Monoblue Control - Need some advice

[chubah]

Greetings there, this is one of my favorite decks even though I am not in a possession of any Power9 cards. It doesn't matter much though since my metagame is almost unpowered as well:

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Counterspell
4 Force Spike
2 Misdirection

4 Ophidian
2 Morphling

4 Impulse
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Brainstorm
2 Control Magic
4 Powder Keg

1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Flooded Strand
13 Island

My metagame persists mostly of aggro, control decks such as White Weenie, Dryad to Madness and Stax and Keeper. All of them unpowered as I mentioned before, but all other nasty cards are included.

Should I consider adding Ponder or a Merchant Scroll? I'm not sure it's worth it since I don't own an Ancestral Recall so it will be used in order to fetch the occasional Force, Mana Drain or FoF.

Not sure whether Old Man of the sea would be a better option than Control Magic either, guess it depends on the metagame?

[chubah]

Edited my post and reduced the number of questions to two, I would really appreciate your experience on this.

[zeus-online]

I honestly don't believe mono blue without power has any chance...Mono blue WITH power isn't even all that strong right now...That said:

Merchant scroll without ancestral is a no go...Also the point with scroll is to play it turn 1 (in many cases anyways) which your deck is not capable of.

Asking about back to basics is like trying to ask US what your meta-game is like....Eventhough you've said what decks you're likely to face i have no idea what kind of mana bases they run, and if they are likely to run face first into a back to basics.

Given the fact that your meta-game seems very underpowered i'd consider threads, sowers or old man's as they give alot of control for a reasonable manacost.
Meloku might also be a better choice then morphling to handle weenie swarms...Also spell snare could be a card to consider, since you're gonna need 1 cmc counterspells due to the lack of moxen (which makes mana leak and it's ilk unplayable or greatly weakened) If your meta-game does not include alot of null rod's i'd consider vedalken shackles.

Another thing:
Library dosn't seem very strong in your deck...if you play it turn 1 you'll be unable to interact with your opponent for the first 2 turns of the game (barring pitch-spells), it cannot accelerate you like it can in other decks due to the lack of moxen...and on top of that it's turned off by back to basics.

Well that's all i can think of.

/Zeus

[LennoxLewis86]

I agree with most thing Zeus said. The Merchant Scroll is made to find Ancestral, maybe you could try Mystical Tutor. I also agree that Mana Leak without moxen is too weak to make an impact. Counterspell is the extra counter you play, you can cut Mana Leak. You should instead play Stifles to complement your Wastes and Strip, you will destroy even more lands. I'm not sure if Stifle would be useful against other cards because I don't know if there is a lot of storm going on in your meta. But there are tons of cards to use it against, like Oath.

The one thing I have to disagree with is that mono U control is probably not so good in an unpowered meta, I think it becomes strong once aggro decks become a big part of the meta.

Also, agressive discard heavy black decks are good against you, but much worse against aggro. It's highly unlikely that you'll have more bad match-up than good match-ups, even if you add the random Tez or full-powered TPS matches you might have to play.

I like the Powder Kegs here because without much Null Rods they will remove stuff most of the time, these work well with the Mana Drains because you don't have a lot of spells to sink Drain mana into. Maybe you should add Repeals to sink some mana, you're low on bounce anyway. This helps against Oath too.

The Sower/Thread/Old Man plan sounds good to me too, I'd definitly try those out. I think you could move the B2B to the sideboard, since adding Stifles already messes up the lands of your opponent more.

I've played my share of control decks in many formats, just not MUC in vintage. Because you said it's very low on power I really believe it could be annoying to play against.

[chubah]

I also agree that Mana Leak without moxen is too weak to make an impact. Counterspell is the extra counter you play, you can cut Mana Leak.

I am not running any Mana Leaks.

My main question regarding this deck is whether it's worth running 4 Wastelands along with the Back to Basics, since as soon as B2B hits play they will become a dead card. Not to mention that perhaps a Wasteland could mess with the manacurve, where UU will be needed on turn 2.

Anysuggestions about that?

[LennoxLewis86]

I also agree that Mana Leak without moxen is too weak to make an impact. Counterspell is the extra counter you play, you can cut Mana Leak.

I am not running any Mana Leaks.

Hmm, somehow I remember reading something like that. Oh well, I think you shouldn't play Back to Basics and I think Wastelands and Strip is good in this deck. It happens that you can't drop 2 Islands in a row but instead you get to wreck a land, slowing them down a turn. Or better.. You have enough pitch-counter back-up so don't worry about that. You have Force Spikes right? All of this helps you through the first two turns easily.. 

[Guli]

The question is how relevant will the Back to Basics be not if you need to add wastelands or not.

[chubah]

The question is how relevant will the Back to Basics be not if you need to add wastelands or not.

Since 80%+ of all decks are multicolored, Back to Basics seems like a core card to me. I read some primers too and they all agree the deck is pretty much crap without it.

[LennoxLewis86]

Well, if that is true then you should play the B2B ofcourse. You can't say the deck is crap without if you don't know the meta, B2B is very conditional.
since you say more than 80% of the decks there play with enough non-basics then it's an excellent card for your deck and you don't need to worry
about your wastes and strip at all.
Your deck is the least bothered by B2B, if the waste/strip issue bothers you it's probably not the right time to cast it yet...

[Beralt]

Possibly add a Top for a mana sink for your Mana Drains and to help improve consistency?

[the boogie man]

I'd consider cold-eyed selkie. can be cast mono blue, and it has island walk, which could be relevant. not a great sink, though.

What about trinket mage? same mana cost as phid, but the card advantage is immediate. works well with top, and could possibly enable counterbalance.

[CJster]

I would replace Ophidians with Augury Adepts.  They are more powerful then most people give them credit for.  Selkie is good if there is an easy way to pump him but as a 1/1 he will not do much imo.

Re: Back to Basics - Even though most decks are multi colored, they will all run basic lands to combat the the b2b, wasteland/cow, moonman style locks. Dual lands just become a bonus once they know they can run them.

My mono-U list found here @ 4th place: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=37868.0

[jaeppel]

b2b isnt good maindeck material with fetches out there.  many of the strongest decks run manabases that look something like 5-6 fetch, 2-4 duals, 4-6 basics. against this kind of manabase b2b is essentially useless.  mindlock orb is better since you cut off a large chunk of the manabase, as well as neutralizing tezzeret's entire strategy.  b2b is still good in certain matchups, like workshop, combo, ichorid and other such stacks running few or no basics and no fetches.  sideboard material unless you really expect alot of workshops and 4-5 color manabases.

[chubah]

b2b isnt good maindeck material with fetches out there.  many of the strongest decks run manabases that look something like 5-6 fetch, 2-4 duals, 4-6 basics. against this kind of manabase b2b is essentially useless.  mindlock orb is better since you cut off a large chunk of the manabase, as well as neutralizing tezzeret's entire strategy.  b2b is still good in certain matchups, like workshop, combo, ichorid and other such stacks running few or no basics and no fetches.  sideboard material unless you really expect alot of workshops and 4-5 color manabases.

I will have to agree with you, after playtesting this the last days, I think I'll replace the Back to Basics with something else. I am thinking of adding 2 Control Magic + 1 Ponder or Merchant Scroll, perhaps even an extra island, I am not sure yet.

There is also the choice of Old Man of the Sea or the 2/2 creature that has the same effect as Control Magic, but since it's a creature it's very easy to remove so I will probably stick to control.

How about Merchant Scroll and Ponder, are those good enough for this deck?

[LennoxLewis86]

Ponder isn't good. It's restricted because it is cheap drawing into too much broken stuff playable in vintage. You're playing a good deck, but Ponder is just another card in your deck. Further more nothing special to add because it's restricted.
Merchant Scroll is much better in other decks, because then it finds Ancestral Recall. But I've thought about it and it's not that bad in your deck. You can find yourself a counter, FoF or possibly bounce. The same can be said for Mystical Tutor.
The best drawengine out there is really Thirst for Knowledge, play those over Impulse and your Library of Alexandria becomes a good card now. You have Kegs and you can try Shackles, no Null Rods means they're good. Together with a Sol Ring, Mana Vault and Lotus Petal you can make an argument for it in this deck.
You can even add 2 Seat of the Synod as a discard outlet. They can be wasted sure, but you play a lot of land and you rather keep them in hand.

What do you think of this?