[Deck] Relic Orb- Mono Blue Prison

[clavio]

Relic Orb (otherwise known as efreet stompy) is a Mono Blue prison deck that takes advantage of tapping one’s own winter orb to turn it off. This allows you to untap as normal while your opponent only untaps one land. Once you have winter orb going, you use ports to tighten down the lock. Your opponent will writhe as you beat down for the win with your rainbow efreet on turn 50. It has been getting very good results. Here is my list:

Lands
3 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Rishadan Port
16 Island
2 Blinkmoth Well

Creatures
2 Rainbow Efreet

Non Creature spells
4 Daze
4 Propaganda
4 Counterspell
4 Impulse
4 Force of Will
2 Echoing Truth
3 Tangle Wire
4 Winter Orb
4 Relic Barrier

// Sideboard
4 Hydroblast
4 Chill
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Cursed Totem

Card Choices:

Tabernacle: Very effective vs. creature heavy decks. With tabernacle and winter orb in play you are basically asking your opponent every upkeep if they want to be hit by Armageddon or wrath of god.

Rishadan Port: They tighten down the lock and make your opponent unable to play anything. Not too bad prelock either.

Island: meh

Blinkmoth well: Extra relic barriers. If your opponent needles barrier or you just don’t draw any, these will help.

Rainbow efreet: You can’t kill it. It is simply the hardiest blue creature out there. People keep saying that morphling would be better because its more efficient pre lock. If you are relying on beating down prelock, you have already lost.

Mana Leak: stops stuff

Propaganda: Slows goblins and other creature decks to a crawl. After winter orb, they basically can’t attack. Very useful.

Counterspell: Stops stuff

Impulse: Helps find things. Also puts cards on the bottom of your library if both efreets are near the bottom of your deck.

Force of will: Stop stuff for free

Echoing truth: Usually getting meddling mage, sometimes needle or sharpshooter. It deals with what needs to be dealt with.

Tangle Wire: Whenever I show people this deck, they always want to drop tangle wire. It’s a good speed bump pre orb. Its even better after you have orb in play.

Winter Orb: It’s the deck

Relic Barrier: Taps Orb

Sideboard
Hydroblast, chill: Mono red gave this deck trouble. Losing to burn 1st round essentially puts you out of the running for top 4,8.

Chalice of the void: Very good if you have no one drops. Comes in against many decks.

Cursed totem: decks with mana creatures used to be the bane of this deck. This card helps immensely. Also makes life.dec a better matchup and stops sharpshooter. You can’t phase efreet once you have it on the field, but hopefully that won’t matter




But the question remains, why would you play this deck?

It has been getting very good results vs the top decks in the format.

Propaganda tangle wire and tabernacle slow goblins down to a crawl. To quote one of my recent opponents “Your deck is my decks worst nightmare”. Yeah.

Tangle wire, winter orb and countermagic make solidarity a reasonable matchup. Sideboarding in chalice is always fun, as they will either have to bounce it or go off without high tide. Solidarity is not an easy match, but I usually end up the winner.

Thresh does not have a fast enough clock to beat me before I lock them down. They have countermagic of course, but it rarely matters. Pithing needle naming relic barrier is annoying. I have lost games to thresh, but it is a favorable matchup.

It usually beats randoms.

Another reason to play this deck is because you are the sadistic person who likes to lockdown their opponent. This is the main reason I play this deck. It’s a pain in the ass to play against if you don’t know what’s coming. The face of a locked down opponent is priceless.

It’s under the radar. No one expects this deck after your first turn play is island, go.

A third reason to play this deck is that it can be played well without ridiculous amounts of playskill. I don’t have any playskill, yet I am able to do well with this deck.

So that’s all. I like this deck a lot. Please post any comments, suggestions etc.

[Mirrislegend]

Relic Barrier is ridiculously narrow. I understand why it's in the deck, but without an Orb, its a ridiculously dead card. Maybe -1 Relic Barrier, +1 Icy Manipulator? Or something, anything, to make the Relic Barrier slots useful besides when you have an Orb in play?

[Cavius The Great]

Clavio, have you considered Dream Tides? That's what Mono-Blue Prop-orb decks used in 96' and it worked pretty well.

[clavio]

I have considered dream tides, but I don't know what to drop. What would you drop?

[Cavius The Great]

I have considered dream tides, but I don't know what to drop. What would you drop?

I'd probably drop the 3 Tangle Wire and add 3 Dream Tides. They basically do the same thing, deal with creatures, and you can even pitch them to FoW when needed. You can't really pitch Tangle Wire to FoW.

[Goblin Snowman]

Have you taken a look at Static Orb It can work as Winter Orbs 5-8. Also, how about Trinisphere to help to Combo MU?

[clavio]

I'd probably drop the 3 Tangle Wire and add 3 Dream Tides. They basically do the same thing, deal with creatures, and you can even pitch them to FoW when needed. You can't really pitch Tangle Wire to FoW.

But tangle wire is so good vs solidarity

[Cavius The Great]

But tangle wire is so good vs solidarity

It should depend on whether Solidarity is a bad matchup for you or not. You should then come to a conclusion as to which matchups need the most improvement. Solidarity or general aggro.

On another note. Have you considered Howling Mine? It's pretty one sided most the time with Relic Barrier, plus it gives Relic Barrier more useful targets. I'm thinking running two might be sufficient.

These are the changes that I personally would make.

-3 Tangle Wire
+1 Icy Manipulator
+2 Howling Mine

[cupajoe]

Great deck....I really like it....Very creative,and it's impressive you have a good game against Sol, Thresh and Goblins

One thing I was wondering, what about when you run into decks that use very little mana.....

I could see black giving you problems.....a fair amount of Legacy decks can run off of one or two mana.....

It seems like by the time you establish the prison against those types of decks, you may already have lost.....

Have you thought about a transitional sideboard?....Taking out the lock elements and replacing with a different strategy...Seems better than chill or hydroblast....I personally don't like having color-specific cards in sideboards....Seems too narrow to me.....

Or perhaps leave in the lock elements and include different lock elements in the board.....That way, you can side out Prop against creatureless decks etc.

I don't know what to suggest specifically, just some food for thought.

[Durahan]

Have you considered running Sphere of Resistance or Trinisphere? Seems to fit right into the deck to me.

[clavio]

I am thinking about replacing 2 winter orbs with 2 satic orbrs and 2 relic barriers for 2 icy manipulators. Static orb, while sucking vs solidarity is pretty dominant vs goblins especially when propaganda is on the field. Icy manipulator helps me dodge needle naming relic barrier. Post lock Icy becomes a port if I have multiple orb tappers.

[Bane of the Living]

Why arent you running Daze? The opponents mana will be extremely tight under Orb, and if your just playing mono blue counter style with no Relic out, Daze becomes a house. Your opponent might need to wait an extra turn to untap one more land to play anything they dont want dazed. It doesnt cost you mana and you can replay the land you bounce if you dont draw one for the next turn. Seems like nice synergy.

More Orb synergy.. moxen. Chrome Mox or Mox Diamond will have you untapping two mana a turn while your opponent gets their one. I know all that changes with Relic in play but your worried about Pithing Needle ruining the way the deck works. Just build your deck to not rely on Relic as much.

Parallax Tide and Stifle seem to fit the theme of your deck as well.

[clavio]

I am running daze, I just forgot to edit the first post....oops.

I can't run moxen. I don't have enough card draw to pitch away cards to gain speed. It seems like a good idea, but in practice it doesn't work.

parallax tide and stifle would require me to play multiples of both, and it seems like overkill. While parallax tide with tabernacle in play is ridiculous, I don't think it is entirley neccesary.

[Cavius The Great]

Now that Bane has mentioned Daze, have you considered Force Spike? It has the same exact agenda that Bane explained for Daze, plus it stops first turn stuff. You also have to remember it's good in the late game with an Orb in play when it normally wouldn't be. Just a little something to consider.

[Bane of the Living]

I am running daze, I just forgot to edit the first post....oops.

I can't run moxen. I don't have enough card draw to pitch away cards to gain speed. It seems like a good idea, but in practice it doesn't work.

parallax tide and stifle would require me to play multiples of both, and it seems like overkill. While parallax tide with tabernacle in play is ridiculous, I don't think it is entirley neccesary.

Well Stifle gives you a better game against Iggy Pop and Solidarity in the off chance you stifle storm, and also helps you get to late game by having more lackey answers. Parallax Tide is not only awsome with Tabernacle but Propaganda as well. I disagree that you cant fit Mox Diamonds, you run 25 lands. Extra Tabernacles can used to put them out. You should rather play a mox than a land because of orb anyways.

Other interesting ideas are Counterbalance, since your curve is low and your opponent can only cast low curve spells. Then also Muddle the Mixture for its tutoring capabilities.

Are there any better kill conditions?

[Cavius The Great]

Are there any better kill conditions?

Grindstone and Jester's Cap maybe?

[Bane of the Living]

If you use Jesters Scepter you get some Counter Control whilst you mill. Couple it with your Echoing Truths for the devestating mill effect.

[clavio]

// Lands
14 Island (3)
3 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Rishadan Port
2 Blinkmoth Well
2 Ancient Tomb

// Creatures
1 Rainbow Efreet
1 Morphling

// Spells
4 Icy Manipulator
3 Tangle Wire
4 Daze
2 Relic Barrier
4 Force of Will
4 Propaganda
3 Winter Orb
3 Static Orb
4 Impulse
1 Mana Short
1 Repeal

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [5E] Winter Orb
SB: 1 [7E] Static Orb
SB: 3 [6E] Cursed Totem
SB: 4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
SB: 3 [EX] Sphere of Resistance
SB: 1 [IA] Jester's Cap
SB: 2 [DK] Tormod's Crypt


New list, lots of diifferent stuff

I added 1 morpling and dropped one Efreet.

I dropped counterspell. This gave me some flexibility as hitting UU became unnecesary.

Less islands, more ancient tomb

Icy manipulator is pretty awesome. It taps orb, or it taps their shit. Much better than relic.

The big change is the addition of static orb. Static orb is fantastic vs creature based decks. It gives you a shot game one against decks that would only lose if you got cursed totem, and they could still have a shot then. It is worse in the solidarity matchup, but not too bad.

Only one bounce spell. Meddling mage and Needle don't kick my ass so much anymore.

Mana short, because it's awesome. With tabernacle on the field it becomes a friggen wog.

Chill became sor. Why stop at red spells?

[Cavius The Great]

I really think you need to be running more counters.

These are the changes I would suggest.

-1 Repeal
-1 Mana Short

+2 Force Spike

Both Mana Short and Repeal are janky IMO and are not needed most of the time. I agree that if you need a bounce spell, I'd go with echoing truth or something similiar.

Ten counters sounds about right to me. I'd even think of going to 12 if you ever found the room.

[clavio]

While I agree that I need more counters, I will not be dropping repeal. I need to be able to deal with meddling mage, and that is the card that can do it. Mana short is very good, but it may be unneccesary...I'll see.