I also don't mind to some degree that we are getting ignored because we will get hated on less, but the delusion that Boros Aggro, GW Tokens, Golgari mid-range, Izzet Drakes, and Jeskai Control are the only decks worth talking about is crazy (Mono-R at least gets a mention.) Mono-U had only one in the PT, but went 10-0. Jim Davis specifically predicted not a single Mono-U deck better than 8-2, but the only one went 10-0. The SCG "analysis" is equally "Blue-blind".
I almost thought Ari Lax was ignoring Mono-U as well, and then he end this with this:
"What About My Other Deck?
Mono-Blue is the same everywhere. Never tap out unless you must. If you do, hope they don't have it and if you play against it, try to kill their things at instant speed then again on your turn."
if your talking about the other decklist. 20 creatures is pretty average. Essence scatter was reduced to SB and that is probably less common than average.
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Is the point with Jace to use the loot and try to duplicate him? Adding a 2/2 to the board every three turns doesn't seem like enough pressure.
The Karn inclusion makes sense. Even if you never make a Karstruct you can still get a lot of value out of Karn. I don't think you want him game one, since the games usually aren't about value, but post sideboard he could be great.
It gives me warm fuzzy feelings to see Surge Mares at the pro tour.
Yeah I was wondering about Duplicating Jace myself. I note that 1 pierce main is probably good against a field of RW. I guess Gauthier didn't make top 8 because of bad limited run (although he only missed by 1 point).
Not great to extrapolate from PT, but how would you hedge against RW? Sleep seems deece, maybe a 2nd Snare.
I think you really want the first Sleep. After that I'm not sure. You start to see diminishing returns.
Definitely a second Selective Snare in the sideboard seems good. You may want to go on the Nassif plan of four Exclusion Mage in the side.
Against the Heroic Reinforcements build the main deck Spell Pierce has been good for me. Sniping Legion's Landing early or hitting History or Heroic Reinforcements on the cheap is pretty clutch. Pierce is a lot sketchier against the CFB build.
I might just take a week off of mono blue to let the 20-land decks go through the meta and burn out. I expect people to adapt and for the counter-adaptation to be to get a little bigger. If Wr aggro settles in at the 23 land MOCS list then I like our chances. The twenty or fewer lands decks are just bad matchups for us.
-2, +1, +1... repeat. Control doesn't have a lot of ways to get rid of him and deal with our cast creatures so you can usually get a couple of loots off as well as making some durdles. And if they can't kill your creature for some reason, you can always +1, +1, ultimate, make a pair of 2/2s and keep going.
Also, I don't know how much I like it, but I get her logic and she has had it work out well.
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Standard
Tempo Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
I might just take a week off of mono blue to let the 20-land decks go through the meta and burn out. I expect people to adapt and for the counter-adaptation to be to get a little bigger. If Wr aggro settles in at the 23 land MOCS list then I like our chances. The twenty or fewer lands decks are just bad matchups for us.
There have been rumblings of 18 and 16 land decks. I hope this is a joke.
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I might just take a week off of mono blue to let the 20-land decks go through the meta and burn out. I expect people to adapt and for the counter-adaptation to be to get a little bigger. If Wr aggro settles in at the 23 land MOCS list then I like our chances. The twenty or fewer lands decks are just bad matchups for us.
There have been rumblings of 18 and 16 land decks. I hope this is a joke.
Yeah, unless someone has magically found a better card than Djinn...
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Standard
Tempo Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
It has some pretty wacky features, and I wish he was here to talk me though how he sideboarded, especially about what he would take out.
Sure cards we expect
1 Negate (only One?)
1 Syncopate (only One?)
1 Spell Pierce (only One? And only one basedeck?)
2 Exclusion mages (where is the 4th?)
2 Essence Scatter (None base?)
2 Surge Mare ( Yeah, sure, whatever)
Unusual Cards
1 Sleep (One in Base already?)
1 Selective Snare
1 Warkite Marauder (The 4th, but,in the board is odd)
Huh?
1 Jace, Cunning Castaway
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Island (This guy has style)
When Sleep is named in this thread, it is always, "And then Sleep didn't work"
He is playing 1 base, and a 2nd in the board.
One basedeck Warkite is morphed into a basedeck Exclusion Mage
the 4th Warkite is in the board, as is 2 more exclusion mages.
I like the Bonus Island in the board, that to me is proof he really knows exactly how he is sideboarding.
12 different cards in the board is NOT how lists on this thread read.
One spell pierce base I can agree with after testing.
(Often it rocks, and sometimes Spell Pierce loses the game.)
His base deck is pretty standard, mostly.
20/20/20 - with only a Sleep, and Exclusion mage added (-SP, -WKM)
It is his board that has me interested.
I have kept a Karn specifically for this deck.
It is a big dumb Chart a Course that happens at half speed for the rest of the game.
It is to help deal with mana flood when fighting against Control.
The blocker aspect is pretty desperate, but I have spent some time thinking about it when trying to figure out how to get Zahid into play, since the construct is an artifact.
Jace is very cunning indeed.
It is trying to deal with mana floods, and board wipes.
He is trying to be a soft lock. A Herald / Stormy providing a supply of counterspells is odd.
And then he splits, and suddenly there is ALWAYS a counterspell, and then he splits again, and provides 4 x 2/2 illusions for the win. And counterspells.
It is a very strange twist on the basics of how this deck already works.
Jace works faster than I thought.
Turn 3 Play Jace 3->4
Turn 4 Jace 4->5
Turn 5 Split 3->4 AND 3->4
Turn 6 Jace 4->5 AND Jace 4->5
Turn 7 Splitx2 And Make 4 x 2/2 illusions while having four Jaces on 1 Loyalty (!)
.
. . .And by turn 6 there is SIX Draw&Discard events making converting a Lot of cards into counterspells.
I would be interested to know if Jace ever actually worked in the tournament. Same with Karn.
And, how often did he sideboard the Island in?
The base deck mister 10-0 plays, is incredibly consistent with everything posted here.
His sideboard is too, except for the wacky long game cards.
The Mono-U "Long Game" is roundly dismissed on this thread by the, ah, establishment.
Karn, Jace, and the Island, are all evidence that the 'Long Game' is part of what he is thinking about.
I wonder if there are any other "long game" playable cards not played by anyone else?
Maybe those cards would be cheap, blue . . . and hopefully a wizard?
* * *
I went thru all 29 previous decklists posted here
I counted the number of Unique sideboard cards in each listing . . .
5 : 1
6 : 7
7 : 8
8 : 6
9 : 3
10 : 4
This means there was ONE deck that had only 5 unique cards in it's sideboard, and there were FOUR decks that had 10 unique cards in the sideboard.
The deck that went 10 -0 is an exception to this.
His deck has TWELVE unique cards in it's sideboard.
Of those 12 cards, Karn is a unique outlier, and Jace is mentioned only on page 1.
(I mentioned wanting an Island in the board, but didn't do it.)
Most lists are 2 cards off.
The two removed cards are often Chart a course, Spell pierce and maybe a Warkite.
Sometimes, the 4xOpts are removed.
I've looked into this, for the most part the patterns aren't consistent enough. As the meta moves forward there will be more consistency there. I believe 4 Opts and 2 chart a course will be fairly standard for the deck, if there is no election to use nightveil sprite
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...The deck that went 10 -0 is an exception to this.
His deck has TWELVE unique cards in it's sideboard.
Of those 12 cards, Karn is a unique outlier, and Jace is mentioned only on page 1.
(I mentioned wanting an Island in the board, but didn't do it.)
Firstly, thanks for the Jace breakdown. It seems surprisingly strong in this deck.
Secondly, while he runs 12 unique cards in the SB, notice how many of them are simply +N of an effect already in the maindeck:
+1 Sleep
+1 Spell Pierce
+1 Warkite
+2 Exclusion Mage
+1 Island
Even the other additional counterspells are just more or less +4 Wizard's Retort.
Overall, 8 of those cards (for a total of 10 actual cards) are just additional copies of main deck cards. So 1-ofs make sense in that setting, since they are often +1/+2 of an existing effect. Very smart execution.
I would also like to see a sideboard plan.
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Standard
Tempo Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
I've settled on 3 decks in MTG Arena, Mono-Blue Tempo being one of them because it's like playing Legacy tempo in Standard. Once you assemble Curious Obsession and one of the 1 drops it feels like you're unbeatable. And I hate playing against it with my 2 other Control decks (Jeskai and Sultai, respectively).
I will echo the sentiment regarding the Jace inclusion. I've been testing him as a 1-of in the maindeck (going to 61 cards for testing purposes) and every time he's shown up he's been very relevant. What I've observed is that people are so concerned about losing to what I already have on board that they basically leave Jace alone, allowing him to tick up to his ultimate. I was able to close out a game against a Azorius Control deck based strictly on his ultimate, since creating 2/2 Illusions for free will overwhelm their Wrath effects.
My list is pretty standard. I really like the Warkite Marauder inclusion because it makes any Izzet Drake deck look stupid, so I've simply gone with straight 4 ofs except a 2-2 split with Spell Pierce and Chart a Course. That seems to be working for me right now as I usually have the Pierce when I need it with more copies of it in the Board.
How I Sideboard looks like this. I don't claim that this is effective or the best way to Sideboard at all, but I've had decent success with it so far.
vs. Boros Aggro/White Weenie
-4x Dive Down
-1x Jace, Cunning Castaway
+3x Exclusion Mage
+2x Sleep
I keep in the Spell Pierce because Pride of Conquerors is their trump card in the match and because they play Conclave Tribunal. Feels good to counter their only removal and kill them on the back swing since the Tribunal affected their math decisions. The Mage helps us to keep Tempo and also gets rid of Aurelia when/if she shows up. And Sleep pretty much wins the game all by itself against them.
vs. Control (Including Jeskai, Sultai, Dimir, Grixis, and Izzet)
-1x Dive Down
-1x Warkite Marauder
-1x Merfolk Trickster
+2x Spell Pierce
+1x Jace, Cunning Castaway
I actually really, really struggle to know how to sideboard against Control since I feel like the maindeck is already so heavily favored against Control variants. My thinking is that we want more interaction and less creatures so that we can protect the Obsessed Creatures that we have on board and win the Counter war over protecting it. Adding in the extra Jace should make up for the cutting of any creatures since he can spawn more.
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
Today's list from LoveP has the spiciest sideboard tech I've seen yet: Transmogrifying Wand. Crazy as it looks, I can really see the appeal against Drakes.
Today's list from LoveP has the spiciest sideboard tech I've seen yet: Transmogrifying Wand. Crazy as it looks, I can really see the appeal against Drakes.
Should the primer be updated to reflect changes in the meta along with all the matchups and SB?
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vs. Control (Including Jeskai, Sultai, Dimir, Grixis, and Izzet)
-1x Dive Down
-1x Warkite Marauder
-1x Merfolk Trickster
+2x Spell Pierce
+1x Jace, Cunning Castaway
I actually really, really struggle to know how to sideboard against Control since I feel like the maindeck is already so heavily favored against Control variants. My thinking is that we want more interaction and less creatures so that we can protect the Obsessed Creatures that we have on board and win the Counter war over protecting it. Adding in the extra Jace should make up for the cutting of any creatures since he can spawn more.
I would 100% bring in [card]Negate[/cards]s for wraths. And I would never cut a dive down vs. control. I think you bring in all your counters, Jace (since otherwise why is it in your 75) and cut Opts. I don't really like shaving threats either but you might have to. Probably Maruader is the worst unless they are playing Izzet (Niv Mizzet and Crackling Drake). But Wx brings in Lyra sometimes, and we otherwise can't answer.
I think this is why I like Disdainful Stroke > Negate.
Why do you even have Blink of an Eye? Isn't Exmage just better vs. aggro or fatties? Are there non-land permanents we need to bounce? Search?
Why do you even have Blink of an Eye? Isn't Exmage just better vs. aggro or fatties? Are there non-land permanents we need to bounce? Search?
Gotta remember that Exclusion Mage costs 3 mana, I know somewhat of a mute point, but it depends on how the person setup the SB, in some cases you might want that card draw from being kicked. It also can return a permanent to our hand that was targeted by removal since it's instant speed.
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you'd use Blink of an Eye to re-equip your CO
someone should look at that 10-0's matchups, and maybe get an idea why he is alone in easy-moding the meta
Um, No.
You would not use Blink to re-equip your CO
You would counterspell whatever was the problem.
.
At the GP yesterday, (I went 10-5), I talked to another Mono-U player before, and after, he went 4-0 in the side event.
It was funny.
He had copied the 10-0 list above, exactly, without understanding it.
Or playtesting it.
He copied the sideboard exactly, without understanding it.
With one exception. He had replaced the Island with another exclusion mage.
I asked him questions like 'When does the 2nd sleep go in?' & 'it replaces what?"
He had no clue. (Karn, Jace, . . .)
I asked him what to do about Red? What do you board in and out?
He had no clue.
Afterward I asked if he had played against Red.
Nope.
.
On the second day I came across another Mono-U player at a different side event.
I watched as he got kicked by Red, while having an active Curious Herald, and Diamond Mare.
Trying to win this match up, while on the draw, seems unlikely.
Step one seems to be, win the toss, and get lucky.
Chain-whirler & Runaway Steam-Kin are just brutal.
All the smaller, incidental stuff also is really bad for us.
Diamond Mare is not enough, (and Surge mare seems hopeful).
Turn 5 win from an Inescapable Fire, cast from a Runaway, seems impossible to dodge.
Maybe just accepting this match up as a fail is where we should be, and release the Diamond mare slots.
(Look at the diamond mare. Read the quote. It is a unicorn that poops rainbows. )
More creatures, one Spell Pierce and no Essence Scatter, very interesting.
I also don't mind to some degree that we are getting ignored because we will get hated on less, but the delusion that Boros Aggro, GW Tokens, Golgari mid-range, Izzet Drakes, and Jeskai Control are the only decks worth talking about is crazy (Mono-R at least gets a mention.) Mono-U had only one in the PT, but went 10-0. Jim Davis specifically predicted not a single Mono-U deck better than 8-2, but the only one went 10-0. The SCG "analysis" is equally "Blue-blind".
I almost thought Ari Lax was ignoring Mono-U as well, and then he end this with this:
"What About My Other Deck?
Mono-Blue is the same everywhere. Never tap out unless you must. If you do, hope they don't have it and if you play against it, try to kill their things at instant speed then again on your turn."
Tempo
Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
if your talking about the other decklist. 20 creatures is pretty average. Essence scatter was reduced to SB and that is probably less common than average.
-Stay Frosty
The Karn inclusion makes sense. Even if you never make a Karstruct you can still get a lot of value out of Karn. I don't think you want him game one, since the games usually aren't about value, but post sideboard he could be great.
It gives me warm fuzzy feelings to see Surge Mares at the pro tour.
Not great to extrapolate from PT, but how would you hedge against RW? Sleep seems deece, maybe a 2nd Snare.
Definitely a second Selective Snare in the sideboard seems good. You may want to go on the Nassif plan of four Exclusion Mage in the side.
Against the Heroic Reinforcements build the main deck Spell Pierce has been good for me. Sniping Legion's Landing early or hitting History or Heroic Reinforcements on the cheap is pretty clutch. Pierce is a lot sketchier against the CFB build.
I might just take a week off of mono blue to let the 20-land decks go through the meta and burn out. I expect people to adapt and for the counter-adaptation to be to get a little bigger. If Wr aggro settles in at the 23 land MOCS list then I like our chances. The twenty or fewer lands decks are just bad matchups for us.
Also, I don't know how much I like it, but I get her logic and she has had it work out well.
Tempo
Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
There have been rumblings of 18 and 16 land decks. I hope this is a joke.
-Stay Frosty
Yeah, unless someone has magically found a better card than Djinn...
Tempo
Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
It has some pretty wacky features, and I wish he was here to talk me though how he sideboarded, especially about what he would take out.
Sure cards we expect
1 Negate (only One?)
1 Syncopate (only One?)
1 Spell Pierce (only One? And only one basedeck?)
2 Exclusion mages (where is the 4th?)
2 Essence Scatter (None base?)
2 Surge Mare ( Yeah, sure, whatever)
Unusual Cards
1 Sleep (One in Base already?)
1 Selective Snare
1 Warkite Marauder (The 4th, but,in the board is odd)
Huh?
1 Jace, Cunning Castaway
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Island (This guy has style)
When Sleep is named in this thread, it is always, "And then Sleep didn't work"
He is playing 1 base, and a 2nd in the board.
One basedeck Warkite is morphed into a basedeck Exclusion Mage
the 4th Warkite is in the board, as is 2 more exclusion mages.
I like the Bonus Island in the board, that to me is proof he really knows exactly how he is sideboarding.
12 different cards in the board is NOT how lists on this thread read.
One spell pierce base I can agree with after testing.
(Often it rocks, and sometimes Spell Pierce loses the game.)
His base deck is pretty standard, mostly.
20/20/20 - with only a Sleep, and Exclusion mage added (-SP, -WKM)
It is his board that has me interested.
I have kept a Karn specifically for this deck.
It is a big dumb Chart a Course that happens at half speed for the rest of the game.
It is to help deal with mana flood when fighting against Control.
The blocker aspect is pretty desperate, but I have spent some time thinking about it when trying to figure out how to get Zahid into play, since the construct is an artifact.
Jace is very cunning indeed.
It is trying to deal with mana floods, and board wipes.
He is trying to be a soft lock. A Herald / Stormy providing a supply of counterspells is odd.
And then he splits, and suddenly there is ALWAYS a counterspell, and then he splits again, and provides 4 x 2/2 illusions for the win. And counterspells.
It is a very strange twist on the basics of how this deck already works.
Jace works faster than I thought.
Turn 3 Play Jace 3->4
Turn 4 Jace 4->5
Turn 5 Split 3->4 AND 3->4
Turn 6 Jace 4->5 AND Jace 4->5
Turn 7 Splitx2 And Make 4 x 2/2 illusions while having four Jaces on 1 Loyalty (!)
.
. . .And by turn 6 there is SIX Draw&Discard events making converting a Lot of cards into counterspells.
I would be interested to know if Jace ever actually worked in the tournament. Same with Karn.
And, how often did he sideboard the Island in?
The base deck mister 10-0 plays, is incredibly consistent with everything posted here.
His sideboard is too, except for the wacky long game cards.
The Mono-U "Long Game" is roundly dismissed on this thread by the, ah, establishment.
Karn, Jace, and the Island, are all evidence that the 'Long Game' is part of what he is thinking about.
I wonder if there are any other "long game" playable cards not played by anyone else?
Maybe those cards would be cheap, blue . . . and hopefully a wizard?
* * *
I went thru all 29 previous decklists posted here
I counted the number of Unique sideboard cards in each listing . . .
5 : 1
6 : 7
7 : 8
8 : 6
9 : 3
10 : 4
This means there was ONE deck that had only 5 unique cards in it's sideboard, and there were FOUR decks that had 10 unique cards in the sideboard.
The deck that went 10 -0 is an exception to this.
His deck has TWELVE unique cards in it's sideboard.
Of those 12 cards, Karn is a unique outlier, and Jace is mentioned only on page 1.
(I mentioned wanting an Island in the board, but didn't do it.)
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Warkite Marauder
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Opt
2 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Curious Obsession
20 Island
Most lists are 2 cards off.
The two removed cards are often Chart a course, Spell pierce and maybe a Warkite.
Sometimes, the 4xOpts are removed.
I've looked into this, for the most part the patterns aren't consistent enough. As the meta moves forward there will be more consistency there. I believe 4 Opts and 2 chart a course will be fairly standard for the deck, if there is no election to use nightveil sprite
-Stay Frosty
Firstly, thanks for the Jace breakdown. It seems surprisingly strong in this deck.
Secondly, while he runs 12 unique cards in the SB, notice how many of them are simply +N of an effect already in the maindeck:
+1 Sleep
+1 Spell Pierce
+1 Warkite
+2 Exclusion Mage
+1 Island
Even the other additional counterspells are just more or less +4 Wizard's Retort.
Overall, 8 of those cards (for a total of 10 actual cards) are just additional copies of main deck cards. So 1-ofs make sense in that setting, since they are often +1/+2 of an existing effect. Very smart execution.
I would also like to see a sideboard plan.
Tempo
Modern
Eldrazi and Staxes
Whir Prison
Legacy
5c Humans
DnT
"I'm a lead farmer... !" Quote ruined due to policy.
I will echo the sentiment regarding the Jace inclusion. I've been testing him as a 1-of in the maindeck (going to 61 cards for testing purposes) and every time he's shown up he's been very relevant. What I've observed is that people are so concerned about losing to what I already have on board that they basically leave Jace alone, allowing him to tick up to his ultimate. I was able to close out a game against a Azorius Control deck based strictly on his ultimate, since creating 2/2 Illusions for free will overwhelm their Wrath effects.
My list is pretty standard. I really like the Warkite Marauder inclusion because it makes any Izzet Drake deck look stupid, so I've simply gone with straight 4 ofs except a 2-2 split with Spell Pierce and Chart a Course. That seems to be working for me right now as I usually have the Pierce when I need it with more copies of it in the Board.
My list, for reference:
4x Siren Stormtamer
4x Mist-Cloaked Herald
4x Merfolk Trickster
4x Warkite Marauder
4x Tempest Djinn
Non-Creature (21)
4x Dive Down
4x Opt
4x Curious Obsession
2x Spell Pierce
2x Chart a Course
4x Wizard's Retort
1x Jace, Cunning Castaway
20x Islands
2x Spell Pierce
3x Essence Scatter
2x Negate
2x Blink of an Eye
3x Exclusion Mage
1x Jace, Cunning Castaway
2x Sleep
How I Sideboard looks like this. I don't claim that this is effective or the best way to Sideboard at all, but I've had decent success with it so far.
vs. Boros Aggro/White Weenie
-4x Dive Down
-1x Jace, Cunning Castaway
+3x Exclusion Mage
+2x Sleep
I keep in the Spell Pierce because Pride of Conquerors is their trump card in the match and because they play Conclave Tribunal. Feels good to counter their only removal and kill them on the back swing since the Tribunal affected their math decisions. The Mage helps us to keep Tempo and also gets rid of Aurelia when/if she shows up. And Sleep pretty much wins the game all by itself against them.
vs. Control (Including Jeskai, Sultai, Dimir, Grixis, and Izzet)
-1x Dive Down
-1x Warkite Marauder
-1x Merfolk Trickster
+2x Spell Pierce
+1x Jace, Cunning Castaway
I actually really, really struggle to know how to sideboard against Control since I feel like the maindeck is already so heavily favored against Control variants. My thinking is that we want more interaction and less creatures so that we can protect the Obsessed Creatures that we have on board and win the Counter war over protecting it. Adding in the extra Jace should make up for the cutting of any creatures since he can spawn more.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
-Stay Frosty
20 Island
Creatures (20)
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Tempest Djinn
3 Warkite Marauder
4 Curious Obsession
2 Chart a Course
4 Dive Down
1 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
1 Sleep
2 Essence Scatter
1 Spell Pierce
2 Exclusion Mage
1 Negate
1 Warkite Marauder
2 Surge Mare
1 Jace, Cunning Castaway
1 Syncopate
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Sleep
1 Island
1 Selective Snare
-Stay Frosty
yea core ideas are the same. Different SB tech
Sideboard (15)
2 Exclusion Mage 2 Chart a Course 1 Sleep 1 Spell Pierce 2 Essence Scatter 2 Metamorphic Alteration 1 Negate 1 Selective Snare 2 Surge Mare 1 Transmogrifying Wand
Should the primer be updated to reflect changes in the meta along with all the matchups and SB?
-Stay Frosty
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
I would 100% bring in [card]Negate[/cards]s for wraths. And I would never cut a dive down vs. control. I think you bring in all your counters, Jace (since otherwise why is it in your 75) and cut Opts. I don't really like shaving threats either but you might have to. Probably Maruader is the worst unless they are playing Izzet (Niv Mizzet and Crackling Drake). But Wx brings in Lyra sometimes, and we otherwise can't answer.
I think this is why I like Disdainful Stroke > Negate.
Why do you even have Blink of an Eye? Isn't Exmage just better vs. aggro or fatties? Are there non-land permanents we need to bounce? Search?
Gotta remember that Exclusion Mage costs 3 mana, I know somewhat of a mute point, but it depends on how the person setup the SB, in some cases you might want that card draw from being kicked. It also can return a permanent to our hand that was targeted by removal since it's instant speed.
-Stay Frosty
someone should look at that 10-0's matchups, and maybe get an idea why he is alone in easy-moding the meta
You would not use Blink to re-equip your CO
You would counterspell whatever was the problem.
.
At the GP yesterday, (I went 10-5), I talked to another Mono-U player before, and after, he went 4-0 in the side event.
It was funny.
He had copied the 10-0 list above, exactly, without understanding it.
Or playtesting it.
He copied the sideboard exactly, without understanding it.
With one exception. He had replaced the Island with another exclusion mage.
I asked him questions like 'When does the 2nd sleep go in?' & 'it replaces what?"
He had no clue. (Karn, Jace, . . .)
I asked him what to do about Red? What do you board in and out?
He had no clue.
Afterward I asked if he had played against Red.
Nope.
.
On the second day I came across another Mono-U player at a different side event.
I watched as he got kicked by Red, while having an active Curious Herald, and Diamond Mare.
Trying to win this match up, while on the draw, seems unlikely.
Step one seems to be, win the toss, and get lucky.
Chain-whirler & Runaway Steam-Kin are just brutal.
All the smaller, incidental stuff also is really bad for us.
Diamond Mare is not enough, (and Surge mare seems hopeful).
Turn 5 win from an Inescapable Fire, cast from a Runaway, seems impossible to dodge.
Maybe just accepting this match up as a fail is where we should be, and release the Diamond mare slots.
(Look at the diamond mare. Read the quote. It is a unicorn that poops rainbows. )