The worst thing that can happen is that your opponent draws exactly the same number of Abrupt Decays that you draw Detention Spheres.
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Right now, I’m willing to make that trade in order to have a better chance of beating the good draws out of Jund Monsters.įor those that do decide to go the Detention Sphere/Banishing Light route, I think you want five or six copies between the two. When you play with Planar Cleansing, you give up a little bit of consistency and flexibility in exchange for raw power. I’ll untap, look at the board, and wonder how the game’s already slipped away from me.
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She’ll untap and either destroy the Sphere or play a second copy of Xenagos, the Reveler, make another Satyr and attack me for four. My opponent will play Xenagos, the Reveler, make a Satyr and attack me for two. I’ve found that answering permanents one for one, after the fact, at sorcery speed, is too often a losing battle. To expand on that a little: control decks right now are a little bit underpowered compared to other decks in standard, and compared to Monsters in particular. In a world where people are prepared to kill Detention Spheres you want to be playing Planar Cleansing in a world where they aren’t, you want to be playing Spheres and Banishing Lights.Īt this exact moment, I come down slightly on the side of Planar Cleansing, because it improves your Jund Monsters matchup. The big question for control players right now: Planar Cleansing, or Detention Sphere and Banishing Light. I recommend 0-2 copies of Divination in three color control decks and 3-4 copies in straight U/W. However, in plain U/W with lots of basic lands, I’ve really loved Divination. For another, these decks are already so painfully slow that they can ill afford to take a turn off for Divination. For one thing, decks with twelve scry lands are less likely to flood out or have awkward draws, so they need Divination slightly less. The question of Divination also depends on how many scry lands (tapped lands) you’re playing. In some matchups-say, White Weenie, for instance-the game can very nearly be simplified to “win if you cast Supreme Verdict on turn 4” or “lose if you don’t.” In these blistering fast matchups, where you might expect Divination to be at its worst, it’s actually quite good, simply because casting it on turn 3 increases the chances that you’ll have drawn Supreme Verdict and four lands by turn 4. It’s worth mentioning that the tempo and power that you lose when you take a turn off for Divination can be regained with Supreme Verdict these two cards go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly. It’s the number one card you want to see in games where you’ve mulliganed or been Thoughtseized. It allows you to hit your land drops, and smooths out your draws. However, Divination helps control decks run smoothly and consistently.Ī deck that intends to hit its first seven land drops while defending itself and still having action in the late game requires a tremendous quantity of cards, and Divination is perfect for this. This is admittedly a weak card, and it can be frustrating to spend three mana for no impact on the board while your opponents are dropping Stormbreath Dragons and Masters of Waves. The question of Divination is a more complicated one. You should have a critical mass of card draw where one card draw spell finds another and allows you to continue digging through your deck. Along these lines, my number one priority when constructing a control deck is to include enough card drawing that I never (almost never) flood out in the late game. A control deck can only function when you know that your deck will allow you to inevitably win the game as long as you continue to survive. Let’s take a closer look at Sphinx’s Revelation control… Card DrawingĪt the core, it’s not counterspells or removal or board sweepers or planeswalkers that make a control deck tick, it’s card drawing. Hopefully, this will put you well on your way towards making educated decisions for yourself.
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While I can’t offer a definitive answer to what’s best, I can offer you what I’ve learned from my long experiences with a variety of control decks. Today, for example, you’re as likely to see classic U/W with Elixir of Immortality as you are to see Esper with Aetherling or even wild new versions built around Planar Cleansing. However, there’s rarely been consensus on the best way to build the deck, or even the best combination of colors to play. Sphinx’s Revelation Control has been a major archetype for as long as this Standard format hasexisted.