[Deck] Monoblue Control (MUC)

Opening Post by Kadaj

Mono-Blue Control (or MUC) has been around since the fledgling days of magic, and it has almost always remained the same deck. Play tons of counters, draw a bunch of cards, stop your opponent from doing anything relevant, then kill him with a large finisher whether it be Stalking Stones and Rainbow Efreet, as Randy Beuler did way back when, or the much more modern Morphling and Meloku. More recently with the printing of cards like Fact or Fiction, Stifle, and Vedalken Shackles the deck has evolved to incorporate these new powerful cards and adapt to metagame around it.

When playing a modern version of MUC perhaps the most important thing to prioritize is land drops. Making your lands drops ensures that you will have enough mana to counter the relevant cards your opponent might attempt to resolve, as well as leaves you with the option to cast a draw spell at the end of your opponents turn. It is a combination of cheap, sometimes free, countermagic like Force of Will and Counterspell in addition to the card selection and drawing of Impulse and Fact or Fiction that keeps the deck ahead in the card advantage race, as well as the land race. If MUC can remain ahead in both races without falling too low with its life total it will almost certainly win the game.

MUC’s history in Legacy:

Initially when Legacy was created people predicted a combo winter not unlike the one that gripped Magic during Urza’s block. Combo decks would run rampant fueled by unbanned bombs like Lion’s Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, and Burning Wish. Due to this, MUC was concieved as a possible answer to these supposedly broken decks, and was given a slight amount of attention. Of course, these decks never materialized as threats, and MUC was dropped by the wayside. Perhaps the biggest blow to MUC’s possible development in the format was the invention of Solidarity by David Gearheart (Deep6er). Due to Solidarity’s ability to go off in response to anything MUC could try to do MUC had, and still has, a horrible matchup against the deck that would slowly rise to the position of not only the best combo deck in Legacy, but perhaps the best deck period.

All but forgotten, it took until Eric McGraw piloted a traditional MUC deck to 21st place at the StarCityGames Duel for Duals tournament on July 9th, 2006 for the deck to get any attention. Here is the list he played that day:

Maindeck:

Artifacts
3 Powder Keg
2 Vedalken Shackles

Creatures
2 Morphling
4 Ophidian

Enchantments
2 Back To Basics

Instants
3 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
3 Fact Or Fiction
4 Force Of Will
3 Impulse
4 Mana Leak
2 Misdirection

Basic Lands
11 Island

Lands
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Quicksand
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
4 Chalice Of The Void
2 Pithing Needle
2 Vedalken Shackles
1 Back To Basics
1 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Hydroblast
1 Misdirection

Perhaps the most important thing to note with McGraw’s deck is the inclusion of maindeck Back to Basics, a card that wrecks a good portion of decks in Legacy and puts a lot of pressure on others. Still, even with this moderately high placing in a major tournament, MUC remained almost entirely unnoticed. It took a top 8 finish from a new pilot, Glenn Anderson (Maximus04), and another solid finish from Eric McGraw to put MUC truly back on the map.

Monoblue Control
A Legacy deck, by Glenn Anderson
5th place at a StarCityGames Duel for Duals tournament in Roanoke, Virginia, United States on 2006-10-08

Maindeck:

Artifacts
2 Powder Keg
2 Vedalken Shackles

Creatures
2 Morphling
4 Ophidian

Enchantments
2 Back To Basics

Instants
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
3 Fact Or Fiction
4 Force Of Will
3 Force Spike
3 Impulse
4 Mana Leak

Lands
15 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Quicksand

Sideboard:
3 Chalice Of The Void
2 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Vedalken Shackles
2 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Hydroblast
2 Repeal

And here is McGraw’s 32nd place finishing deck:

Maindeck:

Artifacts
2 Powder Keg
2 Vedalken Shackles

Creatures
2 Morphling
4 Ophidian

Enchantments
2 Back To Basics

Instants
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
3 Fact Or Fiction
4 Force Of Will
3 Force Spike
3 Impulse
4 Mana Leak

Basic Lands
16 Island

Lands
4 Flooded Strand
3 Quicksand

Sideboard:
3 Chalice Of The Void
2 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Hydroblast
2 Repeal

Both decks are almost identical, with the only Maindeck differences being the Fetchlands used and the number of Quicksands, and the only Sideboard differences being the number of Hydroblasts versus the number of Blue Elemental Blasts. Even despite the relative success of this version of MUC, there remains much debate over what the correct decklist is. Having tested MUC for several months, this is my own take on the archetype:

Maindeck:

Artifacts:
2 Vedalken Shackles
3 Powder Keg
3 Chrome Mox

Creatures:
3 Morphling

Enchantments:
3 Back to Basics

Instants:
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Impulse
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
4 Rune Snag
2 Mana Leak
2 Misdirection

Lands:
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
16 Island

Sideboard:
1 Vedalken Shackles
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
2 Repeal
3 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Blue Elemental Blast

Matchup Analysis:

In general when playing MUC perhaps the most important thing to do is make your land drops. Making your first 4 or 5 land drops ensures you’ll have mana open to counter threats, draw cards, and eventually drop your finisher for the win. Fact or Fiction is perhaps the most important card to resolve for you, as it almost always nets at least a 3 for 1 and can easily fuel a game win if the card advantage you gain off of it is maintained. Obviously this plan has to be customized and adapted to each game, especially depending on what deck your opponent is playing.

Vs. Goblins, Unfavorable (35-65 to 40-60 preboard depending on the build, anywhere between 45-55 and 60-40 postboard depending on what’s in your board and how many REBs and Pyrostatic Pillars the goblins player can bring in).

First rule, and yes it is an obvious one, you MUST stop Goblin Lackey. It doesn’t matter whether you counter it, bounce it, block it, steal it, whatever, you absolutely cannot let it hit you. If you do, you will set yourself much too far behind in the race and have no chance to catch up. Another must counter, remove, bounce, whatever, is Aether Vial, which if allowed to become active will almost inevitably result in an uncounterable Ringleader giving the goblins player far too much card advantage for you to come back from.

Post board the match gets either much easier for you, if they don’t have much in the SB for you, or slightly better if the majority of their sideboard can come in and hurt you. Either way, you should be bringing in all of your BEBs/Hydroblasts as well as any other anti-creature tools you may have (Vedalken Shackles, Propaganda, whatever). If you’re going first in game 2 bringing in Chalice’s might be a good idea, as they can shut down all of the dangerous one drops in the Goblin player’s deck. If you can grab the advantage early by countering threats as well as dropping Shackles you should be able to pull it out.

Tips:
-If your hand does not have an answer to a turn 1 Lackey, it’s probably one to throw back unless you can accelerate into an early threat and don’t think your opponent has a dangerous hand.
-Forcing Goblins into the late game makes them much easier to handle, just keep their major threats off the board with countermagic, Shackles, Keg, and whatever else you may have, and make sure that no Goblin Ringleaders resolve. How you get to the late game depends on your hand, and your opponents plays.

Vs. Solidarity (Probably 20-80 preboard, maybe 35-65 at best postboard).

Solidarity is tailor made to beat the crap out of you, and there’s very little you can do about it, especially game one. Game two if you can resolve an early chalice for one and manage to resolve a Morphling you might have a chance, but beyond that your only chance is to pray your opponent either has a pathetic hand or sucks horribly at playing Solidarity. And we’re seeing less and less of the latter types of players, so that’s probably a forlorn hope.

Tips:
-Pray. Seriously, there’s no way in hell you’re going to win this match against a competent opponent with a remotely decent hand.

Vs. UGw, UGr, and UGrw Threshold (45-55 to 50-50 preboard depending on which version of Thresh, and anywhere from 45-55 to 55-45 postboard)

This match is essentially a coinflip that relies almost entirely on the playskill of the players involved and draws they get. If the Mono-Blue player can force through even one Fact or Fiction and make good use of it’s Powder Kegs he’ll likely pull out the win. If the Threshold player can avoid MUC’s limited removal and keep FoF from resolving he’ll likely win. There are a boatload of little things that can easily decide this game as well, such as whether or not Back to Basics resolves and whether or not the Threshold player can chain his or her cantrips together and keep the threats coming.

Postboard Chalice of the Void adds another bomb to the MUC player’s arsenal, and Pithing Needle is an excellent weapon for the Thresh player, but the basic dynamic remains the same.

Tips:
-Back to Basics is possibly your best weapon against Thresh game 1, as it often shuts down a large portion of their mana base and makes it much harder for them to play cantrips and continue to lay down threats.
-Blowing an early Powder Keg at one to clear away Mongeese is often the right play, you can force through a Shackles and steal anything else. Especially if you know they’ve boarded in Worship.
-Sometimes, depending on your hand, countering Thresh’s cantrips can be a good play, as it can often put them in topdeck mode and keep their threats light. Still, this can be risky depending on your own gas, and the makeup of your opponent’s hand. A high risk, high reward strategy.

Vs. IGGy-Pop (60-40 preboard, 65-35 to 70-30 postboard depending on what’s in the Iggy player’s sideboard)

You’re Mono-Blue. They’re non-instant speed storm combo. This matchup plays out like the combo vs. control matches of old with a few small nuances to keep in mind. If they start with Leyline in play you MUST counter Ill-Gotten Gains. Yes that’s obvious, but if by some chance you make a misplay and they resolve it in that situation you are almost guaranteed to lose the game. Still, even with that threat you have 16 counters for their combo pieces, and the card advantage tools to bury them once you’ve laid the proverbial trap.

Postboard you gain Tormod’s Crypt, which makes Ill-Gotten Gains much less effective in most cases, and Chalice of the Void, which if set early at one is an absolute bomb in this matchup. Conserve your counterspells for Ill-Gotten Gains, Intuition, and Infernal Tutor (with priority going from IGG forward) and this match should be pretty easy.

Tips:
-Don’t fall into the trap of countering the tutor if there’s a Leyline out and even a remote chance they might have IGG in hand. It WILL wreck you.
-If they start getting high in storm do not be afraid to counter their tutors, as a Tendrils would wreck you.

Some questions to get the ball rolling on discussion:

Chrome Mox? Hot or not?

Is Ophidian worth a slot in today’s metagame?

What’s the optimal draw suite? 4 Brainstorm, 3 Impulse, 3 Fact or Fiction? 4 Impulse 4 Fact or Fiction?

Morphling or Meloku? Should whatever the finisher is be a three of or a two of?

Just a couple of things I didn't go over in that post. Although the matchups appear to be primarily coinflips or in your opponent's favor, the builds of MUC listed actually have good game against non-goblins aggro like Angel Stompy, and particularly any build of 3 color aggro. Shackles is a great tool, as is Powder Keg, and against 3 color aggro like Zoo you can lock them under a B2B and just counter everything of relevence, drop a Morphling and win. The biggest threat decks like that can offer up are things like Troll Ascetic, which the only way you have to get rid of it is by either countering it or blowing it up with a Keg when they don't have mana open.

MUC also has great matchups against most fast combo, as more often than not you'll have too much countermagic for just a duress to handle.

And a little revision that I missed when writing that post is the wording in the tips section for the IGGy matchup. Generally you don't want to counter the tutors they play unless they're getting up there in storm where they could just fetch tendrils and wreck you. The wording I used seemed kind of confusing, so I figured I'd clear that up before it became an issue.

Great primer! I like the addition of Rune Snag in your build. A couple of comments/questions:

Chrome Mox seems not hot to me. Between FOW, Misdirection, and Chrome Mox, there are a lot of card disadvantage effects in this deck.

Why no Force Spikes in your build?

I have a personal dislike of counters that become dead as you get deeper into a game, hence my adoption of Rune Snag over Mana Leak, and Force Spike is about as dead as it gets outside of the early game.

That's not to say it doesn't have applications. It can certainly be an effective answer to Goblin Lackey, which you can never have too many of, and it's a great tool to prevent falling too far behind against decks when drawing as opposed to playing.

It comes down to preference really, but Force Spike could easily replace Misdirection and/or Mana Leak in my build.

I really like this deck and am impressed that it has done so well recently. I was wondering how well the deck handles an early rush of creatures, such as sligh/suicide type decks. Shackles seems necessary to overcome this, yet most builds run only two.

Chrome Mox seems good, getting counter magic up turn 1, serving the same role as Force Spike, and accelerating you into a faster FOF to make up for the card disadvantage.

How good is Powder Keg? I can see it being great for Vial, Needle, Mongoose and such.

I'd absolutely add Disrupting Shoals and Chrome Moxes. Chrome Moxes remove the need for janky Force Spikes and Disrupting Shoal gives you more counters for Goblins' turn 1 plays as well as any average MU in mid- to lategame. You've got a nice spread of casting costs making Disrupting Shoal extremely castable and Chrome Mox just accelerates you into your drawspells. These cards did very well for me when I tested a MUC-build of my own, but it's worth noting that going down to mere 11 Islands is a bit annoying, since you really want to hit your landdrops way into the lategame. I personally feel happy starting to work on winning when I have about 8 mana available and enough business in hand. Then I can draw, counter and cast win conditions while not dropping the cover.

'Phid is a no-go in my opinion, it does very little against Goblins, Thres, Iggy and just about anything that's either fast or runs creatures, being only decent against Solidarity and even there only if you can drop it before they can go off. I'd go 3 Shackles over 3 Powder Kegs as you really want active Shackles against anything running creatures if you're planning on winning.

What about Chalice of the Void MB?
I think it's a very viable inclusion because the only CC1 spell is Brainstorm.
Chalice 1 Stops so much annoying things and is very good against NQG with its cantripping.

And with Chalice, you can even think about Thirst for Knowledge in the Drawengine, because it just plunges later Moxen.

And I guess there have to be 2-3 Repeal as a MB Permanent Removal other than Keg, especially Pithing Needle.
A first on the Keg, a second on Our Finisher/Shackles and we a nearly weak at killing with a 3/3 or 2/4 without ability.
Bouncing Lackey is even just a good play.


So far,

Doks

Does anyone know if there is a tournament report by Anderson or McGraw? I would really like to see how they played each match, etc.

I like the inclusion of Chrome Mox; like you said, it removes the necessity for 1cc counters. However, in testing your list, I have had a few issues with running out of cards in the early game. To alleviate this, I am testing Chalice main in the place of a Misdirection and the two Mana Leaks.

I'm back and forth on Ophidian; In a way, I've used it more as a wall that can draw a card every once in a while more than a draw engine. Right now I'm sticking with him, but I'm considering Spire Golem instead.

As for the draw suite, I don't like Brainstorm in a deck like this, but with five to six fetchlands, I think it deserves a place. With only four fetches, I wouldn't run it. Impulse is great, and I love Fact or Fiction at four. Really, it comes down to more counters or Brainstorm.

As for win conditions, running only two seems dangerous, and if I did, I would run the most protectable (i.e. Morphling.) I like Meloku, but not entirely sure how often I would use his ability.

I'm running a mono-blue Control list, and I really like you decision to run Chrome Mox. I too have been running Moxen as a way to accelerate into a turn 1 Counterspell, which I find is absolutely crucial, and the time when you should notice the card disadvantage is after you should be resolving Fact or Fiction, so it really makes little difference at all.

I also like the inclusion of Rune Snag, which I find to be the most powerful new counter to be printed in the past six or seven years (there is a case to be made for Daze I suppose). I think it's almost strictly better than Mana Leak, and that's saying something.

I'm a bit perplexed about two things however, one is the 2 Vedalken Shackles, which I believe is so good that more should be added, and the other is the inclusion of Morphling over Meloku. I find Meloku to be the better card in the current format so rife with creatures. It's fantastic against Grow, and also quite good against Goblins (Incinerator aside). It also almost singlehandedly wins the game against random aggro decks, something that Morphling can't attest to.

Other than that, great summary of MUC's strengths and weaknesses, although I still think that Solidarity is the best mono-blue control deck in the format, at least at this time.

Excellent Primer, Eric and I our good friends and constantly are discussing new ideas with different decks.

MUC is an interesting deck and if anybody likes I will write a tournament report and discuss how i handled goblins, affinity, GUW Thresh and Solidarity.

Cards in Defense

Quicksand - Though some of you really dislike the idea of loosing this to a wasteland it really can help handle aggro decks. It can kill a Piledriver, Lackey(practically any goblin), Dark Confident, Meddling Mage, Werebear(before Thresh), Hounds(Savannah and Isamaru), Soltari Priest, and Silver Knight. The card is excellent and should be vigoroulsy playtested if you are in an aggro heavy format.

Ophidian - Many say hes out of date based that he dies to Chain, Bolt, Edict, STP. On the other hand, sometimes he is very useful just to establish the board and stall a turn while you get the cards you need to win. 4th Round against GUW Thresh i had two Ophidian on the board and the card adavantage that they gave to me helped me win that round. He should be playtested before you dismiss him.

Mophling vs Meloku - Meloku is the kind of card that can drastically change the game after he resolves and you untap him. Though he still can die VERY easily to STP which is heavily run in my format area. I choose morphling because he is practically unkillable(except Edict and the new Sudden cards). He can drastically turn the game around the turn you resolve him. I feel that his description as Superman fits the terms that you play him. There has not been a game when we have played with BBS that a Morphling has resolved and we havnt won.

Brainstorm - This card is the best 1 U Blue cantrip card(that is legal in the format). Its helps pull through your deck to get the needed land drops, the access card can be shuffled away due to the Fetchlands. Omitting this card from you deck is a serious mistake. Its very valuable early gane.

Up for Discussion

Chrome Mox - This card was not considered when we were tweaking the deck before the SCG D4D. It seem very ideal in this deck, though if you are going to run it. You will probably either have to cut Impulse or Ophidian.

Arcane Labrotory - This card is an excellent card to help balance the matchup against Solidarity and IggyPop. Its an ideal card to side in and take out the Back to Basics for game two and hopefully game three.

Propoganda - The card can stabalize the board against VERY quick aggro decks. Though Most aggro decks can just pay the mana for the creatures they really need to win. I dislike this card in the Sideboard since you have other ways to handle aggro.

It all really depends on the meta of the format that you are in to dictate your choices.

Meloku, which I tested extensively, has been by far the worse card for MUC in my experience. It dies to almost every piece of removal played in Legacy, which Morphling is far and away immune to, and it kills slower than Morphling in general. MUC's danger zone against aggro is the first 5 or 6 turns, where neither Meloku nor Morphling does anything to help you, so Meloku doesn't even get the benefit of being able to help against aggro decks. It's just too slow and too vulnerable.

Shackles could easily be a three-of depending on what you expect to see in your metagame. The simple change from my build would be +1 Vedalken Shackles and -1 Back to Basics, with +1 Back to Basics and -1 Vedalken Shackles in the board. I choose to run two because this deck is very adept at finding them through Impulse and Fact or Fiction, and because in some matchups it's slightly undesireable.

I've tested Ophidian extensively as well, and the only situations where it's been remotely useful were when aggro decks had horrible draws and didn't lay down any creatures. It wasn't even all that effective as a blocker because it only has 1 power and doesn't trade with anything relevent.

Brainstorm I found strictly inferior to Impulse in this deck, simply because for me they both serve the same purpose. I want to dig aggresively for land drops in the early game, and without a fetchland Brainstorm is worse than Impulse for that purpose. I suppose it comes down to playstyle, but I've prefered Impulse and FoF as 4s to fitting in Brainstorm.

This might not be as much of an issue as it seems, but I figured I bring up some discussion on Pithing Needle. Does the fact that it singlehandedly kills Morphling to death come up at all? I realize that you have Powder Keg for the ones that hit early game and counters to keep late game ones from resolving, but how often does it become an issue? I bring it up simply because Needle opens Morphling up to StP, Bolt, Chain, Lightning Helix Terror, etc., etc. Needle is in most sideboards (and a few maindecks), and it seems like something you'd better be able to deal with consistently.

EDIT: Oh, and excellent Primer. It's certainly better than what I wrote :wink:.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kadaj

Meloku, which I tested extensively, has been by far the worse card for MUC in my experience. It dies to almost every piece of removal played in Legacy, which Morphling is far and away immune to, and it kills slower than Morphling in general. MUC's danger zone against aggro is the first 5 or 6 turns, where neither Meloku nor Morphling does anything to help you, so Meloku doesn't even get the benefit of being able to help against aggro decks. It's just too slow and too vulnerable.

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Meloku does die to most targetted removal, save lightning bolt etc. But the fact is is that you are running tons of countermagic. I think that it's ability to totally take over the game after it resolves is much better than Morphling's "Can't be Targetted" ability. Also, as for it being slow, I actually find that it is faster than Morphling, because Morphling tops out at 5 damage per turn, while Meloku can do far more damage than that over the course of the game.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kadaj

Shackles could easily be a three-of depending on what you expect to see in your metagame. The simple change from my build would be +1 Vedalken Shackles and -1 Back to Basics, with +1 Back to Basics and -1 Vedalken Shackles in the board. I choose to run two because this deck is very adept at finding them through Impulse and Fact or Fiction, and because in some matchups it's slightly undesireable.

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I would suggest doing this. Shackles, unlike Back to Basics, are not useless in multiples, and against aggro decks, you most definately want to see them early and often. With only 2 in the deck, I think that you can have a very difficult time finding them even with the average amount of search this deck has available to it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kadaj

Brainstorm I found strictly inferior to Impulse in this deck, simply because for me they both serve the same purpose. I want to dig aggresively for land drops in the early game, and without a fetchland Brainstorm is worse than Impulse for that purpose. I suppose it comes down to playstyle, but I've prefered Impulse and FoF as 4s to fitting in Brainstorm.

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I didn't even realize that you were running Impulse over Brainstorm, because I guess I didn't look closely enough, or just assumed that it was in there, due to it being one of the best cards in the format. I like Impulse, but when you are running 6 fetchlands (1 too many I think), there is absolutely no reason whatsoever not to run Brainstorm over Impulse. Brainstorm + Fetchlands is a more powerful effect than Impulse, and it costs half as much.

The costing half as much part is crucial when you realize that you want to leave mana open to counter things. This is much easier with Brainstorm, and many times you don't have to pick and choose between countering something and drawing some cards. Also, in the instance where you don't have a Chrome Mox in hand, Brainstorm is an incredible first turn play.

There are just too many reasons for running Brainstorm over Impulse not to include it.

I agree Brainstorm is objectively a better card than Impulse, but I also believe that it's not nearly as good in this deck as it seems. As a first turn play with a fetchland upcoming it's great, and with Chrome Mox plays like Brainstorm + Fetchland on turn 1 become available, and those are obviously strong plays. However, this deck is based upon redundancy of cards and strategies, and more often than not Brainstorm is inefficient at digging for cards without a fetchland. So many times in testing I would hit a clump of cards that I just didn't want with Brainstorm and also lacked a shuffle effect to move myself past this clump. Impulse is a champ at moving past sections of cards you don't want, as well as still getting you the best card from the bunch.

Also, the beauty of this deck is the ability to be flexible with what it can do in response to an opponent's action, or lack thereof. For instance, you have two islands untapped on your opponents turn with a Counterspell and Impulse in hand. You have the option of countering his play if it's a major threat or letting it resolve and using Impulse to optimize your hand. Brainstorm or whatever other draw you might be running in that slot work the same way, so no matter what the build that function remains open. Unless you have three mana open, at which point you should probably be playing something proactive anyway depending on your build, Brainstorm remains functionally the same as Impulse in this instance.

I will say that my choice of Impulse over Brainstorm is not the end all be all way to run MUC, and that running Brainstorm could hardly be called a mistake. I just feel that its instances of inefficiency and the ability to free up two slots by cutting it (cut 4 Brainstorms, add the fourth Impulse and the fourth Fact or Fiction) outweighed the benefits of running it. Which, while solid, are not so overwhelming as to be an absolute must for this deck.

Meloku can indeed take over a game, but in my testing it was often useless because my opponent would have STP, Lightning Bolt and a Mogg Fanatic, REB, Vindicate, or whatever other piece of removal in their hand, and I would be unable to save him due to either a lack of countermagic in my hand or a critical mass of removal that they had in their hand because it would be otherwise dead against me. Meloku is certainly not unplayable though, I just found him to be far too vulnerable and Morphling's ability to dodge removal, as well as untap and block (which is something that often goes overlooked) makes it effective enough to warrant the slot in my build.

Pithing Needle is a major weakness for any finisher you decide to run, and if set to your finisher could be a major roadblock. However, there are several other great Needle targets in this deck (Shackles and Keg for example) so often those will draw the first Needle and by the time the second comes up you'll have countermagic ready to stop it, or a Keg to blow it up.

Thanks for the compliment Pinder, but don't sell yourself short. Your primer was awesome too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kadaj

Pithing Needle is a major weakness for any finisher you decide to run, and if set to your finisher could be a major roadblock. However, there are several other great Needle targets in this deck (Shackles and Keg for example) so often those will draw the first Needle and by the time the second comes up you'll have countermagic ready to stop it, or a Keg to blow it up.

Thanks for the compliment Pinder, but don't sell yourself short. Your primer was awesome too.

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Those are good points. I suppose Needling a single target against you, even if it is your finisher, probably won't hurt too much given the other stuff the deck can do. Heaven help you if they needle Morphling, Keg, Shackles, and Meloku, though :wink:.

And thanks for your compliment, too. But before we start a 'no, you rock', 'no, you rock' sort of thing I think it would be best if the two of us safely agreed that we both kick tons of ass :tongue:.

EDIT:

So, due to some rather convincing PMs from a certain fellow Sliver enthusiast, I realize that I'm taking certain credits that aren't entirely mine. I wish to make sure that Volt's (fairly monumental) contributions to the CounterSliver primer do not go unnoticed (or unspoken). While the matchup analyses were certainly a collaborative effort (and the portion I worked on most), the entire opening history, as well as the card choices, were his doing. They were solid in the first draft he sent me, and I never really looked back. Given that, I can safely say that roughly 2/3 of the primer was his doing. So there you have it.

I still contend that I kick ass, though :tongue:.

Now back to your regularly scheduled mono-blue control deck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maximus04

MUC is an interesting deck and if anybody likes I will write a tournament report and discuss how i handled goblins, affinity, GUW Thresh and Solidarity.

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Yes this is a very good idea cause many players still think that you had luck vs this decks. Lol. Show them the power of Mono-Blue!!! :tongue:

I love blue and mono-blue but I would never play this kind of deck without some bounce for enchantments and strange permanents...

imho Echoing Truth is a good choice

Hi,

Interesting thread. I tinkered with MUC a while ago, and discovered the following.

- Too many counters are not that good. You need other types of answers.

- Fast aggro decks are a hard to handle, in fact the early game is critical, and you can easily be overwhelmed.

- You cannot be totally reactive as sitting there and waiting for something to counter is a losing strategy. You should be able to play threats too.

In testing, I lowered the amount of counters to 9/10, played with 3 Shackles to grab creatures, added my own creatures, on top of the kills, such as Spiketail Hatchling, Spire Golem (true, he is not that good even when played for free) or Serendib Efreet (he is more than OK I think), added Propagandas to slow down enemy hordes, and also maindecked extra solutions, namely bounces (Echoing Truth) and annoyances (Stifle, even monocolored decks play fetchlands nowadays).
Otherwise, Ophidian looks like outdated tech to me. It is a 1/3 for 3 that does nothing against any of the commonly played creatures in the game. It is slow, comes online on turn 3 or 4 (depending whether you play moxes or not) and needs to deal damage to net you a card... In a creature-ridden format, this does not look too good I say.
Aside from that I favor Force Spike over Daze as this deck, as was previously said by other posters, does not want to miss the first land drops.
Finally, 2 Psionic Blasts proved worthy too, often used to kill an annoying beater, or finish off an unsuspecting (now that it has been timeshifted, they may think about it though) opponent.

Thanks for reading this bunch of comments. Hope this helps you finetune MUC.

Honestly, I wouldn't run MUC without Rainbow Efreet, or splash white for Decree of Justice. If you don't play a completely removal immune win condition, you might as well just play stasis and go to time.

This is of course, only my oppinion. Rainbow Efreet is the nuts against so many decks now that humility is non existant and board sweepers are common.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pinder

This might not be as much of an issue as it seems, but I figured I bring up some discussion on Pithing Needle. Does the fact that it singlehandedly kills Morphling to death come up at all?

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How on earth is that an issue? It doesn't kill Morphling, it's still a 3/3 beater. By the time you establish board control, a 3/3 vanilla beater is probably all that you would need to win the game.