How To Control In Commander | Tolarian Tutor | A Magic: The Gathering Study Guide
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
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Professor you should do a whatnot steam on a weekend for the people that work Monday - Friday 😢
Hey boss professor man do more of these videos instead of the shuffle up and plays
Tolarian Tutor finally returns!
yay 🎉🎉🎉
The control players in my pod: _I'm going to counter that Arcane Signet because I feel threatened when someone else casts a spell._
The only "mana rocks' I have counted are combo pieces like grim/basalt monolith
Lol my sol ring got hit with targeted removal on turn 8 earlier today because idk he was gonna lose next turn so he dragged the game out an extra turn lol. I was kinda salty cause it was pointless and just felt like a spite move
Sheesh, have these people not heard the good news of vandalblast?
@@AndrewLaPrade The point is not about sweeping artifacts, but about bad threat assesment...
I relate to this feeling
As a izzet player whenever someone plays basically anything im like "noooo I don't like that... I wanna counter it so bad..."
This all makes so much sense to me now.
Floodgates in Commander, anyone? Mystic Mine, let's go
Control is so much fun in Yugioh ;D
I think it might have been Richard of MTGGoldfish (but I could be wrong) who once said "In Commander, politics is control." This massively changed the way I play control in Commander for the better. Controlling opponent's advantages to gain your own advantage. It's why I love commanders like Breena, or even Marisi.
I build Queen Marchesa as a "let's make a deal" kind of deck... and she absolutely controls the table when I bring her out both with the ability to punish players who refuse my deals, and to gain favors from those who do.
For the 1 million subscribers special, can we please see all of your suits? I love your collection.
Hi, Designated Control Player here- because someone has to be or the group goes full anime protagonist.
One, this guide is excellent; it's a great primer for getting comfortable with actual control play. Two, you CAN play cards like Arbiter; you just couch them in the 99 with good draw and search to reach them. Hinata does that, protecting him and giving her a wicked gear 2 in waiting.
Overall, in my experience most people who are newer or started in Commander tend to respond to the first targeted removal or counter spell by screaming Stax and hitting their panic buttons, so if you walk this road be responsible but be prepared to also get hit first every time, on the time, even if you countered someone two years ago that one time and you haven't seen them but thrice since.
Jokes on you, I go full protagonist and play law enforcement for the table, letting them vote what to remove and counter. (until I am set up)
@@Eckendenker So, "Secretly I am" Protagonist versus "Destiny is on my side" Protagonist? That, I can dig.
@@Eckendenker You're doing God's work. Carry on. And no, I won't play the 1 for replying.
Sadly my pod hates when i play control, they just wanna play solitaire😂
@@blaineallen5297 *Shrugs supportively* Sadly, that tracks.
Have I been playing MTG for almost a decade? yes.
Have I always enjoyed control decks, even before I played magic? yes.
Did I still watch the video start to finish? YES!
Love this series, and I am so happy to see it return. Thank you for another wonderful lesson, Professor!
Ayy I've been playing for almost 10 years as well. This year's August/September will be my 9 year mark!
Missed this series! I started out watching Tolarian Tutor back in college more than five years ago.
Hey Prof, I wanted to take a moment to tell you that your content made me jump from digital on Arena to buying my first commander deck to play with friends.
I bought the Painbow one based one your recommendation in a previous video, and I am having a blast.
This morning, I upgraded it with my first purchase of singles on Card Kingdom but forgot to use your link.
I thought I would at least tell you how much you have helped in getting me in the hobby ! Thanks again Prof
Thank you for these videos!
I was struggling to move from “knowing the rules” to “being able to play competently”, and this series has been a huge help
I missed this series - and love playing control. I’ve helped a lot of players who vented frustrations to me about their efforts porting 1v1 60-card control into Commander.
I was convinced years ago that arcane denial wasn't good for commander, but hearing your example against counterspell was brilliant!
Control is the best part of MTG in my humble, yet accurate, opinion, and one of the great things that makes Magic stand out from other TCGs.
It might have been obvious for veterans of MTG, but as a player who only started playing mid-2023 (praise be to Phyrexia, who brought me into the game), the "you don't want one-to-one control cards" and instead using ones that give you a 'profit', so to speak - was mind-blowing and eye-opening. Thank you Prof :)
Watching the professor is actually what got me into magic. I was always afraid to get into it after all these years it’s been around, but after watching profs videos it gave me the confidence and interest in giving the game a try. So far I love it! Especially commander format, I’m happy I actually decided to try this game out cause I feel I’ve been missing something by not playing it. Thanks prof!
I'm building a "Nick Valentine, Private Eye" control deck right now and this video helped a ton! Thanks for the just-in-time post!
The point about having a non threat in the command zone is key! My two control decks are an interesting duality. One is Elsha, a spellslinger that's just a toolbox of jank that really taught me how to work around interactions in game. People certainly know you're gonna be casting things but you don't get wiped off the board immediately. The other is 2nd Doctor/Adric. "Group hug" in the command zone plus optional stifle. Everyone loves the extra draws but the 99 is filled with a brutal amount of oppressive enchantments and artifacts that make playing the game (for opponents) nearly impossible and wins with Approach of the Second Sun.
I will agree that playing 2nd Doctor may also violate the Geneva Convention, so I at least know what I'm getting myself into 😂
I have a Kynaios and Tiro control deck. The social perception of “this player is my friend/not a threat” even though the 99 is pure control allows punching up way too often.
Prof, please, PLEASE keep doing educational series such as these. They are ridiculously useful and insightful. I nearly wept with joy when I saw this one.
I feel like I cracked the code of control decks in commander when I build Beluna Grandsquall. It’s a more “Timmy” Tempo deck where you stall your opponents enough for your to gain Beanstalk Giant or any other card that just swings the game in your favor. It has counters and removal and bounces, sure, but it plays in “in response…” mode fairly effectively against multiple opponents, as you can recast the creature part later and gain that instant/sorcery adventure back to hand if need be.
The point in commander is multiplayer interaction (and lack thereof), so being able to recycle spells back into hand without needing to lean into multiple spell combos is pretty key. Beluna and Riku of Many Paths excel at this. Go give these a try if anyone wants to build a tempo deck made to stomp out late game. That or you’re into the Temur colors. Go Timur! 😂
Larry Niven's Disk got a good laugh from me.
One of my favourite literary references in Magic. I use Disk in a lot of decks just because it's cool.
As someone who built Augustine in 2011 as my first deck...
Yeah, you're just a target.
"I just want to sphinx's rev for 2 more!"
"I just want you dead"
This was a wonderfully written breakdown of how to play Control. I really appreciate the Intermediate level videos!
I really appreciate this video. We need to normalize control in commander. The worst EDH games are the ones where everyone just plays solitaire. How boring! Some of the best moments can happen when there's a ton of interaction throughout the game. Control is really fun, effective, and challenging in commander, and does not deserve the boogeyman status that it gets in this format.
Hard agree. Some of my friends just want to sit next to each other and goldfish with their decks. I just don't get a lot from that experience 😅
The thing is help other players to deal with frustration Control decks bring. I understand that _full control players_ like to solve puzzles, yet that is not the way of having fun of other people, hence the difficulty to add likeness or popularity to control decks.
I would argue that the problem with control is that in a 4 player game with 3 control players that can make a game take hours. And if it's something like Esper blink then you're also taking a lot of game actions and making it an unfun experience for everyone at the table. It's got to be a question for your playgroup and if I'm at an LGS with randoms I would never bring a hard control deck. That being said, I'm primarily attracted to aggro and midrange strategies in the Naya shard anyways, but most players I know would be uninterested in games that last more than an hour and a half or so. As a side note, because of the multiplayer nature of commander you honestly don't end up playing much pure control and your wincon is almost certainly combo anyways.
@jeremiahjbarnes06 Esper blink is midrange, though.... A control deck would be something like Sen Triplets with the majority of spells being interaction and card draw spells and a couple hardlock combos like knowledge pool and rule of law. Control decks don't take a lot of game actions either. Most of the time, you're just holding up spells and waiting for someone to try to do something game ending.
special shout out to the aggro, combo, and control glowing text at 0:56. Very nice bloom effects *chefs kiss*
My biggest issue with commander is that too many people let their emotions play for them. They focus out someone playing a control deck while someone else is ready to end the game next turn anyways. Actual threat assessment is something a LOT of commander players need to learn lmao. (Including me ngl)
Combo decks are rampant in our LGS, which is why I play control & aggro decks to counter them. 😁
Talrand was my very first Commander deck, way back before Wizards officially recognized the format. Needless to say, I've been playing control in EDH/Commander for a very long time. Nice to see my favorite commander shouted out here. Great video Prof!
I baven't even started the video, yet I'm excited! I like that this is coming hot off the heals of Dan Dan on S.U.P.. I learned so much from that video that this almost seemed necessary. I hope to learn so much more, thank you for making this series!!!
I appreciated the Serra Angel reference to Brian Weissman’s control deck “The Deck”.
"Control is a perfectly valid strategy in Magic" - thank you! I'm tired of content creators disencouraging players from venturing into control decks, saying that this is not fun. It is fun for the controller.
Yesssss, Tolarian Tutor is back!!!!
The professor doing what he does best: teaching!
we all like the reviews and box openings and games, but you ARE a professor, this is a perfect video to show to my friend's boy!
Excellent lesson, class adjourned!
EDIT: That suit is fresh as F***. This man LOOKS professional, what a Chad.
Perfect timing! I've been working on upgrading the Deep Clue Sea precon into a pseudo-control deck and am really finding it difficult to balance all the things I want to do
I've just been using Stella Lee to generate tokens as a shield while I try to draw my way to victory with Laboratory Maniac, Jace, and Thassa's Oracle. This has more or less been the only deck I've had any success at. And a Tyrant somewhere in the back just in case I manage to hoard enough artifacts.
You need to pick 2-3 things to be good at, anymore and you end up being okay at everything. That is my experience anyway.
I feel like Morska is secretly a +1 counter Voltron deck with a clue sub theme rather than a shell for control. What drew you to her as a control shell?
Anyone else just randomly say "maaany Magic the Gathering players" to themselves while walking around their home doing chores or whatever? Just me? Ok.
Just you
Very guilty of this.
Not just you
Your not the only one 😂😅❤
Coming across a strange event irl like "many magic the gathering players ask the question, what the hell is going on here?"
Just built a Jeskai Control Deck with The Second Doctor and Donna Noble. Watching this to improve my gameplay. Had a win with it last night that was the most fun game I've ever had in magic. Lots happened but the winning blow was when the Sidisi player across from me got off a Rise from the dark realms and put about 60 power on the field, and then passed turn to me, during which i used Reins of Power to trade my nin the pain artist for his entire board and swing in for the win!
This was so awesome!!! I've been wondering about how to make control work in commander for a while now but didn't really put any effort into finding out, this was immensely helpful. For other strategies, and I know this one is really niche, I've always been unboundingly curious about Cheerios and how they possibly win.
So close to 1M! So happy for you prof, I remember not long ago being happy to see you cross 600k. Thank you for being a constant good in this ever changing hobby ❤
My shorikai control deck is one of my favorites, if not a bit repetitive
Tolarian Tutor, this is a perfect segment to run on your channel. Please do more of these. You ARE a professor, after all 😂
Winota stax is my favorite way to control the table!
+1 engagement
~♡
I learned how to play magic from watching the tolarian tutor series. Love to see it back ~♡
My control commander of choice is Kruphix, God of Horizons. They allow you to not lose tempo if you didn't need to use all your mana to interact in a turn cycle, and enable playing big haymakers as your "inevitability" engine (which normally end the game pretty quickly).
Would love to see a Tolarian Tutor video on the "forced combat" archetype, as I think it's super fun and something I don't see too much!
This series is a very welcomed return. I am trying to relearn how to play after a several year hiatus.
Rule of law effects are great. They balance out the heavy use of casting manys spells. Also good with counterspells.
As one who is currently figuring out my Sen Triplets deck, this speaks to me. Thank you Professor
I am so glad prof did this, he literally just explained my whole niv deck in its entirety in 20 short minutes
Thank you Professor. For years you have dropped countless gems and helped me so much. You are amazing. Can the next one be about Tempo in Commander?
Looking at my Kellan the Kid deck in a new light, thanks Prof!
I just finished building my first mono-blue commander deck, and this is so educational. This will help me refine it (my son's initial reaction was NOOOO! Lol). My "Big Splashy" will fight his "Big Stompy" and we will see if the sea rules the land! Thank you, Professor!
I was just building a Hinata control deck for commander and this was tremendously helpful thank Prof!
The insight that the prof provides, is top tier.
I missed Tolarian Tutor, glad the series is back!
Really great video Prof ! I have been playing my oloro control deck for almost 8 years now, one thing I can share about playing it successfully is to build it more into the stax direction. Stax pieces are great, it basically solves the problem of card parity for control decks in EDH, just 1 or 2 pieces of it on the board can hinder or outright answer the board while slowing the game down to your pace.
My personal take is to build the deck in such a way that it really punishes players for even putting creatures into play, because let's face it, creatures are the main way ppl lost the game after all. My oloro is playing stax pieces like tainted aether and humility for example. The deck has several ways to achieve infinite extra turns and wins through inevitability by PWs or second sun.
Do you have a list. I'm interested
Outside of shuffle up and play, this is my favorite series of yours Prof. Thanks
I don’t run a strict control deck but maybe just a good amount of interaction. After playing many times, you really just need to focus on stopping things that stop you. Rather than just trying to stop others playing.
Love this, professor! I can already tell you we’re a wonderful teacher. Please keep these coming.
Great video! I have a Nezahal mono blue draw-go deck that wins by suffocating opponents with psychic corrosion type effects
One important aspect of playing control in commander is politics, you will probably be the archenemy so you need to play politics and make advantageous trades with your opponents to gain that extra edge.
- making a deal for removing something that you want to remove anyway is a simple heuristic to add to your arsenal
This may not get the views of reviews but i love series that talk about improving gameplay
9:40 and this is why I love the Nelly commander from Kharlov, probably the best control commander. Goad is so good for commander control and together with white also just brings that inevitability.
I have a Zaxara Xspell controll deck. The last time I won, was due to me casting and buying back a counter spell and untapping all my stuff each round. Fun.
Great video. Another one of the control players here. I agree with most everything you said. Especially when it comes to counters, I think an important lesson for control players in Commander is learning what types of cards you actually care about and need to remove. For example, I often don't care if my opponent resolves a Craterhoof because I run cards like Aetherize and can just bounce their board if it comes my way, but I will care greatly about a card like Jin Gitaxias (pick your version), and counter it on the spot. Also, my personal favorite control commander I have is Quaeza Augur of Agonies, since they allow me to just do normal control things and profit off of it (much like your Talrand example but in a very different way).
Hey Professor, could you do a video explaining the stack? It gets hilariously complicated sometimes in our group.
I love modal spells in commander, especially if I can pick more than one mode.
A card that does great in my Toxrill deck is Silimgars command. It isn't efficient at all but hitting an important spell and dealing with a scary permanent on the battlefield at the same time always feels good.
Commenting for the algorithm, really love this kind of content and feel we need more of it!
Preach Brother! PREACH!!
Even if you don't play, or plan to play control; I highly recommend watching the last bit ( 16:12 ) of this video. It's great general advice on how you should use interaction in ANY strategie.
A tutorial on how to play combo at casual tables sounds really cool, whenever I've put one together it's hard for the deck not to feel really spikey
Thanks for putting some light on arcane denial. Some youtubers recently have questioned it's place as the best 2cmc counntermagic behind mana drain
Arcane Denial is the GOAT. I don't really care if my opponent draws 2 cards off of it. If I cast it to stop them from winning on the spot, or I cast it protecting my board state, it's done its job. The 2 cards I give them rarely matter in the long run. Honestly, the same can often be said of An Offer You Can't Refuse.
I'm thankful for these videos.
Run more interaction! Always run more interaction.
Great video. Im not good at deck building and focusing on specific game interractions and goals is a really helpful topic.
I really would like to see a Tolarian Tutor episode about goad/chaos/group hug strategies, especially how to win with them in the late (1v1) game :)
Alela, Cunning Conqueror is also a great pick for a would-be control deck. She produces fliers that you can turn into control pieces themselves by goading your opponents' best creatures on each of your combats. While the one token a turn limitation might seem too strict, the addition of black with Alela can't be underestimated, as it gives you the ability to leverage the tokens you create as potential cards in hand with spells like Deadly Dispute or Plumb the Forbidden, should you ever find yourself in a position where you either don't need them or they're going to go away anyway like when an opponent attempts to board wipe.
I would be happy to see a STOMPY tutor session 👍
I love trying to figure out control in commander. There's something about identifying the actual threats, taking all the incidental bumps and surviving just long enough to take over that's exhilarating.
The last game was Esper flash with multiple turns at 1 life, and I saw every card in my deck.
Was I desperately rummaging for a sweeper that didn't exist? perhaps. But that didn't stop Slitherwisp from getting the job done.
I love playing control in commander and have had a lot of success with it without much salt. I like having a win condition in the command zone with them, usually people don’t feel that salty losing to 3 hits of a Chromium
I recently been playing with a new pod and we play budget and low-mid power, so I cooked up a £50 Marchesa Crimes control deck themed around using opponent's cards against each other. Be it goad, removal or stealing spells from graveyards they all mostly commit crimes letting me cantrip and break the 1 for 1 issue control can face in commander. The deck plays enough bombs and card draw through interaction, that once in the 1v1 I attrition the last person out. But to get there I have 4 mass one turn goad effects and crackle with power. It also runs stuff to detour attacks at me as well. It's my favorite rattlesnake* deck.
Enjoyed this video. I'm a control player in Commander, and I also like using stax and hatebears as well. This was a pretty informative video and showed the differences between 1v1 and 1v3 (which is essentially EDH/Commander).
Also looking forward to seeing Team APS play Commander. They're my favorite Yugitubers and you're my favorite Magictuber, so that video should be fun.
Ohhhh Im really looking forward for the next episode. I love watching those yugi guys play old yugioh decks!
absolutely love this video format, excited to see more Tolarian Tutor!
Omg the best mtg series ever returns! All hail tolarian tutor!
Let's gooooooo! The series that showed me the Prof the first time. Glad to see it again!
Great video Prof! Building me first commander deck!
I am a big fan of Esper Control. I run Tymna//Ishai as my commanders. The reason that I love the deck is that the commanders themselves just give me value into the late game. It plays creature based stax that have some type of evasion like Archon of Emeria, Dauthi Voidwalker, Aven Mindcensor, etc in order to get value off of Tymna. Ishai is there just as a backup play or to eat a removal spell that would be meant for Tymna.
The key to playing control is realizing that your deck is meant for the late game. Lay low, time your counters correctly and you should have a solid win percentage.
I would like to see a a tutorial for Combo decks, my main deck atm is a Shalai and Hallar deck and would like some ideas on how to pilot the deck more effectivally :)
keep up the great work prof!
Thanks a lot prof for this lesson on control player, playing Alela with a beginner level it's very difficult to find the right moment to interact with the others players.
This is two fold good. This is good for those wanting to build this deck and for those to understand how these kinds of decks work. I hope to see some with Group Hug or something else like this.
Long time EDH control player here. One commander that I find to be extremely underrated is Chromium The Mutable. What makes him great is that he is essentially the only wincon you need. Not only can he protect himself with hexproof, but the fact that he has flash is HUGE in an archetype where you may want to leave lands untapped to use to answer your opponents. The biggest downside with stuff like Counter Spell is that if your opponents don't play anything worth countering, then you have essentially wasted mana.
Having a big flyer with flash in the command zone that you can throw into the fray whenever you need it is extremely good
Wonderful video! As I personally am a control player most of the time and since I have played with my friends for about 15 years now, I know fully well that the "target on my back" emblem is both the hardest and most important mechanic to manage!
I recently built a mono blue jace themed mill commander deck. I think that Jace, Vryn's Prodigy is unimpressive enough to not always be insta-removed.
I would love your take on milling strategies in commander! It's probably very similar to controlling and getting your mill engine running, but bursts of milling (like bruvac + maddening cocophany) are not what I have in mind when thinking of milling. While I do run them of course, milling is about the slow decay of the mind, losing sanity and inevitably hope...but thats exactly what puts a target on my back. Since my friends know me, I wonder how this will go next time we play in about two weeks :D I warned them already that I will play mill, so I expect maybe some random eldrazi in their deck. But im ready for them! (*laughs in defabricate*)
My favorite contol deck i built was kynaios and tiro of meletis group hug. The insane group hug ramp kept my oppenents happy, but the end plan of stealing thier creatures and killing them off with thier own boards was a sore spot.
Great video! I've been working on improving my control gameplay recently, so this is well timed
Control is a mindset. And when I draw all 4 of my board wipes 😂
I missed this series professor
I enjoyed this video, but I want to expand a bit on your discussion of stax. I think you’re right to say that stuff like St. Augustine will annoy the table, but not all stax pieces are like that, and some of them are, I think, essential to any control deck. I’m specifically talking about attack deterrents like Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, or even sturdy blockers. They will save you so much damage over the course of the game, but they don’t obstruct your opponents’ gameplans so long as they don’t come after you. Moreover, they also mean more damage is going at your opponents, which will make your job easier in the late game. Just wanted to inject some nuance into the stax discussion :)
I big fan of hate bears and stax pieces. Board wipes too!
Really glad this series is back, and with a banger video. This is great advice!
Oh man, this series is amazing! I can't wait till we see Aggro for commander but all of these videos are fire
I would love to see a video about aggro in commander! I just cannot wrap my head around what threats to play without just looking for an infinite combo
The only control commander deck I made was a Grixis Nicol Bolas themed deck. I just thought to myselr "what would Nicol Bolas do?" Then I threw in a bunch of control cards and cards that fit the theme of Nicol Bolas. It works and can definitely be improved to be more controlling but it's the right level of fun for the group.