#control magic

Control Magic

If you don't have the best toys, find the one who does.

This gets a bit fiddly, so bear with me here.

When Control Magic goes to resolve, the game changes immediately from Control Magic being on the stack and Light-Paws being under your opponent's control to Control Magic being on the battlefield and Light-Paws being under your control. There's no moment where Control Magic is in the battlefield and you don't control Light-Paws.

Magic: the Gathering - Control Players

Compulsion: Verbally telling someone to do something, and they will do it either immediately or at some point in the future. Compulsion can also be used to block or create memories, also through verbal instructions. Complicated compulsions (including memory manipulation) can result in severe harm to the target of the compulsion. Verbal instructions and the entailing ambiguity can make compulsion less reliable as a means of controlling someone; however, a compulsion can last a person’s entire life. The target is aware that the compulsion was placed unless the memory of the compulsion being placed was itself removed. Whether a compulsion on a target can be detected during and/or after the fact by a trained outsider depends on the skill of the user and outsider.

Empathy: Alters the target’s emotions (e.g. making a sad person happy). Whether the target is aware of the manipulation or not depends on the skill of the user and the magnitude of the emotional change. The manipulation only lasts for as long as the user consciously does it. While occurring, the manipulation cannot be difinitively detected by outsiders.

Illusion Manipulation: Alters the target’s perceptions of the world around them (eg sight, touch, hearing, position). Can be minor illusions like making a person hear a sound that isn’t there, more difficult illusions like creating false constructs (e.g. a dog that runs around and barks), or illusions that completely alter the world perceived (e.g making a person believe they’re in class when really they’re in their dorm). Talented illusion manipulators can affect multiple targets at once. The manipulation only lasts for as long as the user consciously does it. While occurring, the manipulation can be definitively detected by a trained outsider.

Puppetry: Physicslly controls the target’s every action. It does not control the target’s mind, and the target is fully conscious while all of this is happening. It does not allow for the ambiguities of compulsion, but also takes far more energy and skill. The manipulation only lasts for as long as the user consciously does it. The manipulation can be definitively detected during the fact by trained outsiders.

All forms of control magic can be resisted with training, potions, or artifacts, and multiple forms of control magic can be used in conjunction.

Do you ever just wish you could have all of your opponents fun and cool toys and not have to give them back at the end of turn? Well boi... do I have a combo for you! And it’s a super easy and simple combo to run as well being very splashable. Let’s snap to it Will Henry!

The Combo

For this recipe you’re gonna need 3 ingredients: Archaeomancer, Ghostly Flicker, and an ability or spell that steals permanents your opponents control. For this example we’ll use Dominus of Fealty. 

Using Dominus’ theft ability during our upkeep, let’s say we steal a land from our opponent. With an Archaeomancer on the field, we cast Ghostly Flicker targeting the stolen land and the Mancer. When the spell resolves, we flicker the land and Mancer, returning them both to the battlefield under your control and you get to return the Flicker back to your hand with Mancer’s etb. And what’s key is the wording of Ghostly Flicker. “Exile two target artifacts, creatures, and/or lands you control, then return those cards to the battlefield under your control.” UNDER YOUR CONTROL. Even tho your opponent owns the land you stole, it was under your control when you cast the Flicker, and the Flicker returns it to play under your control. No more “until end of turn” effect on it, it is your permanent now. With Archaeonmancer, we get to consistently bring back the Flicker to our hand after we cast it. Since the combo is mono blue (Archaeomancer 2UU and Ghostly Flicker 2U) you can easily splash this into any deck with blue that likes taking things. Commanders that enable this are Rubinia Soulsinger, Merieke Ri Berit, Yasova Dragonclaw, Zedruu the Greathearted and Empress Galina (although it should be noted that Ghostly Flickering a Commander can just result in the owner of the Commander sending it back to the Command zone when it hits exile before it gets returned to the field.) 

I particularly love the Zedruu interaction of taking control of your opponents permanents and then gifting them to other players. Can make games very chaotic and fun if your playgroup is very casual about it. 

This can also be splashed into other colors with cards like Puppeteer Clique. 

Cast Puppeteer Clique, bring back a creature from your opponents graveyard and then Ghostly Flicker the returned creature and Mancer. That creature is now permanently yours. You can later Flicker the Mancer and Clique to reset the Clique if it dies. Red is infamous for it’s Threaten type effects and cards. Zealous Conscripts comes to mind with Molten Primordial.

 Possibilities are endless. Enjoy.

Over the past twenty five (25) years magic has gone through many significant changes. I've only been around to witness about eight (8) years of the games metamorphosis but even that has been enough to witness major shifts, like pulling power away from non-permanent cards and shifting to a more creature oriented gameplay meta.

In spite of many changes to how the colors work and how they execute their plans I've seen one thing that seems to stay the same over the years, the impression of the colors identity among the player base.

With this article series I plan to dissect the identity each color has gained in the community over the years and attempt to pick those views apart using the modern game designs. Hopefully you will see the joys you can find within each color and we will be able to show the community why we love our colors for so much more than what they think it is.

If you are still reading this I want to say thank you. These pieces will take some time and life likes to interfere with my concentration on this blog. I greatly appreciate your interest in this endeavor we're taking on our free time. I can't wait to see how you all view these pieces. Thank you again for everything.

Control Magic (8th Level, Enchantment)

Casting Time: 1 Action

Range: 60 feet

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration, up to 24 hours

Classes: Wizard