I use the following ten parameters to determine the strength of the deck. For each, I allocate a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad); when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).
- Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
- Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
- Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
- Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
- Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
- Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
- Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
- Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
- Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
- Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.
Mana: 3
Nine artifact mana sources have been included in this deck, to provide some additional juice next to the deck’s lands. One card that will double my available blue mana and a resource that will allow me to cast blue spells cheaper have also been included.
Ramp: 1
Ramping options have not been added to this deck.
Card Advantage: 5
The most important objective of this deck is to create card/resource advantage in such a way that it’s directly detrimental to my opposition’s board-state; in other words, by stealing. Some spells will enable this in a very direct way (nine cards) while many others will do so in an indirect way by relying on the copying of Keiga (sixteen cards). Aside from the deck’s primary mode of attack, it allows for some direct draw/filtering options (nine cards) and some tutoring (three cards).
Overall speed: 3
Rocks and card advantage this deck has aplenty; no ramping options though. Still, the deck’s average CMC isn’t high so with these resources at hand, I can expect at least to coax a decent measure of speed out of it.
Combo: 2
This deck features a lot of synergy; over half the deck’s card content is focused on accomplishing its main strategy. However, it does not feature much (if anything) in terms of (infinite-)combos.
Army: 2
For mono-blue, this deck features an average amount of creatures. The bulk of them are focused on copying and stealing. The combat power the deck can produce depends to a great degree on the power its (combined) opposition can produce.
Commander: 3
Utilizing Keiga absolutely brings out the best of this deck’s capabilities. However, copying/stealing my opponents’ strongest stuff might in some cases be enough to win the day as well.
Interaction: 5
Stealing means messing with my opponents’ boardstate, to my immediate advantage. Aside from nine direct stealing opportunities, any cloning ability (of which there are a lot of in this deck) combined with Keiga, results in similar opportunities for me. In case this doesn’t mess enough with my opponents’ capabilities, almost a dozen other spells have been included to counter, bounce, exile, destroy or even transform their stuff.
Resilience: 3
This deck doesn’t need much to bounce back from anyone trying to use a serious counter-strategy against mine; just Keiga and something to copy her with. In cases that don’t present anything suitable to copy, I’ll just arm my dragon with some equipment and go to town on the opposition. I’ve included seven pieces that make her almost impervious to harm.
Spellpower: 4
Almost half of this deck's offensive power resides in spells focussed on countering opposing spells, capturing opposing spells and creating tokens in a lot of different ways.
Total power score: 31
In terms of power, I score this deck as slightly above average. It has an average speed compared to single-color decks. It’s an aggressive deck in that it will have a substantial impact on what opponents will play from the mid-game and onwards. Its offensive capabilities go hand-in-hand with its defensive capabilities and for a number of these, having Keiga around is key.