Is The Use Of Aggro And Control Techniques Used In Magic: The Gathering

1407 Words6 Pages

Magic: The Gathering is one of the most complex games in the world, boasting over 25,000 unique cards, around 20 different formats both on and offline, and a rules book that could rival a legal code in verbosity and sheer length. While simple in concept, where the main objective is to bring your opponent's life total to zero using the cards in your deck, the sheer number of cards in the game makes it difficult to decide what strategy to play. There are just too many options. That said, several strategies in Magic: the Gathering fall between a spectrum of two archetypes: aggro and control. The archetypes aggro and control offer players a wide range of strategies for unique gameplay, each differing in the playstyle and strengths and weaknesses of each. Both aggro and control offer a plethora of unique …show more content…

As such, one of the strategies control decks use to gain an advantage is playing cards that remove resources an opponent controls. This is effectively a trade of resources. This keeps the opponent in check and allows the control player to slowly build up their resources. Control players also play several cards that allow them to draw more cards to gain their resource advantage, called card advantage. Once the opponent has run out of cards to play at a reliable rate, the control deck deploys its threats, which are often difficult to interact with, to quickly take over the game and win.Because both aggro and control decks entail different strategies, each archetype has its advantages and disadvantages. Aggro decks are strong against decks that play slowly and are vulnerable to strategies that can reliably remove their threats and cards in hand, while control decks are strong against other decks that play slowly and are at a disadvantage to decks that play quickly. Because aggressive decks play several cheap spells that constantly bombard the opponent's life totals, they are at an advantage over those that play more