Played a small 6-man event yesterday where the top 2 decks were psyhchatog and azorius lawmage. I only played vs the psychatog deck but I understand the lawmage deck was basically the same thing: permission.
Cantrips, Counterspells, bounce, removal, and general as only win-condition. Once they hit 2 mana you're basically done resolving spells for the remainder of the game.
With all the looting and scrying bad hands should be far and few between for these decks, and with virtually unlimited access to 2 and 3 mana counterspells, it feels impossible to force a threat onto the table. And int he event that you do, the black/white side will certainly be able to deal with it somehow. Once they feel the coast is clear, down comes the general and its all over but the crying.
What generals/strategies can compete with this permission-control style? I feel like the natural predator of permission is aggro, but in a 30 life format aggro is probably a dead deck against anything except those permission builds - if it can even be effective there.
Played a small 6-man event yesterday where the top 2 decks were psyhchatog and azorius lawmage. I only played vs the psychatog deck but I understand the lawmage deck was basically the same thing: permission.
Cantrips, Counterspells, bounce, removal, and general as only win-condition. Once they hit 2 mana you're basically done resolving spells for the remainder of the game.
With all the looting and scrying bad hands should be far and few between for these decks, and with virtually unlimited access to 2 and 3 mana counterspells, it feels impossible to force a threat onto the table. And int he event that you do, the black/white side will certainly be able to deal with it somehow. Once they feel the coast is clear, down comes the general and its all over but the crying.
What generals/strategies can compete with this permission-control style? I feel like the natural predator of permission is aggro, but in a 30 life format aggro is probably a dead deck against anything except those permission builds - if it can even be effective there.
Your best bet is probably going to be playing a deck with an extremely low curve, so that you can get threats out under and between his counter wall. Something with Black running a full suite of cheap Discard can help a lot as well.
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I run two control decks (UW and UR) one of which is Ascended Lawmage and I can tell you it's hard to beat. Something with black is your best bet. They have cheap aggressive creatures (usually with a downside but at least they get in damage) and they get discard.
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A mono-colored deck would probably have a chance. A very low mana curve would be key so that it can cast several threats a turn (even minor ones) in hopes of overwhelming them. Snairda's Goblin Warchief deck is something along those lines. It impressed me when I was looking around for aggro decks to test against.
Lots of ramp could certainly help push a two-color deck into that range as well. Blue-Green would probably be the best combination with access to ramp, draw, counter magic, & efficient beaters.
And the Zameck Guildmage out of Gatecrash for Simic is pretty awesome. Nothing foils a counterspell quite like throwing another counter in their face. Plus you can ramp into fatties pretty fast, and combined with other cards you can outrun them in CA pretty bloody fast by placing/removing counters. Hrm, I've been meaning to revise my Zameck deck for a little while now... it might be time to do so.
Another possibility that is terrifying one-on-one is Tinder Wall - it's pretty damned difficult to resolve any counterspells when all your land is gone, and R/G have a LOT of common land destruction, and even some that ramps you as well. Just don't expect to make many friends if you play that deck. But then, we're pretty flexible down here about commons being generals as well, it may be difficult in your local.
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Cantrips, Counterspells, bounce, removal, and general as only win-condition. Once they hit 2 mana you're basically done resolving spells for the remainder of the game.
With all the looting and scrying bad hands should be far and few between for these decks, and with virtually unlimited access to 2 and 3 mana counterspells, it feels impossible to force a threat onto the table. And int he event that you do, the black/white side will certainly be able to deal with it somehow. Once they feel the coast is clear, down comes the general and its all over but the crying.
What generals/strategies can compete with this permission-control style? I feel like the natural predator of permission is aggro, but in a 30 life format aggro is probably a dead deck against anything except those permission builds - if it can even be effective there.
Your best bet is probably going to be playing a deck with an extremely low curve, so that you can get threats out under and between his counter wall. Something with Black running a full suite of cheap Discard can help a lot as well.
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Currently Playing- EDH
GGGOmnath, Locus of the LifestreamGGG
BBBShirei, Lord of PoniesBBB
UWRasputin Dreamweaver, Russia's Greatest Love MachineUW
UBWZur, Killer of FunUBW
UGWTreva, Princess of CanterlotUGW
RWTajic, Master of the Reverse BladeRW
RRRZirilan, How to Train Your DragonRRR
PDH Decks
Gelectrode
Ascended Lawmage
Blaze Commando
Lots of ramp could certainly help push a two-color deck into that range as well. Blue-Green would probably be the best combination with access to ramp, draw, counter magic, & efficient beaters.
Good luck!
Enjoying your blog btw.
Another possibility that is terrifying one-on-one is Tinder Wall - it's pretty damned difficult to resolve any counterspells when all your land is gone, and R/G have a LOT of common land destruction, and even some that ramps you as well. Just don't expect to make many friends if you play that deck. But then, we're pretty flexible down here about commons being generals as well, it may be difficult in your local.