By playing few proactive spells of their own, control decks gain virtual card advantage by reducing the usefulness of opposing removal cards. Given the opportunity, Control decks can gain card advantage by answering multiple threats with one spell ("clearing"/"wiping" the board), stopping expensive threats with cheaper spells, and drawing multiple cards or forcing the opponent to discard multiple cards with one spell. The primary strength of control decks is their ability to devalue the opponent’s cards. As the game progresses, control decks are able to take advantage of their slower, more powerful, cards. Ĭontrol decks avoid racing and attempt to slow the game down by executing an attrition plan. Suicide Black epitomizes Black's philosophy-win at all costs-and treats even its life total as an expendable resource.
Aggro decks focus on converting their cards into damage they prefer to engage in a race for tempo rather than a card advantage-based attrition war. Aggro Īggro (short for "aggressive") decks attempt to reduce their opponents from 20 life to 0 life as quickly as possible, rather than emphasize a long-term game plan.
Most classifications of decks begin from one of four major strategies: aggro, control, combo and midrange.