Hey everyone! We are back again with the second of three installments in my macro-archetype series in Pauper! This week, we will be discussing the control decks in Pauper. Again, we will be using Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s definitions for these articles. So, I give you Control in Pauper!
There are three main types of control decks found in Magic: draw/go, tap-out control, and non-blue control. In this article, we will dive into examples of each of these and talk about the advantages and disadvantages of these decks in Pauper.
Draw/Go.
Draw/Go decks are the typical control decks people think of. The keep their hands full of cards, including counterspells and draw effects, and then grind you out with one win condition, or even no wincons at all!
These decks usually consist of one-for-one trades, which can be accomplished by different types of counterspells, discard spells, and removal.
UB Teachings
| Creatures (1) 1 Twisted Abomination Spells (36) 1 Agony Warp 1 Arcane Denial 1 Capsize 3 Chainer’s Edict 1 Condescend 4 Counterspell 1 Crypt Incursion 1 Curse of the Bloody Tome 2 Diabolic Edict 2 Disfigure 1 Doom Blade 1 Echoing Decay 1 Essence Scatter 2 Evincar’s Justice 1 Exclude 4 Mystical Teachings 2 Pristine Talisman 1 Prohibit 1 Recoil 1 Remove Soul 4 Think Twice | Lands (23) 4 Dimir Aqueduct 4 Dismal Backwater 2 Dimir Guildgate 3 Radiant Fountain 7 Island 3 Swamp Sideboard (15) 1 Curse of the Bloody Tome 1 Dispel 1 Duress 1 Exclude 1 Hydroblast 4 Mulldrifter 1 Recoil 4 Sea Gate Oracle 1 Waterfront Bouncer |
UB Teachings is the best example of a draw/go style deck in Pauper. They win with a very slow, grindy wincon with Curse of the Bloody Tome and then use a lot of cards that one-for-one their opponents or draw even more cards, like Think Twice.
Tap-Out Control.
The next type of deck we will talk about is the tap-out control deck. Unlike draw/go, these types of decks like to do things at sorcery speed. In Pauper, we can see this type of plan in the Acid Trip deck. This deck utilizes creatures that bounce a permanent to their hand, like Dream Stalker, to abuse cards like Reality Acid.
Acid Trip
| Creatures (19) 4 Dream Stalker 1 Icatian Javelineers 4 Kor Skyfisher 4 Mulldrifter 3 Sea Gate Oracle 3 Lone Missionary Spells (20) 2 Last Breath 4 Journey to Nowhere 4 Preordain 3 Reality Acid 1 Serrated Arrows 4 Spreading Seas 2 Momentary Blink | Lands (21) 2 Azorius Chancery 2 Kabira Crossroads 9 Island 3 Plains 2 Secluded Steppe 3 Tranquil Cove Sideboard (15) 2 Circle of Protection: Red 2 Counterspell 2 Dispel 2 Holy Light 2 Kor Sanctifiers 1 Relic of Progenitus 3 Stormbound Geist 1 Sunlance |
Non-Blue Control.
So, non-blue control decks are a little out of the ordinary because blue is obviously the best color for control style decks—it gives you both of the things you need, card draw and permission spells like Counterspell. So, what do the non-blue control decks do? Well, in Pauper’s case, they control your hand with cards like Duress and the board with cards like Disfigure and Cuombajj Witches.
Mono-Black Control
| Creatures (19) 4 Phyrexian Rager 4 Chittering Rats 4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel 2 Gurmag Angler 1 Crypt Rats 4 Cuombajj Witches Spells (18) 3 Disfigure 1 Corrupt 4 Chainer’s Edict 2 Oubliette 4 Sign in Blood 2 Tendrils of Corruption 2 Unearth | Lands (23) 18 Swamp 4 Barren Moor 1 Bojuka Bog Sideboard (15) 2 Bottle Gnomes 3 Choking Sands 3 Duress 1 Echoing Decay 2 Font of Return 2 Shrivel 2 Wrench Mind |
Even though it isn’t blue, it still does a lot of things that a control deck does—it draws cards with Sign in Blood and Phyrexian Rager and then controls the board with many different types of removal.
Conclusion.
If you want to play control in Pauper, you have a lot of different ways to do it. Draw/go. tap-out, and non-blue control decks are all viable in the meta and it will be interesting to see how the banning of Cloud of Faeries affects the meta. I think these decks will be just as strong in the post-Cloud of Faeries environment.
If you want to read more about the control macro-archetype, you can check out Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s article.
If you ever have any questions or comments, go ahead and throw a tweet my way, @kintreesprit!
Thanks for reading!
Lexie Mettler is a Level 2 judge from Fort Wayne, Indiana. By day she is a student, by night she streams MTGO and practices for tournaments all over the Midwest.