[Deck] Mono-Blue Control (MUC)

[Jason]

I played my version of MUC in the StarCity Games St. Louis tournament on Sunday, June 27, 2010. Here is a small tournament match report:

Land (24)
1 Academy Ruins
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Volcanic Island
12 Snow-Covered Island
1 Mountain

Artifact (6)
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Powder Keg
3 Vedalken Shackles

Blue Creature (3)
2 Calcite Snapper
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

Blue Enchantment (3)
3 Back to Basics

Blue Instant (19)
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Snare

Red Instant (4)
4 Lightning Bolt

Blue Planeswalker (1)
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sideboard (15)
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Sower of Temptation
3 Spell Pierce
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Firespout

ROUND 1
Jonathan Medina playing ANT

Game 1, I'm pretty sure he's playing ANT because he accidentally flips up a Duress while shuffling. I open a hand of the following:
2 Island, 2 Counterspell, 1 Spell Snare, 1 Shackles, 1 Bolt
It seems good against decks packing Duress.
He leads off with Duress and pulls out a Counterspell. I play land-go. Next turn, he plays another Duress and pulls out the other Counterspell and then casts Mystical Tutor for Ad Nauseum. He casts Brainstorm, draws the Ad Nauseum. Uses Lotus Petal to go Ritual+Ritual Ad Nauseum. Nice deck.

Sideboard:
-2 Engineered Explosives
-1 Powder Keg
-3 Vedalken Shackles
-3 Back to Basics
-1 Lightning Bolt
+3 Chalice of the Void
+2 Sower of Temptation
+3 Spell Pierce
+2 Red Elemental Blast

Game 2, I open a hand of the following:
1 Island, 2 fetchlands, 2 Chalice, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Brainstorm
Turns out, he's not running K.Grip or Wipe Away and that's all that really needs to be said.

Game 3 was a long one. He Duressed me a couple times, one of which was countered. Eventually, he landed a Bob. I had a Sower in hand but no real available mana to steal it and have counter magic mana to bluff. A few turns later, I get to 10 or so mana (I'm at 14 life) and just go to steal the Bob. I have something like 3 Spell Snare and Lightning Bolt in hand. He eot, Brainstorms and apparently finds an Ad Nauseum. He Duresses me and pulls out a Spell Snare. He goes Ritual+Ritual into Ad Nauseum. He flips a bunch of cards that would put him at 8 life, give him enough mana to find Tendrils and give him enough storm to get to 7. He continues flipping: Hurkyl's Recall (6 life). I'm thinking "holy shit, if he keeps going, I'm going to Lightning Bolt for the win!" Lotus Petal. Damn! Brainstorm. Ok... he's at 5. Mystical Tutor. He stops and goes to 4 life. Damn! He had a fetchland. I was hoping since he was such a bad player he'd crack it, but alas he did not. If only he would have flipped an Infernal Tutor or IGG or an Echoing Truth. Sad face :(

0-1-0

ROUND 2
John Haverkamp playing New Horizons

Game 1, I find out he is playing New Horizons very quickly, as Horizon Canopy was the first land he played and he went for turn 3 Knight of the Reliquary (with no lands in the graveyard). I allowed it to hit the battlefield because I shoot bolts of lightning. I then cast a Back to Basics. Funny how he is only running 1 basic land in his deck. Next turn, I cast shroud turtle and go the distance.

Sideboard:
-4 Lightning Bolt
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Sower of Temptation

Game 2, he goes for turn 2 Tarmogoyf which I Spell Snare. Turn 3, he goes for a 3/3 Terravore which I Counterspell. I go for Back to Basics and he casts Force of Will. Turn 4, he casts Knight of the Reliquary. I couldn't find a Sower or Shackles and he rides it to victory.

Game 3, nothing happens until my turn 3 when I cast Vedalken Shackles. He casts EE for 3 on his turn. I cast EE for 0 on mine and blow his up. He waits a while until he has something like 7 lands in the graveyard and Forces through a Knight of the Reliquary. I rip a 9th Island and Shackles his guy on my turn. On his turn, he casts EE for 3, blowing up my Shackles and his guy. I'm low on counter magic; we are both low on cards. I rip Jace, the Mind Sculptor on my turn and Fateseal his face off.

1-1-0

ROUND 3
Brett Jansen playing UW Landstill

Game 1, he hits a turn 2 Standstill and starts attacking me with Mishra's Factory on turn 3. Turn 4, he attacks again. I cast a turn 4 Vedalken Shackles. He draws 3 from the Standstill. He casts Force of Will. I'm thinking "good. He's trying to be aggressive with Factory and I'm going to blow him out of the game with B2B." He goes for turn 5 Standstill, which I Spell Snare. He attacks with Mishra's Factory. He ends his turn with 1 Tundra untapped, 2 Mishra's Factory and 2 Tundra tapped. Good. I cast turn 5 Back to Basics. He attempts to Force and I Force back. Jace + Turtle get there. He did try for a Cunning Wish and a couple Elspeth during the course of my turtle aggro to no avail.

Sideboard:
-4 Lightning Bolt
+2 Sower of Temptation
+2 Red Elemental Blast

Game 2, I play a turn 1 EE@0, which he Forces. I was ecstatic! I'm gonna blow him out with B2B again! He goes for turn 2 Standstill, which I Spell Snare. I cast EE@0 again which he seemed upset about. I cast a Fact or Fiction. I get a whole lot of nothing. He casts a Fact or Fiction. He gets a pair of Force of Will. We stare at each other for a long time. I go for Vedalken Shackles. He casts Counterspell. I Spell Snare it. It resolves. He casts a Shackles of his own. That's fine. He eot casts Cunning Wish which finds a Return to Dust. We stare at each other for a long time. He randomly uses the Return to Dust to hit my Shackles. Eventually, I cast another Fact or Fiction. He counters it. I didn't really care. My hand is nuts. He casts Nevinyrral's Disk. I try to Counterspell it. He hard casts Force of Will. He has Academy Ruins in play and all his lands are tapped except a few basics. I cast Back to Basics to stall his next turn. He untaps Disk and passes. I untap and pass. He eot, blows up Disk. During his upkeep, he puts Disk on the top of his library. He casts it. I cast Force of Will. He casts Counterspell. I Spell Snare it. He casts Force of Will (leaving him with no cards in hand). I Force back. I untap and cast Back to Basics and Jace for the win.

2-1-0

ROUND 4
John Donovan playing ANT

Game 1, he leads off with turn 1 Polluted Delta into Underground Sea into Duress. I jokingly tell him I have no idea what he's playing, but I told him I was going to write down what my top guess was. I wrote "ANT". We laughed. I showed my hand, which consisted of Counterspell, Fact or Fiction, Brainstorm, Spell Snare and Lightning Bolt. I try to get him to take the Lightning Bolt. He does not and takes the Fact or Fiction. I then begin joking that I really now have no idea what he is playing and I tell him I was going to write down the other option of what he is playing. I wrote "Reanimator". He laughed. I did nothing on my turn. He did nothing on his turn 2. I did nothing on turn 2. He eot, cast Brainstorm. I continued not knowing what he was playing for the next 8 or so turns. He kept Brainstorming and fetching and that was it. I was pretty sure he was on ANT, sculpting his hand. He casts Duress and rips out a Counterspell. The rest of my hand consisted of Spell Snare, Lightning Bolt and Calcite Snapper. Next turn, I cast a Calcite Snapper, tapping two Islands and my Mountain. He eot Mystical Tutors, which I don't counter. Before showing me the card, I'm saying "ooh. ooh. ooh. Now I get to know what you're playing!" He puts the card face down and shuffles his library. I'm saying all excited-like "come on. You have to show me." He replies with "you're just too giddy. I couldn't resist." He shows me Ad Nauseum and my fears were confirmed. At this time, I realized I fucked up by tapping the Mountain. Sure enough, he Ad Nauseumed to 2 life and won. I showed him the Lightning Bolt post-game, saying I punted. He replied by saying he almost punted because he didn't even think of the Lightning Bolt. I reminded him that I told him Lightning Bolt was the correct choice. We both laughed.

Sideboard:
-2 Engineered Explosives
-1 Powder Keg
-3 Vedalken Shackles
-3 Back to Basics
-1 Lightning Bolt
+3 Chalice of the Void
+2 Sower of Temptation
+3 Spell Pierce
+2 Red Elemental Blast

Game 2, he mulligans to 4 and I keep a hand of 2 Island, 1 Brainstorm, 2 Fact or Fiction, 1 Chalice of the Void, and 1 Spell Pierce. I play Island-go. He draws his card and laughs and says, "well. Let's see if you have Force of Will." He fetches out an Underground Sea and starts off with Dark Ritual. I allow it. He casts a second Dark Ritual. I should have Spell Pierced this one, but I allowed it, thinking he would go for Ad Nauseum. He casts Lion's Eye Diamond. Instead of Ad Nauseum, he cast IGG. Fuck, I'm bad at Magic. I responded with Brainstorm, hiding my Chalice of the Void and Spell Pierce. I got back a fetchland I drew from the Brainstorm, an Island and a Brainstorm. Next turn, I put Chalice of the Void at 0. I was mana short from the IGG. He hit his first 6 land drops. I hit my first 4. Eventually, I got up to 7 lands to his 6 but we both had 7 cards in hand. I drew a card to give me 2 REB, Sower of Temptation, Lightning Bolt, Spell Pierce, Counterspell, and 2 Spell Snare in hand. I was about to discard Sower when the judge stopped the game for us missing a City of Traitors trigger on his previous turn. My opponent appealed the decision that he should sacrifice the City on my turn. The head judge upheld the decision. I was overly confused at the whole situation and I discarded Lightning Bolt instead. On his turn, he cast Duress and pulled out the Counterspell and declared he "got there". A couple seconds later, he changed his mind and said he didn't yet. I drew my card and passed the turn. On his next turn, he cast Dark Confidant. I realized I had Sower in hand and wondered where my Lightning Bolt was. Oh yeah. Punt #2 baby. I go to Sower the Bob on my next turn because I can't give him that much card advantage. I have only 3 lands untapped. He goes for eot Mystical Tutor, which I REB. On his turn, he ramps up to stupid amounts of mana and goes for Ad Nauseum, as I only had one unknown card in hand. The card I drew indeed was not a Counterspell that was relevant. He casts 2 separate Tendrils of Agony and I lose.

2-2-0

ROUND 5
Tony Payton playing Reanimator

Game 1, he cast turn 1 Mystical Tutor which was Forced. Turn 2, he Duressed me and cast another M.Tutor which found an Entomb. He cast the Entomb on his next turn, along with Reanimate. Iona named blue. Nice deck.

Sideboard:
-2 Engineered Explosives
-1 Powder Keg
-1 Vedalken Shackles
-3 Back to Basics
-4 Lightning Bolt
+3 Chalice of the Void
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Sower of Temptation
+3 Spell Pierce
+2 Red Elemental Blast

Game 2, I cast a turn 1 Relic. He casts Pithing Needle. I land a turn 2 Chalice@1. He responds with Mystical Tutor, finding Echoing Truth. Nothing happens for a couple turns until I land Jace. He attempts to Echoing Truth the Chalice end of turn. I counter it and he scoops.

Game 3, He went for an end of turn 1 Mystical Tutor, which I REBed. His turn 3, he cast Entomb, which I Forced. He cast a second Entomb and found Iona. I cast a Relic on my turn, which he Forced. His turn 4, he cast Reanimate, which I Forced. He cast another Reanimate which I Spell Pierced. I had no cards left in hand. He had another Mystical Tutor, found a Reanimate for the next turn and got there with Iona. Wow. That's a super nice deck.

2-3-0

At this point, I lost much interest in the tournament and didn't write down nearly as much. I don't have last names anymore and my notes aren't entirely helpful.

ROUND 6
David playing Lands

Game 1, he mulliganed to 5 and led off with Tolaria West. Seems like a bad turn 1 against the majority of the field. He played a green source on turn 2 and dropped an Exploration. He threw down a Wasteland and a Maze of Ith. Turn 3, he played another Maze of Ith and another Wasteland. He cast Life from the Loam, leaving him with just blue source of mana available. I cast Back to Basics the next turn and Calcite Snapper the turn after. That was good enough.

Sideboard:
(I looked at my sideboard notes and noticed my plan was wrong)
-1 Engineered Explosives
-1 Powder Keg
-1 Vedalken Shackles
-1 Counterspell
-1 Spell Snare
-4 Lightning Bolt
+3 Chalice of the Void
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Sower of Temptation
+2 Spell Pierce

Game 2, he landed a turn 1 Exploration. For the first 5 turns, he had a couple Rishadan Ports tapping me down. I was just sitting there playing an Island every turn. On that fifth turn, I cast Back to Basics. He went for an eot Intuition, which I Forced. I cast Sphinx the next turn and Jace the turn after.

3-3-0

ROUND 7
Bobby playing Eva Green

Game 1, he cast turn 1 Thoughtseize and I cast Brainstorm as a response, hiding Spell Snare on top and a Vedalken Shackles below that. He took an Engineered Explosives. Turn 2, he went for Hymn and I Spell Snared it. Turn 3, I cast Vedalken Shackles. He Maelstrom Pulsed it on his next turn. I drew Jace off the top and rode it to victory.

Sideboard:
(Again, my sideboard notes were wrong for this match-up but I noticed it)
-1 Powder Keg
-3 Back to Basics
+2 Sower of Temptation
+2 Spell Pierce

Game 2, he passed his turn 1. His turn 2, he went for Dark Ritual, which I Spell Pierced. The turn after, he went for Dark Confidant, which I Spell Snared. His turn 4, he went for Tarmogoyf, which I also countered. I cast Jace on my turn 4 for the win.

4-3-0

ROUND 8
Tim playing Zoo

Game 1, he's on the play and goes for turn 1 Steppe Lynx. I Force it. He goes for turn 2 Qasali Pridemage. I Spell Snare it. He goes for turn 3 Tarmogoyf. I Counterspell it. I cast Back to Basics on my turn 3, Shackles on turn 4, and Sphinx on turn 6. He scoops.

Sideboard:
-1 Powder Keg
-1 Back to Basics
-1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+3 Firespout

Game 2, he plays nothing turn 1. Turn 2, he plays a 0/1 Tarmogoyf. I think about it and decide to not use my 1 Spell Snare on it because I also have Shackles in hand. His turn 3, he fetches and casts Chain Lightning putting me to 17. He goes for Qasali Pridemage, which I Spell Snare. He attacks with the Goyf, putting me to 13. I cast a turn 3 Shackles. He goes for Qasali Pridemage #2. I Force it. He attacks for 4. I'm at 8. He casts Wild Nacatl in his second main phase. My turn, I fetch out a Volcanic Island. During his upkeep, I steal his Goyf. He casts a Steppe Lynx and passes the turn. I eot Brainstorm into Firespout. I cast Firespout on my turn, attacking for 4. He Lightning Bolts the Goyf and has no cards left in hand. I cast Calcite Snapper. I beat him for 4 the first turn. The second turn, I poke for 1 and cast a second turtle. I poke for 2 the next turn putting him at 10. He casts Grim Lavamancer and I eot Shackles it. I hit landfall the next turn, attacked for 8 and Lavamancered him out of the game.

5-3-0

I finished 40th out of nearly 200 people. Dewey finished 50th. That means the tournament was a success.

Props:
*Jace, the Mind Sculptor was stupid good.
*Back to Basics also makes New Horizons cry.
*Back to Basics is still a house against Landstill
*Back to Basics wrecks Lands.
*Have I mentioned that Back to Basics wins games?
*Turtle aggro is really good. It can out-aggro Zoo.
*In the last round after I destroyed Zoo, the player next to me was playing MUC with 4 Jace, 4 Sower and some number of Glen Elendra. The deck was tech.
*Really nice opponents.

Slops:
*Having to buy new sleeves because the old ones had bottoms ripped out of some of them.
*Losing to a bad ANT player.
*Getting double-Hymned and (essentially) double-Sinkholed by the good ANT player and not seeing it coming.
*Luck-sacking Reanimator players.
*Not testing enough against the two decks I expected to see: ANT and Reanimator
*Powder Keg was useless all day.
*Lightning Bolt was underwhelming but came really close to giving me the reach I needed.
*Not sleeping for 42 straight hours.
*StarCity Games buying Japanese Jace, the Mind Sculptor for the same price as English - $40. (needless to say, I didn't sell it)
*StarCity Games selling Jace, the Mind Sculptor for $80 causing me to not buy a second one.
*Wanting to play Thopter/Sword CBT but not being able to, only for that deck to get first.

I think the only change I would make to the main deck would be the following:
-1 Powder Keg
+1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor