Azorius Control Gains Modern Share as Five-Color Creativity Returns to Top Eights

nahuel10 won the November 8, 2026 Modern Challenge 32 with Azorius Control at 9-0, the strongest individual finish in a run of results accompanying the deck's rising Modern share. MTGO's published results put the win in a 59-player field, with victories over Five-Color Creativity, Amulet Titan and Rakdos Midrange in the playoffs.

Azorius Control reached 8.4% of lists, 13 of 154, in the week of November 9, compared with 6.5%, 29 of 443, in the week of November 2. Creativity's return is much smaller: 2 top eights and no wins across the last 42 days, against Azorius Control's 40 top eights and 11 wins.

Azorius Control's Rise Has Survived a Dip

The weekly sequence was 3.7%, 5.2%, 5.8% and 7.3% from September 28 through October 19, before a fall to 5.0% in the week of October 26. The next 2 buckets recovered to 6.5% and 8.4%. The latest denominator is smaller, but the increase follows several weeks of stronger representation rather than one isolated result.

Results rose with that representation. The week of October 19 produced 9 top eights and 3 wins; October 26 fell to 4 top eights and 1 win; November 2 recovered to 7 top eights and 3 wins. Across the last 42 days, Azorius Control accounted for 5.9% of 2,371 decks, up from 2.2% in the preceding 42 days.

November 10 alone supplied 7 Azorius Control top-eight places across 3 Challenges: 3 in the 44-player Challenge 32, 2 in the 26-player Challenge 16 and 2 in the 46-player Challenge 32. TrueHero won the Challenge 16 at 7-1. None of the 5 Azorius Control entries in the other 2 events reached a final.

The Winning Lists Differ, and So Do the Matchup Results

nahuel10's winning November 8 list used 4 each of Day's Undoing, Narset, Parter of Veils, Orim's Chant, Silence, Solitude and Teferi, Time Raveler. It also played 1 Isochron Scepter, a card present in 69.5% of the archetype's lists, rather than treating it as a mandatory four-of.

TrueHero's November 10 winning build cut Silence to 2 and Day's Undoing to 3, increased Wrath of the Skies to 3 and included 1 Supreme Verdict. Its sideboard had 4 Consign to Memory, compared with nahuel10's 3, and omitted the latter's 4 Sanctum Prelate. These are distinct winning configurations, not one list repeating its finish.

The clearest recent playoff run belongs to nahuel10: 2-1 against Five-Color Creativity, 2-0 against Amulet Titan and 2-0 against Rakdos Midrange on November 8. The next day, the same pilot finished 6-2 after losing 1-2 to Living End in the semifinal.

November 10 was less forgiving. In the 44-player Challenge, nahuel10 beat Affinity 2-1 before losing to Tron 0-2; the other Azorius Control entries lost their quarterfinals to Creativity and Grixis Affinity, both 0-2. In the 46-player Challenge, Broodscale eliminated both Azorius Control entries 2-0.

The longer playoff sample favours Azorius Control against Broodscale at 15-6, Affinity at 4-1 and Amulet Titan at 3-0. Tron is 2-2 and Dimir Frog is 1-2. Those are small top-eight match records, not full-event matchup win rates.

Creativity Returns With Two Different Builds

mark_68 finished eighth at 3-3 on November 8, losing the quarterfinal to nahuel10. ZerglingMTG went further on November 10: third at 6-2, beating jessy_samek's Azorius Control 2-0 before losing to Grixis Affinity 1-2.

Both builds retained 4 Indomitable Creativity, 4 Leyline Binding, 4 Wrenn and Six and 3 Dwarven Mine. But ZerglingMTG's November 10 build used 1 Archon of Cruelty and 1 Valgavoth, Terror Eater, whereas mark_68's November 8 build used 3 Archon of Cruelty. Each had 1 Raph & Mikey, Troublemakers.

ZerglingMTG also played 4 Galvanic Discharge instead of 3, 4 Teferi, Time Raveler instead of 3, and 1 Prismatic Ending instead of 3. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker fell from 4 to 3. Both sideboards contained 4 Consign to Memory, but ZerglingMTG chose Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Iona, Shield of Emeria where mark_68 had Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines.

Azorius Has the Stronger Claim

We regard Azorius Control's increase as an established rise in representation, not proof of a dominant matchup spread. Its repeated wins distinguish it from Creativity's 2 top eights at 0.8% share. Creativity's next meaningful step is another playoff run after ZerglingMTG's semifinal appearance; Azorius Control already has tournament wins across successive weeks.