Hi all,
I've been having some success with control war. So much so that I accidentally made my way to Mythic. I say accidentally because at this point in my GU career I don't enjoy facing the $2k neutral decks anymore (did I ever?). The win rate of the deck has definitely gone down while in Mythic, but it's holding its own and it is fantastic below Mythic.
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Obviously, the inclusion of Hortuk is what makes the deck expensive. Without it, it's incredibly cheap. You could swap in any number of cards and not give up the main win cons of the deck: Runeblade + Anagreos. I do what
I what to include the deck that originally got me started playing control war again. It's from Birdgineer and features Hector at the 7 slot:
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The inclusion of Hector drives several other card choices to feed his passive. When I took him out, I put in things like encumbered looter and blade of styx. Since this original list, Bird has been modifying things and even added in Hortuk (and kept hector) and has been having success. The point being: the basic archetype is good and you can customize to fit your collection/budget.
I don't love Hector. Nokkvi Pillager is a bad card, but Hector needs leech. Maybe the 5 mana Chimera would be better, but then you're shifting the mana curve higher. I like being able to take the Pillagers out and put in Blade of Styx. The downside to Styx is that you have to trade your God's HP to control board, which isn't the best against aggro.
Valka's Presence Godpower. This helps you control the board, pop protected, and it also gets creatures into your board to make An End to War more effective.
You're looking for removals like Savage Strike, Wolf-Cult Vanguard, and Blade of Styx. Twin Strike on Wolf-Cult and Orcish Elite make them very efficient removal cards when played on turn. Sometimes, you even get a create left on board, which is amazing value. If you can make it to 6-7 mana while relatively healthy, you should win most games.
Slayer GP. This allows you to put pressure on your opponent without having to commit cards to the board. Control decks are designed to remove creatures, so when you don't play many of them, they are at a loss. In my version of this deck, we have 5 relics in total, which can do a combined 38 damage. Two of them have god blitz. We also have Vow of Champions and Woodcutter Imp that can go straight to face. And of course, 12 more godblitz damage from Anagreos. These represent threats that removal-based control will have few answers for. If you can draw out relic removal (e.g. Eiko) early, then your Runeblade is that much safer.
Budget control that relies on frontliners is actually probably a tougher matchup. Those creatures will be challenging to remove and can pressure you with face damage if you can't.
One matchup that this decks seems to do surprisingly well in is Zombie Control Death. I think I'm 3-1 in total against these $2k powerhouses. Those decks are designed to remove creatures from the board, but we don't need to play any. It's not an auto-win by any means, but if you can find relics and you keep pressing the skill button (slayer), it goes surprisingly smoothly. The vid below illustrates. At no point was I ever in trouble.
Slayer GP since we are facing off against control. For the mulligan, I'm just looking for lower-cost mana cards. Nothing in particular actually. The flexibility of Vow to draw a card, heal, or do spot damage feels good, so I keep it. Savage Strike is nice if they get wide with zombies early.
Nothing to do so I pass.
Axewoman against fiend isn't the best, but it's something to do and better than doing nothing.
So Savage Strike here looks like an odd play, and maybe it wasn't worth it, but I was looking at his list and noticed only one scepter and no obelisks. It's just a super greed list.
I decided to manage favor gain by killing his 1/1 instead of letting him ping me. It also made Slayer worth more because he wouldn't immediately heal. Finally, if he had the one scepter in hand, this kept him from getting frenzy.
Styx into Eva feels fine here. I get favor, I have the relic equipped for next turn, and maybe I bait out an early Eiko. I don't want to play Wolf-Cult because it would get transformed.
A great example of the flexibility of Vow making up for the relative weakness of each effect. Dealing 2 damage is a nice play here that lets me go face with the relic and play the looter.
I grab the rune just to make him waste a card to remove the looter instead of just being able to GP and heal.
Feeling pretty good having Hortuk, Sole Survivor and Runeblade in hand. We will definitely be able to apply pressure. I play Devouring Blade here for a few reasons:
Face + Slayer gets 6 more damage in. I decide against Hortuk because I don't want risk a Demo healing him followed by Double Demos winning him the game. I've got Runeblade coming up which can solo our opponent from here.
Runeblade time. Yes, he could have Eiko. Yes, that would suck; however, the longer we wait, the greater the chances that he has drawn Eiko and is holding it. No time like the present. Also, at 5 health, he has to wonder if we have Imp in hand.
He found healing from Thaerial, but luckily he didn't seem to find shuffle. I deal with Frostqueen first by playing cards to minimize damage taken. I also get to heal up. Then I can swing without taking more damage. Looking back at it, maybe the better line was to just play Orcish Elite to deal with neferu. That would let me save Wolf-Cult for a Sole Survivor combo, but the Grand Hall also kept Thaerial from going face, so I think my line was best.
Without more healing cultists and without Eiko, there were no other tricks in the deck that could save him. Yes, sometimes it feels like they always have Eiko, but it's 1 card out of 30. Take your bad beats when they happen, but don't play afraid of it or you'll lose even more games. GG!
Budget control is never a great idea in Mythic. Here's a string of games to prove the point. You don't want to be playing M7sn and Clutch running wallet decks.
Even the zombie deck (different opponent from vid) was a wallet deck. I don't recommend it. On a budget, stick to aggro in Mythic. Maybe arcane burst, anubians, etc. That is, of course, if you want to stay there. I'm more than happy to fall back to Diamond/Gold where I have more fun.
With all that said, this is a solid deck, and assuming you don't face ALL expensive control decks in mythic, you should be able to keep a 50%+ winrate. In lower ranks, this deck feels amazing. It can be aggressive when it needs to be but also handles aggro decks well. Any deck with 8 and 9 mana cards will brick on occasion, but that's what keeps this decks from being even more dominant than they already are (and why magic's foresee god power is so busted!).
