Defining Archetypes In Modern – Control

Control decks are built on the idea that you can answer everything your opponent ever does. This style of deck is often referred to as the hardest to build and play due to it, arguably, requiring a more intimate knowledge of the Modern metagame than others. Building a control deck requires an understanding of each other deck type you will be playing against in order to assess which spells you will want to block your opponent from playing via discard spells or counter magic, and which ones you will allow. The control deck does not play anything proactive in the early game but opts to solely mediate what the opponent is doing. This means they will spend most of their turns using any removal or interaction available to keep the opponent off of their plan. Control decks will make use of plenty of pure card draw spells, and spells that replace themselves by allowing you to draw a card in addition to their other effects. Once the control deck has established dominance of the game, the aim is to cast a powerful game-ending spell. These finishers are ideally very resilient, or will inevitably kill your opponent over time. Many control decks resort to manlands like Celestial Colonnade to finish the game because these can function as both a land and a win condition, thus saving deck space. Others may use Batterskull, Grave Titan, and Keranos, God of Storms. Common examples of this style of deck include Jeskai Control, Grixis Control, Gifts Ungiven control and Blue Moon.