How to build and play control decks in EDH.

[duducrash]

I think I've come to a point in my magic life that I enjoy building much more than I enjoy playing. It's such a fun activity. so I spend a bunch of time brewing decks, and have built a ton some more succesful than others, but control? I just don't know how to.

I wanna build a Kess, Dissident Mage non-combo. Wanna build it at arround 50 to 75% because thats how I do. And most of the time I can come up with a list, but I just don't get the right proportions. Seems like classic control isnt good, 1 for 1 value against 3 opponents gets you behind fast. I would like to know if someone can share wisdom on how to build decks and the playstyle in the format. Focusing on a player gets both of you behind, is flying under the radar the deal?

I'd like help on wincons too, on how many to run.

thank you very much

[Mookie]

I have a Kess deck - she's a pretty good control commander. All of your spot removal is immediately a 2-for-1 due to her flashback ability, while double-dipping on card draw makes it easy to keep a full grip. The general gameplan is to prolong the game by keeping my opponents without significant threats, accumulate a bunch of mana via mana rocks (and just hitting every land drop off card draw), and then eventually close things out by copying big splashy spells like Cruel Ultimatum and Blatant Thievery.

In general, I would say that flying under the radar is ideal. If you always have mana open for spot removal and a grip full of cards, your opponents will generally be inclined to attack someone else instead, so you can just sit back and let your pupp- erm, opponents fight to the death for your amusement. You don't need to play out threats until you have the resources to capitalize on them and turn the corner - the longer you can let your opponents wear each other down, the better you'll do.

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I will note that my deck is geared towards long, grindy games - it's definitely not appropriate for a faster / more competitive meta. If you want to speed up the clock, you could run tutors and big burn spells (ex: Comet Storm, Torment of Hailfire). My explicit goal for the deck was to act like a mustache-twirling supervillain, so I've leaned towards a different set of win conditions, with stuff like Blatant Thievery, Sepulchral Primordial, Sadistic Sacrament, and Captive Audience.

[not-a-cube]

I agree with mookie, control in edh is more about subtle interactions that keep the biggest treats at bay, while letting the rest of the table play their game. You try to keep their attention away from yourself and only try to interact with the scary stuff that most ppl agree need to be reacted to. Trying to lock 3 opponents down as you would in 1v1 is very hard and if you can't do it, you just get all the hate and attention. By if you just take care of the scary stuff while letting your opponents play their game you might actually find yourself on the good side of most of them.

I haven't made a kess deck, and the one I goldfished was a reanimator shell, the last control deck I played was Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle which I picked because I figured, if necessary, a 12/12 commander might close out a game. (ran Hadana's Climb // Winged Temple of Orazca as an extra for that purpose). It was also fun playing simic with only 10 creatures.

[toctheyounger]

Yup, I'll reiterate the above. Don't answer everything and sundry. Control what you need to control and leave the rest of the table to figure it out. Don't overextend, and in terms of a win it's important to just pick your window and make sure all of your eggs aren't in one basket.

I run Dralnu, Lich Lord as my control, and with his first ability being somewhat suicidal I need to fly under the radar somewhat. That works fine for me as I run a reanimator shell and don't often have an expansive boardstate. The deck took a bit of a punch in the guts with Paradox Engine being banned, but I've got a pretty good list running at the moment, and I've kind of made it a pseudo-storm/copy spell shell that's capable of putting together a fairly tidy amount of resource and making some explosive plays, holding the table at bay and winning in a way that's enjoyable.

The key for me has been making sure what you're playing is excellent at what it does or gives you something for free/value for little. Pieces that I run like Primal Amulet // Primal Wellspring and Twinning Staff help me spread further when I'm ready to turn the thumbscrews, but otherwise things like Mystic Confluence, Toxic Deluge, Cyclonic Rift and Black Sun's Zenith make sure you're keeping everyone in check rather than just one person, or in the case on Confluence, you're dealing with something you need gone, but you can cantrip with it too.

A lot of successfully running control comes down to having the right elements at the right time, in my experience, which potentially means tutors, but not necessarily so either. If you're drawing enough over and above one per turn you will obviously find yourself with many more options. Consecrated Sphinx, Vilis, Broker of Blood and Notion Thief do well for me, as well as wheel variants, and the classic Fact or Fiction. And you needn't worry about holding on to all of them either, a 7 card hand is sufficient for everything you'd need, especially with a commander like yours or mine - we can even turn those extra cards into value in many ways. Aside from card draw, synergy is pretty important too - drawing cards that'll ampify the others you're playing makes most of your draws optimal rather than having to dig desperately for what you need.

The essence of successfully piloting control is knowing when to play reactive and when to play proactive; the tendency with control is to counter or remove as much as you can, and this is wrong. Remove only what needs to be answered - that way you're allowing your opponents to commit to their win conditions and stumble when you pull the plug on them, overcommit to the board so that you can be extra efficient with your answers, and of course you look a lot less threatening if you don't answer everything the board casts. There's even times it makes you look like an ally, which only helps. And of course, it allows you to stockpile for your moment of opportunity, at which point switching into proactive mode has maximum efficiency.

In terms of specific win conditions, I'm not sure about Grixis, but there's a couple of nice ones I use:

• Psychosis Crawler is oft overlooked, but does great work. My current favourite pairing is with Peer into the Abyss.
• Exsanguinate and Torment of Hailfire obviously are excellent, and it doesn't take a ton for either one to be quite backbreaking.
• Wheels and Bone Miser (or the crawler) makes for a pretty one-sided board state.
• Massacre Wurm just got a reprint and ends games nicely.
• Mizzix's Mastery seems like a one-card win in a Kess deck, but obviously that's pretty untested advice.
• Bolas's Citadel - it's an absolutely obscene value engine. You can combo with it, but you really, really do not need to, it's just bonkers on its own.

There's a couple of other easy win cons that I personally dislike but know are pretty effective in Laboratory Maniac and Thassa's Oracle. To me these are kind of antithetical to control, because why bother with the intrigue if you're just going to flip the 'win' switch? But that's just how I roll.

Hope this helps. Control is a fun shell to run because it's not just about running the best, most expensive cards, it takes the right pilot to make the right choices at the right times, and that's where this game is at its most fun, in my opinion.

[duducrash]

Thanks for the replies it has been of great help.

I too don't want to win with a Laboratory Maniac or Thassa's Oracle. To me this is more of a combo route, at least it seems like this when I do it in another scenarios.

how many wincons it's fun to run? also, I didnt see discussed but if I'm about to turn the corner can't planeswalkers be a wincon, like Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God

[toctheyounger]

Thanks for the replies it has been of great help.

I too don't want to win with a Laboratory Maniac or Thassa's Oracle. To me this is more of a combo route, at least it seems like this when I do it in another scenarios.

how many wincons it's fun to run? also, I didnt see discussed but if I'm about to turn the corner can't planeswalkers be a wincon, like Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God

Personally, I think no. It obviously depends on the walker in question, and not all are created equal. I think Ugin, the Spirit Dragon could be considered a win con in some respects if you can either ultimate it or resolve its exile clause. There's probably others too, but in my experience there are very few walkers that are good enough to close out a game on their own with no surrounding support architecture for them. If they're getting you over the line you're looking at proliferate, The Chain Veil, Doubling Season, or just pure, thick, density of synergistic walkers.

The thing is though, a wider framework of walkers just follows a different play pattern and looks a lot different on board. Firstly, it's a lot more grindy and incremental for heading towards a win, and secondly it's a very expansive boardstate that looks a lot more overt (especially when you're talking something like Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God - I run it in Vial Smasher the Fierce/Kraum, Ludevic's Opus and can confirm). So a lot of the time you're playing archenemy, because everyone can see exactly what you're up to and it's pretty obvious they need to obliterate your battlefield.

In a way a walker win con (barring combo, at least) follows a different win concept altogether, that of threat overload. With walkers having their own stats and posing a separate threat over and above your own life total, with enough of them on board the idea is to boggle your opponents with so many targets they don't know what to hit and when. That's just vastly different to a control archetype, and if anything is probably more akin to midrange/tempo archetypes.

That being said, Will Kenrith's emblem would be pretty bonkers in a spellslinger build, so if he does enough other stuff that you'd consider valuable he could be backbreaking enough to close out a game in that fashion.

[duducrash]

With your help I managed to built kess. It's still in its early stages and I'd much appreciate even more help if thats not too much to ask! thanks
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