Hi;

A few friends and I have started to get into game of thrones in a major way, and I've been out of touch with the ccg community for a while... I understand the idea of a Rush deck, meaning you plan to bring out effective cheap units to swarm your opponent, but I'm not quite grasping the idea behind Control.

I'd assume it means that you are selectively denying your opponent use of his cards by either kneeling or destroying key cards, but other than Targaryen nuking characters with -str cards, I'm not seeing what cards or combos make up control? For instance, I really dont get how Lannisters are kneeling enough of your opponents cards in play to "Control" them.

Can anyone give me some examples of the major elements of a control deck? Not a whole decklist, but just what the foundations of a Control deck would be.

When FFG releases Alec's (skeletonator) Joust World Championship write-up you'll at least see some elements (not sure if he's posting the deck or not) of one of the strongest control decks in the game. I highly recommend reading it if you want an idea of what it's like to play a control deck.

Otherwise, a control deck generally aims to make your opponents cards ineffective or remove enough of them to the point that the opponent's deck is crippled and cannot do what it normally does to achieve a win condition.

Generally speaking, any card that you put in your deck to weaken your opponent can be considered a "control" card (i.e. Distraction, Orphan of Greenblood, etc.). These cards don't directly help you win the game; instead, they weaken your opponent making it harder for him or her to win and easier for you to win. An example of a "rush" card is Make An Example. This card gets you closer to your win condition, but does nothing to hinder your opponent. Of course, not all cards are pure "control" or pure "rush." Sometimes it can be used either way. You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf can be used for the primary purpose of kneeling an opponent's character, or primarily for giving a character you control 1 power.

Some control decks may only control locations through location discard, blanking, and kneeling. Other may have character and attachment control through burn and attachment hate. These control decks could also have rush elements whether it's because they run large armies that don't kneel to attack when an opponent is running an Agenda or a card like Make An Example.

Most decks will have both "control" and "rush" elements. Some decks may lean more towards control and others toward rush. Some have a mixture of both (DeathJester26 2nd place Martell deck is a good example of this. It rushed with The Red Viper, but had character and challenge control).

If your deck wins by mainly shutting down your opponent, it's considered to be a control deck. If it wins by playing cards that directly help you, it's more "rushy." Some decks are somewhere in the middle.

Ahhh, thanks! That's a great summary and very helpful.