Wafo-Tapa UW Sun Titan Control
August 18, 2010 | Posted by Dee
Guillaume Wafo-Tapa’s top eight UW Control Deck from French Nationals has become one of the top Standard decks post Magic 2011. Different versions of it have been doing well on Magic Online, Magic-League, and probably countless FNMs all over the world.
In this premium article, Hall of Famer Antoine Ruel thought the deck was probably the best in French Nationals. In the tournament, Wafo-Tapa went 6-0-1 in the swiss Standard rounds and won his quarterfinals match. He had a chance to become the National Champion but he scooped the next two matches (the last match was to determine 3rd and 4th place). His friend, Erwann Maisonneuve went 7-0 with the same list to finish in the Top 16. Also, he won an LCQ (Last Chance Qualifier) with it the day before the tournament.
| UW Sun Titan Control | |||||||||||
Creatures (6) Spells (28) | Lands (26)
Sideboard (15) |
| |||||||||
Building a Strong Deck With New Cards
This decklist offers good lessons on how to build a strong deck with cards from the new set. Wafo-Tapa found some great additions in M11 and combined them with synergistic older cards to create a new tier one deck.
First, he included 4 Mana Leak. This is obviously an easy addition to make, but Wafo-Tapa went further by adding five other counterspells. Even without Mana Leak, five counterspells main deck is more than the typical UW Control Deck pre-M11. But Wafo-Tapa realized that having Mana Leak gives you a much better early game, which makes the other counterspells better. Also, counterspells are great against Titans. If you have removal for a Titan, your opponent still gets some value, but counterspells keep their triggered abilities from happening.
Second, with a higher number of counterspells, he replaced Mind Spring with Jace’s Ingenuity. The instant speed card drawer gives you the option to counter or draw cards which makes it better than Mind Spring. Mind Spring may draw more cards but the deck has a lot of card draw already with 3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor and 3 Jace Beleren.
Third, he saw that Sun Titan is great with Tectonic Edge, Jace Beleren, Wall of Omens, and even Oblivion Ring (when Jund players Pulse it). When combined with those cards, Sun Titan is solid against both control and and aggro. Therefore, he cut Baneslayer Angel, which is mediocre against control, and upped the number of Jace Beleren.
Fourth, he added a couple Condemns because the card is great against Vengevine and manlands. You still want Path to Exile against cards like Fauna Shaman, Knight of the Reliquary, and Titans but Condemn gives the deck more defensive variety.
Finally, Gather Specimens in the sideboard may not be an M11 card, but it does show Wafo-Tapa’s creativity in finding previously unused cards to combat the new cards. As you can imagine, Gather Specimens is awesome against Titans 
My Results
I’ve personally experienced the power of the deck. I’ve gone 7-2-2 with it in rated matches on Magic-League. I would’ve kept playing it but so many people started playing the deck too including a bunch of the top players. I don’t like mirror matches, so I switched to other decks. But I’m sure in most tournament settings like FNM, the deck is a solid choice.
Here is a breakdown of my matches:
UW Control 1-1 (went to time in game 3, I won the match on life totals)
UB Death’s Shadow Ad Naseuam 2-1
Jund 0-2
Jund 1-1 (he disrespected a judge in game 3 and got a game loss so I won the match)
Mono Black Vampires 2-1
Vengevine Naya 2-0
Mythic Conscription 2-1
Bant 2-0
UGR Destructive Force 2-1
UW Control 2-0
Mono Green Eldrazi Summoning Trap 0-2
I also did well in non-rated games. I went 11-4 in games. Here is a breakdown:
RB Megrim Liliana’s Caress 1-0
RB Megrim Liliana’s Caress 1-0
Mono Blue Big Creatures 0-1
GW Fauna Shaman 1-0
Mono White Lifegain 1-0
RDW 1-0
UW Control 0-1
Bant Midrange 2-0
RG Valakut 0-1
Naya Fauna 2-1
BR Landkill 2-0
Many people quit before the match was over so that’s why you see a lot of incomplete matches.
Even though the deck is powerful, like many control decks, it does take more skill than the average deck to play well. There are many choices to make. You will need to practice and review game situations to improve your skill and take full advantage of the deck. Otherwise, you could find yourself losing a lot of matches because of misplays.
If you have any questions about the deck, feel free to leave a comment.
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10 Responses to “Wafo-Tapa UW Sun Titan Control”
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What is your username on Magic-League?
how toy sb
??
you*
@ balthazar88
My username is usegoals. What’s yours?
@ procrastinator
Here are my general guidelines:
Kor Firewalker comes in against burn decks. Celestial Purge is good against burn, Pyromancer Ascension, and Jund.
O Ring comes in if you need to deal with planeswalkers and non-creatures.
Cancel is good against deck without a lot of threats.
Gather Specimens is there for Eldrazi monsters and non-blue Titan decks.
Bring in Jace’s Ingenuity and Negate against other blue control decks.
Negate comes in against decks without a lot of creatures.
Day of Judgment is good against decks with a lot of creatures like Naya, Bant, and tokens. I don’t like it against Jund though because they have Thrinax and manlands.
The typical cards you side out are:
* Wall of Omens against decks without a lot of small ground creatures
* Your creature removal is pretty bad against ramp and combo decks (I would leave Day of Judgment for Siege-Gang and Avenger)
* I would cut some Jaces against Bloodbraid Elf decks
If you want, you can try these principles out on different decks and then give your sideboard plans in the comments. I can then give feedback on your sideboard plans.
@Dee
Guess!
It’s Balthazar88.
@ balthazar88
Cool! Nice rating btw
Hi again, hope u r OK. Thks indeed x yr previous adviced: I’ve been doing better since then here in my country. This time I need yr help on the fllg: which cards should replace PEXILE , ORING and ELSPETH so that this UW CTTRL deck may continue being as strong as it is now. More control cards such as Essence Sctter, Cancel, for example? What about the new PLANESWALKERs could fit in the deck: the new Elspeth o Sojour?
As usual, thks in advance x yr help !
JG2015
@ JG2015
Sadly, Essence Scatter is rotating out too so this deck is pretty much nerfed.
If you want to play UW Control, I would go with something like this:
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
4 Plains
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Sejiri Refuge
4 Tectonic Edge
26 lands
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Sun Titan
4 Wall of Omens
8 creatures
2 Cancel
4 Condemn
3 Day of Judgment
3 Jace Beleren
3 Jace’s Ingenuity
3 Journey to Nowhere
4 Mana Leak
2 Negate
2 Spreading Seas
26 other spells
Sideboard
1 Flashfreeze
4 Celestial Purge
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace’s Ingenuity
1 Journey to Nowhere
2 Negate
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Spreading Seas
15 sideboard cards
I got the list from a recent premier event on Magic Online and just substituted cards for the ones leaving the format.
Here is the link. It got 2nd place.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/1604116
At my FNM last night I placed 1st overall with this kind of decklist but had to change it up do to the rotation…..here is my U/W CONTROL DECK that I used last night…… I played R/G Summoning Trap, U/B control, RDW with splashes of Scars and Black Vamp ending up with a record of 3-0-1 Tieing U/B control.
Decklist
5 Plains
5 Island
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Scalding Tarn
3 Tectonic Edge (I feel you only need 3 for Valakut+Man Land)
4 Sejiri Refuge
3 Glacial Fortress (Only have 3)
25 LANDS
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle (Go ahead try and target him AHAHA)
2 Sun Titan
4 Wall of Omen
8 Creatures
2 Dojo aka Day of Judgement
2 Condemn
2 Journey to Nowhere (great with Sun Titan)
4 Spreading Seas (also great with Titan)
4 Negate
4 Mana Leak
4 Cancel
2 Deprive (its ok but Im thinking about playing Stoic Rebuttal instead here)
3 Jace Beleran (Sun Titan Friend)
27 Spells
SIDEBOARD
4 Kor Firewalker (Reds best friend HAHA)
2 Dojo
4 Soul Perry
3 Celestial Purge
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Gideon Jura
I only ever had to dip into my sideboard 2x once against B/U cause he was playing Persecutor/Mind Sculptor combo sided in 3 Purge and Journey for 2 Condemn + 2 Dojo
Against Red I did the same although I had thought of Firewalker I declined cause the Purge’s were for the Plainswalkers just incase I couldnt counter them.
I like Mind Sculptor as well but dont own any and dont feel he is needed in my deck cause what if I play Jace B turn 3 or have a hand with more than 1 Jace my hand essentially becomes dead and Id have to use Mind Sculptors 0 ability to get rid of em.
@ Terry
Thanks for the mini report and decklist. Your deck looks solid and it shows that you don’t necessarily need Jace TMS to compete in FNM with UW Control. Congrats on your 1st place finish!