New Phyrexia from the heart of a control player - Guest post by Nick Ares ( @cabooselol on Twitter)

Hello fellow rogues!  To start, I'd just like to quickly introduce myself: my name is Nick Ares (@Cabooselol on twitter) and I have been playing Magic: The Gathering since Shards of Alara block.  I am a blue mage at heart and have played some form of control in every format in which it has been viable.

As I'm sure most of you are aware, New Phyrexia has been fully spoiled.  As a control player, I will be taking a look at some of the cards I feel offer the most to the archetype, with an eye towards updating UB Control (the deck I've been playing the most these past few months) for the PTQ season to come.  As such, I will be focusing on standard and the impact New Phyrexia will have on the metagame.  I will also be sharing a couple of decklist ideas towards the end of this article.

With that out of the way, let's get started!  Spoiler alert: there be spoilers ahead!

These are the cards I'll be keeping an eye on in the coming months:

Despise is the latest addition to black hand disruption, and it couldn't have come at a better time.  Standard right now is dominated by creatures and planeswalkers.  This card pairs nicely alongside Inquisition of Kozilek to allow upwards of eight ways to strip your Cawblade opponent of Hawks and Mystics, with the added option of nabbing Jace/Gideon.  Despise will likely take Duress' spot as disruption cards 5-8.

In case this is your first glimpse into New Phyrexia, {pb} stands for black Phyrexian mana.  Phyrexian mana shows up in all five colors, and can be paid for with either a mana of the corresponding color or with 2 life.  As such, Dismember is not only a super Disfigure that can be cast as early as turn 1, but can also be played in a deck devoid of swamps.  I fully expect Dismember to show up in a variety of decks, its inability to deal with titans notwithstanding.

While I don't expect Geth's Verdict to be played over Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, or Dismember, it's important to keep in mind as a way to deal with Mirran Crusaders and creatures equipped with Sword of Feast and Famine.  It's probably sideboard material only, and limited at that, but having the option is nice.

Black Sun's Zenith is likely just better, but having more options is never a bad thing.  Life's Finale also does a great job of impersonating Memoricide, with the added bonus of affecting the board.

Casting a first turn Despise/Inquisition of Kozilek and following it up with this free Extirpate is obviously the dream, but won't happen often enough to warrent maindeck inclusion.  Still, Surgical Extraction pairs nicely with Memoricide and Life's Finale as yet another way to cripple Valakut players.  Keep in mind this can target nonbasic lands as well.

In Standard, Mental Misstep is likely too narrow to see maindeck inclusion, but is a card to keep in mind as a counter to opposing Despises/Inquisitions while on the draw.

This card is a nice way to handle problematic planeswalkers that have managed to sneak past your disruption and counter magic.  The fact that Hex Parasite has a converted mana cost of 1 makes me believe we might see a resurgence of UB Control builds that contain Trinket Mage packages.  As I haven't had much experience playing those versions of UB, neither of the lists I'm sharing today incorporate any such shenanigans.

A 0/4 wall is already a good deal for 2.  The ability to protect your Precursor Golems and titans from targeted removal is gravy.  Spellskite also does an excellent job of making your planeswalkers immune to Beast Within.

Speaking of Beast Within, is this card crazy or what?  Vindicate at instant speed is ridiculous.  The downside isn't irrelevent, but UB should have a simple enough time managing it.  Seeing as UB Control has very few ways of dealing with resolved artifacts (such as Sword of Feast and Famine), I've been tempted to try and splash a third color.  That color has, up until recently, been white.  Fortunately, green is easier to accomodate.  Most UB Control builds already run a few Misty Rainforests and Verdant Catacombs as library shuffling effects.  Simply increasing the number of these fetchlands and adding a forest or two should be more than sufficient for 3-4 Beast Withins.

With these cards in mind, I present a couple of decklists.  The first is straight UB Control.  This list is basically just an updated version of the lists that recently did well at GP Barcelona:

UB Control

4 Creeping Tar Pit

4 Darkslick Shores

4 Drowned Catacomb

4 Island

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Mystifying Maze

3 Swamp

4 Tectonic Edge

1 Verdant Catacombs

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26 lands

3 Grave Titan

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3 creatures

1 Black Sun's Zenith

3 Despise

2 Doom Blade

2 Go for the Throat

4 Inquisition of Kozilek

2 Into the Roil

1 Jace Beleren

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Mana Leak

4 Preordain

2 Stoic Rebuttal

2 Tumble Magnet

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31 other spells

Sideboard

1 Black Sun's Zenith

3 Disfigure

2 Dismember

2 Flashfreeze

2 Memoricide

2 Precursor Golem

2 Surgical Extraction

1 Volition Reins

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15 sideboard cards

Admittedly, there isn't much innovation going on in this list.  This is merely the safest transition for the deck from pre- to post-New Phyrexia.  The only change to the maindeck, other than tweaking the numbers of the various removal available, was to replace Duress with Despise.  The sideboard is also fairly similar to what UB sideboards look like now, with the small addition of a couple Dismembers and Surgical Extractions.  The Dismembers are primarily to swap in for the Go for the Throats in matchups against opposing Precursor Golems.  The Extractions are obviously for the Valakut matchup, but also as a precaution against the Pyromancer Ascension/Splinter Twin/Deceiver Exarch combo deck that has been talked about recently, should that deck take off.

Regardless of the fact that I would feel safest sleeving this version of UB up for a PTQ, it isn't very interesting to talk about.  This second list is where the sexiness comes in.  It splashes green for a few Beast Withins as flexible ways to deal with problematic permanents.  The green can also open up some interesting sideboard options, of which this list fails to take advantage of:

UBg Control

4 Creeping Tar Pit

4 Darkslick Shores

4 Drowned Catacomb

1 Forest

4 Island

3 Misty Rainforest

3 Swamp

3 Verdant Catacombs

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26 lands

2 Grave Titan

3 Precursor Golem

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5 creatures

1 Black Sun's Zenith

2 Despise

2 Doom Blade

2 Go for the Throat

4 Inquisition of Kozilek

1 Into the Roil

3 Beast Within

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

3 Mana Leak

4 Preordain

2 Stoic Rebuttal

1 Twisted Image

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29 other spells

Sideboard

1 Black Sun's Zenith

3 Disfigure

2 Flashfreeze

1 Grave Titan

3 Memoricide

3 Spreading Seas

2 Wall of Tanglecord

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15 sideboard cards

The maindeck Precursor Golems were inspired by a UB Control list posted in a recent article by Nick Spagnolo, essentially making the deck pre-boarded against Cawblade.  Since the green splash makes it harder for us to also run Tectonic Edge (therefore weakening our Valakut matchup), I figured it was appropriate to be as strong as possible against the most popular deck in the field (Cawblade).  As is starting to become the norm with Precursor Golem, this list also sports the 1-of Twisted Image for the Ancestral Recall-esque blowout.  I've personally had the fortunate opportunity to cast a Twisted Image on a golem when both myself and my opponent had Precursors out, drawing a fresh hand EOT.  I won that game, in case you were wondering.

The sideboard contains an increased number of Memoricides, in case we happen to come across a Valakut player.  It also offers a few Spreading Seas to make up for our lack of Tectonic Edges.  Beast Within is decent in this matchup, as we can Stone Rain their Molten Pinnacles in response to a Primeval Titan trigger, or just straight up kill the titan before it attacks.

The Wall of Tanglecords were Nick's idea for the red matchup.  Simply side out the Golems for the third Grave Titan and walls.  Our splash also allows us to jump our Tanglecords to the air, should the need arise.  It's possible it may be correct to bring the Wall of Tanglecords in against Cawblade when we're on the draw, as a way to repeatably block a Squadron Hawk equipped with a sword that has slipped under our hand disruption and counter magic.

These decklists are just two directions UB Control could take (it's quite possible a Trinket Mage version is better).  Other control decks to look into are of course Cawblade (the deck arguably gets better with New Phyrexia) and the UR Pyro-Twin combo control deck mentioned in Patrick Chapin's latest article (my good buddies @RogueInsight and @GRat9717 also briefly talk about it during the New Phyrexia Review Podcast on this very site!).

I'm really excited for the release of New Phyrexia and can't wait to see what it does to the standard format in the months to come.  Thanks for reading!