​UW Control Going Forward

UW Control Going Forward

by Kyle Montgomery

UW control was one of the breakout decks from the regional championship in Atlanta. It had a good matchup into what was the supposed best decks in Pioneer, being Amalia, phoenix, and RB midrange. I’ve had an idea kicking around my head for a while for how to build the deck in a different way than what is the stock way. This innovation mainly comes from a land printed in LCI being Sunken Citadel. 

Sunken Citadel is a land that minimally fixes your colors, and is a sol land if using it to activate abilities of lands. With this in mind, the deck should contain cards ready to take advantage of this boost of mana. This list starts with Field of Ruin and / or Demolition Field. These cards are identical in a 1v1 game of magic. Being able to destroy a nonbasic land of your opponent is useful in a control deck. You can take care of man lands like Den of the Bugbear, or utility lands such as Thespian’s Stage from the Lotus Field deck. Citadel can also provide mana to activate your own utility lands such as the Castles from Eldraine or your own manlands like Hall of Storm Giant.

Currently, I have only talked about changes to the mana base of UW. Sunken Citadel makes me want to include Search for Azcanta back into the archetype. Since the backside is a land, the Citadel can provide 2 mana for its activated ability. I am predicting a rise in control going forward with its win in Atlanta, and Azcanta is a good tool to have in those mirrors. The last land to consider in this deck is Geier Reach Sanitarium. This card is not good enough to play on its own, so we have to play Narset, Partner of Veils, to make it better. With Narset in play, the Sanitarium makes your opponent discard a card every turn. Having Narset also means that we can cut on the number of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria in the deck and lower the curve overall.

This idea I had isn’t going to drastically change the way people build their control decks in Pioneer. However, it could be a way to attack the format that people aren't expecting. Some players aren't including enough basics to keep up with as many as 8 Field of Ruin effects in a game. If you animate a Hall of Storm Giants one or two turns before your opponent is ready to defend against it, they might find themselves playing from behind if they aren't careful with their life total. I’ll leave you with my current build of this deck.

If you’d like to see my current list check it out here.https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6141624#paper