MTG Salvation

I will admit I almost never play mono-blue or mess with artifacts that much but I want to try at least. I have though played the precon Riku and Zedruu precon commander decks and found the control aspect of those to be rather intriguing. here is a list I threw together of the cards and interactions I thought might work, keep in mind I am new to blue, within my card collection. This deck is based around card draw and using that to my advantage. Comments and Critics are welcome. Thanks

list updated

yes those both would help keep me from having to discard and will make for sick Psychosis Crawler and Sturmgeist Thanks

Update: my first run of this deck ended up getting a 43/43 Sturmgeist equiped with a Swiftfoot boots out as a game ending play. I am also looking at cards such as Graceful Adept, Library of Leng, Relearn, call to mind, Scrivener, Last word, and Rewind. When it comes to grabbing useful things out of my grave to reuse and abuse some Counterspells or draw cards.

+1 for playing the best color in Magic. 'Tis an evil color, rife with many different ways to say no.
A card engine that creates excellent recursion is Mnemonic Wall + Crystal Shard. Essentially allows you to pick up any card from your graveyard. Very good.
Expedition Map also loves to find Reliquary Tower, and has excellent synergy with Trinket Mage. I wish more people would post mono-Blue lists. Granted, they're probably all the same, competitive control lists anyways. Perhaps I will post my Ertai, Wizard Adept deck soon.

Indeed I never knew how fun it was to sit there and be able to say no and crumble my opponents plans to dust I guess I should be glad I finally gave blue a chance. Thanks for the helpful hints Crystal Shard sounds fun to abuse with Mnemonic Wall.

the one color I want to do well against is mono black just because that is the one color many play in my play group and I want to shut down any Sac based decks or life loss ones too. The question I have now is can my current list handle Mono black 1 vs 1 or would it far better when put into a Multiplayer setting? Id like to remove Prototype Portal for a Mirari just because it seems more synergistic in my current list. Although I want to do equally well against all colors, I just would like to take a mono black deck to school a little as my Kresh the Bloodbraided list seems to drop dead whenever I play

Yes that would be great since I normally go up against Maga, Traitor to Mortals usually the player gets things out fast and runs Xathrid Demon along side Maga then he can either Life's finale or Beacon of Unrest. they also run Caged sun gauntlet of power along side cabal coffers so getting things out is no issue. I also think a Isochron Scepter will be nice if I can exile a nice Counterspell and Ivory Tower seems to be a fun synergy to possibly incorporate into my list or even side board.

I will add Proteus Staff to my list but I am torn between dropping Flight spellbomb or aether spellbomb or maybe something else I might be overlooking.

If you're playing against heavy mono-Black, I would strongly recommend adding more cheap counterspells and add more artifact ramp. And play Memnarch in your 100 somewhere. Mono-Black lists tend to rely on artifacts to make up for the weakness of utility removal, and they are particularly outclassed if a blue deck can maintain 1-1's until a card advantage engine becomes available. the Sphinx of drawing-infinite-cards is so good against them. I know it's excellent against me when I'm playing Ob Nixilis and Memnarch can resolve a Sphinx and let it remain answered for a full round. Find the weakness of mono-Black (artifact dependency and being equally as mana hungry) and exploit it with cards that are good by themselves.

Memnarch is a auto add I actually like that card more than Jin-gitaxias, core augur that seems way more sinister than killing opponents hands. Although, I change my general I may or may not have to change my list and probably spend a considerable amount of money on cards. I would like to know about any blue legends that are better suited for control and can work well on a budget. I can afford most cards minus $20+ cards that I normally need to proxy for awhile.

Mind's Eye, Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora are couple cards to consider. You probably should also replace subpar counterspells like Mana Leak with stuff like Hinder and Spell Crumple. Spin Into Myth is nice if you need to tuck something.

Yo, you like to draw cards, right? How about Blue Sun's Zenith Braingeyser or Stroke of Genius? Rhystic Study is a must! Mind's Eye looks good with Tezzeret!. Fact or Fiction is awesome for you and fun for your opponents (something extremely rare in Mono U.) Preordain! Brainstorm! Impulse!

I got some new cards and rebuilt my list with some suggestions made by fellow players. i dropped many creatures for instants and some artifacts I found more useful. I am not sure if running high spells low creatures is common in blue though.

thinking of adding a Inkwell Leviathan Deep-Sea Kraken Stormtide Leviathan and Lorthos, the Tidemaker

thinking of adding a sensei's divining top and tunnel vision. there are other spells I am looking at but I do not know what cards to drop in order to get other cards in.

Lorthos! He's so flavorful. Probably one of my favorite creatures ever.
You could perhaps cut Spell Syphon for the 'Top. With less blue creatures being ran, the Syphon loses power, and will prolly more often than not be a worse Mana Leak.
How has Djinn of Wishes been for you? It would gain additional power from the Top. But would otherwise be somewhat of a gamble. Put Lorthos in its place if you don't like it. Lorthos is actually quite powerful, all flavor and fun-ness aside.

indeed I like Lorthos he is a good creature that can eliminate blockers and some nasty tap effects. I think I can maybe drop a Visions of Beyond for the Top as well I rarely think ill be able to get 3 cards out for visions.

Excellent. How has Mirari been for you? I don't see a lot of powerful instants or sorceries that you'd want to copy. It just seems like small utility spells that are able to be copied with the Mirari. Rite of Replication seems to be fantastic copied, and kicked+copied might possibly be one of the coolest plays in all of magic.
I'd also recommend finding a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir. He stops your opponents from being able to counter your stuff and makes your counterspells super-effective. Kind of like Charizard being Hydro-Pumped by a Blastoise. You know Pokemon was the best back in the day.

Mirari as a presence on my field has not been effective as I thought it would its still a nice idea though I may even drop it for a Vedalken Shackless or Jace's Erasure Teferi, mage of zhalfir is a amazing legend someone in my play group has a EDH list with him as general. Although that player is forbidden to play his blue decks because no one can beat him, its the same with his other decks.

The one aspect of blue I still want to touch on is Milling but I have a Oona list I want to put together as well. I will Take a Mirari out for a Jace's Erasure. The reason is if I am drawing why not make people start milling their libraries away. it will be especially evil when i have consecrated Sphinx in play then I will draw 2 cards to each other players one.

yes my list is not based around mill but a few small mills can make a difference on occasion. I am running card draw and I have a few nice finishers in my list that can be pretty evil if left unattended. I beefed up Sturmgeist can make quick work and a constant card draw will drain life with Psychosis Crawler out. I need to smooth out my list still and maybe find some alternative win conditions. Aside from drawing a ton of cards and getting counterspells I need to find a few more fun cards to add.