[Deck] Mono-Blue Control (MUC)

Before the rules change and still now, for me, Call the Skybreaker is the best win-condition/finisher/whatever Mono-Blue has. Rainbow Efreet was #2 and Morphling didn't even make the cut of my deck (it was close recently but I added a Mana Leak...HA!). Now, I see Rainbow Efreet is much worse than Morphling, but I also don't feel Morphling has the bomb level to be the #2 win-condition in my deck. In fact, I changed my decklist altogether and am running 8x creatures (ish) opposed to the 2x I was; I'm currently trying:

4x Sower
2x Kira
1x Wake Thrasher
1x Call the Skybreaker

OR

4x Sower
2x Kira
1x Meloku
1x Call the Skybreaker

Before the rules change, I tested Kira but did not eventually play it in my deck - I found it good but not quite good enough. It's a decent turn-3 play because it is really annoying for the opponent if he or she doesn't counter it. It can be an early clock against TES (I wouldn't play it turn 3 without FoW backup against TES though), a solid poker versus Landstill, or even just come down to block a Nimble Mongoose or trade with a Warchief (maybe). Since I feel this deck has lost a lot of power in its bombs, I think it might be time for me to go back playing Kira.

When I first played the deck, I had Meloku and Morphling as my win-conditions. I found Meloku to be really good against Threshold; the only problem was it couldn't protect itself (I still found most Thresh players sideboarding out the Swords to Plowshares anyway because they only hit 1 creature). With Kira, it can sort of protect itself, but that's not really that necessary because Meloku is really good against aggro and is also a good way to bounce Academy Ruins under Back to Basics (if you run that card).

Also, now with the new rules of no mana burn, a turn 5 Wake Thrasher is pretty good especially if a Kira is already in play (but not necessarily ONLY if Kira is in play). You will be smashing for 6 the next turn, 7 after that, and you will never have to be in a situation with your lands tapped and wanting to do something else because you can just tap your mana end of turn and if your opponent plays something, you can respond; if not, mana poofs away.. In either case - bigger Wake Thrasher.

I was never a fan of Guile - its ability isn't too exciting and it can't protect itself. At least Meloku has a relevant ability and Wake Thrasher can come down to beat a lot earlier with their vulnerability. As for Inkwell Leviathon, I feel it costs too much mana as I'm usually winning with Call the Skybreaker or one of my other win conditions by the time I have 9 mana. It just seems like this would be trying to slow down the deck even more. Just remember, the more time you give your opponent to recover under Back to Basics, the more likely it is we will lose.

It isn't like they removed the stack and replaced it with the old spell resolution system. They made combat simple enough for retards, that's all.

Also; it isn't like the format is rife with huge fliers. Morphling still functions the way he did, he just doesn't act as a 5/X in aerial combat...there are tombstalkers and angels...both of which should generally be stolen or countered at all costs anyway(at least I generally work as hard as possible to keep them off the table and if worst comes to worst, I would gladly have my morphling die in order to get rid of one and then draw into another of of my wins) and morphling smashing through either was very unlikely when you consider how much mana you'd have to use to do so.

MUC is all about reaching the end game, not having creatures butt heads very often: if you play the match right and your deck is designed well enough and so on and so forth, a spire golem should be able to finish the job just as well as a fuckin' morphling or Kyra, really.

Don't get me wrong here though, the rules change is basically going to mark me rarely if ever playing MtG anymore, but Morphling is still more or less functionally the same when you consider the format and what flyers are actually played. You may not be able to kill an exalted trygdon, but you can still fog it and smack them in the head, untap, rinse and repeat.

The sky is not falling for fucking MUC.

Edit: None of your choices for replacement creatures aren't even filling the gap created by morphling's combat tricks being nerfed...so you are effectively bitching about how some card isn't as good and then replacing it with shit that is actually worse. Good job. Back to your stack of Hilights magazines, dude.

So definately Morphing is out, not because is bad, simply becuase meloku is now best.
so regarding to this has anybody the same approach about the deck to talk to thim?
//The perfect combination of creatures
4 Sower of Temptation
3 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2 Meloku // now helped with kira.

// the perfect counters
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Snare
4 Counterspell
4 Force Spike

// the perfect bombs
4 Vedalken Shackles
4 Back to Basics

// the perfect draw
4 Fact or Fiction

// Sideboard:
SB: 4 Powder Keg // For vials, our worst nitgmare and 3shold mainly
SB: 4 Relic of progetnitus // For ichorid and loam and 3shold mainly
SB: 4 REB // For gobbos and burn mainly
SB: 3 Stifle . // For combo and gobbos and landstill mainly

//

// Simply the perfect deck
Do I need something for the mirror?
what do you about the side?
Do you really find propagand necessary?
23 lands is the addecuAate?
if no fetches then no brainstorm ritgh, I feel , I do not really why , simply intuition that this deck does not need brainstorm, rith?

Nice perfect deck. Why ask for suggestions since it's perfect?

So a question, with Meloku it's possible to add an Academy Ruins? 23 Islands+Academy.

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Originally Posted by Pelikanudo

Do I need something for the mirror?
what do you about the side?
Do you really find propagand necessary?
23 lands is the addecuAate?
if no fetches then no brainstorm ritgh, I feel , I do not really why , simply intuition that this deck does not need brainstorm, rith?

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I would say you probably don't need anything for the mirror because this matchup will rarely come up. A lot of the time, winning the mirror is who resolves more Fact or Fiction.

I'm not sold on your sideboard. I really like Powder Keg in the main deck because it is so useful so often. It helps g1 matchups of so many decks - destroy Bridge from Below tokens; wreck Affinity's mana base; blow up Mongoose; blow up Vial; it can even blow up Mox Diamond in the loam match-up; or destroy Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, or LED prematurely in the combo match-up. I would try making a couple cuts in the main deck to fit at least 2x Powder Keg (I would suggest at least 3x though)

I've never really liked Stifle in the sideboard. It is more a tempo gaining card, and as has been said several times, this deck doesn't really have the right tools to gain a significant advantage from that tempo. Against combo, Chalice of the Void or Disrupt is amazing. (As is Telemin Performance but that shouldn't be more than a 1x or 2x in your sideboard.)

I haven't found Propaganda to be overly necessary recently. Because Threshold is gaining in popularity, Goblins is being played a little less every tournament so Propaganda loses some of its appeal. I have never played in a recent tournament where I wished I had Propaganda and didn't. I have played in a tournament where I wished Propaganda in my sideboard was something else (like Telemin Performance, an extra Disrupt or 2x). Saying that, I guess it would depend on how many Affinity, Goblins, Merfolk, random UW Fish decks, or Zoo decks you will be seeing. Propaganda is really good against those decks.

I run 24 land in 4x Impulse because I suck at drawing lands, so I don't think 23 land is the correct number. Some people swear by it, but I would never play less than 24 because I hate missing land drops.

Brainstorm is amazing, but I don't think it is right in this deck, especially if you aren't splashing a color. If you splash white or red or black, you will need fetchlands. And if you're playing fetchlands, you may as well play Brainstorm. I wouldn't play fetchlands for a strictly mono-blue deck, however. It opens you up to being Stifled and losing land drops. It also causes a life loss which, although minor, could still be significant considering Force of Will usually costs 1 life as well.

As a final suggestion to your decklist, try 1x Call the Skybreaker and 1x Meloku instead of 2x Meloku. Call the Skybreaker is a powerhouse that is very hard to deal with. The inevitability of the card is too much for a lot of opponents.

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Originally Posted by johanessen

So a question, with Meloku it's possible to add an Academy Ruins? 23 Islands+Academy.

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I think it's possible without Meloku to run Academy Ruins. I'm doing it right now. Academy Ruins is amazing when you don't have Back to Basics in play for recurring Powder Keg and even if you do have B2B in play, I've never been in a situation where I wished it wasn't either in my hand or sitting there in the battlefield untapped not doing anything. I always knew it would be there ready to do some fun things with Powder Keg (or Shackles if it was destroyed).

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Originally Posted by Mordel

Edit: None of your choices for replacement creatures aren't even filling the gap created by morphling's combat tricks being nerfed...so you are effectively bitching about how some card isn't as good and then replacing it with shit that is actually worse. Good job. Back to your stack of Hilights magazines, dude.

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Nice Edit there, kid. I like how you think you understand how the deck works. Unfortunately for you, reality is a hell of a place to live. By assuming that Morphling is **ZOMG! AMAZING!!!!!!!1!!!!one!** because it's a 5/1 flying creature is pretty asinine in and of itself. Yay! A 5/1 flying creature for 5 mana. Oh yeah...shroud too. Like that is even remotely relevant against MUC. See. There is this game of magical cards we're playing. And if your opponent happens to be playing with this one magical card, Swords to Plowshares, it wrecks my day....RIIIIIIIIGHT. Keeping Swords in for 1-4 cards in my deck is pretty useless because if they do, they are going to inevitably have to answer to a 5/5 flying dragon/elemental/whatever. Oh yeah...I run counter magic too so if I want to, I could protect my game-winning bomb. Huh, who woulda thunk it? So the creatures I am proposing - Wake Thrasher - is now a faster clock for MUC than Morphling ever could be; sure it gets blocked but will live a heck of a lot longer than Morphling, seeing as it will be a 6/6+ every turn after turn 5 (or are you one of the people who do you not understand how tapping lands works under the new rules?...). The other option is Meloku which does essentially do the same thing as Morphling - it stalls until you find an answer, it still flies and can even make enough flying creatures to win the game. Sure it doesn't have shroud but that's not that exciting anyway. If you want to keep playing with your more expensive flying Dross Crocodiles, that's fine with me. I'm going to play with creatures that are either going to win me the game faster or stall out longer. If you actually still played Magic, I might listen to you, but last time I heard, you were quitting so I don't really give two shits about someone who doesn't even play, let alone know what the hell he's talking about. Have fun sitting in the corner playing with your new and super sweet GI Joe action figures while listening to the totally amazing Hannah Montana CD.

Jason: You fail at addressing the important points brought forth.
If you didn't like it before the M10 rules hit the press, you should have made that crystal fucking clear, rather than bitching about the M10 rules nerfing its ability to have a huge toughness because that is all the rules changes have done. Nothing else.

Apparently, I have been playing MUC far longer than you/have a better idea of how it fucking works, because morphling allows you to have a certain measure of grace as far as using your permission to keep it alive goes. When playing a deck that only has about sixteen or so permission spells, some draw and theft/mass removal artifacts, you need to keep options as open as possible to allow flexibility and prepare for the worst, shroud, five cc, massive toughness and four turn flying clock are fine.

Pick a fucking vanilla creature with a three casting cost, next to no defensive value AND is such an offensive powerhouse because MUC untaps a fucktonne of permanents all the time...tapping out has great strategic value. Good fucking work Columbo. Meloku? EE turns it into a massive tempo swing for them and a glorified spire golem AND it is easily targeted. Great work again. Please keep in mind that one of the most important things for MUC to be able to do while keeping it's hand size up, to minimize the loss of trading one for one with opponents is to drop a land every turn to ensure that those trades happen. Running a card that does not protect itself and has an ability that also negates your land drops is sub par at best. Your assumption of countering everything must be the reason MUC is doing so incredibly well.

It's also interesting that the experienced/very well-known MUC players haven't posted on this thread in ages.

When MUC wins most of the time, it wins regardless of what it is turning sideways so long as it is bigger than a two power creature and even then, it still happens often.

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If you actually still played Magic, I might listen to you, but last time I heard, you were quitting so I don't really give two shits about someone who doesn't even play, let alone know what the hell he's talking about.

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Great logic! Someone who isn't going to be playing much anymore's knowledge gained over playing an archetype at almost every opportunity possible for the last decade is worth nothing because he is going to not pursue a hobby, like he once did. Let it be known: abandoning or chilling out on a hobby/skill negates all prior knowledge gained on said subject. Yes.

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Have fun sitting in the corner playing with your new and super sweet GI Joe action figures while listening to the totally amazing Hannah Montana CD.

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Good one. How is that shit even on your radar? I remember Highlights from when I was a kid. What's your excuse for those two items above?

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destroy Bridge from Below tokens; wreck Affinity's mana base; blow up Mongoose; blow up Vial; it can even blow up Mox Diamond in the loam match-up; or destroy Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, or LED prematurely in the combo match-up.

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All of these targets can also be hit by engineered explosives at 1 or 0.
What do you think of playing engineered explosives in MUC without a splash?
It cannot deal with goyf,etc., but in order to deal with 2cc we have spell snare.

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All of these targets can also be hit by engineered explosives at 1 or 0.
What do you think of playing engineered explosives in MUC without a splash?
It cannot deal with goyf,etc., but in order to deal with 2cc we have spell snare.

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That;s why the deck runs Powder Keg.

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Originally Posted by Tea

All of these targets can also be hit by engineered explosives at 1 or 0.
What do you think of playing engineered explosives in MUC without a splash?
It cannot deal with goyf,etc., but in order to deal with 2cc we have spell snare.

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The main problem with EE is it can't hit lands. Powder Keg completely wrecks affinity which can show up a lot in many different tournaments because the deck is cheap and easy to build, especially if the person piloting the deck plays extended and has most of the cards. Plus, Keg can destroy Mishra's Factory in the Landstill match-up and Mutavault in the Merfolk match-up. Those combined make it relevant enough to not run Explosives without running a splash. Also the fact that Powder Keg can ramp up to 2 and kill a Tarmogoyf or get to 3 and destroy a Crucible of Worlds and/or Trinisphere if playing Stax is also relevant.

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Originally Posted by Mordel

Jason: You fail at addressing the important points brought forth.
If you didn't like it before the M10 rules hit the press, you should have made that crystal fucking clear, rather than bitching about the M10 rules nerfing its ability to have a huge toughness because that is all the rules changes have done. Nothing else.

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I never once said I didn't like Morphling. However, I did say it wasn't worth playing anymore pre-M10, this is true (and have said over and over for the past months - if you could read, I'm sure you would have noticed but I digress). I was more upset about the loss of Rainbow Efreet's ability to trade with a Mongoose or Factory or what have you. If Morphling isn't good enough to make the cut pre-M10, why would I want it now when it is strictly worse?

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Originally Posted by Mordel

Apparently, I have been playing MUC far longer than you/have a better idea of how it fucking works, because morphling allows you to have a certain measure of grace as far as using your permission to keep it alive goes. When playing a deck that only has about sixteen or so permission spells, some draw and theft/mass removal artifacts, you need to keep options as open as possible to allow flexibility and prepare for the worst, shroud, five cc, massive toughness and four turn flying clock are fine.

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It's also interesting to note that 9 times out of 10, when I'm winning, I have Back to Basics online and that Morphling wouldn't be relevant at all. I could be winning with any creature that has a power 2 or greater. The deck has a certain inevitability to it with bomb creatures and bomb permanents. Also, I had made these suggestion with playing with Kira in mind; my creatures will have a certain feeling of "shroud" to them so they will be equally as vulnerable as Morphling - that is, by mass removal.

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Originally Posted by Mordel

Pick a fucking vanilla creature with a three casting cost, next to no defensive value AND is such an offensive powerhouse because MUC untaps a fucktonne of permanents all the time...tapping out has great strategic value. Good fucking work Columbo. Meloku? EE turns it into a massive tempo swing for them and a glorified spire golem AND it is easily targeted. Great work again. Please keep in mind that one of the most important things for MUC to be able to do while keeping it's hand size up, to minimize the loss of trading one for one with opponents is to drop a land every turn to ensure that those trades happen. Running a card that does not protect itself and has an ability that also negates your land drops is sub par at best. Your assumption of countering everything must be the reason MUC is doing so incredibly well.

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"tapping out has great strategic value. Good fucking work Columbo." Ummm...do you understand how the new rules work? Once again, reading is necessary for success. I'm going to explain this very slowly for you so you can understand. It's my opponent's turn. He or she passes during the end of turn. I say I tap all my lands. When priority returns to my opponent, if he or she plays something, I have the mana to respond! If he or she doesn't, the mana disappears for no net loss for me. I untap and POOF! Wake Thrasher is bigger. You're talking about clocks with Morphling. Wake Thrasher is a 3-turn clock that will most surely be blocked by your opponent's creatures, getting them off the board and either making my merfolk get there on his own or if my opponent finds some sort of mass removal (of which I choose to not or cannot counter), allowing me to stall out with an empty board for me to wait to eventually get Call the Skybreaker.

As for Meloku, if my opponent is playing Engineered Explosives for zero, then I ask you why this does not open himself up to being wrecked by Back to Basics? Should he or she not be trying to get rid of the card that is going to win the game? If he or she EE's for 0 so the Tarmogoyf can get through just one more time, how is that going to help him or her in the long run? Meloku is still there. It can still poop babies out of its fat ass. I understand you love Morphling, but it is certainly replaceable.

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Originally Posted by Mordel

It's also interesting that the experienced/very well-known MUC players haven't posted on this thread in ages.

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It's also interesting to note MUC still does well even though it's not being piloted by the gods you look up to

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Originally Posted by Mordel

When MUC wins most of the time, it wins regardless of what it is turning sideways so long as it is bigger than a two power creature and even then, it still happens often.

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So why are you advocating Morphling like you have some sort of investment in its stock? You say I can turn any creature sideways, as do I. My play-style has deemed Superman worthless so I feel trying other options should be valid - Meloku (which is not worthless regardless of what you say) and Wake Thrasher. In fact, out of the two, it will probably be Meloku that wins out for me simply because it flies.

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Originally Posted by Mordel

Great logic! Someone who isn't going to be playing much anymore's knowledge gained over playing an archetype at almost every opportunity possible for the last decade is worth nothing because he is going to not pursue a hobby, like he once did. Let it be known: abandoning or chilling out on a hobby/skill negates all prior knowledge gained on said subject. Yes.

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Hmmm..let's see. I haven't played Bridge in a while. I'm sure I can just pick up a deck of cards and be amazing because I've played it soooo much over the last decade.

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Originally Posted by Mordel

Good one. How is that shit even on your radar? I remember Highlights from when I was a kid. What's your excuse for those two items above?

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Well GI Joe was around when I was a kid and as for Hannah Montana, I guess that would be because I don't live under a rock or in Canada...either/or

Good job with putting words in my mouth and failing to realise a number of expressions are not applicable for the "written" word.

Have fun, champ. Savor the mediocrity.

Find the morphlings: http://www.deckcheck.net/list.php?ty...&format=Legacy

It is obvious that the win condition choice does matter.

Morphling/Rainbow Efreet are much worse because they no longer trade in attrition wars--this is a substantial loss. Their 'shroud' effects are the only reason they are playable at all. CtS also has that shroud-like effect, simply because you can just cast another. CtS has gained grounds for play.

Regardless, the best win condition in the deck is largely unchanged: Vedalken Shackles.




peace,
4eak

You guys understand what makes MUC work better than anyone. So I wanted your opinions on my MUC Combo list. This direction makes some sense especially since MUC's best win condition (Morphling), got crippled by the changes to the attack phase.

It's 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 Mutavault/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.

Veil of Birds is there because I really wanted 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.

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.

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

I like everything about the deck so far.

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

My one major question, do you think it's worthwhile to consider a trasformational board into MUC at all, just bc it would be fun to do.

That isn't MUC because it doesn't control anything. You devote numerous slots to run a combo that other decks can just do better with much better protection.

Fair enough, I misphrased it.

I want to borrow the very best delay tactics of MUC. MUC has a host of cards whose whole function is to survive till the mid-late game against combo/aggro decks, since that's the time frame where MUC starts to shine.

This deck is using the same elements. Propaganda, FoW, and Daze (instead of the Force Spike that lots of MUC lists run).

I just wanted your opinions on if these are the most potent delay tactics that my deck has access to, since you're very familiar with each of those cards.

As for other 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.

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Originally Posted by Clark Kant

Fair enough, I misphrased it.

I want to borrow the very best delay tactics of MUC. MUC has a host of cards whose whole function is to survive till the mid-late game against combo/aggro decks, since that's the time frame where MUC starts to shine.

This deck is using the same elements. Propaganda, FoW, and Daze (instead of the Force Spike that lots of MUC lists run).

I just wanted your opinions on if these are the most potent delay tactics that my deck has access to, since you're very familiar with each of those cards.

As for other 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.

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Most combo decks don't need to run the "delay tactics" because they are faster. Maybe you are talking about Painter's/Grindstone but even that runs Daze, Counterbalance, Force, and better search in Trinket Mage, Brainstorm, LDV, etc. I just don't think the combo is good enough. Most people that run NO-> Prog do not use it as a primary win condition. Wrath, Humility, Fleshbag Marauder, Edict, Innocent Blood, etc can all still handle it and you only have 4 hard counters to protect it (not that it needs much protecting, but still).

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Originally Posted by Jak.

Most combo decks don't need to run the "delay tactics" because they are faster. Maybe you are talking about Painter's/Grindstone but even that runs Daze, Counterbalance, Force, and better search in Trinket Mage, Brainstorm, LDV, etc. I just don't think the combo is good enough. Most people that run NO-> Prog do not use it as a primary win condition. Wrath, Humility, Fleshbag Marauder, Edict, Innocent Blood, etc can all still handle it and you only have 4 hard counters to protect it (not that it needs much protecting, but still).

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Yes, but most combo decks lose to all sorts of combo hate that this deck doesn't care about at all. That's one reason why you only occasionally see combo top 8 a tournament.

But this deck is very very resilient to combo hate. Additionally it can easily temporarily switch roles to a Mono Blue Landstill type deck when needed. This ability to temporarily switch roles is very useful. Another reason the deck is a lot more resilient than most combo is that this deck's combo pieces are also played in many more copies off, so if one component gets countered the first time, you'll always find a replacement for it within a turn or two. This gives the deck inevitibility that most combo decks don't have, the kind of inevitabily that is typically found in control decks. And that's why it's not fair to compare this deck to pure combo decks.

The stuff that Progenitus dies to is relatively rarely played. Maybe 5% of the decks out there play any of those cards that can get rid of Progenitus. And even then, you can Staff it right back into play the next turn.

Hi all!

I've played aggro for a long time and now I want to switch to slower deck 'cause it's no fun in go balls to the wall anymore. The long, complicated game is the thing I want from magic cards now. My first pick is Death and Taxes and it's a great deck, but I want a pure control deck too.

I don't think there is more controllish deck than MUC, so it's my choice. Here's the list I want to start with:

23 Islands - I dunno, maybe 24 is better number, but what to cut?

4 Force Spike
4 Spell Snare
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
16 premission cards look OK.

4 Vedalken Shackes - 'cause they are great.
3 Back to Basics - Only 3 main 'cause my metagame is random.
2 Powder Keg - Mongooses and Nacatls will crush me without this card.

4 Impulse - Not actually CA, but without BS/Top/Shuffle this is a good card.
3 Fact of Fiction - 3 are fine for me 'cause I run Jace.
2 Jace Beleren - I like him very much in MUC 'cause he acts as CA, wincon and draws a lot of attention.

1 Call the Skybreaker - reusable wincon
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror - cheaper wincon with build-in swarm protection
1 Isleback Spawn - I wanted a big shrouded wincon. This one is cheaper and with Jace's help is often bigger than Inkwell Leviathan. Maybe it will be Morphling.

SB:
3 Propaganda - Against swarms
1 Back to Basics - My meta is random, so 1 BtB is in sideboard
4 Hydroblast - against Burn and Gobbos
2 Divert - mainly against TA, EvaGreen and Burn
4 Relic of Progenitus - against many decks
1 Powder Keg - I like this card very much in MUC, but can't find place for 3rd in main.

Any help/advices about the deck will be appriciated!

I personally think force spike is kind of weak. I know it has those "GOTCHA!" moments, but there'll be times that you'll draw it late game and curse it. That's how I feel, at least.

In that spot I might run a bit of bounce, I have 2 repeals and an echoing truth in my main.

Just some food for thought.