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A '''Control Deck''' is a term in [[Richard Garfield]]'s [[collectible card game]], ''[[Magic: the Gathering]]'' for a deck of (usually sixty) Magic: The Gathering cards that aims to control the opponent's cards and progression with, ideally, the end result where one has full control of everything that is done during the game. Control decks are very powerful and present in virtually every [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vintage_%28Magic:_The_Gathering%29#Magic:_The_Gathering format] in the game.
A '''control deck''' is a term for a [[deck]] of (usually sixty) cards that aims to [[control]] the opponent's cards and progression with, ideally, the end result where one has full control of everything that is done during the game. Control decks typically get their edge through [[card advantage]].<ref>{{DailyRef|magic-academy/your-first-control-deck-2007-03-17|Your First Control Deck|[[Ben Rubin]]|March 17, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{DailyRef|magic-academy/introduction-inevitability-2007-05-05|Introduction to Inevitability|[[Jeff Cunningham]]|May 05, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{DailyRef|magic-academy/playing-against-control-2007-06-02|Playing Against Control|[[Jeff Cunningham]]|June 02, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{DailyRef|latest-developments/out-control-2005-04-01-2|Out of Control|[[Aaron Forsythe]]|April 01, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{DailyRef|latest-developments/out-control-2005-04-01|Out of Control (2)|[[Aaron Forsythe]]|April 01, 2005}}</ref>


==Aspects of control==
==Aspects of control==


Control decks are, unlike [[Aggro deck]]s and [[Combo deck]]s, defensive and reactive in nature. Because of this, Control has some major flaws in its pure state. These primary downfalls are 1)In order to reach the point of total control, one needs many resources and access to many cards and 2)Generally, if one's opponent can play more spells and threats than one can respond to, pure Control decks can have difficulty recovering. Due to this, most control decks have two major things in common:
Control decks intend to trade resources until the opponent falls behind on card quality. Due to the nature of the game engine, other decks have to play four to five times more lands than their game plan desires, which means that a quarter to a third of their deck are not useful resources after turn seven. Once the opponent's kill clock is slowed to a crawl, the control deck can refuel, which can take many varied forms depending on the format. The control deck can then develop its lead and win at its leisure.


*Continual card drawing is a major aspect in control decks, as it keeps one's resources consistently available.
Control decks are, unlike [[Aggro deck]]s and [[Combo deck]]s, defensive and reactive in nature.<ref>{{DailyRef|lo/control-decks-2014-10-06|Control Decks|[[Reid Duke]]|October 6, 2014}}</ref> Because of this, Control has some major flaws in its pure state. These primary downfalls are:
*The vast majority of cards that are not win conditions or card drawing spells are spells that react to any threat one's opponent can play, so that you can, ideally, respond to everything.
# Most answers only stop one card at a time. The last threat will still kill a control deck if unanswered, and this compounds with threats that generate value after being cast. Only the best threats ever get played, so playing a control deck means trying to manage all of them.
#Universal answers cost more mana, so the control deck has to weigh up playing a suite of answers that either cost too much or won't hit the right targets. A control deck can only afford to trade down on mana once or twice a game before double spelling catches up to them.
Due to this, most control decks have two major things in common. A reliable form of card advantage is a major aspect of control decks, as it allows continual trading of cards and use of the high volume of lands, and an answer suite that will reliably push the game to a stalemate. One final aspect is that many control decks don't play easily-answered creatures, as rendering opposing interaction blank is an important draw to playing control - but this comes at the cost that blocking is often not an option, making even spare 1/1s dangerous.


Control decks intend to collect resources and defend themselves until they gain total control of the game. At this point they play a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_terms#Threat threat] and continue to control the opponent until the threat kills them. The manner in which these control decks defend themselves is most often how they are defined.
Because control decks are defensive in nature, they often need to adopt elements of [[Aggro deck]]s or [[Combo deck]]s in some [[metagame]]s. Some control decks use combos to win rather than the traditional few [[threat]]s, but not many; if the combo is strong enough to win by itself it is typically better to put a proactive shell around it, forcing opponents to tap out and be vulnerable. Otherwise, if the combo-kill is the best thing the control deck can use, it typically signifies that a metagame is unbalanced - aggressive decks will need to include disruption to defend against the combo, which weakens consistency and draws out into the late game that control is favored in. When a Control deck adopts some aggro elements, they usually use efficient creatures or spells that gain [[tempo]] early in the game. Most Control decks that need to adopt certain elements of combo or aggro decks are forced to do so in certain metagames where standard resource trading is unprofitable. Thus, the common long-term plan of winning with Control becomes too elaborate and ineffective early on.


Because control decks are defensive in nature, they often need to adopt elements of [[Aggro deck]]s or [[Combo deck]]s in some [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_terms#Metagame metagames]. Some control decks use combos to win rather than the traditional few [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_terms#Threat threats], but not many; the average control deck uses so many control spells that there's little room to support an effective combo. When a Control deck adopts some aggro elements, they usually use efficient creatures or spells that gain [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_terms#Tempo tempo] early in the game. Most Control decks that need to adopt certain elements of combo or aggro decks are forced to do so in a certain metagame where most other decks win very quickly (due to very powerful combos or extremely effective aggro creatures) and the common long-term plan of winning Control has becomes to elaborate and ineffective early on.
==Some examples==


==Some examples==
===Blue-x Control===
The classic control deck, blue/x control utilizes <c>Counterspell</c> and its like to counter threats while increasing its land base in order to use its own limited number of threats.<ref>{{DailyRef|feature/asking-permission-2002-04-12|Asking Permission|[[Randy Buehler]]|April 12, 2002}}</ref><ref>{{DailyRef|making-magic/counter-intelligence-2005-03-28|Counter Intelligence|[[Mark Rosewater]]|March 28, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{DailyRef|counterspell-conundrum-2002-04-19|Counterspell Conundrum|[[Randy Buehler]]|April 19, 2002}}</ref> It also has the largest suite of raw card drawing. While pure U (MUC) decks are rare due to the lack of true battlefield removal, UW and UB control are almost always present in standard formats, White offering board sweepers like <c>Wrath of God</c> and stall cards like <c>Moat</c>, <c>Humility</c>, and more recently <c>Timely Reinforcements</c>, and Black offering more efficient creature removal like <c>Doom Blade</c> and discard/disruption in the form of cards like <c>Duress</c>. Red's contribution is often through even more efficient burn spells and damage sweepers alongside spell-based synergies.


===Mono-Blue Control===
===Land Destruction / Land Lock===
The Mono-Blue Control ("MUC") deck ("Mono" because Blue is the only color being played, ''U'' for Blue because ''B'' represents Black) is considered one of the strongest. It uses counterspells, which can disrupt the casting of any spell, to interrupt crucial spells and prevent the opponent from doing anything threatening. These counterspells are generally backed up with another of Blue's specialties, card-drawing spells (to refill the player's hand with counters) and a small number of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_terms#Threat threat]s. It creates an almost [[poker]]-like game environment: Blue's most classic counterspell, the card called [http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=SeventhEdition&name=counterspell# Counterspell], costs only two blue mana to cast, and by keeping two Islands untapped and one card&mdash;''any'' card&mdash;in his hand, a MUC player can reduce his opponent to a state of extreme anxiety.  In recent years, due to its unpopularity among some players (counterspells are very difficult to stop with anything other than another counterspell), Wizards of the Coast has been trying to reduce the power of such decks, by printing less capable counter and card-draw spells.
There are two basic types of cards in '''Magic''': lands, and spells. [[Land destruction]] decks focus on depriving the opponent of this critical resource. It hits lower on the food chain than Counterspell decks, and is thus easier to play; without lands, after all, your opponent can't ''cast'' anything, rendering counterspells unnecessary. Classic cards include <c>Sinkhole</c>, <c>Armageddon</c>, and <c>Strip Mine</c>. Small-creature decks, particularly [[White Weenie]], are designed to be most effective in the early parts of the game, and therefore can run successfully on only a few lands and are thus less threatened. Land destruction has not been particularly viable as of late, as a consequence of Wizards of the Coast's conscious decision to keep the archetype from being viable, since their market research shows most players don't enjoy playing against it.


====White-Blue Control====
===Mono Black===
White-Blue Control decks are, in essence, Mono-Blue Control decks with White added in order to be more offensive towards [[Aggro deck]]s with cards like [http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=NinthEdition&name=wrath_of_god# Wrath of God]. Some White-Blue Control decks have developed because they were in metagames where [[Aggro deck]]s ran rampant, so white's array of creature destruction spells were necessary. Also, in the past, white has brought MUC many powerful creatures like [http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=Onslaught&name=exalted_angel# Exalted Angel].
Black uses its discard effects like <c>Duress</c> or <c>Thoughtseize</c> to prevent troublesome cards from ever entering play. It also kills creatures very efficiently and can access large amounts of mana with cards such as <c>Cabal Coffers</c>, making its second-rate card advantage options more palatable. However, mono-black has problems dealing with artifacts and enchantments and thus requires expensive colorless removal such as <c>Oblivion Stone</c> to handle them.


===Land Destruction===
===Prison===
There are two basic types of cards in '''Magic''': Lands, and Spells.  Land Destruction decks focus on depriving the opponent of this critical resource.  It hits lower on the food chain than Counterspell decks, and is thus easier to play; without lands, after all, your opponent can't ''cast'' anything, rendering counterspells unnecessary.  Red has, by far, the most land-destruction cards, with Green and Black tied for second (many of Black's land-destruction spells are over ten years old and illegal in some tournaments, whereas Green started only recently).  Blue and White have extremely limited resources in this area, but White's spell, [http://magiccards.info/5e/en/283/ Armageddon], is the most powerful land-destruction spell in the game.  MUC is particularly susceptible to other land destruction control decks, as it needs many resources to be able to counter other spells. Small-creature decks, on the other hand, particularly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggro_deck#White_Weenie White Weenie], are designed to be most effective in the early parts of the game, and therefore can run successfully on only a few lands and are thus less threatened.
A prison deck is a style of control deck that attempts to establish a "lock" which prevents the opponent from interacting at all, such as preventing them from drawing useful cards, countering every spell, or not letting an opponent untap. For example, <c>Jace, the Mind Sculptor</c> alone can be a temporary lock with his first ability, at least long enough to activate the ultimate and seal the game.


===Black Discard===
Other popular locks include Counterbalance with <c>Sensei's Divining Top</c> to alter the top of the library as required. One of the oldest and then more popular prison decks at the time created a lockdown on the board between <c>Stasis</c> and <c>Kismet</c>. [[Turbo Stasis]] would attempt to continually draw Islands or temporarily sacrifice a Stasis to <c>Despotic Scepter</c> to untap all of the own permanents, only to play another during the turn. Another Stasis lock would use <c>Chronatog</c> to skip all own turns, thus also preventing Stasis from leaving play, and have the opponent draw until he can draw no more and die.
One of Black's specialties are cards that allow the player to force his opponent to discard cards from his hand, or occasionally from his deck. Sometimes these cards even allow the black player to ''choose'' which card the opponent discards, ie [http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=UrzasSaga&name=duress# Duress].  This is a very practical ability as, without cards to play, the player is powerless, even more so than when attacked by land destruction: discard, again, attacks lower on the food chain, taking the opponent's lands and spells from his hand ''before'' he can play them.  Black even has creatures that force the player to repeatedly discard cards with creature like [http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=NinthEdition&name=hypnotic_specter# Hypnotic Specter].  This, combined with Black's limited ability to draw cards for itself, can leave the opponent twiddling his thumbs for lack of anything else to do with his empty hands.


==See also==
==See also==
*[[Magic: The Gathering deck types]]
*[[Archetype]]s
*[[Aggro deck]]
*[[Aggro deck]]
*[[Combo deck]]
*[[Combo deck]]
*[[Midgame deck]]
*[[Aggro-control deck]]
*[[Aggro-Control deck]]
*[[Permission]]
*[[List of Magic: The Gathering terms]]


[[Category: Magic: The Gathering|Control deck]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*{{DailyRef|how-build/how-build-control-2017-01-31|How to Build Control|Quinn Murhpy|January 31, 2017}}
*{{DailyRef|play-design/philosophy-control-2017-10-06|Philosophy of Control|[[Melissa DeTora]]|October 6, 2017}}
[[Category:Deck archetypes]]

Latest revision as of 02:22, 18 June 2024

A control deck is a term for a deck of (usually sixty) cards that aims to control the opponent's cards and progression with, ideally, the end result where one has full control of everything that is done during the game. Control decks typically get their edge through card advantage.[1][2][3][4][5]

Aspects of control

Control decks intend to trade resources until the opponent falls behind on card quality. Due to the nature of the game engine, other decks have to play four to five times more lands than their game plan desires, which means that a quarter to a third of their deck are not useful resources after turn seven. Once the opponent's kill clock is slowed to a crawl, the control deck can refuel, which can take many varied forms depending on the format. The control deck can then develop its lead and win at its leisure.

Control decks are, unlike Aggro decks and Combo decks, defensive and reactive in nature.[6] Because of this, Control has some major flaws in its pure state. These primary downfalls are:

  1. Most answers only stop one card at a time. The last threat will still kill a control deck if unanswered, and this compounds with threats that generate value after being cast. Only the best threats ever get played, so playing a control deck means trying to manage all of them.
  2. Universal answers cost more mana, so the control deck has to weigh up playing a suite of answers that either cost too much or won't hit the right targets. A control deck can only afford to trade down on mana once or twice a game before double spelling catches up to them.

Due to this, most control decks have two major things in common. A reliable form of card advantage is a major aspect of control decks, as it allows continual trading of cards and use of the high volume of lands, and an answer suite that will reliably push the game to a stalemate. One final aspect is that many control decks don't play easily-answered creatures, as rendering opposing interaction blank is an important draw to playing control - but this comes at the cost that blocking is often not an option, making even spare 1/1s dangerous.

Because control decks are defensive in nature, they often need to adopt elements of Aggro decks or Combo decks in some metagames. Some control decks use combos to win rather than the traditional few threats, but not many; if the combo is strong enough to win by itself it is typically better to put a proactive shell around it, forcing opponents to tap out and be vulnerable. Otherwise, if the combo-kill is the best thing the control deck can use, it typically signifies that a metagame is unbalanced - aggressive decks will need to include disruption to defend against the combo, which weakens consistency and draws out into the late game that control is favored in. When a Control deck adopts some aggro elements, they usually use efficient creatures or spells that gain tempo early in the game. Most Control decks that need to adopt certain elements of combo or aggro decks are forced to do so in certain metagames where standard resource trading is unprofitable. Thus, the common long-term plan of winning with Control becomes too elaborate and ineffective early on.

Some examples

Blue-x Control

The classic control deck, blue/x control utilizes Counterspell and its like to counter threats while increasing its land base in order to use its own limited number of threats.[7][8][9] It also has the largest suite of raw card drawing. While pure U (MUC) decks are rare due to the lack of true battlefield removal, UW and UB control are almost always present in standard formats, White offering board sweepers like Wrath of God and stall cards like Moat, Humility, and more recently Timely Reinforcements, and Black offering more efficient creature removal like Doom Blade and discard/disruption in the form of cards like Duress. Red's contribution is often through even more efficient burn spells and damage sweepers alongside spell-based synergies.

Land Destruction / Land Lock

There are two basic types of cards in Magic: lands, and spells. Land destruction decks focus on depriving the opponent of this critical resource. It hits lower on the food chain than Counterspell decks, and is thus easier to play; without lands, after all, your opponent can't cast anything, rendering counterspells unnecessary. Classic cards include Sinkhole, Armageddon, and Strip Mine. Small-creature decks, particularly White Weenie, are designed to be most effective in the early parts of the game, and therefore can run successfully on only a few lands and are thus less threatened. Land destruction has not been particularly viable as of late, as a consequence of Wizards of the Coast's conscious decision to keep the archetype from being viable, since their market research shows most players don't enjoy playing against it.

Mono Black

Black uses its discard effects like Duress or Thoughtseize to prevent troublesome cards from ever entering play. It also kills creatures very efficiently and can access large amounts of mana with cards such as Cabal Coffers, making its second-rate card advantage options more palatable. However, mono-black has problems dealing with artifacts and enchantments and thus requires expensive colorless removal such as Oblivion Stone to handle them.

Prison

A prison deck is a style of control deck that attempts to establish a "lock" which prevents the opponent from interacting at all, such as preventing them from drawing useful cards, countering every spell, or not letting an opponent untap. For example, Jace, the Mind Sculptor alone can be a temporary lock with his first ability, at least long enough to activate the ultimate and seal the game.

Other popular locks include Counterbalance with Sensei's Divining Top to alter the top of the library as required. One of the oldest and then more popular prison decks at the time created a lockdown on the board between Stasis and Kismet. Turbo Stasis would attempt to continually draw Islands or temporarily sacrifice a Stasis to Despotic Scepter to untap all of the own permanents, only to play another during the turn. Another Stasis lock would use Chronatog to skip all own turns, thus also preventing Stasis from leaving play, and have the opponent draw until he can draw no more and die.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ben Rubin (March 17, 2007). "Your First Control Deck". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  2. ↑ Jeff Cunningham (May 05, 2007). "Introduction to Inevitability". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  3. ↑ Jeff Cunningham (June 02, 2007). "Playing Against Control". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  4. ↑ Aaron Forsythe (April 01, 2005). "Out of Control". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  5. ↑ Aaron Forsythe (April 01, 2005). "Out of Control (2)". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  6. ↑ Reid Duke (October 6, 2014). "Control Decks". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  7. ↑ Randy Buehler (April 12, 2002). "Asking Permission". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  8. ↑ Mark Rosewater (March 28, 2005). "Counter Intelligence". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  9. ↑ Randy Buehler (April 19, 2002). "Counterspell Conundrum". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.

External links

Retrieved from "https://mtg.wiki/index.php?title=Control_deck&oldid=42884"