There's something very sobering about being on the receiving end of a first-turn "Troll Ascetic, Birds of Paradise" in 5-Color. It feels like a shot of espresso that misses your mouth and scalds your skin as it dribbles down your chest. Wake up, smell the coffee, game 2.

While such fabled turn 1 plays might not always be the norm in the DC-5C war zone, anyone who's run into Tom Fowler or Steve Forster packing kick-u-in-thenutz.dec will understand the cause for my alarm. Control strategies, for the most part, seem hopeless in such an environment where Skullclamp and his 2cc sidekicks Winter Orb and Price of Progress frequently get together to create a good old ass whuppin'.

But for those of you (myself included), who love executing little green men more than they love smashing face with them, there's hope for us yet. Let's take a look at some of the aspects any control deck should address if it wants to hold off the escaped hordes from the Bronx Zoo:

1) The Mana Base:
It might seem intuitive that a control deck should run more mana sources than some stack packing loads of one-drop weenies - but this is not necessarily the best deckbuilding strategy for dismembering Kird Ape and his furry friends. Most effective aggro builds sport around one hundred mana sources, among which are creature accelerants (Werebear, Llanowar Elves), artifact accelerants (Moxen), and several other mana fixers (namely, Land Grant), in addition to seventy or so lands. The majority of these are free, fast, or can be Recklessly-Charged or Clamped into the bin for some card advantage. Aggro's relatively low land count and favorable stuff-to-land ratio allows it to abuse the 5C mulligan rules and pull solid threats off the top turn after turn. Why shouldn't control decks be able to do the same?

The best pinpoint removal spells and utility cards for combating aggro fit a very low mana curve and only occasionally creep into the 4cc bracket. Those that do are some of the best beaters in 5C (Flametongue Kavu, kicked Thornscape Battlemage) and require a darn good excuse for being left out of the action. Control decks, then, can benefit from experimentation with a similar mana curve/ ratio for deck design to share in those principles that aggro uses to its advantage. Try a full compliment of cheap accelerants such as the aggro-maligned Chrome Mox, Sol Ring, and any available Moxen to take full advantage of mulligans and speed without diluting your top decking power. Full sets of dual lands, fetch lands, and some mixture of City of Brass/Gemstone Mine will allow you to hold the fort down with a plethora of cheap removal as you draw into more mana sources and mid-game business spells

Lite Tech!
No Moxen? No problem! Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone, and Talismans are plenty sufficient for most 5C decks. Follow the principles above, but adjust your land ratio so as to reliably cast the accelerants you choose to play.

2) The Cheap Removal Suite
While the brain trust at R&D has given 5C players thousands of ways to burn, annihilate, or sadistically rip apart any creature an opponent could slap down on the table, the most versatile and effective of them hover around 1-2cc. Inclusion of cards such as Terminate and Swords to Plowshares require no explanation, but cards like Smother or Firebolt might need some good references on their behalf.

To assess what removal makes the cut and what doesn't when you're clubbing aggro, it helps to examine a control deck's kill priorities. From my experiences, I would rank the top three creature threats as follows:

• Two-power one drops
• River Boa
• Troll Ascetic

The first of these categories is best dealt with through cheap burn. Try full compliments of Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Firebolt to maximize your chance to gun down Isamaru, Hound of Konda and his other one-drop pets.

River Boa? Ah, how we hate you. Incinerate and Smother shine against the snake and are great for clipping Skyshroud Warbeast or Quirion Dryad in the early game.

As for Troll Ascetic, Chainer's Edict (and its diabolic counterpart) are more important than ever for offing that nuisance, so be sure to include a set of one or the other - or preferably both. Although it may seem excessive, I have found that seventy or so aggressively-costed removal cards (including spells like Vindicate) provides a solid, versatile defense against the early aggro rush. But choose wisely!

Lite Tech!
Chain Lightning aside, the majority of the good removal spells mentioned above are uncommon are common, so acquiring them should not require much effort or monetary investment.

3) The Utility Package:
The word "utility" has been known to take on a hundred meanings in various Magic situations - but for the sake of this article, we will browse a few select spells and concepts that are crucial to understand for the aggro matchup. Generally speaking, any 3cc or less spell that packs a useful utility effect (like drawing cards or destroying enchantments) and has the potential to take out some random aggro card gets consideration.

Again, I think a threat priority system is helpful here. The top four non-creature spells that make my boots shake would probably follow in this order: Price of Progress, Winter Orb, Contract From Obvious, Skullclamp.

The first and third, of course, are the hardest spells to deal with. Barring a Duress or Mind Twist, only a cheap counter gives you an answer to Price of Progress and Contract From Below. Polluting your mana base with basics or casting some jank like Cranial Extraction is not the answer for Price of Progress, either. Evasive Action gets my nod for the best counter, with the little-known Prohibit following close behind. As double blue sources are often undesirable and difficult to obtain during the first few turns of attrition, Counterspell and Mana Drain are not as effective. Try experimenting with Dromar's Charm, Mana Leak, and even Miscalculation.

Winter Orb is public enemy number two, and with good reason. We have Vindicate, Chaos Orb, Pernicious Deed, and some counters on our side... but what else blows up that stupid ball of ice? Engineered Explosives is the latest and greatest tool, and one that I've come to love more and more with every game. Orim's Thunder and Thornscape Battlemage are two more gems, albeit ones that are more effective in the mid-game. Both also trade extremely favorably with Skullclamp. Between these staples and a tailored mixture of counterspells, you should find yourself holding some answer to several of the "Big 4" most of the time.

Lite Tech!
Evasive Action, Mana Leak, and Dromar's Charm are all quality counters that cost a buck or less, as do Orim's Thunder and Thornscape Battlemage. No Pernicious Deeds or Vindicates? Engineered Explosives is a cheap rare that really shines in the aggro battle and Darigaaz's Charm isn't too shabby either.

4) The Kill:
Your method of player execution allows room for some real creativity, but it may be helpful to borrow a page from the aggro manual if you're scratching your head for ideas. River Boa and Troll Ascetic are some of the nastiest beaters in the game, so why not exploit them in your stack? Other two-for-one creatures, such as Flametongue Kavu, Nekrataal, and Grim Lavamancer inevitably turn sideways at least a couple of times every game. You'll also be surprised how often fetchlands, pain lands, a few beats, and other self-mutilating cards like Night's Whisper will lower your opponent into the hot zone, where only one or two well-aimed burn spells are required to start a new game.

But what about control and combo matchups, you say? Your choice of utility and kill conditions are where these matches are decided. Feel free to try out a set of Eternal Dragons, Decrees of Justice, Masticores, Mystic Enforcers, Blurred Mongeese, or the always-formidable Quiet Speculation/Roar of the Wurm package.

Lite Tech!
Many of the best kill cards are commons and uncommons, and likely serve some other function in your deck as well. Flametongue Kavu, Blastoderm, River Boa, Man o' war, or Bone Shredder are all top-notch cards and easy to get your hands on.

Hope you enjoyed this brief look into our DC metagame and can extract some useful tidbits for bolstering your aggro match. Until next time, enjoy snuffing out the throngs of little green men. Take care.

- Chris Hartten