#10 Control

Magic players love control.

They love control because control is essential to a player's development in the same way that thumbs let early humans really get ahead in their environment.

This comparison may seem silly, but thumbs are very serious about control. One only has to look at a politician giving a thumbs up to execute a speech, a sovereign giving a thumbs down to execute traitors, and "I declare thumb war" as brief examples of control.

On the fundamental level, it's easy to see how control and games fit so naturally. Super Mario can't go to another castle to check if the princess is there if there isn't someone to control him through all those obstacles. Sports like basketball and hockey are grounded in drills and practice that involve controlling the ball/puck before anything else.

For Magic players, control goes a bit beyond the manual dexterity it takes to physically handle and grip little pieces of cardboard. Control is best understood as trying to get a handle and grip on what goes on in a game of Magic.

This is a tall order most of the time, because Magic is a complex game and there is a lot going on. A control player tries to simplify these complexities into something more manageable.

For instance, Control players are notorious for getting excited to draw one more card, even though drawing cards is only a small aspect of Magic. Control players might do anything and everything to draw one more card, including skipping their own turns, paying their own life, sacrificing their own cards.

Control players love taking these little manageable chunks of Magic and adding them together. Little advantages here and there, and sooner or later a control player gets to turn the game around completely. This is why it isn't strange to see that a control player's bigger concern is "not losing the game now" as opposed to "winning the game now."



Even if a player doesn't love control strategies, it doesn't rule out the possibility that he might love taking control from a control player himself.

Ask an aggro player if he loves control and he might build an aggressive deck that lets him control and force his opponent's hand to grip a pen and mark a life total that is rapidly dwindling. Ask a combo player if he loves control and he might bring in a surprise package from the sideboard that shows the opponent is trying to control the wrong things.

Magic players aren't born as control players, just like how human beings aren't born with control as a major concern. Being born is probably one of the few things that is out of one's control actually. But soon after, little manageable chunks of life start adding up to make a person very concerned about control.

And in the end, while everything can't be controlled for sure, there's always the hope of turning it all around which is why Magic players love control.