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  1. #1
    Senior Member dranjo's Avatar
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    What is a control deck?

    Title says it all.

    Do control decks force the field into a situation that is desirable for you? Or are they reactive decks with a theme that aims to limit the opponents plays? I've heard a few definitions from friends and was really confused.

    Please enlighten me, thanks

  2. #2
    Senior Member Unruler's Avatar
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    Control decks aim to destroy enemy allies on the board.
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  3. #3
    Senior Member dranjo's Avatar
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    I see. Thanks

  4. #4
    1.27 Tournament Champion Raphael Majere's Avatar
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    The first form of control decks probably came from magic the gathering. They are usually blue and white based.

    Blue = ability to remove all kinds of threats while the 'spells' are being cast. Ie during your opponent turn. (this aspect is not in SE), also blue is 'card draw' king - many draw engines/cards.

    White = ability to remove all threats on board, including items and allies. Including Wrath of god card. The ancestor of tidal wave in SE. also life gain and dmg prevention.

    Combining these 2 colors, you get a deck that wins very late. Through a few different options, either way, the main idea is achieve a situation that is a 'semi-lock'; say you have absolute control of the board and your opponent has zero cards in hand and your hand is full and whatever your opponent is going to draw; it's useless cos you will be able to destroy or counter whatever he puts out on his turn.

    Hence control decks works on a few core concepts:

    1. Good, consistent draw engine that beats your opponent's draw comparatively.

    2. Ability to remove threats in a reliable way.

    3. Card advantage: a good control deck has cards that removes many/multiple threats with a single card. Ie in SE, tidal wave, or raven. Or jasmine; an ally that can restrict your opponent's ally and yet also deal dmg. Ie dual use.

    Translating this basic concept to SE: priests are the logical choice to play a control decks. How do we tell? We look at the card pool available to each hero/class.

    Priest has tidal wave, focused prayer, wiz staff, Jericho's removal ability and zhanna's healing. (healing is a type of removal too; it removes direct damage like fireball)

    A look at rogues. They also make somewhat good control heroes. Stop thief, assassination, anklebreaker, black garb are good control/card advantage cards.

    But on a pure comparative basis, in terms of which class is more suited to play control, priests rule. Rogues belong to another category better: aggro control. (another topic)

    In mtg, there are various ways to win at control. In SE, the priests need to do it via allies. Weapons are not a good, reliable source.

    A look at good allies for priests control:

    Jasmine: dual use ally.

    Raven: Like jas.

    TO: helps priest gets more draw. Great synery with another priest card: ghost maker.

    Earthen protector: keeps your jasmine, raven , aeon alive or longer periods of time!

    Aeon: keep your jas, raven, alive, great synergy with Earthen.

    How priests control decks win in SE; some examples:

    Always in late game: you'll have a lot of resources, allowing u to cast 2 spells in 1 turn.

    1. Tidal wave, followed by jasmine/raven on same turn.

    2. Retreat opponent's ally + cast an ally on same turn.

    3. Raven/jasmine + aeon combo.

    4. EP + aeon

    5. TO + Ghostmaker (insane card draw)
    These combos are enhanced by Jericho's and zhanna's abilities. Making these allies stay on the board and trying to ensure their usefulness and viabilty.

    Jericho removes ally control cards like captured prey and crippling blow; zhanna's heal can heal allies.

    That's about it. Of cos, there are other aspects of control decks; but I covered a large part of it.

  5. #5
    Senior Member MistahBoweh's Avatar
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    Decks for any TCG are usually split into three different types- Aggro, control and combo

    The goal of Aggro decks is to win as quickly as possible through regular means. Examples of this in SE include the 'hyper' amder and eladwen weenie decks that have faded in and out of popularity for a while now, as well as the Shard of Power rush deck that is a popular choice against the AI but does not work in the slightest in PvP.

    Control decks... control things. Their ultimate goal is NOT to win, but to stop the opponent from winning, and then their own victory just sort of happens. While this sounds like the strict domain of stall decks like Moonstalker, this also includes most mage decks, ZhannaX, Lance, or really any deck that forces more on control of the board than damage to the opponent.

    Combo decks focus on a specific set of cards and actions that will win the game instantly. In some games such as Yu-Gi-Oh, they are often referred to as otk (one turn kill) decks. This doesn't really exist in SE, so I wouldn't really worry about it. It will happen eventually, but not today.
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  6. #6
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    Raphael Majere

    Really great explanation. I wonder if you could define the rest of deck types in Shadow Era. I wanted to write an article on my Japanese Shadow Era blog, but just as opener said I felt some definitions that I could find for Shadow Era were slightly mixed.

    Thanks

  7. #7
    Senior Member dranjo's Avatar
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    Many thanks to Raphael Majere and DndFreak for the detailed response!

    Up for a game of SE anyone? I'd like to see how the pros roll (you included houshasen)

  8. #8
    Senior Member Keaven's Avatar
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    Sooth has a great introduction to deck styles in his ways to play write up.
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  9. #9
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    Keaven,

    Yeah I saw the post a while back. It's great. It would be even better if specific example of each types in SE are there.

  10. #10
    1.27 Tournament Champion Raphael Majere's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dndfreak View Post
    Decks for any TCG are usually split into three different types- Aggro, control and combo

    The goal of Aggro decks is to win as quickly as possible through regular means. Examples of this in SE include the 'hyper' amder and eladwen weenie decks that have faded in and out of popularity for a while now, as well as the Shard of Power rush deck that is a popular choice against the AI but does not work in the slightest in PvP.

    Control decks... control things. Their ultimate goal is NOT to win, but to stop the opponent from winning, and then their own victory just sort of happens. While this sounds like the strict domain of stall decks like Moonstalker, this also includes most mage decks, ZhannaX, Lance, or really any deck that forces more on control of the board than damage to the opponent.

    Combo decks focus on a specific set of cards and actions that will win the game instantly. In some games such as Yu-Gi-Oh, they are often referred to as otk (one turn kill) decks. This doesn't really exist in SE, so I wouldn't really worry about it. It will happen eventually, but not today.
    Combo decks does not exist in SE. Depending on the various card pools in each respective games, etc, they are usually weak. For example, in MtG and ACR, the spells can be "countered" (ie destroyed) before they come into play, hence removing key components of the "combo".

    Another thing to differentiate: just to add light: I do not group "Stall" with "Control". To me, they are different.

    Control = removing threats and 'answering' threats.

    Stall = delaying/stalling/stopping the usual flow of items/allies but usually does not remove the threat in its entirety, in order to achieve a certain win condition. (Deck death, or killing via Big teeth)

    Examples: DC stall in 1.28 - 1.29. MS stall in 1.5.

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