Breakout MTG Archetype Takes Down Multiple Major Events!

Pioneer saw a lot of interesting deckbuilding decisions this weekend. While the new Metamorphic Alteration Metamorphic Alteration Enchant creature
As this Aura enters, choose a creature.
Enchanted creature is a copy of the chosen creature. combo deck certainly caught a lot of people’s attention, it was none other than Azorius Lotus Field to make top eight of both Canada’s Regional Championship and Sunday’s Magic Online Pioneer Showcase Challenge. This deck utilizes Lotus Field Lotus Field Hexproof
This land enters tapped.
When this land enters, sacrifice two lands.
{T}: Add three mana of any one color. and Thespian’s Stage Thespian’s Stage {T}: Add {C}.
{2}, {T}: This land becomes a copy of target land, except it has this ability. to generate lots of mana. However, unlike the Lotus Field Combo deck, this deck functions mostly as a control deck. The Lotus Field package simply enables the deck to get ahead on mana. If you have ever played a control mirror, you know how important it is to consistently hit your land drops to not fall behind. This deck goes a step further, and it has lots to spend additional mana on.

Lotus Field Synergies

Unlike in the Lotus Field combo deck, there are no Hidden Strings Hidden Strings You may tap or untap target permanent, then you may tap or untap another target permanent.
Cipher (Then you may exile this spell card encoded on a creature you control. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its controller may cast a copy of the encoded card without paying its mana cost.) to be found. This deck is not reliant on having Lotus Field in play. Rather, it is a control deck that has a few ways to exploit Lotus Field and bypass having to sacrifice two lands. The first way to do this involves Discontinuity. Discontinuity costs two mana on your turn and ends the turn. This means that all abilities, including triggered abilities from Lotus Field, are removed from the stack. If you play Lotus Field, then respond to the trigger with Discontinuity, you get to keep your lands already in play, effectively ramping you from two mana on turn two to five mana on turn three.

This extra mana also works excellent with Discontinuity, because on turn four and beyond, you can then cast Discontinuity during your opponent’s turn and send the turn straight back to you! Discontinuity is still a functional card without Lotus Field, acting similar to a six mana Time Warp Time Warp Target player takes an extra turn after this one. . Still, it gets significantly better when paired with Lotus Field and extra mana.

Strict Proctor, similar to Discontinuity, can bypass Lotus Field’s ability that forces you to sacrifice lands. Proctor makes triggered abilities get countered unless their controller pays two additional mana. By simply choosing not to pay two, you don’t have to sacrifice two lands when you play a Lotus Field with a Proctor in play. By playing four copies of Proctor and Discontinuity, it’s quite easy to use Lotus Field to get ahead on mana, which is where the advantage of this deck lies.

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Strict Proctor Affects Opponents

Much like Discontinuity, Proctor isn’t just a functional card with Lotus Field. In a lot of matchups, making triggered abilities cost two more mana can be backbreaking. Proctor being effective on its own is a big reason this deck is starting to have success at the rate it did this weekend. Recently, a Boros Convoke deck emerged that could generate absurd amounts of power as early as turn two by combining Creature token-makers and Venerated Loxodon Venerated Loxodon Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color.)
When this creature enters, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature that convoked it. and Knight-Errant of Eos Knight-Errant of Eos Convoke
When this creature enters, look at the top six cards of your library. You may reveal up to two creature cards with mana value X or less from among them, where X is the number of creatures that convoked this creature. Put the revealed cards into your hand, then shuffle. . Making these triggered abilities, along with the triggered abilities of Reckless Bushwhacker Reckless Bushwhacker Surge {1}{R} (You may cast this spell for its surge cost if you or a teammate has cast another spell this turn.)
Haste
When this creature enters, if its surge cost was paid, other creatures you control get +1/+0 and gain haste until end of turn. cost more is a big deal.

Strict Proctor is especially great against small Creature-centric decks like Mono-White Humans and Azorius Spirits that rely on small Creatures with good enters-the-battlefield effects to attack in combat. Even as a three-toughness flyer, the card holds its ground in combat, but it’s surprising how many decks in Pioneer rely on using enters-the battlefield effects to their advantage. Mono-Green Devotion especially relies on enters-the-battlefield effects. Between Cavalier of Thorns Cavalier of Thorns Reach
When this creature enters, reveal the top five cards of your library. Put a land card from among them onto the battlefield and the rest into your graveyard.
When this creature dies, you may exile it. If you do, put another target card from your graveyard on top of your library. , Oath of Nissa Oath of Nissa When Oath of Nissa enters, look at the top three cards of your library. You may reveal a creature, land, or planeswalker card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
You may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast planeswalker spells. , and Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner Whenever a creature you control with power 4 or greater enters, draw a card.
−1: Untap target permanent. in combination with big Creatures, the deck gets hurt a lot. This doesn’t even include all the triggers from sideboard targets for Karn, the Great Creator Karn, the Great Creator Activated abilities of artifacts your opponents control can't be activated.
+1: Until your next turn, up to one target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its mana value.
−2: You may reveal an artifact card you own from outside the game or choose a face-up artifact card you own in exile. Put that card into your hand. .

The Downsides of Strict Proctor

Strict Proctor in some cases can be a liability, however. The biggest example is versus opposing Lotus Field decks, where the opponent can get additional mana by not paying for their Lotus Fields, just like you can. Giving the combo version more mana can be a big problem. Additionally, this deck cut some Counterspells to make room for Strict Proctor and Discontinuity, which can be a problem versus other combo decks and the mirror, where the opponent likely has a higher density of impactful cards. This version of control does not come without its flaws, but when Proctor is good, the deck feels incredible.

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Using Extra Mana

Having access to up to two additional mana on turn four can be a huge deal, and this deck makes sure to maximize this. In addition to Discontinuity, the deck also plays three copies of Farewell Farewell Choose one or more —
• Exile all artifacts.
• Exile all creatures.
• Exile all enchantments.
• Exile all graveyards. . Despite the high converted mana cost, Farewell does what most other board wipes don’t do in that it can also hit Artifacts and Enchantments in addition to Creatures. It can even exile graveyards against decks like Atraxa Neoform that rely on it. Farewell is super effective in a wide range of matchups due to its flexibility. This is especially true against Mono-Green Devotion, where specifically exiling Cavalier of Thorns is a big deal. Hitting Wolfwillow Haven Wolfwillow Haven Enchant land
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional {G}.
{4}{G}, Sacrifice this Aura: Create a 2/2 green Wolf creature token. Activate only during your turn. and impactful Artifacts tutored by Karn like Cityscape Leveler Cityscape Leveler Trample
When you cast this spell and whenever this creature attacks, destroy up to one target nonland permanent. Its controller creates a tapped Powerstone token.
Unearth {8} is super important, too. The knock on it is it costing six mana, hence why it rarely shows up as more than one copy in typical control decks.

The biggest way to really pull ahead with this deck, though, is by playing Teferi. One of the most powerful things about Teferi is that it untaps two lands, allowing you to protect Teferi. This deck takes that to the extreme. Sometimes, two mana isn’t enough to protect Teferi when behind on board, but this deck can untap Lotus Fields instead and have access to excess mana even on the opponent’s turn. One of the best play patterns the deck has access to is to play Teferi, untap two Lotus Fields, then cast Discontinuity on the opponent’s upkeep, and untap with a ton of mana and Teferi in play. From there, the world is your oyster.

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Good Control Cards Get Better

What makes this deck so strong is that outside of Proctor and Discontinuity, this deck get to function just like a typical Azorius control deck would. Most of the cards in the deck are decent, even when played on curve with a Lotus Field. This means the deck isn’t reliant on drawing Lotus Field in the early turns. Rather, the deck can play just like normal Azorius Control. Even Lotus Field is a fine card without cheating on mana, especially when paired with Thespian’s Stage and Teferi. In fact, many players will sideboard out some copies of Discontinuity when opponents are prepared, becoming less reliant on Lotus Field.

Instead of being dependent on excess mana, your cards simply get better the more mana you have. Just Like Teferi, a lot of traditional Control cards scale with access to more mana. Cards like Shark Typhoon and Memory Deluge Memory Deluge Look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast this spell. Put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Flashback {5}{U}{U} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.) are decent at pulling you ahead but can be slow and clunky against aggressive draws from the opponent. With more mana, Shark Typhoon turns into a great finisher, and Memory Deluge can be cast alongside some interaction, making it less of a liability. Lotus Field even fixes your colors, so playing super impactful off-color sideboard cards like Thought Distortion Thought Distortion This spell can't be countered.
Target opponent reveals their hand. Exile all noncreature, nonland cards from that player's hand and graveyard. is not out of the question. As long as Strict Proctor and Discontinuity are reasonably strong cards in the meta, you sacrifice very little for all that you gain. As a result, this deck feels like a great decision moving forward in Pioneer.

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