Modern is in a strange spot right now, where players are trying to thread a needle between Nahiri Jeskai decks and hyper aggressive decks like Affinity, Infect, and Bogles. On top of that, there are also big mana decks like various Valakut strategies and UrzaTron decks that are forcing people to care about non-basic lands. It may seem like there’s a little too much going on for a control deck to fight back against, but bazza66 may have found the perfect combination of cards for this format:
White-Blue Control – Modern | bazza66, 5-0 Modern League
Creatures (11)
3 Restoration Angel
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Wall of Omens
Planeswalkers (2)
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Gideon Jura
Spells (22)
2 Detention Sphere
2 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Condemn
3 Runed Halo
4 Path to Exile
4 Spreading Seas
4 Supreme Verdict
Lands (25)
2 Island
5 Plains
3 Glacial Fortress
3 Hallowed Fountain
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Ghost Quarter
Sideboard (15)
2 Dispel
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
4 Negate

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This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a midrangey control deck that prominently features Wall of Omens, Restoration Angel, and Kitchen Finks. This core is enormously powerful, and gives the deck a lot of game against the aggressive and midrange strategies. The question is always what kind of spells you back this plan up with. Do you lean on countermagic? Sweepers? Spot removal? Perhaps you can go creature heavy with something like Dragonlord Ojutai. These are the choices that determine if your control deck crushes the metagame or tanks.
Bazza66 has chosen to fill those slots in with plenty of spot removal to fight against decks like Infect and Burn, but also two key cards for the format: Spreading Seas and Runed Halo. Spreading Seas does a lot of work in the format, shutting off creature lands and Tron lands, as well as making opposing Nahiri, The Harbingers and other splash cards substantially harder to cast. All of that versatility on a two-mana cantrip is hard to turn down.
Runed Halo is pretty similar in that it is an enormously flexible hate card. What else can proactively shut off everything from Valakut, The Molten Pinnacle to Inkmoth Nexus to Gladecover Scout? Sure, it’s not as great against the likes of Karn Liberated and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, but you’ll still do just fine against Wurmcoil Engine. The versatility this card gives you in pre-board games cannot be overstated, and is an enormously valuable asset in the metagame we find ourselves in.
It’s also worth restating the advantages that you gain by sticking to straight two-color control rather than splashing a third color. Additional basics make it easier to play under a Blood Moon. You also get to play the full set of Ghost Quarters rather than just one or two copies. This deck has chosen to go very big with Sphinx’s Revelation, but if you play Ancestral Vision, it’s much less painful to suspend on turn one. Sure, being able to play an Emrakul, The Aeons Torn with Nahiri, The Harbinger is a great way to close out a game, but Celestial Colonnade is still pretty great. It’s entirely possible that the power of Lightning Bolt and Nahiri, The Harbinger aren’t worth the additional variance introduced by playing a third color.