Hello everyone!
While I am working on some bigger articles I would like to share with you my “money making machine”. I have been playing Magic Online since June 2009 and still fight to get all the cards together to compete in Standard and Extended. I borrowed a deck from a friend and decided to go for Block Constructed. This has been my “money maker” ever since.
Standard is about to suffer from rotation when Zendicar comes out in October, so if you don’t have many cards yet in your account, I recommend you to play only block constructed. That way you can start buying cards that will be playable in the next Standard Format without investing in cards from Lorwyn block and Shadowmoor block that will leave Standard soon.
Let’s have a look at the deck that earns me prizes and “tix” online:
Cruel Control
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This was originally a decklist from Pro Tour Honolulu played by Zac Hill. I updated the deck changing the maindeck Obelisk of Alara to Broodmate Dragon and playing Path to Exile instead of Qasali Pridemage and Identity Crisis instead of Scepter of Fugue.
Path to Exile provides a good solution against Thornling, that’s been shinning in Green/White and Bant Decks.
Identity Crisis is simply better than Scepter of Fugue against the mirror match and other control decks.
Obelisk of Alara is just too slow for the format, so I’ve been trying Broodmate Dragon which worked very well.
A few notes on my sideboard strategies against the most popular archetypes:
Green/White and Bant Aggro decks:
+ 2 Path to Exile
+1 Ajani Vengeat
-1 Cruel Ultimatum
-1 Wall of Denial
It might sound strange but Cruel Ultimatum is harder to cast when playing against those matchups. Most of the times you will find that Exotic Orchard only provides UWG mana and you have a harder time casting the it.
In theory Wall of Denial is good against fast decks, but sometimes when Rafiq, the Many or a Finest Hour or even a Thornling appears on the other side you just don’t want to draw multiple Wall of Denial’s, because they will only serve as a chumpblocker which is obviously bad.
Jund Cascade / Blightning:
+4 Celestial Purge
+4 Blightning
-4 Maelstrom Pulse
-2 Caldera Hellion
-1 Cruel Ultimatum
-1 Ajani Vengeant
In this matchup, if you manage to hit some Blightning’s both players will be playing from the top of the deck, and your draws will be always better than theirs. Cruel Ultimatum should be discarded when Blightning hits you early in the game. Your opponent will probably sideboard in Thought Hemorrage, so it’s a good idea to side out one of the Ultimatums. Caldera Hellion doesn’t make too much in this matchup, playing a Hellion with Sprouting Thrinax and Putrid Leech on the other side of the table doesn’t sound very good.
Mirror Match and other Control Decks
+4 Blightning
+1 Identity Crisis
+3 Deny Reality
+1 Ajani Vengeant
-4 Wall of Denial
-2 Caldera Hellion
-3 Maelstrom Pulse
Simple strategy in these matchups. Blightning and Identity Crisis for card advantage and Deny Reality to slow down you opponent’s mana base so that he doesn’t even get the chance to cast Cruel Ultimatum.
Esper Aggro deck:
+2 Path to Exile
+2 Celestial Purge
-1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
-2 Ajani Vengeant
This is a very tough matchup. Thopter Foundry is very strong against both of the Planeswalkers. All you can do is trying to stay alive and get a Caldera Hellion. If you do, then you are in better shape to win that game. If you want you can change the sideboard a bit, and play some extra Infests. They’re good also against creatures with Protection from Red/Black.
Maybe you want to give the deck a try – it worked well for me. Till soon,
Paulo Carvalho
