SCG Talent Search - Playing Control

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Well, here's my next article for the SCG Talent Search in which I try to help people understand how to play control. The article isn't exactly focused on Legacy but I drew half the content from this format and the rest might be interesting either way if you ever thought of touching a control-deck/playing against one. Check it out:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/20580_SCG_Talent_Search_Playing_Control.html

Comments? Criticism?

[GGoober]

I got all 4 scenarios correct and reasoned as you did!

Can I haz cookies nao?

Good article, although criticism mainly on the content. I'm not sure if people enjoy scenario and case studies or was such an article truly reflective of your talents for the Talent search. I think the article did not exemplify your true talent, and could have gone more into more than just case studies (mainly because some people read the case studies for examples, and not really look at the case studies as lessons to draw fundamental principles).

Good job though and good luck!

[kiblast]

good job, but i have to say that all the legacy scenarios were pretty straightforward. I.e. you are forced to play like that (at least if you want to win the match). I do'nt have enough knowledge of standard to say something about, but i would have played the same as you say (except that in the 3rd scenario i would have casted Jace -as you correctly say, and then check HIS topdeck. Not mine.)

Good luck.

[The Treefolk Master]

Outstanding article, very helpful indeed. I got all of them right except for the Deedstill one, although I think I would have reached the correct play if I had thought a little bit more.

Good luck with the contest!

[bakofried]

Eh, I screwed them up, but I think I can attribute that to never playing a blue-based control deck in my life. Heh.

[Link Ramirez]

Thanks for the article!

I feel better equiped to make the right choices when playing control now.
Do you like to make a follow-up with more puzzles? That would be awesome.

[Jonathan Alexander]

Good article, but there's a mistake in the Deedstill scenario. The mistake might come from you actually playing that match and therefore knowing his list, but what if he has Price Of Progress? I would never tap out when my opponent could cast Price Of Progress and it would almost kill me.
Knowing that my opponent has some of them in his deck I would either play end of turn Cunning Wish for Diabolic Edict without casting it and then do nothing in my next turn except for dropping Wasteland (not using it), keeping mana open. Then you could drop Jace the next turn without tapping out once.
Another possible option is to actually block with Mishra and counter his removal/burn. Assuming he has to removal spells in hand, you still counter one and the other one resolves. This leaves him with no cards in hand, and when you drop Wasteland the next turn you can still do what you would've done the turn before, i.e. Cunning Wish for Diabolic Edict. When you cast Jace the next turn, this puts him in a really bad position, since he will have one card (two in his turn) in hand, no pressure on the board and you still have Counterspell + two other cards in hand and Jace on the battlefield. Assuming you don't get a land, Spell Snare or Force f Will in your two draws, you will still effectively tap out, so that might not be a good plan against decks with Price Of Progress.

[Mon,Goblin Chief]

Thanks for all the kind words, happy you liked the article. I'll have more puzzles at some point for sure (I've had nothing but positive responses to this one, after all). Probably not next week, simply because I think the contest isn't meant to be repetetive... Stay tuned though :D

@kiblast: If you think you're forced to play this way, you already have the control-mindset. Congrats! The idea behind writing the article was to make others feel the way you do ;)

@Jona: You're completely correct, the same issue already came up in the SCG-forums. Basically what happened is that I originally had set the example up in a way that PoP would be irrelevant and when I stripped it down I forgot to take Price into account. Zoo lists around here haven't been running PoP maindeck any more, so it has a tendency to slip my mind at times. Definitely an oversight on my part. Magic always gets you in the end ;)

If you want to play around Price (which you should if you don't know he doesn't run them like I usually do), I think the block is definitely the play, countering his first removal spell, if he has it. If he has another creature after that (his last card in hand), you can either Jace + Bounce with UU open, Wasteland his second red source instead of keeping UU open or go CWish->Edict a turn later. I'd probably go for the bounce + UU, let the creature resolve, than Edict it the turn after.