During Tarkir: Dragonstorm, one of the cards that received a ton of hype (and rightfully so) was Ugin, Eye of the Storms. This colorless Planeswalkers does a lot for seven mana.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of the excitement came from the idea of pairing Ugin with free colorless spells and the Tron lands in Modern. After all, the cast trigger and static ability Ugin provides are devastating, and casting Ugin ahead of schedule is a great way to take advantage of such a strong design.
As it turns out, though, Ugin is good enough at face value to make a splash in Standard as well. Boasting a top four finish in a recent Magic Online Standard Challenge, a unique mono-white control deck with a full playset of Ugin as the finisher of choice has started gaining more support. If you’re looking for a strategy to beat up on red aggro, this could be the deck for you.
Controlling the Game
This deck’s main gameplan is to control the game long enough until you can use your game breaking bombs to take over. In order to accomplish this goal, you’ll find a high density of removal spells and ways to help you stabilize versus aggro decks.
By sticking to mono-white, you get to utilize one of the most efficient removal spells in Standard in the form of Lay Down Arms. Lay Down Arms does a good job answering small threats like Heartfire Hero early but also scales as the game progresses. As long as you continue to hit your land drops, Lay Down Arms can get rid of beefier threats, such as Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, at the low cost of one mana.
Get Lost is another strong removal spell that gets most of its mileage out of its versatility. Being able to tag Kaito, Bane of Nightmares is particularly important, given that this deck isn’t looking to apply pressure.
From there, Day of Judgment serves as an essential catchup mechanism. This deck elects for Day of Judgment over Sunfall in large part to do a better job keeping up with fast aggro draws. Cori-Steel Cutter out of Izzet Prowess can get out of hand quickly, too, so having a way to reset the board at only four mana is nice.
Beza, the Bounding Spring is another four-drop that lines up well against red aggro. Both Day of Judgment and Beza appear as four-ofs in the decklist for good reason.
Going Over the Top
Most of these white cards are staples of the mono-white token control deck that has popped up here and there in Standard over the past few months. You’ll even find a full playset of Fountainport here as a value engine. This deck, however, decided to eschew the Caretaker’s Talent package in favor of bigger, badder game enders.
At the top of that list, we have Ugin. At seven mana, Ugin is a bit clunky. Luckily, the reward is huge. The fact that you get to exile an opposing colored permanent upon casting Ugin means that even if it gets countered, you were still able to interact meaningfully. Of course, if Ugin doesn’t get countered, you have a big Planeswalker that you can tick up to 9 loyalty right away.
In order to maximize Ugin, this deck plays four copies of Hedron Archive that enable you to cast Ugin two turns ahead of schedule. Hedron Archive also lets you hard cast Overlord of the Mistmoors on turn five, making it the perfect mana accelerant for this archetype.
Additionally, this deck plays four copies of Mazemind Tome. Mazemind Tome is a decent source of card advantage on its own. Once you factor in Ugin’s static ability, though, Mazemind Tome becomes even better.
In some games, you’ll want to use Ugin’s 0 ability to cast another colorless spell on the same turn and take out an extra permanent. It doesn’t take long until you are threatening Ugin’s ultimate ability, which is sure to make ending the game trivial.
Giving up Caretaker’s Talent and Enduring Innocence isn’t free, but there are plenty of benefits to adding the Ugin package. First, you aren’t forced to play mediocre token producers like Carrot Cake. Second, you aren’t as reliant on sticking Caretaker’s Talent of Enduring Innocence to pull ahead.
Neither Caretaker’s Talent nor Enduring Innocence do much to impact the board the turn they come down. You risk falling behind as a result. Hedron Archive does come with some of the same risks, but at least a follow-up Ugin can instantly stabilize the board if you can untap with Hedron Archive.
Ugin can essentially end the game on its own versus red aggro, self-bounce, and midrange decks alike. All you have to do is continue to interact and hit your land drops, and you have inevitability.
Metagame Position
We mentioned how strong this mishmash of board disruption, life gain, and top end is in the face of mono-red aggro. By staying mono-white, you aren’t even vulnerable to Sunspine Lynx out of the sideboard of mono-red aggro the same way Jeskai control can be.
On top of that, you have a pretty strong matchup versus midrange. Both Ugin and Overlord of the Mistmoors excel versus the black decks. Kaito is your main concern, so make sure to save your copies of Get Lost if you expect the potent Planeswalker to hit the board.
Where things can get dicey is when you’re facing down combo. Azorius Omniscience combo, for example, is very tough to beat game one. You don’t apply pressure, and most of your interaction comes at Sorcery speed. You have some game against the deck thanks to hate cards like The Stone Brain out of the sideboard, but that doesn’t make the matchup easy by any stretch.
Spell Pierce can also be a brutal card to face down when you’re reliant on resolving your interactive elements versus Jeskai Oculus or Izzet Prowess. Fortunately, Lay Down Arms being so cheap can come in handy in some spots, and Beza gets around Spell Pierce just fine.
Overall, this deck really goes to show just how powerful Ugin is. Even without tons of colorless spells in the mix, Ugin still pulls its weight. Keep this archetype on your radar if you plan to jam some Standard in the coming weeks.