The One Ring and Its Place in Modern Control

Modern has been the one format where control has remained viable throughout the years. Even when the disruption was weak, somehow Path to Exile and Logic Knot found a way to keep us in the game. We have seen Jeskai, Esper, Dimir, and Azorius rise to the top of the Modern ranks at various stages of history. Each of these decks had to make the magic happen with cards that lacked power, which was a substantial challenge in a non-rotating format.

Times are different now, and control has benefited from recent releases. The other control archetypes have largely yielded to Azorius Control (Kaheera), which continues to produce results. This deck is a blast to play and has the firepower needed to handle any metagame configuration that Modern can dish out. The powerful disruption options keep all threats at bay and the win conditions quickly end the game.

In its current state, I was not expecting much out of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, but that quickly changed with The One Ring.

The Power of the Ring

I put the legendary artifact as the second-best card in my set review, which turned out to be foolish. The One Ring has become a format staple overnight, with competitive players frantically swapping out their weakest cards to have a taste of its power. The card advantage is what initially brought me in before the set’s release, but it was the invulnerability that fully sold me. All decks benefit in some way when given a turn off from aggression; however, no deck enjoys it more than control. Control reduces the punishment from a tap-out turn, making it the perfect home for The One Ring.

The One Ring fits perfectly into the control gameplan, keeping the battlefield relatively clear in the initial turns, resolving it, and then using a two-spell follow-up to manage what arrived after. The turn it is cast leaves the opponent deciding whether to apply more pressure into a potential sweeper or risk having their current battlefield individually picked apart. Cards that put my opponents into positions like this automatically become my favorites because they add barriers to the other side’s victory.

Many have argued that the more powerful and midrange-driven cards become, the less impact players have over who wins or loses. I do somewhat agree with this, as I find myself tapping my resources to play on curve and remove all threats that I possibly can. After the dust settles, I hope that this has led me to a win. Back in the day, being selective with disruption and building decks to specifically tackle the top decks was the strategy, not simply playing the best cards on curve. With that being said, I think Magic is still the best game out there; it is simply different from what it once was.

The List

Tapping out to play The One Ring in Azorius Control (Kaheera) invites that pressure dilemma to the mix and has influenced me to change the deck around to best support it. Many players have removed their least impactful cards to make room, whereas I have made my best effort to fully integrate it as the new card advantage engine.

With control in Modern, there are no objectively weaker cards to easily remove. Trimming down to make room was one thing, but finding areas to support the new four-drop was a bit challenging. The best way to make The One Ring stand out in Azorius Control (Kaheera) is to make sure the early-game defenses are solid and the mid- to late-game curve is light.