Introduction
I was inspired by the mono blue midrange deck done by Strictly Better MTG on YouTube. As a budget deck for under $20, it really interested me, but I thought I'd customize it a bit to better fit my preferences. There is also the fact that I want cards in this deck that will also not rotate in October, so even though the base is still in DTK and MTG Origins, there are more BFZ and OGW cards in this deck. I am however; keeping it in the spirit of things and making it still realtively budget. This deck will not go over $50.
Link to Original: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4vyDMb7dS5g
How the deck Works
Side note: I will explain how the deck works and functions, but the video mentioned above gives a very good description of the deck. Probably better than what I'll do in these following lines.
Creature Spells
Gudul Lurker A good drop on turn one to start pinging them for damage, or a turn three play for a 2/2 unblockable. Overall a solid card.
Hangarback Walker It's just... Such a good card. Any midrange deck should just consider this guy. Makes more flying tokens, it's a good blocker, there's just no limit! I'd like a full play-set, but it would go over the $50 limit.
Shorecrasher Elemental Oh... So close to AEtherling, possibly better. This is one of our main win conditions. He has evasion, can change his stats, and is just a strong card in general. Love this guy. Probably my favorite card in the deck.
Harbinger of the Tides A bounce that can be either played on turn 2 or flashed in on turn 4? Sounds like a good deal either way! Not to mention the 2/2 body.
Icefall Regent Another all-star win condition. 5 mana for a 4/3 flier is decent on its own. Not to even mention the permenant tap-down ability! Or the evasion it has in having cards that target it cost 2 more!
Mizzium Meddler Even more protection. It can either be flashed in as a blocker, used to negate maybe an enemy's Spatial Contortion on our Icefall Regent, or even both! Also I love Izzet and the reference in the flavor text makes me happy.
Stratus Dancer Can be used as just a 2/1 flier for the beats, to block, or used as a 3/2 and counter spell. It's just value.
Whirler Rogue People have now been noticing how good Pia and Kiran Nalaar is, and this is basically the cheaper, albeit Abit worse blue version. An upside though is how it can make things unblockable, and how it's not a legendary so that rule doesn't apply. We can have 4 on the battlefield if we want!
Non-Creature Spells
Horribly Awry Good against the high end of the aggro decks and most midrange decks.
Spatial Contortion Best removal for our deck. To be honest, we don't have any real REMOVAL in blue.
Clash of Wills Good in the early game. Serves a similar purpose to Horribly Awry, but this is better in the the early game, yet worse in the late.
Ugin's Insight The best form of card draw we can have for this deck. It can usually refill our hand late game really well, and usually scry's for us 3 or 4. Just what is needed to get us a finisher.
Void Shatter Probably the best counter spell in this standard. With Innistrad coming up, and just currently, we expect many graveyard shenanigans. Besides that fact, it's just a 3 mana you can't use that card. It's just so vanilla it's good.
Land Base
Crumbling Vestige Get's us most of our colorless sources. It may come in tapped, but it gives us a blue mana right off the bat any way, basically coming into the battlefield untapped and ready to use.
Evolving Wilds Poor man's fetch land. The real ones are rotating out soon and we don't need really good color fixing, since one card is the only thing needing colorless. We use this usually to find an island, or it acts as 4 more copies of Wastes.
Island Um... Mono-Blue deck? Kinda self explanatory.
Wastes Just to use Evolving Wilds on if necessary.
Foundry of the Consuls Another colorless source that can turn into more fliers late game. The more blockers and more attackers for our swarm the better!
Sideboard
Crush of Tentacles This would come in against another deck that is trying to go wide, especially against a token's deck. Clearing the board of all things also works in favor to us, since so many of our creatures have ETB effects. Also we can maybe get an 8/8 Octopus. Awesome.
Dampening Pulse Comes in against tokens or an aggro matchup. It is a solid play.
Displacement Wave Lots of the same reasons as Crush of Tentacles, except we can sorta choose what gets returned. Against a VERY token heavy deck, we can just play it for 2 blue and kill all their tokens! Simple.
Gift of Tusks. Turn to Frog The reason these two are together are because they serve a similar purpose. They turn a huge creature smaller, and easier for us to block and deal with. Gift of Tusks however, can be used on most of our creatures before the damage step to change, let's say a thopter token that went unblocked into a 3/3. Thanks damage!
Void Shatter Comes up against any control deck. More counters the better. We won't let any control deck's baby Jaces get back their Kholagon's Command thank you very much!!!
Possible Upgrades/Changes?
The deck runs pretty well as it is, but if you are willing to invest some more money in it a play set of Hangarback Walker could be seen as a must. Oh, and the boy wonder Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
also works. Sure, we don't have that many spells to copy, but the looting effect is so good! The plus isn't bad either.
As far as changes go I can see splashing white. Cards such as Reflector Mage, Wall of Resurgence, and Eldrazi Displacer could almost all find a place into this deck.
Conclusion
This is a strong deck that won't be winning any GP's (probably) but is great for FNM's or even casual play. It's just a fun tempo/midrange deck that can go wide and own the game! Thanks for reading! I'd love any tips or criticism you have to give!
