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Main » Articles » Aggro-Control in Modern

Aggro-Control in Modern

Jarvis Yu
Posted on January 23, 2012
 Reddit

In the last weekend of Modern PTQs, aggro-control blue decks finally posted very good results. Two of them Top 8’d both of the Magic Online PTQs, which is no small feat.

The first of which was mono-blue Faeries played by Stainerson (Tommy Ashton):

"Stainerson’s mono-blue Faeries"

Being mono-blue gives certain advantages in the current metagame—reliable lands under Blood Moon and not taking damage from your own lands are the two biggest advantages. Spellskite is an interesting choice, but it is good against Splinter Twin decks and at protecting Vedalken Shackles and Mistbind Clique. It is very difficult to figure out what to play around against this deck—it’s all instants except Spellskite and Vedalken Shackles. Engineered Explosives gives him a good game plan against Boros and 1-Drop Zoo, and his other sideboard cards let him solidify his game plan: Needle versus Twin, Relic versus Storm, and so on.

The second of these decks was W/U Caw played by haiSOOOOdesu (Marco Orsini-Jones):

"W/U Caw by haiSOOOOdesu"

Squadron Hawk rears its ugly head again! The deck is very good at taking the Fish role against control decks, while Snapcaster Mage and Cryptic Command help you grind out other decks. Kitchen Finks and Squadron Hawk are both two-for-ones, while Vendilion Clique helps you sculpt a game plan. Elspeth, Knight-Errant provides more bodies for Sword of Feast and Famine and gives a way for it to punch through. Damping Matrix is an interesting piece of technology that has been seen before (against Dark Depths Thopter in a previous Extended season) but has applications against Splinter Twin and Affinity. Linvala also does a lot of heavy lifting here as a one-of. Sunlance is a very reasonable removal spell (and if you get lucky enough, it can even kill a Tarmogoyf if the opponent decides to play it on turn two!). Threads is a better, but slower removal spell against Tarmogoyf and Confidant.

Two other prominent aggro-control decks are Delver-flavored: U/B and R/U/G.

R/U/G Delver has been recently championed by Brad Nelson as one of the decks to play. Here is one of his more recent lists:

"Brad Nelson’s R/U/G Delver"

This deck plays twenty-one lands and six cantrips, but it tries to keep the curve extremely low by only having five spells that cost 3 or more. The split of removal spells is the way it is because no removal spell is strictly better here (Slash versus Bolt versus Burst versus Dismember). The creatures are selected very specifically to either grind the opponent out or be able to close the game quickly. The sideboard seems very solidly constructed here. I suspect we struggle against aggressive decks before sideboard and probably struggle greatly against Boros (which is on the rise after winning one of the last two Magic Online PTQs).

"U/B Delver"

We swap Tarmogoyf and burn spells (red removal) for black removal, which is guaranteed to kill enemy Tarmogoyfs and Deceiver Exarchs. On the flipside, Dark Confidant also allows us to play a better grindy game against control decks and Jund. We also have eight excellent manlands to put on pressure against control decks. We have Curse of Death's Hold as an interesting card choice that has a lot of good applications. (It disables Pestermite, Deceiver Exarch, Steppe Lynx, Grim Lavamancer, Dark Confidant, and the list goes on . . . )

To round this article off, I’ll present a comprehensive list of the Top 32 from both PTQs (Note that I left the order there instead of grouping them together because these are the places where each of the decks finished after the Swiss):

January 14

Top 8: W/U Caw, mono-blue Faeries, G/W tokens, Twin with ’Goyf and Daybreak, MeliraPod, Twin, Bant Aggro, Twin

Ninth through thirty-second: Affinity, Merfolk, Jund, MeliraPod, Bant Aggro, Gifts-Reanimator, R/U/G Delver, U/B Teachings control, Jund, Boros, Twin, Affinity, MeliraPod, Affinity, Jund, U/B Bob-Delver, MeliraPod, Twin with Peek and four Grim Lavamancer in the sideboard, Merfolk, Elves, Affinity, Twin, Affinity, U/B with Forbidden Alchemy and Demigod of Revenge

January 15

Top 8: Mono-blue Faeries, Twin, Jund, Boros, Affinity, W/U Caw, MeliraPod, Jund

Ninth through thirty-second: Jund, U/R ’Tron, Junk-Pod, G/W tokens, Affinity, R/U/G Delver, U/B Bob-Delver, Twin with ’Goyf and Daybreak in the sideboard, R/U/G Delver, Domain Zoo, Gifts-Rites, MeliraPod, Affinity, Twin, W/U Caw, Burn, MeliraPod, U/R Storm, R/U/G Delver, Jund, U/R Storm, Jund, Jund, G/W tokens

The field’s diversity suggests that you can master any deck and do well with it! Get practicing, and I hope to see people do well in any Modern tournaments they choose to play in.

As usual, you can contact me on Twitter @jkyu06 or comment in the forums here.

 

 

As a bonus, here's a U/W ’Tron list that Luis Scott-Vargas rocked to 4–0 recently:

"Luis Scott-Vargas’s U/W ’Tron"

TAGS articles, constructed, magic online, deck lists, modern, jarvis yu

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