I've always been a fan of the Red color, so almost 100% of my decks had Red on it until last month. I've actually bought a Selesnya token deck (Green and White) and I'm having a lot of fun with it.
The problem is: At my usual table (and the only one I play with), one of the players uses A LOT of control decks with blue cards on it and I'm feeling out of options on his hands.
His current "main" deck uses Inalla, Archmage Ritualist as a commander.
Also, he owns a MtG Card Store, a lot of cash and really expensive cards.
He has a lot of tutor cards, which allows him to have whatever card he wants on his hand, for example:
He can cast Spellseeker to tutor Demonic Tutor, clone it with Inalla, Archmage Ritualist to fetch a Counterspell, for example.
And he can also use it again twice using Archaeomancer, also cloning it with Inalla, Archmage Ritualist. Therefore his deck always allow him to have a lot of control all the time.
My major threats are usually dispelled (win-conditions like Triumph of the Hordes, Overrun...), but this isn't even the major problem (he can shoot down one or two win-condition cards, but I can still summon creatures, attack, and so on...). The major problem is Cyclonic Rift.
Once he tutors Cyclonic Rift, I feel that I've lost the game. Without red, I don't have access to Haste, which means I can't cast and attack at the same turn. All my tokens are permanently lost (as the instant and sorceries that created them) and he can do it every turn.
At least red had Red Elemental Blast or Pyroblast (which I actually cast from Sunforger, but that is another story).
I'm not interested in adding ANOTHER deck color for this one specific purpose (also losing access to my current commander), but I need to find a way to counter it.
I can't exile his instants (most of exile effects target permanents), If i exile his graveyard he can grab it first as an instant (using Archaeomancer or other cards like that, which he owns) and I can't protect my permanents (Protection against color DUMBLY only protects targetting, not global effects like Cyclonic Rift. Have I mentioned this is dumb?).
I can't find cards to deal with this kind of control, nor green, nor white.
Am I missing something? Is there any artifacts I can use, which I'm not aware?
Thanks in advance and I look forward for your advices !
While hard counters might not be all that readily available in your colours, you might want to consider cards that punish control strategies, or outright restrict their ability to play their counters effectively. Stuff like:
Control decks thrive on interaction, so limit their ability to do it. As for Cyclonic Rift, well, you're on your own. Just be sure to not dilute your gameplan too much by adding in anti-control cards.
Don't forget your Carpet of Flowers and Tsunami! If he's playing a deck that is disproportionately more powerful, he deserves all the hate he gets.
While hard counters might not be all that readily available in your colours, you might want to consider cards that punish control strategies, or outright restrict their ability to play their counters effectively. Stuff like:
Control decks thrive on interaction, so limit their ability to do it. As for Cyclonic Rift, well, you're on your own. Just be sure to not dilute your gameplan too much by adding in anti-control cards.
Don't forget your Carpet of Flowers and Tsunami! If he's playing a deck that is disproportionately more powerful, he deserves all the hate he gets.
Thanks for the input.
I do agree that he deserves the aggro he gets. Also, you raised another really significant issue: How much I want to hinder my game plan to counter his game plan. I don't expect to control him nor the table, but I just don't want to be completely controlled by his deck.
I'm not sure how much I can "add from the sideboard" without actually harming my strategies.
Any thoughts?
Concordant Crossroads is a green way to give all creatures haste (including your opponents' creatures so be careful). To go along with the Torpor Orb suggestion there is also Tocatli Honor Guard. Also, a bunch of Rest in Peace type effects were already listed but there is also Dryad Militant to specifically stop spell recursion. It sounds like this player also relies heavily on tutors, so maybe Aven Mindcensor or Leonin Arbiter to restrict that a bit?
Concordant Crossroads is a green way to give all creatures haste (including your opponents' creatures so be careful). To go along with the Torpor Orb suggestion there is also Tocatli Honor Guard. Also, a bunch of Rest in Peace type effects were already listed but there is also Dryad Militant to specifically stop spell recursion. It sounds like this player also relies heavily on tutors, so maybe Aven Mindcensor or Leonin Arbiter to restrict that a bit?
Multiplayers. Usually 4 players, ocasionally 5. The problem is that this player's decks usually are fast at tutoring, so he can have a ton of resources early on to control the whole table when people decide to gang on him.
I can suggest you to overall make your deck more solid: more ramp, more card draw, more continous effect.
If you start an attrition war, you should plan to win by having more resources. If you have ton of mana you can just answer to cyclonic rift by replayng everything. For this reason you should also relay more on permanents than on instants/sorceries for token production.
Sadly this is harder to achieve if your opponent is playing a very competitive deck, especially a combo deck.
I mean, of course my deck can be improved, but it's overall strategy works. I've won quite a few times online with it, and usually when this player is removed from the table, I fare really well. But what can I do if the guy can fetch Cyclonic Rift and Counterspell with 3 mana and repeat it every turn?
When he reaches 7 mana, I'm literally out of the game. He can, as an instant, return all my permanents to my hand. And since I can't attack with haste, he'll do it again next turn. Today, with the deck as It is, I could draw the whole deck and I won't find anything to counter that. And If i had any, it would be countered.
And since he can clone cards with Inalla, Archmage Ritualist or replay it from the graveyard as much as he wants (with a really low mana cost), if every player had one of those, he probably would be able to counter all of them.
Real question is: how much can I hinder my game plan to counter his?
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
[quote from="darrenhabib »" url="/forums/the-game/commander-edh/799629-selesnyas-counters-for-blue-control?comment=7"]Is this 1vs1 or multiplayer?
Multiplayers. Usually 4 players, ocasionally 5. The problem is that this player's decks usually are fast at tutoring, so he can have a ton of resources early on to control the whole table when people decide to gang on him.
It sounds like you guys need to start pressuring this one player more, if he got the $$ then you can balance it out with just making sure the table balances it out with solid focused pressure.
The thing with control decks, is that the can look unassuming because they are the ones not putting pressure onto the board, and everybody else starts duking it out.
Most people here have eluded to play a hate-bears type deck, which has it's base in white mainly. Are you familiar with this strategy? Personally I found that although they can slow down opponents, it's ability to actually reduce opponents life totals isn't that great. So people actually still get a lot of time to setup, even if they are stalled for quite some time. You would honestly need to do what I said above, and already have an agreement that the players would need to focus on the control player if you were to realistically do a hate-bears type strategy. You slow down the spells deck, while the other focus on putting creatures into play to reduce the life total of that player.
Plus you've already said that you are a tokens deck, so not sure if hate-bears plus tokens is a great mix.
I know what you mean about Red Elemental Blast or Pyroblast, I run them main deck with the premise that if there are no blue opponents at a table, then I'm just happy anyway lol. Also as you said with Sunforger, makes sense as options. Been there done that.
But Teferi's Protection is some defense against Cyclonic Rift and your tokens will be fine with this card, unlike something like Ghostway which token will remain exiled.
My favourite tech card is Lapse of Certainty. People are just not expecting this and can be enough to blow them out. Opponent has held up all their mana for a Cyclonic Rift and it gives people a round to put the hammer onto that player.
Dragonlord Dromoka and Yeva, Nature's Herald are solid creatures against control. Yeva helps to spring traps. If you can leave open mana, then an opponent Cyclonic Rift and then you can just before your turn get some creatures into play and inflict damage they were not calculating for.
On that note I love Winding Canyons but it is a $22 card.
As someone who's played with blue based control a lot in EDH, I'd say that overall, it's not so much about what cards you should be playing - although there are some one's I'll recommend which I'll get to in a bit - and more about how you should be playing.
Unlike in 1v1 games of Magic, in a multiplayer game, a control deck cannot answer everything it's opponents are doing - you simply don't have the resources. Even things like the dreaded Cyclonic Rift cannot keep 3-4 players in check for the whole game. So how do control decks work? Well, ultimately, it comes down to the fact that they don't have to answer everything, they only have to answer the threats that are both directed at them and haven't been answered by other players.
darrenhabib touched on this, but the first major factor in dealing with control players in EDH is politics. Not "political cards" (most of which have nothing to do with politics), but politics - talk to the other players, explain the threat the blue player poses - even without much of a board state - and convince them to help you. 3-4 players beating down the blue player are going to kill him. Now, this isn't always going to work, and indeed, it isn't always right to attack the blue player. If someone else is has a huge threat in play, then you'll need to deal with them first. But, assuming these people have seen what the unchecked blue player can do, you should be able to at least get them to help you put pressure on said player for much of the game.
The second point is that the blue player's resources are limited. Even if they can reuse cards, that takes mana, and there's only so much of that to go around. Force them to use up their resources, play spells even if you know they will be answered, and there will be gaps in their defenses through which you can hurt them. Maybe it won't be enough for a killing blow, but repeat this - especially when combined with other players doing the same - and you've got a good shot at winning.
Take for example the situation like you describe. The blue player is on 7 mana, they have a Cyclonic Rift in hand and they can repeatedly recurr the Rift. However, said recursion probably takes some mana (e.g. Archaeomancer plus Crystal Shard) so effectively, they can Rift every other turn. What the blue payer wants to do in this situation is cast Rift at the end of the player to his right's turn, then get it back on his. His opponents will spend their turns rebuilding, but he'll have the mana back to Rift again before they can actually hurt him.
So what happens if everyone is working against him? Lets say you know he tutored for Rift and he's just played his 7th land and passed. You're the next player. What do you do? Answer: you attack him. You force him to either use up his Rift immediately or to take a good amount of damage. If he does cast it, it sets you back, but the next two players can immediately start rebuilding their boards. Then, on his turn, the blue player uses up his mana to get Rift back to hand. On your next turn, you can do much other than begin rebuilding, but the next two players have a turn where they have a board and the blue player is tapped out. They probably won't have enough to kill him immediately, but they'll get damage through. Then the blue player untaps and passes the turn with Rift in hand. And we're back to the start but the blue player has spent two turns doing nothing to advance his wincon while still not being able to completely prevent himself from taking damage. Sure, the other players aren't really advancing their overall plan that much, but at this point, the blue player is the biggest threat so taking them out should override other priorities.
Control players don't just want to control the cards, they want to control the direction the whole game is played out. Stop them doing this, and things look a lot better for you. Of course, this isn't an utterly foolproof method, the control players will still win some games, but that's how Magic is meant to be.
I'll move onto some specific cards here. One thing overall I'd say is to not focus too much on cards that just hurt the specific blue player you're fighting. Instead go for those are strong in general, but have an even better effect against that player. Some of these have already been mentioned, but I think they're worth focusing on.
Dragonlord Dromoka, as previously mentioned, is an excellent card against a controlly deck. Worst case, you get a hard to answer, evasive, lifelinking beatsick. Which, while not crazy, is still a solid card. But against a blue based control deck, not only does it shut down any counterspells he would want to aim at you, it forces him to use any other spells proactively. And blue control players hate having to act proactively. Cyclonic Rift and Evacuation gain much of their power from being instants. You hold up to mana and only use them when you have to. Having Dromoka and a couple of other threats mean he now has to chose between using his spells at sorcery speed, or taking the hit.
Stony Silence and Null Rod are often very strong cards for GW decks, as you can rely on sorceries (Rampant Growth etc.) or mana dorks (Birds of Paradise etc.) for your mana, so they become asymmetric. Even the average EDH runs enough artifacts that being able to shut them down for two mana is wirth the slot in your deck. However, when staring down Grixis control, these look even better, as your opponent's only source of ramp is artifacts. Shut them down, and the control player is now reliant on making his land drops. Typically, this means he probably won't hit the magic 7 mana 'till turn 9 or so, which means more time to get your beats in. Plus it'll take him a very long time before he reaches the point of using Cyclonic Riftand a recursion spell in the same turn.
Rest in Peace and other grave hate effects. So you're opponent is reusing spells? Exile them before he can. With the recurring Rift example, this again comes back to forcing them to use up their spells before they want to. If they're "EoT Rift, my turn get it back", you don't have a chance to RiP it. But if someone's forced the blue player to use it up earlier in the turn cycle, you've a shot at taking it out of them game. And grave hate is usually a good thing to have in EDH in general - there are a hell of a lot of very good cards that let people (ab)use what's in their yard, so every deck should run some answers to it. One other one worth mentioning is Scavenger Grounds, as it dodges Rift and counterspells and can be used at instant speed in response to the recursion.
Instant speed removal (Swords to Plowshares, Beast Within etc.). In order to keep using Rift with Archaeomancer, he must be getting the latter back to his hand in some way (e.g. Crystal Shard). So kill the wizard in response. It won't stop him getting back Rift once, but it'll stop the constant recursion. And removal is always good in EDH.
Torpor Orb and Hushwing Gryff don't do much against Rift, but will seriously disrupt his development if he's taking advantage of copying ETBs with Inalla. And chances are, it won't just disrupt him. There are a lot of ETB abusing decks in EDH, so these are unlikely to be a dead card. Of course, if your deck is ETB heavy, they probably don't fit well, but if you're light on said effects, these are another potentially very asymmetric and strong effect.
Jester's Cap. Bit of a last resort, but if Cyclonic Rift is getting you down, just get rid of it. And you can always direct it at other players and take their biggest threats if you're not up against the blue player. This isn't something I'd really suggest running, but it is an option against decks that focus heavily on one line of play. If you had access to black, Praetor's Grasp is a genuinely good card that can do this and would definitely be a serious suggestion.
Phew...that went on a bit longer than I planned, hope it helps
I would hasten to add that permission-style control (i.e., a bunch of counterspells and removal, as in "May I play this card?" "No") is more limited that way. It's a big reason blue has the best card draw. (Well, besides black...)
Other control decks like land destruction and Stax (which cost a lot more mana) can answer everything just by saying "Hey, you can't play that!"
And yeah, people forget the value of instant-speed removal.
You can really screw him over with a personal favorite of mine: Classic Winter Orb. If you're using a lot of mana dorks (or Seedborn Muse), a combination of Orb and Null Rod will frustrate most players, but if you're trying to make 11-mana plays on a consistent basis, lolnope. Any version from Revised Edition on will only set you back, at most, $5.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I've always been a fan of the Red color, so almost 100% of my decks had Red on it until last month. I've actually bought a Selesnya token deck (Green and White) and I'm having a lot of fun with it.
The problem is: At my usual table (and the only one I play with), one of the players uses A LOT of control decks with blue cards on it and I'm feeling out of options on his hands.
His current "main" deck uses Inalla, Archmage Ritualist as a commander.
Also, he owns a MtG Card Store, a lot of cash and really expensive cards.
He has a lot of tutor cards, which allows him to have whatever card he wants on his hand, for example:
He can cast Spellseeker to tutor Demonic Tutor, clone it with Inalla, Archmage Ritualist to fetch a Counterspell, for example.
And he can also use it again twice using Archaeomancer, also cloning it with Inalla, Archmage Ritualist. Therefore his deck always allow him to have a lot of control all the time.
My major threats are usually dispelled (win-conditions like Triumph of the Hordes, Overrun...), but this isn't even the major problem (he can shoot down one or two win-condition cards, but I can still summon creatures, attack, and so on...). The major problem is Cyclonic Rift.
Once he tutors Cyclonic Rift, I feel that I've lost the game. Without red, I don't have access to Haste, which means I can't cast and attack at the same turn. All my tokens are permanently lost (as the instant and sorceries that created them) and he can do it every turn.
At least red had Red Elemental Blast or Pyroblast (which I actually cast from Sunforger, but that is another story).
I'm not interested in adding ANOTHER deck color for this one specific purpose (also losing access to my current commander), but I need to find a way to counter it.
I can't exile his instants (most of exile effects target permanents), If i exile his graveyard he can grab it first as an instant (using Archaeomancer or other cards like that, which he owns) and I can't protect my permanents (Protection against color DUMBLY only protects targetting, not global effects like Cyclonic Rift. Have I mentioned this is dumb?).
I can't find cards to deal with this kind of control, nor green, nor white.
Am I missing something? Is there any artifacts I can use, which I'm not aware?
Thanks in advance and I look forward for your advices !
2) Torpor Orb and Hushwing Gryff do the thing you want.
- Witchstalker
- Spelltithe Enforcer
- Glowrider
- Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
- Eidolon of Rhetoric
- Eyes of the Wisent
- Damping Sphere
- Vryn Wingmare
Control decks thrive on interaction, so limit their ability to do it. As for Cyclonic Rift, well, you're on your own. Just be sure to not dilute your gameplan too much by adding in anti-control cards.
Don't forget your Carpet of Flowers and Tsunami! If he's playing a deck that is disproportionately more powerful, he deserves all the hate he gets.
[Primer] Erebos, God of the Dead
HONK HONK
I'm sorry about posting on the wrong place. An admin contacted me and moved my thread. Thank you for the input and the cards!
Thanks for the input !
Thanks for the input.
I do agree that he deserves the aggro he gets. Also, you raised another really significant issue: How much I want to hinder my game plan to counter his game plan. I don't expect to control him nor the table, but I just don't want to be completely controlled by his deck.
I'm not sure how much I can "add from the sideboard" without actually harming my strategies.
Any thoughts?
Thank you everyone !
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Great cards! Thanks for the input !
Multiplayers. Usually 4 players, ocasionally 5. The problem is that this player's decks usually are fast at tutoring, so he can have a ton of resources early on to control the whole table when people decide to gang on him.
I mean, of course my deck can be improved, but it's overall strategy works. I've won quite a few times online with it, and usually when this player is removed from the table, I fare really well. But what can I do if the guy can fetch Cyclonic Rift and Counterspell with 3 mana and repeat it every turn?
When he reaches 7 mana, I'm literally out of the game. He can, as an instant, return all my permanents to my hand. And since I can't attack with haste, he'll do it again next turn. Today, with the deck as It is, I could draw the whole deck and I won't find anything to counter that. And If i had any, it would be countered.
And since he can clone cards with Inalla, Archmage Ritualist or replay it from the graveyard as much as he wants (with a really low mana cost), if every player had one of those, he probably would be able to counter all of them.
Real question is: how much can I hinder my game plan to counter his?
https://www.mtgvault.com/naethyn/decks/edric-pingers-2/
On phasing:
The thing with control decks, is that the can look unassuming because they are the ones not putting pressure onto the board, and everybody else starts duking it out.
Most people here have eluded to play a hate-bears type deck, which has it's base in white mainly. Are you familiar with this strategy? Personally I found that although they can slow down opponents, it's ability to actually reduce opponents life totals isn't that great. So people actually still get a lot of time to setup, even if they are stalled for quite some time. You would honestly need to do what I said above, and already have an agreement that the players would need to focus on the control player if you were to realistically do a hate-bears type strategy. You slow down the spells deck, while the other focus on putting creatures into play to reduce the life total of that player.
Plus you've already said that you are a tokens deck, so not sure if hate-bears plus tokens is a great mix.
I know what you mean about Red Elemental Blast or Pyroblast, I run them main deck with the premise that if there are no blue opponents at a table, then I'm just happy anyway lol. Also as you said with Sunforger, makes sense as options. Been there done that.
But Teferi's Protection is some defense against Cyclonic Rift and your tokens will be fine with this card, unlike something like Ghostway which token will remain exiled.
My favourite tech card is Lapse of Certainty. People are just not expecting this and can be enough to blow them out. Opponent has held up all their mana for a Cyclonic Rift and it gives people a round to put the hammer onto that player.
Dragonlord Dromoka and Yeva, Nature's Herald are solid creatures against control. Yeva helps to spring traps. If you can leave open mana, then an opponent Cyclonic Rift and then you can just before your turn get some creatures into play and inflict damage they were not calculating for.
On that note I love Winding Canyons but it is a $22 card.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Unlike in 1v1 games of Magic, in a multiplayer game, a control deck cannot answer everything it's opponents are doing - you simply don't have the resources. Even things like the dreaded Cyclonic Rift cannot keep 3-4 players in check for the whole game. So how do control decks work? Well, ultimately, it comes down to the fact that they don't have to answer everything, they only have to answer the threats that are both directed at them and haven't been answered by other players.
darrenhabib touched on this, but the first major factor in dealing with control players in EDH is politics. Not "political cards" (most of which have nothing to do with politics), but politics - talk to the other players, explain the threat the blue player poses - even without much of a board state - and convince them to help you. 3-4 players beating down the blue player are going to kill him. Now, this isn't always going to work, and indeed, it isn't always right to attack the blue player. If someone else is has a huge threat in play, then you'll need to deal with them first. But, assuming these people have seen what the unchecked blue player can do, you should be able to at least get them to help you put pressure on said player for much of the game.
The second point is that the blue player's resources are limited. Even if they can reuse cards, that takes mana, and there's only so much of that to go around. Force them to use up their resources, play spells even if you know they will be answered, and there will be gaps in their defenses through which you can hurt them. Maybe it won't be enough for a killing blow, but repeat this - especially when combined with other players doing the same - and you've got a good shot at winning.
Take for example the situation like you describe. The blue player is on 7 mana, they have a Cyclonic Rift in hand and they can repeatedly recurr the Rift. However, said recursion probably takes some mana (e.g. Archaeomancer plus Crystal Shard) so effectively, they can Rift every other turn. What the blue payer wants to do in this situation is cast Rift at the end of the player to his right's turn, then get it back on his. His opponents will spend their turns rebuilding, but he'll have the mana back to Rift again before they can actually hurt him.
So what happens if everyone is working against him? Lets say you know he tutored for Rift and he's just played his 7th land and passed. You're the next player. What do you do? Answer: you attack him. You force him to either use up his Rift immediately or to take a good amount of damage. If he does cast it, it sets you back, but the next two players can immediately start rebuilding their boards. Then, on his turn, the blue player uses up his mana to get Rift back to hand. On your next turn, you can do much other than begin rebuilding, but the next two players have a turn where they have a board and the blue player is tapped out. They probably won't have enough to kill him immediately, but they'll get damage through. Then the blue player untaps and passes the turn with Rift in hand. And we're back to the start but the blue player has spent two turns doing nothing to advance his wincon while still not being able to completely prevent himself from taking damage. Sure, the other players aren't really advancing their overall plan that much, but at this point, the blue player is the biggest threat so taking them out should override other priorities.
Control players don't just want to control the cards, they want to control the direction the whole game is played out. Stop them doing this, and things look a lot better for you. Of course, this isn't an utterly foolproof method, the control players will still win some games, but that's how Magic is meant to be.
I'll move onto some specific cards here. One thing overall I'd say is to not focus too much on cards that just hurt the specific blue player you're fighting. Instead go for those are strong in general, but have an even better effect against that player. Some of these have already been mentioned, but I think they're worth focusing on.
Dragonlord Dromoka, as previously mentioned, is an excellent card against a controlly deck. Worst case, you get a hard to answer, evasive, lifelinking beatsick. Which, while not crazy, is still a solid card. But against a blue based control deck, not only does it shut down any counterspells he would want to aim at you, it forces him to use any other spells proactively. And blue control players hate having to act proactively. Cyclonic Rift and Evacuation gain much of their power from being instants. You hold up to mana and only use them when you have to. Having Dromoka and a couple of other threats mean he now has to chose between using his spells at sorcery speed, or taking the hit.
Stony Silence and Null Rod are often very strong cards for GW decks, as you can rely on sorceries (Rampant Growth etc.) or mana dorks (Birds of Paradise etc.) for your mana, so they become asymmetric. Even the average EDH runs enough artifacts that being able to shut them down for two mana is wirth the slot in your deck. However, when staring down Grixis control, these look even better, as your opponent's only source of ramp is artifacts. Shut them down, and the control player is now reliant on making his land drops. Typically, this means he probably won't hit the magic 7 mana 'till turn 9 or so, which means more time to get your beats in. Plus it'll take him a very long time before he reaches the point of using Cyclonic Rift and a recursion spell in the same turn.
Rest in Peace and other grave hate effects. So you're opponent is reusing spells? Exile them before he can. With the recurring Rift example, this again comes back to forcing them to use up their spells before they want to. If they're "EoT Rift, my turn get it back", you don't have a chance to RiP it. But if someone's forced the blue player to use it up earlier in the turn cycle, you've a shot at taking it out of them game. And grave hate is usually a good thing to have in EDH in general - there are a hell of a lot of very good cards that let people (ab)use what's in their yard, so every deck should run some answers to it. One other one worth mentioning is Scavenger Grounds, as it dodges Rift and counterspells and can be used at instant speed in response to the recursion.
Instant speed removal (Swords to Plowshares, Beast Within etc.). In order to keep using Rift with Archaeomancer, he must be getting the latter back to his hand in some way (e.g. Crystal Shard). So kill the wizard in response. It won't stop him getting back Rift once, but it'll stop the constant recursion. And removal is always good in EDH.
Torpor Orb and Hushwing Gryff don't do much against Rift, but will seriously disrupt his development if he's taking advantage of copying ETBs with Inalla. And chances are, it won't just disrupt him. There are a lot of ETB abusing decks in EDH, so these are unlikely to be a dead card. Of course, if your deck is ETB heavy, they probably don't fit well, but if you're light on said effects, these are another potentially very asymmetric and strong effect.
Jester's Cap. Bit of a last resort, but if Cyclonic Rift is getting you down, just get rid of it. And you can always direct it at other players and take their biggest threats if you're not up against the blue player. This isn't something I'd really suggest running, but it is an option against decks that focus heavily on one line of play. If you had access to black, Praetor's Grasp is a genuinely good card that can do this and would definitely be a serious suggestion.
Phew...that went on a bit longer than I planned, hope it helps
Other control decks like land destruction and Stax (which cost a lot more mana) can answer everything just by saying "Hey, you can't play that!"
And yeah, people forget the value of instant-speed removal.
You can really screw him over with a personal favorite of mine: Classic Winter Orb. If you're using a lot of mana dorks (or Seedborn Muse), a combination of Orb and Null Rod will frustrate most players, but if you're trying to make 11-mana plays on a consistent basis, lolnope. Any version from Revised Edition on will only set you back, at most, $5.
On phasing: