Right now I’m sitting at Compendium Collectibles in Rocky River, Ohio at 9:45 AM on a Wednesday morning, where we’re supposed to be having a “draft all day” event since the high school kids are on spring break.
Yeah, somehow I don’t see that happening.
So I fired up Magic Online and joined a 4322 draft with my first three picks being Rend Flesh, Rend Flesh, and Consuming Vortex – great, I thought, my favorite color combination in CCB draft, Blue/Black!
Somewhere between pick 3 and pick 45 my deck ended up being the worst thing imaginable, with the only thing good going for it being a Cranial Extraction sitting in my sideboard, rooting me on to win the first round of the draft to recoup my costs!
In the first round I played against someone who I put to four life with me at one life and Callous Deceiver on the table and him with nothing, and he ripped in this order: Kami of Fire’s Roar, Blademane Baku, Long Forgotten Gohei, and finally Glacial Ray to end it all. I needed a land on the top of my deck in three chances to win the game, but could not manage to do it. Sigh. In game two, I cast double Eye of Nowhere on the play on turns 2 and 3, and he still cast a turn 6 Kodama of the North Tree using Kodama’s Reach to power it out (and I had even hit him with Okiba-Gang Shinobi in there, too!).
Why would I bother you with a Magic Online draft experience that has nothing to do with Constructed Magic, much less Mono-Blue Control in the new Standard? Shouldn’t I be focusing on writing this second part of the article for Starcitygames.com before Ted yells at me again over AOL Instant Messenger?
Yes, I suppose I should – but I just wanted to let you dear readers know what I’ve been doing since I haven’t been playing much constructed Magic.
That said, let’s revisit the decklist that I suggested in my last article:
4 Vedalken Shackles
4 Wayfarer’s Bauble
4 Hinder
4 Mana Leak
4 Condescend
2 Rewind
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Inspiration
20 Island
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Stalking Stones
Sideboard:
4 Temporal Adept
4 Thieving Magpie
3 Oblivion Stone
2 Bribery
2 Quash
The idea behind this deck was to accelerate the mana using Wayfarer’s Bauble and power out the Vedalken Shackles quickly with countermagic backup and being able to constantly refill your hand with the card-drawing instants in Thirst for Knowledge and Inspiration.
The local metagame consists mainly of Tooth and Nail, White Weenie, Big Red, and Green/Black Death Cloud decks, and that seems to be fairly consistent with the majority of what my friends and contacts tell me throughout the nation, with the occasional addition of Blue/Green control, Mono-Green beatdown, and even Blue/White Fish. For this round of testing, I tested against basic local versions of White Weenie, Big Red, Tooth and Nail, and Green/Black Death Cloud with the above list of Mono-Blue Control. Notable cards are mentioned in the matchup analysis.
Mono-Blue Control vs. Big Red
3-7 in favor of Big Red without sideboard, 2-8 in favor of Big Red after sideboard
I figured I’d get the hardest matchup out of the way immediately. As expected, the lack of Annuls made an already bad matchup even worse, being unable to counter their early Chrome Moxes and stunt their mana acceleration into the turn 2 land destruction spells. Being on the play obviously made a huge difference here, but if they had Chrome Mox on turn 1, I was usually losing that game. Echoing Truth was terrible unspectacular, Inspiration was extremely too slow, and the sideboard is woefully lacking any answers/options in this matchup. Getting Boiled without any repercussion to it was extremely aggravating, as well.
With the rising popularity of this deck and reports trickling in all over the nation that Big Red will be out in force at the Last Chance Qualifier for PT: Philadelphia, something has to change.
Mono-Blue Control vs. White Weenie
6-4 in favor of Mono-Blue without sideboard, 8-2 in favor of Mono-Blue after sideboard
This matchup could definitely depend on a single solitary card: Lightning Greaves. Most decklists I’ve seen don’t run it (thank the heavens), and this build ran Aether Vial, Umezawa’s Jitte, Bonesplitter, and Glorious Anthem as the only non-creature spells. It used many one-drops like Suntail Hawk, Lantern Kami, Savannah Lions, and Isamaru, and ran the typical creature suite from there on out. Hokori was in the sideboard, however, which is fairly important to note.
Playing first made this matchup a complete dream. If the Mono-Blue deck could play a turn 1 Wayfarer’s Bauble, the game was typically over with fairly quickly. Aether Vial was annoying but not impossible to beat, since I was able to beat Affinity with Aether Vial. Umezawa’s Jitte was similarly bothersome but not back-breaking, and made me appreciate Keiga over Meloku a lot more. The real trouble was being on the draw and them having a turn 1 Aether Vial, turn 2 Bonesplitter draw. It led to a lot of pain and suffering on my end.
After sideboarding and taking out Rewinds, Hinders, and a single Inspiration for Oblivion Stones and Thieving Magpies made this matchup extremely winnable. The only games I lost were the ones I tapped out to cast Thieving Magpie or a card-drawing spell and they Vialed out or cast Hokori, Dust Drinker. Otherwise, things went pretty smoothly and as predicted in my last article. I don’t believe that the 6-4 in favor of Mono-Blue was accurate, it felt a lot more like 7-3, but 10 games is a rather small sample size. Like I said, I’ve been drafting a ton on Magic Online to prepare for GP: Detroit in a few weeks, as well as the upcoming PTQs.
Mono-Blue Control vs. Black/Green Death Cloud
5-5 tied before sideboard, 6-4 in favor of Mono-Blue after sideboard
This matchup is a grind, to say the least. It’s a fight over card advantage and being able to build and maintain a manabase that holds up through the mid-game, with two major exceptions: If the Mono-Blue deck was on the play, playing a turn 1 Wayfarer’s Bauble essentially locked up the win, and if the Black/Green deck was on the play, a turn 2 Troll Ascetic was nigh-unbeatable.
If the Mono-Blue deck could keep the Black/Green midrange threats at bay early on it was able to win, but there were some obvious problem cards for the deck, including Troll Ascetic and Genju of the Cedars as the most prominent of them all. Death Cloud itself never mattered, and Kokusho was never resolving, so the high-end threats were irrelevant, as predicted. The early mana acceleration caused the real issues for the Mono-Blue deck overall, and the inability to deal with Troll Ascetic completely ruined the Mono-Blue deck.
The sideboard provided the Thieving Magpies to gain a permanent sort of card advantage and added a resource denial element to the deck as well in the form of Temporal Adept. Adding Quash ensured that no Death Cloud or Cranial Extraction would ever be cast, but probably had little to no effect on the long-game anyway.
This matchup could be better aided by some form of mana acceleration or cheaper counters, and a way to deal with Troll Ascetic, as well as the Genju of the Cedars.
Mono-Blue Control vs. Tooth and Nail
7-3 in favor of Mono-Blue without sideboard, 9-1 in favor of Mono-Blue after sideboard.
I just don’t get it. Everyone in the forums says they are having trouble beating Tooth and Nail with Mono-Blue because of Boseiju, but I can’t understand it at all. Game one you can randomly lose to a quickly assembled Urzatron powering out multiple threats and using Eternal Witness to recur them in a short time span, but Bosejiu itself never was the problem at all. After sideboard, you have the complete lockdown card in Temporal Adept, which shuts down their entire gameplan by denying them either Green mana or the Urzatron altogether. Most people think that Plow Under is a tough card to beat, but with Wayfarer’s Bauble, it really is just a minor nuisance. If you resolve the Temporal Adept, the game is over, hands down.
The only way to improve this matchup is to possibly add Time Stop for a complete turn of denial, but even then I can’t see that being all too useful. Boomerang would be nice, but ultimately would not make me want to run it over Echoing Truth for that reason alone. Of course mana acceleration of some sort would be ideal as well, allowing for an early Temporal Adept in game two or ensuring that Condescends stay online in game one.
Analysis and Breakdown:
What does every matchup above say that would help the Mono-Blue deck overall? Mana acceleration. This was usually something that was discarded out of hand because of cards like Legacy’s Allure, Powder Keg, and Nevinyrral’s Disk years ago, but today decks run maindeck artifact removal and also have contingency plans (most notably Eternal Witness) as a backstop for that type of plan. Add to the fact that many of the problem creatures cannot be destroyed (Troll Ascetic, Genjus) or have no real negative effect of being destroyed (Solemn Simulacrum, Ravenous Rats, Sakura-Tribe Elder) and you’re talking about a new ball game in Constructed Magic.
Gabriel Nassif brought an interesting idea to the forefront of Paris Regionals, and his decklist is provided below as a reference:
Gabriel Nassif Mono-Blue
2nd Place, Paris Regionals
4 Stalking Stones
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
15 Island
4 Thieving Magpie
2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
2 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Chrome Mox
4 Wayfarer’s Bauble
4 Boomerang
4 Mana Leak
4 Hinder
4 Vedalken Shackles
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Time Stop
2 Bribery
Sideboard:
1 Time Stop
2 Annul
4 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Evacuation
3 Spectral Shift
2 Temporal Adept
2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
The addition of Chrome Mox is something I’ve been contemplating for many weeks now, and certainly extremely interesting that a player like Gabriel Nassif would decide to use. Keeping the Wayfarer’s Baubles while adding the Chrome Moxes and reducing the countermagic load made this deck a very proactive deck, one in which I can understand the use of Meloku over Keiga.
I do believe that this is the right direction to take the new builds of Mono-Blue Control, and have provided a first draft of a decklist that I plan on testing over the next week or so to get a feel for it below:
4 Stalking Stones
18 Island
4 Thieving Magpie
2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
4 Chrome Mox
4 Wayfarer’s Bauble
4 Boomerang
4 Mana Leak
4 Hinder
4 Vedalken Shackles
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Disrupting Shoal
2 Time Stop
Sideboard:
4 Temporal Adept
4 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Spectral Shift
2 Bribery
2 Quash
This deck seems to be a full reverse of the decklist I initially provided in this article, but let me defend some of the card choices in the deck! You will immediately note that I upped the land count from 20 to 22 lands overall and cut the Minamo, School at Water’s Edge from the list. I want the Vedalken Shackles to be active and a permanent threat at all times, and feel that running 15 Islands is probably too few to aid in this cause. Boomerang is much better than Echoing Truth in this version, giving you added tempo boost that can be later recouped by a quick Thieving Magpie or multiple Thirsts for Knowledge. Disrupting Shoal allows you to tap out without fear to cast that early card-drawing bird, and provides a fairly decent hard counter due to Wayfarer’s Bauble and Chrome Mox.
Time Stop provides additional hard countering power and allows you to beat down with spirit tokens for the win in the late game, and also gives you an out to an early Tooth and Nail if needed.
I kept the Temporal Adept plan against Tooth and Nail, because it can only be aided by casting it on turn 2 with the addition of Chrome Mox. Threads of Disloyalty has moved up in my book – it’s abusive against White Weenie and provides an amazing card advantage swing against the Blue decks that run Jushi Apprentice. Fast Briberies ensure that you win the mid-game war against the G/R and G/B decks, and Quash keeps Beacons of Creation down and out and Tooth and Nail removed permanently.
Well, it’s back to the Magic Online grind and I’ll attempt to squeeze in some playtesting with the turbo Mono-Blue deck and write the third part of this article as soon as possible with my findings! However, as a shameless advertisement, I must mention that the store I work at, Compendium Collectibles, is running a 7-proxy Vintage tournament with the first prize being a beautiful Unlimited Mox Ruby and second place picking up a playset of Player Rewards Wastelands still individually wrapped in the original packaging. More information can be found at this SCG Forum thread.
As always, comments and questions are welcomed in the forums (where I’ll do my best to respond) and email – kyle dot boddy at gmail dot com.
Kyle Boddy
-GFC Member