Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Grand Prix: Columbus - You Must Learn Control

Here's some control decks!  I won't be including a specific way of beating them, since that path relies on what deck you play, and how you play your deck a lot more than the specific plan of these decks.





















Not a lot of people know about Trainwreck, but you've got to know a few things about it if you get caught off guard.  This deck abuses the synergy of Cabal Coffers and Urborg to generate obscene amounts of mana, some of which can go into Staff of Domination, some of which can go into Pernicious Deed, all of which helps to kill you.  Be ready to get Maelstrom Pulsed out of more recent lists, or don't be surprised if you see a Sorin Markov, or even a Kozilek (this is what I would do, but I'm not most people).





















One of the biggest things about Legacy I had to learn the hard way was about Landstill.  It's slow, but the spells they play are way more powerful than the majority of the format.  The deal is, if something costs 4 (which a number of the cards in this deck does) then be ready for it to really change how the game plays.























I was thinking about leaving Lands for the miscellaneous category, since this doesn't play out much like the other control decks here and it plays out more like a prison deck, but the goal here: Play lands that do things, and lock your mana down.  The Blue-Lands version ends up decking you with Mindslaver, or full on Strip-Mining you with Ghost Quarter.  I've seen some other kills as well, but I don't believe I'm privy to say.




















Yes, I spelled that intentionally.  Counterbalance Thopter aims at playing the soft-lock of Counterbalance plus Sensei's Divining Top to shut the opponent out of reasonable plays (mostly 1's and 2's), and it will eventually assemble the Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek combo to both buffer its life total, and to provide a neverending stream of attackers and blockers.  If you get paired against this, be ready for anything, including Back to Basics, Humility, Moat, and maybe random enchantments like Aura of Silence.  Using the Enlightened Tutor to play silver bullets, it could be anything.





















I'm not sure how many people who read this site are familiar with Quinn, the Eskimo, but it involves a similar idea Enlightened Tutor silver bullet package.  This list is adapted to beat Zoo a little more than other lists, but be ready for any of the following if your opponent plays a Scrying Sheets and Snow-Plains:  Isochron Scepter + Orim's Chant.  Painter's Servant + Grindstone.  Wrath of God.  Luminarch Ascension.  Moat.


















You never feel good once you figure out you're playing against Monoblue Control, but you might be able to figure out a plan.  They're going to counter your spells (or kill your threats) until you run out of good ones.  Then the Jace comes, and it will probably end quickly from there.

















This and Counterbalance Thopters has probably gotten the most press out of all of these control decks, but I think this is the wrong way to go for a control deck.  However, this doesn't mean it's bad, it just doesn't have a really strong manabase - tons of duals and a lot of spells that can be wastelanded off of.


I'm going to have to step up my pace if I'm going to show you the majority of the decks you'll see at the Grand Prix!

-G


Posted by Gandhi at 12:31 PM
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