When I think back to a few months ago, the mere mention of drafting a controlling deck in Theros limited would have most certainly been met with boos and hisses.
“Theros is too fast to support good control decks.”
“Control SUCKS in this format.”
“Haha…why don’t you just draft RW Heroic? It’s the best deck anyway."
It’s always fun to watch a format develop and the opinions of the people change along with it. I decided to try my hand at control and ended up with this sweet UB list during our latest team draft:
UB Control
| Creatures (16) 1 Omenspeaker 3 Returned Phalanx 1 Vaporkin 1 Blood-Toll Harpy 2 Nimbus Naiad 1 Triton Fortune Hunter 1 Cavern Lampad 1 Disciple of Phenax 1 Erebos's Emissary 1 Thassa's Emissary 3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel Spells (7) 1 Pharika's Cure 2 Scourgemark 1 Voyage's End 1 Read the Bones 1 Sea God's Revenge 1 Sip of Hemlock | Lands (17) 9 Swamp 8 Island |
I plan on giving you all an idea of how each card fared as a role player in this UB Control build by pretty much showing you the emotion I felt when I encountered each card. I use the following range of faces to help illustrate the point:
Are you ready kids? I can’t hear youuuuu!
This card was never a disappointment. Having three toughness made it a fine early game blocker but what really stood out about this card was its ability. My deck was chock full of important creatures and spells. Being able to sculpt the top of my deck made this card great during all points of the game.
My ideal opening hand usually had one or two of these, a removal spell, and lands. This card was great at gumming up the board and helping me stabilize by preventing early aggression but having multiples was GREAT! Threatening a double block made my opponent think twice about swinging in with even the meatiest of creatures.
For some reason, I thought I’d love this card much more that I did in this build. On its own it’s pretty meh, a fragile 2/1 flier who does almost nothing to help get you to the late game. Not being able to block non-fliers is a huge down-fall when playing a control deck in this format, especially since that’s the main goal of most of my early drops. During one of my games, I just needed one more turn to drop a Gray Merchant and stabilize, but of course, down came a Minotaur Skullcleaver to put an end to my plan and the match.
Again, this little guy is just as fragile as Vaporkin, but even at one mana more, it was a better inclusion in this deck. The Harpy was able to play defense when necessary as well as suit up and crush in the air when the coast was clear. With multiple Scougemarks and bestow creatures, I was generally happy to see this card in my hand, not to mention the added devotion it gave to the Disciple and Gray Merchant.
This card was great for the same reasons as the Harpy, with the added benefit of being able to be used as an enchantment. Either way, it was nice to have access to a way to finish off my opponent once I stabilized.
Being able to dig for spells is pretty important in a build like this. Since I didn’t have many other ways to generate card advantage, I welcomed his inclusion in the deck. Plus, with seven ways to trigger heroic, I def drew my fair share of cards off of the Hunter. The second best feeling I had playing this deck was when the Hunter turned my Scorgemarks into Divinations with upside.
I generally didn’t play this card until I was already stable and ready to do some damage. It didn’t provide much help getting me to the late game, but it served as a win condition against opponents who weren’t playing black.
I was very close to not playing this card, then one of my teammates slapped some sense into me. With all the black in this deck, it revealed a pretty big chunk of my opponent’s hand and added to my devotion for Gray Merchant. ‘Nuff said.
This card made combat almost impossible for my opponents. It also served as a pretty powerful win condition when timed correctly. One thing that this card did well was turn my terrible creature top-decks into fodder.
It draws cards! Again, card advantage is key to making the deck shine and this card was great at it. It fits well in the curve, comes with a decent sized body, and can bestow! What more do you want?
I mean, do I really have to say anything here? One Gary is fine, but three is a million times better than fine. He did not disappoint.
This card was excellent at helping fend off early aggression with the added bonus of life gain. Since instant speed removal is much less prevalent in this set than most, its easy for your opponent to discount it and get yourself a sweet two-for-one from time to time.
The only reason this card doesn’t get a higher rating is because of its reliance on a creature. Other than that, this card did everything I could have asked for; increased my devotion count, buffed up my fliers/intimidator, and drew a card. This card has been growing on me, plus most cards that replace itself can probably find a home in a build that thrives on maintaining card advantage over its opponent.
I know talking about this card is like beating a dead horse, so I wont—poor horsey is dag near unrecognizable.
It’s a sorcery speed removal spell, so of course I have my reservations. But in my deck, I needed an unconditional way of removing threats and this spell did just that. The worst part about it was its cost, so a lot of times I was dead before I even had a chance to play it.
Now that I’m getting the hang of drafting different types of decks, I need to learn how to play them! Anyone who knows me will tell you I come from a pretty aggressive start, playing Zombies for my first year in the game. I ended our team event 1-2 with the majority of my losses coming from assigning myself as the beatdown way too early. Patience is definitely something I need to work on.
I enjoy reading your questions/comments so feel free to post below and, as always, thanks for reading!