Resurgance of Nonbasics...a ripe time to bring back Mono Blue?

[Zeke]

My meta, while painfully small, does include an excellent core of solid players.  The past couple of weeks, we have improved the t1 tournament tournout, from 4 to 6 to earlier today 10 players. While small, it is definately a start.

The past few weeks I've played around with various artifact-intensive builds, just because I wanted to, and tried to get a feel for the meta.  After playing with The Roscoe and GothSlaver, I tried to analyze the meta and see what would be best fit for dealing with my environment.

And then it hit me...there are a lot of nonbasics that are being played.

In fact, almost exclusively.

Remembering what Smmenem said back around GenCon age, I decided to try it out (and it also helped that I found my Back to Basics the day before).

This is the list that I ran.

Spell Control:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
3 Chalice of the Void

Board Control:
3 Back to Basics
2 Powder Keg
2 Energy Flux

Win:
2 Morphling

Draw:
4 Impulse
4 Ophidian
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

Mana:
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Wasteland
1 Stripmine
3 Polluted Delta
11 Islands

Sideboard:
3 Sug'Ata Firewalker
3 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Arcane Lab
3 Old Man of the Sea
1 Back to Basics
1 Energy Flux
1 Powder Keg

The maindeck Energy Flux was a metagame call, hopefully improving my matchup against Stax and Slaver, a couple of popular decks, in game 1.  However, they ended up getting sided out, as that wasn't the correct metagame call.

Back to Basics, on the other hand, was simply amazing.  I played against a mono-red ponza/burn/sligh-ish deck (twice, actually, since it made top 8), RUG Madness, Cerebral Assassin, Control Slaver, and Landstill.  I happened to go undefeated.

I mostly chose Mono Blue because nobody in my meta played Oath.  That is, up until my friend showed up with it.  Thankfully, I didn't have to play against him, as I've heard that it is a horrible matchup (which makes perfect sense).

In order to try to improve the matchup, I changed the maindeck and the sideboard, to try to shift my deck to beat the meta.

Spell Control:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
3 Chalice of the Void

Board Control:
4 Back to Basics
2 Powder Keg

Win:
3 Sug'Ata Firewalker
2 Morphling

Draw:
4 Impulse
4 Ophidian
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

Mana:
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Wasteland
1 Stripmine
3 Polluted Delta
10 Islands

Sideboard:
3 Seal of Removal
3 Energy Flux
3 Control Magic
3 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Old Man of the Sea

The most occcuring removal spell in my meta happens to be Fire/Ice, so Suq'Ata seems like a good choice as a recursive damage, as well as a way to deal with pesky 1-toughness creatures (such as Welder).  I couldn't decide between running the Chalice or Powder Keg version, and I always felt that a combination of both was best.  The 3/2 ratio has proved quite resilient. 

Seal of Removal and Control Magic try to improve the Oath matchup.  Seal, theoretically, is great because it could come down turn 1, and even if it draws a Force of Will, that can remove the Force they would have in their hand for when they try to resolve an Oath.  Control Magic has proven to be great all-around in the past.

Are there any cards I am overlooking to improve the Oath matchup?  Is Suq'Ata a poor choice for an additional source of damage?  Is there a matchup that the deck currently isn't prepared for, whether it is maindeck or sideboard?

Any and all suggestions are welcome.  With the increase in the usage of nonbasics, Mono Blue could move up in the Tiers.

[KrA0nS]

Ophidian is good...but that's just me.  I've been running MUC for some time now in T1 and it's quite fun and can be very competative because of BTB, one of the funniest cards to play against someone.

[Ape]

Ophidian is good...

4 Ophidian

 

[Luiggi]

Would Thirst For Knowledge be good in this build? I know Smenen has been advocating them in his new Oath builds, since they're running Chalices. Gramted, you're not running Phyrexian Furnaces to provide some additional artifacts to discard, but you have Powder Kegs, and in some matchups they might not be that necessary.

TfK just strikes me as a possible secondary draw-engine for when we have trouble getting our Ophidians online, or for when we just want more cards. With so many Moxes, Chalices, Kegs and such it doesn't seem like it would be bad. Thought on this?

I also really like the Firewalkers in your build, as I'm sure they're worth their weight in gold vs. CS and Fish-type decks, especially given U/W Fish's Waterbury win this weekend.

Luiggi

[Lymph]

@ Luiggi

Yes. Thirst for Knowledge works perfect in Mono-U. It has been done in the past. If my memory is correct the first to get results with those builds were rvs and a German player both winning a tournament. I'm sure you can find those list on TMD somewhere.

@ Zeke

I would cut one Back to Basics (and move it to the sideboard) because four was too much for me when I played with Mono-U. Sometimes it will be a dead card with its only use to pitch to FOW. In its place I would add a 4th Chalice which in today's metagame is really strong.

I'm not a big fan of Impulses, they were great back in the days but now I would rather play with Thirst for Knowledge.

What about your manabase, ever thought about running more fetches and cutting some islands ? It might be good ...

Finally I would cut a Firewalker and Morphling for Darksteel Colossus and Tinker. Also isn't there any room for Fact or Fiction ?

Have fun countering everything 

[MarkPharaoh]

If you were at Waterbury you'd be in heaven with 4 MD Back to Basics, a resolved B2B or a Blood Moon would of been the game right there against almost every deck, Stax players even wished that they would of played Choke MD.

[Rancor1]

@Lymph:
Impulse is better in the early game than TFK. While it doesn't yield any real card advantage, it still helps you get off your feet, by giving you whatever you need before an ophidian is on-line. While TFK gives you cards, there's a good chance that you'd have to discard some good ones that early. TFK is better as the game goes on, but by then you have Ophidians...

Tinker/Colossus is bad, you don't have nearly enough tutor power to make it reliable. As it stands, there is a 50/50 chance of drawing the Colossus over the Tinker. You don't even have Brainstorm.

[Zeke]

I guess I should have clarified, I would have 2 more fetches in the deck, but my mind's desire deck got stolen (a supposed friend borrowed it for a tournament and proceeded to sell all the cards in it).

I have the 4 maindeck Back To Basics because I wanted 4, and I had no real room in the board to fit a fourth one (it was either a fourth b2b or a 3rd energy flux).  I finally just broke down and ran 4 maindeck, as it is always a nice card to pitch to FoW in matches where it either a) doesn't do anything, or b) you already have one out.

[Lymph]

@ Rancor1

Impulse is better in the early game than TFK. While it doesn't yield any real card advantage, it still helps you get off your feet, by giving you whatever you need before an ophidian is on-line. While TFK gives you cards, there's a good chance that you'd have to discard some good ones that early. TFK is better as the game goes on, but by then you have Ophidians...

I understand your reasoning and you do have a point but I would still rather outdraw my opponent as "cardadvantage wins games".
I run 14 artifacts, most CS decks run less artifacts than that, and you also have lands to discard. There's allways a chance you have to discard 2 blue spells but it hasn't happen often.

Tinker/Colossus is bad, you don't have nearly enough tutor power to make it reliable. As it stands, there is a 50/50 chance of drawing the Colossus over the Tinker. You don't even have Brainstorm.

True, you don't have the tutors for Tinker but you don't need it asap and with so much draw you'll get it in time. It will end the game faster than Morphling can and an early Tinker can win games on itself.
When you draw the Colossus you have Thirst for Knowledge to get rid of it. Without TFK I wouldn't play it.

@ Zeke

The reason I play the 4th Chalice of the Void is because I allways want to see it on turn 1-2 (to set them at 0 or 1). Back to Basics strong as it is, doesn't change the game dramatically in the first turns. When playing 3 copies of them I will probably have drawn one of them when I need it.
But if it works for you don't change it

[Luiggi]

Lymph: so what would you cut from Zeke's list to fit in Thirst for Knowledge and possibly Tinker+DSC? The 4th Chalice, that you say you use in your build, would obviously be benefitial. Any other cards we should add to optimize our TfKs?

Luiggi

[Zeke]

I was thinking about tinker-colossus, but you really have to play Mystical-Tinker-Colossus.  That's 3 cards to be cut, when I have trouble getting it to exactly 60 (it's 61 right now).

Thirst for knowledge may be good, though again, the problem is finding room.

Edit: Now that I think about it, if Suq'Ata doesn't work out (despite the fact i love it) I can test Tinker, and TFK.

[Luiggi]

I guess the Firewalkers are a metagame call, since they're so good vs. CS and Fish. If you don't have an abundance of them in your area I wouldn't have the Firewalkers in the maindeck. The problem with Colossus is its vulnerability to opposing Welders, and if we're tunning TfKs we'll obviously have some artifacts in our graveyard to be Welded back in... I guess it all goes back to your meta.

Luiggi

[Zeke]

Colossus does help with TFK, though.  Discard a colossus, shuffle it back in.

[Lymph]

@ Luiggi & Zeke

I thought I was clear in my previous posts but the changes I would make:

- 1x B2B
- 4x Impulse
- 1x Morphling
- 1x Firewalker

+ 1x CotV
+ 4x Thirst
+ 1x DSC
+ 1x Tinker

and possibly:

-2 Firewalker
+1 Fact or Fiction

to get down to 60 cards.

@ Zeke

Well I don't know if you need  the Mystical Tutor. I always played without it because of Chalice for 1. But it might be good as you can get other bombs too like Ancestral Recall and Time Walk. But what to cut ? The 3 cards I would cut first are the Firewalkers but I understand that you need them in your metagame.

[Zeke]

I don't approve of 1 morphling...myself.  Otherwise...TFK is something that could be looked at instead of Impulse.

[Rancor1]

DSC wins faster, but Morphling wins better. Granted, It is not was it was a few years ago, but it can still turn a game around. Also, playing a single Morphling seems rediculus. Morphling is rarely dead (past the early game, of course,) Where DSC is only good when you pitch it to TFK, and THEN draw a Tinker. It seems too janky for a deck that is supposed to win through total constancy...which brings me to my next point:

Impulse is better here than TFK. In the early game it will get you whatever card you need at the moment. In a deck that runs 12+ counterspells, and a smattering of utilitarian permanents, it smooths over draws. Need a land? Done. Need a counterspell? Done. Having all of your draw at three is bad, and TFK gets worse when you take into consideration that you will probably be playing moxes early to afford the TFK, along with counter mana.

[Kowal]

DSC wins faster, but Morphling wins better. Granted, It is not was it was a few years ago, but it can still turn a game around. Also, playing a single Morphling seems rediculus. Morphling is rarely dead (past the early game, of course,) Where DSC is only good when you pitch it to TFK, and THEN draw a Tinker. It seems too janky for a deck that is supposed to win through total constancy...which brings me to my next point:

Impulse is better here than TFK. In the early game it will get you whatever card you need at the moment. In a deck that runs 12+ counterspells, and a smattering of utilitarian permanents, it smooths over draws. Need a land? Done. Need a counterspell? Done. Having all of your draw at three is bad, and TFK gets worse when you take into consideration that you will probably be playing moxes early to afford the TFK, along with counter mana.

Holy crap that's terrible.

Morphling is absolute garbage, and is ALWAYS dead unless you've already won.  DSC is dead too, but at least the Tinker that accompanies it allows you to sucker early wins when you shouldn't.

Secondly, a consistant deck wants quantity over quality.  Fish, as an example, doesn't have any good cards, so a spell like Brainstorm doesn't really improve the quality of the junk in their hand.  Instead they run Standstill, because it generates a whole lot of junk in the hand.  Monoblue works the same way, except instead of stupid little beaters, it has a bunch of counters.  Thirst for Knowledge will actually generate card advantage, and usually put a mana source and two important spells (counters or additional draw) in your hand, whereas Impulse does nothing but act as a bad brainstorm.

[Zeke]

Kowal:  What would you suggest running over Morphling?  I didn't like DSC personally, but i didn't know there was anything wrong with 'fling.  What would you suggest?

[Kowal]

Personally, I don't think there's any deck you can't kill with Ophidian beatdown or Vedalken Shackles'd creatures.  Beyond that, Tinker-DSC is probably the strongest route.

[Zeke]

Vedalken Shackles in the main deck? That's interesting...never actually heard of that before.

[Negator13]

It's golden vs. most of the decks in the field- everything besides Storm Combo has some tasty critters for you to jack. I'd run 1 or 2 in the MD, auto-include, especially with TFK.

[That0neguy]

Has anyone considered standstill as over impulses it slows the game down generates card advantage and then you could switch to factories for the kill however this means not relying on b2b as much, but maby this could be a could sb plan against random aggro deck which would most likely give you a bad match up.  You could also possibly still just rely on morpling/phid/shackles to beat down and just drop the stand still after you have started to deplete your hand.  If played early enough it would seem like a impulse anyways since if played first turn it will look at the top 3 cards instead of 4, you might have to discard but impulse didn't net cards either.

[Zeke]

Yeah, MonoU doesn't work to well when it can't cast any of it's win conditions...and back to basics is what makes MonoU so good.

[goobafish]

Has anyone ever considered running Moloku as a kill condition? There are a few reasons behind this idea.
a) It costs 1U instead of morphlings 2U and can be easily drained into
b) Creates a mass amount of creatures to prevent blocking
c) Less likely to be Cranial Extractioned (even through Cranial isn't very played)
d) It has built in flying and a larger toughness.

I realize that there are upsides to Morphling as well, but what about 1 of each? Each having their own upsides and downsides.

I also think shackels is a great addition to the Maindeck or Sideboard, due to the resurgence of fish, oath, cs and a whole lot of creature based decks. If you can get 6 islands in play having a shackles is like an auto game 1 win against oath.

[Kowal]

Meloku is crap.  It costs a whole freaking lot and does almost as little as Morphling does in terms of being more than a kill condition.

[Zeke]

Meloku also makes you return lands in order to attack with 1/1s, which die to fire/ice.  Remember, you are playing a control deck, you want as many lands a possible with MonoU.

[amidtownrocker]

If I am correct one of the main reasons Morphling is such a solid win condition in such a controlling deck is because of the difficulty to remove him. Thats what makes him far surperior to Meloku, The Clouded Mirror. Once Morphling hits the table he is damn near impossible to remove.

I would have to agree with Negator13 here and suggest you add Vedalken Shackles. Maybe in place of those Firewalkers. They both house fish and other decks that plan to win the game via attacking. Pitching to TfK also increases the value of these in your deck. Plus killing your opponent with his own creatures just always deserves some style points.

[Klep]

The reason Morphling is unnecessary is because the way this deck (and others like it) works is by taking complete control of the game state. It used to be used as a way to speed up the win when it was possible for your opponents to eventually break out of your board control, but these days doing that can be made far more difficult, so Phid beatdown or using Shackles is generally going to be sufficient.  If that makes you nervous, however, you now have a card that surpasses Morphling in its original intent in Darksteel Colossus.  It doesn't matter that DSC is easier to remove, because you don't really need him anyway.  He only speeds things up a bit. 

[Zeke]

So Morphling is comletely unnecessary?  Remove him totally?  Or would it be best to keep one in?

Spell Control:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
3 Chalice of the Void

Board Control:
3 Back to Basics
2 Powder Keg

Win:
1 Morphling
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus
2 Vedalken Shackles

Draw:
4 Impulse
4 Ophidian
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

Mana:
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Wasteland
1 Stripmine
3 Polluted Delta
11 Islands

How is that?

[Kowal]

I've been testing a build of Monoblue for a month or so now that doesn't run anything aside from Phids and Shackles for the kill.  It works fine without a dedicated win condition slot.

I would share my list, but it has become outdated, since at the time I created it Back to Basics wasn't very good, and as such I had cut it for Thirst for Knowledge.  Back to Basics belongs back in the maindeck now (obv)