[Article] Multi-Colored Control

[Zombie Shakespeare]

From StarCityGames today:

Multi-Colored Control - An Introduction and Metagaming the Deck.

Zherbus' article features his latest build of a deck near and dear to my heart: Keeper. The article gives a recent history of the deck and its trials in today's metagame. The new build looks really solid and I enjoyed reading about its development. I'm brimming with questions concerning card choices and sideboarding strategies that I'm sure will be covered in the follow up article.

Great job.

[Azande]

Yes, great article and good to see it's not Premium. Thanks Zherbus! Can't wait for the second part!

[MisterShark]

Ditto for me as far as the follow-up article is concerned.

I seem to recall a back and forth debate on Duress in Keeper a while back, ending in the idea eventually falling out of favor.
I'm looking forward to reading about what has made it a relevant choice again.

Old Man of the Sea is a new if not unorthodox maindeck choice.

And finally, a return to Decree of Justice as a choice of kill?  I've favored the more traditional Exalted Angel route more recently as no doubt most still do.  I also added the contested and summarily dismissed Tinker/Colossus kill, which has worked well for me when not going up against Welder-based decks.

Thanks goes to Zherbus for once again Keeping the failth

[arj]

I was only wondering why he changed his win condition from plat. + DC to decree. My guess is welder but would like to hear it from the writer himself

[Zherbus]

I seem to recall a back and forth debate on Duress in Keeper a while back, ending in the idea eventually falling out of favor.

Last time it was discussed, the fundimental turn was closer to 3-4. Duress provides very little for the long game, but is very powerful in the short game. It originally came into being as a REB substitute in the sb of that first build that I posted. When I decided to basically run a 'post-sb' maindeck, Duress became a natural fit that was great against everything out there.

And finally, a return to Decree of Justice as a choice of kill? I've favored the more traditional Exalted Angel route more recently as no doubt most still do.

The big thing with Exalted Angel is that it was the entire reason 4cControl did well this summer. It made the deck closer to aggro control so that many of the opportunities that allowed for Exalted Angel to hit the board were a no-brainer. You didn't want to hold on it it, the field was more dedicated to the attack phase, and it was relatively easy to cast. However, while the Angel made the deck easier to pilot (that is, you didn't have to really play around things when you could just play Angel and win), it became pretty horrible against decks that win before it hits play (Combo), decks that don't care about life totals (Control Slaver), and decks that made WW2 extremely prohibitive (TrinisphereAndCrucible.dec).

I was only wondering why he changed his win condition from plat. + DC to decree.

After countless test games, I really hated seeing Darksteel Colossus. It just gave the deck one more dead card in some match ups and against combo, you already have too many with the 2 plows. Some of my teammates ran Tinker-Platinum, but I stopped in favor of a better game against Welder decks.

Also, thanks for the kind words. More people want to read Pips stats and Smmenen's primers outside of Vintage than what I have to say. As a matter of my rung of the SCG Writer ladder, I'll never be Premium'd which is fine.

[MisterShark]

As a matter of my rung of the SCG Writer ladder, I'll never be Premium'd which is fine.

Amen to that.  Good to see that one can still access good, solid, well written and thought-out content without getting bled for more $$ than Mark-upCityGames.com already slams it's customers for in card prices.  

[Tristal]

One thing that strikes me as very peculiar is the use of only 24 mana sources.  Although the curve of this deck has gone down, have you found this to be enough?

What matchups are the Serenities for, specifically?

[MoxMonkey]

@ Tristal Quote "What matchups are the Serenities for, specifically?"
There used vs Workshop and Fish so There 5 strip efforts end up useless and that helps to save the match up alot.  Having a stable mana base is a nice start but Serenities help protect you Crucible Wasteland or Strip lock and makes Workshop decks less threating since you no longer have Rack and Ruin.

[Danzig]

I feel like I've come a long way in deck building/tweaking/metagaming since I've frequented TMD. I added Duress to 4cC sometime around late September early October. I was wondering if it would be taken serious as a solid addition but I never posted here. I feel much better knowing that Zherbus went the same route. I thoroughly enjoyed the article.

[Vegeta2711]

That was a solid article and I enjoyed reading about a lot of the history stuff and more importantly how it still applies.

[Zherbus]

What matchups are the Serenities for, specifically?

Stax. 5/3 is really a cake-walk, but Stax can be annoying. I had 4 slots that can be interchanged when I walked into Myriad. I originally had 4 Strips in the SB in anticipation that Cerebral Assassin and Dragon would show up in notable numbers. However, when I didn't see any Bazaars, just Workshops I subbed in 3 Sacred Ground and a Gush. After the tournament, TheMethod suggested Serenities, so I updated that list.

[Zombie Shakespeare]

@Zherbus: In your follow up article with your mini-report from the Myriad tournament I would really appreciate it if you would mention what you sided in *and* took out for each match up. While many of the cards in your sideboard seem straight forward (Serenities vs STAX & Aggro Workshop, Coffin Purge & Furnaces vs Slaver & Dragon, Chalices vs non-Dragon combo) the main deck looks incredibly tight and seeing how you sideboarded would offer a great deal of insight.

[MisterShark]

Was the Furnace chosen over Damping Matrix strictly because of casting cost?

It just seems to me that Damping Matrix has more to offer if you can get it onto the board:
shuts down
 - Welder
 - Triskelion
 - Pentavus
 - Mindslaver

Once the Slaver opponent drops 2 Weldable threats into the grave (and has one possible hard-castable in hand), you've got to activate the Furnace and then sacrifice it to take care of both grave-born threats, leaving you open if they try it again.
It just seems to me that you get more for your investment (albeit a higher one) with the Damping Matrix.

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

Problem is the matches where you COULD use matrix, furnace is better because Goblin Welder is a turn 1-2 play, so it would make sense to have an efficent low cast turn 1-2 play to match the same play.  Plus the synergy between casting duress taking a good draw spell then nerfing welder for under 2 mana, its pretty good.  The furnace also stops random cards like deep analysis and random combo components, as well as slows down the Will that slaver is playing.  

     I guess you shut off the random creatures with matrix which probably makes it better for the 3 mana investment, but the chances of such creatures hitting play anytime soon, sans tinker after you resolve a way to nerf welder, its pretty unimportant. And worse comes to worst you can always plow the big bitches.

[Toad]

Phyrexian Furnace is the best.card.ever. It's so good against so many decks, faaaar better than Damping Matrix. It's cheaper (comes down turn 1 before Mana Drain is up) and usually more efficient. I've won many games out of a first turn Phyrexian Furnace that Damping Matrix wouldn't have.

[Ultima]

This was a very interesting article.  I have to say that I expected you to come back with Keeper after 3sphere got the axe and even before possibly, but I never expected a build of such ingenuity or a trinity build.

A few questions though.

A I take it that your now saying mana denial isn't the route that Keeper should take.  Do you often miss the wastelands?  

B I was expecting 4CC's new version to be bustling with red cards.  Now that red has been cut, does the deck really fair that well against Workshop Aggro or Stax without its Rack and Ruins or Shamans?

C Playing 4 MD duress often exposes your early lands to wastelands easily, do you find this to be a large setback when playing duress again?  I remember playing Keeper a long time ago and when waste came down, to stunted the deck's tempo alot.

-John

[Zherbus]

Damping Matrix was thrown out, because it was too narrow in effect for the current environment. My two compatriots answered my question for me quite well.

A) Ultima, I pack Wastelands in the SB now. Before Bazaar became a rising star again, I was using the Sacred Ground/Serenity. Now that Trinisphere is gone, it just makes the decision between the two that much better. Do I miss Wasteland as a maindeck card? Absolutely not. The only time I would have felt any sting from that decision is game one against Cerebral Assassin or Dragon.

B) Without Red, I really had to rely on White for Stax. I would say that up until the restriction announcement, Stax was one of my biggest worries. Workshop Aggro never worries me though, my testing results (which I will include in part 3) really showed that Workshop Aggro didn't fare too well against 3cC.

C) When you look at the field on the whole, you notice that the only decks packing Wastelands are Workshop decks. If I feel that an early Duress is the play to make, I will fetch the basic Swamp. I ran into some slight complications with Oath and either the risk of losing an Underground Sea or the risk of being short on blue by fetching a Swamp was heavily outweighed by Duressing the Oath itself. Meanwhile, against the rest of the field (mainly combo and Slaver variants), Duress proved incredibly effective.

[xrobx]

Old Man of the Sea is a new if not unorthodox maindeck choice.

Hehe...old man has been around forever and he's always been a solid card.  At first sight, he may not appear to be very impressive but he is a total board-control maniac.  He laughs at welders, increases the decks weaker matchups (extreme aggro; ie. FCG, sui, sligh, ANYTHING running creature over run), and is never a dead card in your hand (as he is blue, he pitches to FoW/misD).

Question about the design though, do you really feel 3 decree are necessary?  With a lower number of mana sources the integral feeling I get is that you'd be bogged up with them in your hand, and unlikely to cycle them for only a few tokens.

I am a firm believer in the power of misdirection, and these days it should be no different.  Almost any control deck splashing U/W will run mainboard swords, ancestral recall, often mind twist, and at worst this is pitched/used as a 5th/6th fow.

Good luck with your testing!  It would be cool to see a more keeper/less stupid angel build doing well in todays metagame.

[Toad]

Stuff like Tinker, Goblin Welder, Thirst for Knowledge, Intuition, Accumulated Knowledge, Duress, Tendrils of Agony, Wheel of Fortune, Yawgmoth's Will, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Mindslaver and many others can't be Misdirected. Misdirection is rather weak when compared to Duress.

[Zherbus]

Question about the design though, do you really feel 3 decree are necessary? With a lower number of mana sources the integral feeling I get is that you'd be bogged up with them in your hand, and unlikely to cycle them for only a few tokens.

The 3rd Decree slot is interchangable.

I am a firm believer in the power of misdirection, and these days it should be no different.

...yeah, it's VERY different now.

Good luck with your testing! It would be cool to see a more keeper/less stupid angel build doing well in todays metagame.

The testing for the build in the article was finished it's testing cycle weeks ago. It was field tested  on Feb 19th as well. I just got to get it all put into article form.

[ump]

I too question the choice of Duress.  It just feels wierd to me that Duress used to be bad in Keeper and now it is good when I don't think any of the reasons have really changed.

Aggro-control is supposed to be one of the decks to benefit from the restriction of Trinisphere.  With that in mind, I would think the number of Wastelands would go up because they act like Time Walks for these decks.  Given a choice between a first-turn Duress and Brainstorm, I would rather choose Brainstorm because it increases my mana consistency and digs deeper for Force of Will and other cards that I might need now.  Fetching an Underground Sea exposes it to Wasteland and may ruin my chances of finding a second and third land soon.  On the other hand, fetching a Swamp delays getting Mana Drain online another turn which may prove too late as I now have to rely on Force of Will at least one more turn.  A second turn Duress is also not feasible because that is when Mana Drain is supposed to be online.

Another thing to keep in mind is that everybody is running 4 Brainstorms now which lessens the effect of Duress.  It used to be the perfect strategy of Keeper against Suicide Black and now it is falling to that same trick that it used to be using.  All the good stuff are going to go back to the top of the library.  If anything, the number of Duresses should go down by at least one because you probably cannot afford to play it early.

Also, I have found Serenities very lacking against Stax in the past because of Tangle Wire.  I would much rather have the instant speed of Disenchant or Rack and Ruin (which isn't an option without red).  Another drawback that I found against the Stax of old was that Serenities have a casting cost of 2 and they always tried to resolve an early Chalice of the Void for 2.  In those instances, Rack and Ruin would have saved me because it is an instant and its casting cost is not 2.  If Serenties are the answer for Stax, I think you might have to find another, better choice.  It really needs to be an instant and not have a casting cost of 2.

[Hi-Val]

I think the advantage of Serenity is that you can sandbag a Mox and a Tundra and wait until you see Serenity and then drop it even with an empty board. If you get Stack- or Crucible-locked out, you still have plenty of game with it.

[Whatever Works]

I was testing a 3cc verson of keeper a couple months ago and in the deck I found room for 2 seal of cleansing. I was wondering have you considered them, and if you have... Did you choose not to run them because you didnt want to tap out in the early game when you might possibly be holding a drain???

I found seal of cleansing to be extremely versitile vs. a very large portion of the field (Dragon/Oath/Stax/etc.) Also I am a little suprised you cut red AND the waste effects. I originally tested the deck without red so I would be able to fit wastes and the 4 basics I needed to feel that I had a chance vs. Trinisphere/crucible.

Overall, I really enjoyed your article and keep up the good work.

Kyle

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Zherbus, great article, I've always been a fan of your 4cc decks, and now, there's more of a reason I can sleeve it up again. I also have some questions regarding the build.

1) 4 Duress, LoA, Lotus Petal. It seems to me the deck really wants UU up turn 1, or have duress. This seems to work against LoA. I understand that LoA can win games vs. control, but losing tempo (like holding back lands to get LoA active) is VERY risky as well. Has this been an issue for you at all? Also, is Lotus Petal's ability to get UU up turn 1 worth it's inconsistencies (say, if you draw a fetch and Petal as your only mana sources)?

2) Have you tried energy flux in the board for Stax? Serenty seems good, but Flux is blue and totally gives stax the shaft.

3) This is probably a dumb question, but have you thought about replacing Mind twist MD with a Cranial Extraction? That card just seems so hot right now. It wrecks tog if resolved (which I fully expect to re-surface after trinisphere's restriction), wrecks dragon game 1, can be useful vs. slaver (hitting welders means no infinite slave lock, which is relevant because this deck doesn't have an auto-lose condition). As for the other matchups, it's not terrible; getting oaths, Tendrils, and crucibles.

Anyways, I really enjoyed the read!

-Bob

[Zherbus]

It just feels wierd to me that Duress used to be bad in Keeper and now it is good when I don't think any of the reasons have really changed.

...but I already detailed what has changed. Do you disagree that the fundimental turn is lower than it was when it was last discussed. Also, it was never BAD, but the format was in more of a card-advantage war that Duress-slots were better utilized for cards that would net more cards. For instance, if our format was dominated by Tog again, I would definetly take the Duress out.

Aggro-control is supposed to be one of the decks to benefit from the restriction of Trinisphere. With that in mind, I would think the number of Wastelands would go up because they act like Time Walks for these decks. Given a choice between a first-turn Duress and Brainstorm, I would rather choose Brainstorm because it increases my mana consistency and digs deeper for Force of Will and other cards that I might need now. Fetching an Underground Sea exposes it to Wasteland and may ruin my chances of finding a second and third land soon. On the other hand, fetching a Swamp delays getting Mana Drain online another turn which may prove too late as I now have to rely on Force of Will at least one more turn. A second turn Duress is also not feasible because that is when Mana Drain is supposed to be online.

When you say aggro-control, I assume you mean fish. If that happens, then a template more resembling 4cControl of this past summer is definitely preferable. However, we're merely just speculating the future (and this deck was designed before the restriction announcement) which is wholly uncertain, but I don't see Fish coming back so much as something more like GAT or EBA (see Eli's deck from Syracuse which is very close to that). If Wasteland comes back into prominance, I'll obviously change the list, but I think that the evidence of this happening is lacking.

Another thing to keep in mind is that everybody is running 4 Brainstorms now which lessens the effect of Duress. It used to be the perfect strategy of Keeper against Suicide Black and now it is falling to that same trick that it used to be using. All the good stuff are going to go back to the top of the library. If anything, the number of Duresses should go down by at least one because you probably cannot afford to play it early.

People tend to Brainstorm aggressively, firstly. Secondly, the point of 4 Duress is to hit your opponents Oath, Intuition, Lotus, Dark Ritual, Draw Seven, Ancestral, or whatever turn one so that they are stunted. It's not meant to cripple your opponent, but to slow them down to the speed of 3cC's game.

I hate to be all 'how dare you argue with me, I'm the great Zherbus', but I've been through rigorous testing with Meandeck with a robust and relevant gauntlet plus I've won a tournament. The theory behind Duress and the function it's supposed to fulfill is very sound and accurate. It was spectacular against the field and I think that in part two, you'll see it illustrated in the mini-report and in part three the testing results.

Also, I have found Serenities very lacking against Stax in the past because of Tangle Wire. I would much rather have the instant speed of Disenchant or Rack and Ruin (which isn't an option without red). Another drawback that I found against the Stax of old was that Serenities have a casting cost of 2 and they always tried to resolve an early Chalice of the Void for 2. In those instances, Rack and Ruin would have saved me because it is an instant and its casting cost is not 2. If Serenties are the answer for Stax, I think you might have to find another, better choice. It really needs to be an instant and not have a casting cost of 2.

Yeah, this hadn't even gotten field tested, to be honest. I ran Sacred Ground at the tournament I played (where I was originally running 4 Strips for Dragon). It's a moot point now, looking at the future.

I'm also not really trying to 'sell' this build to anyone. In fact, the fewer people who play it, the longer I can ride it out. I'm writing on it because whenever we hit something successful, I feel it's our responsibility to share our formula for success with others.

1) 4 Duress, LoA, Lotus Petal. It seems to me the deck really wants UU up turn 1, or have duress. This seems to work against LoA. I understand that LoA can win games vs. control, but losing tempo (like holding back lands to get LoA active) is VERY risky as well. Has this been an issue for you at all? Also, is Lotus Petal's ability to get UU up turn 1 worth it's inconsistencies (say, if you draw a fetch and Petal as your only mana sources)?

No, if anything the Duress makes LoA function more smoothly.

RE: Energy Flux, nope. I was happy with Sacred Ground throughout the testing cycle.

[Saucemaster]

People tend to Brainstorm aggressively, firstly. Secondly, the point of 4 Duress is to hit your opponents Oath, Intuition, Lotus, Dark Ritual, Draw Seven, Ancestral, or whatever turn one so that they are stunted. It's not meant to cripple your opponent, but to slow them down to the speed of 3cC's game.

I hate to be all 'how dare you argue with me, I'm the great Zherbus', but I've been through rigorous testing with Meandeck with a robust and relevant gauntlet plus I've won a tournament. The theory behind Duress and the function it's supposed to fulfill is very sound and accurate. It was spectacular against the field and I think that in part two, you'll see it illustrated in the mini-report and in part three the testing results.

To add to this, one of the deck's biggest strengths is the way that Duress and Scrying interact.  Scrying, for all its efficiency, is still relatively expensive in Type 1 terms.  You want Scrying in the mid-game, typically on turn 3 after Drain or on EOT turn 4.  With Force/Drain alone, you will sometimes stunt your opponent's game plan enough for this to still be relevant to the game in many matchups.  With Duress/Force/Drain, I'd go so far as to say that you usually stunt your opponent's game plan enough for it to be relevant.  Duress is great at giving you a slight disruptive edge in the early midgame.  Past builds of 4cC weren't really built to convert that temporary advantage into a permanent one, and in a number of games it would slip away before you could convert it into a game win, which typically made Duress a suboptimal choice.  This 3cC build, however, is much better geared to convert that temporary early game advantage into a lasting midgame advantage.  

When this deck beats Control Slaver, for example--which is more frequently than many people probably assume--that's almost always how it does so.  Duress turn one, taking a Thirst or opposing disruption (or Intuition, if they're Goth, though Goth is harder for 3cC); turn two, Force or Drain, turn three, use that one- or two-turn window that your Duress bought you to cast a Scrying for 3+.  Now suddenly you're up an Ancestral and they're struggling to get back into it.  Obviously not all games go like that, and obviously even some of the games that DO will end up going in Slaver's favor, because the deck is explosive and resilient, but those are the kinds of situations that Duress is good at setting up.

As for first-turn Duress vs. first-turn Brainstorm, that's somewhat of a red herring, isn't it?  The deck runs four of both; if you feel the matchup warrants a Duress (combo, playing first against prison, the control matchup if your hand is set up to take advantage of the early Duress), play Duress.  If not, play the Brainstorm.

[Zherbus]

Again, Justin's articulation skills come in handy!

[nether__void]

And finally, a return to Decree of Justice as a choice of kill? I've favored the more traditional Exalted Angel route more recently as no doubt most still do.

The big thing with Exalted Angel is that it was the entire reason 4cControl did well this summer. It made the deck closer to aggro control so that many of the opportunities that allowed for Exalted Angel to hit the board were a no-brainer. You didn't want to hold on it it, the field was more dedicated to the attack phase, and it was relatively easy to cast. However, while the Angel made the deck easier to pilot (that is, you didn't have to really play around things when you could just play Angel and win), it became pretty horrible against decks that win before it hits play (Combo), decks that don't care about life totals (Control Slaver), and decks that made WW2 extremely prohibitive (TrinisphereAndCrucible.dec).

Zherbus - First, great article - I really enjoyed reading it.

I wanted to inquire about the DoJ choice as well, although not from the "Why not Exalted Angel?" angle. In the quote above, you cited the reasons why Angel isn't very strong vs. Combo, Control Slaver and/or Stax.

Have you found that DoJ performs that much better based on the criteria that you used in deciding to abandon Angel?
 - Combo decks that win in the first few turns
 - Decks like Slaver that don't care about life totals
 - Decks like Stax that stunt mana growth

I would think that DoJ would be too slow to be of much use against Combo, it falls victim to the same weakness vs. decks that don't care about life totals, and any deck that can limit the amount of permanents you have in play would severely minimize the usefulness of Decree because you're not going to get many men (if any).

Given the fact that you've conducted a lot of testing, and I've not run Decree in my control deck for many months, I'm far from being the expert on its usefulness in the current metagame. Outside of cycling to dig for more useful cards, how do you find yourself using DoJ in the matchups you cited above?

[Zombie Shakespeare]

With the absence of Exalted Angel has the life loss from Skeletal Scrying ever been an issue versus more aggressive decks such as Food Chain Goblins or Aggro Workshop?

[Toad]

The decklist has been tweaked for the pre-ban metagame. FCG was quite irrelevant and Workshop Aggro has all the tools to prevent you from getting WW (Crucible of Worlds).

Decree of Justice is better against Control Slaver because uncounterable.
It's quite better against Combo because you can use It EOT and put early pressure while keeping UU open. It's far better against Stax when facing Smokestack and Tangle Wire.