Magic The Gathering: What Is A Control Deck?
When playing Magic The Gathering, it's sometimes better to take a more responsive strategy. You can have as many creatures as you like, but if your opponent is the one deciding what is and isn't happening in the game, you're dead in the water.
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With control decks, you take charge of the game. What spells resolve, which creatures can attack, and even what stays on the battlefield are all yours to decide. Disruptive and difficult to manage, control decks are one of the most oppressive archetypes in the game. Here is everything you need to know about MTG control decks.
Control decks are effectively the Aikido of Magic – you're not really doing your own thing; you're reacting to what your opponent does to stall them out and win through a war of attrition. You're using their own weaknesses against them.
In Magic, there is this vague concept of "gas", or window of opportunity a deck has to push ahead before it sputters out and fails. For example, aggro decks run out of gas quite quickly – once an opponent builds up a defence, it's tough for them to claw their way back on top. Control decks seek to use this to their advantage and will control the board, knock out key pieces, limit resources, and counterspells that your opponent wants to resolve until their deck sputters out and dies on its own.
To slow your opponent down, Control decks use counterspells like Saw It Coming, and Dissipate; removal such as Heroic Downfall, The Meathook Massacre, and The Wandering Emperor. In some formats, they may even use 'Prison effects' or 'Stax' that prevent your opponent from taking actions in the first place (like Ghostly Prison, Smokestacks, Propaganda).
A key component of control decks is
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