 |
| Home Articles Zendikar Spoiler (249/249) Radar Forums Blogs Wiki Writing/Contests Chat About |
Control Freak: An Introduction to Control in StandardBy David Hitchcock on May 10th, 2006 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 13 CommentsControl is the paper to Combo's rock, and Aggro's scissors. The trick to building Control in Standard is to make the paper difficult to cut through with scissors alone. The kind of players who are attracted to control decks probably also "Turtle" in real-time strategy games, or play goal/defense on a sports team. Woof! Woof! YELP!? The answer, my friend: Know Thy Enemy. To become a better aggro or combo player, you must be able to understand how the hated control player thinks and operates. What defines a control card in Standard? Although I am clearly brief only in a Swiftian sense, I would like to go over what makes a card a control card in Standard today. These points are not ironclad, as some great control cards like Kokusho, the Evening Star and Grave Pact do not have any of these attributes, or contain aspects of several, or aren't normally control cards at all, as we shall see: 1. It is permission. If I were to rank the control cards in Standard (which I won't; thats un-possible!), the top 2 would still be counterspells. The ability to stop something from happening in Magic is the ultimate form of control, and the reason why new counterspells have slowly been reduced in power. 2. It is prevention. Some control cards prevent things from happening, but do not actually counter spells. Cards like Ivory Mask or Pithing Needle directly prevent effects from occurring and are often staples in a control deck. 3. It is advantage. Most often when a control player talks about advantage, he is referring to card advantage: drawing cards. Some consummate control decks get along without doing this, but they usually do so by having incredible card quality and Wrath of MAUDE? 4. It is a finisher. Every control deck needs a method of eventually winning the game. Some famous finishers from past control decks are Memnarch and Darksteel Colossus from Darksteel, Exalted Angel from Onslaught, and Meloku from Kamigawa. Finishers are not necessarily creatures, but in modern Standard, it is often the case. Okay . . . so? Every control deck has cards that fill these roles and not necessarily in the most obvious ways. Some control decks of yore used so much permission that it was also their prevention. Some had no counterspells at all, as their permission was more specific to an opponent's hand, board, or options (like an attack step). Moreover, somecontrol decks don't even play like control decks at all, and yet they use that same overarching philosophy of control we discussed earlier. Aggro, still here? If you crazy aggro players are still with me, these four card types can tell you a lot about how control decks operate. If a control deck cannot use permission on you, or cannot prevent you from doing things, they are stuck using their advantage cards to stay alive. That is a good situation for you to be in. Don't overextend! Play around Wrath of God! Yell incomprehensible craziness at them to mess with their train of thought! You know, all that stuff you do already. What types of control decks can we find in Standard? For the most part, we can break down the various control decks found in Standard today into three distinct categories: 1. "Permission" Control: This category contains the majority of your classic  /X decks. These decks typically deny their opponent the ability to resolve any spell or effect that would attack their position of control. Decks like Firemane Control, the late Jushi Control, and the upcoming  control builds fit into this category.2. Aggro-Control: This category has your faster control decks, which try to create early-game pressure and prevent the opponent from dealing with it. An example from previous formats would be the almighty Madness aggro-control deck of Oddyssey Standard. Today's format has (or will probably have) decks packing  combinations, much like Critical Mass, and decks which run for a "Cloudy Skies" kind of feel. (I have so copyrighted that! Double-stampy no stamp-backs!)3. "Tempo" or "Pressure" Control: This category contains most of the "oddball" control decks, the ones that may or may not pack permission at all. The decks usually attain control by casting one devastating spell after another, simply forcing the opponent to deal with the results in perpetuity. Decks like Howling Owl and "Beach House"  Control are fine examples of this philosophy.Now let's talk specific cards for a bit. I would like to stir up some discussion over new control cards in Dissension, so what I have done below is listed off seven cards in Dissension I feel will be the most important control cards to buy, trade for, or steal, with a short explanation of why. After that, I have a list of the 10 most important control cards in Standard that are not from Dissension, and why I feel they will remain important. These cards are not ranked! I am a promoter of card equality, and the rights of all cards to equal representation in decks! Dissension: Windreaver: Control decks are always looking for a finisher that they do not need to constantly expend resources to protect, cards Shaddap about Morphling already! Condemn: The modern-day Swords to Plowshares, Condemn will see play in many competitive decks packing White. It serves as both prevention and advantage to a control player, all for . Ignore the life gain; it is your own life total that you really need to worry about.Spell Snare: This card has caused a stir, and with good reason. From turn one until the end of the game, one untapped blue source has changed the way that people can play. As powerful as Force Spike, albeit easier to play around, this card alone puts a huge crimp in many man plans, and it makes every Owl player a pill-popping mental wreck. It changes the countermagic mental sparring match that occurs too, because Mana Leak and Remand happen to both cost a fateful two mana. Grand Arbiter Augustin IV: If you play this fellow, you probably also play Windreaver. Combining aspects of both prevention and advantage in a single fragile body, Augustin is the new and improved pontificating offspring of Sphere of Resistanceand Sapphire Medallion. Keeping him on the board will be your only difficulty. Supply // Demand: Few things make a control player giggle like a schoolgirl (other than being a schoolgirl) more than cards with multiple, powerful, and synergistic uses. Not only is Supply // Demand a finisher, it is also an advantage card, enabling incredible sequences of turns where the headaches for your opponent never end. Simic Sky Swallower: A finisher powerful enough to crush most other finishers in the format. Untargetable, with evasion, capable of steamrolling chump blockers, and undercosted. Sign me up! Next! Voidslime: Universal hard counters in Standard are hard to come by. Even the overcosted ones see play, simply because the mechanic is that good. This card is not overcosted, and getting online is not nearly as hard as it was in previous formats.Pre-Dissension Standard: Here are ten strong control cards you will see in Standard control decks from outside Dissension. Wrath of God: The single best and most consistent advantage and prevention spell in Standard today. This benchmark card is the first, last, and sometimes only defense against an aggro rush, and I maintain you can gauge the balance of any given metagame in today's format by counting the number of decks packing this card. Tidings: One can argue that this is the most powerful card drawing spell in Standard today, in terms of bang for your buck. Tidings refills an empty hand with options and permission, or turns a weak midgame situation into a rout in your favour. Mana Leak: This counterspell has been a staple of various decks for years. It is a workhorse of the control cardpool: reliable, efficient, and simple. Remand: The new kid on the block, Remand has been educated under the wing of daddy Memory Lapse, and provides a vicious tempo swing or extra breathing space in much the same fashion. Cantripping doesn't hurt either. Hinder: The heavyweight spawn of Memory Lapse, take 2! Grave-Shell Scarab would like a word with you. Meloku the Clouded Mirror: Oh how I desperately wish this card was a 3/5. As overpowered as it already is, Meloku does stand to lose a bit of pre-eminence in the Dissension metagame. The card will remain one of the best chump-blocking, game-swinging, splashable silver bullet finishers of Standard, however, so it deserves a spot on this list. Faith's Fetters: When I first saw this card, I really thought it was an uncommon. My eyes refused to see the set symbol color. The card screams to be cast on Umezawa's Jitte. It clamours to be attached to Greater Good. It gets beer and wings on Friday with Privileged Position and looks pityingly down upon Pacifism. Wildfire: Although not as heavily played in Standard as some of the other cards, Wildfire has made its mark, too. An advantage card in two fantastic ways, this card can wreck opposing aggro or control decks with equal ease, provided you have built your deck around sustaining similar damage. What, of course, you have! Yosei, The Morning Star: Nobody, and I do mean NOBODY, likes getting smashed for 5 in the air and then getting Time Stretched, while tapped down. Canny abuse of the legend rule and 4 of these in your deck can do that to some unfortunate soul. He also simply doubles as a finisher that you don't mind losing. Castigate: A workhorse hand control card, you may remember Castigate from such decks or movies as Ghost Dad, Debtor's Knell Control, and Timon and Pumba's Christmas Sing-Along! It does a job well and thoroughly, and you will never have to worry about that annoying Firemane Angel again or will you? Firemane Angel: Recurring finisher, advantage card, and a nice pastel rendition of the sexier sex. Also does dishes, windows, and house calls. Unnnngh, Card Advantage! Compulsive Research: Control decks often need to draw lots of cards. Or at least see lots of cards. Although this card is lower on the power scale than Thirst for Knowledge, lands are pretty common (sometimes too common), and it is easy to cast. Zzzzz . . . Huh? Anything else you want to say, Al Gore? No Standard article is complete without a deck! You know, the archetypal deck that is supposed to prove some eloquent point but ends up getting torn off of the net by hungry 13-year-olds and mashed into sleeves just in time to run out of the house and catch the bus to the local card store? Not that I ever did that, I swear.
Will this deck win some big PTQ event? Probably not, as it is totally untuned and the environment is still in flux, which aggro loves. Will it give Carl, the Red Deck Wins player at the local card store, a raging hatred of all things control and possibly an eye-twitch? You betcha! So why post it? The deck was literally built using the cards and discussion about control from earlier in this article. In many ways, this article offers a specialized way of designing control decks by looking directly at those 4 control card types we discussed earlier, and finding cards which fit those roles. The deck is mostly here just to prove a point or two... Now if I can figure out what those points are, we are in good shape! So until next time, may you live long, prosper, and win on the 3rd turn after time was called with a life total of 32 and six cards left in your library. By David Hitchcock on May 10th, 2006 · Filed in Standard (Type 2) · 13 Comments |
|
|||||
