Mono Blue Control
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 20, 2022, 3:34 p.m. by Dead_Blue_
Hey wassup
Im returning to magic after a few years break, I know MH2 ruined “boomer” modern but I’m willing to adapt to the new meta
This is my current list Mono Blue Control
I’d really like some help fine tuning it and making it viable in today’s MTG. Off top of my head I’m definitely looking for a Mana Leak replacement and better sideboard cards.
wallisface says... #3
How committed are you to staying mono-blue? Blue on-its-own is possibly the weakest of the singular-colour options, as it has some really glaring weaknesses that it has no real way to circumvent. Splashing any of the other 4 colours opens you up to a swath of useful, powerful options to shore-up those weaknesses and make an overall much-more dangerous deck.
September 20, 2022 5:29 p.m. Edited.
Dead_Blue_ says... #4
Well I’m pretty committed since I own 2 U/B decks already among a slew of other decks of various colors but let me hear your arguments? What are the specific weakness that can be improved upon?
September 20, 2022 5:35 p.m.
wallisface says... #6
Monoblue suffers generally from having very weak/limited options to anything that resolves onto the board. If your oppoent plays a turn-1 Ragavan or DRC, you’re in a lot of trouble. The answers blue does have to deal with resolved cards are always super weak/suboptimal, and often create too much card-disadvantage, or grant your opponent too much tempo-gain.
Splashing white is often the most popular choice, as it lets you remove any permanent in play.
Splashing Black is strong for being able to easily deal with creature threats, while also expanding the suite of control cards (ala Drown in the Loch).
Splashing Red can also deal with pretty much all creature & artifact threats, while being able to provide solid tempo gains incidentally (DRC).
Splashing Green often leads to weird offshoot brews that aren’t really as strictly control orientated, but all of these offshoots still provide a powerful backbone to allow Blue to survive the boardstate.
September 20, 2022 6:30 p.m.
Dead_Blue_ says... #7
In the past versions of this deck Vapor Snag has been good dealing with turn 1 threats, I was considering adding some Dismember to the 75 just in case. Do you think a full splash is truly needed?
Past version Mono Blue Control - Annihilation -
September 20, 2022 6:42 p.m.
wallisface says... #8
The problem with Vapor Snag is your opponent still keeps all of theirs cards, and you lose one of yours. 1-mana creatures are super-easy to sneak past countermagic, so the creature’s very likely to hit the board again and you’ve just put yourself down a card.
I would definitely suggest splashing another colour, as i said before monoblue is a very weak colour without outside help.
September 20, 2022 7:16 p.m.
Dead_Blue_ says... #9
Yea idk, not saying your points aren’t valid but I’m not convinced. I’m a black player at heart so a little bit of damage doesn’t scare me. Especially when this deck runs Delver of Secrets Flip and Thing in the Ice Flip for a board state. What your comment does make me weary of, is maybe I need better grave yard hate? Any suggestions in that department?
Like I said I already have 2 U/W decks built in paper so making a 3rd really isn’t that appealing to me and I would assume you agree white is the best color splash for control?
September 20, 2022 7:32 p.m.
wallisface says... #10
There’s like a million grave-hate options as far as artifact choices so really just take your pick. I think regardless of colour choices your whole sideboard needs an overhaul in any case, as its currently got a lot of cards there which don’t seem particularly useful for any sideboarding choices.
White would certainly not be my pick for a splash in this brew - it’d be Red. DRC is a superior Delver, and UR spellslinging plays better into TitI’s flipping antics.
With your current mainboard my big concerns are:
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your land count is super low. While your mana-curve supports this, it lends more to trying to play a tempo build as opposed to a control orientated one. Your creature count and roles back-this-up. In that vein, its probably more sensible to be playing much much less control cards, and be more focused on spellslinging and trying to get a quick win (your deck has no capacity to thrive if the game goes long).
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Field of Ruin is prolly going to hurt you more than help you.
I think at the moment you’re trying to make a control deck from a shell that doesn’t necessarily want to be controlling the game.
September 20, 2022 8:34 p.m.
Dead_Blue_ says... #11
Could you be more specific with the sideboard choices? I agree it’s less silver bullets and more deck extensions and it needs to be better.
You don’t think 20 lands is enough with 15 cantrips? How many would you run? Would you cut Field of Ruin completely? Run fewer copies? Or swap it for something faster like Ghost Quarter?
I’m more interested in pushing mono blue as competitively as possible than splashing other colors, I mean if I add red then why not just build Murktide Regent?
Not trying to act like your advice is wrong, just want to embrace this for what it is and not make it something else, that being said what would you add to make it more controlling and less tempo?
September 20, 2022 8:57 p.m.
wallisface says... #12
As you’ve already eluded to, the sideboard reads more like cards you wanted to fit into your deck, as opposed to being anything helpful towards shoring-up bad matchups. Specifically, i can’t see any reason for any of Cryptic Command, Kraken's Eye, Lone Revenant, Spellskite, Stubborn Denial, Swan Song, or Telepathy. It just feels like a collection of other needless counterspells… you want to be running flexible cards that deal with decks that threaten you - like Damping Sphere for Tron/Storm, graveyard hate for Murktide/Dredge, Engineered Explosives for Rhinos/HammerTime, etc. The exact cards you’ll need will be entirely meta dependant, but if you know what you’re likely to face i can give you some suggestions.
I think 20 lands is fine with 20 cantrips, but what you’re building doesn’t lean well into a control archetype - your creature quantity and spell selection lends into wanting to play a fast tempo based game. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does suggest that you should dial-back a bit on your quantity of counterspells. Personally i’d say to just run Counterspell and not any of the other counterspells.
September 20, 2022 9:29 p.m.
Grubbernaut says... #13
Cut Leak for more Forces, cut Conclave for more Halls. Cut Pact, probably put in Thought Scour for Murktide, consider Dismember for the abundance of cheap creatures.
September 22, 2022 7:31 p.m.
Dead_Blue_ says... #14
Updated the deck quite a bit if I could get some more feedback
Dead_Blue_ says... #2
Hey wassup
September 20, 2022 3:35 p.m.