Control players, how do you respond to various threats?
General forum
Posted on Nov. 14, 2012, 4:32 p.m. by linkizzl
I am new to playing control (and newish to magic, only been playing a year) my current standard deck is : Izzet Cont- stfu with Izzet puns.. I took it to its first FNM the other week, and although I didn't do badly, I found out I have no idea how to play control.
How do you respond to mana dorks suck as Arbor Elf ? Counter, burn, or leave alone?
Mana ramp such as Farseek ? Counter or leave it be?
Other different scenarios I may not be thinking of that I may run into?
What about when you play your win-condition creatures? For example, would I play a Hypersonic Dragon , Jace, Memory Adept or Tamiyo, the Moon Sage turn 5 and start swinging/doing my walker thing? Or wait till turn 8 when I could play them and also have a counter available on their turn?
If you want to comment on my particular deck, please don't do that here, do that on the deck's page.
rckclimber777 says... #3
It all depends on what your opponent's deck is doing. If that mana ramp is that important to their deck then deal with it immediately. The ramp is typically going to be there for something bigger. Its the something bigger that you want to make sure doesn't hit the table.
As to your win-con. Hypersonic Dragon is very lackluster. In a control deck you don't really need to worry about swinging nearly that much. It's about making sure that your opponent can't kill you. Once you've stabilized then you can begin worrying about everything else. And as far as izzet goes. Niv-mizzet is much better for a win con.
Things to keep in mind. As a control deck, you're giving up board position most times in lieu of gaining card advantage. You need to be able to replenish your hand and make sure that your opponent's board doesn't get overwhelming.
November 14, 2012 4:44 p.m.
for Arbor Elf , leave it alone. then when they tap it, kill it. if its card:Avacyn's Pilgrim, then do what rckclimber777 said in his first paragraph
November 14, 2012 7:47 p.m.
I'm on the same learning curve as you. Mana ramps are also tricky to deal with for me. The best advice I can give you is to be patient with your win cons. Your strength will be late game, play for it.
November 14, 2012 8:28 p.m.
i suggest you get rid of the bigger creatures/spells that they are ramping towards to, that way you dont use up counterspells on very minor things. For the mana dorks if he has to many i suggest just onloading that Mizzium Mortars of yours on them once he/she gets most of them out.
Epochalyptik says... #2
The Q&A is for rules-related questions. Moved to general forums.
November 14, 2012 4:32 p.m.