The coolest blue based deck arround

[walter]

For about a year now I have been building a version of ponza, that is blue!!!!  As the friday night magic community in my area began to die down after the rath cycle rotated out of type two there were a few of us who insisted on playing - even if it meant playing with masques block. One of the fun loving guys chose to play land destruction of any color (except blue because "blue is for wusses" according to him.")  

I tried and tried to make a solid blue LD deck (well kinda, if you consider turning lands into islands or mountains), but gave  up because of my poor deckbuilding skills, and losing to a combo carnival of souls deck.  

About a year ago I pulled out a commons box and found my not so beautiful, janky blue deck.  I interperated this as a message from god to make finish the deck in honor of Michael (notice how his name and Masques start with the same letter, I bet he felt partially responsible for that awful time in L.A magic) from Glendale High (who is more dead to me now than his dead mother since I haven't seen him for...ever.)

So without anymore of this pointless story I give you BLUE PONZA FOR MICHAEL (with a white splash)

the best LD blue has to offer:
4 Sea's Claim
4 Phantasmal Terrain
4 Psychic Venom
3 Limited Resources (not blue, but then again the rest of these don't really destroy lands.)

other control
3 Waterfront Bouncer (masques)
3 Meddling Mage
4 Counterspell (masques)
3 Foil (masques block)

draw
4 Accumulated Knowledge (masques block)
4 Brainstorm (you guessed it, masques for Michael)

land
4 Flooded Strand
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Plains (if tundra was in masques I would use that in these spaces, do what you want)
12 Island

Sideboard
4 Gainsay
3 Submerge
2 Hibernation
3 Light of Day
3 Chill

I know that the LD component looks like it flat out sucks, but if you can draw 3 of the 15 cards, including a limited resources, it is possible to keep an opponent out of a color (stupid 5 color carnival of souls) or limit the on-color mana your opponent has access to so that the bouncers can control the board.  Actually now that I think about it this is what the deck is designed to do; gain board control via tampering with your opponent's mana then lay the conclave/mage beats. I know counters suck the fun out of the game, but it is the only option this deck has, except losing.

Non-land, mana-producing permanents are a real hassle for this deck, that is why my sideboard packs an answer to green deck, and more specifically elves.  Submerge is an all star in the random elf matchup, or against survival mask variants (yeah, I have seen them whipped out occasionally for a casual game or two.)  Speaking of the sideboard it has an answer for every color that can be faster, or better, than this deck(yes I did just diss white.)  It beats up black, green, and red, while Gainsay allows this deck to take control against bigger, clunkier blue decks with bad mana curves.

Anyway, any comments, questions, or general disscusion shall be entertained on this thread because this deck really does rock the masques block, Micheal this one is for you.

[Jacob Orlove]

Why not play with Rishadan Cutpurse and the other two or three guys from that "cycle"?

[Blackest Lotus]

Why not play with Rishadan Cutpurse and the other two or three guys from that "cycle"?

Speaking of Rishadan... why no ports? They are from Masques block which would be perfect. Why not Wastes and a Strip? Just a thought.

[walter]

the cutpurses are an interesting idea, but imo they lack synergy with the "LD"component of the deck.  If things go according to plan they will have lots of mana open, only they can't use it to cast their spell.  so in theory cutpuses would just be 1/1's for three mana.  on the same note I did test spiketail hatchlings instead of the mages, but my opponents had open blue mana.  Maybe the cutpurses will work, I'll have to try them.

as for the ports/wastes/strip they go against the decks philosophy as well.  the deck is designed to gain a tempo advantage by investing 1-2 mana to turn an opponent's land into a blasted landscape.  the ports cost me 2 mana to deny my opponent access to 1.  they also are a colorless source, and seeing as I plan on only using the first 5 sources I find they mana screw me more than my opponent.  I did test them once upon a time, but haven't missed them one bit.  The strips are just a bad idea, the have no synergy with limited resources and cause problems in the mana base.

thanks for the replies so far, do you guys think a disenchant or two is a good addition?  I thought about seal since it fits into the tempo game this deck attemps to play.

[Jacob Orlove]

Well, if you replace the stuff that turns lands into islands with more useful cards (bounce, maybe), and run [card]rishadan cutpurse[/card], [card]rishadan footpad[/card], and [card]rishadan brigand[/card], along with the spiketail, you could get some actual land destruction going.

[walter]

that would be a good idea, then I could cut the white and add ports for a really solid mana base.  This is way cooler because of alot the little masques on the cards.  Would this possible be able to run tangle wire as well?

I think this is becoming a much better deck, I haven't tested the new ideas out yet, but they seem good (and they eliminate white.)  And if it doesn't get better it is gaining brownie points.

Does anyone think that a land destruction format would be fun?  Blue is probably the worst color, but it has counters to make up for that.  I think that a LD pentagram game would be kinda cool.  Any input?

[Dj Nohayritmo]

and run rishadan cutpurse, rishadan footpad, and rishadan brigand, along with the spiketail, you could get some actual land destruction going.

maybe winter orb with that

I think that a LD pentagram game would be kinda cool. Any input?

nop, it would be frustating as hell, and LD doesn't work as good in multiplayer (there is too many targets, and you lose tempo, you would need infinite mana and turns, but if you manage to set that up you could win with just anything, I don't think that it's worth the effort)

And why no tundra? you have flooded strand in there

[Robert the Swordsman]

If you intend on actually destroying some lands and don't want to stray from blue, you may even want to give [card]Ark of Blight[/card] a shot. It's not from Masques, I know, but I'm just tossing it out there.

Good luck.

[xaos]

i think you missed blue's "actual" LD spell- Stifle.  it stops fetches, ruins wastes/strips...  being able to say "No" to an opponent dropping a fetch and attempting to remove their color screw is just goodness.

EDIT: ok, so stifle is not in Masques block.  In the future, I plan on actually reading the entirety of the first post before sticking my head up my ass.