d) Denial (Pestal, Dishole, etc.)
Although Denial composes a large amount of the metagame, likely a larger amount than stalls, I don't feel that Denial deserves to be its own deck type purely because different denial decks don't have similar strengths and weaknesses. Reverse Time denial, for example, is great against Rushes, especially ones with Immolation and Nova. Earthquake, however, is generally not a good choice against rushes and almost useless against Immolation and Nova decks. As for Discord and Black Hole, what matters more is the quanta sources, and not the deck type. Discord is great against Monos and Duos, while Black Hole is effective against Rainbows. Earthquake is great against Sanctuary Stalls (which are the more common ones,) Discord is decent against them, Devourers are weak, and Reverse Time is nearly useless. To summarize, there's next to no correlation about deck type advantage between different denial strategies, and this makes it difficult to call its own deck type when comparing the strengths and weaknesses of deck types.
f) "Balance" (Rushy with control - e.g. Stall Faster)
Personally, I wouldn't really have
Stall Faster as an example because it is one of the rare Domin Breaks, a deck that has a balance of damage and CC that is also effective against most stalls. Most "Balance" decks, based on your definition and the general definition of balance, wouldn't often do well against a stall. By devoting such a large amount of the deck to defense, there is less damage to break through the defenses of a stall. I find the other four definitions and examples fine.
Stall generally loses to Denial, loses to Balance
I find this completely off. Stalls usually pack Sanctuaries, and not much denial gets past that. Earthquake can, put stalls can and will split pillars and pendulums. Discord + Earthquake combined with huge damage is usually a solid strategy against stall, but that only makes up a small amount of all the denial available and used (BH, Nigthmare, RT, Devourer.) Plus, the kinds of Discord + EQ decks that are powerful enough to beat Sanctuary stalls pretty much have to devote their entire deck to beating stall, and wouldn't that make that deck a stallbreaker?
As for losing to Balance, Stalls usually lose to Stall Faster, but Stall Faster is an exception from most balance decks. The average balance deck doesn't have the kind of stallbreaking power to survive and hit past a stall because the average Balance will devote such a large amount of its deck to pure control, and not the rare stallbreaking that also functions as control.
Aggro-Control would be a CC rush like a Shrieker rush with Basilisk Blood, or Novagrabby (which typically carries a few sources of creature control).
Beatdown would be a pure rush like mono-Life with Adrenalines instead of Heals, or a full-speed Immorush.
Combo would be an OTK deck like Instosis or Dragonblitz (lots of card draw, early stalling, then take down the opposition in one fell swoop).
Control would be a stall with a win condition other than deckout like Firestall with Fahrenheit and Fire Lances.
Midrange would be a CC rush with mid-range and/or harder to kill creatures like Ghostmare (GotP for creature threat, Nightmares and Rewinds for disruption and removal) or Tsunami (Abyss Crawlers and Toadfish, with Congeals for creature control).
Ramp would be most any Fractal-based deck with mid-range creatures like Fractal Chargers, Ghostal, etc. (survive early game with cards like Dim Shields and Lightnings, charge through with Fractalled creatures for the win).
A deck like Pestal would be an aggro-control ramp deck, with initial aggro-control elements (using Fractalled Pests) until it shifts its game strategy to win in a ramp style (with Fractalled Vampires).
I think this is a good definition, but I have a couple comments. In my opinion, Combos and Ramps both have a similar job. Their damage is slow but not easily stopped by a stall. They usually fall to a deck that hits very fast and hard but can sometimes last long enough against defensive decks to pull off their win condition in time. This pretty much describes Breaks. I'm not really sure the distinction between Combos and Ramps is necessary as they are just separations of a more general deck type.
Aggro-Control and Mid-range both sound like Domins, but I don't really see how they are different outside of your examples. Elaborate further, please.
