The best control cards in MTG practically guarantee the win condition, game after game. Read on below and discover 16 of the top control spells to consider for your next deck!
Rest in Peace
Rest in Peace is a RAre white Enchantment that costs two mana to cast. When it enters the field, exile all cards from all graveyards.
Ouch right?
If a card or token would be put into a graveyard, from anywhere, for any reason, it gets exiled instead.
Double ouch, yeah?
For a control deck, few Enchantments grant such an ability to control players, especially for such a low mana price.
Type: Enchantment
Color: White
CMC: 2
Rarity: Rare
Spellbook
The second item on our list of the best cards for control decks is the Spellbook. It’s short, it’s sweet, it’s simple: you have no maximum hand size while this card is in play. The fact that it takes no land to play it just crazy.
Looking for a seriously amazing control deck card advantage? Here’s your sign! Spellbook is one of the only spells from Wizards that allows you to access a hand of more than 7 cards at a time.
If you want to win the game with all your most powerful cards, this card practically ensures the win condition.
Type: Artifact
Color: Colorless
CMC: 0
Rarity: Uncommon
Archetype of Imagination
A great example of how to control the field In the late game, Archetype of Imagination allows you to take away flying from your opponent’s creatures. It also keeps their attackers and blockers from gaining flying.
You don’t wanna forget this card from your next deck with control spells: the main card advantage is that your monsters all gain flying. If you have several attackers on the field, playing this card is an easy way to win the game for sure.
Talk about a control player spell, eh? If only this card also enabled you to gain life its power level would be off teh charts.
Type: Enchantment Creature
Color: Blue
CMC: 6
Rarity: Uncommon
Humility
One card that costs four mana and is perfect for hand disruption is the next card on our list: Humility.
This one couldn’t be more aptly named, or be more deserving of a place in your next deck, as it turns all monsters in the game to 1/1 peons with no abilities.
For the mana cost, there are few cards that affect the opponent, and their monsters particularly, with so much control.
The best part is, no matter what monsters opponents play for the entirety of the game they all turn to 1/1 peons. The only exception is if someone plays a removal spell on your Enchantment.
Type: Enchantment
Color: White
CMC: 4
Rarity: Common
Choke
Choke is a classic green Enchantment card with a casting cost of three mana.
Islands don’t get to untap during their controller’s untap phases. That means once this card is on the board, mono-blue players are extremely limited with lands to tap for mana on future turns.
This card is rarely played, but when it is, the blue player’s have already lost the game.
Type: Enchantment
Color: Green
CMC: 3
Rarity: Common
Torpor Orb
The next Artifact on our list is another Rare one. When monsters enter the battlefield, after this card is played, they no longer cause abilities to trigger like normal.
For a control deck, it’s a basic form of protecting yourself from aggro and other ETB triggers.
Most importantly, it spoils the plans of the opponent and helps force them to create a new strategy(or lose).
Type: Artifact
Color: Colorless
CMC: 2
Rarity: Rare
Extinction
This black Sorcery card is also perfectly named. Extinction destroys all creatures of any type that you choose.
Let that line sink in: you can instantly kill ALL creatures of any one type. It’s just as good as a removal spell in one sense.
It’s also much better than a simple blitz with powerful monsters(as you take no losses).
Type: Sorcery
Color: Black
CMC: 5
Rarity: Common
Terminus
Terminus is a Rare white Sorcery that requires six mana to cast. When played, you get to put all creatures on the bottom of their rightful owner’s decks.
Talk about some serious control! Very few cards present better and quicker win conditions than Terminus.
The power level of this card is OP. But, what else would you expect from a card with Miracle ability?
Type: Sorcery
Color: White
CMC: 6
Rarity: Rare
Curse of the Bloody Tome
The Curse of the Bloody Tome is a blue Enchantment Aura Curse, which is somewhat rare in the modern world of MTG cards.
This Enchantment is a nice way to cause removal spells to occur for free. The idea is to put it on a player, and they must draw and discard two cards from the top of their deck into their graveyard.
The power level of this card is more like that of a Planeswalker, or Mythic Rare, rather than a common control spell.
Type: Enchantment
Color: Blue
CMC: 3
Rarity: Common
Prison Term
Prison Term is an old friend: it enchants a creature that then can’t attack, block, or activate abilities. Talk about slow torture, this card is passive aggro at its best.
Plus, whenever a new monster enters the battlefield, under an opponent, you can reattach the Aura to the new creature if you want.
The best part is that the mana cost is only three mana. That makes it some of the cheapest Auras that grants complete control over an opponent’s. Not to mention you may attach it for free as many times as you want.
Regardless of the format you play, this card is worth being included in your decks.
Type: Enchantment
Color: White
CMC: 3
Rarity: Uncommon
Wrath of God
Wrath of God is a powerful white spell that cots four mana and allows you to bury all attackers and blockers in the entire game.
It is an old card that has no modern equivalent to the sort of control it presents.
It is not only collectible, it is one of the most powerful cards ever created that practically guarantees win conditions.
Type: Sorcery
Color: White
CMC: 4
Rarity: Uncommon
Aetherize
To control things when the opponent attacks, cast this blue Instant. Aetherize returns all attacking monsters to their owner’s hands.
If your opponent is attacked with everything you are capable of a major attack back the next round, the win is yours.
This Uncommon blue Instant is worth stacking into most decks, control deck or not, regardless of the medium-high cost.
Type: Instant
Color: Blue
CMC: 4
Rarity: Uncommon
Aetherspouts
Another excellent blue control spell that works well in control decks is the Aetherspouts Instant. The card is Rare and costs five mana to cast into play.
It works very much like Aetherize, except instead of returning the creatures to their owner’s hand, the creatures end up on the bottom of their decks instead.
Type: Instant
Color: Blue
CMC: 5
Rarity: Rare
Fumigate
The last white card on our list is a Rare one, Fumigate. The card costs five mana to play.
When you cast this one, it destroys all creatures in the entire game… even the ones you control.
The upside? You gain a life total equal to the number of creatures destroyed this way.
Type: Sorcery
Color: White
CMC: 5
Rarity: Rare
Clone Legion
A Mythic Rare blue Sorcery you don’t want to forget about in your next control decks is Clone Legion. Sometimes controlling the opponent’s every move isn’t enough.
Sometimes you need to clone each monster the opponent controls… and send them attacking! And, that is exactly what Clone Legion does.
The downside? This crazy wicked card costs nine mana.
Type: Sorcery
Color: Blue
CMC: 9
Rarity: Mythic Rare
The Magic Mirror
A Mythic Rare Legendary Artifact, The Magic Mirror, is the best card that we saved for last. This one gives you the ability to cast spells for 1 mana less for each Sorcery and Instant that’s in your graveyard.
It also allows you to have no maximum hand size.
Plus, at the beginning of your upkeeps, you get to put a counter on the card, then draw a card for each counter that’s on the card.
Type: Legendary Artifact
Color: Blue
CMC: 9
Rarity: Mythic Rare