Pro Tour-Austin Part 2 (Elspeth Assault)

Well, the dust has settled and we've been back in town for a couple of days now. Austin was really a terrific trip. It seems we played MTG for about 36 hours over the three days we were there. Whether it was tournament action or testing out deck ideas we were totally focused on the task at hand... finding out what the meta-game is shaping up to be early in the Zendikar season. I can tell you that two decks dominated all three tourneys that I played in and they both happen to be Aggro. Jund Cascade and Red/White Boros were the boss decks all weekend. I had three decks that I brought with me... Esper Mill, Red/White Control, and my own version of Jund Cascade. I decided not to play the Esper Mill deck because I thought it would get eaten alive by Jund. I played my Red/White Control deck once and my Jund Cascade deck twice. My best finish was 6th place with my Red/White Control deck which turns out to be quite strong against Jund and does reasonably well against R/W Boros. If you're like me and you prefer more of a Control deck than I highly recommend my Red/White Control deck which I will title Elspeth Assault. I'll first give you the deck list and then I'll break down the strategy.

Elspeth Assault

Creature Spells:
Hellspark Elemental x4
Hell's Thunder x3

Non-Creature Spells:
Ajani Vengeant x4
Elspeth, Knight-Errant x2
Goblin Assault x4
Lightning Bolt x4
Burst Lightning x4
Day of Judgment x3
Scepter of Dominance x3
Banefire x2
Oblivion Ring x3

Lands:
Arid Mesa x4
Jungle Shrine x4
Gargoyle Castle x2
Plains x7
Mountain x7

Sideboard:
Celestial Purge x4
Goblin Ruinblaster x3
Baneslayer Angel x4
Intimidation Bolt x2
Volcanic Fallout x2

This deck has a very strong mid-game which means you'll need to withstand the onslaught of powerful early game decks like Boros and compete with the most dominate mid-game deck going right now, Jund. Against other control decks with a powerful late game you'll need to overwhelm them before they can establish their late-game dominance.





Early on the strategy is to hopefully get Hellspark Elemental out on turn 2. If you're playing Boros you may need to hold off and use Lightning Bolt and Burst Lightning to slow them down the first couple of turns. I saw Boros decks consistently win games on turn 4 if left unchallenged. Hell's Thunder is a good turn 3 play in the right game. Against other Control decks it might be better to play Scepter of Dominance on turn 3 if you have it available. That card really hurts Control decks.





These are our control spells in the deck. All four of these spells uniquely help establish board control so that we can get momentum on our side. I like Oblivion Ring over Path to Exile for this deck because of the versatility. There are many permanents out there that could present trouble besides just creatures. We don't need cards like Jace Beleren or Luminarch Ascension to stick around for very long if you know what I mean. Day of Judgment is self explanatory. The ability to wipe out the board is about as good as it gets for this deck. Ajani Vengeant is, in my opinion, the best Planeswalker out there right now. If you're able to get both him and a Scepter of Dominance to stick on the board at the same time it will be very hard for another control deck to beat you.



These two cards have such amazing synergy together. Goblin Assault produces a token with haste ever turn and Elspeth, Knight-Errant makes the token a 4/4 flyer every turn. This is absolutely the most explosively part of this deck. If you can set up the board and get this combo engine going than your opponent ends up under the gun very quickly. Combine this with the Unearth abilities of Hellspark Elemental and Hell's Thunder and you've got a very explosive mid-game indeed.



Banefire is in the deck just in case we need that final burn spell that can seal the game. I love Banefire because by the time you really need to use it you should have enough mana to make it unstoppable. I can't tell you how many games it has won me in a stalemate against another control deck. It is an amazing card.

My sideboard choices are pretty self-explanatory. The one that may confuse a few people is my decision to sideboard Baneslayer instead of maindecking it. Because my deck has so few creatures I decided that it's not a good choice for game 1 because of all the removal most decks are running. The strategy is to show my opponent that I have very few creatures in game 1 so that he'll hopefully side out most of his removal for game 2. That's when I surprise him with Baneslayer and hopefully it's enough to seal the deal. In the end it really just depends on the match-ups. Sometimes Baneslayer is a world beater and sometimes he's just an easy target for removal.

I'll be playing this deck for a while and hope you'll give it some consideration as well. If you're like me and you're always looking for ways to topple the big dogs than I think this has as good a chance as anything else out there right now. If you have any suggestions or questions please don't be afraid to leave a comment. That's it for today and good luck on your next coin flip!