I had planned to talk about this $15 Midrange Deception list I've been testing, but this control magic list is a must share. I saw it on the top decks of gudecks and had to give it a spin. It did not disappoint. I've been on the look out for cheap decks that are still competitive, and this qualifies for sure.
The Deck
Credit for this deck goes to FRA88:
Deck Code:
GU_1_4_KCyKCyBHMIBDIBDCANCANCEkKAgKAgIBnLAELAEKApCFrCFrCEvIBsCBmCBmKAqKAqCGFKDlKDmKDqCBjIByCAlCAl
When I first saw this deck, it was at a 65% win rate over 40 games in Mythic. It's come down a bit since then, but you also have to remember that when new people pick up a deck, they often need practice with it and take a few early losses.
I actually didn't have Kaya and Ekrileth, but they were only $3 and $1 respectively, so I picked them up. I've got some reps in with the deck (including 2 gameplay vids below), and I want to talk about what it does well and what could be improved.
Win Conditions
The primary win con for this deck is Flame of the Second Shattering paired with Pyrrhic Knowledge.
There are quite a few decks with this pairing included, but this deck doubles down (literally) by running 2x of each. This gives resistance against Cutthroat Insight, allows you to use FOSS to control the board in a pinch, and also provides the flexibility to do more total damage to face if required.
The backup win condition for this deck is creature based.
A secondary win condition is incredibly important when everyone is looking at your deck. For a standard FOSS deck, your opponent knows they just need to stay out of range (or cast that last-second safeguard) to win. With Poly in the deck, they have to play around two possibl win cons, which is much harder to do.
Polyhymnia is an excellent win con given its price. It's main drawbacks in the current meta:
- Cutthroat
- 9 mana is too slow to beat combo decks like Bitter Endings
That's OK, though. No deck can beat every other deck (even Bitter Endings hates aggro light). Additionally, I watched SamBam play this deck against a $1500 control deception list and win. The main strategy that gave him a chance: he played the Foresight GP and used it basically every turn. This way, he was able to keep Poly, FOSS, Helian, and Pyrrhic out of his hand. By putting them on the bottom of his deck, he was able to play each the same turn he drew it. This did come at the cost of not having Mage Bolt, but it was the right call.
Strategy
Survive until your win cons.
But how? This deck looks a little light on early game control at first glance, but first glances can be deceiving.
The Obvious Tools
- 3 bolts
- Lightning Talisman
- Two Safeguards (fine to use early against aggro)
- Goblin for zombie hate (and Lysander's Spear)
Card Draw Synergy
In addition, control decks often find themselves with lots of cards in hand. Against other control, this is because no one's doing anything. Against aggro, this is normally because aggro has dumped many creatres on the board that you can clear with a single Shaped Blast. Efficient removal means card advantage.
In addition to that, this deck also gains card draw from Frenetic Bibliomaniacs. The combination synergizes very nicely with:
With card advantage, Hatchlings become secondary Starshard Bolts if needed. They are excellent cards for swinging the board to your favor. If you are already controlling the board, you can send the damage face to get your opponent closer to FOSS range.
Ekrileth also makes use of the card advantage, and is pretty easy to come out as a 5/5 or 6/6 frontline. Importantly, she (?) also doubles as a threat that needs to be removed. Even if she is removed efficiently by (e.g.) a Hunting Trap, that is one less hunting trap for your Helian Elite. Against aggro, she can win the game.
Ratify
One of the reasons I had to try this deck was Ratify. I know that Pallas is all the rage right now, but in a deck running 2x Pyrhhic's, Ratify has some advantages (in addition to being way cheaper). Consider the mirror match: control mage vs control mage. They have big creatures and you have big creatures. They have Pallas. You have Ratify - up to 3 of them.
Additionally, you can draw through your deck faster. This is important for getting your win cons in hand before needing to Pyrrhic Ratify, which will burn 5 cards. Ideally, you aren't using Pyrrhic until your deck is empty. This means you got to use all your resources and then double dip for free. However, even if you have to Pyrrhic early out of desperation, this deck has multiple win cons which means you aren't likely to brick by, for example, discarding your coronet. In fact, this is why my Coronet deck doesn't run Pyrrhic at all. You can't risk discarding it.
Other Details
Kaya is a nice add in this deck, and it's primary purpose is face damage. Board clearing is inconsistent due to randomness, but sometimes that's all you have. Ideally, though, you play this on a turn where you can spend 9 mana and she adds 9 damage to the face.
Heal is a bit light in this deck (no onis), but Helmna is consistent heal doubling as a frontliner against aggro and Serris is Serris.
Modifications
Gleamweavers. This is a tech card designed for anubians, bitter endings, martyr, control light, etc. 2x feels like a lot for a card that is worthless in most of the games you play. For players like me currently in gold, it's definitely too much. Aggro nature, war, and zombies are all over the place. I will probably remove them until Ethereal Diamond.
In my opinion, Shaped Blast has to be a 2x card. It's your only board wipe before 7 mana. Even with card draw, I want 2x to make sure I have it in hand at 5 mana as often as possible. If I draw both even better. Yes, good players will try to play around the card with frontliners, but they have to have those cards in hand (or sanctum) and often they just don't.
The mix of bolts is interesting to me. My gut is telling me 2x Tracking and 1x Starshard. A 4/1 Shadow of Lethanon can put you at 5-10 HP before you can play Shaped Blast. A board full of 1/1 zombies is begging for a tracking bolt, and Tracking + GP can still clear the obelisk (admittedly less mana efficient than Starshard).
Otherwise, I think the deck is really tight. These are really just tweaks around the edges.
Gameplay 1
In this game, I'm going second against a fairly meta aggro light list running Lysander's Spear. Finding Goblin early was key (and why he's in the deck).
Mulligan and 1 Mana
Gleamwweaver is a dead card in this matchup, so I send it back. I'm really happy to see Shaped Blast. Scholar/Ramp is maybe a risky keep going second against aggro light, but I'll have some board presence with my bibliomanics, and getting to 7 mana quickly will help me stabalize, so I decide to keep it.
I've got nothing to do turn 1, so I pass, but more importantly, our aggro light opponent passes turn 1. That's huge for me.
2 Mana
They pip out the spear, which is going to cause us problems. I play card draw and get a 1/1 on board.
3 Mana
Now I understand. There's going to be a Raneko Hearthmother coming down making that PW insanely strong. However, we have Ratify in hand, and here's another plug for ratify: I can play it 2 whole turns earlier than Pallas.
I pip out the Scholar. A pip invested here is equivalent to having a permananet pip every turn for the rest of the game. Also, I'm not terrified of the warden due to ratify.
4 Mana
Our opponent goes all in on PW. And I mean ALL in. It's not really a missplay. There's only one card in my deck that could save me (although there are a few that could help me stall). I just happen to have it in hand. If we didn't have ratify, Stormstress would have bought us one more turn, but then we'd be dead.
Again I pip out the ramp for the same reason as before.
5 Mana
Now Stormstress gets to show off here. Even though I draw iron-tooth, I want to clear the board before things like Holy Writ or Protective Benediction drop. These few turns also highlight the benefit of putting 1/1 bodies on the board against aggro opponents. Cards like Cram are more efficient at drawing cards, but the token creatures open up a lot more lines of play for you.
5.5 Mana
Now we eat the relic and clear board. We're steadily breaking down all his win conditions.
6 Mana
While his board refil would be very effective against another aggro opponent (who would have to clear the blind martyr first), we just go around it. If the sanctum line wasn't available, I would have absolutely used shaped blast. We don't need our current board as much as he needs his.
6.5 Mana
The game is actually already over after last turn, but he gives it one last try. We clean it up and then it's GG.
Gameplay 2
This game is against aggro War. Going second again, but this is an Olympian list that elects to build up stats in hand before playing them all at once. The deck wasn't particularly meta or Mythic level, though. I won't play-by-play the game, but a major key is that we had ramp once against to answer his slow start.