Hatch's Mono-Blue Martyr

[Rebelwithapen216]

Your force spike creatures require daze to be effective. The couple Wastelands were also in the list for that reason. I would not move away from those. Also, Disrupting Shoal is also useful to keep the board clean, as your creatures are almost smaller than your opponent's.

Keep it up, it's a nice deck.

Thanks! I do think daze is great in this deck, but it's hard to find the balance between interaction and synergy pieces. Sage of Epityr is definitely the creature that is the most up in the air for me at the moment, but it has impressed me so far. I know that Faerie Miscreant also looks pretty dopey, but honestly it has also impressed me. It makes spellstutter so much better, flying is relevant, and the cantripping once you have multiples is not bad at all. Wasteland is the card I am trying to fit in a few copies of the most.

Shoal I am not convinced by. It has a similar tension with hussar that martyr has, and we already have force of will. On top of that, it's extremely situational and you have almost no agency over what you counter with it. I recognize that we have to keep the board clear in some way, and that's why I've added the swords. I think a big problem with the original list (and there were many) was that it had no way to actually answer a creature if it resolved. It just had bounce cards, which are just not going to do the trick against the hyper efficient creatures that get played now. You need hard removal.

[Xod]

Interesting deck, but the fact that you only can counter instant or sorcery's (except spellstutter) and CotV can really wreck your whole deck. So a couple of dazes could be interesting. Or maybe 2 echoing truth main. I would play 1 skaab ruinator main, just because it can put a decent clock.

Maybe a one off Cavern of Souls could be interesting (CotV and counters in mind) because you have 5 creature types with 8 creatures. More than one would be tricky.

Back to basics is an auto include in the Sideboard if you put 1 plain main. Works at least as good as wasteland.

I was wondering, maybe a one of opposition could be good or a trade wind rider. Against permanents that you can't counter. Plus you can bounce with trade wind, play sky huzzar, untap everything, bounce again.

Also, you need a couple of sweepers/bouncers against creature decks.

If you want to pump your creatures, I would suggest Glenn Elandra Liege.

Just a few thoughts.

[Rebelwithapen216]

Interesting deck, but the fact that you only can counter instant or sorcery's (except spellstutter) and CotV can really wreck your whole deck. So a couple of dazes could be interesting. Or maybe 2 echoing truth main. I would play 1 skaab ruinator main, just because it can put a decent clock.

Maybe a one off Cavern of Souls could be interesting (CotV and counters in mind) because you have 5 creature types with 8 creatures. More than one would be tricky.

Back to basics is an auto include in the Sideboard if you put 1 plain main. Works at least as good as wasteland.

I was wondering, maybe a one of opposition could be good or a trade wind rider. Against permanents that you can't counter. Plus you can bounce with trade wind, play sky huzzar, untap everything, bounce again.

Also, you need a couple of sweepers/bouncers against creature decks.

If you want to pump your creatures, I would suggest Glenn Elandra Liege.

Just a few thoughts.

There's also force of will to counter any spell type. Still, I agree that daze would make a good fit in the deck.

Chalice is definitely a concern, but at a certain point you have to accept that no brew is perfectly well-rounded and you have to focus on your primary game plans. Plus there are counterspells and true-names so you're not totally cold to chalice game 1.

Echoing truth/bounce spells are just not effective when most permanents in legacy are so efficient. Decks that play echoing truth (often out of the sideboard) are usually trying to win the turn after they cast it (like storm trying to win through chalice), or they're targeting something specific like marit lage. Similarly, all the creature-bounce cards like waterfront bouncer are mana intensive, slow, require set-up (or card advantage loss), and ultimately just don't provide a relevant tempo advantage against the threats of the format. The way you try to keep the board clear is with swords to plowshares in the mainboard, which by itself is worth the white splash, and by just countering things and chump blocking until you can smash in with enough flyers or with a true-name.

Skaab ruinator is not a consideration in a format where true-name nemesis is legal. As boring as true-name is, it's by far the most reliable win condition that a deck like this can run.

Cavern is too swingy. You need consistent access to blue mana, and there are too many different creature types.

I haven't gotten around to seriously developing a sideboard yet, but back to basics would potentially be a good include. However, I don't think it necessitates a basic plains. It would make your mana inconsistent, and you don't have to preemptively fetch your tundras all the time. The white splash is very light.

Opposition and trade wind rider are 4 mana, and are sadly too expensive for the mainboard. Same with glen elendra liege. Cool effects, but they are far too weak for an investment of 4 mana, and far too costly for a deck that's trying to play 14-16 lands. Casting hussar is like a plan C back-up plan, so you're really not trying to do abusable things with its ETB ability or cast it consistently. The only 4 mana permanent that I think is reasonable for this deck is jace, and only out of the sideboard.

Here's what I've revised the list to be if I want some dazes and wastelands:

4x Flooded Strand
5x Island
3x Polluted Delta
2x Tundra
2x wasteland
4x Cursecatcher
4x Faerie Miscreant
4x Judge's Familiar
4x Mausoleum Wanderer
3x Sage of Epityr
4x Sky Hussar
4x Spellstutter Sprite
3x True-Name Nemesis
4x Brainstorm
3x Daze
4x Force of Will
3x Swords to Plowshares

14 blue sources really pushes the deck into kind of "all-in" territory, but even a couple of wastelands could be worth it to bolster the dazes and force spike creatures and handle a few troublesome lands.