Caw Blade

Alex Stephenson
Thursday, January 5, 2012 - 18:15

I’ve always been an aggro player, but losing to Caw-blade so much last season motivated me to start playing control this season. When Snapcaster Mage was spoiled I totally jumped on his hype bandwagon. Thankfully, he was not overhyped and is actually as good as he was anticipated to be. My list is a U/B Blade list, and has met with a good amount of success at FNM. Here is the list:

Creatures: x10
4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Consecrated Sphinx
2x Spellskite
1x Grave Titan

Sorcery: x2
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Black Sun’s Zenith

Instants: x17
4x Mana Leak
3x Doom Blade
3x Think Twice
3x Forbidden Alchemy
2x Sorin’s Thirst
2x Dissipate

Planeswalkers: x3
3x Liliana of the Veil

Artifacts: x2
2x Sword of Feast and Famine

Lands: x26
8x Swamp
7x Island
4x Darkslick Shores
4x Drowned Catacomb
3x Inkmoth Nexus

Sideboard:
4x Flashfreeze
2x Silent Departure
2x Phantasmal Image
2x Sorin’s Thirst
2x Steel Sabotage
1x Sever the Bloodline
1x Doom Blade
1x Surgical Extraction
If you’ve seen some of the U/B control lists popping up this season, you’ll see that the lists are very similar to this. There are some differences though. Firstly, there’s a lack of Nephalia Drownyards in this list. They had to be substituted with the Inkmoths for the insane Sword of Feast and Famine plus Inkmoth Nexus synergy. Those two cards together are still powerful and incredibly controlling. Another odd maindeck choice you might have noticed are the two Spellskites. They are very versatile and serve many purposes ranging from early blocker and Shrine of Burning Rage negator to the more obvious keeping Kessig Wolf Run in check, to the less obvious Sword of Feast and Famine equip target, also known as Spellskite beats. It blocks bears; it sucks up Volt Charges and Gut Shots. It’s just good. Sorin’s Thirst is the next difference from most other U/B control lists I’ve seen. I’ve been running Sorin’s Thirst for months, and it’s great. The deck has a very favorable match against aggro, and Sorin’s Thirst is a significant part of that.
Next I’ll talk about my opinion of new Liliana. When Solar Flare was the first deck people got overly excited about, she skyrocketed to an absurd price that greatly overvalues her power level. Liliana is complex in that she is a lot of times a planeswalker you shouldn’t use every turn. If Liliana is on the battlefield and I have a hand of three playable cards and my opponent has a hand of five, I’m certainly not motivated to make her loyalty one higher and ditch a potentially useful card. I guess what I’m trying to say is, don’t feel like you have to build towards Liliana’s ultimate every turn. Her purpose in this deck is mostly as an untargeted removal spell for otherwise tough creatures to beat like Mirran Crusader and Thrun, and then a bit of a damage buffer zone against opponent’s creatures that attack her.
Finally, I should discuss some of my sideboard choices. Steel Sabotage initially was a card I was hesitant about because it seemed a bit too narrow. However, being able to bounce a sword, then Snapcaster and counter the sword when they recast it all for four mana is a legitimate out to artifacts for a U/B deck. Phantasmal Images are very hot right now. Being a two mana kill spell for Thrun, Olivia, and Geist of Saint Traft makes the card a pretty phenomenal sideboard option for the current tournament meta. Additionally, having the benefit of cloning your opponent’s Lord of the Unreal and getting a 3/3 hexproof out of the deal is superb in that match. Silent Departure is the new experiment for the deck. It’s inherently good against illusion creatures, and also is good at delaying an early Mirran Crusader. Have an opponent that resolves a Blade Splicer? No problem, bounce the token.
Kessig Wolf Run is a tough match, but I’m constantly working to make it closer to equal. The deck has consistent good results against aggro and if that’s a significant percentage of your meta, then this is a list I encourage you to try. Please feel free to email me at alex@seemsgoodmagic.com if you have any deck suggestions or comments and criticisms. Thanks all!