Before I start I would like to thank my two best friends Mark Nestico and Cliff Weixler. You made the SCG's Orlando Open a blast.

JUND is, as I like to call it, the elephant in the room. If you have not played against Jund in the past 4 months then you haven't been playing standard magic. The deck is full of synergy and card advantage. Bloodbraid Elf is the most broken card in the standard metagame, generating card advantage and pressure. Team this 3/2 haste creature with some removal, discard, and dragons and you have one sick brew. Don't be fooled, it IS the best deck in standard. If your friends say otherwise they are lying to you.

I choose to play U/W control because I don't hate the deck's Jund matchup. Cancel is very good in the Jund match as it counters all of their key spells and they are not lightning fast. The game usually ends when you attrition them out of the game with card draw and Jace. The key to the match is being penitent. In addition, an unanswered Baneslayer is almost always game over. With that being said you have to make sure you can back your Baneslayer up with counter magic. If the game goes long and you cast Martial Coup with Cancel mana up you should win, and with Everflowing Chalice it is not hard to do.

Now that’s not to say you cannot lose to Jund because they can get some great draws and just blow you out. Some of the other decks I was expecting were White Weenie, Vampires, U/W tap out and RDW. All of these matches are very good except the RDW match. The White Weenie match is very straight forward; they play guys and you play a mass removal spell. Jace is the MVP of the match with Baneslayer coming in a close second as they don’t really have a soild answer for either of them. Vampires is much the same as they play guys and attack. You just have to make sure you don’t get Mind Sludge’d out of the game. The U/W tap out deck is another great match. They have much of the same spells as you but NO COUNTERSPELLS! Cancel is the best card in this match as you get to resolve your Jace and Mind Spring and they do not. Another reason I choose this deck was because I love the ability to outplay my opponents.

This deck is not the easiest deck to pilot; on any given turn you have multiple decisions which you have to make. U/W control is a very fundamentally sound classic control deck. You have mass removal, counter spells and a couple of win conditions. Let’s go the meat and potatos shall we? First the deck list that propelled me to the top eight.

[cardlist]4 Everflowing Chalice

2 Baneslayer Angel

3 Oblivion Ring

4 Cancel

3 Essence Scatter

1 Negate

2 Path To Exile

4 Jace, The Mind Sculptor

3 Day Of Judgment

2 Martial Coup

2 Mind Spring

4 Treasure Hunt

3 Island

4 Plains

2 Arid Mesa

4 Celestial Colonnade

4 Glacial Fortress

4 Halimar Depths

1 Scalding Tarn

4 Tectonic Edge

Sideboard

1 Baneslayer Angel

4 Kor Firewalker

2 Wall Of Denial

3 Flashfreeze

2 Negate

2 Elspeth, Knight-errant

1 Plains[/cardlist]

At first glance the list looks very similar to Patrick Chapin's U/W decklist from PT San Diego. It plays very similar to his list with some subtle changes. The changes I made were to drop the Celestial Purge and Iona in favor of Baneslayer Angel. I feel this is right as I won most of my game one's with a Baneslayer. She is just too good against almost every deck in type 2. Also, I am not a huge fan of playing maindeck Flashfreeze so I dropped it for another Path To Exile and another Essence Scatter. Remember, I choose this deck because I did not hate its Jund match, it crushes the U/W tap out deck, and it smashes all the fringe decks. The only bad matchup for this deck is the Hell's Thunder, Lighting Bolt decks and even those are beatable after board.

Let’s look at some of the card choices:

2 Baneslayer Angel

I agree with my good friend Cliff. This card sucks... You should give me all your copies so I can throw them in the trash for you. No really give them to me. (P.S. this card single handily wins games.)

4 Jace, The Mind Sculptor

This card is the backbone of the deck and last time I checked Brainstorm is a hell of a card. Mix in some Unsummons and fatesealing and you have one mighty planeswalker. This card also works really well with Treasure Hunt to draw you even more cards.

4 Treasure Hunt

This is your main card drawing engine. Stacking your deck with Jace or Halimar Depths should always happen before you cast this card as it makes it ten times better.

4 Everflowing Chalice

Chalice plays the role of mana acceleration, and a very strong one at that. This card not only lets you play Jace on turn three but can let you Martial Coup much faster.

3 Day of Judgment, 2 Martial Coup

Your mass removal, not to mention most creature decks, cannot beat Martial Coup for 5.

2 Path to Exile, 3 Oblivion Ring

Path to Exile is the best spot removal in type 2 right now. I wish I played a third Path to Exile and if I played the tournament over again I would have added it. It takes care of manlands which can be problematic at times after a Day of Judgment. As for Oblivion Ring, this card is just a catch all. It takes care of planeswalkers, creatures, and anything else that's not a manland.

2 Mind Spring

Card drawing at its finest. Most games get out of control for the opponent once you cast Mind Spring for 5 or more. The key with this card is to know when to tap out with it and when to keep two or three mana up.

4 Cancel, 3 Essence Scatter, 1 Negate

Cancel is not as bad as you think. It certainty is not Counterspell, but what is? Cancel does just fine in Type 2. Did I mention it counters everything? Essence Scatter is MVP in all the creature matches. Negate is pretty average against a lot of decks in type 2 so that’s why there is only one maindeck with the other two in the board.

4 Tectonic Edge

This card is the best land in the deck. Many games end when you double Tectonic Edge your opponent. It is also the best answer to those problematic manlands we talked about earlier.

The sideboard might seem a bit weird but it was all in all pretty good. You have Kor Firewalker and Wall of Denial for the Red Deck Wins match, Baneslayer against every creature deck and RDW, Flashfreeze for the Jund & RDW matches and other green based decks. Negate for the mirror and U/W tap out deck. If I could change one card in my sideboard I would drop the 2 Elspeth's for 2 Celestial Purges. Purge is great in the RDW match. It is an answer to the good manlands and MANABARBS! After my top 4 match against Charles Gindy when I thought I had game three locked up to only have it stolen away with a top decked Manabarbs. The Plains is there because against a lot of fringe decks Tectonic Edge is awful and you want to board two of them out and board in the Plains.

Part 2 of this article is forthcoming...