The 43 Best Control Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 26, 2026

Flusterstorm | Illustration by Chris Rallis

Of Magic’s main archetypes, control might be the most infamous. Who hasn’t played the long game against the deck that seems to have every answer to sweep your board state aside while drawing more cards than you can dream of? Who hasn’t stared at 2-3 open mana, knowing that as soon as you play your next card, you’ll hear the motto of blue players across the world: “I have a response.”

Control decks can be dominant and are among the most satisfying decks you can play. There’s nothing like piloting a tight game of control where you’re in the driver’s seat the entire time, knowing your opponent doesn’t have a chance.

Today, we're looking at the best control cards in the game so you can get this feeling yourself!

What Are Control Cards in MTG?

Dovin's Veto | Illustration by Izzy

Control cards fall into a few categories: Interaction (including counterspells, spot removal, and board wipes), card draw, and threats. Since control decks want to go to the extreme late game and win by leveraging expensive, splashy threats like Hullbreaker Horror, they’re often much denser on interactive elements than the other two.

Before we start, it’s important to note that control depends on the format and the metagame. Some metas are very hard to effectively control because they’re dominated by aggressive decks, or there are multiple decks that attack you in different avenues. And in Commander games, especially those at Commander Brackets 4-5, it’s expected that you disrupt your opponents’ plan in some way since you’re not going to be faster than them if you’re the control player. I’m also avoiding specific Commander cards like Fierce Guardianship or partner commanders.

#43. Mystical Dispute

Mystical Dispute is that card you take out of your sideboard to fight blue tempo decks and control decks. Being able to Mana Leak something for 1 mana is very strong, and in certain metas, this card can very well be a main deck inclusion.

#42. Disdainful Stroke

Disdainful Stroke often finds itself in the sideboard rather than the main deck, but it’s a fine card for control decks. It’s not reliable in every matchup. Many aggro decks contain few or no 4-drops, but it’s a great tool in the mirror and against some midrange decks. It’s a clean, if narrow answer that always trades up in mana. What more could a control deck want?

#41. Into the Flood Maw

Bouncing a card is a strong tempo play, especially against aggressive decks. One-mana bounce usually gets only creatures, like Unsummon. When you play Into the Flood Maw, it’s good to have this flexibility and bounce planeswalkers, artifacts, and more.

#40. Settle the Wreckage

Instant-speed board wipes are uncommon, making Settle the Wreckage a useful card. The weakness of board wipes tends to be tapping out, giving opponents a window to resolve a planeswalker or other sticky threat. Settle lets you hold up countermagic or card draw, but it’s also easy to play around. Your opponent can have four creatures and only send two at a time, pressuring you to cast this card earlier than you’d like.

#39. Final Showdown

Destroying all creatures is strong, but what if you can do that at instant speed? It gets even better, and you can get hasty creatures from your opponents with this white instant. Final Showdown also takes out creature abilities, so your white wrath effect can get indestructible creatures, or you don’t need to worry about cards that die and do something good for their owners. 

#38. Detention Sphere

Detention Sphere is the love child of Maelstrom Pulse and Oblivion Ring. Getting to remove a single threat for 3 mana is fine, but this has the potential to remove several things for 3 mana. It’s also fantastic against token decks, sweeping up entire boards with no hope of getting them back.

My only gripes with this card are that, while it’s awesome against players that are spamming tokens, enchantment removal has gotten far better, and it’s less effective in Commander games.

#37. Dovin’s Veto

Dovin's Veto is simply the best Negate ever. It gives you complete and utter authority over what does and doesn’t resolve since your opponent can’t counter it back. It’s a little narrow, but “can’t be countered” more than makes up for that, especially since many control lists play Negate anyway.

#36. Search for Azcanta / Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin

Search for Azcanta takes a while to get going, but control decks have all the time in the world. This provides a lot of filtration in the early game and can bin cards to power delve or similar mechanics. Flipping it into Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin is simple and everything a blue deck wants. It’s blue ramp and card advantage in one compact package.

#35. Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber

This card does everything control decks want, although with a little risk. Unholy Annex deals 2 damage to you each turn, but if you control demons (or changelings), then it becomes a future win condition. And you can pay a couple more mana to create a 6/6 demon token with Ritual Chamber, which drains your opponents and presents a clock. Also, you can get more value when you return this card to your hand, reset the rooms, and get an extra demon. Good old Phyrexian Arena got better.

#34. Absorb

Absorb’s reprint in Ravnica Allegiance was predicted to herald the doom of aggro in Standard. While that never came to pass, it’s a solid 3-mana counter. The lifegain is useful for a deck that wants the game to go long. In terms of Cancel with upside, this is good.

#33. Sphinx’s Revelation

When you’re playing a control deck, you often start on the back foot. That’s the nature of a threat-light deck playing against decks that often have more threats. The most important thing is stabilizing, chewing through your opponent’s resources, and coming out on top. Sphinx's Revelation is one of the strongest stabilizers. Though it's considered too expensive by many modern standards, it's still a reliable way to refuel and stay alive in the lategame.

#32. Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Niv-Mizzet, Parun is an incredibly busted creature that makes for a fantastic control finisher. You can’t counter this, and most removal will be instants or sorceries, so the Niv-Mizzet player is still up a card. If you can’t remove it, this is card advantage, board control, and a clock in one color-intensive package. Depending on the format, you can leverage Curiosity for Izzet's most powerful combo, and Niv is one of Magic's best spellslinger commanders.

#31. Hullbreaker Horror

Hullbreaker Horror is a fantastic finisher. It’s hard to interact with, it can’t be countered, and it has built-in protection since any spell you play can bounce away any removal pointed at it. Once this resolves, the game will be yours in short order; it’s hard to keep any meaningful board presence in the face of this kraken.

#30. Terminus

Terminus is a very interesting way to deal with creatures. They simply go to the bottom of their owner’s library, and although might seem too much, you can do it for a single if miracled. In fact, if you’re losing badly, drawing this card is, indeed, a miracle.

#29. Ugin, Eye of the Storms

Ugin, Eye of the Storms is a strong addition to control decks across the board. Casting it and immediately exiling a threat is strong, and you can follow that up with more mana or cards and life. Seven mana is steep when cheap, fast aggro decks are taking you down, but Ugin tends to stabilize most boards. It’s pretty good by itself and very strong if you can keep casting colorless cards.

#28. Kaheera, the Orphanguard

Kaheera, the Orphanguard is a great companion for control decks. To meet the companion requirement, they forgo running any creatures, which is especially common in Pioneer. Who needs creatures when you can win with cards like Shark Typhoon, The Wandering Emperor, and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria? It’s a small sacrifice that gives the control deck an eighth card in their starting hand – which is perfect for an archetype that’s all about card advantage.

#27. Elspeth, Storm Slayer

Elspeth, Storm Slayer enters the battlefield and immediately makes two bodies while going up to 6 loyalty. Its ability to double tokens is very good, combining Anointed Procession and a powerful planeswalker in a single card. Many planeswalker decks spam tokens for protection, so there’s nothing wrong with creating more bodies. It also has a backup plan in its -3 ability, where it takes down a big threat while staying in the 2-loyalty range.

#26. Sunfall

Sunfall is one of the best control cards printed in a while. It’s a 5-mana wrath that exiles, and you even get an Incubator token back for your next turns that allows you to turn the corner on your opponent and start attacking. Being able to simply ignore the death triggers your opponents’ creatures might have, or if they’ll get extra value from their graveyards later is simply too good.

#25. Farewell

Farewell is an expensive board wipe but does everything you want. Baseline, you need your wraths to deal with creatures. This card does so, and it hits the graveyard and even enchantments and artifacts, which your spot removal might not hit. Since you choose the modes, you can remove only problematic cards while leaving yours untouched. Finally, exiling everything prevents cards like Boros Charm and Heroic Intervention from saving the board and stops any future recursion.

#24. Flusterstorm

Even if you’re not fighting a storm deck, Flusterstorm does a good Quench impression for just 1 mana. Against storm combo, it’s one of the best defenses.

#23. Celestial Colonnade and Other Creature Lands

Control decks need to play a lot of lands. They’ll often push 30 lands because hitting land drops is that important, so extracting value from their mana base helps strengthen them. Celestial Colonnade is a fantastic threat. Creature lands leave a very narrow window to interact with them and survive most board wipes, letting you turn the corner quickly.

While Celestial Colonnade is the classic WU creature land, we also have Restless Anchorage, a slightly smaller flier.

#22. Approach of the Second Sun

Approach of the Second Sun is my favorite control win condition, though it’s far from the objective best. Alternate win conditions that let you win the game when they resolve are very powerful. You can just run two copies of this card and focus the rest of your deck on the other core elements of a control deck, and 7 life provides a hefty buffer to make up for tapping out. That said, this win condition can be weak in a meta filled with blue decks that can sideboard in Negate and other forms of countermagic.

#21. Beza, the Bounding Spring

Beza, the Bounding Spring is a good threat to have in your control decks. It’s going to stabilize the board if you’re getting beaten down, you’ll gain life and even create a lot of bodies. The best Beza you can cast is a 4-mana 4/5 that creates two 1/1 tokens, creates a Treasure token, gives you 4 life, and draws you a card.

#20. Wan Shi Tong, Librarian

Wan Shi Tong, Librarian is a flash threat that draws cards while ambushing creatures. But this card has a few tricks up its sleeve. In Commander games, you can draw a lot of cards because your opponents will be searching through their libraries for something, be it lands or combo pieces. Playing this card as a 1/1 for isn’t the end of the world if they’re searching for something, and you’ll get a guaranteed trigger. Plus, since it’s an X-spell, it’s a great mana sink.

#19. Narset, Parter of Veils

Narset, Parter of Veils is a very interesting planeswalker for control decks. First, you’ll passively lock your opponents from drawing many cards, so you’re getting the upper hand in cards. Second, each activation from Narset is a free draw for you, giving you card advantage and selection. And if an opponent spends a removal spell on your planeswalker after you drew a card, that's a fine deal for you.

#18. Memory Deluge

Memory Deluge is a stout 4-for-1, letting you draw four cards when cast twice. A draw-two with flashback would be a fine card – Chemister's Insight is worse than that and still saw play – but this draws the best four of 11 total cards seen. Since putting cards into your hand isn’t technically drawing cards, it gets around cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Orcish Bowmasters taxing your draws.

#17. Consult the Star Charts

Consult the Star Charts is a very flexible draw spell. First, it’s an instant that can be cast for 2 or 4 mana. At the beginning of the game, it’s a bad cantrip. But in the late game, it can be almost as strong as Dig Through Time. Often, you’ll see a good chunk of your deck and choose the best two cards you need for that specific situation.

#16. Three Steps Ahead

Three Steps Ahead is Cryptic Command at home – at least in formats like Standard and Pioneer. Countering a spell and possibly drawing a card is a huge tempo and card advantage swing.

Suffice to say, when you counter a spell, you trade one-for-one, and you usually trade up on mana. With this card, you can pay to counter a spell, draw two cards, and discard one. By doing that, you’re actually digging deep into your deck and putting yourself in a better position.

#15. Consecrated Sphinx

Although it’s not a flashy threat with protection, the amount of cards you’ll draw from a single Consecrated Sphinx more than makes up for the lack of protection. If you can untap with it in a Commander game, you just got six cards from their draw steps alone.

#14. Cryptic Command

Cryptic Command isn’t the card it once was, but this is still a powerful control piece. Countering a spell and drawing a card are the most common modes on this, which is a great turning point for control decks to start winning. It’s hard to lose with Cryptic Command; you can tap your opponent’s creatures and bounce a planeswalker, stop them from resolving threats, and any number of great applications. is an extremely restrictive cost, but this command is worth it.

#13. Supreme Verdict

Control decks often end up in Azorius () because that’s the perfect combination for the best removal and card advantage. Supreme Verdict isn’t a strictly better Wrath of God, but adding blue is a minor hurdle for these decks. Verdict is often the best wrath in its format. Four-mana wraths are ideal, and no number of sideboard Negates stops this from delivering judgment on your opponents.

#12. Stock Up

Stock Up reached mythic uncommon level, and it’s getting better and better as more players play with this card in multiple formats, including Vintage. Divination gives us the same two cards for 3 mana, but the quality and the card selection Stock Up also provides is top-notch. It’s good despite being sorcery, in formats where you have accelerants like the moxen or Ancient Tomb, and especially in singleton-heavy formats like Cube, Commander, and Vintage.

#11. Get Lost

Get Lost is a very powerful and flexible removal spell that, besides targeting creatures, can kill planeswalkers and remove enchantments, which are historically big menaces to control decks.

#10. The Wandering Emperor

The Wandering Emperor has a brilliant design. It’s a great planeswalker for control decks since it lets you hold up removal, but the samurai tokens it provides let you turn the corner and start pressuring your opponents faster than a regular control deck might. The Emperor’s cheap enough to hold up countermagic to protect it and can be excellent bait against countermagic on an end step so you can resolve the card you really care about.

#9. Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Jace, the Mind Sculptor (JTMS) might look old and underplayed compared to what it once was, but the card still packs a punch. With four different abilities, you can bounce a creature, Brainstorm, fateseal, or even win via its ultimate. What changed is the environment around JTMS, so it’s harder to resolve this card on an empty board or get much value out of the bounce effect.

#8. Force of Will + Force of Negation

Force of Will has been a mainstay and near-mandatory addition to Eternal formats where unfair Magic lurks around every corner. Force of Negation fills that role in Modern and serves as FoW #2 in formats where both are legal. Combo decks would flourish without these free counterspells, and they're also coincidentally good at protecting combos.

#7. Teferi, Time Raveler

Playing Teferi, Time Raveler turn 3 on the play and bouncing your opponent’s 2-drop doesn’t literally win the game, but it often feels like it, putting you in an amazing spot. This is just an absurdly powerful planeswalker. If you land this, you shut off your opponent’s countermagic and make their removal even worse. When you start ticking up, it lets you leverage sorceries without timing restrictions and threatens to bounce opposing permanents.

#6. Solitude

Control decks won’t want to evoke Solitude; it’s card disadvantage, which goes against the game plan. But having the option is nice. Solitude, one of Magic's best lifelink creatures, is also just a fine flash threat. It’s easy to get a 2-for-1 by flashing this out, exiling one attacker and blocking another. You can also use it to remove a creature and start attacking, and flash lets you do all of this while holding up other interactive pieces.

#5. Lightning Bolt

This list has a lot of Azorius cards because those colors are where control usually ends up, but Lightning Bolt is a solid reason to build an Izzet control deck. This removes almost every early threat while providing you with a way to pressure planeswalkers. In the late game, these can add up to a surprisingly fast clock once you’re in control.

#4. Snapcaster Mage

Control decks are full of powerful, efficient instants and sorceries. Snapcaster Mage lets you play the best of them again. Bolt-Snap-Bolt is a classic play pattern that’s desecrated many a board state and left players at -2 life, but Snapcaster Mage flashing back a Swords to Plowshares, Counterspell, or Cryptic Command are all powerful options as well.

#3. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria might be the best planeswalker ever printed for control decks. If the control player successfully lands and protects Teferi, that was all she wrote, and you should head to the next game. This is the win condition for some control decks, using the emblem as a card-draw payoff to exile all their opponents' lands and looping Teferi with the -3 to prevent milling out. Even if you’re winning through other means, this is a fantastic card draw engine.

#2. Swords to Plowshares

Swords to Plowshares is to spot removal what Counterspell is to countermagic. Control decks always welcome unconditional removal at instant speed. Your opponent gaining life often doesn’t matter. We’ve seen several win conditions that ignore your opponent’s life total entirely, and control decks often win by a wide enough margin that one extra turn of attacking doesn’t matter.

#1. Counterspell

Efficient interaction is by far the most important thing for a control deck to have. Control isn’t great in every meta, but it simply can’t exist in an environment without this central piece. Counterspell is one of the strongest counterspells ever. It often trades up in mana and is easy to weave around other spells since it’s so cheap.

Mana Drain deserves mention as a strict upgrade, but Counterspell is legal in more formats and more pivotal in the formats where it is legal.

Best Control Payoffs

The best control payoffs are often just the best control cards themselves. Since control is an archetype, there aren’t specific payoffs that make it work the way strong cards, like sacrifice outlets, have.

The main thing you need is that mixture of interaction, card draw, and threats. The latter is often the easiest; many formats have big creatures like Hullbreaker Horror or Niv-Mizzet, Parun lurking around. Cards that win the game but are often too expensive for other strategies to leverage properly.

Control can also struggle in super-aggressive formats. It’s often got a solid match-up against midrange decks, but fast decks can take a control deck out before they get a chance to stabilize. The power of control is often dependent on both the format, for having the tools it needs, and the meta, for having matchups it shines against.

The meta is especially important, but since you’re playing very few creature spells, you effectively blank their removal spells. You’re playing against a black deck filled with Doom Blades and Obliterating Bolts, while you don’t have a single creature on the battlefield. Also, some control decks can thrive over specific combo decks, ensuring they never resolve their key combo pieces.

You can be rewarded for playing the control deck and doing things control decks already do. Morbid Opportunist is a payoff for playing spot removal spells and removing creatures. Alela, Cunning Conqueror rewards us for playing a draw-go style deck during our opponents’ turns.

Many blue cards in MTG get stronger when we’re drawing cards, like Nadir Kraken and Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim.

Lately, MTG has been shaping Dimir’s color identity towards “threshold“, considering that your cantrips and spot removal spells end up filling the graveyard. Thus, cards like Kiora, the Rising Tide and Stitch Together get a lot better in these kinds of decks.

Wrap Up

Cryptic Command | Illustration by Jason Rainville

Control decks are some of the most rewarding decks you can play. While the strategy is simple–eliminate everything your opponent plays and win the long game–it often requires a lot of foresight. You need a strategy for what you’re doing three or four turns in advance since you’re playing that long game.

Winning with control has a satisfying quality that comes from shutting your opponent out of the game and winning at your leisure. These cards are some of the best control pieces to help unlock that satisfaction.

What are your favorite control cards? Do you like control decks or do you prefer playing a different archetype? Let me know in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and keep control!