Fires of Yavimaya vs. Sphinx's Revelation Control: A Clash of Standard Giants

Hello everyone, and welcome to the next match in the Best Standard Deck Ever Tournament! This week, we have the premier control deck of the mid-2010s in Sphinx's Revelation Control, up against a combo-ish aggro deck that dominated Pro Tour Chicago in 2000 in Fires of Yavimaya, which combos with Saproling Burst to deal a ton of hasty damage by surprise! Which deck's moving on to the round of 32, and which one is going home? Let's get to the video and find out!

Built around the synergy between its namesake enchantment Fires of Yavimaya to give everything haste and Saproling Burst to make several massive tokens by surprise, the 2001 version of Fires broke out at Pro Tour Chicago in 2001, bringing four players (including Jon Finkel) to the Top 8. Later, it would dominate US Nationals and make the Top 8 at Worlds 2001.

The deck relies heavily on the fading mechanic to get what at the time were overstatted creatures on the cheap, like card-ref:Blastoderm as a 5/5 for four. It also has a surprising amount of tech to fight against control, including islandwalk and regeneration from River Boa, the uncounterable Kavu Chameleon, and Urza's Rage, along with Chimeric Idol for dodging sorcery-speed removal.

On the other hand, UW Rev Control was the premier control deck of its era in the mid-2010s. Some version of the deck existed in Standard pretty much from the time Sphinx's Revelation was printed in Return to Ravnica until it rotated from the format. Playing a traditional draw-go control game plan, the deck looked to counter or kill anything the opponent might play, use its namesake Sphinx's Revelation to refill and gain a bunch of life, and then eventually close out the game by beating down with Restoration Angel, Snapcaster Mage, or tokens from Moorland Haunt.

The deck's biggest performance came in Worlds 2013, where it made up a full half of the top eight and gave Shahar Shenhar the trophy. But then, nearly a year later, Ivan Floch rode a tweaked version of the archetype to victory at Pro Tour Magic 2015. While nothing from the deck was banned from Standard, the archetype was so strong that a very similar deck (with some upgrades) was a top-tier archetype in Modern during the mid-2010s!