Chandra Control

Chandra Control is a powerful control deck I created that centers around the powerful planeswalker Chandra Ablaze and the amazing sorcery Cruel Ultimatum.



Chandra Ablaze's 1st ability allows you to add a loyalty counter by discarding a red card to Flame Javelin, deal 4 direct damage to target creature or player. Her second ability is amazing against another control deck. Both players discard their hands and draw 3 cards which limits the options they have stored up till now. Chandra's final ability will win you the game...remove 7 counters to play any number of red instants or sorceries from your graveyard without paying their mana costs. This final ability leads me to the next card that wins the game and plays nicely with Chandra...Cruel Ultimatum.



Cruel Ultimatum is probably the most powerful sorcery Magic the Gathering has ever created. It changes the game dramatically. Your opponent has to sacrifice a creature, discard 3 cards, and lose 5 life while you return a creature from your graveyard to your hand, draw 3 cards, and gain 5 life (basically they lose 4 cards and 5 life and you gain 4 cards and 5 life...all this from playing 1 card is just crazy and overwhelming.) The goal of the deck is to play Cruel Ultimatum on turn 7 by casting it at full cost and recasting it and others through Chandra's final ability hopefully on turn 8.



This version of Chandra Control only runs 4 creatures maindeck. Sedraxis Specter is a 3/2 flyer with unearth that causes your opponent to discard a card whenever it deals combat damage to that opponent. It is a great early game threat, and, with its unearth ability, it is a great target to discard for Chandra's 1st ability. The deck also runs 3 Magma Phoenix in its sideboard. Magma Phoenix is a great creature to side in versus aggro decks. Magma Phoenix deals 3 damage to each creature and player when it is put in the graveyard and returns to your hand for 5 mana to do it all over again. The Phoenix is also a great target for Chandra since it can return to your hand after being discarded.

In addition to these threats, the deck is compiled of some the most powerful red spells in the current Standard.



These two burn spells are amazing and may be the most powerful red burn commons that Magic has ever made. When playing the deck, you should save these cards to kill your opponent's creatures early on and then begin punishing your opponent directly in later turns while waiting for Chandra final ability to trip them once more. (Key note about Burst Lightning: when playing it, you can kick the spell...so when Chandra's final ability trips, you can add the kicker cost when casting it through her ability for additional damage.)



These 2 spells are used to help control your opponent's hand size and threats while still dealing direct damage to him or her. Thought Hemorrage is a great sideboard card that can be sided in to further limit your opponent's options in control and combo deck matchups.



Bitumous Blast is an awesome instant creature burn that cascades into some of your other powerful burn or card draw spells. Grixis Charm is a sideboard card that helps bounce an annoying artifacts (such as Pithing Needle), planeswalkers, lands, or enchantments (especially if the Zendikar quest enchantments take off). It is also another excellent kill spell and can be pitched easily to Chandra.

Here is my final build:

Maindeck
4 Chandra Ablaze
4 Sedraxis Specter
3 Cruel Ultimatum
3 Divination
4 Terminate
4 Blightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Burst Lightning
3 Bitumous Blast
3 Volcanic Fallout

Sideboard
3 Magma Phoenix
3 Thought Hemorrhage
3 Grixis Charm
4 Countersquall
2 Swerve

The maindeck is designed to stall creature heavy, aggro decks. In more control or combo deck matchups, side out the unneeded kill spells for Countersquall to counter non-creature spells while still depleting his or her life total, Swerve to redirect spells (awesome against Time Warp decks...redirect the extra turn to yourself), Thought Hemorrhage to limit their hand size, and Grixis Charm to bounce their combo pieces.

Tonight will be my first run with it at our local FNM. I will post any changes I think will need to be made afterwards in the comments section...If any of you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. Enjoy.