Hi and welcome back to Upgrade Your Control blog series. I have gotten really happy with the outcome of this blog and the reviews I've been getting. Enjoy part 3.

Last time I remember talking about knowing yourself and knowing your enemy. I like to point out that particular skill is good in any game, for any player, and for any deck. The advantage of understanding formats and cards is like a boost to reach a high place. When you understand how something works either you can fix it or you can destroy it. Ask me. I know definitely how to make chemical reactions and how to stop them. Knowing how to stop a deck's inevitability or its Fundamental Turn is a great way to start a road to success. Believe me once you get this skill going on, you will definitely become a much better player.

Now that we have pretty much pointed out the skills we need outside of the field, what are the tools we need when we are playing? What are the atributes that makes players succeed?

The Patience

A sniper has to stand in position waiting for its target an undetermined amount of time. His patience dictates the success or the failure of the mission. As soon as he loses his patience the mission is over. If he keeps his cool he will be awarded. I see so many players pilot Controls decks like if they were playing a beatdown deck from Yugioh or an Affinity deck. Drop land go. Tap this and counter, counter. They see two creatures in the board and they hastily cast Wrath of God without noticing they were sitting at 20 life or that they were at a comfortable position. Players that feel they must counter every single spell in the game or kill every single creature. When you lose your patience you start making mistakes. This kind of players start taping the wrong lands because they feel they are in a hurry. Patience is a virtue and patience is needed to play a Control deck effectively. I once played this unknown player that came saying that he was like number three in the DCI ratings in our country. He was trying to set up a mood against me. I'm not going to lie I got a bit nervous. He played a deck of UB Tron and he played Nullstone Gatgoyle. The game started and those thoughts about how high his DCI was started to do some brain damage on me. I lost my patience and he started taking control. I then did a Saito slap. And said out lout " Why I'm I worried. I have to be relax, I'm the Control." I sit back. I got relaxed. Suddenly the game started shifting to my side. I got more Patience and I took home some pride and DCI points. Playing Control requires Patience. Ask Wafo-Tapa or Remi Fortier, their style of play is laid bad and relaxed, and to me they are the most patient players in the World. Now that we have a bit clear how Patience works, we need to go to the brother of Patience.

The Choices

It is clear that very often we come across certain situation and we totally don't have a clue how to deal with it. This is pretty familiar in Magic while playing Control because we must analyze certain conditions of the game. Do we counter now? Do we cast that Wrath of God? Do I go for the throat with my win condition? Should I cast that discard spell? There are unlimited scenarios and questions you must ask yourself to effectively make a play. As you get familiar with the game, your deck, and your opponent's deck this choices become more easier. I remember something Jon Finkel used to say " There is always one correct play and the others are just mistakes". I have to agree. In order to pick the correct Choice, our knowledge and wisdom will help us. Also we need to be sure of what we are doing and the Patience will help us too. We need to be like a computer, Do you want to cast Wrath of God? Yes? No? Then, Are you sure? Yes? No?

The Plan

In order to Upgrade Your Control you need certain events to happen so that you can take that game home. This will be The Plan. Most players tend to build wonderful decks or they just copy somebody else's deck but the miss the point of what is the Plan. Tiago Chan, a wonderful player in my opinion, says that in order to win games you need to be certain of your Plan. He said once " I kept a hand full of lands. My opponent casted Duress. He chuckled and said Why do you keep this hand? I replied, well that Duress was pretty weak. After that I won the game". It seems awkward and I'm not saying to keep a hand full of lands but that was his Plan and it worked. If you are playing against an aggro deck you need to be certain what Plan you need in order to win. Control decks tend to be weak if you separate the plays and evaluate them individually. For example, Letting a Tarmogoyf resolve is perhaps rated as Awfully Wrong. But if we take all control plays and evaluate them as a whole being, as a Plan then that play will make more sense if, I let Tarmogoyf resolve, the creatures in play are a total of four, I cast Wrath of God. Now that is a Perfect play since you punched as hard as you could and took away a lot of Tempo and grabbed a whole bunch of card advantage. If you really want to UYC you need to establish a Plan and stick to it. There is nothing more wrong than a pilot taking the airplane to nowhere. Remember that our plays are chronological. Play A, then B, then C to achieve a bomb and then boom. Make sure you plan ahead of turns. A player that can plan one turn is good, one that plans two turns is great, and one that plans three turns is fantastic. Remember again stay sharp.

The Lesson

Isn't it common that you hear a lot of players complain that they lost even if they played perfectly? Or that they lost because he didn't draw the cards he needed, or he needed one more land? I can accept Mana screw and Mana flood but sometimes I tend to reject them as excuses because they can be avoided. I always say the good players are the ones that say the played awfully even if the won or lose. The ones who say that never made a mistake are the bad players or bad losers. Believe me there are always mistakes. There is no game in Magic that is not a Lesson. To really progress we need to determined why we lost and how, after we know why and how we already have a Lesson. Like I could've done this or I could've call for a mulligan. The Lesson is the father of the experience and experience is the one that makes you better. I say Experience is the one that makes someone better, talent just makes the process go faster. Put MJ in a basketball court with all his talent but without his experience and he will be a chump. There is always room for learning and for improvement. Take every game and every test session as a learning experience, as a Lesson. Even if you win or lose identify the Lesson, there is always something you could improve or something you can learn. As I said in Part 2 there is no knowledge that is not power. The Lesson provides knowledge, experience so then you can have the power to be a winner in your game.

This goes like this and forgive me if you don't understand but it'll come together as you keep on learning.

You need The Patience to make The Choices that are part of The Plan, so in the end you can learn and get experience from The Lesson.

For the next blog I will post some questions that players have sent me via PM and try to answer them. Remember if you have any questions or need advice you can PM me and I will answer your questions.