UB Control With 0 Liliana Wins First Standard Grand Prix Post-Innistrad

October 18, 2011 | Posted by Dee

Grand Prix Brisbane was a great example of well-executed metagame strategy. The previous big Standard tournament was the StarCityGames Standard Open in Nashville, which was won by Wolf Run Ramp. But the RG Ramp deck was not the only deck that gained more recognition. Solar Flare got second place and there were seven copies in the top 16.

To have a good chance of winning the first Standard Grand Prix post-Innistrad, you definitely had to have solid matchups against those two decks. Those two decks made up a big part of the day two metagame.

Jeremy Neeman was able to win the tournament with an innovative Blue/Black Control deck that had 0 Liliana of the Veil. It played a ton of counterspells and four Snapcaster Mage to give it a solid matchup against Wolf Run Ramp and Solar Flare.

It also played Nephalia Drownyard. Between the main deck and sideboard, the deck played a full set of this underrated Innistrad land to mill decks with a low number of threats like Wolf Run Ramp and Solar Flare. Check out the list.

UB Control

Creatures (9)

Spells (24)

Lands (27)

Sideboard (15)

The deck doesn’t play Liliana because she’s not that great against Wolf Run Ramp. That deck has Viridian Emissary to sacrifice to Liliana and Inkmoth Nexus to kill her when she goes down to one loyalty. Also, Liliana is not that good versus Solar Flare because they have Oblivion Ring, their own Lilianas, Snapcaster Mage, and flashback cards including Unburial Rites.

Instead, this deck has 24 sorceries and instants that either kill creatures, counter spells, or draw cards. Plus, you’ve got four Snapcaster Mages to rebuy those 24 spells. So basically you kill and counter everything. Try to save the counterspells for non-creatures like planeswalkers. When you have spare mana, draw cards with Think Twice and Forbidden Alchemy to find more counterspells and creature removal.

Once the coast is clear, you then resolve a six drop and ride it to victory. If they deal with your big creature, you can play another one or just mill them out with Nephalia Drownyard.

It’s a pretty simple game plan, but it’s very good against slow control decks or ramp decks with a low number of threats. The main deck has a whopping nine counterspells, so you can keep key cards from ever reaching the battlefield. For example, against Wolf Run Ramp, you definitely want to counter Primeval Titan, Green Sun’s Zenith for seven, and Garruk, Primal Hunter. If your opponent is unable to resolve those cards, you have a very good shot of winning.

Against Solar Flare, you want to counter the six drops, Liliana of the Veil, and Unburial Rites. Dissipate helps a lot in this matchup because it keeps their creatures from being reanimated and it stops the flashback of Unburial Rites.

Nephalia Drownyard is an interesting card that gives you the advantage in the late game. You can mill copies of their most important cards. This makes your counterspells more effective since you won’t need to counter all the Primeval Titans if you mill one or more copies.

The deck is also solid against creatures decks since it plays eight removal spells, Snapcaster Mage to rebuy them, and a bunch of card draw to find them.

The sideboard is built very well with strong cards for popular decks. Black Sun’s Zenith and Ratchet Bomb are good against token decks like Township Tokens. Spellskite helps in the Red Deck Wins matchup especially to keep Shrine of Burning Rage from killing you. There’s an extra Wring Flesh to fight small creature decks and slow down decks that rely on Birds of Paradise and other cheap mana creatures (like Bant Pod).

The control package is pretty sweet. First, you bring in more lands that also act as win conditions. Control matchups are often decided by who has the mana advantage. Next, you bring in an extra counterspell to help you win counterspell wars. Then, you bring in Nihil Spellbomb to help you win the Snapcaster Mage war.

The three Phantasmal Image are excellent against Geist of Saint Traft and Thrun, the Last Troll. (Because of this cheap clone card, I like cutting Thrun in Wolf Run Ramp and playing Surgical Extraction and Autumn’s Veil instead.)

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