Hi,
I have just become a member on the forums and I was wondering if anyone has any opinions/suggestions for a deck I'm building.Note that this post has been edited to reflect the current situation as I have made some changes based on Mr. Sinister much appreciated advices.
The deck is for casual gameplay with friends, which will include mutliplayer games (2-6 players). As it stands the deck is extremely weak against noncreature based decks. This is fine as this will not be my most resilient blue deck and that most casual decks I have encountered are depended on creatures in someway for their finishing combo/killing blow. Since it is a casual deck it will not be designed to deal with cards like Force of will or extremely expensive tournament competitive decks.
The Strategy of the deck is to copy/steal your opponents strategy and kill him with it. Currently the deck is somewhat slow - with only Undo and Mark of Eviction (good re-usability) to hold back agro decks until my copying and stealing begins. When it comes to lands the deck runs 22 Ilands (maybe someone have some special land suggestions?) with Preordain and Serum Visions for flow control. As it stands the Phyrexian Metamorph might be the most useful/versatile card with it's ability to copy shroud, hexproof (He doesn't target anything :D), artifacts (including my Vedalken Shackles ) and creatures (including sower of temptation and cryptoplasm ).
So I'm asking you guys which are vastly more knowledge than me about magic if you guys have any recommendations on how to improve the deck, please keep card prices below 30 USD a piece
You'll be very dependent on your opponent playing strong creatures for you to steal and copy. A spell based deck, a control deck or a combo deck will most likely crush you. Hexproof will ruin your day too. The deck has some very expensive cards in it, but sadly it probably won't work very well. It needs a few extra lands too.
I'd really like to help, but unfortunately I've never played mono blue control, so I know little of the archetype. My basic advice would be to lower your mana curve, that is remove some of the high-costed cards for cheaper ones to speed up the deck. You also need three extra lands to avoid getting mana screwed. I'd remove some of the control cards for counters such as Counterspell, Mana Leak etc. to better handle early threats and noncreature spells. You could also use Propaganda if you face creature heavy decks. Vedalken Shackles is a very powerful card in a mono blue deck, since you can use it again and again. It is a lot better than Control Magic in a deck like this. Bribery is at its best when your opponent plays massive, game-ending threats like Progenitus and the Eldrazi. It's usually better to steal a creature in play, since it makes your opponent lose a creature and you get a creature as opposed to only getting one yourself. I wouldn't spend all that money on it for this deck. As a last remark, I'd lose most of the clones, since you depend heavily on your opponent playing good, sizeable creatures. Instead, I would add more counters, defense and control and a couple of finishers such as Aetherling, Sphinx of Jwar Isle or another big creature that is hard to get rid of.
EDIT: Flow of Ideas is way too slow to be any good and Phantasmal Image is very fragile. Therefore it's best used copying creatures with enters-the-battlefield or leaves-the-battlefield/dies abilities, so that you are guaranteed to net some profit from casting it.
You'll be very dependent on your opponent playing strong creatures for you to steal and copy.
This probably won't be an issue if he's using it in multiplayer, as indicated in his post. Still, it would be funny to add a second color just to play things like Hunted Lammasu or Death by Dragons, and then steal the creatures you just gave away.
First of all thank you all for your advices so far, all of you have had excellent suggestions. I have made a revised deck where I have tried to address the issues you guys pointed out. I would appreciate if you guys have any opinions/suggestions for the revised deck. As it stands I have not decided for any special lands. Also I'm considering dropping 1 Bribery, 1 control magic and 1 Phyrexian Metamorph or 1 cryptoplasm for something else that will work well with the rest of the deck
Also I have to thank SengirVampire for the brilliant Runechanter's Pike - Inkmoth Nexus combo, it is going straight into my counterspell deck.
A card that works in beautiful synergy with Cryptoplasm is Willbraker (when an opponent's creature becomes the target of Cryptoplasm's copy you will gain control of that creature as long as you control Willbreaker). With these two cards you not only copy all their creatures but steal them too.
Another card to consider is Psychic Rebuttal because it deals with instants and sorceries while also fitting in with the copy theme. There are more cards that can copy instants and sorceries to look into as well; I don't know their names.
I take it you would prefer to stay mono blue but there are tons of other color options you could look into as well. For instance if you use white you could run Crystallization (disable their creature; when you copy it it will be exiled), Serene Master (use their creatures' power against them), Daxos of Meletis (cast their cards if he gets through) and probably more I don't know about. It would also open you up to more spell options.
As a sort of added bonus, I believe all cards I mentioned cost under a dollar, if budget is a concern. Good luck to anyone newly reading this!
2011: Best Mafia Performance (Individual) - Best Newcomer
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player
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I have just become a member on the forums and I was wondering if anyone has any opinions/suggestions for a deck I'm building.Note that this post has been edited to reflect the current situation as I have made some changes based on Mr. Sinister much appreciated advices.
The deck is for casual gameplay with friends, which will include mutliplayer games (2-6 players). As it stands the deck is extremely weak against noncreature based decks. This is fine as this will not be my most resilient blue deck and that most casual decks I have encountered are depended on creatures in someway for their finishing combo/killing blow. Since it is a casual deck it will not be designed to deal with cards like Force of will or extremely expensive tournament competitive decks.
The Strategy of the deck is to copy/steal your opponents strategy and kill him with it. Currently the deck is somewhat slow - with only Undo and Mark of Eviction (good re-usability) to hold back agro decks until my copying and stealing begins. When it comes to lands the deck runs 22 Ilands (maybe someone have some special land suggestions?) with Preordain and Serum Visions for flow control. As it stands the Phyrexian Metamorph might be the most useful/versatile card with it's ability to copy shroud, hexproof (He doesn't target anything :D), artifacts (including my Vedalken Shackles ) and creatures (including sower of temptation and cryptoplasm ).
So I'm asking you guys which are vastly more knowledge than me about magic if you guys have any recommendations on how to improve the deck, please keep card prices below 30 USD a piece
3 Serum Visions
2 Undo
4 Preordain
4 Bribery
3 Mark of Eviction
3 control magic
Artifacts
4 Vedalken Shackles
Creatures
3 Consecrated Sphinx
4 cryptoplasm
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 sower of temptation
22 Ilands
I fixed your deck list too:
3x Phantasmal image
4x Phyrexian Metamorph
4x sower of temptation
4x Control magic
Instants and sorceries:
4x Bribery
3x Cackling Counterpart
3x Flow of Ideas
4x Preordain
3x Serum Visions
3x Undo
21x Islands
Good luck!
EDIT: Flow of Ideas is way too slow to be any good and Phantasmal Image is very fragile. Therefore it's best used copying creatures with enters-the-battlefield or leaves-the-battlefield/dies abilities, so that you are guaranteed to net some profit from casting it.
Also I have to thank SengirVampire for the brilliant Runechanter's Pike - Inkmoth Nexus combo, it is going straight into my counterspell deck.
3 Mark of Eviction
4 Preordain
Two mana
3 energy field
Three mana
3 Vedalken Shackles
3 cryptoplasm
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 cryptic command
3 sower of temptation
4 control magic
Five mana
4 Bribery
2 Consecrated Sphinx
lands
24 island
Another card to consider is Psychic Rebuttal because it deals with instants and sorceries while also fitting in with the copy theme. There are more cards that can copy instants and sorceries to look into as well; I don't know their names.
I take it you would prefer to stay mono blue but there are tons of other color options you could look into as well. For instance if you use white you could run Crystallization (disable their creature; when you copy it it will be exiled), Serene Master (use their creatures' power against them), Daxos of Meletis (cast their cards if he gets through) and probably more I don't know about. It would also open you up to more spell options.
As a sort of added bonus, I believe all cards I mentioned cost under a dollar, if budget is a concern. Good luck to anyone newly reading this!
{мы, тьма}
2012: Best (False?) Role Claim - Worst Town Performance (Group) - Best Mafia Performance (Group) - Best SK Performance - Best Overall Player
2013: Best Non-SK Neutral Performance
2014: Best Town Performance (Individual) - Best Town Performance (Group) - Most Interesting Role - Best Game - Best Overall Player
2015: Worst Mafia Performance (Group) - Best Read
2016: Best Town Performance (Group) - Best Town Player - Best Overall Player