Episode 241: Don't Play Control in Modern & RCQ Prep, ft. George Jabbour

President of the Narset fan club, George Jabbour, joins Stanislav to go over some tips to prep for the upcoming Modern RCQ season, a brand new sideboard guide tool, and why playing control is such a pain in the @$$. Stan and George are gearing up for some Modern RCQs this weekend, so they swap notes on how they prepare for competitive tournaments in any format. Plus, George talks about his brand new sideboard tool, flexslot.gg, which he developed himself and is free for anyone to use. Finally, we dive into control strategies, which are near and dear to George's heart, to go over why they're so tough to play, how they stack up against today's Modern metagame, and why some people should probably avoid them. The Break Down: How to prepare for a Modern tournament. The Dive Down: Never playing control again. Become a citizen of The Dive Down Nation!: http://www.patreon.com/thedivedown Show the world that you're a proud citizen of The Dive Down Nation with some merch from the store: https://www.thedivedown.com/store Upgrade your gameplay and your gameday with Heavy Play accessories. Use code THEDIVEDOWN2023 for 10% off your first order at https://www.heavyplay.com Check out our sponsor Barrister and Mann! https://www.barristerandmann.com/ Use coupon code THEDIVEDOWN23 for 15% off your first order of some incredible fragrances, soaps, beard oils, and more. Get 10% off your first 2 months of ManaTraders! https://www.manatraders.com/?medium=thedivedown and use coupon code THEDIVEDOWN23 And now receive 8% off your order of paper cards from Nerd Rage Gaming with code DIVE8 at https://www.nerdragegaming.com/ Timestamps: 1:12 - Stan gets Heavy 3:33 - Housekeeping 5:55 - George in the Grinder's Studio 17:41 - Tournament prep practices 48:19 - Sideboarding and flexslot.gg 1:00:25 - Special Shane smell appearance 1:04:40 - Talking about Control 1:14:07 - How to think about playing Control 1:21:48 - Evaluating Control finishers 1:27:47 - Controls matchups 1:36:38 - Promoting George 1:38:33 - Wrapping up Links from this week's episode: https://linktr.ee/jabjabber https://shuddermtg.substack.com/p/how-bad-practice-can-make-you-worse-085 Our opening music is Nowhere - You Never Knew, and our closing music is Space Blood - Goro? Is That Your Christian Name? email us: [email protected] twitter: https://twitter.com/thedivedown