As I wrote about last Friday, taking the highly metagamed and finely tuned decklists from the World Championships and copying them card for card for your next tournament isn't the best idea.

"Sorry Paulo!"

Time will tell if deserving World Champion Paulo Vitor Damo de Rosa's Azorius Control deck will fare as well in a large, open field as it did the very focused Worlds metagame, but for now I'm happy sticking with Zach Allen's build that is more focused on raw power in a vacuum. The overall metagame is still fairly wide open, which makes me worry about times our Mystical Disputes, Thirst for Meanings, and Dovin's Vetoes won't line up.

Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:06:23

Match 2 - 00:50:17

Match 3 - 01:13:16

Match 4 - 01:23:56

Azorius Control | THB Standard | Zach Allen, 1st Place SCG Tour Philadelphia

• Creatures (3)
• 3 Dream Trawler

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 3 Narset, Parter of Veils
• 4 Teferi, Time Raveler

• Instants (8)
• 2 Chemister's Insight
• 2 Dovin's Veto
• 4 Absorb

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Shatter the Sky

• Enchantments (12)
• 4 Elspeth Conquers Death
• 4 Omen of the Sea
• 4 The Birth of Meletis

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 Glass Casket

• Lands (25)
• 4 Plains
• 8 Island
• 1 Castle Vantress
• 1 Field of Ruin
• 3 Castle Ardenvale
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Temple of Enlightenment

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Whirlwind Denial
• 2 Archon of Sun's Grace
• 3 Mystical Dispute
• 2 Devout Decree
• 4 Aether Gust
• 1 Dovin's Veto
• 2 Banishing Light

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I don't there's any denying that Azorius Control is clearly one of the top decks in Standard right now, if not the top deck.

There's just too much raw power available in all the cards, not to mention how well counterspells, Teferi, Time Raveler, Dream Trawler, or Shatter the Sky beat some decks singlehandedly. The deck is able to be nimble and play at instant speed, while also being able to shift gears and start slamming haymakers if things go wrong. It is fully capable of being built or sideboarded to lean into either strategy, making it very flexible. Zach's list was great and I intend to use it as a starting point for my testing for Dreamhack this weekend.

However, there is one card in Paulo's Sideboard that really has me interested and that's Commence the Endgame. After sideboarding against the mirror and Temur Reclamation things can lean towards a very draw-go style, and having an uncounterable end step threat that is also card advantage feels awesome. I'd like to incorporate some number of Commence the Endgame in the sideboard, as having a good plan for the mirror seems paramount.

No matter how you build it, Azorius Control is here to stay. Either learn how to play it or learn how to play against it, cause Teferi and friends ain't going anywhere.