Background
TLDR; I've brewed a deck for an archetype outside of my comfort zone and would love input.
For some time now I've pondered on making the right control deck. I've dabbled with a few but often times I end up dropping them for one reason or another, or I end up making so many tweaks the true essence of Control/Responsive play was lost. I play in an established meta (~12 or so players) where I feel we see very few control/responsive deck archetypes as the forefront or cornerstone of the deck. Instead everyone carries on with their theme or just plays with high quality cards and homogenized good stuff decks. I believe having decks of varying archetypes within an established meta keeps players honest in their deck building. If players know there is no control deck in the meta they can build the some of the most efficient and greediest decks possible. This is a role I'm willing to take up in our meta, at least for this particular deck.
My meta:
For extra context, I define my meta as "high but not cEDH", with quite a bit of variance. Most of the time the cEDH decks are reserved for play against cEDH decks, however occasionally a deck with a little extra fast mana, a few too many tutors, and 2 card combos sneaks into a game where it maybe shouldn't be. We've gotten better at the rule 0 conversations but it's an imperfect science. At the same time a majority of the decks being piloted are winning or executing their game plan at the rate described above. Ideally, this deck could fit within that meta well keeping the stronger decks at bay but not being too oppressive for the more honest decks.
The goal:
Something I'm always chasing when brewing any deck is making a deck I can "marry". To summarize I'll quote a friend.
After a recent successful brew on MTGNexus for what is now one of my favorite decks, Thalia, The Gitrog Monster and I are happily wed, and here I am presenting my next challenge. Building the perfect control deck (for me). This is an attempt to put forth my best effort. The goal is to create a control deck with longevity. One that has some variance, challenges you in a different way every game, and limits the amount of animosity control decks typically bring to the table.It's very rewarding when you find a commander or deck you end up "marrying" and you spend time and get enough reps in to the point where you have enough sample size to start noticing the little nuances of the deck and get to the fine-tuning phase instead of soul searching phase. You can pilot the deck with your eyes closed. You know the deck like the back of your hand and know its strengths and weaknesses and all the lines. It's your comfort food. It's Anton's mom's ratatouille. You always come home to it. It sometimes may let you down but you know it'll always be there for you.
The closest I've been to achieving this has been playing within the Marchesa Akido archetype. This is a deck that I've ran for years now, and has a wonderful knowledge base of primers regarding piloting / brewing it. That being said, while it's an incredibly fun archetype to play it never felt like a true control. Aikido decks often rely on dissuasion, politics and sometimes things like luck and meta to get the job done. Dissuasion is great in control, but sometimes a heavier hand is needed, especially when playing reactively. I do believe that control decks can and should fly a bit under the radar at the table, but the overall card quality should be good enough to get the board and the game to a state within their favor. Aikido decks don't often play cards with that high of quality, rather they rely on niche scenarios and having the correct card at the correct moment. Additionally, an Aikido deck can lose it's charm after a bit when playing within an established meta, specifically because people more or less know what your deck is capable of and will often play around it significantly. You're only going to full swing into a Comeuppance once.
Below are the guidelines and standards I've set for myself in what I imagine (if I'm able to strike the right balance) will result in a perfect a control deck built with longevity.
Deckbuilding Principles/Restrictions
- Must be able to win. Just because it's a control deck doesn't mean I get to monopolize my opponents time and spend the entirety of the late game taking multiple game actions trying to figure out how to win. Traditionally with any control deck I brew this has been a somewhat difficult problem to solve. Combo's are on the table, but Ideally they are somewhat interesting and relative to the theme of the deck and not arbitrarily thrown in just for the sake of having a win con.
- Must be non-blue. I think building a control deck with blue and countermagic has been a solved problem. I have other blue decks with lots of counter magic. I enjoy the challenge of a control deck without a swath of counter magic available.
- Must limit tutor usage. I'm ok with a few tutors, especially more linear or restricted ones. I believe having a high tutor density limits the variance in game play you see, and if we're building for overall longevity of the deck I want to be mindful about this. My expanded thoughts on tutors can be found on a recent thread here.
- Must be control. Disruptive, interactive and responsive elements should all be the forefront of the deck. Too often, I begin brewing a "control" deck but cut cards to instead fit the theme or win con. I end up with a themed deck archetype like reanimator, aristocrats, lifegain, etc, and the disruptive/control elements of the deck have been minimized. The goal with this is to allow games to play out different each time depending on board states/opponents/meta etc. I want to introduce a true control deck into my meta.
- Must be streamlined and allow for fast play. There should be some critical decision making points of course, as that comes with the territory of any control deck. However, but I would like to be conscious about time-consuming play or having overcomplicated board states.
Decklist
So given the backround above. The deck below is where I have landed so far. I've brewed several variations of an Orzhov control list, each of which ended up being axed for the reason I mentioned above. This is the first one I believe is worth publishing and at least starting this discussion. A few notes on the design and current iteration, that I'd like to discuss. I've outlined my thoughts on why I've made the decisions i have so far, but because I'm brewing outside of my comfort zone I'm not particularly married to those decisions and open for input.
Commander
Vona, Butcher of Magan Wasn't my first choice when brewing, but it felt like a good fit. Other previous options brewed with were Athreos, Shroud-Veiled, Liesa, Forgotten Archangel, Karlov of the Ghost Council, Teysa Karlov, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim. Some of these were fine, and others leant themselves to too much of a theme like Life gain or aristrocrats and lost the control aspect I am seeking. I'm open to other suggestions and not particularly married to Vona.
Win Conditions
- A beat down plan with tokens, and an anthem after a well timed board wipe late game. Luminarch Ascension, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Skyhunter Strike Force, White Sun's Twilight, Martial Coup
- Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Torment of Hailfire
- Cataclysm + Clever Concealment, Cosmic Intervention or Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern
The win cons above are in no particular order, and I'm not sure which priority or frequency I would expect to see them close out games. I also don't particularly feel like they're resilient, It's possible that's just the nature of having a control first archetype and I'm brewing outside of my comfort zone.
Card Draw
With most of the card draw included I tried to maximize the amount of mana spent per card drawn. This gives me more freedom in how I spend my mana each turn allowing me to better react to the board state and to incidentally draw cards over the course of the long game. I've opted to not include cheap efficient draw like Night's Whisper, and Sign in Blood as I believe those cards may get stuck in hand when I end up tapping out for a board wipe. I think I'd rather be spending my early game tempo dropping passive card draw like Black Market Connections or playing disruption spells like Blind Obedience.
Ramp
Currently there is a mix of traditional artifact ramp with the land catchup ramp mechanics of white (Knight of the White Orchid and Archaeomancer's Map). With the Coffer's win con above having additional plains in play helps pump the mana. Additionally, lands won't get caught up in sweepers the same way Orzhov Signet does. However, I wanted to limit the white land ramp cards as they have diminishing returns. I'm even playing Orzhov Basilica to help with that as well.
Disruption
I want this to be a theme of the deck. I feel like it's a strong suite, of non-blue control decks. Since we don't have counter magic, creating puzzles for the table to solve is an interesting aspect of game play for me. Finding the correct balance can be a bit of a challenge. I also like that you can potentially tune this suite of cards to a meta to fit what you believe to be more impactful. Do you see a lot of GY decks, play more GY hate. Do you see combo play Rule of Law?
Recursion
White and Black naturally lend themselves to recursion. It makes sense to include some aspect of that in the deck as it's an alternative form of card advantage and works well when we are wiping the board a bit.
Board Wipes, Defense, Removal
AKA "not losing". I think the challenge here is identifying the correct count for each.
Without further adieu here is the deck in it's current brewed iteration. It is currently pending discussion with the community before I sleeve up and test it. Please let me know your thoughts and feedback!
Thanks!
Vona's Commanding Hand
Approximate Total Cost:
*Edit, original list was missing some card slots. Should be fixed now.
If I were brewing for control I might run necropotence and decree of pain and that oona blackguard dude who makes people discard. That thing is savage. 
Zacama
