Regionals Tech: Blue-White Alex Shvartsman US Regionals are around the corner. The deck you'll play has to beat Fires, hold its own against Rebels, and still be able to do well against a variety of rogue decks out there. The current net myth is that Fires deck is ridiculously broken. In fact, I think it is just "one of the guys." The reason everyone and their brother is convinced of Fires' superiority, is that the archetype is easy to upgrade with Planeshift (adding cards like Flametongue Kavu seems fairly obvious, even if not necessarily the right call), Shivan Wurm, Battlemages, Hull Breach and a variety of other goodies. While I am convinced that Fires is not superior to the rest of the field, you can expect a large number of Fires decks in Regionals Top 8's. This is due to so many people subscribing to this strategy - Fires variants should make it through by sheer numbers - but an individual player with Fires has probably a lesser chance to qualify for Nationals, than a player wielding a well-built copy of another deck. Over the next few weeks, my goal is to write several articles that will examine viable alternatives for Regionals. It is only reasonable to begin with the deck I would play myself, if I had to compete. I have been testing the following Blue-White Control variant for about two weeks now, and the results have been quite favorable. 7 Plains 9 Islands 4 Coastal Tower 4 Adarkar Wastes 1 Recall 3 Dismantling Blow 4 Fact or Fiction 4 Wrath of God 3 Last Breath 3 Tsabo's Web 4 Accumulated Knowledge 2 Foil 4 Absorb 4 Counterspell 2 Nether Spirit 2 Bribery VARIABLES I have been testing Jeweled Spirit in place of Bribery, and it has been working out quite well - except for an occasional problem interacting with Nether Spirit. Eric Taylor correctly pointed out that, in 90%+ of all matchups, any creature you get with Bribery will be better than Jeweled Spirit. Although I did less testing with Bribery, so far his idea is working out well. Foil replaces Power Sink, but both are just fine. Foil seems superior because of how it interacts with Nether Spirit, as well as being a better spell overall in a control vs. control matchup. Power Sink is a great card early on, but it becomes weaker and weaker as the game progresses and both players have more mana sources in play. HOW TO PLAY THIS DECK You can trade away some life points for the time it takes to establish control. Playing control is generally more complicated than an aggressive deck like Fires or Ponza. If you are thinking of using this deck at Regionals, be sure to get plenty of practice. For the purpose of this article, I am assuming that a reader is at least somewhat familiar with the archetype, so I will not go into detail trying to explain which spells to counter, and when. In a nutshell, the point is to retain control of the table. Use your resources - be it countermagic or removal spells - to eliminate threats an opponent is presenting. This deck is built around one of the oldest strategic concepts in the game - life is a resource. You can trade away some life points for the time it takes to establish control. For example, do not cast Wrath of God on turn 4, unless it looks like an opponent might overwhelm you. If the difference is only 6-8 life points, you are better off waiting until you have six mana in play, so that you can cast Counterspell after Wrath of God clears the table. Similarly, in many games it will not be wise to tap out for Bribery on turn 5. Keep your mana open, and play "draw-go" when you can. Your short-term goal is simply to survive. If you succeed, the long-term card advantage provided by Accumulated Knowledge, Fact or Fiction, and Dismantling Blow will provide you with the means to win the game. THE TECH Explanation of the cards that may not necessarily appear in other variants of U/W control: Nether Spirit - There is no way at all to cast this guy - but it does not present a problem for the deck at all. You can discard one via Foil, casting Fact or Fiction, or simply ending your turn with more than seven cards in hand. If I draw Nether Spirit in my opening hand, and I am going second - I will often decline to play a land that turn, opting to end the turn with eight cards in hand instead, and discard the Spirit. This play is always somewhat risky - you are allowing an opponent to effectively take an extra free turn - but it pays off more often than not. Aggressive decks will have a hard time dealing with a 2/2 wall every single turn, while other control decks are not doing anything much early on anyway, and an early Spirit might often go all the way before they find a way to deal with it. Recall - A single Recall has been excellent in this deck, especially later on in the game. It is an additional way to discard Nether Spirit, but its main use is to recycle whatever cards you need most. Usually, I end up using it to trade a land or two for countermagic, but its there when you need that Dismantling Blow or Wrath of God badly. Last Breath - This card has made all the difference in some matchups. It kills an Elf or Bird, slowing Fires down (or a River Boa if they play 'em). It takes out an opposing Nether Spirit, a card U/W generally has a lot of trouble against. It kills Meddling Mage that might be protecting his Rebel buddies from Wrath of God. It takes out Lin Sivvi or Ramosian Sergeant that sneaked past the counterspells. When all else fails, it buys you an extra turn as you remove your own Nether Spirit from the game to gain four life. Tsabo's Web - Rishadan Port and Dust Bowl are effective weapons against this deck. Tsabo's Web also allows us to "cheat" on land a little, running a lower land count thanks to a triple of 2 casting cost cantrips. If an opponent does not have Ports, nor Disenchant targets - the Web is a perfect combo with a kicked Dismantling Blow. GAME 1 MATCHUPS Anyone claiming a certain win % between the two decks usually either means "for game 1" or is grossly inaccurate. Result of a matchup is heavily dependent on how much sideboard space you are willing to dedicate. Even the worst matchup can be turned around if you end up bringing in ten different cards from your sideboard. Here I am going to discuss how the deck performs against some of the most popular archetypes before sideboarding. Fires - The main reason to play Blue-White deck is that it beats Fires consistently. When played correctly, you are likely to win about 70% of your games. Bribery is particularly effective as Fires does not have many ways to deal with its own large monsters. CounterRebel - This matchup is tricky. Initially I expected to go almost-even here, winning about 40% on the games. I played four test games (this matchup takes a WHILE to finish a game) and won all of them. More testing is needed for this matchup, but my estimate has gone up to at least a 50-50 matchup or better at this point. Your chances improve further against mono-white or white-green versions of Rebels. Blue Skies - Facing Skies is an auto-loss game one. Wrath of God is a lot less effective since the Skies deck can often win a counter war over it when it wants to (Thwarts and Foils mean it can cast all of its counter magic on the same turn, whereas most decks are limited by the amount of untapped mana they control). This matchup can be improved after sideboarding, but it does not look very good overall. Nether-Go - Last Breath swings the matchup slightly in your favor, but it is VERY close and will often come down to who plays better. NetherHaups - This is very tricky. Unless you play exceptionally well, Haups has an advantage here. However, you can pull out a win. Last Breath takes out their Nether Spirits. Be sure never to tap out with your own Spirit in play - you will need it to go all the way in this matchup, so protect it from Scorching Lava with kicker. Hang on to some land so that you can recover from Obliterate quickly (you can easily counter Jokulhaups) and try to keep them in a position where they cannot win via double Urza's Rage (your Absorbs help a lot here). Rogue - U/W performs very well vs. various rogue decks such as Ponza, G/W, or B/R. A combination of powerful global removal, countermagic and card advantage is usually enough to defeat these archetypes. SIDEBOARD Build your sideboard based on the archetypes you expect to face the most. Here is a run down on some of the most effective sideboard cards. Gainsay - Excellent against any deck with plenty of blue spells, but not as versatile as Rootwater Thief. Last Breath (4th): Add a fourth copy of this card as needed Mageta, the Lion - A key sideboard card against Rebel decks, also effective against Skies and G/W - any deck that does not have a lot of direct ways to kill creatures. Millstone - An alternative win condition, effective against other control deck as well as NetherHaups. Rootwater Thief - Handy against NetherHaups, U/W or U/B control, and Blue Skies. Story Circle - Skies and other creature-based decks, as well as mono-red burn variant with Rogue Kavu and Skizzik. Teferi's Response - An excellent answer to Ponza, or any other deck with more than just Ports to meddle with your land. I will try to come up with another article in a few days. Until then, be sure to check out Brian Kibler's recent article about the Ponza strategy posted here on The Sideboard. Ponza is certainly one of the archetypes that are viable for Regionals, and he covered the subject well. E-mail comments or suggestions to ashv@concentric.net.