Control decks in various trading card games, such as Magic: The Gathering (MTG), focus on negating threats, drawing cards, and eventually winning the game through a decisive endgame strategy. When facing control mirrors or other archetypes, having a well-prepared sideboard is crucial.

In control mirrors, games often revolve around careful resource management, maximizing card advantage, and precise timing of spells and abilities. This matchup is typically slower and more methodical, with each player aiming to outmaneuver the other through superior decision-making and strategic plays.

Key Objectives

1. Win the Card Advantage War: In a control mirror, maintaining a higher number of cards in hand and drawing more cards over the course of the game is crucial.
2. Resilient Win Conditions: Use win conditions that are hard to remove or provide continuous value.
3. Effective Counterspells: Focus on countering the most impactful spells and protecting your own.

Sideboard In

• More Card Draw, Some Examples below:

• Chemister’s Insight: Provides card draw at instant speed, allowing you to hold up counterspells.
• Sphinx’s Revelation: Excellent for gaining both life and card advantage in the late game.
• Mystic Forge: Continuous card draw and filter, instrumental in decks with many artifacts or colorless cards.

• Examples of Counterspells efficient against them:

• Negate: Effective against non-creature spells, which are common in control mirrors.
• Dispel: Cheap and efficient for countering instant spells.
• Dovin’s Veto: Uncounterable counterspell for non-creature spells, making it a powerful tool in control mirrors.

• Win Conditions:

• Teferi, Hero of Dominaria: Generates card advantage and can eventually win the game with its ultimate.
• Dream Trawler: A hard-to-remove threat that gains you life and draws cards.
• Shark Typhoon: Provides a versatile threat that can be cycled for instant-speed creatures.

• Anti-Counterspells:

• Mystical Dispute: Effective and cost-efficient in control mirrors, especially against blue spells.
• Dispel: Great for countering key instant spells during crucial turns.

Sideboard Out

The usual sideboard out plan is to board out spot removals against creatures, make sure that you won’t expect them to board in clock threats as some deck archetypes usually have a combination of creatures and spells against your deck.

Key Strategies

• Manage Resources Wisely:

• Patience: Don’t be too eager to use your counterspells. Holding back and using them on more impactful spells can make a big difference.
• Card Advantage: Always look for opportunities to draw more cards than your opponent. This could be through dedicated draw spells or leveraging planeswalkers.

• Counter War Tactics:

• Layering Counters: When engaging in counter wars, consider the order in which you play your counterspells to maximize their effectiveness.
• Baiting Counters: Use less critical spells to bait out your opponent’s counterspells, making way for your more important threats.

• Planeswalker Dominance:

• Protecting Planeswalkers: Once you land a planeswalker, it often becomes a focal point of the game. Protect it at all costs, as it will provide significant ongoing value.
• Answer Opponent’s Planeswalkers: Have a plan for dealing with opposing planeswalkers, whether through direct removal, attacking with creatures, or countering them before they resolve.

• Win Condition Management:

• Diversify Threats: Use a variety of win conditions to prevent your opponent from easily countering all your threats.
• Recurring Threats: Utilize threats that can be recurred or have built-in protection, such as “Shark Typhoon” tokens or “Dream Trawler.”

• Timing Is Everything:

• End Step Actions: Many control decks operate at instant speed. Take advantage of end steps to cast draw spells or deploy threats, forcing your opponent to react on their turn.
• Avoid Overextending: Don’t deploy too many threats at once, making you vulnerable to mass removal or a single well-timed counterspell.

In conclusion, this control versus control matchup plan focuses on enhancing card draw, counterspells, and resilient win conditions while removing less effective creature removal and early-game disruption.

By understanding these principles and strategies, you can improve your performance in control mirror matches, ensuring you are always one step ahead of your opponent. Remember that sideboarding is as much about understanding your deck as it is about knowing your opponent’s strategies.