1. Hey, love UW Control, and this list looks awesome. How important were the 3 Ratchet Bombs main, and did you ever miss Sphinx’s Rev? My gut tells me I want a 4th Rev over the 3rd Bomb, but your guts the one that top 32′d.

    Thoughts?

  2. The bombs turned out to be very important. You don’t want 4 because they war with each other if you have to blow them on 2. Revelation just isn’t the kind of card you want 4x. It’s a late-game card, and you already have 2 Elspeth 1 Aetherling, for a total of 6 late-game cards.

    Oh, and I just won ANOTHER Hydra Challenge :) This time, I used the Harvester and Slayer Avatars, but the same 75 cards. For vanguard, I would add the 4th Ratchet Bomb and cut a Dissolve. This is because aggressive strategies are more prevalent in that format, and scrying isn’t as good when you are looting.

  3. Thanks for doing this piece. Read it with great interest since I’ve been tinkering with Azorius myself for the past couple of weeks. I’ve since tried working in some of the card choices you’ve made and I have to say I’m really happy with 4x Dissolve 4x Essence Scatter. To think that I had multiple version without the latter anywhere near the 75 is mindblowing to me now.

    The only card I’m on the fence about is Ratchet Bomb. Currently I’m trying it as a 2-of in the maindeck and it’s been decent if I have it in the opener, but misserable if drawn late. No other card in the deck (aside from maybe the lands) are bad when drawn late.

    Regarding your sideboard plans I find it’s often very nice to have access to at least a couple of Azorius Charms in pretty much every matchup due to the flexibility it provides in the various precarious situations that could arise during a match. If nothing else it’s never a dead card and does serve to make you less predictable.

    The last point I’d like to make is that Friendslayer Paladin doesn’t really do enough against the decks where you need help (Mono Red). I’d much rather have a card like Tablet of the Guilds if I just want some pure lifegain or a Precinct Captain for a resilient guy that puts a bump in their path.

  4. You could be right about ratchet bomb. It’s at its best against the RG deck and mono U, but it isn’t always useful. As my article says, they were the last cards added. It’s hard to think of a better card for that slot though. You could be right about Azorius Charms. They are terrible in control matchups and against Mistcutter Hydra, but could still be good against midrange decks. But then what would you take out instead of Charms against Mono Black or Mono Blue?

    I’ve had a lot of success with Fiendslayer. The fact that they can’t burn it to death is huge, as is the lifelink. Tablet of the Guilds doesn’t seem good to me. Precinct Captain is a good card, but wouldn’t you rather pay 1 more for it to be lifelink and untargetable by red decks?

  5. I’ve been trying a lot of things in the Ratchet Bomb slot, including maindecking 1-2 Negates, and so far that’s actually been my preference. As I said though I’m giving it a try and it does fill an unique role you don’t get from any other card really. In place of the 3rd I have a single Divination which has been very good for me. Maindecking negate is only really bad against Mono Blue and really good versus a lot o decks so I think it’s worth considering.

    Fiendslayer Paladin costing 3 is a huge downside in my opinion. On 3 I would either really wanna be able to play a tapped land and react to an opposing spell or play a Detention Sphere on a Chandra’s Phoenix. Precinct Captain is something they’re pretty much forced to deal with if you put him down turn 2, and unless they have Shock they’re going to waste a lot of momentum doing so. The only guy the have that can sort of attack into it in the early turns is Ash Zealot, and if they do we’ll be able to attack back and produce perpetual chump blockers. That being said I don’t currently have them in my sideboard but mostly because Mono Red is already reasonably easy to deal with. The biggest concern is when they have an overweight of burn spells to creatures and you get stuck with a bunch of useless creature removal in hand.

    Tablet of the Guilds is a bad card when you look at it. On the other hand though it adds “+ Gain 1.5 life” to all your spells which will help a lot incrementally crawling out of Skullcrack range.

    But as I said, if Mono Red were a bigger thing online I would definitely go for the Captain. As it is now I’m just packing a pair of Jace MAs for the slow matches and matches where you need a quick wincondition because you can’t interact with theirs (e.g. Maze’s End which occasionally pops up).

  6. Thank you for the great article. What makes this article great is that all information in it is so exceptionally valid. To elaborate, I took your list to a small cash tournament without playing a single game with the deck beforehand. Split in the finals and cashed out. Deck is amazing. Esper is truly an underdog. Monoblack is favourable, almost easy, Monoblue is easy, Mutavolts are amazing and I think it is a big mistake not to play all four as a lot of lists I’ve seen do, Essence Scatter I will never leave home without in my life, in effect, everything you said came true.

    Changes I made:
    Maindeck:
    -1 Rachet Bomb
    -3 Island
    +1 Synocpate
    +3 Steam Vents

    Sideboard:
    -3 Fiendslayare Palladin
    +1 Rachet Bomb
    +2 Wear//Tear

    One loss in the tournament I took from GR Planeswalkers – Rampager and then proceeded to split in the finals with the same deck, and this is the deck I didn’t like the matchup against more on that in the minute.

    One draw from the tournament came against Maze End. Amazingly so, since after losing handily game one I managed to play turn one Mutavolt second game that started attacking on the second turn and put him down to zero turn before I would lose. Geme 3 went into time and ended a draw.

    Wins included 2 Esper, 1 MonoB, 1 MonoU, 1 Boros, all straight 2-0 victories.

    Ideas behind the changes: One Ratchet Bomb moved to the side as it seemed 2 might be enough – since the Hydra problem comes from the sideboard, the red splash is a questionable idea for the Tear part, to be able to catch a troublesome artifact sometimes (Pithing Needle or a weapon) while at the same time having 2 additional answers to Underworld Connections, and having the ability to destroy Detention Spheres in control matchups that might snag up a win condition. Never drew the card nor used it so I can’t say anything about the validity of that idea.

    GR Planeswalkers – Rampager problem:
    Turn 2 Domri, Turn 3 Xanagos, that’s the problem. While later, four pro white haste dragons to close the deal if you manage to get out of the first problem.

    Maze End problem: You need a Needle or its almost an auto-loss.

    Changes I would make in the future: In the main +1 Needle +2 Celestial Flare instead of the Bombs, move them to sideboard, 2 of them and add 1 Needle to the side.

    Ratchet Bomb is great against Hydras, but can’t answer the dragon. Celestial Flare answers both, if you manage to wrath the board beforehand and that is usual since those are both usually post wrath plays. I don’t like it and it would necessitate more white sources in the deck but I think it might be a necessary evil.

    Thanx for the great deck!

  7. you talk about not wanting needles bc of main deck ratchet bombs. in the matches that you want needles you are never going to pop ratchet bomb on one. vs rg devotion (the heaviest walker list in standard) you just needle Garruk and detention sphere should be able to handle Domri for the most part. yes, negate is awesome, but you can easily shave a gainsay and a negate for 2 needles. this is coming from someone who hates Pithing Needle as a board card a lot. i just feel it’s a necessary evil vs the rg mu which can get tough. one Garruk activation is too many.

  8. In the RG matchup you worry about Mistcutter Hydra, especially postboard. Ratchet bomb on 1 is one of your answers to Mistcutter. However, you don’t want to do this if you have a Needle out.

  9. how do you feel about omenspeakers? I run a UW control that did pretty well at FMN (3-2 lost to BR aggro both times due to slaughter games and thoughseize)