A VINTAGE TALE: THE STORY OF OPHIE, THE ONE-EYED,

As with all of the primer threads - this is presented for inspection of things such as spelling errors, techincal errors, or things I left out. Help me out here.

A VINTAGE TALE: THE STORY OF OPHIE, THE ONE-EYED, CARD-DRAWING SNAKE - A MANA DRAIN EXCLUSIVE PRIMER ON MONO BLUE PERMISSION (BPB)

Mono Blue. What an appealing Concept. The color emotes passion and hatred, but above all the color connotates success. Blue is clearly the most powerful color in the game of magic just ahead of Black. A Mono Blue concept can take many forms. The most successful form of mono blue was an a aggro-control concept known simply as BBS. The idea was simple and yet broken: Counter anything relevant your opponent does, play a Morphling, lots of Fact or Fictions, and a Back to Basics to lock them down if need be.

The axiom that there are no bad threats, only bad answers implies that the strategy of playing threats is superior to a purely reactive strategy. Even in the Weissman “The Deck” era when true Permission control reigned supreme, the Angel gambit as it was known – playing the Angel on turn one with a Lotus, was more often the not, an easier path to victory.

The restriction of Fact or Fiction did much to dampen the power of the aggro-control (morphling) strategy. That said, the 3-4 Morphling builds still remain a very viable strategy. Play with at least three morphlings, add perhaps a Mana Vault to the mana base, and voila, you can change a steady permission deck into an aggro control concept. The problem is that they generally pale in comparison to the better aggro-control concepts such as GroAtog.

There is another way. It is a way that is theoretically promising and daunting. It promises few threats, but many answers (in the form of counterspells). It promises that one slip up, one misuse of a counter is death. But it also suggests the potential that t1 might be a broken format. By that I mean the implication, that if a deck can counter one for one long enough and gain slight card advantage (pseudo or real) from some source, it has the capacity to beat any deck.

This way is Permission. Almost a style more than a strategy. A harkening back to a concept almost as old as the game itself, and yet, a strategy which is rarer and rarer these days and equally rare among mono blue builds. Keeper has slowly changed from a reactive control deck to a quasi-proactive control deck and relative to other decks in the format, is considered counterspell-light, relying on its brokenness rather than permissiveness to some degree. What I am presenting is a true permission deck. If you regularly play a three mophling build, what I have here is a completely different concept. I cannot stress this enough. If you are playing mono blue and you could play a turn one morphling, you shouldn’t have kept that hand (a slight exaggeration, but I’m trying to illustrate a point here). When reading through this primer, don’t bring with you your conceptions of a slightly more aggressive mono blue.

This deck has lost a lot of its luster in the last six months with practically each new deck being an actual threat to mono blue: particularly GroAtog and previously TnT and Mask. However, I have no doubt that this is still among the best decks to play, it is simply clearly not the best deck. One question posed at the very end will be: have some recent cards made it possible for this deck to compete with the almighty GroAtog? For now:

CARD CHOICES:

OPHIDIAN
This card is the heart of the deck and it’s primary drawing engine. You want to get a phid into play as soon as possible and then protect the hell out of it. Phid serves many functions for this deck. The toughness of three is absolutely amazing. It survives combat with the plethora of 2/1s that seemingly exist in t1. It is a must kill creature for any sligh or G/R deck which means that your Misdirections will become quite usable despite an opponents attempts to play around them. This creature is your drawing engine and an excellent blocker. This is one of the better T1 creatures in existence.

MORPHLING:
What can you say about Superman that hasn’t been said before. This guy wins games, but he can’t stop an army. Sometimes the swarm might just be too late. However, he has fallen quite a bit from his pedestal of late. There is even some debate that he may not be the best creature in the game anymore. And that may be correct.

BACK TO BASICS
Speaking of fallen, Oh how the mighty have fallen. This once broken card has lost much of its luster and the final blow was the printing of the Onslaught fetchlands. Prior to the Fetchlands, the metagame was adjusting to this card where decks that were once 3-4 colors have given up some marginal advantage for the safer mana base of 2 colors. A great example of this is zoo which has pretty much been streamlined into a 2 color deck from a 3-4 color deck.
Two colordecks aligned with the fetchland colors are practically invulnerable to Back to Basics now. TnT is much stronger against this card with Quiron Ranger and basic forests with Windswept Heath. Even 4-5 color decks like Keeper can pack 1-2 Islands and practically always have spells they can cast now. Complicating matters further is the prevalant usage of Gush.

This card has gone from being something you could rely to do some serious damage to nothing more than a nice toy that you have access to and that is worth taking advantage of.

THE MANA
This is one of the most intensely tested areas of this deck. The first thing that has to be mentioned is that mono blue permission cannot support both a full compliment of Wastelands and Moxen. The result is a flood of mana which is not even on-color. Moxen are broken for a reason and should definitely be played with. The minimum number of Islands one can play with (or fechlands to get Islands) is 14. That can only be done if you have a full rack or darn near full rack of Wastelands. The optimal number of Islands is 15 and 16 is certainly appropriate. You can go as low as 22 mana sources with 15 Islands assuming you have Brainstorms and/ or Impulses to back you up. However, given the decline of Back to Basics, (in part as an alternative to Wastes and in part as an effect that Wastes are now stronger) it is my contention that 24 mana sources is the correct number.

COUNTERMAGIC
Force of Will and Mana Drain are the heart of the counterbase and their inclusion is obvious. Misdirection is hard to aim. The fact that you must lose a card hurts this cards position. Another thing which damages this card is the fact that the metagame has subtley, almost imperceptibly come to expect this card as it has Mana Drain. Nevertheless, I advocate using as many of this card as you can fit it. Against decks like Keeper and GroAtog and Sligh you will be thanking me. Many suggest playing two. I understand and can support that sentiment, but when it comes down to it, I’d really like 4. As a compromise, and in part to show my uncertainty on the matter, I suggest three. Please examine the section on “how the heck do I play this deck” for a basic explanation of the remaining counterspells.

IMPULSE: (BRAINSTORM)
This card smooths over your draws as it does for no other deck. In part because of this card you will be able to have such a low mana count and you will also be able to move later game cards such as morphling into other parts of your deck. It also functions as a mini-tutor for pitch countermagic.

NO FACT OR FICTION:

This is undoubtedly the most controversial decision that I have come to. With regards to the 15 Island version, I have no doubt that Fact or Fiction is an inappropriate maindeck choice. The rationale is simple but difficult to see. This is a permission deck in the truest sense of the word and does not attempt to win until it has total crushing control or is under a dire threat. There is no margin for error. An early threat that slips through the counterwall can easily spell death. You cannot cast FoF in response to a threat into a swords to plowshares or a balance or a tutor off the top to save you. And you can't use a counterspell you might get to stop the threat becuase you have just expended mana casting the FoF. Your best answer often is morphing, and you only have two. As a result, Fact or Fiction has an incredibly narrow function. Early on you may need that mana to counter other spells and it is very difficult to protect it. Late game you are either winning or about to lose. The optimal time for Fact or Fiction then is that midgame stall in which both players go into topdeck mode. Considering the incredibly high risk (death) that results from not having an answer in the very early game, it becomes clear that FoF is simply not good enough against too many decks in such a permissive mono blue variant. In an Aggro-morphling concept or a blue deck with splashes of other colors it is a different story. Additionally, adding Brainstorm may change all of that. With brainstorm you can shuffle it back in from your opening hand with a fetchland. Additionally, you can try to set up when you are going to cast it.

Here is what Psychocid says about Fact or Fiction in this deck:
"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."

NO CUNNING WISH

My thoughts on Cunning Wish basically center upon the range of versatility of the cards it fetches and via those that the card itself provides. In a 4-5 color deck like Keeper, Cunning Wish functions as a broken tutor fetching answers against Combo, Control, and Aggro. Even in a two-three color deck Cunning Wish can be quite good as long as it is useful against a range of decks.

In an incredibly redundant deck like mono blue - which lacks a range of answers to aggro such as STP, Cunning Wish is too often too slow and the answers (a term I use loosely here) it fetches are often too slow. The best anti-aggro instant I think it can get is Psionic Blast followed by Dominate. Those aren't spectacular. Additionally, unlike in Keeper which has 1-2 wishes or even more and Super Grow which has 2-3, mono blue using wishes reduces redundancy and thereby reduces consistency. It would be one thing if it could function like impulse (which would still be a three casting cost impulse) and give me an assortment of answers - but it also hangs at that crucial 3 cc point which is occupied by Phid and B2b.

Finally, adding cunning wish bastardizes the SB in an attempt to maximize its benefit.

In Summary, the Wish doesn't fetch a versatile enough selection of cards to warrant its use in a deck like this. Now in URphid, I would definately play the wish.

CONTROL MAGIC

This card is perhaps the most under-rated card in the mono blue SB and its misunderstanding runs far and deep. One of the most common things that comes up is that in relation to Control Magic is the question of Treachery or Dominate. Having tested Treachery and having played with Control Magic for some time, I can tell you that the one mana difference in the casting cost makes all the difference in the world.

The real benefit of Control Magic is it's extreme versatility. Against Stompy (as long as you don't take Ghazban), you will often get three cards for one becuase it might have an enchanment such as Rancor on it and then it becomes a blocker - and if you have a phid in play you get a card from that. Against Stacker it can be brutal as long as you can protect it. Against Mask it is the most feared card for the Mask player (as long as you use it right - don't take a face down card unless they paid one for it). Against suicide Black it is less effective than Psionic Blast, but it functions as a removal spell that you can use to chump block or even get damage in from. Against TnT stealing a Welder is tempting, but not as good as taking a Juggy or a Su-Chi.

PSIONIC BLAST

The primary reason this is used is to punish people for playing with the extremely efficient Phyrexian Negator. But against Suicide Black, whose creature base consists of Nantuko Shade, Negator, Hypnotic Specter, and Flesh Reaver, Psionic Blast functions to kill each and every one for a very cheap mana cost. It's drawback of two life is negligable. But if it were good only against one deck, that would not be sufficient to warrant critical space in a SB, but it is also good against many other decks because the use of Phyrexian Negator is wide and varied. It is used as a SB card for Combo decks, it is in B/G junk decks, some keeper decks have it in the SB, it is also used in Void decks and so forth.

NO MASTICORE:
This is a very, very powerful Artifact Creature against a very wide variety of decktypes. The key strategical point about this card is that it requires commitment. Once you have this in play, you are basically required to make sure he goes all the way becuase of the enormous card input for his upkeep. You will also be limited to the quantity of mana you will be able to use to kill opponents creatures becuase you will need to discard additional land you draw. Also, to be most effective he needs to come down early which also limits the amount of mana he will have for his support, meaning regeneration and "pinging." I think he is a perfectly legitimate SB card - but his inclusion is not automatic. It must be weighted against additional factors such as alternatives with similar functions against similar decktypes such as Control magic and Psionic Blast.

TORMOD’S CRYPT / PHYREXIAN FURNACE

The playtesting and the debate over these two cards has just begun. We need to let that play out. The key questions that will answer whether either of these deserves inclusion or whether one will be better than the other relates to the question of how fast graveyard removal needs to work, whether the decks that these will be used against will be able to adjust after losing a few cards, or whether more removal is warranted, how effectively a visible furnace or Crypt can be played against, and finally, to what extent will the decks these are useful against be prevelant.

MISDIRECTION
This is one of the very best SB cards or card period. It's use is as versatile as it is amazing. It is good against Combo in almost anyform if it uses FOW or counterspells, Control, and many forms of aggro including zoo, Suicide Black, and Sligh.

THE BROWN PAPER BAG

4 Ophidian
2 Morphling

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Impulse (4 Brainstorm)

3 Powder Keg
2 Back to Basics

15 Islands (9 Islands/6 Fetchlands)
1 LoA
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
5 Moxen
1 Lotus

4 Force of Wills
3 Misdirections
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
4 Counterspells *

*see section on how to play this deck for a possible substitute for one of the counterspells

SB:
4 Control Magic
2 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Wasteland
2 Psionic Blast
1 Powder Keg
1 Misdirection
1 Back to Basics
1 Extract

The cards in parenthesis are there for a discussion at the end of this article.

SO, HOW THE HECK DO I PLAY THIS DECK?

This deck requires restraint and will reward you for it. Additionally, you have a basic game plan which I am about to set out before you. So you can pay attention to that and try and stick with it and you won’t perform badly if you do.

Let’s look at the mana play first. The deck is designed so that you optimally get a mox and two islands in your opening hand. You are likely to get some search/draw with 4 Impulses, 1 LoA, 1 Time Walk, and 1 Ancestral. Your goal is to go turn one: Island, Mox with Mana Leak mana up and a Misdirction or Force of Will as backup. On turn two you want to lay the second Island and pass the turn. Then by turn three, you want to have 4 mana sources in play for triple counter: one 1U counter, one UU counter, and a pitch counter OR you want the 3rd Island so you can have mana drained a two casting cost spell on your opponents turn and now play an Ophidian with double counterbackup if you don’t have a 1U counterspell. If you have a choice between playing a Phid with double counterbackup or a Back to Basics, 99.99% of the time play the Phid. Even against Keeper. Phid spells game against those decks just as much as b2b does, but it must be answered now, while B2B tends to do its damage in the medium to long run. If you don’t have a phid, try to impulse into one and play it rather quickly with optimal counterspell mana up. For the foregoing reasons, one of the Counterpells could justifiably become a prohibit. However, it is important to realize that it is OK to sacrifice one of the goals of this deck: being able to counter as many spell as possible each turn if you can sneak a very early phid into play. The goal really is to get to four-five mana sources and then stop drawing mana until you can establish control. If you continue to draw mana sources, you will not be able to answer one-for-one the threats that your opponent plays.

Once you have the Phid engine going, taking control of the game is not difficult. Use your impulses at this point to almost exclusively get countermagic unless you have such an abundance that you really need an Island instead. Take your time, there is no hurry, but eventually you will get a morphling into play and simply win.

MATCHES:

CONTROL:

SAPPHIRE OATH
This is not a favorable matchup. In fact it will probably be incredibly frustrating. Their Oath’s tend to completely negate the ophidian engine which means you have to keep Oath off the board, not an easy task. Additionally, Back to Basics has become much weaker against this deck with the fetchlands being rather prevelant. The plan against oath is to Extract one of the Blessings to screw over the recursion engine.

KEEPER:
This is one of your better matchups, but don’t get lazy. Paying attention to your opponents precise variations will help immensely. Fetchlands have given Keeper the tools to run basic Islands. This also makes Back to Basics less powerful. Nevertheless, the sideboard strategy is – 2 Powder Keg, + 1 Misdirection, + 1 Back to Basics.

PARFAIT:

The goal of this match is very simple: counter each threat. This is actually not a difficult task. Let land taxes resolve, but you MUST counter scroll rack. Scroll Rack is even a win condition. Also Digger and Mesa’s must be countered. Use your game one misdirections on Chant’s or Abeyances’ that are thrown your way. It might be close, but you should almost always come out on top.

URPHID:
This is a close matchup. They have Red Elemental Blasts that they will be able to side in which is a huge advantage, but their mana base will be vulnerable to your wastelands, which you will side in.

AGGRO:

TNT:

This is one of the worst matchups. This deck has a lot of speed and may be able to go lethal before you have established control. Taking control of Goblin Welder’s with Control Magic may appear to be a good strategy, but practice and testing have suggested that stealing an early su-chi or juggernaut and subsequently beating down as hard as possible and as quickly and possible is the best strategy.

- 3 Misdirection, -2 Counterspell, + 4 Control Magic, 1 Powder Keg.

SLIGH:

This has tended to be one of the more favorable matchups for this deck. The plan is simple: after your opponent has a threat on the board mana drain into Ophidian with double counterbackup (preferably one is a misdirection – that way any burn can be redirected to their dude). Then abuse the Phid to create massive card advantage and then win with an invicible Morphling. Use the kegs to clear the board early on so that you don’t have to waste FoWs on turn one threats.

- 2 Back to Basics, -2 Mana Leak, + 1 Misdirection, + 1 Powder Keg, + 2 Blue Elemental Blasts

Goblin sligh is even easier. Take out one of the goblins’ and the deck suddenly cannot attack because it has lost Mogg Flunkies and Goblin Grenade among others.

R/G ZOO:

One Word: Ophie. The one-eyed snake is monster for all of the sligh’s men and a monster for all the mongeese and other one toughness chumps who aren’t strong enough to strangle the snake. The game plan is the same with the exception that if this deck is more than two colors, Back to basics may come in real handy for lockdown mode.

SUICIDE BLACK:
This is supposed to be one of your worst matchups, but it is definitely not. Psionic Blasts will tend to destroy any threat that this deck can throw at you. Control Magics will wreck havoc and Powder Kegs are much stronger with Nantuko Shades on the loose. Even if they resolve a turn one negator or Hippie, they don’t have the game as long as you can get a next turn keg into play and they don’t answer it with a Null Rod. The Sarcomancy/ Carnophage version of this deck or the Shadow version of this deck are immensely easier to defeat than what I consider an optimal version of this deck. Game one is going to be tight, but it is definitely winnable. Games two and three you will be topdecking answers like a madman. If you are playing against someone who is proficient with the archetype, at the conclusion of the match they will have one of two reactions: 1) disbelief and a sense that their deck failed them or 2) shock as their understanding was to be that this would be an easy matchup. The reason this matchup has turned good is because of the enormous amount of answers that we have – moreso than any other mono blue deck from the past.

+ 4 Control Magics, + 2 Psionic Blasts, - 2 Back to Basics, - 4 Counterspells.
My opinion, based on play testing and tournament experience, is that you don’t even need the fourth keg, and if they have null rods, it’s not a good idea anyway.

STOMPY:
You have a very good matchup. Game one you will be misdirecting all kinds of rancors and stuff to your phids and moprhlings. After sbing, you have accesss to control Magics and another keg. Control Magicking a huge critter is amusing and will definitely push things your way. Honestly, this deck is a one-trick pony and you will have no trouble taking the Queen to Naboo to sign the treaty… ummm, I mean winning.

AGGRO-COMBO:

MASKNAUGHT:
The key to this matchup is the control magics and the powder kegs. My sb has turned this from an unfavorable match to a favorable one. You have such an abundant supply of answers that this deck poses a very low threat. – 2 Back to Basics, - 3 Misdirections, +4 Control Magic, +1 Powder Keg,

AGGRO-CONTROL:

GRO-A-TOG
This is not a favorable matchup. They can out counter and outdraw you. The key to winning this match is luck – luck with Wastelands from the SB, using Powder Kegs early and effectively, and being able to abuse control magic in game two and three.

+ 4 Control Magic, + 1 Powder Keg, + 3 Wasteland, - 2 Back to Basics, - 1 Island, - 4 Counterspells, -1 Morphling?

GRO:
This can be a rough matchup, however it isn’t nearly as bad as GroAtog. Use the same strategy as against GroAtog, but your chances for success are much higher. The first advantage for Grow is the use of Gush. Gush is a tool which definately provides more pitch countermagic fodder and draws more pitchmagic then a deck should.

The draw back that grow has compared to the mono blue is that it is almost all pitchmagic (except for the lone divert and daze) and the mono blue is far more than fifty percent hard counters. This is good card advantage for the mono blue deck.

Another drawback that the grow deck has is that it isn't totally consistent. But against mono blue, this usually isn't an issue.

The grow deck seems very able to force through an early phid or dryad. This wouldn't be a problem for the mono blue in general becuase the mono blue can usually play phid to block the phid or a powder keg and keg them to resolve - but problems start to kick in, in that by playing that phid or keg, I have precluded myself from playing countermagic for the gro players turn becuase I"m tapped out.

Additionally, I need three phids to answer a single phid that the grow player has. And dryads slip down at quite a cheap price.

Another thing is that despite a desire to take advantage of a weak grow mana base - it really isn't that weak becuase everything is so cheap. So the mono blue deck needs more mana to keep up and if I stall out that's far worse than if the grow deck stalls on mana.

So in Summary:
Advantages for Grow: Gush, Cheap Creatures that are Deadly, difficult to destroy mana base and doesn't need much land to run on.

Advantages for the Mono Blue: More card advatage in the counterwars becuase of hard casting countermagic, cheap answers: Kegs and Phid. (also can deal with a library (fancy that)).

+ 3 Wastelands, + 1 Keg, + 3 Control Magics, - 2 Back to Basics, - 4 Counterspells, - 1 Island.

It would be nice to fit in the other Misdirection and the 4th Control Magic, but I’m not sure exactly what to take out.

HULK SMASH:
Don’t let them resolve Accumulated Knowledges. If you get a phid going, you should probably win. Remember that this deck only has Psychatogs. The play style of the HulkSmash deck fits very nicely into the hand of the mono blue player. The tempo is perfect for you to match. Also remember that they have less Misdirections and can’t protect their spells as easily as you can stop them.

COMBO:

TRIX, ACADEMY, PANDEBURST, TURBOLAND, ETC

Combo players cry when they see mono blue. Mono Blue is among the very worst matchups that combo players have to face. A wall of countermagic stands between the combo player’s victory and total defeat. The combo players best shot is either after sbing or by winning before the mono blue player has laid a single Island.

SO, WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? AND WHY ARE THERE CARDS IN PARENTHESIS?

This leaves us with a possibly obsolete build. Fetchlands and Brainstorm possibly make this a better deck. The reasoning is simple. Brainstorm effectively functions as an Impulse for one blue with sufficient fetchlands. But it actually does more. It allows you to keeper lousier hands – you can throw back morphlings, optimize the mana, set up your draws, prevent from drawing those midgame lands that kill you when you needed a counterspell instead, and so on and so forth. My feeling is that this is true. The only thing that needs to be done is some testing to fine tune my suggestions. Any takers?

Stephen Menendian
March 31, 2003\n\n