I ran it against a friend and went 3-2 against UWR control and 3-0 against UB turns. The deck felt smooth and between the Djinns and the Serpents, the beaters pack a lot of punch. We have a ton of counters so combo and control are maybe favorable matchups.
I'm thinking that the deck will suffer a lot against Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial decks as it runs an enormous amount of countermagic, but MAYBE that can be taken care of with sideboard cards (Exhaustion seems great against creature decks but perhaps there is a better answer for Humans, Taxes and Eldrazi). Maybe I just have to take out some counters and run some number of Dismembers, Vapor Snag or Psionic Blasts maindeck to have a better chance against those decks. At least we do have some fatties that are difficult for them to get rid of.
As for the sideboard, from the top of my head come some number of:
I've also been considering a mono-u list with Djinn. I have to 2nd the Thing in the Ice recommendation. Also, a 1-of Vedalken Shackles in the SB might be worth considering. Another one that I've been considering is Spire Golem, but I'm not sure that the stats are good enough. Harbinger of the Tides is yet another card to consider.
In 2016 a deck piloted by an mtgo user k_f_chicken went 5-0 in a league, and that's where my search started ...
I found out that there was an mtggoldfish tech and Saffron Olive played it, to an undefeated stream session and posted videos.
Link below. https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/instant-deck-tech-mono-blue-control-modern
I also found that Frank Leopore played the list and wrote an article about what could be improved in his opinion, because no one was really sure what were budget options, or if the deck was a "dumpster fire" of lucky draws or matches.
Frank Leopore link below http://www.numotgaming.com/modern-monday-mono-blue-control-videos/
So we can get the base list from these three sources, which has been pretty solid for me, putting up many 3-1 and even 4-0 at fnm. Even Plumeveil feels like an awkward though still solid ambush viper when you're vs an agro meta, but tempest djinn allows you to skip warmonger chariot for a win con. Tec edge from the original list was fine but field of ruin was an amazing upgrade, preventing the awkward draws they speak about when casting a 3 blue Mana symbol win con.
There is even an original forum here at salvation, with many people saying decent things, until they either became uninterested or moved on to a color splash. https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/672041-mono-blue-control
So as a revised list that I'm running through and testing ATM.
Sometimes I want a second wurmcoil, sometimes I want another confirm suspicions Silent arbiter is in and out, for things like sun Droplet, Plumeveil, and different planeswalkers but shackles and lifelink is the main way to live against aggro, djinn and batterskull is a pretty huge swing itself. Affinity is hard depending on their draws, infect can be hard, (sometimes I want more spellskite) humans and spirits are moderate depending on their draws, but with practice both of these become positive I believe, though I haven't kept numbers. Control, midrange and combo feel very favored. Pheonix and dredge are awkward and very swingy, I don't win the games I don't draw a surgical plus something, snapcaster/2nd surgical/scavenger grounds, especially if they have a fast start.
Tldr
Totally better than it looks on paper, wish I had better card draw options. The meta alone makes me want white splash ...
I’m fairly interested in this. I was watching some LSV’s content, with his Mono Blu Control developments. I don’t think you can go full Control without any splash, but the plan Thing + Snapcaster + Cryptic Command is always a good beating against a huge part of the metagame.
At first I focused on Blast Zone + Jace TMS maindeck. Too durdly, and Jace was dying way too fast. Search for Azcanta was a great swap for the card advantage slots... but, again, I was durdling too much and didn’t accomplish neither to kill nor to enstablish a decent Control over the opponent.
His ability to race is truly frightening. In the early game is a decent wall, but past turn 5-6 it becomes a three turns clock in the air. Basically, he’s a Crackling Drake who doesn’t replace himself, but comes into play one turn faster. Which means, we can protect him quite profictably.
The deck is basically a UR Phoenix that plays with a different approach: being slower, but more consistent. It resolves around Thing in the Ice, but had much more legs against big-mana decks and other Combo strategies, thanks to counterspells wall + Snapcaster recursion. It’s very good against Dredge, cuz bounce spells (and expecially Echoing Truth) plus Cryptic tap/draw really make the difference here. Affinity is unexpectedly fine, given the amount of cards which bypass their Welding Jar (Snare + Rejection + bounce spells + Dismember). We’re basically a dog against Vial strategies and we’ve got a fairly bad matchup against BGx (this can be improved, though).
Field of Ruin hasn’t really impressed me, as we want to operate on blue sources all the time. Force of Negation has been a great addiction, that in Mono Blue you’ll never have trouble casting, and it permits you to cast Djinn with active protection for the opponent’s bomb.
I considered a split of Archmage’s Charm and Cryptic Command, but the latter is truly too versatile for a decklist which doesn’t pack many removals.
Field of Ruin hasn’t really impressed me, as we want to operate on blue sources all the time. Force of Negation has been a great addiction, that in Mono Blue you’ll never have trouble casting, and it permits you to cast Djinn with active protection for the opponent’s bomb.
I considered a split of Archmage’s Charm and Cryptic Command, but the latter is truly too versatile for a decklist which doesn’t pack many removals.
So there is a guy at my FNM that plays this exact deck but instead of the djinn he plays Pteramander instead. He typically does quite well with the deck. Also he plays Chart a Course for card draw and delver in the deck that I know of.
has spell snare been useful? it feels too narrow. What cards are you countering with it?
Mono Blue has to play with it, or it will fold to Affinity, Eidolon and similar threats. It’s a very narrow card, but extra useful when used at the right time (Thing, Manamorphose, Snapcaster, Altar etc). You can pitch it to Force of Negation when it’s unnecessary.
instead of the djinn he plays Pteramander
We need to play Though Scour (terrible card on its own) to fuel Pteramander. Djinn doesn’t care about Grave hate, and it’s always a 3/4 flying on turn three (which stonewalls lots of stuff the opponent does).
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20 Island
Creatures (15):
4 delver of secrets
4 snapcaster mage
4 tempest djinn
2 cryptic serpent
1 vendilion clique
4 serum visions
4 opt
2 spell pierce
1 spell snare
2 mana leak
4 remand
3 disrupting shoal
2 vapor snag
3 cryptic command
I ran it against a friend and went 3-2 against UWR control and 3-0 against UB turns. The deck felt smooth and between the Djinns and the Serpents, the beaters pack a lot of punch. We have a ton of counters so combo and control are maybe favorable matchups.
I'm thinking that the deck will suffer a lot against Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial decks as it runs an enormous amount of countermagic, but MAYBE that can be taken care of with sideboard cards (Exhaustion seems great against creature decks but perhaps there is a better answer for Humans, Taxes and Eldrazi). Maybe I just have to take out some counters and run some number of Dismembers, Vapor Snag or Psionic Blasts maindeck to have a better chance against those decks. At least we do have some fatties that are difficult for them to get rid of.
As for the sideboard, from the top of my head come some number of:
Any thoughts, any important card I might be missing?
Stubborn Denial is amazing with the Djinn out.
I agree that a miser Vedalken Shackles somewhere in the 75 would be great.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
I found out that there was an mtggoldfish tech and Saffron Olive played it, to an undefeated stream session and posted videos.
Link below.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/instant-deck-tech-mono-blue-control-modern
I also found that Frank Leopore played the list and wrote an article about what could be improved in his opinion, because no one was really sure what were budget options, or if the deck was a "dumpster fire" of lucky draws or matches.
Frank Leopore link below
http://www.numotgaming.com/modern-monday-mono-blue-control-videos/
So we can get the base list from these three sources, which has been pretty solid for me, putting up many 3-1 and even 4-0 at fnm. Even Plumeveil feels like an awkward though still solid ambush viper when you're vs an agro meta, but tempest djinn allows you to skip warmonger chariot for a win con. Tec edge from the original list was fine but field of ruin was an amazing upgrade, preventing the awkward draws they speak about when casting a 3 blue Mana symbol win con.
There is even an original forum here at salvation, with many people saying decent things, until they either became uninterested or moved on to a color splash.
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/672041-mono-blue-control
So as a revised list that I'm running through and testing ATM.
//
1 Academy Ruins
3 Faerie Conclave
4 Field of Ruin
15 Island
1 Scavenger Grounds
// Creatures
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tempest Djinn
1 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Condescend
1 Confirm Suspicions
4 Cryptic Command
2 Dissolve
4 Remand
4 Spell Snare
4 Stubborn Denial
// Artifacts
2 Batterskull
3 Vedalken Shackles
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Silent Arbiter
2 Spellskite
4 Spreading Seas
4 Surgical Extraction
1 Torpor Orb
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Sorceress Spyglass
Sometimes I want a second wurmcoil, sometimes I want another confirm suspicions Silent arbiter is in and out, for things like sun Droplet, Plumeveil, and different planeswalkers but shackles and lifelink is the main way to live against aggro, djinn and batterskull is a pretty huge swing itself. Affinity is hard depending on their draws, infect can be hard, (sometimes I want more spellskite) humans and spirits are moderate depending on their draws, but with practice both of these become positive I believe, though I haven't kept numbers. Control, midrange and combo feel very favored. Pheonix and dredge are awkward and very swingy, I don't win the games I don't draw a surgical plus something, snapcaster/2nd surgical/scavenger grounds, especially if they have a fast start.
Tldr
Totally better than it looks on paper, wish I had better card draw options. The meta alone makes me want white splash ...
4x Field of Ruin
16x Island
Creatures (12):
4x Thing in the Ice
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Tempest Djinn
Cantrips (11):
4x Serum Visions
4x Opt
3x Sleight of Hands
4x Spell Snare
4x Remand
1x Logic Knot
Others (8):
4x Cryptic Command
2x Vapor Snag
2x Echoing Truth
4x Relic of Progenitus
3x Dismember
3x Dispel
3x Ceremonious Rejection
1x Negate
1x Unsummon
At first I focused on Blast Zone + Jace TMS maindeck. Too durdly, and Jace was dying way too fast. Search for Azcanta was a great swap for the card advantage slots... but, again, I was durdling too much and didn’t accomplish neither to kill nor to enstablish a decent Control over the opponent.
Then, Tempest Djinn happened.
His ability to race is truly frightening. In the early game is a decent wall, but past turn 5-6 it becomes a three turns clock in the air. Basically, he’s a Crackling Drake who doesn’t replace himself, but comes into play one turn faster. Which means, we can protect him quite profictably.
The deck is basically a UR Phoenix that plays with a different approach: being slower, but more consistent. It resolves around Thing in the Ice, but had much more legs against big-mana decks and other Combo strategies, thanks to counterspells wall + Snapcaster recursion. It’s very good against Dredge, cuz bounce spells (and expecially Echoing Truth) plus Cryptic tap/draw really make the difference here. Affinity is unexpectedly fine, given the amount of cards which bypass their Welding Jar (Snare + Rejection + bounce spells + Dismember). We’re basically a dog against Vial strategies and we’ve got a fairly bad matchup against BGx (this can be improved, though).
I’ll keep testing, very interested in it.
17x Island
Creatures (12):
4x Thing in the Ice
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Tempest Djinn
Cantrips (12):
4x Serum Visions
4x Opt
4x Sleight of Hand
3x Spell Snare
4x Remand
4x Force of Negation
Others (8):
4x Cryptic Command
2x Vapor Snag
2x Dismember
4x Relic of Progenitus
2x Ravenous Trap
1x Dismember
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Dispel
3x Ceremonious Rejection
1x Unsummon
Field of Ruin hasn’t really impressed me, as we want to operate on blue sources all the time. Force of Negation has been a great addiction, that in Mono Blue you’ll never have trouble casting, and it permits you to cast Djinn with active protection for the opponent’s bomb.
I considered a split of Archmage’s Charm and Cryptic Command, but the latter is truly too versatile for a decklist which doesn’t pack many removals.
has spell snare been useful? it feels too narrow. What cards are you countering with it?
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So there is a guy at my FNM that plays this exact deck but instead of the djinn he plays Pteramander instead. He typically does quite well with the deck. Also he plays Chart a Course for card draw and delver in the deck that I know of.
Mono Blue has to play with it, or it will fold to Affinity, Eidolon and similar threats. It’s a very narrow card, but extra useful when used at the right time (Thing, Manamorphose, Snapcaster, Altar etc). You can pitch it to Force of Negation when it’s unnecessary.
We need to play Though Scour (terrible card on its own) to fuel Pteramander. Djinn doesn’t care about Grave hate, and it’s always a 3/4 flying on turn three (which stonewalls lots of stuff the opponent does).