U CounterDread

[Cmorris]

This is a mono blue deck with CounterTop and Phyrexian Dreadnought. To start, here's my usual list.

List:

4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Stifle
3 Back to Basics
3 Ponder
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Counterbalance
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Delver of Secrets
3 Trinket Mage
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
3 Vision Charm
4 Scalding Tarn
13 Island

Side:
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Divert
4 Painter's Servant
3 Grindstone

Card Explanations:

Mana Base: No real explanation here. The Tarns help thin out the deck, and provide a shuffle effect when its needed.
Force of Will: Best counterspell around, running 4 is a must in blue.
Brainstorm: Great card advantage, synergy with CounterTop.
Daze: Great free counter spell.
Stifle: One method of getting Dreadnought out and its an absolute game-breaker. Can shut down storm decks and fetchlands.
Back to Basics: I really like this card. With so many multi-color decks popular in the meta, it slows down almost every deck you'll face. Also amazing against Dark Depths. Obviously you will want to board out against mono decks with just basics.
Ponder: I consider this a blue staple. it's card draw and it gives you the ability to shuffle away cards you don't need.
Counterbalance/Sensei's Diving Top: Turn 1 top, turn 2 counterbalance. It's absolutely brutal against tempo and aggro, and can win you the game.
Delver of Secrets: Great early game blocker, and can be its own win condition when transformed.
Snapcaster Mage: Can get back Stifle and Vision Charm, gives you more ways to combo.
Trinket Mage: Comes into play and can fetch either dreadnought, tormod, grindstone or top. Then can chump block or serve as a beater against an empty/weak board.
Phyrexian Dreadnought: 1 mana for a 12/12 trample. He is just brutal.
Vision Charm: Can get Nought into play, and protect him from abrupt decay/swords.

Sideboard: Tormod is a must-have in almost every board, and divert can be boarded in to deal with hate. PainterStone provides a great way to confuse your opponent, and deal with certain decks over others. I love going to a tournament with essentially 2 different decks and being able to play one or the other depending on my matchup.

Matchups:

Infect(1-2): Hard matchup. Infect is so fast with it's combo, and it's tough to counter everything. The removal/discard is the icing on the cake. Try to stop them from putting any creatures into play.
RUG (2-2): Favorable, but tough. You can take out their graveyard after boarding in Tormod, and most of their burn/aggro will be taken care of by countertop. Once a couple Dreadnoughts hit the board its usually gg.
Shardless BUG(1-0):: Not favorable. Discard and Abrupt Decay can really set you back if you don't get ahead of them. Maelstrom Pulse and Baleful Strix are also huge obstacles for your Dreadnought. However, I still win quite a few of these matchups with well-timed Diverts.
Sneak and Tell/Omnishow: Untested. Can deal with show and tell and stifle sneak attack, but they usually have the mana to overrun you or counterspells ready.
Ad Nauseum Tendrils/Storm: Untested. Stifle or Divert their Release the Ants, or just outrace them.
Elves: Untested. I have a strategy built for playing the elf combo, but I have yet to run into it. I will update this section with information as soon as I have play tested in more tournaments.
Miracle Contol: Untested. When I match up against this deck, I thank my lucky stars PainterStone is in my board. Being able to change decks in between games really messes with them, and makes a boarded-in Meddling Mage much less useful. If not, it's really a tough match up and comes down mostly to who is piloting/drawing better.
JunkBlade(2-0): Favorable, can stifle stoneforge and easily counterbalance liliana.
Affinitiy(0-1): Was a favorable matchup for me, but game 3 i drew horribly. Can generally make them lose all of their creatures blocking dreadnought.
RW Vial Goblins(3-0): Great matchup for this deck. Delver and Stifle can deal with turn 1 lackey, and they have no answers to turn 2 stiflenaught.
Dark Depths(1-1): A hard matchup to take on, but if you pilot it correctly and take out their graveyard, you can handle it. This is a great matchup for boarding in PainterStone because they can just maze of ith dreadnought.

All feedback is appreciated, thanks for reading!