Control in Modern is a daunting prospect. There’s such a huge variety of decks that abuse a wide variety of strategies and interactions that it’s difficult to pick your fights correctly for a given room. Even if you do, there’s no guarantee that the decks you play against are the ones that you’re prepared for. That said, the cards are certainly powerful enough to merit playing control in the format, and this take from HyperGuy is certainly appealing.

U/R Control ? Modern | HyperGuy, 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
• 1 Keranos, God of Storms
• 2 Vendilion Clique
• 4 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Young Pyromancer

• spells (19)
• 1 Burst Lightning
• 1 Harvest Pyre
• 1 Mana Leak
• 1 Spell Snare
• 1 Vapor Snag
• 2 Electrolyze
• 2 Izzet Charm
• 3 Cryptic Command
• 3 Remand
• 4 Lightning Bolt

• Sorceries (7)
• 3 Ancestral Vision
• 4 Serum Visions

• Lands (22)
• 6 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Desolate Lighthouse
• 1 Spirebluff Canal
• 1 Wandering Fumarole
• 2 Steam Vents
• 2 Sulfur Falls
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Scalding Tarn

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Anger of the Gods
• 3 Blood Moon
• 3 Ceremonious Rejection
• 1 Dispel
• 2 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Izzet Staticaster
• 1 Jace, Architect of Thought
• 2 Negate

Buy This Deck

Additionally, in a format where a substantial number of decks are trying to deal substantial amounts of damage to themselves, it seems like a great time to be playing Lightning Bolt and Snapcaster Mage. You’ll be able to steal more than a few games from Death's Shadow players this way if they don’t manage their life total precisely. The addition of Harvest Pyre, even as a singleton, means that you’re reasonably likely to be able to kill at least one Death's Shadow over the course of a long game, even without splashing for Path to Exile or Fatal Push.

The key to this deck is the combination of Keranos, God of Storms and Goblin Dark-Dwellers. These are the cards which let you close out the game once you’ve locked things down with early removal into Cryptic Commands. Keranos helps to generate a ton of card advantage, particularly with Desolate Lighthouse to help turn excess lands into spells. Keranos also lets you close out games by pointing damage at your opponent’s face or cleaning up the board, and is a particularly resilient threat in the format. Goblin Dark-Dwellers is a fifth Snapcaster Mage, and one that can re-buy Ancestral Visions, unlike either Snapcaster Mage or Torrential Gearhulk. While previous builds have played multiple copies of Dark-Dwellers and the full complement of Ancestral Visions, the format is not especially kind to 5-drops right now unless you’re going all the way up the curve to things like Karn Liberated or Primeval Titan.

If you’re looking for a reasonable way to play a tempo-control strategy in this format, I think this looks like a great pick. Young Pyromancer and Snapcaster Mage give you a great way to win early games by going wide, while Dark-Dwellers and Keranos give you plenty of power to crush your opponent in the late game. Combine that with efficient removal, Cryptic Commands, and plenty of card selection and advantage and what’s not to like?