Can You Succeed With Control Decks in the Boomsday Meta?

The Boomsday Project has shaped the landscape of Hearthstone. We have never had such an ample selection of combo decks available, and in the first days of the expansion the mere thought of playing control decks seemed far-fetched. The very first battle in Boomsday was that of aggressive decks against combo decks.

Alas, as could be expected, aggression won once again, and the greediest and most inconsistent builds of Mecha’thun decks started to fade to the background. Right now, only one combo deck stands proudly in the middle of the meta: Malygos Druid. While other combo decks are still around, especially Togwaggle Druid and Shudderwock Shaman, they are nowhere near as numerous as they were in the first few days, so you can even consider playing a control deck that loses to such threats. Malygos Druid, on the other hand, is a clear and present danger that you need to plan for in order to succeed.

In addition to the combo decks, there are of course the winners of the first battle that you need to take into account: Deathrattle Hunter, Odd Rogue, Zoolock, and Tempo Mage. With the power of Deathstalker Rexxar, Hunter can confidently take on a control deck that plans to win the game in fatigue. Odd Rogue and Zoolock challenge your board-clearing capabilities, while Tempo Mage chips in a bit of damage early on with minions and stands ready to finish you off with spells should your healing be found lacking.

That is a plethora of threats for a control deck to handle, and as a control deck, handling threats is what you are all about. But are there any decks capable of taking on such a number of different angles of attack and live to tell the tale?

As it turns out, yes there are, and we’re here to showcase the latest and greatest in control deck development. Boomsday is still young and things are changing all the time, but the life of a control player is getting better after the quick combo death of the early days.

Control Warlock

Control Warlock was the first control deck to rise in Boomsday. The power of Demonic Project cannot be denied – it can single-handedly defeat combo decks on a semi-consistent basis, depending on the number of redundant minions the combo deck is able to hold on to. Turning Malygos or Mecha'thun into a lowly Demon? Too bad, I guess that’s game, then. The synergy with Sacrificial Pact is also great: you are not only giving your opponent a card that has no synergies in their deck when you turn one of their minions into a Demon, but you also force on them a card that ends up healing you for free should it ever be played.

The deck has seen refinement during Boomsday in order to fit in the Demonic Project and Sacrificial Pact package and to account for the lack of fatigue matchups. Notably, the need for Rin, the First Disciple has went down considerably and as a result the deck has moved towards Gnomeferatus giving fatigue advantage and potentially destroying the opponent’s combo pieces before they can be unleashed upon you. With Sacrificial Pact providing healing and no Rin that needs to be killed off immediately, the entire self-destruction package has been cut: Dark Pact, Voodoo Doll, and Possessed Lackey all have a hard time making the cut anymore with Skull of the Man'ari picking up the anti-aggro role to bring in Voidlords to the fray early.

GingaNinja’s list features another new card, one that is hardly a surprise: Giggling Inventor is here to help defend against aggression.

While a superficial look would therefore conclude that Control Warlock only runs two new cards, the new Boomsday meta has in fact required the deck to change many of its fundamentals in order to remain competitive. It is still a control deck, but it uses different means to achieve its goal than it did during The Witchwood. Performance-wise, it is making a comeback after being overshadowed by other Warlock archetypes in The Witchwood (it still competes with Even Warlock and Zoo), and it is one of the best control decks you can go for right now.

Odd Control Warrior

The one control deck that has been on everyone’s lips over the past couple of days is Odd Warrior. If the main combo deck in the meta is Malygos Druid, well, Malygos does not give you infinite damage. Odd Warrior is actually capable of defending itself against the combo without special tools, and the combination of Elise the Trailblazer, Omega Assembly, and Dr. Boom, Mad Genius provides the deck with some proactive win conditions in the late game instead of merely waiting for fatigue to tick in.

For a more combo-heavy meta, some players choose to include Azalina Soulthief, but if you’re mostly facing Malygos and aggro, it hurts more than it helps.

If you have not been feeling the pulse of Hearthstone meta every minute, there is one card that might come as a surprise: Supercollider. Turns out, it can actually get the job done in a control deck, clearing up Deathrattle minions to prepare for a board clear and making various minions attack and kill each other – perfect against so many things from Doubling Imp and other Zoo tools all the way to a pair of Mountain Giants. I dare you, kiddo, do you really want to play a second Mountain Giant on that board? Do you? Do you?

When you make big things hit each other, you need plenty of armor gain to compensate for all the damage you still end up taking in the process, but Odd Warrior is a deck that can really tank up the Armor and survive through it all.

Boomsday has had a profound effect on Odd Warrior. This time, there are several new cards in the deck: Omega Assembly, Dyn-o-matic, Supercollider, Zilliax, and Dr. Boom, Mad Genius. What is more interesting is how the deck’s strategy has changed: it is far less of a fatigue deck and more of a late-game threat deck than it used to be. Sure, the fatigue win condition is still there with Elise the Trailblazer and Direhorn Hatchlings shuffling new cards into the deck to postpone fatigue, but there are also more proactive game plans available now.

Big Spell Mage

Completing the trio of generally accepted viable control decks in the current meta, we have Big Spell Mage. The one who waits for Frost Lich Jaina still waits for Frost Lich Jaina a lot, but the changes that affect all control decks are visible in Big Spell Mage too.

Most notably, Big Spell Mage is more proactive than ever. Sure, the very first builds in Kobolds and Catacombs were built to accommodate Spiteful Summoner, but that five-cost or even seven-cost minion the deck was able to produce from the Summoner’s Battlecry was not that impressive in the end, and the deck moved towards fatigue builds as a result. Now, this list from Evangelion includes the traditional end-game threats Sindragosa and Dragoncaller Alanna alongside the more rare growing threat Pyros, but it does not stop there. The new cards Astromancer and Meteorologist also make an appearance, providing powerful tempo swings in the mid-game, and Meteorologist even able to hit face sometimes, a thing almost unheard of when it comes to Big Spell Mages.

The final new card in the deck is none other than Giggling Inventor. Yeah, Giggling Inventor is everywhere.

Control Priest

Remember Control Priest? Or Mind Blast Priest, however you prefer to call it. The deck that just survives and then shoots you in the face with the Hero Power of Shadowreaper Anduin and some Mind Blasts.

Turns out, it is still alive and kicking, and Paperninja piloted this build all the way to top-50 Legend.

I have some good news and some bad news for you about the deck. The good news is, you don’t have to craft anything for it if you played it in The Witchwood. The bad news is, there are no new cards in the list whatsoever. Mind Blast Priest keeps kicking with whatever fuel it has left, and considering that Raza the Chained left Standard format a good while ago, I have to say it is surprising how far some old fumes can carry a true believer. 

There have been some attempts to include new cards in the list. Omega Medic is not a disaster, it just has a hard time proving it’s better than Divine Hymn: Hymn can heal earlier, it can heal minions, and it can be used to activate Wild Pyromancer and Northshire Cleric. That’s a pretty solid list of advantages. The other card that has been attempted is Giggling Inventor. Yeah, that same prankster again. It has its moments, but it is often the odd one out in Priest lists.

Mind Blast Priest’s main problem in the meta is Druid. Most Druid decks have such huge amounts of Armor gain that the Priest simply cannot push through it all. If you can somehow dodge all the Druids, it’s a great deck.

Control Paladin

How about some Control Paladin? It is generally not considered viable right, but somehow 星辰之沙 was able to pilot the above list all the way to #16 Legend.

Like other control decks, Control Paladin has changed. I have actually played a bunch of Control Paladin in Boomsday myself, and the good old huge Lynessa route just isn’t that good at winning games, even when it is hilarious when it works. No, the savior of Control Paladin in Boomsday is Kangor's Endless Army.

Control Paladin is still a control deck, loud and clear. Doomsayer, Equality, Wild Pyromancer, Consecration, the whole package is still there. Boomsday even added Shrink Ray to the mix, either in combination with a damage card or just by itself to nullify a board of big minions – something Equality could never achieve alone. With the relatively poor card draw available to Paladin, having access to another board clear piece is very important for the control decks of the class.

Control Paladin used to be the ugly duckling of control decks. It was capable and confident against aggro, but most of the time it fell apart when it had to face other slower decks: it simply could not carry the amount of value they could, even more so after N'Zoth, The Corruptor left the Standard format.

With the new Mech package, things have changed. Control Paladin is capable of tempo swings and sticky boards and it can attack hard after it clears the opponent’s board or if it faces a passive deck. Mechano-Egg can be enhanced with Magnetic minions and both the Egg and the Robosaur that spawns from it can be brought back with Kangor's Endless Army. In this list, the Deathrattle package is in full force thanks to Devilsaur Egg, Spiritsinger Umbra, and Carnivorous Cube. There are also more Mech-heavy lists, but the overall best build is yet to be determined.

While the deck is not an OTK deck, the power of Uther of the Ebon Blade should not be underestimated. It can be up to 15 damage and 20 healing over three turns and can easily fit in any Control Paladin deck, even if the OTK capabilities are not used.

Recruit Warrior

While Odd Warrior is largely receiving the hype right now, Recruit Warrior is not far behind in performance. Boomsday enabled an excellent Recruit package for the deck with Damaged Stegotrons and Bull Dozers in combination with Dr. Boom, Mad Genius (which gives them all Rush) and The Boomship (which summons any copies from hand and gives them Rush too).

Recruit Warrior already had a partial solution to accidentally drawing its minions in Dead Man's Hand – as it really want to summon them directly from the deck. The Boomship gives it the second part of the puzzle –  a way to make good use of those copies that end up in the hand anyway. It is a card that really makes or breaks the deck: drawing and getting to play The Boomship is usually a win, whereas not finding it in time can result in getting beaten down by more aggressive decks or lacking the punch to beat slower control decks.

Recruit Warrior is still a work in progress. The big minion package is largely settled by now, but the support pieces that ensure survival and sufficient card draw are still being looked for. Fibonacci has opted to include Reckless Flurry and Supercollider in the list: powerful removal tools, but also ones that cost Armor and Health, and Recruit Warrior does not have a similar endless supply of Armor available as Odd Warrior does, hence the inclusion of Bring It On!, which is more commonly known from fatigue builds. Are there other tools available that get the job done? More testing and refinement is still needed.

Succeeding With Control Decks in Boomsday

With combo decks holding a reasonable – instead of an oversized – portion of the meta right now, control is again a viable option. However, control has changed in The Boomsday Project. The pressure from combo decks on one side, several different aggro archetypes on the other side, and Deathstalker Rexxar in the middle of it all, has driven fatigue decks to the fringes of the meta.

Boomsday Control decks are still slow, but they are also capable of exerting significant pressure in the late game through major tempo swings, enough so that they can even contest infinite Beasts. After the initial combo hype settled down a bit, control is now finding many opportunities and innovation on control decks has started in earnest.

This article showcased some of the latest control decks people have played in high Legend ranks and how they differ from their earlier counterparts during The Witchwood. What about you? Have you tried Control decks in The Boomsday Project yet? Have you had success with any of them? Let me know in the comments!