Uw Tempo - I want to believe

[tarmogoat]

I want to play mono blue -I always wanted to- but it seems that outside of High Tide or Mono U OmniTell or Mono U painter it's impossible (and there are better builds for OmniTell and painter than monoU).

So I know that Grixis and BUG are far superior, but can we sneak a mono u deck with a tiny splash of white for Sideboard cards + swords in the main? Is it trying too hard?

UW Tempo

18 1drops
4x Brainstorm
4x Stifle
2x Spell Pierce
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Delver of Secrets

11 2drops
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Daze
2x Snapcaster Mage
1x Umezawa's Jitte

5 3drops
3x Vendilion Clique
2x True-Name Nemesis

2 4drops
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

foh fows
4x Force of Will

20 lands
4x Wasteland
4x Polluted Delta
4x Flooded Strand
2x Tundra
4x Island
1x Plains
1x Karakas

15 board
2x Pithing Needle
2x Flusterstorm
2x Path to Exile
2x Rest in Peace
2x Containment Priest
2x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Disenchant
2x Council's Judgment

[Fox]

Probably the most important analysis is that this list dies to Tarmogoyf. To expand on that point:
-Far too much mana invested in Spellstutter Sprite for its effect. If we're being honest, this card isn't legacy-competitive - and I say that when played optimally (this card needs Aether Vial).
-You have 4x pieces of real 'clock' at cmc 1, and then 5x other pieces at cmc 3. On top of this, you're trying to tempo people out while running StP and no recovery mechanism or inevitability engine.
-Stifle/Wasteland/Daze isn't winning games in 2017, nor has it been winning games since control all went to basic lands (miracles). Just glance down the top 32 of Louisville and tell me how many RUG Delvers you see or BUG/Grixis Delvers opting to run Stifle in the main. If you want to run Stifle to any effect, it's going to need goldfishing application.

In your list Delver could become Ponder, Stifle become SDT, and Spellstutter become Counterbalance - at that point you're basically on U/W miracles. What's important though is that even without the Terminus, Predict, and Mentor your deck's win %age would skyrocket compared to its current list. CB/SDT is just skill-less free wins, and a lot of them. There are tons of neat things you can do in UW like Standstill or Blade, or in your case Spellstutter, but all of these have the drawback of having to use cards from hand to deal with opponents' cards, whereas miracles taps a land to invalidate a card from hand. Standstill and Blade decks are competitive (as in powerful enough to win games vs the non-miracles field), but they're also using necessarily high impact cards to do so...you're trying to create a competitive tempo deck, but the bridge between Delver and 3cmc 3/1s isn't strong enough (referring to Spellstutters). The consequence is that if you don't have Delver in the opening hand, or that Delver is addressed immediately, then there isn't going to be a gamestate left which your 3/1s can salvage.

[sco0ter]

Recently there was a UW Tempo deck placing relatively well (64th) on Grand Prix Chiba:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/518652#online

[Cartesian]

That pic made me think of the reserved list.

More on topic, Merfolk is mono blue?

[Mr Miagi]

"I want to believe" loled quite hard but I would also really want monoblue tempo/faeries along with white splash to be a thing. For Quite some time I've been tinkering with something like:

4 cloud of faeries
4 spellstutter sprite
4 ninja of the deep hours
1 vendilion clique
1 true name nemesis
2 snapcaster mage
1 stoneforge mystic
1 sword of f&i
1 umezawa's jitte
4 aether vial
4 standstill
4 force of Will
2 spellpierce
4 Brainstorm
4 swords to plowshares

41 nonland cards
20 lands (with some number of mutavaults (or maybe mishra's))


A lovely tier 4 deck that has a nice engine which is totally overcomplicated (clod of faeries, sprite and ninja) and overcosted when you can just slam chalice @ 1 and start slamming eldrazis.. Oh well :( Might take out the stonfoge and equipment and just jam in more goyfs. Actually a colleague of mine played this quite some years ago to some decent success (2nd place in some 100+ players tournament).

[Asthereal]

Why not simply add more powerful cards?
Spellstutters and friends are rather weak.
You don't want to auto-lose to Goyfs and big Eldrazi dudes.
I've been considering a list like this for a while now:

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Monastery Mentor /13

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Spell Pierce
3 Stifle
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull /28

3 Tundra
3 Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Wasteland /19

Sideboard (rough):
3 Meddling Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Stifle
1 Spell Pierce
2 Evasive Surgery
1 Disenchant
2 Council's Judgment
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Rest in Peace
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor /15

[Poron]

I really like the flashy/counterishy creatures
With Copter a Sprite is 10 times better than a Delver

4 Sprite
3 Clique
4 SFM
Jitte
Batterskull
SoFI
Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
3 Smuggler's Copter
2 Meddling Mage
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 StP
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
2 Spell Snare
4 FoW
2 Counterspell
4 Daze

Cleansing Purge/Disenchant/EE/Uber Vindicate in SB

I would test it..

with a Sword on the field any flashy and flying creature is a fucking nightmare

[Asthereal]

I really like the flashy/counterishy creatures
With Copter a Sprite is 10 times better than a Delver

4 Sprite
3 Clique
4 SFM
Jitte
Batterskull
SoFI
Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
3 Smuggler's Copter
2 Meddling Mage
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 StP
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
2 Spell Snare
4 FoW
2 Counterspell
4 Daze

Cleansing Purge/Disenchant/EE/Uber Vindicate in SB

I would test it..

with a Sword on the field any flashy and flying creature is a fucking nightmare

Euh... did you count your cards?
That's like 49 non-land cards.
Which 8 cards would you cut?
Or if you keep Thopter Foundry, which 10?
(Because you'll need more land.)

Besides, Copter is hopeless without a guy.
I'd much rather attach a Mask of Memory to a Delver.
That provides actual card advantage, and allows me to use the creature itself.

[tarmogoat]

Thanks for the interest! Yeah I guess in a world with Chalices for 1 and leovolds and whatnot SSS is just not at the level, it's my favorite magic card ever and it's just so hard to part with her. But SFM is the better card any day.

16 1drops
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Brainstorm
4x Delver of Secrets
2x Ponder
2x Spell Pierce


11 2drops
4x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Daze
2x Counterspell
1x Umezawa's Jitte

6 3drops
2x Vendilion Clique
2x True-Name Nemesis
1x Sanctum Prelate
1x Sword of Fire and Ice

2 4drops
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

5 5drops
4x Force of Will
1x Batterskull

20 lands
4x Wasteland
4x Polluted Delta
4x Flooded Strand
3x Tundra
3x Island
1x Plains
1x Karakas

15 board
2x Flusterstorm
2x Standstill
2x Rest in Peace
2x Meddling Mage
1x Disenchant
2x Back to Basics
2x Council's Judgment
1x Geist of Saint Traft
1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

I guess with better cards come better results. Not convinced about Mentor though as there isn't a better home for him than Miracles (except for TinFins lol) and it'll feel like a lackluster in any other shell.

Special thanks to Fox for the detailed comments, very constructive.