Paradwyn Control

I was going to write about Paradwyn Control, and I still will- but the whole magi decline thing is depressing. Every month Nov gets all gloomy and says "if" there's a tourney next month- we'll do this.

But this month we're definitely kind of lagging. We only have like 5 people signed up for the tourney so far. It would be nice if some more of the insiider people would come down to gengine and play. It's possible that magi might just have a lull on the engine for a while, as it frequently does since 2i is in torpor. But even so, it makes me wonder if this will be it for magi for a long time. And that would be too bad, since I really think a lot of the new custom cards allow for some interesting new combinations in Magi.

And one of those combinations, is a much more powerful Paradwyn control. (How do you like that transition? And who says a degree in English is useless? Haha) I was playing a RomZombie Paradwyn deck the other day with a mid-level underneath deck (is there really any other kind?) and he basically stomped me. It made me realize a few things.

Firstly, I feel like Paradwyn got overlooked for a lot of eratta, because there are a lot of cards that are disproportionately good. For starters, Ninx is a goddess. And I don't mean her appearance. (Sorry ultradoug and others, I'm just not attracted to pixel clusters). She has 6 energize, which not many Paradwyn magi do, calls weave mat, and has arguably one of the best magi powers in the game. Let's face it,Getting rid of that last bit of energy on magi after you've "defeated" their creatures is hard. And Ninx can do it for FREE.

EVERY TURN. Plus you can just keep giving her back energy with n'kala after stare down. I also learned that a little card called "sneak attack' makes burrow completely useless. Paradwyn also has the spell that lets you take of an average of triple the energy you spent on it from magi (spirit drain) with no upper limit, and the cheapest relic killer in the game (spell pulse), not to mention the fact that it's also the only spell that kills other spells besides beam.

Ok, enough of cards I missed before. This is why I think Paradwyn control has the potential to start vying with even oro/ardy decks. Paradwyn is really the only other region besides orothe that can do control well. Control wins so much because it's the most cost effectice way to win games. If your opponent can't put cards on the board the way he wants to on his turn, he loses. And the more you make him think about what could happen when he plays such and such a card, the more likely he is to make a mistake. Upper level magi games are all about making your long term plan work, and messing up your opponent's. And i'm starting to worry about the way Paradwyn is moving in that regard.

Paradwyn control is different than orothe, since it's more about reaction your cards can have, than preventing cards from coming into play. Poison balloo roots that can keep going off from bahza type stuff can really mess up any plan you have with creatures. Bloom stare down can do that a lot too.

ANd now add to that the new stalked magi construction, and your opponent will really have to second guess himself before playing anything. With extoic ploomb, second shadow, loaded dice, baloo roots, bahza pendants, bloom and ninx, I can imagine a time when Paradwyn can be worse than orothe for control should more reaction/magi stalking constructions be added.