[Deck Discussion] Mono U

[factorx]

Alright so I'm going back to my old roots and playing mono blue control.  I've had a lot of good games with mono u, but decks that have huge amounts of threats concern me.  Here's the list:

Sources (21):
16 Island
1 Strip
1 LoA
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire

Counters/Control (20):
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Nevinyrrals Disk
3 Counterspell
3 Mana Leak
2 MisD

Card Draw/Search (15):
4 AK
4 Brainstorm
3 Deep Analysis
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Gush
1 Merchant Scroll

Creatures (6):
4 Ophidian
2 Morphling

SB:
3 Propaganda
3 Stifle
3 Tormods Crypt
3 Back to Basics
3 Chalice

Playtesting breakdown:

W/L ratios removed for obvious reasons.
-- Toad

My testing method was netdecking most of the above decks onto apprentice, then having my deck on a table and just playing it out.  There was no prejudice in the games so my results arent skewed.  The mirror was Tourloukas' from hadley (got from morphling.de), slaver was my build, Control Slaver and GAT were on the forum here.  Hulk, FCG, dragon, madness, and gro were from morphling.de and were top 4 decks from different tournaments.

Let the comments fly, I'm interested to hear what people think.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[xzero]

In no way is this a better deck than Psychatog.  Morphling really wishes it were an Atog.

You also omit Wasteland, which is one of the better cards in this deck.

With all of the AK and Deep Anal, Intuition *might* be a little good here.

[Necrologia]

Where are the off color Moxen? BBS ran Mana Leaks specifically for the turn 1 land mox play. Without them Leaks are just weak. You're also quite land light with only 21 sources.

[Kowal]

Without an intimate knowledge of how to play the decks you tested against, you won't come up with much conclusive evidence.

Likewise, just by having the deck in front of you, you create a subconscious bias before you've started.  I think Matt brought this up somewhere in the Full User T1 forums.

[factorx]

Without an intimate knowledge of how to play the decks you tested against, you won't come up with much conclusive evidence.

I have a real good idea of how to play these because at one point or another I've had these made and have been playing them, only to get a good feel for what does what.  The only deck I havent played myself was madness, but most of that deck is common sense and I've seen it played enough times.

Where are the off color Moxen?

I don't own enough power and whatnot to run them with tourneys allowing  only 5 proxies.  Right now that decklist is 10 proxy legal only.  The only power I actually own is an Ancestral.  

You also omit Wasteland, which is one of the better cards in this deck.

Quite right, I should definately add those.

[bebe]

This is the last mono blue i played ...

Land
11 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 LoA

Threats
2 Shoreline Ranger
2 Control Magic
1 Masticore
1 Morphling

Search
4 Ophidian
4 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral

Counters - 16
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
3 Stifle

Utility
3 Powder Keg
2 Back to Basics

sb
3 Energy Flux
4 Arcane Lab
2 Cursed Totem
2 MisDs
2 Nev's Disc
1 Back to Basics
1 Control Magic

The deck was good at the time but the meta has changed somewhat. You will notice though the following incklusions which I found to be essential
2 Shoreline Ranger
2 Control Magic
3 Powder Keg
2 Back to Basics

This was prior to Damping Matrix, Chalice, etc., so I might make some changes today.

[Ivantheterrible]

Hi tom this is Ethan form hadley. I have played a good amount of mono blue in the past few weeks/ months and I really dont like the lack of main deck stifles.
I also hate mana leaks or mis caclus and find in our meta that 3 mis-ds is nessescary they are good for any unknown tourny as well as control is rampant at those type of evetns generally. I have one many games just by mis-ding mind twist and esoecially ancestral (yes I know this is obvious but needs to be remembered from time to time)
Here is the list a I pioleted to a good results in Newington

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Counterspell
2 Stifle
3 Misdirection

4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction

3 N. Disk
3 Back to Bascis

1 Time Walk

4 Phid
2 MorPhling

5 Blue fetch
4 Waste
1 strip
1 Library of Alexandria
1 mox sapphire
1 black lotus
1 sol ring
10 Islands

Both I and fellow team Amherst High (breakaway faction of team hadley) member Chris Tourlokus play mono blue, and while he is probably a better player I have consistanly beaten him in the mirror match and it is obviously because of the superior draw engiune of Brainstorm/fetch and yes he is now running ak intuition deep anal combo and I still won. That combo  is a little more helpful agaisnt tog, still they are a bad matchup. If you dont believe me semmen man wrote yesterday in a post that the most broken draw engiune outside of draw 7's is brainstorm fetch

[xzero]

*Sigh* Yet another mono-blue list without Mana Leak.  Mana Leak is what makes the deck playable, because you have a turn 1 counter with Force of Will backup.

Also, Ivantheterrible, your spelling and grammar left a lot to be desired.

[Machinus]

Has anyone tried Chalice and Thirst? With the turbo mana leak version I think these could be really good.