Mono Blue Tempo

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

After testing a few games with the following, I feel like it could have some potential, and I'd like to see what the community thinks:


4 Delver of Secrets
2 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Trinket Mage
2 Vendilion Clique

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Stifle
1 Trickbind
3 Dismember

4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce

1 Riptide Laboratory
4 Wasteland
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Scalding Tarn
8 Island

The sideboard right now is a little up in the air, but there are a lot of strong options. Sideboard cards that seem strong to me offhand: Powder Keg, Surgical Extraction, Back to Basics, Submerge, Flusterstorm, Spell Pierce, Vedalken Shackles, Phyrexian Revoker, Llawan, Cephalid Empress etc.

I'd really appreciate some feedback, I'm pretty excited about this and I think I may actually build it for realsies. I'm basically going for a strategy that's between Mono Blue Control and Tempo Thresh. One question that occurs to me offhand, is whether or not I should try to fit in some number of Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Another question I have is whether or not Basilisk Collar and/ or Sensei's Divining Top might be a good addition to the Trinket Mage package, maybe dropping a T-Mage or a Clique to fit it in. Also, I could see trying to fit in 1-2 Umezawa's Jitte somewhere in the 75, perhaps.

Anyhow, please let me know what y'all think. I'd really appreciate any feedback. Thankya vurry much. :cool:

EDIT: One thing I notice is that I might want to shave off a couple creatures and add 1-2 more counters/ utility spells, in order to work better with Delver.

[catmint]

I play around with many different versions of tempo decks. UB, UBG, UBW, UR. I think your deck is playable if you add dismember, but I don't see why monoblue should be better than the other options. The only real advantage is back to basics!

Trinket Mage is not a good tempo card. I would go for straight 4 Dreadnought. Since you cannot use Engineered Explosives Trinket mage is not good and SD.Top is more a control card. For long game advantage I would just use 2-3 Jace in the SB. If the tempo plan is not enough you can transfrom mono-blue controllish with some sideboard slots.

[catmint]

I play around with many different versions of tempo decks. UB, UBG, UBW, UR. I think your deck is playable if you add dismember, but I don't see why monoblue should be better than the other options. The only real advantage is back to basics!

Trinket Mage is not a good tempo card. I would go for straight 4 Dreadnought. Since you cannot use Engineered Explosives Trinket mage is not good and SD.Top is more a control card. For long game advantage I would just use 2-3 Jace in the SB. If the tempo plan is not enough you can transfrom mono-blue controllish with some sideboard slots.

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

I play around with many different versions of tempo decks. UB, UBG, UBW, UR. I think your deck is playable if you add dismember, but I don't see why monoblue should be better than the other options. The only real advantage is back to basics!

Trinket Mage is not a good tempo card. I would go for straight 4 Dreadnought. Since you cannot use Engineered Explosives Trinket mage is not good and SD.Top is more a control card. For long game advantage I would just use 2-3 Jace in the SB. If the tempo plan is not enough you can transfrom mono-blue controllish with some sideboard slots.

Correction, the advantages are taking less mulligans, being less vulnerible to opposing Wasteland, getting less mana screw, and yes... Back to Basics. Seriously, that card is pretty unfair. And Vedalken Shackles tends to rape a lot of aggro... Also I can't help but feel like Riptide Laboratory is also pretty sexy in this list. And I think Delver of Secrets works pretty well in a shell like this (although Lab can't save him once he's transformed). It's entirely possible that this deck should in fact, splash one color though. I'm not ruling it out. Splashing white would kind of just make it U/W Tempo, which already exists... Black would give discard, more removal, and Bob, green would give Goyf and possibly 'Goose (plus Krosan Grip), and red has Grim Lavamancer, Lightning Bolt, and Fire// Ice. I could see black or (probably more likely) red being a good splash color, but it would require reworking the deck.

I could see going to fewer Trinket Mages, but I think 3 Dreadnought should probably be plenty for this deck. And really, Trinket Mage has been used successfully in Next Level Tempo, although the addition of Grim Lavamancer does really make Basilisk Collar much more attractive for that deck. I could see doing like, -2 Trinket Mage, +1 Dreadnought, +1 Spell Pierce, or something roughly like that.

And I think I like your idea of putting Jace in the sideboard, rather than the main.

[catmint]

I also love Delver...!

The less mulligan, less vulnerable to wasteland argument is pretty weak and never outweighs the argument that you have good anti combo/control/aggro cards. Canadian ***** or TA work well on 2 lands and also run stifle. It is not like you have to build your mana when you are tempo deck. you enjoy wastelanding, stifling .. getting wastelanded and delivering 20 dmg while counting a couple of spells...

Back to basics is an argument but going in red for aggro hate and magus of the moon is also possible.