Pattern Recognition #216 - More Control

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

28 October 2021

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Hello everyone! This is Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series as written by myself, berryjon. I am something of an Old Fogey who has been around the block quite a few times where Magic is concerned, as as such, I use this series to talk about the various aspects of this game, be it deck design, card construction, mechanics chat, in-universe characters and history. Or whatever happens to cross my mind this week. Please, feel free to dissent in the comments below the article, add suggestions or just plain correct me! I am a Smart Ass, so I can take it.

This was not an easy article to write. You see, in the wake of last week's talk about Control decks, one of the other forums that I cross-post the article (or at least link to) had a very... let's call it intense conversation about the nature of that sort of deck and the people who played them.

I'm not going to repeat the arguments here, but I did observe an interesting digression into one aspect that I missed - Man Lands as part of the finisher for Control decks. Instead, as part of the whole explosion of opinions, I suggested that perhaps I should tackle a different kind of Control deck and compare the two, putting out as an example.

Me and my big mouth.

You see, I can build a mono control deck, I ran one while Theros: Beyond Death was in standard rotation, and I've taken it to Commander with Syr Konrad, the Grim. I've built mono control, from Red Deck Wins in standard to Zo-Zu the Punisher in, again, Commander.

But I've never built a Control deck. I just don't really see it. So in a way, this article is a took that I'm using to direct my own research and self-teaching of the archetype.

Now, this is not to say that I haven't built before. That's not true at all. My current casual Commander deck is Kalain, Reclusive Painter, and I have a similar deck on Arena right now for Standard. Haven't quite buckled down and made a Brawl deck as it would overlap too much with Killian for my tastes. So I know how to build these colours, but it tends more toward Agro or Mid-range with just a hint of Control because you can't be in these colours without running removal. It just shows up in your deck, like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet. You don't have to think about it at all!

So moving forward into trying to figure out a decent enough control deck, I went to Commander for inspiration. Because of the nature of the format, and the Commander itself, I would have a pace to start. So I went over to EDHRec and pulled up the list of Rakdos Commanders.

Glad to see Lady Orca is at the bottom, as she's literally a worse Tsabo Tavoc and is plain vanilla.

But at the top of the list is Anje Falkenrath. This Commander-product card came with the Madness precon a couple of years ago - or was that last summer? - and now seems to be the most popular Rakdos Commander out there.

I can work with this. I might not pull out a deck, but I can White-Paper one into existence. rubs hands So, let's start by looking under the hood and examining how and act to control their opponents.

Last week, I argued that a Control Deck acted to Delay and Deny the opponent's resources, and in their own ways, this colour pairing does much the same thing. Deny Boardstate and Delay further plays. But how they go about this is a far cry from sitting around with a Dovin's Veto or an Absorb in hand.

I've thought about this a bit, doing writing and reading, and I've come to the conclusion that I want to call the general archetype of "Slash and Burn". Because it's pithy comment and a great way to introduce new players to what this type of deck is about to unleash.

You see, unlike Control, where there is a lot of synergy and a lot of overlap in how the two colours cooperate, is the type of deck where the two colours do different things, and they cooperate by saying to the other side of the deck, "Hey buddy, I got this."

Here, starts out with things like Hand Disruption. Duress is a standard staple, but this can go all the way to Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek on the higher ends. Whereas has to wait for cards to get out of the hand and onto the stack before it can deal with them, takes the initiative and goes after cards in hand. The cheaper options either have limited targeting criteria for what they can remove, cause discarding at random or at the target's choice, or are more expensive to cast.

But even once on the table, as 's counterspells are pretty much limited to Dash Hopes, still has a few options to deal with most card types. As I have talked about in previous articles, the easiest card type for this colour to deal with is creatures. This colour has options ranging from direct removal from Terror, to plenty of creatures of their own with Deathtouch, like with Bone Picker, through to mass removal like Languish.

On the flip side, they have extreme difficulty in dealing with Enchantments, something of a strong point of the other three colors. While in recent years, has gotten cards like Baleful Beholder, or Mire in Misery which can force an opponent to sacrifice an enchantment (of their choice, sadly), or Feed the Swarm for more directed removal at a price.

Other Lands and Planeswalkers are middling in terms of being able to control them on the board state. Often, you'll get cards like Grim Bounty or Murderous Rider that can take out both Creatures and Planeswalkers, but doesn't make direct removal of Planeswalkers a priority in each set. Land removal is very rare, and is often paired with or on a card. Rain of Tears was definitely an exception and not the rule.

provides the Slash in this archetype, as it attacks nothing with extreme prejudice, but hits along wide swathes of the opponents resources, from their hand to their life total. They cut into everything they can get their hands on, knowing that each single hit is another kink in the armor of their foes. And eventually, something will crack.

On the other side, approaches things from a different angle. For starters, they don't attack the hand, rather they will temporarily expand their hand by exiling portions of their deck as a resource. Where forces people to reduce their options, expands their own, often giving the side more help along the way.

Yes, can outright draw cards, but it's usually done with a price, such as with life loss or sacrificing a creature - Phyrexian Arena or Village Rites. just asks that you be read to use what you have and use it well before it goes away for good.

is also really good at damaging things, and it best when it comes to land removal. The latter is an important part of any proper control deck that includes as land removal is, when Wizards isn't chickening out and letting the lands get replaced, a way to set back the opponent's base resources.

And if there's anything that will get you hated off the table faster than going "Draw, Go, No" with Grand Arbiter Augustin IV and Baral, Chief of Compliance on the table, it's touching people's lands. Seriously. But dropping even a single Stone Rain on an opponent early in the game can set them back a full turn permanently, which is devastating in small doses, and utterly lethal in larger doses.

is also the God-King-Eternal of sheer, unadulterated damage. From the classic Fireball to the modern day, if you want something burned to death, from creatures to Planeswalkers to players, is your man. They also Smash Artifacts like it was going out of style, and really, all they can do is look at Enchantments and impotently shake their fists.

There is a reason why and the phrase Burn go hand in hand, and this is it.

So what does this have to do with each other? Well, in a way, Control is still about denying your opponent a board state, but first you have to let them have a Board state to begin with. I know it seems antithetical to Control to simply let someone get away with something, but given that cards with "This spell can't be countered" is being written on it more and more - I mean for Urza's sake, Magic Missile was printed this past summer! So once something has hit the table and has much narrower options to deal with it? Well, can pull out Inferno and laugh all the way to the bank. They can cast Chandra, Awakened Inferno, and really lay out the hurt.

Control is not about hating you out of the game. It's about covering the whole world on fire, and lighting it up, laughing all the way. I call this archetype 'Slash and Burn', not just because it's a cute little saying, but because for all the things these colors do to their enemies, they are also more than willing to do to themselves.

That, I suppose is the crux of the difference. wants nothing to happen, whereas wants things to happen. They want creatures or cards on the board. They want action, not Stasis. This is a combination that has no problem throwing out response after response, because they have one little nugget of knowledge in the back of their head.

They can take as much as they give. A Control deck is fine with you fighting them. They are fine with trading spells, having their Flametongue Kavu or their Blood Artist die. To them, it's the fight that matters. The interaction and the effort put into it. Saying "Draw, Go, No" is anathema to them, because nothing happens, nothing gets done. It's not playing the game. To them, that's solitaire. This is Control that wants to get down and dirty with the opponents, slugging it out to the bitter end.

It's just a fight they happened to be better prepared for, that's all.

So how does this tie back into Anje Falkenrath?

In the end, it doesn't. She's nothing special. She's just an enabler. A creature that makes sure that you can always have another option, even when all you have is a land. She was just a way to get my thoughts going.

I wish I could describe this archtype better, but to be honest, there's a lot of overlap with your traditional agro and midrange going on here. It's hard to separate things out from the wheat and the chaff.

Join me next week when I look at a counter-archetype, and show off just how it works, and why. Because apparently, this is me doing deck archetypes for a while now!

Until then please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!