Some of those cards sound underwhelming, but U/W seems like a good direction to go in for most archetypes right now. Tempo? Go U/W with Teferi. Control? U/W with Teferi. Mono-Red? Eh they might even want to think about moving into Teferi too
How has Tibalt, Rakish Investigator been? I haven't tested him yet, I've always had my doubts about him, but I guess against control the tokens could contribute enough damage to make a difference.
Okay, so what if we add a color? -4 Tempest Djinn, +4 something? How about Teferi? Can't complain about having an instant Entrancing Melody. Still want a power card, but there's lots of options now.
The problem is, if you're talking about cutting Tempest Djinn and adding a second color, it screws up pretty much every part of this deck and you should just run a different deck that is in those two colors. The cards in this deck work based on the premise that you can run a low land count, but always have an untapped blue source on T1 and two untapped blue sources on T2. That's why it's 19-20 Islands and no room for other nonsense. Adding other colors means you're not playing Djinn, one of the two fundamental cards of the deck, and not having those untapped blue sources means you can't land & protect Curious Obsession, the other fundamental card of the deck. There might be an aggro-control deck that runs blue and white, but it won't look anything like the deck we talk about in this thread.
Mono-blue is a meta deck. Best hope for the deck is to wait a few weeks and see if the meta blows in a different direction (e.g. Sultai becomes a factor again).
So, my early impression on Arena is that this deck utterly gets its teeth kicked in by Teferi, Time Raveler. You either have a Spell Pierce for it, or you lose. Only a few matches in, but it seems bad for us.
As example, a standard Sphinx of Foresight now costs 41 cents on SCG, so, the card is trash and they have lots of them.
But, a foil version costs $4, and they are out of stock.
What?
The foil (non-promo) version of sphinx is TEN times more expensive, and out of stock.
Ever hear of a thing called EDH? I hear they like their foils over there. That's probably why it's sold out. Nobody is playing the card in Standard.
Also, I've tried a few different cards and SB strategies with this deck, and at this point my advice is to read Autumn Burchett's article and do exactly what they say. It has been working really well for me on Arena lately.
Also, I'll echo whoever said you should play best-of-3 with this deck if you're on Arena. In Bo1, I was struggling to do better than 50-50, but since I've been focusing on Bo3, I've gone on an 11-2 run and moving up into Platinum. That may be luck, me getting better with the deck, etc. but the matchups are just generally a lot better in the Bo3 queues.
I recently started main decking entrancing melody to help with shoring up my aggro matches and have to say I'm impressed. Taking even one of the early drops to your side is huge.
Also helps against tithe takers.
Going with the 1 main, 2-3 board strategy, or are you running multiple in the maindeck? The former is what I'm doing, and seems to be the popular way to run the deck right now, but I haven't tried multiples.
Had a good day today, went 19-2 in Bo1 play on Arena and went from Bronze to Gold (I just started playing Arena this week). Competition wasn't all that strong and no sideboarding, but still pretty happy with that record.
Rujasu - Since you're running 19 land, have you considered the extra Island SB?
It is a rare deck that plays extra land in the Sideboard. Maybe 1%, maybe less.
I mention it because it was in Burchett's SB when they won the MC. I don't know if it's optimal or not, just throwing it out there.
Anyone interested in an updated version of this thread? I'm just getting back into Standard, but overall it seems like a good time for budget players with mono-U being a cheap deck that just won the MC, and mono-R being a popular cheap deck as always. I'm sure a White Weenie deck can be assembled without too much money as well, and it's a straightforward archetype to learn for new players. Any other good options we could highlight?
So I think I have the MB that I want to play. The only card I'm debating on is Warkite Marauder.
Also, I need one more card for my SB. Should I just keep Deep Freeze in the SB for Niv?
Since you're running 19 land, have you considered the extra Island SB?
is it worth messing with people's lands with Tideshaper Mystic as well as give spreading seas 5-8 in a pinch?
Considering that the card has been around since Lorwyn, probably not. Other than turning on Islandwalk (at the expense of not being able to attack with it!), it's not going to be useful in terms of messing with opposing colors. You can't use it on their turn, and if you use it on your own turn, they can just play their spell in response. Sure, I can think of a few niche situations where it would work, but there are a ton more where it's going to be a plain old Merfolk of the Pearl Trident.
I know in the past, people were using Sea's Claim as the 5th-8th Seas. That seems to have fallen out of favor though.
Well, I think we know the answer to this now... (read the front page if you haven't)
The problem is, if you're talking about cutting Tempest Djinn and adding a second color, it screws up pretty much every part of this deck and you should just run a different deck that is in those two colors. The cards in this deck work based on the premise that you can run a low land count, but always have an untapped blue source on T1 and two untapped blue sources on T2. That's why it's 19-20 Islands and no room for other nonsense. Adding other colors means you're not playing Djinn, one of the two fundamental cards of the deck, and not having those untapped blue sources means you can't land & protect Curious Obsession, the other fundamental card of the deck. There might be an aggro-control deck that runs blue and white, but it won't look anything like the deck we talk about in this thread.
Mono-blue is a meta deck. Best hope for the deck is to wait a few weeks and see if the meta blows in a different direction (e.g. Sultai becomes a factor again).
Ever hear of a thing called EDH? I hear they like their foils over there. That's probably why it's sold out. Nobody is playing the card in Standard.
Also, I've tried a few different cards and SB strategies with this deck, and at this point my advice is to read Autumn Burchett's article and do exactly what they say. It has been working really well for me on Arena lately.
Going with the 1 main, 2-3 board strategy, or are you running multiple in the maindeck? The former is what I'm doing, and seems to be the popular way to run the deck right now, but I haven't tried multiples.
This is the Legacy thread, but Shrine is too slow for either format.
I mention it because it was in Burchett's SB when they won the MC. I don't know if it's optimal or not, just throwing it out there.
Since you're running 19 land, have you considered the extra Island SB?
Considering that the card has been around since Lorwyn, probably not. Other than turning on Islandwalk (at the expense of not being able to attack with it!), it's not going to be useful in terms of messing with opposing colors. You can't use it on their turn, and if you use it on your own turn, they can just play their spell in response. Sure, I can think of a few niche situations where it would work, but there are a ton more where it's going to be a plain old Merfolk of the Pearl Trident.
I know in the past, people were using Sea's Claim as the 5th-8th Seas. That seems to have fallen out of favor though.
Anything male-dominated, really. It's not limited to nerds and it's not limited to hobbies.