What's the best cEDH mono blue?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 1, 2018, 4:31 p.m. by Kaleo42
I'm strongly considering building a mono blue cEDH deck. Help me decide how to go about it. I am currently considering Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Teferi, Temporal Archmage, and Azami, Lady of Scrolls but I am open to suggestions.
Looking for a whoops all spells or hard lock finish with a strong control theme. I will be contending against a lot of stax, taxes, and blitz combos.
Hyperalgialysis says... #3
Kami of the Crescent Moon is a fun commander only because no one wants to bother you. If you dont like him, Baral, Chief of Compliance is good with control, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Flip is good too.
January 1, 2018 4:44 p.m.
Baral is a good one to keep on my short list. Thank you for reminding me. He is a bit more spell focused than I was looking for but his second ability can be super abused with things like Decree of Silence, Kozilek, the Great Distortion and other things that can counter multiple spells.
January 1, 2018 4:46 p.m.
DrukenReaps says... #5
I don't play cEDH but Teferi, Temporal Archmage has been a powerhouse in that scene for awhile from what I read and hear. That ability to untap just makes dealing with stax a laughing matter.
January 1, 2018 4:50 p.m.
OpenFire_V2 says... #6
Teferi, Temporal Archmage stax with The Chain Veil is the most competitive of those. Arcum Dagsson combo is also a potential one, but not the kind of deck you want
January 1, 2018 5 p.m.
Hyperalgialysis I would play Jace but someone in our group just finished High Tide Jace so it would be redundant. Kami I can't afford to play at a table full of autowin combos, but he is super fun at casual tables.
OpenFire_V2 you're right that Arcum Dagsson isn't where I want to go with this mostly because my table is too volatile to get that rolling.
Teferi, Temporal Archmage is looking pretty good so far because it lets me play at sorcery and instant speed on limited mana.
January 1, 2018 5:27 p.m.
firecast92 says... #8
Kefnet the Mindful for pure control or Azami, Lady of Scrolls if you like combo with a slash of control, but due to Inalla, Archmage Ritualist key wizard cards have gone through the roof so i would wait on that one.
January 1, 2018 7 p.m.
I already have most of what would be needed it's just a question if the deck is worth moving back and forth things like Mox Diamond and Mana Crypt from my primary decks.
I'm using this project as an excuse to pick up Force of Will, Pact of Negation, and other important blue cards I have been avoiding. I got the Omniscience with some other stuff last night thanks to a Living End I didn't realize had spiked so much.
January 1, 2018 7:13 p.m.
miracleHat says... #10
Teferi, Temporal Archmage stax/combo is the most competitive mono blue general/deck right now. Tangle Wire, Stasis, and The Chain Veil should explain it all.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Flip high tide is the second best, using High Tide and Candelabra of Tawnos to ridiculous effect.
Arcum Dagsson combo is third best, the mulligan rule severely crippled the deck however, and it can run into consistency issues.
I'm sure that there is a case to be made for baral and other decks, the three mentioned are the best and most-competitive decks that you can play.
January 1, 2018 11:28 p.m. Edited.
What about Talrand, Sky Summoner?
i'm shocked he isn't even mentioned.
January 2, 2018 9:06 a.m.
It depends on your general. The chainveil combo elevates Teferi to ridiculous levels of power. Right behind that, you'll find some Paradox Engine and Isochron Scepter combos. What is the best set strongly depends on your general. None of those are bad.
@Thorbogl - We're talking about competitive EDH here. The format looks a lot different from most of EDH. Talrand is incredibly weak in cEDH.
@miracleHat - Vryn's Prodigy is mostly DramaticScepter these days.
January 2, 2018 11:43 a.m. Edited.
Arcum Dagsson by a longshot. capable of making turn 2 kills with Paradox Engine.
January 2, 2018 3 p.m.
Thorbogl there are two reasons I did not bring up Talrand, Sky Summoner one TheDevicer covered perfectly but the other is because I already used to play this deck and want something new.
Talrand's Tirrany
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 1 | 1 COMMENT | 104 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
January 2, 2018 10:08 p.m.
Hmmm...
Reading the OP, it's making me think. If your meta is primarily composed of fast combo and stax, then going stax yourself might be a liability if you're just doing it in Mono Blue. Although you'll still poop on fast combo with a decent stax deck, you'll run into issues once cards like Stony Silence and Null Rod start dropping down. Mono blue is incredibly reliant on artifacts to hate, ramp, and combo. Those will shut you down entirely.
If you're solely interested in winning, you should consider playing a value-based midrange deck with cheap interaction. That has the best spread against your meta but is a long way from what you asked in your opening post.
Sorry, this really should have been my first post. Still, what I wrote earlier still stands.
January 3, 2018 9:49 a.m.
miracleHat says... #16
@TheDevicer: fine dramatic reversal blah blah blah. But baby jace deck is still better than arcum right....?
January 3, 2018 4:04 p.m.
miracleHat I would agree.
TheDevicer that is my main concern. I'm going to need other options or specific answers for those problems. I can bank slightly on the fact most of my opponents are also reliant on artifacts but that's an uncomfortable gamble.
Sounds like the consensus so far is Teferi, Temporal Archmage. Suggestions on the win cons or other parts? I would greatly appreciate good deck examples if you have them.
January 3, 2018 4:31 p.m.
I'd say Arcum is better against the cEDH field as a whole as he has a more direct path to his combo, but he does suffer from overall lower card quality because he has to jam a bunch of stuff like Hangarback Walker, Metalworker, etc. just to make his combo work.
Both decks share most if not all weaknesses. Still, I think it's worth pointing out that Arcum's slots are more set in stone whereas Jace has more flex slots. This naturally makes Jace more adaptable to specific metas. I think it speaks for itself when we can talk about Jace as a pilot for both the DramaticScepter and high tide strategies (both of which are fine and the decision between which to run, I feel, should be meta-based).
In that sense, I think I'd rather be on Jace if I was aware of the decks I was going to face off against.
January 3, 2018 4:47 p.m.
miracleHat says... #19
I don't know if it is up to date, but this should work as a basis for Chain Veil Teferi decks.
January 3, 2018 5:20 p.m.
miracleHat says... #20
ulch damned formatting: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/chain-veil-teferi/
January 3, 2018 5:29 p.m.
deck-large:chain-veil-teferi inside brackets
Chain Veil Teferi
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 117 | 114 COMMENTS | 58339 VIEWS | IN 91 FOLDERS
January 3, 2018 5:54 p.m.
miracleHat says... #22
Yeah, but that formatting doesn't fit inside sentences
January 3, 2018 8:23 p.m.
use just deck: instead of deck-large and it will just hyperlink the name of the deck like this Chain Veil Teferi
January 3, 2018 8:26 p.m.
Open the deck page, copy the link. Highlight the text you want to hyperlink and then hit the hyperlink button in the text box and paste the url for the deck.
January 3, 2018 11:11 p.m.
My buddy Salworth pointed out a few big things. Baral, Chief of Compliance wont be able to keep up at our tables. Teferri and Azami are still looking really good but a new idea came up which we shouldve considered sooner. Venser, Shaper Savant. It puts a Remand in the command zone and gives access to some interesting options for Paradoxical Outcome strategies.
January 8, 2018 1:03 a.m.
I think that's honestly a pretty bad direction to go into. Blue has so many redundant counter options that putting one in the command zone does very little compared to a card that is a part of a linear strategy.
January 8, 2018 11:12 a.m.
The other one that came up that I almost forgot to mention again is Thada Adel, Acquisitor.
January 8, 2018 1:28 p.m.
How is that questionable. You run stax/control and strip them of their rocks that help break parody.
January 8, 2018 2:23 p.m.
tbh, in your meta you probably want to play fast combo as well and just win before the other decks can set up. What decks specifically are you facing? that can help a lot when picking a deck for the meta.
January 8, 2018 2:33 p.m.
There is such a thing as opportunity cost. By committing to something, you're naturally forgoing options other than the one you made. In this case you're opting for Thada Adel, Acquisitor while Teferi, Temporal Archmage has widely been accepted by the competitive community as the best general for mono U stax builds (and also best mono U commander in general).
Part of what makes Teferi so potent is that he is part of a linear strategy. What I mean by that is that Teferi himself can contribute to a combo, allow you to break parity, or dig for needed cards. In addition, the overall card quality in Teferi lists is miles above or at the same level as what you'd find in most other competitive Mono U lists.
January 8, 2018 3:23 p.m.
I've seen some interesting jank brews with academy rector and other random cards. They're typically in 2 to 5 colors tho and often run a second win con. I find those decks would be better in 90% of cases if they ran the plan B as their primary over the omniscience plan. Omniscience just requires you make too many deck building concessions. As for mono blue cEDH omniscience, I say it's mostly a noob trap.
Fun in casual tho.
January 8, 2018 4:38 p.m.
That's almost exactly what Salworth said. I think I could justify it in an Azami list, but you're both probably right I should just put it in my Dragons deck and stop looking at it.
January 8, 2018 5:36 p.m.
Well, to be fair, if you're playing something like a 3 color Doomsday/Omniscience hybrd, that's still going to be more competitive than what most casual tables can handle. I say it's bad, but it's bad only in the context of the highest levels of EDH.
January 8, 2018 6:09 p.m.
Ok it seems the consensus is dramatic scepter teferi veil I will start working on a rough draft and post it here thank you for all the feedback.
The Omniscience will go to this deck that I have been slowly upgrading while keeping it a good loaner deck for newer players.
Dragons with Friends
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 2 | 3 COMMENTS | 97 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
January 8, 2018 7:34 p.m.
Ok I have a list! Somewhere in this pile of cards is the deck I want to build. If you think I missed anything or if you have strong opinions on what to trim please let me know.
cEDH Blue Chains
Commander / EDH*
2 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER
Suns_Champion says... #2
I played a $40 Baral, Chief of Compliance deck and even it was able to hold down three opponents and win. Might give him a try.
Of the three you have Teferi, Temporal Archmage is probably the most competitive.
Just my thoughts-take with a grain of salt!
January 1, 2018 4:43 p.m.