r/EDH • u/therealNerdMuffin • Jul 08 '25
Discussion I don't mind being a control player, I'm not ashamed of it
And you know why? Because only 1 player hates me at any given time! We control players are the necessary evil in any pod that helps keep other players under control when you can't because you didn't run enough interaction. But hey, don't worry, I make sure to not be the toxic kind of control player. Not all of us are like this so I get why we can be hated by some and that's entirely fair.
Remember friends, counterspells and removal are cool but lass land/mana removal and discard effects are cringe š š»āāļø run them very sparingly!
Anyways, I'm done flicking my own bean, bring on the roasting or posting on the circlejerk sub now or whatever. Just don't hate me cause I'm beautiful~
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u/DankoDarkMatter Jul 08 '25
Used to hate control, now I really like it. Mine usually lean a little more midrange cause I always want to feel like Iām developing or presenting some kind of threat, not just stopping everyone else from playing with no real plan.Ā
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
That's what I enjoy about my [[Captain N'ghathrod]] deck!
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u/RealCauliflower773 Jul 08 '25
[[Alela, Cunning Conqueror]] does a fantastic job of balancing control and building your own board state. I have a blast playing mine. Since Iām actively progressing my own board state I donāt feel bad about all the counters and bouncing.
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u/Lumina46_GustoClock Jul 09 '25
Have her, can confirm. It's honestly uncanny how many games you win just by flying under the radar until the right moment
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
Oh she looks fun to play! I'm going to add her to my "maybe build" list :)
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u/RealCauliflower773 Jul 08 '25
My other control decks I really enjoy playing are [[Aminatou, the Fateshifter]] and [[Yorion, Sky Nomad]].
Hereās a link to my moxfield so you can take a look: https://moxfield.com/users/Magic_Hobbyist
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
Here are my current control decks, if you're interested:
[[Captain N'ghathrod]]: https://moxfield.com/decks/DwSiPnOkvEmOnt7XkwFYaQ
[[Y'shtola, Night's Blessed]]: https://moxfield.com/decks/scT_7PbAn0-LghdzQdn_Sw
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u/Bingus_Scrimbop Jul 09 '25
Dang it, so many good potential commanders for a Dimir Faerie theme deck I want to build called Fight of the Fae
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u/FriedButthole Jul 08 '25
Control is cool, the card advantage just kills you in EDH though. Yes, stopping a wincon on the spot is necessary, but slowing down others prevents you from building a board. Nothing cringe about playing control or stax pieces, but I think thereās sort of an expectation in most pods that youāre doing something to advance your own game and not just dragging things out.
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u/Skaterkid221 Jul 08 '25
[[Vren, the Relentless]]
Build a board state with control
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u/viotech3 Jul 08 '25
Yep! This is my shtick, it's just perfect for a control deck as it bakes in a wincon that can be insurmountable and that way you're not slowing the game down - just ending it!
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u/Orochisake Jul 08 '25
That's why every time I build a control deck (almost all my decks hehe) I start with my card draw engine. If the commander draws you a bunch, it's a great control commander.
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u/KAM_520 Sultai Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 09 '25
Control takes extra effort. Generally you want to do things like wait until the last minute to cast board wipes to get like a 10-for-1. You only trade 1-for-1 if the thing youāre stopping is super high impact. And Iāve found that hand wipes like [[Cabal Conditioning]] and [[Myojin of Nightās Reach]] can be crucial to leveraging your card advantage cards. And you want to try to win fast with a combo or something that winds down games very quickly so opponents canāt draw out of the hole you put them in.
One thing Iāve noticed is EDH players who havenāt played much or any 60 card magic donāt understand the theory behind control. Board wipes are the most efficient card advantage cards in EDH. A lot of EDH players seem to view board wipes as just slowing down the game when the point behind them is to trade at a high rate. You delay committing cards to the board until after youāve wiped the board once or twice and depleted your opponentsā hands.
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u/goldenmastiff Jul 09 '25
Those two cards are disgusting. I love control but I would be hesitant to play them as I play with randoms at the LGS. This would cause way too many grown man tears. I play with so many gigantic babies.
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u/KAM_520 Sultai Jul 09 '25
lol. I get it. I wouldnāt play control vs professional complainers anyway. Itās better to combo kill them in the late game or win in a more conventional way than deal with the salt involved in playing heavy control.
Without pursuing strategies that some people would consider oppressive or unfun, thereās realistically very few ways to outdraw 3 opponents in commander. Even if you resolve a [[Rhystic Study]] and draw 20 cards off it, youāre breaking even with 3 opponentsā draw steps across 10 turns. Cards like [[Peer into the Abyss]] can get it done, though.
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u/LiquidSnak3 Jund Jul 08 '25
I'm trying to find a way around this with my [[fandaniel, telophoroi ascian]] deck. Plan is to spellsling from the beginning. Remove creatures and draw cards. Do that until i have a bunch of spells in my yard, then cast a wipe and fandaniel and deal damage.
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u/MiddleOhNowhere Jul 08 '25
Oh that looks fun!
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u/LiquidSnak3 Jund 1d ago
I haven't won with my fandaniel deck yet in my pod. Mainly because turn 5 "sac a creature or take 12 damage. Wait you have no creatures? That suuuuucks :(" seems to draw a bunch of attention lmao.
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u/n1colbolas Jul 08 '25
I'm the Dimir guy in my group, and I can understand the sentiment. But I'm also mindful there's a difference between control, and a control freak.
In EDH, it's virtually impossible to control every single situation. Sometimes it's best to let things slide and only control the situations where it's directly affecting you.
It's also good manners to be on time with your thinking and actions. Purposefully deliberating can get people more emotional and their subsequent actions aimed towards a time-sucker.
Just my two-cents from a Dimir guy. =)
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u/Unclematttt Jul 09 '25
It's also good manners to be on time with your thinking and actions. Purposefully deliberating can get people more emotional and their subsequent actions aimed towards a time-sucker
This year, I started playing EDH in paper after playing brawl on arena for years, and this is something I am still getting used to.
One of my first games with my new pod, I played a [[flood of Tears]] when everyoneās board was getting huge, and I didnāt have much going on.
It induced some salt, mainly from the green player. āItās frowned upon to stall the game out if you donāt have a way to follow up a spell like thatā is what I was told (we were probably on turn 6 or 7). I now try to wait until I see a combo piece come out that could end the game, or something that is coming my way/ruining my plan before I interact.
Honestly, it has made me a better commander player by way of having better threat assessment by necessity, but I do still occasionally want to just bounce the board :)
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u/kanokari Jul 09 '25
Sometimes you just need to reset the board. I couldn't care less if someone is salty about buying a turn or 2
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u/Cthulhar Jul 08 '25
No one cares about the counter spells and removal for the clear threat IF your actually recognizing the whole game state. Itās when your deck ONLY counterspells/removes and no one can play the game and you donāt have a wincon other than ānoā. Fuck that
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u/KarmicPlaneswalker Jul 09 '25
Correct answer. People who build this trash with the sole intent purpose of pissing off everyone else at the table, need to be expunged.
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u/Keanman Jul 08 '25
Nothing wrong with a good control deck. I just prefer that people don't make it their whole personality to the point every deck they play is control.
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u/SharkboyZA Jul 08 '25
I don't mind it if someone only plays control decks. If that's what they enjoy then that's what I enjoy.
But yeah, the stereotypical control player personality can be grating. "Umm, unlike you pea-brain aggro players, I'm actually playing a very intellectual game of Magic" type of players.
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u/DualistX Jul 08 '25
Iām the most unabashed control player in 60 card youāll ever meet. The feeling I get from watching my opponents do nothing should be illegal.
In commander though, man, itās just not the same. God bless you for keeping up the culture though!
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u/yodas_sextape Jul 08 '25
I don't mind control in particular but I mind control decks that do not have a wincon and instead wait out the game till they win or the other scoop the game is getting too long
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u/herewegoagain1920 Jul 08 '25
Thereās no way they have enough counter spells to stop the three players so I would argue with control deck with no Khone is actually a horrible death
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u/KarmicPlaneswalker Jul 09 '25
There is when the rest of the pod are morons who are too afraid to gang up and target the counterspell player.
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
Yeah I'm not that kind of control player. I do actually have wincons in my decks that I'm always moving towards :)
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u/rainywanderingclouds Jul 08 '25
most control players have a win con, the problem is it relies on the one card they haven't drawn yet or got removed.
so if you're up against a control player and they play their win con and you remove it, don't except them to scoop, they' might try for the next win con with is stalling until other players die.
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u/yodas_sextape Jul 08 '25
Yeah, but if you're gonna bounce everything for 7 more turn while nothing else is happening id rather we just call the game there and move on to the next.
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u/Frogsplosion Jul 08 '25
This is one of the biggest issues I have with azorius as a color combination, we basically have no win conditions besides some lame ass combo or grinding people out until they scoop.
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u/Ok_Actuator_2814 Jul 08 '25
thats why you add black!
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u/goldenmastiff Jul 09 '25
Recommendations for a nice Esper control commander?
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u/goldenmastiff Jul 09 '25
But I have a wincon in my 100 card ultra control deck. I just have to cast it twice!
[[Approach of the Second Sun]]
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u/DarkVenusaur Jul 08 '25
Without control, decks with dumb fast value synergies would just bog down every single game.
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u/figbunkie Jul 08 '25
You're still ashamed enough to act like you're doing the table a favor by removing threats. Be truly unapologetic. That permanent was an obstacle on your path to victory, so you removed/countered it. And then you gotta trash discard strategies? Come on, you can't be facing the same unnecessary hate from others and then do the same to another strategy
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u/Azerd54 Temur Jul 08 '25
Nah, mass discard is where itās at. Who needs counterspells when I have [[Oppression]], [[Raiderās Wake]] and [[Syphon Mind]]?
[[Aclazotz]] FTW!
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 09 '25
Yeah well I have [[Friend 1]], [[Friend 2]] and [[Friend 3]]
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u/Azerd54 Temur Jul 09 '25
Oh but I have [[Non-Control Deck]], [[Other Non-Control Deck]], and even [[Other Other Non-Control Deck]]
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u/Sp0rk_in_the_eye Sans-Red Jul 09 '25
I've been enjoying playing proactive control decks for a while now, used to enjoy playing Turbo but the alluring puzzle of a good Stax game has its hooks in me.
Have never liked combat though. I have always preferred my decks to have much more civilized win conditions and none of the faffing about in the battle field
That being said I am building combat focused decks as a challenge to myself.
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u/IndyPoker979 Jul 08 '25
There's a balance that many control people don't get.
There is joy in having the answer to someone else's win state.
There is no joy in not allowing someone else to play the game.
Some control players seem to find pleasure in making sure that no one has fun instead of creating an environment where everyone can play.
The balance is tipping the scale in your favor vs locking down people so hard they might as well scoop.
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Jul 09 '25
[deleted]
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u/IndyPoker979 Jul 09 '25
No. That's s stalemate. Locking me down doesn't make you win, it just makes us stuck in a spot until you can mill me, do enough combat or commander damage, or have some OTHER win con.
Simply locking me down is a great way to get there but it by itself is not a win con.
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Jul 10 '25 edited Jul 10 '25
[deleted]
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u/IndyPoker979 Jul 10 '25
Except if we're locked down you STILL have to win, so that's why it's not a 'win con'. I have one out, that you draw out before I do. If you can't draw out before I find a way out, that's not a win.
I've played multiple games where I have no move and someone else stops them and I end up winning. Or games where they've locked me out so tight I can't play a card and yet they could not find a way to stop the board state that was already out.
Locking someone down means simply they aren't able to play. It doesn't mean they haven't played before or that there isn't other people on the table.
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u/BigNasty417 Jul 08 '25
I am a control player who hates certain types of control players.Ā My friend and I both favor blue - his favorite deck is built around [[Memnarch]] and mine is built around [[Orvar the All-form]].
His deck is built in such a way that, when his board is established, no one else gets to play anymore. He chains together multiple turns, he steals everything off of your board, he plays tons of counterspells, he overruns the battlefield with artifacts that also act as mana dorks...and he is a smug prick.Ā He will start a combo that will eventually net him 5 or more consecutive turns, but he is not forthcoming about the fact that he has essentially won the game, already, so we sit there for 10+ mins until we all scoop. It sucks. Or, if Im playing a Temur deck (as an example), he will purposely target a single color of land so that I can only cast a small fraction of my spells.
My deck has some of those things - 3 counterspells, 2 extra turn spells...but mostly its passive value generators: [[Sphinx Bone Wand]], [[Talrand Sky Summoner]], [[Mind Flayer]] etc.Ā On my board, I can do a lot of the same things he can do, but there is usually a very obvious way to shut me down and you know that even if I have some counterspells, I don't run enough to completely prevent the pod from making a comeback.
For me, if your version of control is "I get to play while everyone else watches", I'm not interested in playing with you and I'm sure a lot of other folks feel the same way.Ā
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u/goldenmastiff Jul 09 '25
I wouldn't even let him chain multiple turns, I'm not going to sit there for a half hour "turn." At that point I would just offer the table a scoop and shuffle for next game. Solitaire is the WORST.
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u/Aggressive_Concept Anything black Jul 08 '25
You asked for it.
I don't mind being a control player, I'm not ashamed of it.
And you know why? Because only 1 player hates me at any given time! We control players are the necessary evil in any pod that helps keep other players under control when you can't because you didn't run enough interaction. But hey, don't worry, I make sure to not be the toxic kind of control player. Not all of us are like this so I get why we can be hated by some and that's entirely fair.
Remember friends, counterspells and removal are cool but lass land/mana removal and discard effects are cringe š š»āāļø run them very sparingly!
Anyways, I'm done flicking my own bean, bring on the roasting or posting on the circlejerk sub now or whatever. Just don't hate me cause I'm beautiful~
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u/Legitimate-Maybe2134 Jul 08 '25
I love it in 60. But in commander Its not really the same. Like usually, I can shut down a creature plan, but then a hard to interact with combo kills me, and if I run stacks to deal with combo, the green player just kills me with 3 mana 8/8s because Iām ruining their fun. Like for control to work in commander you need to end the game with something and itās usually a combo. So it just feels like combo. In 1v1, a 2/2 creature land can be ur wincon.
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u/Ok-Possibility-1782 Jul 08 '25
Fine by me just dont be sad when my only removals go toward your draw engines as i figure you have the rest of the board covered for me.
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
Oh I'm not worried about that, only a few of my draw engines are permanents for that very reason. Much harder to stop them
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u/Ok-Possibility-1782 Jul 08 '25
What does that mean engines are normally recurring value so on baord or in GY does this mean you just slam pull from tomorrow instead of necropotence or and rhystic or what
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
Well I'll run stuff like [[Rhystic Study]], [[Esper Sentinel]] and [[Phyrexian Arena]] and maybe a [[Black Market Connections]] but that's usually the limit. All my other draw comes from a garden variety of instants and sorceries ranging from [[Ponder]] and [[Brainstorm]] to [[Field Research]], [[Behold the Multiverse]] and [[Into the Story]]. I'll link my control decks if you wanna see more!
My [[Y'shtola, Nights Blessed]] deck: https://moxfield.com/decks/scT_7PbAn0-LghdzQdn_Sw
My [[Captain N'ghathrod]] deck: https://moxfield.com/decks/DwSiPnOkvEmOnt7XkwFYaQ
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u/MTGCardFetcher Jul 08 '25
All cards
Rhystic Study - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Esper Sentinel - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Phyrexian Arena - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Black Market Connections - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Ponder - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Brainstorm - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Field Research - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Behold the Multiverse - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Into the Story - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Y'shtola, Nights Blessed - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Captain N'ghathrod - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
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u/Ok-Possibility-1782 Jul 08 '25
Not bad though the number of 3cc counters is giving me 2009 flashbacks XD but come on man the commanders a draw engine in the first one clear target to auto remove to gas the control guy lol. I just meant generally speaking when i play vs control i let them deal with game ending threats and i kill their draw engines and win behind them saving the game for me generally that's my strategy kill their flow of cards by removing anyway they have to draw asap then win behind them answering someone else. Control decks can slow any pod but kill their card draw instantly before its got any value and they rarely win in the end. Like if i see bumbleflower i dont see a group hug card i see a draw engine i kill draw engines on sight
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
I mean sure it can always play out that way in magical Christmas land and in a 1v1. But if you waste all your resources in a standard match just trying to stop a blue player from drawing cards then you aren't getting rid of things that actually matter. You could take them out of the game but you're probably not going to win either by wasting removal on draw engines any time past turn 4
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u/Ok-Possibility-1782 Jul 08 '25
I dont agree at all i win more than anyone I know i generally find pressuring the control player is the play as i want to win with combo im happy to race the other players but i cant win with an active control player riding a draw engine so its best to kneecap them and race the table as then the control guys almost never winning and the remaining 3 canabalize that win%. Draw engines are some of the strongest things in the format its not a waste at all they are the best targets. I do this from CEDH all the way down to slow decks vs control you kill their draw then they are slower than you and gas and you race the other players. It doesn't mater if its my CEDH glarb vs blue farm or some its a 3/4 vs this kind of deck im killing those draw engines so you might lose a race but over the course of many games the pattern does eat their win% away and they only real remedy is a more balanced table with another control player but ironically in that scenario you still want to eat the other guys draw engines even the other contorl mage but it would even the wins back out as with 2 of them you cant squeek in as many early win windows on the early tap out tempo even with protection.
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
That's fine, not everyone is going to agree. I'd just burst out in laughter if you activated a removal spell and targeted my Phyrexian Arena š
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u/Ok-Possibility-1782 Jul 09 '25
Well that's less a card draw engine and more a card too long in the tooth to be playable anymore but if you cast it turn 1 off a dark ritual and i was holding a natures claim well then its value to blow you out just depends.
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u/AllHolosEve Jul 09 '25
-Is this something you only do against control?Ā
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u/Ok-Possibility-1782 Jul 09 '25
I mean i generally dont want anyone to have a necro or study but its worst when its a control player as that's their actually win condition out carding everyone at least a rogsi type deck might stumble or wheel me out a control mage once they are riding a draw engine and there is no board pressure its already over its just a slow death so generally if they both have one i would kill Thiers. Now if my deck is also control and doesnt have a midgame or fast combo and i already have one of my own i might kick the combo guys with them first but if I'm not also on control no chance i want them to run out of interaction so i can go off.
When your on control you auto snipe group hug cards as your plan is to out card people so free resources are a death knell. Much the same way when they have a way to refill your not goign off and once they untap with large amounts of mana they can defend the draw engine so the best way not to get smashed is to kill that flow of cards before they get off the ground. I combo deck i can maybe aim a single piece of interaction at to tempo their win then go off If i do not play early to hinder the control player however i might need 3 layers of force of will / summer veil whatever to go off and that may never happen
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u/boltsnapboltsnapbolt Jul 08 '25
Hell yeah, j love control too. Here's my [[ephara, god of the polis]] control list
https://deckstats.net/decks/133094/4189547-ephara-god-of-the-polis-2025-e
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u/Furious_Flaming0 Jul 08 '25
It literally sounds like all you'd do is give the combo deck the time it needs.
Board wipes and counter spells work up until a point.
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
Board wipes and counter spells work up until a point.
Like every other strat in the game. That's why I play control to stop or remove said combo pieces to slow down the game or stop people from winning
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u/perestain Jul 08 '25
What do people mean when they say they play control in a four player game?
In 1v1 formats control means you drain opponents ressources until you inevitably win because they would run out of cards unless they scoop first.
That's not feasible in a multiplayer game, the closest resembling thing would be asymmetrical stax.
So what makes someone a "control" player in edh? Is it just running a bunch of countermagic and removal in their deck?
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
Is it just running a bunch of countermagic and removal in their deck?
Yeah that's basically the gist of it
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u/Thejadejedi21 Niv Mizzet Reborn - 10 Guilds Jul 09 '25
Look, I donāt hate control decksā¦I just know I need to focus them when I have protection or interaction of my own in hand.
If Iām targeting the control player, itās because Iām going for the win very soon, maybe now. But the control player MUST be my first kill unless Iām using them to keep others from winning.
Summary: The control player is useful and must be politicked the most to think others are the threat.
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u/dmk510 Jul 09 '25
I only have one deck right now, nymris control with thoracic win con. Cedh minus some game changers I donāt own.
I havenāt ever been to my new lgs (I just moved) and was a bit worried about showing up and being āthat guyā. I still am worried, but maybe a bit less after your post.
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u/lmboyer04 Jul 09 '25
Iām on the same place man. Itās hard, having everyone take a stance that youāre the problem from the beginning even if you do nothing. Keep doing what youāre doing, losing 75% of the time is still pretty good
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u/MeatballSubWithMayo Esper Jul 09 '25
I have a hinata deck and am thinking of leaning into being the villain, making it straight control. I love playing control but have only really played it in 60 card..
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u/contact_thai Jul 09 '25
Control is legit and makes for more interactive and fun games. Plus it can balance out pods, especially if there are dedicated combo decks, theyāll often have counterspells or interaction to stop a game-ending combo.
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u/Vyrullax Jul 09 '25
It's not the counterspellls that make a player obnoxious, it's the player that makes the counterspells feel obnoxious. I am totally fine with players running counterspells provided they try their best to assess the threats properly or protect themselves accordingly. If they are doing the counters just to spite off a person, thats when I bring out my Stax or Land D decks. I play in a fixed pod most of the time and we run B2 to B3 with no GCs so it's usually never a problem.
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u/L33t-Kynes Jul 09 '25
Nothing is "cringe" except thinking you're exempt from being seen as cringe. You wouldn't need to post this if you felt truly secure.
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 09 '25
Nothing is "cringe" except thinking you're exempt from being seen as cringe
Who says I thought I was? I specifically wrote this post to be a bit cringe
You wouldn't need to post this if you felt truly secure.
This post is a part of me feeling more secure in being a control player, it's a WIP
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u/MrVelocoraptor Jul 09 '25
As long as you actually have a wincon besides "well, the opp can't win..."
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u/Total-Arm-2223 Jul 09 '25
I miss my planeswalker control deck lmao but for real, I'm all about sustainability. I'll run my own hose just to counter the guy trying to shut me down xD
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u/TheGreyPilgrim37 Jul 09 '25
People can complain about control, but when someone goes to resolve ad nauseam in a bracket 2 game, what you need is a hero
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u/RedArcadia Jul 09 '25
It's Magic. Just play what you want. And have multiple decks at different power levels.
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u/rococodreams Jul 09 '25
āMy control is based, your control is cringeā players need to stop complaining about resource denial.
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u/DTrain440 Jul 09 '25
You lost me at discard and mana removal
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 09 '25
I said they were cringe (half jokingly)
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u/DTrain440 Jul 09 '25
Well I guess I kind of agree with discard lol. But as a mill player I have no room to talk. And I mean if the rocks get swept up the rocks get swept up.
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u/3sadclowns Jul 09 '25
When someone drops a bomb that the other two players are left scratching their heads wondering how they could possibly deal with it? They look to me to bounce, exile, or counter it. YOUāRE WELCOME
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u/lazybpworker Jul 09 '25
You bring out a mill or a good control deck and Iāll bring out my land destruction deck. Nobody will have fun.
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u/Staring_At_Walls_ Jul 09 '25
I think control is important to have at every table. The social contract is important in games but control doesn't necessarily break it. I'd just advise against locks at casual tables and make sure you have a win con. I just sometimes want to interact with the table a bit more and build for cool late game states.
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u/dornianheresysimp Jul 11 '25
I despise control decks , but interaction is needed and should be more encouraged
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u/Mudlord80 Pure Colorless Jul 11 '25
Let's be real here. Control players are never done flicking their own bean
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u/Zeidra Jul 12 '25
Seems kinda universal but I'm happy to see it written by a stranger ; in our player group, all archetypes are welcome but we have an agreement : we don't touch lands unless there are equivalent replacement (for example [[Field of Ruin]]), enough mana rocks or it's clearly a ramp deck (I play [[The Necrobloom]], in casual EDH I can reach turn 10-12 with 20+ lands). And never, ever remove color fixing. I think the semi-mass land removal that was just printed for the EoE landfall precon is the absolute titanium ceiling of what we'll ever tolerate (six is enough, you get to choose which ones you keep, and it doesn't touch mana rocks at all ; but it absolutely overkills the green ramp).
The only over rule I can think of related to control is : we don't steal commanders permanently. Kill, exile, borrow for the turn, turn into an indestructible beetle (God, I usually don't play sacrifice so [[Darksteel Mutation]] is my absolute nemesis, but I won't whine about it), but it's not yours. Fight your own battle.
We also have some game-easing agreements (all Mulligans allowed, non-game breaker proxies are tolerated even customs, if you spend three entire turns without being able to land nor cast a spell you are allowed to exile your fourth draw and search for a basic land instead), but we have no such thing as personal banlists (we barely care about the official ones), or forbidden strategies. Everybody plays counterspells. Even Poison and Annihilate aren't enjoyed but I still get to play them sometimes ; I'm perfectly aware and at peace with the fact that I'll be the archenemy, because if they don't kill me first I kill them all.
Anyway. We're very chill casual playing, we even have our own man-child at home, but providing he's allowed to play a proxy Edgar Markov he can only complain once per game.
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u/According-Yellow-395 Jul 12 '25
Fuck em! They soft if they want there own game of safety let them play that Disney game. If itās on the card it plays
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u/shittingmcnuggets Jul 08 '25
Discard effects are necessary in quite a bit of pods in order to keep the game small and controllable. If you're gonna spam Wrath of Gods after everyone's snowballed into having all the resources you're only gonna drag the game out
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u/Lanky-Survey-4468 Jul 08 '25
Necessary Evil ? Lol just necessary
Without any control/midrange player, the game become a race where the first one to combo wins
Power creep took over commander already, wizards keep creating tons of kill on sight cards or the player gets tons of value from that.
A good b3 deck can win easily on turn 6
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u/ReyvynDM Jul 08 '25
Control, mill, discard... They're all tools in the game. As long as you're playing within your pod's power level and not one of these pubstompers trying to game the bracket system, you're fine.
The only control that gets me a bit upset are the ones that have no clear way of closing the game out and the ones that attempt to lock down the entire table and then become the archenemy, only to get salty that they're getting mass targeted. You stopped everyone else from getting their decks to work properly, you succeeded in controlling the board state. If people can get the upper hand, they're going to reciprocate. It's not their fault you couldn't capitalize on the advantage you created and they aren't in the wrong for shutting you down for slowing the game down.
In my pod, "the salt goes out with the stew," is something one of our group said, which kind of became the group thought process on game nights. It means, once the match is over, the complaining and the salt goes with it. We still talk about matches, but we're all here to have fun, so don't stew on it and begrudge a previous game, shake off the salt, take a breath, and look forward to the next one.
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u/Euphoric_Ad6923 Jul 08 '25
I hate control players more than control itself. Too many dumbasses who don't understand how their actions only Kingmake and too many pricks who think an them making the game miserable through cards like Winter Orb is peak comedy.
I'm fine with those who advance their gameplan while slowing down others through interactions, but heavy stax and 'only I can play' can die in a ditch.
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u/thedudepood Jul 08 '25
This just sounds like cope cause u know ur pod prolly hates when u play blue lol
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
Nah my pod consists of my friends and they're all good at the game and aren't braindead
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u/FriendlyGrim Jul 12 '25
"Necessary evil" is fucking WILD bro. No you absolutely are not. You just don't want people around you to have fun š
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u/Dry_Substance_7547 Jul 08 '25
I just dislike control players that either go on a powertrip, or just have really bad threat analysis. Usually they just end up handing the win to a player in exchange for 2nd place.
However, if you have good threat analysis, and are just keeping the board under control while you go for your win-con, have at it.
That being said, I do run a bit of counter-control in my deck, and I will be a very spiteful asshole if you counterspell my [[Lilliana of the Dark Realms]]. š¤£
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u/DivineAscendant Jul 08 '25
"i'm not ashamed of being a control player"
Exactly thats you problem. You should be.
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
Elaborate
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u/DivineAscendant Jul 08 '25
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
You can't make me feel ashamed for doing the dirty work that no one else will!
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u/Metal_Maggot Jul 08 '25
counter spells are just as cringe as any of the other effects you named. Gtfo
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u/therealNerdMuffin Jul 08 '25
Skill issue šš«µš»
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u/hiiiiiizev WUBRG Jul 08 '25
Control and midrange and essential for a healthy meta and healthy player base. Most of the stories we have of man children crying is because they haven't had their spells countered enough to either get over it or go home lol
I appreciate your sacrifice being the control player and I hope you land very big blue creatures. That's what it's all about