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Tech Options for Control Matchups in Ixalan’s Hidden City
There’s something deliciously methodical about control mirrors in MTG, especially when a plane like The Golden City of Orazca hovers above the chaos. This planar entry from March of the Machine Commander injects a little chaos into the board while offering a clean ramp-and-draw engine that can outpace merrily aggressive decks. The trick is to treat Ascend as a late-game accelerator rather than a one-off gimmick, and to treat the city’s blessing as your insurance policy that keeps you ahead when the dust settles 🧙🔥💎.
What makes this plane a tactical upgrade for control decks
- Ascend as a long-game engine: Ascend rewards you for maintaining 10 or more permanents, which is a natural state in many control lists that have blue, white, or colorless suites. Once you achieve the city’s blessing, you unlock a perpetual draw-and-advantage loop that can turn late-game topdecks into winning plays. In practice, Ascend nudges you toward a tempo where your late-game finishers arrive just as your opponents run out of answers ⚔️.
- Treasure tokens from combat damage: The City rewards you with Treasure whenever one or more of your creatures deal combat damage to a player. This is a fantastic turbo-charging mechanic for control mirrors because it supplies mana—colorless, flexible mana—that you can funnel into countermagic, board-wipes, or the big haymakers you’ll cast after stabilizing. It’s not just ramp; it’s fuel for late-game resilience 🎲.
- Card draw when blessed: If you’re already drawing cards off your Treasure—great—but the blessing adds a conditional draw when you have city parity. That means a well-timed Tooth-and-Nail or Eternal Witness reanimation plan can be fueled by a steady stream of fresh cards, letting you rebuild and refill while your opponents scramble for answers 🧙♀️.
- Cheat a permanent from hand onto the battlefield: Chaos-ensuing power lets you cheat a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. This is the kind of swing that can slam a problematic threat or a key piece into play at the exact moment you need it. It’s not a free win, but it sure shifts the game’s tempo in your favor when used judiciously 🎨.
Core tech for control matchups against fast opponents
In a world where burn and aggro run hot, The Golden City of Orazca gives you a toolkit that scales with the game’s length. Here are the tech options that consistently pay dividends in control vs control or control vs aggression bouts:
- Sweepers and tempo answers: Planar mana can power cheap-for-their-effect sweepers or ringfenced counterspells. In play, you’ll want a mix of removal and board wipes that can reset the board without overextending into eternal threats. Keep a balance so you aren’t drawing into nothing but hand-disrupt or nothing but removal—synergy matters ⚡️.
- Countermagic that protects the plan: The draw engine from the city’s blessing needs a protective backbone. Prioritize reliable countermagic and versatile stax elements that deter opponent lines while you assemble the win condition. The Treasure engine helps you deploy spell-heavy defenses quickly, so you’re not starved for mana in the mid-to-late game 🛡️.
- Slow-start inevitables: Planeswalkers, recursion engines, and high-impact permanence—things that answer multiple roles and outlast a fast assault. The plan is to endure early pressure, stabilize, and then snowball using your additional mana and card advantage to land the finishing blow ⚔️.
- Cache of value permanents from hand: With the may-be-permanent cheat capability, you can drop a powerful permanent at a critical moment. Think in terms of resilient threats that scale with the game state—massive card advantage engines, versatile utility lands, or protection-heavy legends that swing the matchup in your favor 🎲.
Strategic play patterns to maximize the city’s potential
As soon as you can assemble a healthy board presence, you should begin to treat the city as both a safety net and a springboard. A common route is to stabilize with a couple of targeted counters and a few well-chosen removal spells. Then you convert your Treasure into card flow—draws stack up, and your spells begin to feel cheaper than your opponents expect. The plan is to reach ten permanents with minimal risk, opening the door to the city’s blessing and its draw-enhanced liftoff 🧙♂️💎.
One elegant line involves using the “permanent from hand onto the battlefield tapped” ability during a lull in the action. If you can cheat in a mana-rock, a critical land, or a value permanent like an adaptable artifact, you can accelerate your plan while your control suite reframes the battlefield. This is not about tempo wins, but tempo-shifting plays that leave your opponents with hard choices and fewer options to answer your diversified threats 🎨.
Deck-building tips to stay sharp in control matchups
- Balance your spell suite so you’re never missing a beat on either defense or late-game payoff. A mix of conditional and unconditional draw, along with flexible removal, keeps your hand full and your answers ready 🧙♀️.
- Include synergy cards that interact with treasures beyond ramp, such as card-draw engines and mana-sinks that let you convert Treasure into decisive plays even in top-deck wars.
- Prepare a reliable late-game finisher or two. Since the plane’s effects push you toward long games, you want inevitabilities that don’t rely on a single card. Multi-card win conditions keep you nimble against a wide range of strategies ⚔️.
- Keep tempo in mind when deciding what to cheat onto the battlefield. A well-chosen permanent can blunt an aggressive board and set you up for the next swing rather than waste a cheat on something that’s easily answered.
“In a world of chaos, control means knowing which piece to drop when the city’s light shines brightest.”
For players who adore the mix of planarity flavor and steel-cold strategy, The Golden City of Orazca is a gem in the March of the Machine Commander collection. Its unique blend of Ascend-based resilience, Treasure-fueled tempo, and a dramatic cheat mechanic gives control players a new avenue to outmaneuver rivals and showcase the long-game foreshadowed by Ixalan’s mythic lore 🧙🔥💎.
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