This will be the last article I write for ManaNation. If you liked my work you can find me in the future on StarCityGames. First off, I would like to thank Trick for giving me the opportunity to write articles for his site. I'd also like to thank you, the reader; I wouldn't be writing articles without your support. Thanks everyone!

[Ali's weekly contributions will be missed, we wish him all the best as he begins his column at StarCityGames.com -- Trick]

I recently won Virginia states with an unconventional blue white list. Here is how the list was born.

Flashback a couple weeks before States and you would have found me testing with Jonathan Suarez, David Wise, and Zach Shafner for States. I just want to stop real quickly and thank my test group. We don't test often but when we do it shows in our results at the next tournament. I ended up winning Virginia States, Suarez came in second place at South Carolina States, and David placed third-fourth at North Carolina States. If you don't have a good test group and want to improve your game, I would highly suggest getting one, now back to the story!

Suarez and David were pretty sold on mono green eldrazi, and I don't blame them. That deck is an absolute powerhouse. Zach was trying a mono black deck which he ended up making blue back with mimic vats, Grave Titans, and Gatekeeper of Malakir. Zach's deck seemed pretty good but unfortunately he didn't play in States. I was more focused on blue white - after getting hammered by mono green eldrazi, I finally started to test other cards to see if I could improve my match-up. The only way I could beat them was when I landed a Frost Titan and was able to blink it with Venser, the Sojourner. I wanted to branch out a bit and test other ideas. As you know, I love nothing more than taking another turn; so with glee I slipped in three Lighthouse Chronologists. The little guy was pretty good, but you could never tap out to level him; so he always ended up growing rather slow. When he finally grew up to be a man, he was extremely good and required an immediate answer or he would end the game. I then tested the mirror match and around the third game I threw in three main deck Spell Pierces. Suarez exclaimed, "Don't test against Ali, he's always pre-sideboarded against you. First it's Lighthouse Chronologist against Eldrazi, now it's Spell Pierce. Who knows what's next?" Everyone got a good chuckle out of this and after a few games of the mirror I knew I wanted at least two Spell Pierces main. That card is just so bonkers! If you are playing a control deck go add some right now, this article can wait. When you come back you can see the decklist I played at States:

"Lighthouse Control"

• Creatures (8)
• 2 Frost Titan
• 1 Lighthouse Chronologist
• 2 Sea Gate Oracle
• 1 Sun Titan
• 2 Wall of Omens

• Spells (27)
• 2 Condemn
• 2 Day of Judgment
• 2 Gideon Jura
• 3 Jace Beleren
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 2 Journey to Nowhere
• 4 Mana Leak
• 4 Preordain
• 3 Spell Pierce
• 2 Venser, the Sojourner
• 1 Volition Reins

• Lands (25)
• 4 Celestial Colonnade
• 4 Glacial Fortress
• 6 Island
• 4 Plains
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 3 Seachrome Coast
• 3 Tectonic Edge

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Baneslayer Angel
• 4 Celestial Purge
• 1 Condemn
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 1 Lighthouse Chronologist
• 3 Luminarch Ascension
• 3 Mindbreak Trap

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I didn't take enough notes to write a tournament report, so I'm just going to talk about the deck. I know this deck gave a lot of people headaches when they first looked at it. I know a lot of people asked, "Why so many one and two off's Ali?" Well if you look closely, it's really not what it appears. You have four walls that draw you cards - in the form of Sea Gate Oracle and Wall of Omens. You have four pinpoint removal spells with Journey to Nowhere and Condemn, you have five Jaces, and you have five win conditions besides Jace and Colonnade - in the form of one Volition Reins, one Sun Titan, two Frost Titan, and one Lighthouse Chronologist.

The main reason I broke it into two of a certain card was to take full advantage of Venser, the Sojourner. Venser allows you to Journey to Nowhere something small in the early game, and get something bigger later. He also allows you to dig through your deck with Sea Gate Oracle. He does double duty with any of the titans, can reset a Jace, and can even move around Volition Reins. A cute trick with Volition Reins is that you can blink it with Venser, then attach it to any creature on the battlefield including things you wouldn't normally be able to attach it to, like creatures with Shroud or an Emrakul.

Another question I've gotten is, "Why are you only running two Jace, the Mind Sculptor?" Well for one thing I wanted to win the Jace war, so playing more small Jaces seemed optimal. Baby Jace also does everything his big brother can do except Unsummon creatures. Yes, I think drawing three plus extra cards is enough to win you the game.

I really liked my Sideboard, the only thing I wish I had included was a way to deal with enchantments or artifacts. So either Revoke Existence or War Priest of Thune. I feel my choices in the sideboard were pretty self explanatory. I would probably add the fourth Mindbreak Trap – that card was really good against mono green eldrazi. It's not because they play three spells and you can cast it for free, that rarely happens. The main purpose of this spell is to counter a turn four Primeval Titan with no repercussions. Since Mindbreak Trap exiles a card, they can't Summoning Trap after you Mindbreak Trap them. It also stops the mono green eldrazi's end game via stopping Emrakul.

I recently played in a local one 1k event. I played this deck with a few a changes. I ended up cutting two Condemns and one Lighthouse Chronologist for 3 Ousts. I also went down to one Sea Gate Oracle and up to three Wall of Omens. I saw and heard that elves along with mono red were popular so I didn't want to lose to them. I ended up splitting top four after David graciously conceded to me in a hilarious third game of the top 8. The best play was when he played Ulamog with an Ulamog already on board killing his own Primeval Titan. Now that takes true skill, what a master!

I believe another way to build blue white is to go aggressive with four Baneslayer Angels and a couple of Everflowing Chalices to race creature decks and Titans; if you expect a lot of blue black control I would not do this. I know a lot of people like Trinket Mage. If you want a blue white deck with him in it I would suggest starting with a list that looks like this.

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

3 Frost Titan

3 Trinket Mage

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

2 Condemn

2 Day of Judgment

1 Gideon Jura

3 Jace Beleren

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Brittle Effigy

1 Elixir of Immortality

2 Everflowing Chalice

1 Journey to Nowhere

4 Mana Leak

4 Preordain

4 Spell Pierce

1 Venser, the Sojourner

1 Volition Reins

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Celestial Colonnade

4 Glacial Fortress

6 Island

4 Plains

1 Scalding Tarn

1 Misty Rainforest

2 Seachrome Coast

3 Tectonic Edge

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

3 Celestial Purge

2 Day of Judgment

3 Luminarch Ascension

1 Dispel

1 Jace Belern

1 Negate

4 Mindbreak Trap

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

I like the Trinket Mage package to recycle cards, get a removal spell, gain five vs aggressive decks, and to not deck yourself against the control mirror. Sun Titan doesn't really play well with a Elixir of Immortality so he has been cut. So far this deck has been doing pretty well in testing.

I'm also trying to see if a heavy permission, blue white control, with more counters and possibly Elspeth Tirel is viable. Only time and testing will tell. Good luck at your PTQ's and 5ks!

Thanks again for reading everyone, it's been a great pleasure and I've had a blast!