Ben Hill, also known as BennyHillz on MTGO, has been steadily climbing to the top of the competitive league rankings over the past few months. He has a whopping 19 undefeated trophies as of June, 2017!
How has he done it? With none other than UW Control.
Grixis Shadow may be the best deck in the format, but Benny has proven that UW Control may very well be its kryptonite while also holding its own vs other competitive decks in the meta.
I reached out to Hill to delve into his deck and perspectives including MTGO data and a sideboarding guide.
BennyHillz UW Control Deck
| Creatures (4) 2 Snapcaster Mage 2 Wall of Omens Planeswalkers (5) 2 Gideon of the Trials 2 Jace, Architect of Thought 1 Gideon Jura Spells (19) 4 Path to Exile 4 Serum Visions 3 Mana Leak 1 Negate 1 Think Twice 1 Sphinx’s Revelation 2 Cryptic Command 3 Supreme Verdict Enchantments (6) 4 Spreading Seas 2 Detention Sphere | Lands (26) 4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Flooded Strand 2 Ghost Quarter 3 Glacial FOrtress 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Irrigated Farmland 5 Island 3 Plains 2 Tectonic Edge 1 Temple of Enlightenment |
Ben Hill: I started playing in 2011, but not competitively until about 2 years ago. I started with UW in Modern back in 2014, but that build was very different. I just borrowed my friend’s Jeskai deck and cut red since I didn’t like Bolt.
BH: The biggest benefit of straight UW is the manabase. It only takes 1-2 damage from lands per game, it’s better against Blood Moon, and it means we can run 4 colorless lands. Those lands play really well with Spreading Seas, since it means UW can consistently cut opponents out of a color. For example, Grixis Shadow typically only plays 3 red sources, so with 8 maindeck answers to lands, it’s very easy to cut them out of red mana. The card quality may be slightly higher if you splash a color, but having better mana makes the deck more consistent, which is important if you want to be able to have game in every matchup.
BH: Now it’s actually 36-6! I think it’s really just experience with the matchups. Since UW isn’t a super popular deck at the moment, and people don’t test against it much, I almost always know the matchup better than my opponents. Since the games tend to go long and there’s a ton of decisions, that difference in experience is magnified, so I can take advantage of that asymmetry in experience. Beyond that, I also just think UW is very good against a lot of the popular decks.
BH: Definitely commitment and experience. I would definitely be thrilled to see a Jace unban, but I think that the archetype already has the tools it needs to succeed against pretty much any deck. I definitely think that UW control isn’t a deck you can just pick up though, even though the deck is good right now, there’s going to be a steep learning curve for anyone just getting into it.
BH: I think there’s a huge benefit. I’ve been playing UW for almost three years now, during which time there’s been some massive shifts in the metagame. It’s obviously important to tweak the list and accept it if the metagame just isn’t right, but I think that most decks, at least decks that rely on interaction, can be tuned to most metagames, so I’m a huge advocate for learning the ins and outs of your deck very well.
BH: I really emphasize giving yourself a chance to win every matchup, so I take huge steps to make my lists as consistent as possible. That starts with the mana (hence the high land count), but I also think that cheap cantrips really help out with consistency, which is why I want at least 10 cantrips that cost two mana or less.
BH: I like having a few slots dedicated to buying time against aggressive decks and attacking versus combo decks. Kitchen Finks used to fill that role, but I like Gideon more in this metagame because the 3/2 body on Finks isn’t as great as it used to be with all these Reality Smashers and Death’s Shadows running around. He’s also very good with Wall of Omens and Supreme Verdict, since they are forced to overextend to take him off the table. Gideon is absolutely insane against Death’s Shadow decks, because they rely on having one massive creature, which Gideon shuts down, and they damage themselves so much that he can kill them in just one or two attacks.
The emblem is also randomly excellent in some matchups like Ad Nauseam and Lantern Control, and I’ve even won mirrors with the emblem after both players run out of cards in library. He’s at his worst against decks that go wide with small creatures like Elves, since he’s so easy to kill, but those decks tend to be good matchups already since Supreme Verdict is so good, so I’m okay with having 2 slots that are bad game 1.
BH: This may sound surprising, but Spreading Seas has won me a surprising number of games. Modern decks tend to run pretty greedy manabases with low land counts; I can’t even describe how many times I’ve beat Burn by turning their one land into an Island. The other obvious cards are Supreme Verdict and Sphinx’s Revelation, since Verdict just wins against a lot of creature decks and any time you resolve a Rev for 3 or more it’s pretty hard to lose. I’ve wanted to test Spell Queller for a while, as well as the As Foretold build, which I’ll try to do soon.
BH: Affinity, any Death’s Shadow Deck, and Living End are all extremely good matchups, although I’ve also had a lot of success against most other tier decks like Burn and Eldrazi Tron. The only two tier decks that I’m under 50/50 against are Storm and GW Vizier decks, although I also think those matchups are pretty close.
BH: Stick with it. You might lose a lot at first, but it’s a very hard deck to play, and if you keep grinding, you’ll have a lot of success. Also, don’t waste time, the deck takes a while to win and it’s easy to time out.
BennyHillz MTGO Data
BennyHillz UW Control – Sideboard Guide
Note: I’m going to base this off of the list I used for most of my trophies, although I changed the sideboard slightly recently. I added 2 Surgical Extraction and 1 Crucible of Worlds.
Grixis Shadow
+2 Rest in Peace, 1 Condemn, 1 Verdict /// -3 Mana Leak, 1 Negate
Eldrazi Tron
+2 Stony Silence, 1 Elspeth, 1 Verdict, 1 Negate /// -1 Gideon of the Trials, 4 Serum Visions
Storm
+2 Dispel, +2 Negate, +2 RIP, +1 Cage, +1 Clique, +1 Geist /// -4 Seas, -1 Gideon Jura, -2 Gideon of the Trials, -1 Verdict, -1 Think Twice, -1 Snapcaster
Affinity
+2 Stony, +1 Verdict, +1 Timely, +1 Condemn, +1 Clique /// -1 Think Twice, -2 Gideon of the Trials, -1 Negate, -2 Wall of Omens
Burn
+1 Timely, +2 Negate, +2 Dispel, +1 Condemn, +1 Geist, +1 Clique /// -3 Verdict, -2 Jace, -1 Think Twice, -1 D Sphere, -1 Cryptic
Dredge
+2 RIP, +1 Cage, +1 Verdict, +1 Elspeth, +1 Timely, +1 Geist /// -3 Leak, -1 Negate, -2 Gideon of the Trials, -1 Gideon Jura
Counterspells don’t do much because they can win without casting spells after turn 1. It’s all about having as much card draw and stalling as possible so you can hit a hate piece and then wrath them. I also really like Geist of Saint Traft because they tend to dilute their deck with a lot of sideboard cards, so if they have a slow draw with a bunch of Abrupt Decays, Geist can just kill them really quickly since their creatures block so poorly.
Living End
+2 RIP, +1 Verdict, +1 Elspeth, +2 Negate, +2 Dispel /// -2 Wall, -2 Snap, -2 Gideon of the Trials, -1 Gideon Jura, 1 Detention Sphere
Vizier Company
+1 Verdict, +1 Cage, +2 Dispel, +1 Elspeth /// -1 Negate, -1 Leak, -1 Gideon of the Trials, -1 Think Twice, -1 Jace
Humans Company
+1 Verdict, +1 Condemn, +1 Timely, +1 Elspeth, +1 Clique /// -3 Leak, -1 Negate, -1 Think Twice
Titan Shift
+2 Negate, +1 Geist, +1 Clique /// -1 Gideon Jura, -3 Verdict
Ad Nauseum
Tron
UWx Control
+2 Negate, +2 Dispel, +1 Geist, +1 Clique, +1 Elspeth /// -3 Verdict, -2 Path, -1 Gideon Jura, -1 Leak
Keenan Kelly’s UW Control – Modern Challenge (6/24/17)
The following UW Control deck, piloted by Ben Hill’s friend, Keenan Kelly, finished 8-2 at a recent Modern Challenge. Their lists are very similar because Ben actually based his version off of Keenan’s. Together, they’ve designed a consistent, adaptable, and powerful core for this archetype.
R1 – Grixis DS W 2-1
R2 – Dredge L 0-2
R3 – Scapeshift W 2-1
R4 – Junk W 2-1
R5 – Grixis DS W 2-1
R6 – Lantern W 2-1
R7 – Grixis DS W 2-1
—————————
Quarters – Affinity W 2-0
Semis – BW Tokens W 2-0
Finals – Storm L 1-2
Keenan Kelly’s UW Decklist
| Planeswalkers (4) 1 Gideon Jura 2 Gideon of the Trials 1 Jace, Architect of Thought Creatures (4) 2 Snapcaster Mage 2 Wall of Omens Spells (21) 2 Serum Visions 3 Supreme Verdict 3 Cryptic Command 1 Disallow 3 Mana Leak 1 Negate 4 Path to Exile 2 Sphinx’s Revelation 2 Think Twice Enchantments (6) 2 Detention Sphere 4 Spreading Seas | Lands (25) 4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Flooded Strand 2 Ghost Quarter 2 Glacial Fortress 1 Hallowed Fountain 5 Island 1 Mystic Gate 3 Plains 2 Tectonic Edge 1 Temple of Enlightenment |
| Sideboard (15) 2 Negate 1 Supreme Verdict 1 Condemn 1 Crucible of Worlds 1 Dispel 1 Geist of Saint Traft 3 Rest in Peace 1 Runed Halo 2 Stony Silence 1 Timely Reinforcements 1 Vendilion Clique |
![]()
Francesco Neo Amati’s UW Control
| Planeswalkers (4) 2 Gideon of the Trials 1 Jace, Architect of Thought 1 Gideon Jura Creatures (6) 2 Snapcaster Mage 2 Wall of Omens 2 Vendilion Clique Spells (25) 2 Mana Leak 1 Logic Knot 1 Negate 1 Sphinx’s Revelation 3 Cryptic Command 4 Path to Exile 3 Supreme Verdict 4 Serum Visions 2 Detention Sphere 4 Spreading Seas | Lands (25) 2 Hallowed Fountain 2 Glacial Fortress 2 Tectonic Edge 2 Ghost Quarter 1 Mystic Gate 2 Plains 4 Celestial Colonnade 4 Flooded Strand 5 Island 1 Polluted Delta |
-Grafdigger’s Cage (1 SB)
-Dismember (1 MD/SB)
-Spell Snare (1-2 MD)
-Disdainful Stroke (1-2 SB)
-Disenchant (1 SB)
-Runed Halo (1-2 SB)
-Rule of Law (1-2 SB)
-Crucible of Worlds (1 SB)
-Spell Queller (3-4 SB)
Discussion