New Mono-Blue

[PsychoCid]

Mono-Blue was last a true force to fear when, despite a high count of potentially dead cards, it used multiple Fact or Fictions to power its way through its deck and proceeded to own anything and everything it came aacross  Even SuiBlack, considered a bane of control, was not going to knock the Big Blue man down.

Since that time of glory, not only have we blue mages lost three of our precious FoFs, but the field has drastically changed, including strange new aggro(-control) decks which pack more punch than things we've seen in the past.  Namely, TnT and (Gro-a-)Tog.

We were forced to return to our past, hoping to ride snakes to victory.  However, decklists did not go through much change, basically doing not much more than replacing four cards with Ophidians and tossing in a Merchant Scroll.  Eventually, we resorted to splashing red, giving us certain selectively efficient removal/counters, and trading in our beloved B2B and some of our search power for a bomb slightly more difficult to deal with and a little direct damage, respectively.

A while ago, as in before the new fetchlands came out, I had been goldfishing old decks I enjoyed on apprentice, and came across TurboXerox.  I also happened to have just decided to build very simplistic archetype examples of aggro and control to use in a demonstration for a school project.  Lacking the qualities of a moron, I went ahead and build a simplistic Mono-Blue deck which consisted of the very basic capabilities of blue, including countering, drawing/searching, and flying (but not bounce, as, well...it just didn't).  Much like TurboXerox, I intended for it to be very redundant so that it would likely always have what it wanted or needed.  

For REFERENCE, here is the initial decklist:

Six-to-Eight-of-Everything.dec
4 Counterspell
2 Foil
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak
4 Opt
4 Sleight of Hand
2 Thwart
3 Nevinyrral's Disk
3 Powder Keg
2 Mahamoti Djinn
4 Ophidian
2 Thieving Magpie
22 Island

I loved the play-style and feel of the deck and, naturally, attempted porting it over to type 1.  Prior to fetchlands coming out, it looked like so:

For REFERENCE:

DullBlue.dec
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Counterspell
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Foil
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Misdirection
1 Merchant Scroll
4 Sleight of Hand
1 Thwart
1 Time Walk
2 Back to Basics
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
3 Powder Keg
3 Morphling
4 Ophidian
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
16 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland

The deck was mana hungry and did not want to miss a land drop, despite having few mana sources and very limited search.  Thusly having a fragile mana base, I was afraid to attempt using a full set of jewelry.  Foil and Thwart were necessary evils, because although they did work against your mana production, the deck really needed the 7th and 8th free counters--they did save me in several games where no other counter would have sufficed.

Soon, fetchlands made their debut, and I moved my focus back to Sapphire Oath and, less so, Keeper.  Being that DullBlue cherished every land it drew, I saw no reason to bother attempting to incorporate fetches and, thusly, Brainstorms.

As some of you may know, my last round pairing for the TMDOI was against Smmenen and his Mono-Blue deck packing an unusually high permission count and an unusually low mana source count, along with a complete lack of Fact or Fiction and any Merchant Scrolls.  Having reviewed the deck, I put it together for testing purposes (with Matt, of course), and took a liking to it having come to an understanding about similarities between the deck and DullBlue (and TurboXerox).  Basically, each of those decks works at a fast pace to power through its cadre of cards, plopping down some bomb that it would protect until it won the game, countering whatever it needs to along the way--whereas more traditional Mono-Blue seems to just want to sit there in control with very limited board control and a similarly limited number of counters.  Admittedly, our newer build does not contain much more as far as capabilities go, but the addition of Brainstorm to smooth over half of your overall hand and the optimized number of methods to play as many counters as early as possible allows for a more active style of play.  Compare TurboXerox to the original CMU Blue to see the difference displayed in a more drastic fashion, but do note that TurboXerox is far from Suicide Fattie featuring counters.

I began discussing Mono-Blue with Smmenen, and he had brought up the possibility of his build being revamped to include several fetches and thus the ability to strongly utilize the power of Brainstorm in the Impulse slot.  Soon thereafter, memories of DullBlue were brought up in my mind, and I was inspired to attempt such a feat.

Thus far, I have played a total of roughly 18 games (plus fish tests to check for mana distribution and such), against TnT, Keeper, and Enchantress.  I won't bother posting win percentages or the like, being that the deck is still in toddler form, but it was highly satisfactory.

Without further adieu, here is the decklist I am now working with:

BrainStorm Blue -> BSB -> (PCS)-BBS.dec
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Capsize
3 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
2 Misdirection
1 Prohibit
1 Time Walk
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
3 Powder Keg
2 Back to Basics
2 Morphling
4 Ophidian
4 Flooded Strand
8 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
SIDEBOARD*:
2 Back to Basics
1 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Control Magic
1 Extract
1 Misdirection
1 Powder Keg
2 Psionic Blast
3 Wasteland

*Obviously a sideboard should vary along with metagame--as well as your maindeck counter base and whatnot.

I have played only one game where I had unpleasantness occur involving my manabase and have not felt the need or want to change it.
-You'll notice the lack of a Sol Ring, as I am not willing to sacrifice any blue sources, moxen for turn one 1U counters, strips, or business cards for such acceleration.
-You'll also notice that the likelihood of having more fetches left than actual Islands to fetch is high.  I ran into one game against Keeper where I ended up with four fetches left and zero Islands to grab, but my manabase had been well established and this did not matter.  If I do run into problems, my first move would be to trade one fetch for a ninth Island.

Where is the almighty Fact or Fiction?
Well, there are several factors that prompt one to avoid including such a card.  FoF, although powerful, really only showed prime strength for a deck like Mono-Blue when it could be used in multiples.  Being that it has such a high casting cost, it requires the deck it is in to be able to support it by running a high count of mana sources.  Repeatedly casting this card to plow through mid or late game dead draws made up for the fact that so many of the natural draws would be dead.  However, when the number is limited to one, the sacrifice is no longer worth the gain.  Testing, by several people, has shown that a lone early game FoF leaves you desperate to find an answer by causing a window of vulnerability (forcing you to tap out).  By the time the late game rolls around, you are either in control or will have another choice bomb to let loose.  In the end, simple redundancy and consistency beat out the once god-like, be-all/end-all of card draw and search.

Additionally, you'll also notice the amazing lone Prohibit.
-I had started with four Counterspells maindeck, but quickly ran into the problem of having a hand including an Island, an off color Mox, two Counterspells, and no Force of Will.  This card, simply, is the strongest of the remaining 1U counters, as Miscalculation has proven to be unsatisfactory several times over.

Many folks argue that Wasteland does not make for a prime sideboard card, as blue can do better than bringing in one-for-ones.  The presence of Back to Basics, however, improves upon the usefulness of Wastelands.  Additionally, there are cases where Wastelands will be very effective yet Back to Basics will not (namely, multi-color decks with a high basic count and a significant nonbasic count, but not enough to allow Back to Basics to lock them down hard enough--think Sapphire Oath and the like).

Lastly, what I have been considering is finding room to maindeck a pair of Control Magic, as they can be useful in both your toughest match-ups and the field as a whole.  Consider than Brainstorm, when facing, say, Keeper, will happily shuffle them away in favor of more useful items.  This would also clear two slots in the sideboard.

I believe that about covers the information I have so far.  Any question, comments, or suggestions would be highly appreciated!\n\n

[hulk3rules]

I too, have been spending a lot of time as of late testing monoblue.  I am not going to post my current list, as I don't want to spam your thread, and it is also very similar since I also built mine off Smmenen's version.  

I have to agree with you that 2 control magics belong in the maindeck.  They have been golden to me thus far, and I have yet to run into a match where I wished they weren't maindeck.  Since the deck is very tight, they are hard to fit in.  The first card I cut was a vanilla counterspell.  The deck already runs 18 counterspells, so I figured the loss of one counterspell was made up for by the benefits of control magic.

The second card I cut may be a more controversial decision.  I cut one morphling.  Now I have gotten some crap from people I have discussed this with, and all I say is this, "People will scoop to ophidians."  While it is kind of a joke, it is also true.  Nine times out of ten, ophidian wins the game.  Morphling just comes down to finish the job.  So far in my testing (albeit mostly online I will admit) having only one morphling has not come to haunt me.  And I still won't hesitate to pitch him early to a force of will.  So I have to beat him down with phids or his own creature- I can deal with that.  The main reason I did this was because my main fear as a monoblue player is groatog.  Togs and dryads will become much larger than morphling so I decided I would rather resolve a control magic late-game then a morphling.

[PsychoCid]

I don't think I'd be very comfortable removing a Morphling, but it is a possibility--in which case it'd be difficult to convince me to neglect to at least sideboard a second.  It is true, however, that an active Ophidian (if not multiple) often means game.

At the moment, I see possible candidates for removal in favor of Control Magic as a vanilla Counterspell, a Powder Keg, and a Morphling.
-Capsize has done several things for me that Keg would not have been able to, and I hesitate to think of playing without one.
-I have begun to fear drawing a Control Magic when I need a more versatile counter, even with Brainstorm/shuffle tricks.  
-I also fear sitting on a dead critter stealer when I could make excellent use of a Wrath of Moxen, Cursed Scroll destroyer, or Ankh crusher.
These thoughts leave a Morphling as the prime candidate for the first card to be removed, but I think in -most- situations I'd rather have a Morphling than a Control Magic.

My other concern, similar to that relating to FoF, is that running Control Magic could affect the manabase in a negative way.

What do you think?  I'd like to see your decklist, or get more information about it, to help in theorizing.  Also, I've had little experience with Tog matchups so far, so what can you tell me about a) how this type of build does and b) if Control Magic is more a bomb or a liability in the matchup?

[Smmenen]

About Control Magic - since this particular point hasn't been brought up but was mentioned in chat by cid: the suggested control magics would not be nearly as bad now because of brainstorm and the ability to shuffle back.  

Browser had presented a mono blue deck pre-brainstorm/fetchies with two maindeck control magics that I strenously disgareed with.  

I'm still not certain how necessary they are maindeck - but I can only assume you both have tested more than me recently with this archetype.  One suggestion is - capsize and - 1 counterspell.  Theoretically, the capsize is a versatile solution to many of the problems that control magic solves (albeit less versatilely).  

Merely a suggestion.

I'm excited by this.  Yesterday I sent in a primer about mono blue with practically the same build - damn I wish Zherbus would get that up.  You guys are going to write the future of his archetype until Gush is restricted.

Steve Menendian\n\n

[PsychoCid]

I'm very aware of Brainstorm's ability to fix issues of Control Magic casting cost and drawing the wrong card(s), which is the only reason I'm even considering Control Magic maindeck.

Having eaten, now, and with a cleared head, I've decided that, as usual, I'm probably just over-thinking.

If I can get some testing in later, I'll be playing with one less Counterspell and one less Capsize.  I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.

[Smmenen]

I said that you mentioned it - I was just speaking as if I wasn't directly talking to you for the benefit of anyone else reading the thread and that it hadn't been brought up *in this thread*

Steve\n\n