What is a control deck?

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Homestar

Guest
what kind of cards are included in a "control" deck. what is a control deck?
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
A control deck is generally one that starts out slow and defensive and strives to take control of the board about mid game so it can clobber you with a creature or two late game. Defensive early spells are Walls or creature removal, mid-game spells are mass removal. Blue/White has been the typical control deck with Swords to Plowshares as the early cheap removal, Wrath of God for the mid-game mass removal, and Counterspells/bounce spells to take care of other threats. Then you put down a creature (in the olden days it was a Serra Angel since it was big and didn't tap to attack so it could be used on defense) and used Counterspells to protect it. Nowadays it could be Morphling or a better white or blue creature from current sets.

Other colors can be control too, Black/White, Black/Green, etc.
 
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DeathMaster666

Guest
In control, you basically neutralize all threats towards you. Once you have done this and they are so far down in terms of Tempo and Card Advantage, you play a win condition and they usually won't have any answers for it.

Heres an example of my B/W Control deck:

4x Vindicate
4x Wrath of God
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Death Grasp
3x Phyrexian Arena
3x Disenchant
2x Rout

1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Feldon's Cane
1x Bargain

3x Land Tax

4x Desolation Angel
4x Phyrexian Scuta

1x Sol Ring
1x Mox Diamond
1x Mana Vault
1x Grim Monolith
4x Scrubland
4x Caves of Koilos
6x Plains
6x Swamp

In the early game, you are trying to deal with any major threats with Swords to Plowshares or establishing a mana base with Land Tax. Midgame you play Phyrexian Arena to draw into stuff like Wrath and Rout to wipe the board. When the oppositon has no creatures in play, you play Desolation Angel and they usually can't recover (they have no creatures or lands). Incidentally, the Phyrexian Scuta is in there for matches against other control decks mainly, because it is aggresively costed.
 
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Homestar

Guest
ooooo i get it now :D . so basically, control decks are for people who dont like to ACTUALLY battle, just whomp completely? either that or whoop it out against a deck you cant beat.
 
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Homestar

Guest
I LOVE to battle, I just hate to play with creatures.
wow, then how do you deal damage? one of my friends has a returning deck with 2 warped devotions and a panoptic mirror and the only way he deals damage is a havoc demon or he juss waits till the opponent gives up. is that i control deck?
 

Killer Joe

New member
With my UBR Control deck for Multi-Player games I have early creature removal via Fire/Ice & Terminate and Counter magic in the way of Counterspell and Undermine. So I become such a thorn to everybody that they leave me alone and attack each other. If they feel like losing a creature or two they'll attack me, but the price is a little high for them.

I also have Isochron Scetper and I sometimes imprint Fire/Ice on and slowly eat away at all of their life totals (2 points each time, and THAT'S slow :)).

The only way to really defeat me is by gang-attacking me. In otherwords, all players have ME in their crosshairs. It's too much for me to bare and I crumble quite quickly, the only catch is that they have to do it early and they leave themselves open to each other to attacks. Muwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....

Oh, btw, I do have two Nether Spirits which can be brought back from the graveyard at the beginning of my upkeep if it's the only creature in my graveyard (which it almost always is!). It's a good 2/2 chump blocker. If I have Keldon Necropolis in play (A non-basic land that taps for colorless mana and the has the ability "4R, Tap, Sacrifice a creature: Keldon Necropolis deals two damage to target creature or player." That's COLORLESS DAMAGE - no CoP: Reds allowed :)). I HAVE eliminated many opponents with THAT one. :D

I just like control type decks, always have. I learned early on that damage means nothing to a control player until they're dead. :cool:

~Mark
 
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Homestar

Guest
lol o.k so you destroy all thier creatures, counter whatever they have left, then juss come in with some huge creature?
 
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chocobo_cid

Guest
Control decks don't have to be blue. One might do land destruction instead.

Control decks can also have a heavy discard theme, using Odessey's madness extensively. Megrim is a staple of those decks, and often a win condition.
 
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Homestar

Guest
also, im not sure if this is an example of a control deck, but if you have a megrim or 2 out, but you can use a cephalid broker or looter to ensure they have a hand.;)
 
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chocobo_cid

Guest
Megrim very easily gets nasty.

Can you say, "Wheel and Deal" coupled with a Hymn to Tourach or two?
 

Killer Joe

New member
Control decks aren't always about blue. Mono-White Control in Standard is proof of that.

My Type I Casual deck is Red/Green/White Control.

In fact, the old Extended Deck "Three Deuce" was a RGW Control. It mainly was created to counter the UB "Trix" decks back in the day. The main idea behind 3-Deuce (2) was that it was three colors and all the cards in it has a casting cost of 2 or less. Very efficient. It had River Boa, Cursed Scroll, Seal of Cleansing, Incinerate, Rancor, Mogg Fanatic, The Green Mirage Guildmage, and sometimes Wax/Wane.

Know that there is a clear and disticnt difference between "Counter-Control" (Using Blue Counter magic et al) and "Control" which can be like "Ponza" (Land Destruction).

Also, playing control decks (especially ones with counter magic) is an accuired taste. It's certainly not for the weak at heart. You MUST be okay with taking early damage, possibly down to single digits before your deck starts to take board control. Also, you must resist the urge to play control decks aggressively such as wanting to attack often and constantly tap out during your turn.

Every early game descision you make can and will make or break you later on in the late game.

~Mark
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
And since blue control seems not to have come up so much here, I'll post mine...

Arctic Circus:

1x Powder Keg
2x Arcane Denial
3x Boomerang
4x Counterspell
4x Ophidian
2x Arcane Laboratory
3x Meditate
4x Forbid
3x Masticore
4x Nevinyrral's Disk
2x Rewind
1x Morphling
4x Force of Will
4x Thawing Glaciers
19x Island
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
I prefer my Thawing Glaciers, which can be even more annoying...

I have seen that Wall deck, now that I think about it. And it won against whatever it was playing...
 
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mythosx

Guest
Originally posted by Homestar
*drooling* day of the dragons is suh an awesome card:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
If you disenchant the day of the dragons before you remove your tokens for dragons...the change becomes permenant...
 
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Nightstalkers

Guest
Originally posted by Oversoul
I prefer my Thawing Glaciers, which can be even more annoying...

I have seen that Wall deck, now that I think about it. And it won against whatever it was playing...
Day of the Dragons is crap.


High mana cost, and its a big target for disenchant/naturalize which makes it pretty useless to you when your opponent gets that itching feeling...
 
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