[Deck] Mono-Blue Control (MUC)

[frustanani]

I think to run MUC successfully we have to take a look at what MUC brings that splashing color doesn't.

1. Not weak to blood moon or nonbasic land hate.
2. Consistently produce UUU or UUUUU
3. Devotion,

I think for MUC to be a worthwell deck we need to leverage UUU spells as much as possible, luckily we got archmages charm, CCommand or invoke prejudice.
Next I think we need to leveage bnb as much as possible.4
If your deck doesn't run these things, there;s no advantage to to MUC. Just go miracles and get it over with .

Well, the biggest advantage in playing mono blue is that you are the strongest in control mirrors.
Miracle Control, Grixis Control, Bug Control are a big part of the metagame.

For sure, if you are asking yourself "where is my swords to plowshares?!", you are doing it wrong. On the other side, as far as Lightning Bolts, Abrupt Decay, Hymn to Tourach, Thoughtseize, Dovin's Veto are popular, you should ask yourself "where are my Misdirections and/or Diverts ?!"

At the moment those decks are not running wastelands or fast drops, so if you run Mishra's Factory and Standstill they have problems facing you. Not to consider that cards like Psionic Blast are like an istant speed vindicate for their planeswalkers. Also against combos / storm decks you don't have those 8/9/10 remouval spells (swords to plowshares, terminus, Council's Judgment; abrupt decay; fatal push) which are dead cards in your hand. There are some advantages in playing just blue.

Playing mono-U has a lot of limitations. But, as far as you are a control deck (or aggro-control, midrange), you adapt to the meta, you should not focus of what cards you have not in your pool, but on what your opponents' are playing.

[MGB]

4 Force of Will
4 Force of Negation
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Ophidian

Profit?

[Kagehisa]

4 Propaganda
4 Collective Restraint
2 Back to Basics

3 Narset, Parter of Veils
4 Thing in the Ice
3 Snapcaster Mage

4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
3 Spell Pierce

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Preordain

8 Island
4 Prismatic Vista
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Mountain



SB
Hydroblast
Spell Snare
Flusterstorm
Divert
Surgical Extraction
Misdirection
Jace, The Mind Sculptor
Counterbalance
Engineered Explosives
And the usual toys

The novelty here is the synergy between Prismatic Vista and Collective Restraint.

Plan against aggro deck : Drop and stack Propaganda and Collective Restraint. With 5 basic land type, opponent will have to pay 5 generic mana to attack you ! In the end, opponent won't be able to attack you. That why we play 4 Prismatic Vista and a blue fetch of each so that we can align lots of Island next to Mountain, Swamp, Plains and Forest. Obviously, we won't have turn 5 Collective Restraint at full power. "Only" 16 blue sources. We can maybe remove 2 Preordain for 2 Island.

Back to Basics, sometimes an end bringer by itself, helps to make opponent just skip the attack phase with Propaganda effect.
Narset buys time and find the Propaganda and friends.
Thing in the Ice is the win condition, Jace being excluded from maindeck because of Propaganda effects unable to protect planeswalkers against creatures deck.

I hope this is solving MUC weakness, which is creatures deck in my opinion. In the sideboard, goodies (flashback-able with Snapcaster Mage) against Control mirror and Combo match up, graveyard hates and bounce spells should cover the rest and Engineered Explosives at full power as a bonus.

I'm excited to test this list ! I'm 80 euros away from getting the deck on MTGO lol

[Fallen_Empire]

The novelty here is the synergy between Prismatic Vista and Collective Restraint.

With 5 basic land type, opponent will have to pay 5 generic mana to attack you ! In the end, opponent won't be able to attack you. That why we play 4 Prismatic Vista and a blue fetch of each so that we can align lots of Island next to Mountain, Swamp, Plains and Forest.


this is super intriguing, have you tested this out? you could also run wastes

[MGB]

Collective Restraint is so bad. So they have a Tarmogoyf and they pay 2 mana to kill you with it. And the card cost you 3U just to put in play. At that cost it should wipe the board or function as a hard lock a la Ensnaring Bridge.

[Jofiel]

standstill does nothing in your list because you don't have Delver of Secrets or Mishra's Factory to be able to force your opponent to break it. If you play it on turn 2, your opponents simply don't care and don't let you draw 3. Most times you just cannot play it on turn 2.
Too my view, 18 lands are too few to play standstill because when you play it on turn 2, there are few possibilities that you find one of you other 15/16 lands, while your opponent might play more lands than you. For sure they are too few to activate Oblivion Stone.

With Narset, Parter of Veils on battlefield, good cards are:
Day's Undoing
Echo of Eons (you can tutor it with Quiet Speculation or discard it via Foil)
Vendilion Clique
Arcane Denial
Cephalid Coliseum (target your opponent)

Your description of Energy Field is correct
... BUT ...
it's week against too many cards you cannot even counter and you have to sacrifice it anyway (card disadvantage)
Pyroblast from any deck running red g2 and g3
Wasteland on one of your fetches
thoughtseize, Tendrils of Agony, Liliana of the Veil ..
Abrupt Decay, Assassin's Trophy
Flickerwisp
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn & Show and Tell (you better counter it)
Council's Judgment (and Miracle's Jace, The Mind Sculptor still kills you)
... which means way too many decks.

..................................

If your will is to play Landstill (with "Lands") and more free spells, I suggest you to try something like this

2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Prismatic Vista
6 Island
3 Mishra's Factory
2 Faerie Conclave
2 Wasteland .............. total 20

4 Delver of Secrets
4 True-Name Nemesis
3 Pteramander

3 Standstill

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Chart a Course
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
1 Commandeer
3 Vapor Snag
2 Psionic Blast
1 Archmage's Charm

Sideboard:
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Basilisk Collar or Umezawa's Jitte
1 Walking Ballista or Masticore
1 Marrow Shards or Dismember
1 Divert
1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
1 Pithing Needle
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Powder Keg
1 Teferi's Response

Force of Negation is not a very good card in legacy to my view ... can counter just planeswalkers and few interesting sorceries.
Misdirection and Commandeer are better to my view because they allow you to protect your play (for exaple Nemesis or Standstill sorcery speed) and you can use your opponent's spell as a threat for themself.

From few years I'm playing as a MUC something like this and it's winning with other decks. :) Yes, I know that mono U Delver can not be satyfing for all but it's still some base. So I show you my list.

Lands:
10x Island (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Island?fromqs=true)
4x Scalding Tarn (https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=Scalding+Tarn) - added
4x Wasteland (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Wasteland?fromqs=true)

Creatures:

4x Delver of Secrets (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Delver%20of%20Secrets?fromqs=true)
4x Pteramander (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Pteramander?fromqs=true)
4x True-Name Nemesis (https://deckbox.org/mtg/True-Name%20Nemesis?fromqs=true)

(You could replace one of this creatures by Cryptic Serpent (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Cryptic%20Serpent?fromqs=true))

Spells:

3x Unstable Mutation (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Unstable%20Mutation?fromqs=true) / Curious Obsession (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Curious%20Obsession?fromqs=true&printing=37859)

4x Brainstorm (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Brainstorm?fromqs=true)
4x Ponder (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Ponder?fromqs=true)

4x Force of Will (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Force%20of%20Will?fromqs=true)
4x Counterspell (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Counterspell?fromqs=true)
3x Daze (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Daze?fromqs=true)
2x Swan Song (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Swan%20Song?fromqs=true)

(You could allways experiment with Spell Snare (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Spell%20Snare?fromqs=true) or Spell Pierce (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Spell%20Pierce?fromqs=true), but in mono U real counterspells sounds better for me.)

3x Rapid Hybridization (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Rapid%20Hybridization?fromqs=true) / Pongify (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Pongify?fromqs=true) / Diminish (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Diminish?fromqs=true) - black & white have Fatal Push & Swords, we have this one.

2x Echoing Truth (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Echoing%20Truth?fromqs=true)
1x Devastation Tide (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Devastation%20Tide?fromqs=true)

Sideboard:

2x Ratched Bomb (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Ratchet%20Bomb?fromqs=true)
2x Tormod's Crypt (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Tormod%27s%20Crypt?fromqs=true) / Grafdigger's Cage (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Grafdigger%27s%20Cage?fromqs=true)
2x Winter Orb (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Winter%20Orb?fromqs=true)
2x Chill (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Chill?fromqs=true)
2x Back to Basics (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Back%20to%20Basics?fromqs=true)
2x Devastation Tide (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Devastation%20Tide?fromqs=true)
2x Flusterstorm (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Flusterstorm?fromqs=true)
2x Echoing Truth
(https://deckbox.org/mtg/Echoing%20Truth?fromqs=true)

Other Side Options for tests:

2x Narset, Parter of Veils (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Narset%2C%20Parter%20of%20Veils?fromqs=true)
2x Ashiok, Dream Renders (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Ashiok%2C%20Dream%20Render?fromqs=true)
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Jace%2C%20the%20Mind%20Sculptor?fromqs=true)
2x Acid Rain (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Acid%20Rain?fromqs=true) - so funny :D
2x Propaganda (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Propaganda?fromqs=true)
2x Pithing Needle (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Pithing%20Needle?fromqs=true)
3x Polymorphist's Jest (https://deckbox.org/mtg/Polymorphist%27s%20Jest?fromqs=true)

That's all. This appear in Internet arter I played this deck :D - really:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-TXokCg3_I

[Fox]

8 Fetch, 6 Island or cut Brainstorm.

[Jofiel]

8 Fetch, 6 Island or cut Brainstorm.

But why? Other players have wastelands, we have back to basics on side. 4 will not be enough?

[Fox]

But why? Other players have wastelands, we have back to basics on side. 4 will not be enough?
Brainstorm, put 2 cards you don’t want back, then shuffle the 2 cards you don’t need away. Also they mill lands out of your deck, decreasing wasted drawsteps on land topdecks.

Beyond this, it’s never been easier to splash a second color for a single 4-of. If you played Vista full of Tarn, there’s really nothing stopping you from playing 1x Mountain, SB REBs, and just 4x maindeck Bolt and improving competitiveness. Every mono-color deck has to justify why they’re not grabbing a second color at this point since it’s basically free.

Alternatively 1x Swamp and Delta full of Vista and you can change every Counterspell into a playable card: Drown in the Loch.