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I'm Sorry, But You Can't Do That (Azorius Control)

Modern* Combo Competitive Control Cruel Control WU (Azorius)

PlaneswalkerAngvard


Sideboard


Azorius control deck with Dragonlord Ojutai, Celestial Colonnade, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and Jace, Architect of Thought as win cons.

We only run 4 creatures, 2 Vendilion Cliques with the purpose of tucking bad stuff away (and maybe a little beat down if necessary), and 2 Dragonlord Ojutais for the win.

Of course it wouldn't be control without counterspells. Spell Snare is super situational but so useful early game. Remand stalls for time and gives card advantage. Mana Leak is an excellent early game counter, Negate works against any non creature-reliant decks (and is a nice hard counter against planeswalkers), while Logic Knot is a nice late game counter to get rid of whatever is building up in your graveyard (and can pretty much act as a Counterspell by the time you should be playing it). Detention Sphere clears tokens en masse and gets whatever manages to get through your counters, while Path to Exile gets rid of creatures. Finally, Shadow of Doubt slows down people with fetches, and also shuts down a lot of tron's plays, which is great because tron seems to be filling up the meta these days.

In terms of the other spells, Call the Gatewatch fetches whatever planeswalker you need (essentially giving you three of each in terms of draw odds) while Supreme Verdict is a nice uncounterable boardwipe. Serum Visions gives scry and card draw and is pretty darn useful.

Planeswalkers are you primary win cons, so don't put them down until you absolutely need to or you can protect them thoroughly. Jace, Architect of Thought helps against token/aggro decks and adds anticipate abilities, and his ult lets you steal their best card and put out something of your own. Narset Transcendent's primary function is to sculpt your hand and build card advantage, whether through her +1 (which is especially powerful with only 2 creatures), or her -2 combined with Serum Visions. Elspeth, Sun's Champion, well, she needs no explanation. She's just victory in a bottle.

Ghost Quarter is your answer to manlands and any Cavern of Souls shenanigans.

Sideboard-wise, Leyline of Sanctity counters burn, mill, and discard (with three in there, just mulligan until you get it turn zero and then protect it with counterspells). Stony Silence counters affinity, and to some extent, tron as well (see: Expedition Map. Geist of Saint Traft adds some beatdown if it's needed. Timely Reinforcements is also a lovely card to stall against aggro, by giving you more life and three blockers. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is the super control counter by ruining their ability to cast instants.

I'm in a win con search right now (I feel a little fragile with only 2 planeswalkers and 2 manlands), so if you've got an suggestions hit me up. Also, I'm always looking for any better counterspells out there, so suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Thanks in advance for the comments/suggestions and upvotes!

P.S.: Call the Gatewatch is modern-legal, as on Wizards card gatherer it says so. Ignore the "Modern Illegal" tag on TappedOut.

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Updates Add

After playing with this deck in several tournaments, I found it somewhat clunky and a little too reliant on getting the Venser, the Sojourner combo out to make things work. Also, if threats hit the board, I found I was toast pretty quickly, so I had to have great hands or I'd get in trouble pretty quick. Finally, I ran into trouble against decks with lots of counters for my stuff (like BloodMoon since I run only a few basics, enchantment removal for my Detention Spheres, lots of creatures that will eventually break through counterspells, Lightning Bolt/damage spell overload that also breaks through counterspells, etc.).

So, I made the deck more control-oriented by adding Logic Knot (for late game countering with delve, which essentially turns it into a Counterspell), removing Cryptic Command (just too much mana for a counter, leaves you with few options mana-wise if they had more spells to cast that turn) and upping the total counterspell count (including Negate, Mana Leak, Spell Snare, Remand) to 16 to prevent threats from hitting the board. Path to Exile was moved to main board from the sideboard for more removal alongside already-present Detention Sphere (which reduced in number because of all the enchantment removal). Finally for instants, Shadow of Doubt was added to hurt fetches and tron (more on tron hate later). I also added the planeswalkers Narset Transcendent for more card draw and rebound abilities (plus spell limiting) (since I am now only running 4 creatures), as well as Elspeth, Sun's Champion as a win con.

To make room for the new cards, I reduced all planeswalker numbers to 1 of each type (from 2 each). I dropped AEtherling) and Venser, the Sojourner because they are just too slow and don't stabilize my board state for high drops. Also dropped was Retreat to Coralhelm because it didn't really do much, and I removed the Venser, the Sojourner combo, which made it even worse.

My sideboard got some heavy changes based on the local meta. I'm seeing a lot of tron so in addition to the Shadow of Doubt mainboard, I added Stony Silence to hit Expedition Map (and affinity). I also see a lot of aggro, so I added Timely Reinforcements for some healing and stalling blockers and Leyline of Sanctity to protect against Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, RDW, mill, and discard. Geist of Saint Traft should allow me to up my kill speed if necessary by moving a little more midrange, and Crucible of Worlds allows super use of Ghost Quarter (which can be combined with a reboundable Shadow of Doubt thanks to Narset Transcendent to block their land search).

Finally, I dropped both Reliquary Towers and both Radiant Fountains for four Ghost Quarters for land kill after some bad experiences against manlands (which can't be countered and tended to break through my blockers).

I will be playtesting some more the next few weeks and see how it goes. Since the meta is shifting I will probably have to make some adjustments once the pro-tour starts giving us all sorts of good decks.

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Date added 8 years
Last updated 4 years
Exclude colors BRG
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

15 - 5 Mythic Rares

15 - 7 Rares

16 - 3 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.39
Tokens Angel 4/4 W, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Narset Transcendent, Soldier 1/1 W
Folders MLG, Cool Stuff, Awesome decks, Blue Shenanigans, Prospective Decks, twin
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