Mono blue control needs help being rounded out

[StasisMage]

I don't post on the board all that often but I am usually lurking somewhere in the background seeing what others are talking about. Well in anycase Ive been tinkering around with a mono-blue control deck recently and have become stuck on it I'm not sure what I should add. So I'm going to post what I have for the list so far.



Draw

4x Ophidian
1x Ancestral Recall
4x Brainstorm

Disruption

4x Force of Will
4x Mana Drain
4x Mana Leak
3x Stifle
2x Tormonds Crypt

Other

1x Time Walk
3x Echoing Truth

Artifact Mana

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Pearl
1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland
4x Polluted Delta
9x Island


I have five slots or so to fill in the deck, and I'm not quite sure what I should run in those slots. I'm in the Seattle area and cant seem to get a good bearing on the meta out here and that isn't helped that I haven't been to a tourney as of yet. So any suggestions that would help with going into the unknown as i would like to have the deck be competative and not be playing Gifts or Slaver.

I first built the deck a few months back as a G/B/U control deck. Over the next few months green completely disappeared and black was slowly being pushed out of the deck for more reactive control and was left with only Necropotence and Demonic Tutor with some Dark Rituals. So I cut the black along with the Exhaustions I was running and Tinker and friends. I added the phids, the Crypts, and few islands to replace the underground seas I had taken out.

[Necrologia]

Mono Blue control's really not that great of an option right now. Type 1 Mono-U has always existed to abuse a single card: Back to Basics. Sadly, right now even combo's running a ton of fetches and basics. And lots of fetches and basics makes Back to Basics cry.

Your best bet is just to retool the deck into Control Slaver or Gifts. You keep much of the same control elements, and a solid mana base, but gain a much better win condition. Will's a pretty good card as well.

If you really insist on Mono-U though, you're going to need some form of board clearer. I guess that's basically Powder Keg. You might also want to add Tinker+Colossus as aggro can pretty much just run you over. Granted, you'll still have trouble with Friggorid, but there's really not much else you can do without going into additional colors.

[roberts91rom]

I would run Tinker, Darksteel Colossus, 3xThirst for Knowledges and then throw in Sol Ring and 2xPithing Needles. To make room for TfK I would remove 1xOphidian, 1xMana Leak and 1xStifle. I'm not a big fan of Ophidian, though it IS a solid card. Every time I look at this list my mind keeps saying "Don't tell him to keep it mono-blue. Gifts is better than this deck." That's an unfair biased however, so don't listen to me . So thats my opinion on what to add/remove.

Side note: Bad timing on your thread. Everybody is steamed about Time Vault, so you might not get too many replies.

[RezDawg]

4 Ophidian
2 Morphling
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Back to Basics
2 Powder Keg
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
5 Moxen
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
8 Island

Cards to consider to add Fact or Fiction, a bounce spell like echoing truth if you're worried about something keg cant get rid of.  While tinker DSC is good, if he's in your hand you're going to have to wait til you draw a brainstorm to put him back in the deck, this is why I chose Superman.

[sa17dk]

The problem with Ophidian + Superman is that Ophidian is too slow for a draw engine (at least Fish's ninjas provide a clock) and Superman is too mana intensive to be quick enough.

[[supa_t(im)]]

Mono Blue control's really not that great of an option right now. Type 1 Mono-U has always existed to abuse a single card: Back to Basics. Sadly, right now even combo's running a ton of fetches and basics. And lots of fetches and basics makes Back to Basics cry.

Your best bet is just to retool the deck into Control Slaver or Gifts. You keep much of the same control elements, and a solid mana base, but gain a much better win condition. Will's a pretty good card as well.

If you really insist on Mono-U though, you're going to need some form of board clearer. I guess that's basically Powder Keg. You might also want to add Tinker+Colossus as aggro can pretty much just run you over. Granted, you'll still have trouble with Friggorid, but there's really not much else you can do without going into additional colors.

If B2B is ineffective because everyone has fetchlands, would splashing red for Blood Moon be better?  Not mono-blue, but still serves the same purpose.  The metagame seems right for it, I mean everywhere you look its either bazaars or as you said, fetchlands.  I could be completely wrong though, I'm just throwing out some thoughts.  Although, if you are already going red, why not slaver?

As for the win, I like Meloku and tinker + colossus.

[Disburden]

The only reason that anyone ran Mono U control was for Back to Basics. This is why Semmen and Kowal played the deck. Once you cut that card you're pretty much better off player Slaver or Gifts, since they're superior control decks right now.