MTG Salvation

I've been testing Treasure Cruise with my deck.
It's a good card if you can draw it after turn 4. where you can easily delve for 7. Worse card to get for opening hand.

Dispel will be replaced with Preordain
Will probably -1 Treasure Cruise +1 Counterspell when I find one.





Any additional advice for my deck? Thanks. I have many extra cards. Like Gitaxian Probe, Snap , Vapor snags etc.

Will also appreciate it if you could help me on how my sideboard should look like.

You are not running enough digtrips or lands to support your deck. Generally you want a cantrip for every land you take out, which would require 4 more cantrips or 4 more lands. I feel like running 8 spells that require bouncing your islands is also greedy when running 16 islands, as you are not going to draw enough to get ahead. Losing tempo is not a good feeling.

I would dump the gush and deprive for preordain and/or ponder, which will fill up your graveyard for cruise and let you dig for lands better. Gush is an amazing card but I feel like it is better in straight U-control, while Deprive seems straight inferior to counterspell.

@AshrielX: Your deck looks decent, but Tvtyrant made a lot of good points. I also feel Piracy Charm can be moved to your Sideboard as it can be dead in some matchups. With the free space I'd add in some Snaps since you have them.

Your sideboard is very dependent on your meta. Are you playing online or at a local store? Do you know what decks you might face?

Quote from "Tvtyrant »

You are not running enough digtrips or lands to support your deck. Generally you want a cantrip for every land you take out, which would require 4 more cantrips or 4 more lands. I feel like running 8 spells that require bouncing your islands is also greedy when running 16 islands, as you are not going to draw enough to get ahead. Losing tempo is not a good feeling.

I would dump the gush and deprive for preordain and/or ponder, which will fill up your graveyard for cruise and let you dig for lands better. Gush is an amazing card but I feel like it is better in straight U-control, while Deprive seems straight inferior to counterspell.

Thanks for the feedback. I know the feeling. Gush is a dead card on my hand if I draw it too early. If I remove Deprive won't I be lacking in counters? When I remove Gush and Deprive I will have room for 4 cards. Should I fit in a Set of Ponder? How about Gitaxian Probe? are they good?
I plan to move Dispel to the SB and replace them with Preordain.

Quote from "Darkninja107 »

@AshrielX: Your deck looks decent, but Tvtyrant made a lot of good points. I also feel Piracy Charm can be moved to your Sideboard as it can be dead in some matchups. With the free space I'd add in some Snaps since you have them.

Your sideboard is very dependent on your meta. Are you playing online or at a local store? Do you know what decks you might face?

Thanks for the feedback. I find snaps to be good except when facing Delver. Because they usually get countered and will just set me back 2 lands. Other than that match up. Snap is da real MVP
I'm playing at 2 local stores . One will host a pauper tourney sometime this month. I'm planning to participate with this deck.

You are right about Snap against Delver.

Gitaxian Probe is great for free draws and to get info from your opponent. Ponder is practically a requirement in Delver decks. It helps you set up flips for Delver and can help you filter your draws.

For more space, you can move Dispel to your sideboard and probably add in a couple of Mana Leaks then use the rest of the slots for Ponders, Probes or some bounce spells.

Speaking of sideboard, you can use Dispel and Piracy Charm there along with Hydroblast. Echoing Truth can go a long way as well. Curse of the Bloody Tome is pretty good against Delver decks.

Ok here is the revamped version.

-1 Treasure Cruise +1 Counterspell



With this setup. Only Daze will be bouncing my land.
I think this is good already. Depending on how I play my draws , Brainstorm,Ponder,Preordain. On how I decide what card to get and what card to shuffle. (This is the part I need to practice)

Additional tips will be appreciated

The list looks better, but now I think you have too many of the set up draw effects. you have 12 whenever the normal amount ranges from 6-8. I'd say pick which two you like best out of the three options and go with them. I'd probably go with Ponder and Brainstorm since Ponder's the best one and Brainstorm does a lot of work against discard effects that MBC will be using (and you're almost guaranteed a match against MBC), but that's my opinion. You go with whatever feels right for you. If you feel 8 is too low then go with 10 and have a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 split of the cards.

Then with the free space I'd at least add in another Treasure Cruise since it's great CA. Then add another Snap perhaps. then if you have 2 free slots I'd either fill it with 2 Gitaxian Probes or 2 Bonesplitters for extra damage.

Quote from Darkninja107 »

The list looks better, but now I think you have too many of the set up draw effects. you have 12 whenever the normal amount ranges from 6-8. I'd say pick which two you like best out of the three options and go with them. I'd probably go with Ponder and Brainstorm since Ponder's the best one and Brainstorm does a lot of work against discard effects that MBC will be using (and you're almost guaranteed a match against MBC), but that's my opinion. You go with whatever feels right for you. If you feel 8 is too low then go with 10 and have a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 split of the cards.

Then with the free space I'd at least add in another Treasure Cruise since it's great CA. Then add another Snap perhaps. then if you have 2 free slots I'd either fill it with 2 Gitaxian Probes or 2 Bonesplitters for extra damage.

-1 Ponder and Preordain. I wanted to play 4 Ponder but I only have 3 so let's go with this setup.
+1 Treasure Cruise and Snap
Snap can double as an additional counter if Spellstutter is on the field already.

I want to play around with Gitaxian Probe. But I don't know what card to replace. I also have a Quicksand here. Should I squeeze them in

Pretty good list so far. Quicksand is very useful as it can allow you to let some creatures slide past your counters. 2 Quicksands can go a long way in this deck!

If you want to find space for Probe then I'd start toying around with some of your creature counts. I'm not a big fan of Phantasmal Bear, so you can probably drop one and drop a Ninja as well and fit in two Probes and see how it feels.

And if you're still looking for a good sideboard you can always just go with a sideboard from the Sample Decklist section in this Primer. They are all pretty good for generally any meta you'd encounter and will serve well until you get a feel for what everyone will be using at your stores. Descriptions for the uses of the SB cards can be found in the Card Choices section. If you have any further questions on them, feel free to post questions here.

Quote from Darkninja107 »

Pretty good list so far. Quicksand is very useful as it can allow you to let some creatures slide past your counters. 2 Quicksands can go a long way in this deck!

If you want to find space for Probe then I'd start toying around with some of your creature counts. I'm not a big fan of Phantasmal Bear, so you can probably drop one and drop a Ninja as well and fit in two Probes and see how it feels.

And if you're still looking for a good sideboard you can always just go with a sideboard from the Sample Decklist section in this Primer. They are all pretty good for generally any meta you'd encounter and will serve well until you get a feel for what everyone will be using at your stores. Descriptions for the uses of the SB cards can be found in the Card Choices section. If you have any further questions on them, feel free to post questions here.

I've been playing around with Quicksand. It's really good. I'm usually facing fat creatures. By the time I get a ninja on the field they just block it later because it is not flying xD. So I might remove one or two. I actually like the bears. Because I got them as foils :D.

I'll be getting my Ponder and Preordain tomorrow. I'm getting them at 3$ for both sets. I think it's a sweet deal :).
I'll be post again once I get to play them a bit xD.

Thanks again

Awesome! Yeah, Ninja was also a second choice to cut. He's great, but his lack of evasion gives him a slight drawback. I'll be looking out for future posts.

is ninja the cut to make for more Treasure cruise? My list just two Frostburn weirds for two copies. I think 4 might be a little much, but i know i always wanna draw one,so maybe i could run 3. They're really bad if you get more than two though.

Deck Update.
-2 Ninja of Deep Hours +2 Oona's Grace
Oona's Grace really helps when the fight becomes Topdeck mode

Feedback will be appreciated

A three mana cantrip (no matter how awesome) in a 16-land deck is really risky. You'd be leaning more towards MUC with that kind of deck.

10 1-mana deck manipulating spells?! Woa! That seems like a whole lot! Is it working out for you?

Have you tested this configuration at all?

Oona's grace seems out of place in my opinion. It costs 3, and every time you cast it again you are pitching a land and you only run 16. Seems really risky.

Here's what I'm testing out after the inclusion of Treasure Cruise (ignore the sideboard). Suggestions appreciated!

That's a pretty solid list there! I especially like your sideboard since it has some variety and looks really good.

How's Treasure Cruise been working out for you? Have you had any problems delving a lot of cards to it or do you end up with a lot of cards in your GY?

So this is what I've been tinkering with lately and its worked well. It's currently only 58 cards though, the last 2 are uncertain. I've been wanting to put either 2 echoing truth, to help deal with permanents that my list struggles with if my opponent gets them out, or 2 porcelain legionnaire to help with creatures and aggression. Any thoughts on these or other cards I haven't thought of would be most welcome.

As for treasure cruise, I've done a few tests with it and the first one is usually great, the second sucks real hard, and any in your opener are just really sad. After quite a few games with it I would say to never run more than 2. Any time I drew a second one in a game I could never play it.

Echoing Truth is definitely a good inclusion, but if you play in a meta with a good amount of Aggro, Legionnaire is good as well. Looking at your list I'd probably fill the 2 slots with Preordain or Brainstorm to help with flipping Delver or just filtering you draws in general.

A question for you players that already play with the MonoBlue Delver deck:

How this deck goes against burn decks? I am inclined to build a monoblue but in my meta there is too many burn decks and it will be kind of a waste of time build a deck that performs poorly agains burn.

It can be a tough matchup, but since it's a big thing in your meta you can build a strong sideboard against it (or even main deck if it's a HUGE thing in your meta).

Cards like Dispel, Spell Pierce and Hydroblast/Blue Elemental Blast can go a long way in blanking out their spells. Weatherseed Faeries is also pretty good since they can't get burned.

What are the thoughts on Write into Being? Deck manipulation and a creature for 3 doesn't seem too shabby, although I really wish it was an instant.

3 mana is a tad expensive in this deck, and sorcery speed isn't helping. The deck manipulation isn't all that great either. The manifest cards seem to be a bit better if you can abuse that morph ability, for example to bypass the drawback of Phyrexian Dreadnought. We run no such cards, and a vanilla 2/2 is probably worse than the actual card it would be if we just drew it and played it.

It's worth noting that cards like spellstutter sprite would not activate its ability when you unmorph it.

It honestly feels like an over-costed grizzly bears that lets you see a card on top.

I completely agree with squira13. Write into Being just doesn't do anything for us, especially for a deck that's already packing a lot of the best threats in the format.

Out of curiosity, have you guys tried Prowess creatures at all? Monastery Swiftspear has already shown us what she can do in both Modern and Legacy. While we do not have her here, we have some proactive cards in Vapor Snag / Snap, Ponder, Gitaxian Probe, Preordain, Gush, Bonesplitter and Treasure Cruise. Jeskai Sage is interesting since it can come out of a Cloud of Faeries / Snap and cantrips is killed. I believe he's currently the fastest option available for Blue. An argument could also be made for Jeskai Windscout although he has a pretty steep cost at 3 CMC