Here is my current mono blue tron deck. The main focus of the deck is to control the game with various control tactics until I have the 3 Urza lands online, at which point I can begin casting powerful high cmc spells to victory. Compared to green Tron, this build trades speed for flexibility and reactivity. It's also a lot of fun to pilot, with a lot of different avenues for victory depending on the situation. Here is a brief explanation of every card's purpose in the deck.
Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Tower: The 3 lands that make the deck work. When all 3 are on the field you're producing a minimum of 7 colorless mana. This allows you to cast high cmc spells like Wurmcoil Engine or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon earlier than most non-tron decks in modern. Many of the other card choices in the deck are tailored to help get all 3 out as early as possible.
Island: Basic blue mana source...
Expedition Map: The most consistent method of searching for whatever Urza land you need. While Urza lands are your first priority, this can also search for your other lands when needed, most notably Academy Ruins. It can even search for islands or Tolaria West when you need blue mana or tutoring.
Remand: A counter that can delay your opponent's plays while helping you dig through your deck. The cantrip aspect is why this is played over something like Mana Leak since digging for tron is so important.
Condescend: Early game its scry 2 effect helps (again) dig for tron, and with tron active it is a solid counterspell.
Repeal: Another cantrip spell that is very versatile, especially once you have tron online. It can bounce threats such as planeswalkers or creatures, and even nonland artifacts and enchantments. It can also bounce your own stuff on occasion if you want to dodge removal or reuse effects like Snapcaster Mage or reset Chalice of the Void.
Thirst for Knowledge: Our most consistent draw and potentially advantage engine. Drawing 3 is obviously great, and if you discard an artifact it ends up being a +1. Ideally you drop a talisman or an extra Expedition Map. With Academy Ruins you can even get that artifact back later. Plus it's instant speed so it doesn't have to interfere with your control strategy.
Opt: A pure instant speed 1 mana cantrip that can help you dig a little extra whenever you have a blue mana to spare.
Academy Ruins: After the big 3 this is our most important land. It recycles whatever artifact you need the most from your grave. With 12 mana available (not terribly difficult in this deck) it can perform a lock together with Mindslaver that can win you the game. Arguably the biggest advantage of this version over green tron.
Tolaria West: A nice utility land that can transmute to get you whatever missing land you need, and even Chalice of the Void or Engineered Explosives. Obviously, it can also be a blue mana source if needed.
Gemstone Caverns: If you're lucky, it helps mitigate the disadvantage of going second (since most of our counters aren't useable without at least 2 mana out). It works well in this deck since it doesn't set us back too much if you don't get the luck counter due to all of our colorless spells.
Ghost Quarter: Mainly a utility land against any deck that might rely on nonbasic lands, notably other Urza lands or man lands.
Treasure Mage and Trinket Mage: These serve the double purpose of blocking and tutoring your artifacts. Treasure Mage searches for your bigger artifacts which are typically your wincons such as Wurmcoil Engine or Mindslaver, while Trinket Mage can search for more of your utility artifacts like Expedition Map or Chalice of the Void.
Fabricate: More versatile than the blue mages in what it can search. Only downside compared to them is that it can't block. Still very powerful.
Cyclonic Rift: Another versatile control spell. Early game it can bounce threats, and late game it acts like a one sided board wipe that can turn the game around.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon: Our sole planeswalker in the deck (at the moment at least), it is also one of our non artifact wincons, making it the least searchable card in the deck. Still I felt he was simply too powerful to leave out. He can act as a one sided board wipe in a pinch (since most of our important cards are colorless), and his +2 ability can either remove threats or wittle away at your opponent. That's not to mention his ultimate ability, which is not impossible to get off with all the other control cards.
Oblivion Stone: Another board wipe that can potentially let you keep your most important permanents on the field. Because it is an artifact it obviously has the potential to be reused with Academy Ruins.
Spell Burst: Continuing our theme of cards that scale well, this card acts as a decent one off counterspell if used in the early game, and can become a suffocating lock spell once you have tron active due to its buyback cost.
Chalice of the Void: A powerful control artifact that can be searched with Fabricate, Trinket Mage or Tolaria West. It can more or less win the game on its own against some matchups if you get it out early game. Running at least 1 more in the sideboard for this reason.
Engineered Explosives: Just as searchable as Chalice, but helps deal with threats that have already hit the field. Most likely to come in with 1 or 2 charge counters which is the most you'll usually need. With both talismans out and a luck counter on Gemstone Caverns it can come in with up to 4. Its main purpose is to help us out against aggro or weenies. Again, have 1 more in the sideboard to deal with these.
Talisman of Dominance and Talisman of Progress: Mana rocks that primarily give us an extra blue source. Both are run to potentially increase the charge counters on Engineered Explosives. If not needed, they can usually be dumped with Thirst for Knowledge without too much heartache.
Spellskite: A very nice blocker with 4 toughness for 2 mana, it can also help protect your other permanents from various removal effects. More or less shuts down decks like infect that rely on buffing their creatures and that aren't packing specific removal for it. One more in sideboard for these matchups.
Mindslaver: Allows you to control your opponent, creating a fun little game of "how do I use my opponent's cards to best screw them over." At the very least, you can tap out all of their lands to prevent them from responding to your next turn. With 12 mana available, it can create a soft lock with Academy Ruins where your opponent draws out their deck.
Wurmcoil Engine: A powerful boss creature that puts a lot of pressure on your opponent. It can potentially give you 6 life a turn while throwing out 6 damage and being tough to block thanks to deathtouch and its efficient 6/6 stats. When it dies, it is still a threat thanks to the tokens it leaves behind.
Platinum Angel: Shuts down some decks that have trouble finding removal for it. It can help you stall out some games to find your other wincons, or it can simply whittle your opponent down with 4 flying damage per turn. Your counters can help protect it whichever route you choose.
Sideboard:
Sundering Titan: Devastating against some multicolored decks that rely on shock lands, while not usually setting us back too much. It also has a solid body for its casting cost, and is searchable with treasure mage and fabricate. I'd consider maining it except that I don't play against many multicolored decks lately.
Hurkyl's Recall: Sort of a cheap soft board wipe against other artifact decks like affinity.
Dispel: Mainly brought in against other blue decks that pack a lot of counterspells, in which case it can help your threats hit the field. Strong against any deck that relies in instant spells.
Negate: Strong counter spell that you can bring in against any deck that relies on non creature spells.
Echoing Truth: Strong against token swarming decks or any deck that can get multiple copies of certain threats out.
Grafdigger's Cage: Shuts down decks that rely too much on the graveyard while not setting you back too much. Also searchable with Trinket Mage as a bonus. Could reasonably be replaced with Tormod's Crypt.
Dismember: Nice removal that can be cast for 1 mana. Deals with some specific threats like Gurmag Angler, Tasigur, Siege Rhino, or a lower power Tarmogoyf.
Chalice of the Void, Engineered Explosives and Spellskite: An extra one of each in the sideboard for the matchups they're best against.
Maybeboard/omissions:
Spell Snare: Deals with lots of common threats in modern for the low price of one mana. Could see myself running this for protection. Spell Pierce is another potential choice with the added benefit of stopping an early game Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek.
Pull from Tomorrow: Nice instant speed draw spell that can replenish your hand in the late game when you have mana open. I like the idea of this one but I have trouble thinking what I would take out for this.
Karn Liberated: A powerful planeswalker that is a staple to green tron due to the consistency with which they can get him out on turn 3 or 4. It is significantly less consistent in mono blue, and is arguably less impactful than Ugin when it hits the field here.
Solemn Simulacrum: A nice blocker that replaces himself when he dies and gives you a tiny bit of ramp when he hits the field. In my testing of this deck I find that he doesn't hit the field fast enough against aggro, and that a lot of decks can simply play around him. Thus I chose the more efficient blocking stats and reactivity of Spellskite.
Crucible of Worlds: Could be a good one of in the sideboard as it allows you to mitigate the effects of common land destruction cards like Ghost Quarter that can set you back from getting and keeping tron up.
Kozilek, the Great Distortion: In my opinion it is probably the best fit eldrazi titan for this deck, due to its nice draw effect and the fact that it turns all your cards in hand into potential counterspells, thus fitting with the gameplan of this deck. In the end it has the same problem as the others in that it is not very searchable here, and that 10 mana is a little outside of this deck's comfort zone as far as what it will consistently get to. Perhaps some build running Coax from the Blind Eternities could make good use of this. Emrakul, the Promised End also has ahem promise, though personally I'm not a fan of giving my opponent an extra turn if I can't kill them fast enough.
Snapcaster Mage: Lets you recycle instant and sorcery spells, opening up a lot of nice surprise plays. If nothing else it can be a surprise blocker in a pinch. The main problem with it for me (besides the price) is that it can be very blue mana intensive to get the maximum benefit out of it. Not a bad card for the deck at all but this really isn't the best deck for it.
Torrential Gearhulk: Like Snapcaster but he threatens the opponent more once he hits the field. Overall I like him a little more than Snapcaster because he's an artifact, and thus searchable with Fabricate and Treasure Mage. The better stats are a big plus too, and the fact that he lets you cast the spell for free means he's not really that much more mana intensive than Snapcaster. However he has the same problem in that he requires at least 2 blue mana to use, which isn't gonna happen too consistently since your main goal is to assemble the Urza lands. Also, he doesn't really work very well with Condescend or Repeal, since he can only cast them for x=0.
Field of Ruin: Could reasonably replace Ghost Quarter in the future thanks to its added benefit of replacing itself with a basic land, though obviously at a cost. For this reason I also prefer it over Tectonic Edge.
Supreme Will: A versatile instant that can either control or dig for tron, fitting the idea of the deck very well. 3 CMC is the only real problem with it, as this deck really values having counters available by turn 2. Might try out 1 in he meantime though, taking out a single Repeal perhaps.
The deck is strong against many combo decks, but can struggle against fast aggro and burn decks if it doesn't get set up fast enough. I must say that with proper knowledge of your opponents and perhaps your local metagame, this deck has the potential to beat just about anything.
So there's my lengthy description of the entire deck as it is. Feel free to leave me some suggestions. Thanks for taking a look!
