogen Censer

[/Spells]

[Lands]

21 Mountain

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

2 Arc Trail

3 Cerebral Eruption

4 Oxidia Scrapmelter

1 Necrogen Censer

1 Kuldotha Phoenix

4 Shatter

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

This deck's plan for Clasp is just to get valued by it, but still have more 1/1's attacking at the same time. You are greatly aided in your quest by the fact Wurmcoil Engine is very mediocre against all of the White removal and that real creatures aren't that great. This is your standard durdle red deck. Play some fast guys, attack, burn them. Koth on it's own represents an alternate end game, as they have two turns to answer it or die. Necrogen Censer looks odd, but it's just a Flame Javelin. Myr are the best attackers as they also enable the big spells and Galvanic Blast.

The sideboard looks like trash because it is. You are all in on a given plan and not much else is real. Arc Trail and Eruption wreck them if they try to play cheap guys as well while Scrapmelter kills their equipment. Censer ups your late game reach against UW, but other than that there isn't much more you can do.

Other decks exist, but they have serious flaws. These are definitely things you can try to fix, but these decks as is need work.

Non-WU control decks exist. WR and RB get to play slightly different removal suites than UW, but their answers aren't actually better. WU still deals with the small creatures just as well, and when it comes to the end game I would rather have Volition Reins and Stoic Rebuttal than Grasp of Darkness, Galvanic Blast, or Skinrender. I can see a RB deck with Moriok Replica, Mimic Vat, and Koth existing to gain additional non-removal value, so if you are interested in a more midrange style control deck that would be the place to start.

An interesting UG deck has also popped up, operating on the premise of being all value. Trinket Mage gets Horizon Spellbomb for a three for one and you get to Halt Order and Slice in Twain to draw cards. Argent Sphinx is your main threat as the best way to attack walkers, but that reveals the problem with the deck. You have that, Reins, and Stoic Rebuttal; the UW deck has the Walkers. Your cantrips aren't actually that great against them and they will just walker you out. Splashing for your own Venser might work, especially as you are already Spellbombing to make it easy, but the current build is soft to Elspeth and Venser.

White Weenie also exists. There are two ways to approach this. One is an equipment based route with Kemba, Auriok Edgewright, and Kemba's Skyguard. The other is the Myrsmith plus Tempered Steel deck. The former I'm not sure where to start with, but later would probably be best splashing blue for Trinket Mage and Riddlesmith like the deck Gavin Verhey suggested pre-States. I feel the second option is stronger against the current control decks as Smiths are Arrest-proof, but the first might fare better against a Black control deck due to Kemba's relative resilience.

As a parting word of advice, once you settle on a deck watch the metagame and be ready to make appropriate sideboard adjustments. Just for the UW mirror last year the sideboard would change every even between Luminarch Ascension, mill, and Quest for Ancient Secrets. Develop and try new plans for each match up. One example this year will be the Volition Reins-Walker fights in the UW mirror. I'm not sure what the way to level them is, but I would start with Turn Aside. There might also be leveling to gain at some point by removing Contagion Clasp from decks, but that time is not soon.

All in all, single set block constructed is a lot more fun than people think. There is a lot more room for play skill and deck development than you would expect for a two hundred card format. I would strongly advise trying it out. It is by far some of the best value to be had on MODO.