Mono Blue Control (With Standstill & Proteus Staff)

[Clark Kant]

This is a very fun and fairly competitive deck that I've been working on and finally tweaked to the point that I'm comfortable posting it. I'm open to any suggestions you have to improve it without radically altering it. It's basically a control deck that has a combo win condition...

14 Island

4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Veil of Birds

4 Ponder
4 Impulse

4 Standstill
4 Propaganda

4 Daze
4 Force of Will

4 Proteus Staff
4 Polymorph
2 Progenitus

The deck plays like a fairly typical Mono Blue Control deck. You draw cards, you counter spells, you use Propaganda to slow aggro decks by 4 turns or so. And you can even use Proteus Staff on opposing fat creatures to replace them with smaller creatures with summoning sickness.

Where it differs is, this deck consistently combos off on turn 4 or turn 5 to get a Progenitus into play with Force of Will protection.

Against those control decks that try to give the combo a hardtime, the Standstill + Manland package is very potent at generating massive card advantage and give you more chances to combo out.

You almost never ever draw both Progenitus. But in the rare cases that you do, this deck almost always has a full hand, so it can easily discard Progenitus when it needs to by building up to 8 cards.

I tested Brainstorm, and it really does suck horribly without any shuffle effects.

I like everything about the deck so far.

Please post any suggestions or thoughts that you have on this list at all.

[Clark Kant]

Why should you play this combo deck over other combo decks?

Point me to a combo that lets me use Daze/FoW/Propaganda to control the board, cards like Impulse and Ponder to find the combo pieces and still offers the massive consistency that running 12/8 configuration enables, all while letting you abuse the crap out of Standstill, and has a win condition that is immune to every thing except for Wrath.

No other combo deck out there can do more than 1 or 2 of the above functions. And that's why this deck is different from every other combo deck out there and also worth playing. Because all those functions, esp the near unstoppable win condition, being able to combo out so consistently, play so many cantrips, play so much countermagic and abuse Standstill are all very powerful advantages.

The deck's curve is perfect IMO...

You have 8 solid turn one plays, 8 solid turn two plays, and 8 solid turn 3 plays, and 8 solid free counters to protect your combo.

Turn One...
4 Ponder
4 Veil of Birds
(Both are solid plays, you use Ponder to find your combo enabler, or play Veil of Birds to enable your combo and apply early pressure).

Turn Two...
4 Impulse
4 Standstill
(Both serve the same function, to help you find your combo piece by drawing you through a lot of your decks cards. Your opponent will have to break Standstill since you play so many manlands).

Turn Three...
4 Propaganda
4 Proteus Staff
(If you have Staff, play it, and combo off on turn four, if not, Propaganda buys you a ton of extra time to combo off).

Protect your combo/make sure it resolves...
4 Daze
4 Force of Will

Below are some quick explanations that you can/should skip over as they're not that vital...

You could make an arguement that Veiled Sentry is better than Veil of Birds. I like Sentry because opponents Wrath of Gods make it a 4/4 and opponents Force of Wills make it a 5/5. I frequently play Veiled Sentry turn one, and Standstill turn two, and the opponent has to think twice about Forcing that Standstill and in the process giving me a 5/5 beater.

But that said, with LED, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Chalice and what not running around. It's sometimes very important that the Veil becomes a creature. So I opted to replaced Veiled Sentry with Veil of Birds.

Daze replaced Mana Leak. The deck has a lot of turn one plays so I wouldn't play Force Spike. The one problem with Daze is that used early, it slows the deck's combo down by a turn by bouncing a land back to your hand, so it can slow your combo down. But the turn you combo, Daze helps resolve it, Mana Leak really doesn't. So Daze wins.

I do miss Mana Leak though. Impulse and Mana Leak worked really well especially together. You only need to survive the first few turns before you can combo off so Mana Leak is very potent there. Turn two, you leave your mana untapped, if your opponent plays something worth countering, you Mana Leak it, else you simply Impulse at the end of their turn.

Counterspell is a no go bc with only 14 blue sources, you often won't have the mana to support it turn 2-3. Mana Leak is every bit as good for this deck's purpose. Rushing River wasn't bad either. But overall, Daze is better than both cards, being free and all. Protecting the combo is crucial.

I don't have a finalized sideboard. But yeah, the sideboard would play Chalice against storm combo and belcher, and either Crypt or Relic, and maybe even Stifle.

[jthanatos]

Sage of Epityr seems much better than the veil of birds. Also, Veiled sentry usually will see itself activated by a brainstorm or ponder in this format and it might become a 4/4 if they wrath... then it dies. In addition, since proteus staff only works as a sorcery, the opposing fatties are never going to have sickness when it counts. If you want the pile of man lands, faerie conclave seems better than blinkmoth because it actually adds blue, or, if you are going for cheap activation, mutavault can also benefit from factory and races faster under an early standstill.

[caiomarcos]

Sage of Epityr seems much better than the veil of birds. Also, Veiled sentry usually will see itself activated by a brainstorm or ponder in this format and it might become a 4/4 if they wrath... then it dies. In addition, since proteus staff only works as a sorcery, the opposing fatties are never going to have sickness when it counts. If you want the pile of man lands, faerie conclave seems better than blinkmoth because it actually adds blue, or, if you are going for cheap activation, mutavault can also benefit from factory and races faster under an early standstill.

But polymorphing your Factory into a Sage would suck! It looks like the veils and the man lands are the only non-creature creatures.

EDIT: I also found Tidal Wave, Thunderheads and Legacy's Allure that could fit as non-creature creatures, but out of those I think only Legacy's Allure is maybe worth testing, since it doesn't require extra mana on the turn you're comboing out and it could be useful in situations other than the combo. Treachery came to mind now...

[Clark Kant]

Sage of Epityr seems much better than the veil of birds. Also, Veiled sentry usually will see itself activated by a brainstorm or ponder in this format and it might become a 4/4 if they wrath... then it dies. In addition, since proteus staff only works as a sorcery, the opposing fatties are never going to have sickness when it counts. If you want the pile of man lands, faerie conclave seems better than blinkmoth because it actually adds blue, or, if you are going for cheap activation, mutavault can also benefit from factory and races faster under an early standstill.

Sage of Epityr completely screws up the combo. Please read the text on Proteus Staff/Polymorph to see why.

Fairie Conclave is way too slow for the deck. I tried it. Comes into play tapped really hurts, as does requiring two to activate. You have something to do every turn, so comes into play tapped is unacceptable. Also, you end up not being able to Proteus Staff till turn 5 or Polymorph until turn 6 which is too slow. That's one extra turn you're giving your opponent, equal to 10 damage with Progenitus. Mutavault could replace Blinkmoth, but I don't have any and it costs way too much right now. They're functionally identical, and both block as 2/2s so it's all good.

I agree with you on Veiled Sentry, which is why I decided to play Veil of Birds instead.

Yeah Staff is mostly there for the combo. I have used it to replace an opponents Darksteel Collosus, Tombstalker (or even Goyf) with a Trinket Mage or such, but it's only used for that function when you're desperate or can't combo out. But yes, it's a very nice extra function to have, especially against opposing DSCs.

[jthanatos]

But polymorphing your Factory into a Sage would suck! It looks like the veils and the man lands are the only non-creature creatures.

See, this is why I don't play combo decks. For, I am an idiot. I still say there has to be something better than veil of birds at the 1 mana slot. Maybe spell snare, as an early goyf seems to ruin a lot of fun for most decks? Or for janky fun, pongify to make that goyf smaller, or let you keep your own guy around when they aim removal at it?

Btw, I am kidding about pongify.

[Clark Kant]

I can't cut Veil of Birds. I really want to have 12 combo enablers on the creature side, esp since Factories and Darksteels bite the dust to opposing Wastelands sometimes. It also works well with Standstill. And you can always pitch it to FoW.

Goyf isn't really a problem. You usually combo out on turn 4 and get a 10/10 into play with counterprotection. You can always Daze or FoW it. You have Propaganda to slow them down by several turns. Goyf takes till midgame to get scary big. And if you're desperate, you can Polymorph/Proteus Staff it. You also have 12 critters that you can chump block goyf with to buy time for your Progenitus to win you the game.

[Elfrago]

Fucking Veil of what? Come on... I'd rather play other combo enablers like Tidal Wave (with the kiki-jiki EOT trick)... at least sometimes it can surprise-block a Tarmogoyf. Honestly I'd rather play with only 8 combo enablers than playing with Veil things.

Also, Mutavault is way better than Nexus.

Maybe you should try with 10 man-lands and without the veil.

[Clark Kant]

Lol, Tidal Wave?

I've tested both Zoetic Cavern and Chimeric Idol instead of Veil of Birds (both being far superior to Tidal Wave). You can search the forum for my old lists if you don't believe me.

But after much testing, at the end of the day, the low cc of Veil of Birds (abilty to play it turn one), and the pitchability to FoW makes the best possible option.

You don't want to be entirely dependent on manlands, as they get owned by Wastelands and Blood Moon and other random stuff that Veil of Birds gets around.

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

Lol, Tidal Wave?

I've tested both Zoetic Cavern and Chimeric Idol instead of Veil of Birds (both being far superior to Tidal Wave). You can search the forum for my old lists if you don't believe me.

But after much testing, at the end of the day, the low cc of Veil of Birds (abilty to play it turn one), and the pitchability to FoW makes the best possible option.

You don't want to be entirely dependent on manlands, as they get owned by Wastelands and Blood Moon and other random stuff that Veil of Birds gets around.

Veil of Birds is decent, but I think you could get away with playing two copies main, two in the SB. That way you can side in the extra two against decks with heavy non-basic hate, and just have the two copies in the main to smooth out your ability to combo. I'd use Mutavault instead of Blinkmoth Nexus also probably. The flying just doesn't tend to be all that important.

I think you could sneak in two Intuitions in the slots that moving two Veil of Birds to the sideboard would free up, since they would help you combo out more consistently. Most likely, the thing you'd tutor for most often would be three copies of Polymorph. Also, I realize Proteus Staff is vital to your combo, but I'd really try to find a way to reduce the number of copies you have to include in the main, since it sucks in multiples and doesn't really have too much of a good "alternate purpose," despite its ability to randomly nerf your opponent's best beater into something else. It's just theoretically too often a dead card to be worth the fuss.

As far as your sideboard, I'd include some things to side in against Storm based combo, since they can go off faster than you, and several of your maindeck cards are sorta dead against them. I' mean yeah, Propaganda stops Warrens goblin tokens, but they're more likely to Tendrils you with Duress/ Chant backup than to go for the tokens plan.

Also, Burn decks could be a problem for you, as well as Merfolk.

*Just some stuff to consider. Overall, interesting deck. Cheers.

[Clark Kant]

Great advice. I'll try it out and let you know if I end up sticking with it. Thank you.

[GGoober]

I've been working on this deck, but I don't use Progenitus ironically. The power of Proteus Staff is the ability to stack your entire library if you have zero creatures, if you don't have a creature i.e. you'll be able to have any answer at any point.

I'll post my list soon, but the idea of stacking my deck comes from playing Belcher, in situations where I couldn't win but stacked my deck and went off again. I like this idea than trying to get Progenitus out. When you have your answers and stacked card advantage, why need a Progenitus? My deck is in a Stax shell and I'll post it soon when it's more optimized.

Although I've been working on a UB shell with Bitterblossom and disruption. I like the Stax shell so far for stalling and stacking and finding/tutoring for answers. And I call it Proteus Stax.

[Dark_Cynic87]

That's nuts and I wish I would have thought of it. Too bad it's at sorcery speed, which takes up a bit of mana that wouldn't be a problem if you could do it as an instant.

Pce,

--DC

[Valtrix]

Why bother stacking your deck when you can get progenitus into play and just win in two turns? Hardly any decks have answers to a progenitus right now.

Also, look at the way Proteus staff is worded,


Put target creature on the bottom of its owner's library. That creature's controller reveals cards from the top of his or her library until he or she reveals a creature card. The player puts that card into play and the rest on the bottom of his or her library in any order. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.

This begs one to look at control magic effects, IE shackles or threads. We can still their creatures, then proteus staff into Progenitus. Seems like a good plan to me, especially when control magic cards are going to help you a lot in general. Also gives you more win conditions, albeit not the most reliable.

[Anusien]

Any particular reason you don't have Counterbalance/Top? Seems like you have a good curve for it.

[GGoober]

The version I'm building uses 4 Shackles and control magic effects. It's not a pure Blue Stax build, but it's in a blue Stax shell with Chalice protection. I'm not too sure which is better: FOW or 3Sphere main because I doubt I can run either.

Why stacking your deck? Because one of the main problems of Prison decks is that they have such a bad card advantage, and really rely on gameskill to pilot, and topdecking skills.

One activation of Proteus Staff should allow you to find any answer you need and in a prison deck, that is deadly to seal the deal. It's some form of super Vision-block tutoring. However, I am putting 1 Progenitus, instead of 2 in the MD. If you run Thirst for Knowledge, you can also just play 1 Progenitus since you can discard the one in your hand, if it's not in your hand, you get it. If it's in your hand and you only run 1 Progenitus, then you stack your entire library and draw Thirst for Knowledge, and then discard Progenitus and proceed. Therefore I think 2 Progenitus is a waste of space. it's actually good if you don't have any creatures, but even better if you have him.

The only way to abuse Proteus stacking is to design a deck that benefits from that tutoring. The above primer is more MUC and doesn't enjoy it as much as a Stax shell would. I'll be writing a primer soon that will be open for discussion.