Mono Blue in todays Metagame

[The Chosen One]

How does anyone think a mono blue control deck would fair nowadays. What about 3cc? With control based decks being some of the strongest at this time, is full out control the way to go?

Is back to basics as hot as it used to be with fetch/basics all over the place? What hoser cards should really be run in control?

Comments!

[GUnit]

Mono blue exists in an evolved form. It's called Gifts. If you want to play monoblue that hoses lands like the old Legend Blue, play Control Slaver with Sundering Titan, Gorilla Shaman, Strip Mine and Crucible. B2B seems pretty weak right now, and obviously choke is bad if you want to make a good (read: BLUE) deck, without a pretty unconventional manabase. Playing U/r with Blood Moon might be possible, but again you'd probably be better off playing an established pseudo-monoblue deck, like U/r CS.

Speaking of counter decks, the prospect of a full compliment of 0-mana accelerants alongside 8 mana leaks (in light of that new thing from Coldsnap) is certainly interesting. That along with FoW pretty much guarantees an active counter or two coming out of your first turn. Maybe this will have an impact.

[zeus-online]

I've actually been working on a 3cc list which resembles mono blue in some ways...i havent gotten to actually test it yet, so i wont post a deck list.

Its basicly very counter heavy with a big black splash for obviosly broken spells and skeletal scrying as the draw engine.
White has been splashed for balance, no other white cards are MD worthy.

/Zeus

[erictehfatz0r]

No other white cards? Are you serious?! Decree of Justice is the only real reason 4cc stayed around.

[zeus-online]

Actually...decree sucks. Way too expensive...tinker/DSC is much, much better.

Think about the absurd amount of mana you need just to finish your opponent off in 4-5 rounds with DoJ, You need like 7-8 mana to do that!
Also, tinker/DSC answers random aggro decks which is quite usefull.

/Zeus

[erictehfatz0r]

7-8 colorless mana is the reason Mana Drain and Decree were paired up. Agreed on Tinker/DSC, however many more decks nowadays have oodles of bounce for him, making it harder to keep him out to win. To me, it just seems that many men attacking over 4-5 turns when you have a full grip is better than expending all resources on keeping one man in to swing for two turns.

EDIT: I would use Decree in Control Heavy Metagames, with Tinker/DSC as backup. Uncounterable dudes with no Card disadvantage is tech.

[merfolkOTPT]

If you are thinking about a Monoblue what do you want to run.  Let's make a basic list with a bunch of open slots:

win condition(2-3)
1x Tinker
1x Collosus
0-1x Some other win condition besides tinker collosus because it might get swords or countered

Open slots(4-6)
4-6x Powder Keg/B2B/ Vedalken Shackles

Draw Suite (10-11)
1x Ancestral
1x FoF
4x Brainstorm
4-5x Tfk/Intuition AK

Counter base (16)
4x Mana Drain
4x Mana Leak
4x Rune Snag (having a good counter turn 1 most of the time is really important for a deck like this)
4x FoW

mana(25)
5x Moxen
1x Sol Ring
1x Black Lotus
6x Fetches
7x island or duals depending on build
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine

I don't know if this is strong enough to play in todays meta, but that is probably about what you would want to play if mono blue control is your thing.  If you are considering a splash i feel like you would porbably only have about 8-12 slots to play with  including win condition from a build like this.

[zeus-online]

7-8 colorless mana is the reason Mana Drain and Decree were paired up. Agreed on Tinker/DSC, however many more decks nowadays have oodles of bounce for him, making it harder to keep him out to win. To me, it just seems that many men attacking over 4-5 turns when you have a full grip is better than expending all resources on keeping one man in to swing for two turns.

EDIT: I would use Decree in Control Heavy Metagames, with Tinker/DSC as backup. Uncounterable dudes with no Card disadvantage is tech.

You seriosly want to use mana drain to make 1/1's?....I generally tend to put that mana to good use and draw some cards, go broken or something.

Keeping DSC on the table isnt all that hard, you realize that you dont have to go "Turbo DSC" in every game, right?

Ive tried DoJ...while the card itself might be fine, its just not my style..it seems way to slow and clunky..and its off-color.

/Zeus