How to play vs Control

One of the common gripes for players who start out in MTG are their games vs control decks, especially against control decks that use blue counterspells. In this section we’ll be covering how to increase your chances of winning this matchup and how to approach it.

If you’re playing aggressive deck

Aggressive decks are favored against control for the following reasons:

• Threats are cheap and multiple of them can be played on the same turn
• The damage adds up fast and control can’t deal with them until the late game arrives
• Aggro decks don’t care about losing a specific creature in their gameplan

If the control player gets their life total chipped away every turn and has to spend mana inefficiently, they’re on their way to losing. There are also special tools that aggro decks that are meta right now may use to beat control.

White weenie is straightforward – play cheap creatures, attack with everything, watch out for mass removal (sweepers)

Red deck wins is the same with an important addition – burn spells allow you to close out the game efficiently, you just need to get their life total in the range of burn spells, i.e. 5-10 life depending on the turn. Bonus points for including a copy of Banefire that can’t be countered.

To play well against control there are two pitfalls that are common for aggro players:

• Making the deck more midrange than aggressive
• Overcommitting into sweepers

There’s a high incentive for inexperienced players to include cool and strong cards in their aggressive decks. For example, should you include 2 copies of Siege-Gang Commander in your RDW?

The answer is no. It’s a good card for Big Red decks that have a midrange plan, not an aggressive plan. By turn 5 you want to have your opponent on less than 10 life and finishing off the game with burn. Fight the urge to include cards that cost four or more mana in your aggressive decks.

If you’re playing aggro and want to be a good player you need to know all the sweepers that see play in the metagame. Settle the wreckage is the only instant speed sweeper, so four open mana from your opponent and no played cards until turn 4 should be a clear signal – it’s a trap!

Deafening Clarion, Kaya's Wrath, Golden demise, Cry of Carnarium, Settle the Wreckage, Fiery Cannonade, Ritual of Soot, Cleansing nova, Find/Finality, River’s Rebuke should all be a part of your game awareness. Do you have lethal in one or two turns with the cards on the battlefield already? Don’t play more creatures.

Against counterspells aggressive decks have a relatively easy time. If the opponent has to spend two or three mana to counter your cheap creatures, you’re doing everything right as long as you have more creatures to follow up on the battlefield and attack.

What is the recipe for aggro decks against planeswalkers? Go face, ignore them. If it’s turn 5 you need to get them low enough to finish off with burn, attacking planeswalkers only buys them time.

Finally, know when to concede. If a control deck had survived by turn 6 with enough life (10+), has a planeswalker that’s generating card advantage for them and you have only a single 1/1 creature on the board, you’ve lost this match. Concede and jam more games. Learn what you might have done better from this match.

If you’re playing a midrange deck

Midrange decks generally have an unfavorable matchup vs control for the following reasons:

• Midrange decks have midrange threats as the most potent ones
• Damage generally doesn’t ramp up fast enough
• Control decks have the better late game compared to midrange decks

Control decks want to deal with decks where they can get the biggest bang for their buck. If you play a huge, expensive threat like gigantosaurus for five mana and they counter it for 3 mana – they’re in an excellent position.

In the current metagame the cards that are best positioned against control from the midrange perspective are three types:

• Can’t be countered
• Hexproof
• Haste

Carnage tyrant and Niv Mizzet (accompanied by Dive Down) are thus some of the best threats a midrange deck might have, but they have somewhat fallen out of favor in RNA. Hydroid krasis has all but dominated as the big threat, because even if it's countered it still draws you cards and gains life. Control has troubles dealing with them unless they use a Detection Tower, Settle the Wreckage, Cleansing Nova or some other tricks.

Other than that, hexproof creatures like Vinemare, Nullhide Ferox may be good cards vs Control decks. If you can cast them successfully (resolve them) it will be problematic for control to deal with them.

With sideboards one of the most played cards in Standard is Duress. It’s good against Control decks but feels pretty bad vs aggressive decks that are prevalent on the ladder. So it’s always a question for midrange decks: do you want to be slightly better against ~20-30% of control decks in bo1 and worse against 70-80% of other decks?

As the meta changes constantly by the format you play, the time of the day and the flavor of the week deck, adjust your list accordingly and don’t mind losing to an occasional control deck if you’re playing midrange.

If you’re playing a control deck

In a control match showdown one of the most important things to keep track of is the card advantage. If your opponent has one card while you have seven, this is the best thing in the world because generally you have so many more options than they do.

If you’re a new player with a control deck never slam your threat without backup. No playing Teferi on curve. Wait until you have counterspells against their counterspells, sometimes multiples. You want the opponent to tap out before casting your threat and ways to save it once you do.

Once you have your planeswalker on the battlefield that generates card advantage you’re already well on your way to victory. If you play other bombs as finishers the same applies – have patience to only cast them with multiple layers of protection.

Additional information

One of the best ways to learn how to play against a deck is to play it yourself. Give control decks a try. You’ll see just how much dual lands it needs. How bad the draws can be. How bad it feels to be on a draw vs an aggressive deck when you lose without a chance to cast a spell. Try it and you’ll learn more.

Finally, some general advice on how to play vs control decks has been covered in this topic. Good luck!

You can find how to play against Aggro here and how to play vs Midrange here.

You should now be well-positioned in your games against common archetypes in constructed. Sometimes you get tired of the meta and want to try out something new. Playing limited (drafting) is covered in the next section and may be just what you're looking for!