Upcoming tournament, some help please...

[DeMarki]

I have an upcoming Vintage Tournament in a few days and I would really appreciate some help. The local metagame is kinda ramdom here but I think that the majority of the decks will be fish and rogue decks. I've decided to play a MUC deck. No proxies are allowed and most of the people here don't own power. I've managed to playtest some different versions of MUC using different variations like Chalices/Shackles/Tinker-Colossus etc and I have decided(well not yet) to play the version below:


4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
4 Mana Leak
2 Misdirection

4 Impulse
1 Fact or Fiction

4 Chalice
3 Back to Basics
3 Powder Keg

4 Ophidian
2 Morphling

1 Sol Ring
1 Library of ALexandria
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
12 Island

Now my questions would be:
1) Should I run both 4 Chalices and 3 Kegs? Perhaps one of those 2 cards isn't necessary?
2) Should I replace the 3 Kegs with Mystical-Tinker-Colossus for an alternative win condition, or are the 2 Morphling enough?
3) I prefer Brainstorm than Impulse, but by running 4 Chalices main kinda Brainstorm. Should I leave Impulse instaed?
4) Should I run 2 Shackles main? Are they preferable in a random metagame?

Please share your thoughts with me, I could really use your precious advice. Thank you.

[Aaron]

First of all, I personally would never play mono-blue without a full complement of Moxen, because you really want first-turn Mana Leak. I think you will find the deck much too slow without them, and if you expect a ton of Fish, it's true even moreso because their deck is the definition of tempo, and yours is the antithesis. So I would recommend finding another deck for this meta, but if you insist, then I shall do my best to help you.

1) If people truly aren't sporting any power, there's no reason to run 4 Chalice. The reason to run 4 is to maximize your chances of a first turn Chalice for 0 after dropping your Moxen. If you don't have Moxen, and no one else does, then try going down to 3. You won't be able to drop a Chalice for 1 until turn 4, and that's about when you'll want to draw one.

2) Running Tinker -> Colossus in a deck without Moxen is not so hot, and you aren't going to want to sacrifice your Chalices or Kegs for this combo, so don't run it.

3) Brainstorm is pretty bad in mono-blue. You don't want to be drawing cards you've already seen. Impulse digs one card deeper and gets rid of the chaff. It is your tutor for a counterspell.

4) If you think you are going to run into stupid Aggro then by all means include a couple of Shackles. I would cut a Chalice (as I said above) and a Phid, which is terrible vs. Aggro.

Hope this has helped you a little bit. 

[racetraitor]

I agree, monoblue really really needs acceleration to ensure first turn leaks, as well as phids with counter backup. If your meta is low-powered and rogue you're bound to run into a lot of aggro, so I think both Oath and Landstill are better choices and doable on a budget. Chalice and kegs lose a lot of their oomph when your opponents aren't playing moxes anyway, you're better off with Oaths and/or StP's...

[Machinus]

A while ago there was a guy on these boards asking for help with his budget blue control/oath deck. I have a lot of experience playing that particular archetype and I offered a lot of advice that helped me win several tournaments. I guess he didn't read my posts or reports because his deck wasn't nearly as good as budget decks can be.

If you can, definitely play oath. You have to decide between duress and wasteland. If you have duals, consider which would be more beneficial to your deck in the metagame you will be playing in. Otherwise, the cards you have might make that decision for you.

Last year I ran a 3 color budget oath with duresses and it was fantastic (for my low powered metagame). Wasteland can be really strong in a lot of environments, but again the decision is up to you and how much you think you would benefit from either.

There are many different directions you can go in with a budget oath deck. If you want a decklist I think it's better to ask for it by PM. There are many different options - the draw engine, kill, and removal are all interchangeable, and you have to just work with what you have, or what works best in your area.

[warble]

Without power mana leak is TERRIBLE in mono-blue.  I would suggest
-4 mana leak
+2 Merchant Scroll
+1 Tinker
+1 Disrupting Shoal

I would also suggest
-1 Morphling
+1 Platinum Angel

And to top it off:
-2 fetchlands
+2 Seat of the Synod/Darksteel Citadel

Because your artifact count is so low, you're suffering from a lack of draw power (In BLUE?!?!?!?!)
The inclusion of Thirst for Knowledge would REALLY help your consistency.  To include them as well I would:

1) drop down to 2 Back to Basics from 3
2) drop as many ophidians as you need to

The fact is, in one turn thirst for knowledge accomplishes four turns worth of ophidians.  The speed advantage here is incomparable, making thirst for knowledge a far more consistent card (and it's also an instant; great for keeping your mana free for counters)

I realize that you think seat has terrible synergy with back to basics, which I will agree with.  However, in a situation where back to basics is resolved and hurting your opponent, losing a mana from seat should be relatively meaningless.  In other words, the potential gain (after inclusion of thirst and tinker and platinum) is far greater then the potential risk.

I can't really think of any other way to up the artifact count aside from 2 seats, I would suggest mana crypt and lotus petal but the loss of mana drain really hurts inclusion of lotus petal and my suggestion to drop the mana leaks does increase the risk factor associated with mana crypt.  Also, against a fully powered opponent you are going to chalice 0 anyway, so those cards will be dead in a harder matchup anyway.

I hope this helps, I know there are a lot of suggestions and that is mainly due to the deck's weakness in the early game.  Heavier draw power helps blue to win the early counter wars (as well as an extra free counter), you can even consider a daze or two, also perhaps frantic search and tolarian academy (that's some fast mana, I tell you).