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Discussion
I know the games are too different for there to be a proper parallel. Probably. But I'm sure some fans of Blue decks in MTG have found something in FaB that scratches the same itch.
Thematically, I like the look of illusionists, but I haven't seen enough cards to make properly informed opinion. Spectra looks like exactly the kind of thing we're talking about though. I've gotten a copy of the new Prism, and a single Angel card, but I haven't been able to build it up yet. Or rather, I could, but things are too slow at the LGS for right now for me to want to invest further just yet.
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Q&A
Are you looking more to limit what your opponent can do or block them out until you’re ready to do what your deck does?
As a blue/green player who gravitated towards the former, I went with Azalea. On hits galore, card advantage, hard to block, big damage numbers on minimal resources, even get deck manipulation. It’s everything I loved wrapped up in a neat little quiver.
If you’re looking for the former, you might be interested in a fatigue deck. The goal is to block out and run your opponent out of cards. Generally this is guardian, warrior, or assassin.
Prism is capable of doing both, but you need to build for it. I don’t think it’s really what you’re looking for. Rather control is a side benefit of what the deck wants to do.
As an Azalea player I second this.
Taking a glance an Azalea the hero, and that doesn't seem too controlly. Dominate doesn't sound like control to me. Or card advantage. I'm guessing a lot of that comes from being a Ranger, then? Are the other Rangers all LL'd? I know about Lexi a little bit.
Rangers control comes from the card pool. Sleep Dart turns off their hero power, Remorseless pings them for damage whenever they play an action card, fatigue Shot halves their first attack action card, Inertia forces them away from arsenaling, the the big bad Red in the Ledger which gives them one action period. Plus an entire tool box of other things. Card advantage comes from her bow, Death Dealer, which draws a card whenever you load an arrow. You also can use Skullbone Crosswrap/New Horizon to dig further through your deck.
Currently there’s only one other CC legal ranger, Riptide. He has a similar toolkit, but instead of forcing damage through dominate he uses traps to ping them on their own turn.
I should mention I bring up Azalea as an example as what I found. There are other heroes who might be more your style.
Dominate is just the evasion source, look at the rest of the card pool. You’re thinking JJE (Judge Jury Executioner), S&D (Seek and Destroy), RITL (Red in the Ledger), remorseless etc
The words “blue” and “control” in the OP make it seem like it’s guardian (blocking them out/D-reacting) or warrior (disrupting combat with reacts). I’ve never played assassin so I can’t comment there, but I think you nailed it with commentary on the former. When I think “control” specifically it makes me think of counter-spells for blue, control of opponent’s turn plays, and interaction (like control warrior in Hearthstone). I have biased feeling they may be leaning toward the guardian/warrior side of things when they say control and equate it to Blue in MTG.
If you want to block for days and kill your opponent when you are ready, Kano is the deck. Anyone who's a bit slow gets pitch stacked and have no way out, the faster ones you don't pitch stack but keep a few important pieces and chip until you can unleash the combo and get the kill.
Kano isn’t control at all just straight murder combo storm nonsense
You don't have a control like Azalea does with her on hits or like the Ice heroes had with the frostbite, but a few pings of Arcane damage to strip ressources here and there plus a ton of block can go a long way to disrupt most heroes. Lots of them willing to block, not many of them willing to pitch. Add to that the natural pressure of needing to keep ressources available for a possible instant speed play and you get a very uncomfortable experience for most players. Now, it isn't pure, standard control, but you do control the pace of the game which is why I count it.
I guess? It feels like you described stax then said its blue control.
New Prism isn't really a control deck unless you go full on Iris Aura Build, which isn't very good. She's more aggro with an "oops I win" combo she can do against slower decks that try to block her out.
Enigma is probably going to be a lot closer to what you're after, and Ice Heroes (when they come back) will be as well
"Going to be"? I'm not keeping up too much with sets at the moment. Is this in the set after Heavy Hitters? An Illusionist, or something else? And I believe I've heard that all Elemental Heroes have Living Legend'd, right?
Enigma is from the up and coming set (Part the Mistveil, releasing in May) and she is a Mystic Illusionist. And yes all the Elemental heroes are LL but there will be new Elemental heroes eventually (potentially 0.5 - 2 years from now)
Ice heroes are kinda like that but they are not legal. Assassins are still pretty disruptive and rangers are if your hits go through. I’m not sure why illusionists are supposed to be they never seemed very controlling.
Iyslander was the closest thing we have had (including having what are essentially counter spells) but she has achieved living legend and is no longer CC legal.
Otherwise you can kind of split control up into two paths:
disruption - slowing down your opponents plans with on hit effects ( Guardians, Azalea)
fatigue - playing very defensively, prioritizing blocking over attacking and preventing your opponent's on hit effects with the plan of running your opponent out of threatening cards or setting up a long term win condition or even as a back up plan running your opponent out of cards entirety (less a class thing and more a specific hero thing - Riptide can be played this way, some guardian decks play this way, some warrior decks, some assassin decks)
Oho! I never thought of On-Hit effects as being control, but now that you mention it, that kinda is what they are. Force a block that your opponent might otherwise prefer just to facetank. Boltyns got a fair amount in my blitz deck with a lot of zero drops having some nice effects, all while I have a lot of attack reactions encouraging them to at least consider overblocking.
And controlling opponents is kind of a big deal for Boltyn, as the man loves his big hands. At least with the Radiant Blade I have for him.
Yeah! There's a lot of ways to slice traditional tcg archetypes in FaB. Spinal Crush would be a good example of a controlling on hit for Guardian - since it basically says 'you might want to take this 9 damage but now you can't because your turn is ruined if you do'
Warriors (Boltyn too) are often mentioned as the prototypical 'midrange' class in FaB - but even that takes two forms - the dual wield style (Kassai, Hatchets Dori) of block with 2 cards then attack with 2 cards and the boltyn/dawnblade Dori style of switching between blocking with all/most of their cards or swinging a huge turn with 5 cards.
Ice lexi in blitz. It can be brutal.
Azalea and fatigue decks IMO
Control Teklovossen. You survive with defensive tools then set up your win con to close out the game.
Fatigue Arakni, he comes with debuffs and constantly checks the top card of your deck, sending it to the bottom at will.
You missed Oldhim and Iyslander, those had power over what you do in your turn.
Closest deck is going to be something guardian. This game is going to be different in where most matchups you’ll have to assess your role (who’s the beat down) and setup turns to swing tempo in your favor. Personally I’d recommend victor for cc, ll oldhim would be good if he wasn’t gutted for starvos crimes.
So what's so controlly about guardians, and about Victor in particular? I'm seeing the Crush cards as encouraging opponents to spend blocks on it, reducing their hand size. I'm guessing that their ready access to dominate and single massive attacks also makes your opponent less likely to accept chip damage,?
But I'm not too clear on what Victor adds to this that other Guardians don't. Though I admit I'm not entirely clear on the full benefits of Gold, and the extra card draw it gives, in a game wherein you generally aim to draw and play 4 cards per turn. It's definitely at least worth 'cycling', but swapping out a yellow card you don't want in hopes you draw something better. Or I guess it can get you a net gain of energy by pitching a blue card to pay for gold.
Uw control in mtg general is just an accrual of resources (card advantage and mana) and trading up to a point where you can swing the game in your favor ( board wipes, counter spells, removal, walkers, efficient threats.)
While fab doesn’t really play like mtg where you’re constantly gaining mana through land drops and deploying bigger threats.
Victors ability is very strong as it accrues “value” through clash cards like test of strength and trounce (concept of value is based off the worth of a single card = 3.5 points of value) due to the card draw off winning clashes and being able to cash that gold for reclashes, the golden son or the occasional draw.
Guardian in general has the ability to present big disruption through on hits, blocks incredibly efficiently through use of armor( while life is at 40, with guardians you can get up to a additional 14 “life” putting you at around 54 life if you block with every piece of armor).
Guardian depending on the matchup can push disruption with high attack values which can mess up game plans of other decks while also defending efficiently. Guardians are also know for fatiguing ( dwindling down relevant threats or decking out opponents where you can turn around and finish the game and a opponent will not be able to win).
Hope this helps
IMO, Aggro/Midrange/Control doesn't translate well to FaB because the game itself is all about tempo. Most people I've met compare it to how many cards you're comfortable keeping in your hand. If you refuse to block and want to send everything as an attack every time, you're aggro. If you're comfortable blocking with two and attacking with two, you're midrange. If you're comfortable blocking out, you're control. Calling the on-hits of Azalea 'control' is very deceptive because she will almost never block and is racing her opponents down with dominated damage very quickly.
Slow, methodical, grindy decks are generally more "control" in the Magic sense of the word. Stuff like OG Dash on the Pistol plan or the new Guardian, Victor, are closer to the MTG definition of control.
You're the second person to say Victor is controlly. Why? I can see the Guardian Crush cards, but why Victor over other Guardians?
victor has near unbeatable value on a turn by turn basis, also yes check out pistol dash is pretty close to control gameplay too
I would recommend either bravo or victor. If you’re willing to wait, Enigma is in the next set and is another possible option.
Bravo - has tons of armor block, relevant on hits, and defensive options.
Victor - he is very good into a lot of matchups due to his clash mechanic which generates immense card advantage among other things. I would call victor more of a tempo deck than control.
Enigma - appears to be (very limited spoilers, so this could be off base) like a board state based control deck. Think an enchantress style control. (This assumption is based on prior aura builds, and the spoilers as of now)