How to Build Control Decks in EDH

[@thetrinketmage]

Check out card castle! Use this link to start scanning cards today! ccstl.co/trinket

[@chetasaur]

i usually hate baked in sponsor ads for youtube videos but when the creator does a little work and makes a skit or something with them they are a lot more bearable, also cute lizard!

[@thetrinketmage]

I’ll make sure JoJo knows you think he is cute 🥰

[@chipiegg1466]

but tbh they need to make money as we watch for free, i assume on patreon he has no ad/sponsor versions :) For the ultra big creators they can do without im just impressed he has sponsors already tbh

[@20x20]

You should get sponsorblock

[@thatonefirekestral]

TTM calmly explaining the sponsorship while the the kavu eats a guy is the funniest thing I've seen in a while

[@atlantahuskey2766]

I personally like the longer videos, they're great to watch/listentoo when im at work or driving to and from work.Your videos always bring me so much joy and knowledge. And that advertisement was awesome!

[@yurisbest2892]

I love control decks, nothing brings me better joy than removing the one ring with a breaking down the door. One thing I value a lot in control deck is to have removal engines or cards that can do more than just 1 to 1 trade, a lot of 5 mana counter spells are great for this, but cards like collective resistance that can let you scale up are excellent

[@The_Natalist]

Hot Take: Burn is a type of control, it just aims to control the board in the early game and win then. (Not every deck, but many can operate this way)

[@rudyh721]

I agree with this, but it is funny to me how blue and red are such opposite colors, and yet are similar in this way

[@dontblamepeopleblamethegov559]

In all seriousness, yes, burn is a control hybrid. I'd say it's less controlley than attrition and UW/UB lists, as it cares to control the game only for so long until it builds up enough cards and mana to blast everyone out, burn doesn't make a goal to attack enemy value or attack all the scary threats.

[@Taeerom]

CounterBurn is absolutely an established archetype. It came about in a metagame where you had to run a couple of fastcraetres to get the turn 4 burn win (because of the low quality of the worst burn spells). Some people saw this, and asked "what if we survive two turns longer?". They cut the creatures and the bad burn spells, but still ran enough good burn spells to count to 20, and added 4-8 counterspells as well as some amount of card draw, since the density of damage was lower.

[@Crushanator1]

Player Removal acts as threat removal and counterspells, but only if you believe in yourself

[@The_Natalist]

@@Crushanator1 Lmao what is that supposed to mean 😭

[@lloydnoid6506]

15:06 Red has lots of cards that change the targets of target spell, which are sorta like counterspells in a way. Also you forgot Mages Contest, the funniest counterspell

[@thetrinketmage]

I did miss the redirection spells my bad. Also mages contest is hilarious

[@thatonefirekestral]

Yeah wdym non-blue decks can't have counterspells... There's pyroblast, red elemental blast, burnout, gutteral response, mana tithe, aven interrupter, withering boon, deathgrip, lifeforce, null brooch, null elemental blast, warping wail, reprieve, mage's attendant, sundial of the infinite, Kozilek, the Great Distortion, and lapse of certainty are all pretty... decent, anyway.

[@thetrinketmage]

@@thatonefirekestral I said red and green lack counters. I don't quite count red ele and pyroblast for casual edh they are very niche. and guttural response is too niche even for cedh... Those color hate cards are not something I would recommend in a control deck.

[@powerminer2]

cant agree more that the best answer to the commander arm's race is to play control, you save the table from never being fun again by playing as a sentient speedbump to the fast decks in your pod

[@TheAngelRaven]

Before fully watching: Control decks are sort of a necessary evil in most Commander pods, HOWEVER it requires a person willing to - hopefully - be seen and watched constantly. I'm fine with a control deck at my table, but not when I'm the only person seeing their 2 Smothering Tithes as a problem BEFORE they resolve a Faerie Mastermind. That game made me focus my Jund deck further into harsh attrition plus anti-Blue.

[@granite_4576]

Imo any red deck should contain anti-blue tech.

[@thered1s276]

@@granite_4576 you're thinking far too narrow. Every deck should have at least one Silver Bullet for their bad match-ups

[@granite_4576]

@@thered1s276 genuinely very few things in magic can beat the feeling of responding to a counterspell with a boil.

[@chello3963]

Yooo trinket mage, just found out there's a card named trinket mage 😂

[@thetrinketmage]

I wonder how many viewers I have that don’t know my channel is named after a card

[@chello3963]

@thetrinketmage well I'm no longer one of them, I suppose, lol. I put it in my locust god deck to tutor for skull clamp, library of leng, and elixir of immortality

[@chello3963]

@@thetrinketmage also, happy halloween!

[@matthewmeyrowitz6760]

@@thetrinketmagecant belive wizards named a card after you

[@GrayVMhan]

Just wait until you understand 3/3 Elk

[@cameronpowell1864]

I don't mind playing against control decks. Just know I'm attacking you all game.

[@maximillianhallett3055]

That’s the spirit! Make us have it or we’re psyoping our way to victory.

[@raymondcarter4335]

Lol meanwhile the combo deck is going infinite and I can’t spare the mana for a counterspell since the aggro player can’t stop seeing red. Figure I might as well king-make and let the combo player win if I’m dead either way 😂😂

[@TargetSniper365]

Clown

[@enso8379]

As a kid in the 90s I had like one gruul stompy deck (it used winter orb and mana dorks to run out stuff like Ernham Djinn), and then a goblin sleigh deck. And after than I've pretty much only ever played control decks in one form or another. Being able to have the answer to a situation or having to use your deck to solve the puzzle of the game state is the best part of the game. I love counter spells and will always have at least one in a deck if I can get it in the color pie. Yes mana tithe and lapse of certainty are my pet cards, fight me.

[@thatonefirekestral]

Yes I love mana tithe and lapse of certainty! Reprieve, aven interrupter, and mages attendant are pretty cool too.

[@alexliang1040]

11/10 on this longform video, bonus for the cute sketch ad That was a solid description of deck archetypes in EDH, Im looking forward to using this framework to evaluate cards

[@zanderfus2723]

‏‪14:30‬‏ DA GOAT WE LOVE JOJO

[@Mandus_The_Mad]

For a controlling Boros commander I recommend Othari, Sun's Glory. Immense inevitibility so long as you pack a ton of mass board protection to ensure victory.

[@elijahlyons8164]

you have spoke to my heart this day mentioning render silent. Simply my favorite card.

[@TeifitV]

Oh boy, I needed a way to avoid getting devoured mid trade, thanks Trinket Mage! Also cute lizard!

[@sku11_duggery2]

I like the longer video. Listen to most of these videos while driving to school. Ads are fine. The video's free, makes sense.

[@de245733]

Hi trinket mage, your heliod control deck has inspired me to finall rebuilt build oketra the true draw go control(which I've failed many times), and with your deck list's guidance, I've finally built something that is equipted to win the game, thank you so much, the deck has been a blast to play with.

[@iambensummers]

I like control that speeds me up as my opponents do well. This way, they have fun, while I pull ahead. Cards like Compost, Insight, Carpet of Flowers, Ghostly Pilferer, Wedding Ring, Psychic Possession, Verity Circle, Archivist of Oghma, etc. all do well when my opponents are having fun, and they usually put me in a position to control the board without my opponents knowing that they're locked.

[@andrewb378]

I really like the Council of Four as a control deck. I do run some of the group draw stuff like Kami of the Crescent Moon and Howling Mine, but that deck really takes advantage of those. It's also an extremely compact deck because of how much value is stuffed into the council. It's an army in a can *and* a powerful draw engine. Combine it with other draw engines like Tocasia's Welcome or Ephara, god of the polis and it goes absolutely nuts. I actually think a sneaky upside of playing the group draw effects in this specific deck is that it makes people want to cast more spells. Overfilling their hands early silently incentivizes them to double spell and give me knights. I mean, who wants to discard cards?

[@moody-Bayonetta]

Tivit is my control deck. Evasive, huge beater that provides card and mana advantage in one.

[@iryanmadayana1904]

As someone with a low-budget monogreen Rhonas deck with like 15 fight spells and lots of creature-based card draw: YES!

[@Spinoguy03]

The blue tongue kavu should definitely be an alter or renamed card with your skink as the artwork, absolutely adorable!

[@furnace6441]

The card disadvantage problem is why i will sing the praises of Nymris, Oonas Trickster until i die. It turns all of your counterspells and targeted removal into cantrips, actually even better since you dig two cards deep into your library to find your combos. I am always having a laugh when i play him and my friends cower in fear whenever they cast a spell

[@jemm113]

Oof I failed to realize that one’s legendary! Pair it with displacer kitten + an Archaomancer effect to always have counterspells 😂

[@gaiden81]

I liked the additional ad because it was creative and funny. I don't mind ads if they are entertaining to watch. Command Zone does entertaining ads to and I watch them most of the time. Accept for when they reuse them. Longer videos are really what I go for. My time is limited.

[@hardhittamtg]

This couldn't have released at a better time. As I sit here building my first commander deck, with Niv Mizzet, Visionary. I've played control a long time but commander is a whole different beast, this video was very helpful.

[@Aurelius2142]

Fun addition here for actually _picking_ your removal; find pieces that let you get away with riding the line between single target and board wipe, hitting multiple pieces at once. Card draw is obviously an essential, but multi-target removal lets you greed to have more fun and interesting cards, because your removal hits multiple threats (and so don't need to draw as much to compensate). Beast Within is in about 40% of all EDH decks, and there are similar numbers for all the top pieces of single target removal at that mana cost - Chaos Warp, Generous Gift. For one mana more, a simple Decimate can easily 4-for-1, and the only downside is that you can't hit planeswalkers. You know what _is_ good at hitting planeswalkers? The creature-full boardstates everywhere else on the table. Let them do the hard work for you and watch them spend their combat damage for the turn on the "threat", then cackle maniacally when you thank them for their efforts, and Blasphemous Act for 1 red mana because you waited to pull the trigger - for once, not for pure greed, but because your Decimate kept the big threats away from you, buying you time to _be_ greedy without letting the full range of a Great Henge + Rhystic Study + Esper Sentinel + Cabal Coffers have a full extra turn cycle to run away with.

[@Thelastpraetor]

This is why I called my cedh Xyris list a "Control/aggro" list. It bought time simply by having removal at the right opportunities before striking with a finisher. Even if the downside was that opponents could draw cards, I basically could force them to interact so I didn't have to

[@beevuu]

JOJO CAMEO GOES CRAZY 10/10 sponsorship segment

[@DarkDealer666]

Yes! As a fellow control player, I encounter the misconception that I am just countering every spell and preventing anyone from doing anything all the time. In reality I wait to the last possible chance to react to stuff or only remove/counter things that are specifically threats to me. I let everyone do their thing and only step in if it will adversely effect me too badly for me to ignore. While I have made many control decks, my favorite is my Queza, Augur of Agonies list. While I have a couple backup spells, I just let everyone beat each other up and and then mop up with Queza at the end, quite effective. And it let's just fill my deck with draw and removal, a few utility cards, and the aforementioned backup wincons, making for a very strong control list. Also, since you asked for tips and tricks from seasoned control players, I have two: sorcery speed card draw is the devil and we shall not heed him. Sorcery speed in general is the devil, but one that is sadly unavoidable at times. Repeated draw like Rhystic Study or Phyrexian Arena is great, but there is almost no better feeling as a control player (at least in my opinion) than to draw five or six cards on the end phase before your turn and then untap with a full hand of cards, and all your mana open. Second tip/trick, my all-time favorite control card is actually Leyline of Anticipation (and to a lesser extent Vedalkan Orrorery). Giving all your spells flash is about the best thing you can do for a control deck (again in my opinion). It may not seem like it at first, but now you essentially no longer have to choose between playing that good card you wanted to play and leaving mana open like a responsible control player should. Also, turning every boardwipe into basically another Rift style effect is great (you can never have enough instant-speed boardwipes).

[@loganusher591]

Great longer video! And the ad in the middle was fantastic! Beautiful Skink! ❤️

[@philipmalle9415]

I’ve been really impressed by Vren the Relentless as a control commander lately. I don’t play any rats besides Marrow-Gnawer; it's mainly removal, counterspells, and ramp.

[@CrowQQ]

My favorite I guess you could call it control is Gisa, the Hellraiser (3BB ward 2 from outlaws) who on crime makes two tapped 2/2 zombies and she gives zombies and skellies +1/+1 and menace. The deck is just monoblack removal dot dec but the thing that has kept it "OKd" by my group is that all my interaction (besides one plague wind for group memes) is targeted interaction for crime and that 3/3 menace zombies do be slapping rather hard so there is no the slow death sentence feeling that some too dedicated UW control players set up.

[@thebrunoo2730]

i really liked your sponsorship, hope the blue toungue kavu becomes a recurring character

[@thetrinketmage]

I got will smith for the next one

[@jeluenhayo2410]

Great vid, I prefer long ones with analytic point on things, so it's right up my alley. In terms of ads - I personally just don't mind and just skip 'em so a time-stamp in the video that marks it is always welcome but not neccessary. Content creators has to eat too, so be my guest and place it wherever and however you want.

[@JakeFrost-e6w]

This is really making me want to rebrew my Silas Renn and Rebbec deck. It was built around recurring plenty of repeatable removal options using Silas, and making him unblockable with Rebbec along with some other big threats for finishers

[@brianlinden3042]

Huh. I finally understand your seemingly insane take on Arcane Denial! It really is one of the best counterspells you can run, if you're running it the way I generally do; 2 or 3 counters in the whole deck, which you're using strategically, only to protect your most important pieces or stop an opponent's win. But even if, mathematically, it puts you less far behind the rest of the table than other one for one counterspells, if you're actually playing control, giving that one opponent extra cards is always a bad thing, and you should be drawing enough cards yourself that you can afford to go down a few, relative to the other two players who you aren't countering. Thanks for clearing that up!

[@Kararch]

Really good video. No issues with the ads and length. Didn't know that control exists in edh since, as you say, you need to control 3 players to try reach the end game first. I would say it's the hardest strategy, simply because I see many people get it wrong. They cast removal after removal on non essential pieces and then eventually run out of cards. Then they complain why everyone goes against them. (Dictate of Erebos player, I'm looking at you)

[@alexandernewbound5041]

Personally I love control. Especially in none blue or black colors. You do miss out on a certain amount of interaction, but no one is expecting it. So you gain an element of surprise and you find fun and interesting ways to play colors. I have a neyith the dire hunt deck that 25-30 of the deck is meant to interact with the board while my commander draws me cards until I get enough value to put out a few big beaters to win the game. Great video as always, keep up the great work.

[@bored_pyro]

Solid video! When I first started playing magic and commander, control had me pretty salty. Flash forward a year and I've realized it's just someone else's version of fun and I need to respect that. I built a Zethi pseudo control deck as a dumping ground for my WU cards since I tend to play Jund and it's been a ton of fun! Thanks for helping down the path of more fun at the table and being a more mature player. As for longer form videos. I'm here for it. Took me to cracks to get through it but I love your content and will soak up shorts or 30 min videos alike :)

[@redstoneplaysmc1639]

As a bit of a control connoisseur myself, I have a few experiences to share. My Riku Landfall (midrange/ramp) and Niv-Mizzet Parun (control) decks probably serve as a good example of the distinction between inevitability and attrition. Both decks have inevitability (Riku can easily reach ten or more mana by turn 5 and oftens gets all lands out by turn ten or so, and NMP has a combo/draw engine waiting in the command zone) and have some level of attrition. However, NMP is better at attrition because he can generate more card draw than Riku (Riku serves as a mana sink) and is better at using counterspells and the commander offensively: The commander: mitigates the drawback of removal being card-disadvantageous; kills almost everything with enough Pillsbury Doughboy pokes, and if needed, he can easily finish players with cantrips and random draw spells. Knowing that Niv is coming and you can't really stop him (he can't be countered) plus the prospect of taking damage and possibly not getting your spells or creatures through puts a lot of pressure on people. To some extent, my current Riku deck also works like a control deck of sorts: it's packed with removal that can be used defensively or offensively, accumulates exponential value (cards and mana) just by playing the game, can fight against and through removal, and has solid plans of land-based combos (infinite value with either Kodama or Doppelgang) or whacking people with some random dudes. The closest deck comparison I can make is Pioneer's Niv to Light, a tap-out control deck that uses cheap removal early on, overwhelms the opponent with value, and goes over the top with sizable threats of its own. Most of Riku's top end are dangerous creatures: Tyrranax Rex (hasty uncounterable 8/8 trampler with ward 4 that three-shots players), Omnath Locus of Rage (explosive 5/5 that cranks out more explosive 5/5s and can end games), Beanstalk Giant (a literal giant on a ramp spell) and Avenger of Zendikar (5/5 that dumps out an army of chumps that can get swole with minimal effort) are the main ones, and many of the value engines are respectable beaters themselves with 4 or 5 power, like Mina and Denn or Ancient Greenwarden.

[@zansumkai]

Great video! I recently rebuilt my most successful deck which I've come to realize is a control deck, Drana Kalestria Bloodchief, and it's debut game was a success! Ultimately the goal is to make it to the 1 v 1 and have our beefy mana sink commander eat their face, but i find that for the rest of the game what i prefer to do is try to just keep to my corner and let other people be scary and point it out when they are doing so. The Skullbriar deck ran the table and was super scary and then i tutored up a Glacial Chasm and wrapped things up from there I guess if I have a point it's that if you're playing control you don't want to be obnoxious about it. Let the big scary cards people are slamming keep the threat detection off yourself while you sculpt your hand and plan out lines to murder them ^ _ ^

[@ovoilse]

My extent of "control" is counterspells and removal so I'm looking forward to watching this 🙂

[@Creepy___]

I am currently building my first control deck with Zacama as the commander, looking up builds is a bit difficult since a lot of players play her with infinite combos that I dont want to engage with, but trying to get into a control mage mindset is a fun new experience

[@RandomCommenter955]

As someone who’s weirdly passionate about building mono green control and spent endless time trying to perfect my shigeki brew and looking into things like six and thrun as other control commander options, rhonas is kinda genius. Like, the advantage of me going with something like thrun would’ve been big creature so this plenty of removal spells and draw spells now work. But rhonas just does that in every way but better, and more mana efficiently, and it’s not even hard to make him attack to start putting an early clock on opponents AND he can even give trample and extra dmg on demand to push further pressure. He’s actually so simple and so perfect for an easy mono green control build!!! Wtf!!!!! Conversely shigeki takes the opposite direction one similar but still noticeably very different than six and it’s been super complex to try and brew shigeki. Not having a commander that automatically triggers greens plentiful power based draw and removal spells makes things a lot trickier especially when your commander kinda sux until you get a lot of mana and it in your hand, but it’s super interesting. Definitely think I gotta take the lessens I’ve learned from shigeki and other mono green control options and try and combine those with rhonas and the ease of extremely efficient creature removal and draw spells he unlocks and then just play many creature tutors to tutor up all those high value green creature engines anyways like shigeki six and whatever else. So genius!

[@novayer]

This was a super insightful video! It made me rethink my current control list and realize ways i can make it way better. My favorite deck ive ever made is an Inquisitor Greyfax deck that is a deck focused on clues. I loved the idea of being a sleuth and i wanted to make clues work well. The perk? clues can act as both my wincon as well as my draw engine! I have mixed aspects of tapping, boardwipes, and control magic to allow me to amass a massive amount of clues and use them to close out the game. This video has been super insightful! I received lots of good ideas as to cards i can change out as well as how to play efficiently to allow myself room to close out the game. Thank you so much for the video

[@Kodaxor]

The ad with the lizard was 10/10, made me smile :)

[@Horchata4lyfe]

I play mostly only control in 60 card and I always wish I could make it work in edh while being fun for the table to play with. Thanks for giving me some ideas. I'm definitely inspired by your Mr. Foxglove deck.

[@Shengito]

Great video and great argumentation for running removal or playing control in Commander, and interesting suggestions for playing control out of its traditional colors. I've been trying to wrap my head around it for a while and this video certainly helped. The scenario you described at 23:45 is exactly what happens most of the time someone plays turn 1 Sol Ring, so I don't understand why you say it's a good card for the format. I wish I could take my time back from those games, as either that player wins or is hated out of the game early, making it and unpleasant situation. And spending removal on it, even cheap one as Pick your Poison, can backfire by setting the other players back more than the one that already built a board.

[@bobhouses2036]

Love the linger videos, feels like you can get your point across better. One thing I'd add is that for a control deck it's probably much more important for you to not rely on your commander. If you're relying on the commander for your card draw amd it gets removed a fee times, you're kinda screwed

[@FrostyThePirate]

This is not just a great deckbuilding video, but also a great example of how to do sponsorship plugs right.

[@Belena711]

This was a good conversation - I'm not inexperienced in magic, and even after this conversation I'm not 100% sure the best way to do pure control in edh. I've been successful at it before, but in my experience it always either 1. Didn't work, or 2. It was a miserable experience. Even this conversation, though, highlights the problems that I have running pure control. . . I agree that it's not like people in general just cant stand a counterspell or something; It's those last 3-5 turns, where you've successfully locked everyone down, and now you remove their life totals with your threat while they wait. I've found that alt wincons usually go over better in pure control decks. Something like Approach of the Second Sun. Maybe that's the only way to do it without making people feel bad. 🤷‍♂ RIP Rashmi, at least you got to win once. Lol

[@Zippwnage]

Watching your video make me realize why i love sunforger so much

[@ney5321]

The second ad was one of the best I saw in a while! Thank you for the control guide as I learn to play better control. I bought a Gavi nest warden deck from a friend of mine and thats the deck i try to learn control with. Gavi is simply the draw enginge of the deck and over time I get some blokckers as well. By drawing throughh the deck I have most of the time a counterspell ready. I still need to figure out when to flicker/bounce/counter the threats my opponent have. I do struggle to evaluate if a certain choice was good. E.g. I played against Omnath locust of creation, ashling flame dance (forgot the fourth deck). When I removed the threats of one deck, another just pulled ahead just afterwards and I don´t know whether I made the right choice, as the other players didn´t do much. If you have tips for that, I´m glad to hear your oppinions. Also I´m unsure when I should counter a threat or just let it pass in hope the onother player has a counterspell, so I dont have to remove the threat. All in all it was great to hear your thoughts and I try to get better playing (and doing actual politics) with that playstyle

[@dsfauch]

The algorithm knows that I craved more trinket mage. Thanks for making this!

[@yuvalziv1599]

11:32 abit is an understatment from what I saw

[@punkypinko2965]

Excellent overview. I just built a Baral deck and got some good tips. This is my first control deck. I haven't played it yet. It's in the mail.

[@gregfisher4147]

I will say that arcane denial is good in wheel/group draw decks like Nekusar or Xyris - not only do you counter an opponents scary threat but you also force them to draw

[@pajurr]

Hello from France ! I followed the channel for a while and I wanted to give you feedback about your questions : -- Longer videos : In essence, they do not displease me, however ! However I really dislike thinking that I can summarize someone's points in a third of their time. It makes me feel like the video was a waste of time, and worse, it break my trust for the creator for the time I trust them with. I am then more distrusting of their long formats because I feel like it will also be a waste of time. So it creates an interesting phenomenon. Longer videos need to be packed with new information in my opinion, many points, I want to learn. And video length should not change a channel's identity, with the same 'density' of information in a short one and a long one. -- 2 sponsors : Well in the video, my problem was not that you had 2 ads, it was that one was in the middle of the video. I will not watch an ad, I always skip them. But the longer the video, the more relaxed I am, so I listen to a long video doing something else, on my phone or computer sometimes. If you run 2 ads at the beginning, I really do not care because I skip the segment and that's it. However, when you run an ad in the middle, it takes me out. It breaks the mood of the video, it compels me to stop what I am doing, go to my phone, skip the segment too much, go back on it, put my phone down, and go back to what I was doing, having lost my concentration. Do not put mid video ads please. And do not skimp on outro either ! Closing words are important to me, and I will not listen to them if there is an ad right before. So this video : Well, I would say 6 out of 10, it is better to me than a waste of time, or an almost waste of time (=being neutral with 5). If I was new to the channel I would place it at 7 maybe. I would say it lacks new content, a new point of vue can suffice, no need to reinvent to wheel. Keep the momentum up during the video ! A long video should not be a goal or a category, just exhaust all your points and stop the video there, if it's long it's long, comma. Try to always condense and summarize your thoughts, Form is content stripped down to its simplest expression. Have a nice day, bye !

[@Linkdude74]

For some reason my play groups actually enjoy when I play my Reality Chip list, despite it being hard control into a combo win with chip and sensei's divining top. I'm often the only person playing interaction at the table(slowly getting players to add more) but this is my most interactive list and players like playing against it lol. I've also found that letting people borrow it has helped them learn that assessment as well as make them more likely to add removal to their own lists. Having a control deck on my arsenal had lead to making my playgroup better overall

[@chickeneverythingisfine9338]

Hey just wanted to point out that if someone did hate control they probably wouldn't watch until the 22 minute mark to hear your case for why it's fun. Love the video overall though! Nice to see a long form video like this.

[@thetrinketmage]

I’m hoping the part at the beginning of me saying I will tell you why you might want a control deck in the pod is enough to get people willing to learn to stick around. I think if they are so against control they refuse to change they wouldn’t click on the video at all

[@MalachiGillespie-l4u]

love your videos, no crazy editing and always well spoken and thought provoking. keep it up 🙏🏼

[@daniwaffles1960]

I usually play the kiki-jiki + felidar combo and similars. The games I find the most fun is the ones I play against people with interaction bc I can use the combo defensively and try to reasemble it when broken instead of insta winning.

[@pastelcia42]

I like having a commander that can win the game on its own in my control decks. I find having a deck full of removal and card draw is a lot easier to make work than a deck with more finishers, even if the commander draws cards or removes stuff

[@darkleaf3102]

Sauron has been a crazy good control deck I've built, massive threat can refill your hand, and hard to kill, and in decent control colors

[@Thoughtmage100]

My favorite deck is a control deck based on manipulating the top of my library so I can win clashes with Marvo, Deep Operative. It feels very reminiscent of Lantern Control.

[@jemm113]

Benn wanting to build lantern control Marvo for a while, and imagine running counterbalance with it too! 😂

[@Thoughtmage100]

@jemm113 Yep, Counterbalance is in my deck too. A lot of the high mana value cards I run for my clash package control my opponents as well. Think cards like Decree of Silence, Jin-Gitaxias Progress Tyrant, Myojin of Night's Reach, and I'm thinking about adding Cabal Conditioning. I have a blast playing the deck. I highly recommend it.

[@jemm113]

@@Thoughtmage100 I would love to see a full list if you have one! Just be wary of youtube’s link scrubbing, the latter end of a moxfield link or similar would suffice.

[@Thoughtmage100]

@jemm113 I'm really new to using Moxfield, but here's the last part of the url for you. fplHCoT_TE2cNNjvlZV-GQ It's more of a cedh list, but you can always tune it to your desired power level. I'm also thinking about removing Phage for Cabal Conditioning and adding a Force of Negation somewhere in the list as well, if that's also to your liking.

[@schoeii]

Legit been trying to build my first control deck last two days and this video drops 🙌

[@willdorrell8547]

Love the long videos. Love the lizard. Reminds me of pepperoni's birthday.

[@Skylos]

Been playing Chromium for years. Fantastic commander. Great finisher that is difficult to remove, and the fact that he has flash means that people will avoid attacking you even if he is not on the board, just because he CAN be put on the board (and sometimes they forget he has flash and you get to just kill their commander lol)

[@TeaAddict1]

Cool! I've been building control for a while and it's nice I've been doing it right lol. Got some good advice from this video.

[@DolanBomb]

I’ll take all the longer videos you can produce, thank you!

[@chayadol]

I don't know about you guys but Landmine fit so well in my bedroom. Definitely improve my room's Feng Shui.

[@elijahlyons8164]

me designing casual tripping hazards for intruders

[@FallenAatrox]

0:41 I wasn’t expecting this image, LMAO! One must imagine trinket mage as a trip mine

[@samarkito]

Congrats on one of the most fun ad breaks ever haha

[@pretty_fly_for_a_jeskai]

Really cool video. I think I lean into control because a lot of stax cards just fall into inherent play patterns that I fundamentally dislike and control often handles that really well, at least for me. I've been enjoying Kykar, Winds Fury for my control as instead of directly refilling my hand, he rewards interaction with board presence that's also cashable mana. But when Foundations comes out, oh man. The new Kykar. A blink with every instant. I know itll fall in to "oh wow thats new Azorius blink *yawn*" territory for many but the trigger is really perfect for controlling while utilizing value engine etbs over and over so I'm pretty happy to see it. The full art being one of the most beautiful cards I've ever seen helps too.

[@vinz4015]

one of the greatest videos ever, thank you!

[@link5236]

This actually did inspire me to try to make a control deck Also the deltarune music went hard

[@thefatfebruary1063]

14:06 THE BEAST!!!

[@gabrielarchanjo6028]

Academy Loremaster is my favourite card of all time, and it slides perfecly on my Talrand list. No one wants to draw extra cards, and i never play on my turn anyway.

[@shenronsgoldfish]

So i played an ephara god of the polis control deck and what made it a control deck was i ran so much interaction that I would win with 1/1 or 2/1 beats just by running the table out of threats. I ran 12 board wipes and played a few instant speed ones too. It would just run people into the ground, ephara made cards like stone cloaker and aetherling draw engines with the commander. I have since stopped playing control decks because i found it fun to navigate but other people didn't enjoy playing against it and its sub optimal to not get invited back. Also nexus of fate was insane in that deck because i would hit it so often after drawing ideally 4 additional cards every turn cycle.

[@shenronsgoldfish]

Also a good thing about this deck was that if I got any of the 4 cards that had a creature enter every turn to fuel my commander, so I didn't have to run a lot of cards also creatures with flash were just drawing a card as well and that was powerful for grinding.

[@dontblamepeopleblamethegov559]

I think this are all correct takes. The problem of modern control decks is that draw engines are so vast and spread over different types that it's generally hard to lock everyone out of their value. Moreover, better decks would be able to survive AoE discards or boardwipes better. Understanding threat priority is the hardest skill when piloting a control deck.

[@lotrloreman]

My first taste of control was my Nelly Borca deck. She's a powerful draw engine that pseudo removes my opponent's creatures by making them hit each other before I steal what's left to finish them off. It's not as powerful as my Alela deck but it's terrifying when my opponets keep getting hit with reprieve, Avien Interupter, lapse, etc in addition to the broad range of white "hit anything" removal.

[@nickalberda1]

Always love longer vids keep it up!

[@Sophtym211]

I think TTM's hate boner for arcane denial is strongly influenced by his love for control. Imo Arcane Denial is at its best when used by a deck that is a couple of these; Struggles to hit its colours, Reduces the costs of its spells, Is NOT the archenemy, Is fast, or Wants to protect a mid power or below combo deck. Now to be fair it's not a great card even in these decks but it's got a niche. You want to either be casting it so late the card draw doesn't matter, or so early the other players can help you gang up on the now-archenemy for trying to resolve a very spooky spell.

[@g0_0fster]

I like running a mono black Zombies control deck that leans into discard, kill spells, and reanimating creatures like fleshbag and accursed marauder.

[@DarkJusticeMetal]

The Card Castle ad was probably the best part because you had a creature

[@SawedOffLaser]

Red has my favorite counterspell: Pyroblast. Aka "Counter target counterspell"

[@conversefall5928]

I love these longer videos

[@domsilvestri8681]

Play cards that are useful when holding up mana such as Castle Vantress and Spectral Sailor.

[@infestedarta2027]

the ad read was gold

[@paulkelemen4199]

Oh, great and powerful Trinket Mage in the sky! What Jeskai commander should I pick for a budget controller deck?

[@thetrinketmage]

Sevinne

[@paulkelemen4199]

@ Oh, I didn’t think I’d get this far. I was looking at Optimus Prime, Hero. But I can’t deny a direct order from the control master himself

[@paulkelemen4199]

@@thetrinketmage I am really trying to brew it, but the more I try and imagine putting in cards that play to Sevinne's abilities I feel I'm just making my deck that much worse.

[@benjackson4438]

I never thought I would ever say this, but: Now you have me wondering about "Which control deck should I build?" I've played against everything from control through damage to stax where even the stax player couldn't get out of it. Rhonas seems interesting... Hmm.... Mono-Green... Blue has a lot of counter spells... Green has a lot of creatures that can't be countered!

[@ashleyarik4892]

15:14 "Red does have A counterspell" "Mage's contest" cries in the forgettion corner once again

[@Yomolink]

Great video!!! Whats your favourite Sultai Commander? I think this colours check all things you want in commander. What do you think about Glarb Calamitys Augur? Thanks a lot 😊

[@MRemopantalones]

Jojo? he's so cute! I'm more curious about the color of your nails, I loved them!

[@beingbag2606]

shout out to cards like Spellgyre that can be counters or card advantage too. nice way to recoup some value.

[@Rabidconscience]

Preaching with that arcane denial analysis. I’ll never understand why people think it’s a good deal to give the player that’s causing you problems more resources

[@BS-bv5sh]

I can't believe TM called out the Professor! No respect for his elders.

[@luckyowl9191]

Currently building an azorius control list with the new kykar at the helm. His effect paired with Archeomancer type creatures gives you a bunch of virtual card advantage. If you have 1 counterspell and 6 mana up? You have a counterspell for every opponents turn

[@TheFatHungryHobo]

Dw, we love Jojo. Great video! The ad was fun