BURG Control

This is a take on modifying the Vargo + Harsh rule based ixtun control lists. Most of the brewing I do in eternal has been learning how to press color requirements as far as I can, and this shell seems to be paying off. The deck requires 2F 2J 2P 2S and six power to cast everything in it, so it slots a little more aggressively than decks playing and intending to cast Xo, or potentially now Mohknati.

Color sequencing is important here, and opening hand evaluation is more complex than a typical eternal deck (fellow modern/legacy format mtg players may have an edge here). 1 of each color gets you most of the way there, as does being willing to pledge Vargo when necessary. Prioritize SS, JJ, then PP and FF. SS gets you to setback and Vara, JJ gets you to Harsh rule and Makto, and double F/P is only necessary for Peak, which you should feel pretty free to market away in the early and mid game. Consistently scry away everything that is not a power, ideally with the colors you need, whenever possible. I do so very aggressively, leaning on Harsh Rule to clean up what I cant stave off early with the 8 1 cost removal spells and 3 sweepers.

The power base has worked consistently for me from Silver thru Masters, where I currently sit as of yesterday (dont have a ton of time to grind). I was impressed by the win percentage. I didnt drop a game on this list from silver 3 until Diamond, where I lost one game each in D3 and D2. I lost 3 games in D1, but the losses were more to my misplays than the list, along with evaluation and adjustment of the removal suite until I found the strongest mix of effects and costs for the decks I've been seeing (happy to discuss in comments should anyone be interested).

The biggest question I've gotten in development is a two part power question: a)what in the world are you doing not running seek power/petition and b) why are there basic sigils if you're not running fetch spells/seats?

I tried running an all crests list (with one token), but enough effects benefit from being able to fetch basics that I found the split worthwhile-- kalebs favor from peaks and find the justice sigil spell from the regents Tomb formerly in the market gavel slot. In addition, planning ahead for that one turn the corner moment where you get the untapped land has been very useful.

As far as the landfind, I havent found the spells to be worth the slots. I'm not running rizahn who benefits from lots of spells being cast early, proper use of scry consistently gets me my colors when I need em (though I do consider putting a winchest cargo in the market), and the nature of the control shell + color requirements progression means I'm comfortable sitting back and getting my six power more often than not.

Mechanically, the deck works by correctly sequencing your threats to keep removal / plans of attack in your opponents colors consistently bad deals for them, generating you incremental 2+ for 1s.

Up front (ish) jennev midrange/control is this decks worst matchup by a decent margin. Sometimes you draw slow removal and get cheesed by skycraggro, sure, but that's what you sign up for when playing control, and there are a lot of effective anti aggro tools here.

Jennev has two very significant strengths vs this shell: its threats consistently replace themselves, which makes the fact that jennev removal is by far the best positioned to still be effective against most of our threats a difficult game to play. The deck isnt unbeatable, but it's a pretty solid 40/60 in their favor.

Thanks for reading this novella, and hopefully you'll give this a shot and be successful too!