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?
Originally Posted by Cavius The Great
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 was always kinda fearless in everything I did.”
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
Peter Rotten,
I think 4 Silent Arbiter in the sideboard will go a long way in shoring up the goblins matchup.
All you have to do is use your countermagic to keep the card in play, and you can really set goblins back.
What do you recommend cutting from the sideboard to make this happen?
Also, I just wondering but what advantage does this deck have over landstill. It seems like goblins has similar matchup percentages except that it has a better gameplan against Goblins.
Not folding against wasteland or nonbasic hate is the biggest thing. And it is more spell based, and its sweepers are not mana intensive. B2B is another good advantage as well.
She said, "You're broken."
"So is your face." replied the Tarmogoyf.
Counter doesn't help when they cycle Gempalm Incinerator to kill Arbiter :P
And modern Goblins have a w-splash for Swords and postboard Disenchant.
Well, U/W's Goblin-MU is not that much better than MUC's ones.
Against Solidarity, both decks have a bad MU.
Grow depends on the build and the process of the game, e.g. if U/W resolves an early WoG or MUC an early CotV.
Therefore, MUC has - as C.P. said - a very consistent, hardly attackable manabase - one of the most important points in a control deck.
In addition, MUC is not weaker in the non-goblin aggro Matchups.
And MUC has a better non-Solidarity Combo-MU due to its nature and - one of the best inclusions in the modern build - Chalice of the Void.
Some general:
Currently, I am wondering about the latest questions, especially the one about Fetchlands in the modern build not playing Brainstorm.
Is there someone who has got information available that shows the effect of Fetchlands so we can decide if it's worth to pay life for them?
Doks
Clark, don't want to be too rude, as I often see things the same as you, but Peter Rotten hasn't posed since the first post. You might want to go back through and reread some of the thread.
And even the first post was actually written by me >_>
In any case, Silent Arbiter was tested to shore up aggro matchups, but the only aggro matchup that we really struggle with is Goblins, and the uncounterable factor of Incinerator makes Arbiter really bad in that matchup.
The major advantage this deck has over Landstill is that it has twice as much (in some cases) countermagic, and a more or less Wasteland proof mana-base.
Thank you for the well thought out responses everyone. :)
Clearly, I don't have much experience with the deck, I was under the impression that it had a very bad goblins matchup compared to landstill since the deck is so reactive and didn't have sweepers like Deed or Wrath/Disk to clear away an army.
I suggested Arbiter because I had started running Silent Arbiter in Fairie Stompy to bring in versus goblins and have been happy with the results. It's farily easy to lure out a gempalm. No one ever expects Arbiter and the card has singlehandedly won me games.
This deck has a lot more countermagic to stop things besides gempalm but also has fewer creatures to lure gempalm out with. So I think you guys are right.
-----------------------------------------------------
My last concern. Some people here seem to think that the newer builds with Chrome Mox and Chalice and no Brainstorm!! are better. This deck has done relatively well every single time it was played and none of those builds included Chrome Mox/Chalice despite being very recent builds.
Is there some unity to the idea that the builds with Chrome Mox and Chalice and no Brainstorm are the better builds. Or is it split up between those who like the traditional build and those who like the chrome mox build?
The goblins matchup is not bad at all. It is 45/55(main) at worst if you know what you're doing. Only two cards represents a huge problem for you that you cannot deal with quick enough, lackey and vial. These can come down on turn one and both will cost you the game if left untouched. However, that's about it. other threats in the deck can be dealt with the cards you have, and once morphing hits the board you will win the game. Powder keg might no look like it, but it is a very good board sweeper. blowing it at 1 or 2 will stabilize the game, with help of ophidian(if you run it) and veldarken shackles. Post sideboard, BEB provides even more answer to first turn lackey.
Arbiter is just flat out bad. It requires you to reach four mana, and tab out(unless you are thinking that playing him on turn six is good), then it is subject to StP/pyrokinesis/Incinerator/and other removals.
The deck is more permernant oriented than landstill, and countering everything is far from what the deck does.
She said, "You're broken."
"So is your face." replied the Tarmogoyf.
My latest 1.5 (Legacy) deck is MUC (monoblue control); which requires a fair amount of decision-making to play properly. I would like help with that.
First off, here's the decklist I'm working with: (I'm not looking for decklist analysis per se, but it's obviously important info. :))
[sblock=decklist]
[deck=Mono-Blue Counterspell Control]
Sleeves: Black
Format: Legacy
//
Land (25)
25 * Snow-Covered Island
Creatures (3)
1 * Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 * Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
1 * Morphling
Instant (27)
4 * Counterspell
4 * Dissipate
4 * Force of Will
4 * Spell Snare
4 * Fact or Fiction
4 * Ancestral Visions
3 * Remand
Enchantment (2)
2 * Back to Basics
Artifact (2)
2 * Vedalken Shackles
1 * Powder Keg
Sideboard (15)
2 * Blue Elemental Blast
2 * Hydroblast
4 * Trickbind
3 * Annul
2 * Back to Basics
1 * Powder Keg
1 * Vedalken Shackles
[/deck]
[/sblock]
Some of my strategy involves the big question:
(Assuming I have a counter in hand, should I try to counter spell such-and-such)
That's something I've had problems with occasionally during playtesting.
Fact or Fiction I wait to play until opponent's EOT. Isn't that the correct way to do it?
* Note: If I have no counter sin hand, and my opponent puts something obnoxious on the stack, I sometimes play FoF in the hope of digging up a counter.
That brings up another question: Once my opponent makes the piles, what should I keep?
Teferi is similar - I wait till EOT to play him, unless I have a chance to flash him in as a surprise blocker.
Also, what should I do if I have Teferi in play and Morphling or Meloku in hand? Something similar?
Also, I have some sideboard questions:
Often, it seems obvious what I should sideboard in, but sometimes not so obvious what to board out. Any help there?
What comes to mind is:
side out Back to Basics if their deck is all basics; but what should I do if I face only a few nonbasics?
side out Vedalken Shackles if opponent's deck is creatureless
side out Spell Snare if none (or only a few) of opponent's spells cost 2.
Failing that, I think I'd take out the Remands next.
How long have you been playing? Do not take this as an attack, but if you're still wrestling with the "Play instants at EOT unless needed otherwise" concept, it makes me wonder if you might need some more time playing a proactive deck before picking up something as intricated as MUC.
meaning beyond the immanent is irrelevant
The reason I said that, "Play instants at EOT unless needed otherwise", is an attempt to make it clear that I already have a handle on the obvious. :)
Asking in the MUC thread would help :] That's what those threads are for, right?
Constructive comments time: If you have Teferi in play, don't play another Win-Con. You shouldn't try to protect 2 different valueable assets if you can avoid it. Hold the other one until you can no longer protect the other threat (i.e. It's killed).
@ list: I would cut the Remands from the deck, playing +2 Back to Basics, and +1 something else (possibley Cryptic Command). Is 25 lands too much?
Team Battletoadz: Fuck the Meta-police?
If it's all in our heads, it's best that we don't loose them.
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