BRaGging Rights

Whoever claimed a 3-colour control deck had to contain Blue, clearly never tried playing a deck like this before. While it may not have the ability to sculpt its hand or counter any threats, it does draw you lots of cards and [thus] lots of answers. What’s the best way to beat a Blue-based control deck? Attack their resources/answers and overwhelm them with your own. Today we are going to learn how to win and earn our BRaGging Rights.

Let’s start off with the mana base. Being a tri-colour deck, you want to ensure access to all three colours. This build focuses more on Black mana, but contains enough Red and Green to not go too light on either of them. I should point out that only Black cards contain more than 1 of their respective mana colour in their casting cost, so tweaking the mana base is certainly an option.

I put a copy of Thunderscape Apprentice in the deck because it is just so versatile. You can use him to help protect your creatures, and should that not become necessary, just ping your opponent for 1 at the end of their turn. This spot was originally open for a Nimble Mongoose, but the deck started to focus more on control and less on tempo as it evolved. Another benefit being that Apprentice is Red, meaning he can grow any Dryad(s) that are in play.

Card advantage. Because the deck lacks any sort of hand manipulation via cantrips, the best way for it to get the cards it needs is to draw them. Phyrexian Arena is a card drawing machine, and if you can land it early on, you have a serious advantage over your opponent. The other side of card advantage is when your opponent doesn’t have a hand – Hypnotic Specter, Hymn to Tourach and Duress all do their job at ensuring this to be the case. And what do all of these cards have in common? They all cost Black mana. A turn 1 Dark Ritual can really give you the edge by allowing you to play these early on.

While Specter, Hymn and Duress act as forms of card advantage, they also act as a means to control your opponent. They are not the only means of doing so however; as both Lightning Bolt and Terminate are excellent forms of control.  Lightning Bolt is an amazing card, which I don’t really need to get into. Terminate tends to be less known, which is a shame as it is probably the second best form of single creature removal available (Swords to Plowshares being #1).

As previously mentioned, this brew started as something different before becoming the control-style deck that it did. As you all know, this really is an open format with a lot of deck building potential and I encourage everyone to go through their old card lists and see what interests them. Happy Brewing!

BRaGging Rights

Land

3 Taiga

3 Badlands

3 Bayou

1 Forest

1 Swamp

1 Mountain

4 Bloodstained Mire

4 Wooded Foothills

4 Wasteland

Total: 24

Creatures

4 Quirion Dryad

4 Werebear

1 Thunderscape Apprentice

4 Hypnotic Specter

Total: 13

Spells

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Terminate

4 Duress

4 Hymn to Tourach

3 Phyrexian Arena

4 Dark Ritual

Total: 23

Sideboard

4 Tormod’s Crypt

1 Red Elemental Blast

2 Pyroblast

2 Pyroclasm

3 Hull Breach

1 Avoid Fate

1 Regrowth

1 Pernicious Deed