Azorius Control can be adjusted to take on nearly any deck in the format, but if you go too heavy into fighting one particular angle, it’ll leave you more vulnerable to other deck types. Hypothetically, you may gain 20% against one particular archetype, but did you compromise 10% against the rest of the field to do so? It’s all about checks and balances.

You can respect the top decks in the format, or more difficult matchups, by utilizing flex spots as relevant tech, but you shouldn’t design your deck to gun for anything specific unless you’re playing at your LGS or smaller event.

Instead, focus on mastering your deck and optimizing it to consistently execute what it’s designed to do, understand the pillars of the format and the common attributes between different strategies/archetypes, learn the way they operate and how to navigate against them using cross-performing, multi-purpose cards and gameplans, and know your role in different matchups. This is how you can effectively adapt to, and mitigate, the variance in Modern.

Moving forward into 2021 and beyond, your dedication and investment will be rewarded beyond just winning games, but by also becoming a better designer, player, student of the game, and master of your craft. 

As always, assess and adapt.

Be water, my friends.

-Francesco Neo Amati

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