what is a control deck?
General forum
Posted on Oct. 10, 2013, 8:19 p.m. by patrickloyd
i know their is a lot of types of control deck but what are they, what do they do, how do they work?
cartwheelnurd says... #4
They control the enemies' win conditions until they can take over the game using either a crazy strong bomb or planeswalkers, etc. Utilizes mostly kill spells, board wipes, and counterspells.
October 10, 2013 8:24 p.m.
patrickloyd says... #7
what about a unblockable deck? i want to try and make one but i want a theme.any ideas
October 10, 2013 8:30 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #8
Control decks use cards that gain them card advantage or control the board, or both, until a win con can be played. They tend to play a lot of draws, and boardwipes as a result.
An aura based deck is good for unblockable good stuff.
October 10, 2013 8:35 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #9
unblockable is a good start, but you'd want to either have a lot of them or include some spells/auras to pump up those creatures.
October 10, 2013 8:36 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #12
no those would most likely end up as aggro decks.
October 10, 2013 8:44 p.m.
A haunt deck would be more of a midrange deck because of the amount of creatures you have to play to haunt the opponents creatures. A token deck is the same because its goal is to make creatures, but not relentlessly kill the opponent ASAP.
October 10, 2013 8:44 p.m.
patrickloyd says... #14
my brother made a mono red deck that focused on hitting the player with damage, he had no creatures in his deck only cards that dealt damage to target creature or player. is that a control deck?
October 10, 2013 8:47 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #15
no, that's a burn deck. A control deck deals mainly in what your opponent is doing, rather than aggressively trying to deplete your opponent's life points
October 10, 2013 8:49 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #16
https://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/academy/29
October 10, 2013 8:49 p.m.
Schuesseled, THANK YOU. When I asked for help on my Monochromatic Control deck, so many people were harping on me for not having card advantage. At least someone agrees with me that not all control decks have to have card advantage.
October 10, 2013 8:50 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #18
WEll you don't have to have it, but it does stop you from relying on top decking.
October 10, 2013 8:53 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #19
truth, nothing worse than top decking with a control deck
October 10, 2013 8:55 p.m.
patrickloyd says... #20
oh ok, well it is very powerful, i made a devil deck off of those cards, it is really cool, i will have to post it some time so you can look at is
October 10, 2013 8:57 p.m.
Every time I've played it I've actually had few problems with top decking, by the time I did I usually had one of the Chancellors out. Then it was just draw into Griselbrand and win.
October 10, 2013 9:13 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #23
There's an article about this on the home page...
October 10, 2013 9:22 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #24
Well Griselbrand is the card advantage king, so.....
Whats the problem.
October 10, 2013 9:24 p.m.
People didn't like that I didn't have constant card advantage from the beginning I guess. People also don't know what the phrase "I don't want kill spells" means. So many people suggested kill spells despite me clearly saying that I want it to feel like mono-blue control.
October 10, 2013 10:05 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #26
@acbooster that's a problem I have with this site, soooo many people feel like just because you deckcycle that gives them permission to tell you that their way is right and best
October 10, 2013 10:10 p.m.
Right. And if you ask for specific advice, some people just ignore it and criticize the whole thing. I've had people tell me my deck is crap even though I've played it many times and it won 7 times out of 10, which is a good ratio for my group.
October 10, 2013 10:14 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #28
what really pisses me off is when people tell me to change my win condition, because it's always a card that all the pros use like AEtherling , sure it's a great card but that doesn't mean every swingin' dick has to run it.
October 10, 2013 10:18 p.m.
Exactly! I'm just glad no one has touched my Gruul counter-control deck AKA "I Hate Blue".
October 10, 2013 10:20 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #30
lmao I've just decided when I deckcycle I'll ignore/delete any comments that are totally useless or rude
October 10, 2013 10:22 p.m.
Right. I think about doing that every time, but then I decide I like having the reminders of who's an ass and who's not. If they're an ass, I record their name and block them if they do it again.
October 10, 2013 10:23 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #32
lol ur much more tolerable than me, but then again I basically tell people what kind of behavior I don't tolerate on my "about me" section lol I've only blocked 2 people so far and both cases they were unnecessarily jerkish about their suggestions.
October 10, 2013 10:26 p.m.
I read this article yesterday that KrazyCaley wrote, very informative. You should check it out.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-articles/2013/oct/6/control-101/
October 10, 2013 11:02 p.m.
My control deck is based around consistent removal of various forms... Exile, Damage, board wipe.
The only real card advantage I run is 3x Sphinx's Revelation ... beyond that I run Azorius Charm which can allow card cycling (as well as tempo advantage when used as removal), and then Magma Jet as a method of creating consistency (get land when needed, or Bombs when I am ready for them.) - Total of 28 removal options in the deck (including PW's abilities), and no counter spells, except for Gainsay in my sideboard to protect my Bombs when playing other control decks.
Prior to this deck, I had a control deck that used mainly Render Silent and Silence ... I put them under Elite Arcanist and protected it with Rootborn Defenses and Boros Charm ... then prevented the opponent from doing anything until I had Ajani, Caller of the Pride Ultimate. (Deck went 4-1 once and 3-1-1 another time)
So control decks can be done in a number of ways... even turbo fog can arguably be classified as control... not necessarily controlling the board, but you are controlling the damage until you get your win-con rolling.
(My current control deck: You will RUW the day!)
HarbingerJK says... #2
they basically stall the game out until the board stabilizes for the player using the control deck and then they implement their win condition. This is usually done through counter spells, card draw, kill spells. Control decks usually run very few, but very powerful creatures.
October 10, 2013 8:21 p.m.