Control Help?
Standard forum
Posted on March 27, 2015, 9:58 p.m. by Zaiato
So I am in the process of building my first control deck, ill be using Dragonlord Silumgar. But I have never played control before, can anyone give me some tips on how I should play control, like how do I save mana to counter every turn while playing other spells this is new to me seeing as I usually play aggro.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #3
I second the advice against using the latter Silumgar as a win con. One advantage of playing control is that much of your opponent's removal will sit dead in your hand. Because of this, it's important to have a win con that protects itself from removal, as your opponent is sure to have some by the end of the game.
As far as how to play control, it's largely a matter of putting your feet in the fire and learning. You need to be able to anticipate your opponent's threats and use your removal accordingly, striking the right balance between tempo and value. But above all, you win the game thru card advantage and powerful win cons, so remember that you always want to be seeking those ends.
If you want to use counterspells extensively, you should build your deck to be largely "draw-go" (mostly instants) to support that. This is because you need proactive options to maintain tempo in case your opponent plays something not worth countering.
If you want to use a lot of Planeswalkers and other sorcery-speed options, you'd be better served relying heavily on spot removal instead of counters (tho 4 Dissolve is pretty much a must). You'll hear this style referred to as "tap-out" control.
For someone newer to control, tap-out might be more in your comfort zone than draw-go since you play more individually high-powered cards proactively. Draw-go is very effective in that it allows you to react to your opponent, but it requires precise decision-making since you limit your selection pool (thus lowering the power of individual cards) to play such a style.
March 28, 2015 1:54 a.m.
Have a look at Shaheen Soorani(sp?) playing his new Esper deck at the scg invitational going on this weekend. It looks super solid and he is a great player to study. P.Sully commentating is also good and helpful for new control players to understand what's going on.
March 28, 2015 4:16 a.m.
Could you link me a video where i can watch Shaheen Soorani at the scg?
March 28, 2015 9:18 a.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #7
I played against the deck this weekend and it's for real. Silumgar's Scorn is very good.
March 29, 2015 10:54 a.m.
IndepenentMeta says... #8
Usually it's by running low costing counter spells disdainful stroke, negate, n stubborn denial couldve been practical but slumigar wasn't invited to he furious party. My personal taste in control is plainswalkers if you can hold those up you can usually turn the tables or grab the staring wheel. Also board whips are fundamental to control decks. With Crux of fate you have a chance to destroy any non dragon threats and then u have drifting death which is a great card verious one of the most played cards in the game elspeth. Also your gonna need downfalls. Ugin is a bitch if you don't have 3x downfalls
March 29, 2015 4:20 p.m.
well i was making a Exploit U/B control with Palace Siege .. its a fun combo.. play exploit, bring back, exploit..
March 29, 2015 5:49 p.m.
Hey Tom2401! I've played control quite a bit in this standard and I've read on the subject a lot. There are some key concepts that apply to pretty much all of control strategies independent of format but there's also more specific things that needs to be assessed.
First, control has three steps :
1. Acquire control (through removal and counter spells).
2. Gaining card advantage (through card draw spells and wraths).
3. Winning (with a close to inevitable win condition).
Lifegain helps, but is not necessary.
In a dream game, control wants to play on their opponent's end step. The reason is that only instants can be played during that step, so you cannot get surprised by lets say Sorin, Solemn Visitor after tapping out for a Hero's Downfall on a Courser of Kruphix. However, playing on endstep is not always possible (and happens quite frequently), the reason being that life is limited in magic and that opponents will be swinging with creatures from time to time. Here's where you sometimes will face difficult choices : ''Do I tap out to kill Mantis Rider swinging for 3, seeing that my opponent has 4 mana up and that I saw him play Narset Transcendent game 1... or do I take the 3 damage, and keep my Dissolve mana up...
That last statement leads to another subject : knowledge is power. When playing control, knowing what your opponents can throw at you is a huge advantage. So knowing the meta is a must. Trust me, you'll also face some weird homebrew decks and you'll sometimes tell yourself you'd rather play against stronger decks that at least you know what the **** they're doing. True story :P
I'll finish by saying something a lot mentionned. Dragonlord Silumgar is not a control win con. Inevitability is a big concept of all control decks and Dragonlord Silumgar just dies to removal. Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver all have very few cards that can deal with them. Silumgar, the Drifting Death has only one played card that can really kill him (Crackling Doom), and Pearl Lake Ancient is pretty much invincible if you have plenty of mana.
Hope that helps!
Tom2401 says... #2
Well to be honest, Dragonlord Silmugar isn't an ideal win con for a control deck. He lacks the protection Silumgar, the Drifting Death has and it'll end up costing you a turn or cards & mana to protect.
Secondly, you won't be playing that many spells at sorcery speed. The few sorcery speed cards you would be playing mainboard are stuff like Crux of Fate, Drown in Sorrow, walkers, or, if you're running Esper, End Hostilities. Aside from that, you almost always should have most if not all of your mana untapped during your opponents turn where you'll be playing your counters, card draw, or creature removal.
If you want, refer to my control deck to get an idea of what you want.
Esperfect Control Playtest
Standard* Tom2401
SCORE: 9 | 8 COMMENTS | 2366 VIEWSMarch 27, 2015 11:20 p.m.