[Primer] Mono Blue Control

[zemanjaski]

3rd straight sweep.

3-0 an 8 man;

2-1 vs GW Slivers; repeal, exclude, sea gate oracle wrapped the games up very easily post board. Delver trading with a 3/3 lord is super relevant.
2-0 vs Esper Familiar Combo; he conceded in game 2 when my hand was 5 lands >:) where you at Oona's Grace?
2-0 vs Boros Kitty; BorosKitty3000 himself was involved.

[magicdownunder]

I havn't played pauper in awhile, how often is repeal better then Repulse?

that is all I like the deck I was trying to decided either to run this version or Ser1alKinder version (he 6-0 both pauper PE).

[deck]Lands
17 Island
3 Quicksand

Spells
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Counterspell
2 Deprive
2 Exclude
4 Miscalculation
1 Oona's Grace
4 Piracy Charm
4 Preordain
2 Repeal
2 Repulse
1 Think Twice

Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Spire Golem

Sideboard 15
2 Coast Watcher
2 Curfew
2 Curse of Chains
1 Dispel
4 Hydroblast
1 Mulldrifter
1 Oona's Grace
2 Serrated Arrows[/deck]
I think I prefer yours because I like lands, and I'm fairly sure Grace, Counters, Bounces and draw cards like land as well .

[magicdownunder]

Ooo wow... looking through all the 3-0 MUC decks and saw the funniest anti-mirror tech ever: Errant Ephemeron take that repeal , since its on Suspend you get a fair shot at the counter wars as well.

[zemanjaski]

On that decklist:
- AK vs Think Twice: I think Think Twice is just better. AK is more efficient, but until you draw the 4th copy generates lets CA.
- I am very dubious of only 20 land; the deck really wants to hit all its land drops to 5-6 so you can play a creature + keep up a counter in some matchups. 17 Island is of serious concern.
- Repulse is good, but Repeal bounces enchantments and artifacts, which is very relevant. Repeal is probably the second best card in my deck.
- Pretty sure Miscalculation is actually unplayable after talking to Chris Davis. If you track the evolution of my counter suit, you'll see i have just gone from a mix to just straight hard counters.
- the Ephemeron tech is very cute, probably very good. I don't see many pure mirrors, not one this week, its always the middle of the road version running 4 Delver, 4 Cloud of Faeries, 4 Spellstutter Sprite and 4 Spire Golem
with 4 Ponder, 4 Preordain; its a more compact shell but much weaker going long. I just sideboard out my Delvers, bring in two extra SGO (blanks their piracy charms best mode) and focus on resolving a Golem; you can then play around that.

[zemanjaski]

The curfew / coastal watcher package is sure interesting though.

[zemanjaski]

I think that the matchups look like this:

"Bad" (<45%): hexproof, burn
"Fair" (45%-55%): affinity, faeries
"Good" (55+%): everything else

[magicdownunder]

Its the timezone, app. MUC is the fifth most common decks with recorded finishes.

[magicdownunder]

I think that the matchups look like this:

"Bad" (<45%): hexproof, burn
"Fair" (45%-55%): affinity, faeries
"Good" (55+%): everything else

Curfew is good vs aura I used it back when I ran Delver, I don't think burn is a bad MU unless they get the nuts.

[zemanjaski]

Yeah I have won my last two matches against burn, now that I have 4 Hydroblast + 4 Piracy Charm, that may be the difference (I used to only have 3 Hydroblast to bring in).

I find Auras to be OK. Probably 55%+ if you win the die roll (on account of repeal being a complete beating), 45% if you don't. I can live with that.

[Alex]

I'll give it a run, I haven't been too keen on KilnClops.

[Alex]

1

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I settled on this list, my first game started out like this, lol:

2

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I get the distinct feeling like he has no possible way of winning this game.




Edit: Yeah, he ragequit after the fourth Deprive on his Cyclops.

[Alex]

Why I changed the things that I did: I couldn't find Exclude on any of my usual bots, so I played Spectral Flight and an extra Essence Scatter. Also didn't feel like shelling out for Serrated Arrows, so I supplemented this by adding Vault Skirge for aggressive matchups. Paired with Spectral Flights coming in, the lifelink does a lot of work. They basically have to bolt it or it becomes too much for them to beat.

[Alex]

Just beat the affinity matchup 2-0 twice in a row via Vault Skirge and double Spectral Flight. The second guy called me a faggot before scooping to it, lol.

[Alex]

Lol, play against Tron in the finals, opening hand consists of lands and 4 Deprive in both games.

GG cash money.

[zemanjaski]

Yeah you get a lot of hands which are "will never lose". I don't hate some form of lifelink actually.

[Alex]

Just had to kill a MBC player with a Sea Gate Oracle with Spectral Flight on it.

It'll do.

Yeah this deck is sweet. 6-0 right now.

[zemanjaski]

There's nothing more satisfying than being ahead on board, your opponent having no cards in hand and you've got 3-4 counters in hand. I probably see 40+ cards a game.

[Alex]

Queueing up for another 8-4 in a sec, Spectral Flight has been really good, 10/10 would bang.

[zemanjaski]

I am going to log on and wreck your shit up.

[hamfactorial]

Slap fight!

[Alex]

I am going to log on and wreck your shit up.

If it makes you feel any better, I did lose to the mirror earlier. Opponent was at 1, I was at dead. Exact same cards on board.

Feels bad man.

[zemanjaski]

:'(

28-2

Took a loss vs Hexproof and UG Mana Combo, where I couldn't draw a piece of disruption to save my life (only run 18 relevant cards...). I did win a game where I drew 15 lands in my first 20 cards, and it wasn't very close either. Found Oona's Grace and just wrecked him.

[Alex]

When are you going to log on so I can wreck you.

[zemanjaski]

I just sat on for more than an hour...

[Alex]

I hate you.

[magicdownunder]

:'(

28-2

Took a loss vs Hexproof and UG Mana Combo, where I couldn't draw a piece of disruption to save my life (only run 18 relevant cards...). I did win a game where I drew 15 lands in my first 20 cards, and it wasn't very close either. Found Oona's Grace and just wrecked him.

What on earth is UG Mana Combo?

[zemanjaski]

It is a bunch of mana enchantments they they put on land; 4 Voyaging Satyr, 4 elf that untaps land (name escpapes me), heap of blue card draw and mulldrifter / SGO; they generate heaps of mana early, leverage that into drawing HEAPS of cards, then kill you with a Rolling Earthquake.

[zemanjaski]

4 straight 8 man queues.

[Alex]

About to play one myself, hoping things go well for me too.

[Alex]

8man never fired, got bored waiting. Zzzzz, why did they remove Pauper dailies again?

[magicdownunder]

8man never fired, got bored waiting. Zzzzz, why did they remove Pauper dailies again?

Wizard just lose money from providing Pauper since its not really a format which encourages players to buy more packs (they pretty much give boosters away with limited return in that format).

Pauper also happens to be the grinders format of choice (its where I started as well) .

[Alex]

It's hard to feel bad for them "losing money" on Pauper considering they're basically printing free money as it is. I mean, they can't be pouring that money back into MTGO, it has to be going somewhere.

[zemanjaski]

They should feel obliged to support my habit.

33-2.

[hamfactorial]

What is this degenerate nonsense? In my 3 weeks of playing Pauper, I haven't faced a real control deck, but now that I'm trying MUC I face 2 in a row.

/daggers

[hamfactorial]

I faced 3 fair decks after that, so all is right with the world again. Feels so good to Exclude a Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

Sweet revenge.

[Alex]

So I slipped a single Whirlpool Rider into the deck (in place of one of the Sea Gate Oracles) and practically jizzed in my pants when I drew it.

Scenario: Was playing the mirror, game 1, had Oona's Grace engine going but we were both drawing dead counter magic and I was out of land in my hand to pitch to Retrace. Rip Whirlpool Rider with 4 cards in hand, opponent lets it resolve, (out of pure confusion I'm sure) new 4 cards are Island Island Island Think Twice.

I laughed out loud, which caused my coworkers to give me strange looks. I proceeded to use these Islands to fuck my opponent's face ever so gently.

[hamfactorial]

Being that I'm new to playing blue, forgive me if this question is dumb. Is the extra cost on a card like Cancel worth it for the ability to counter anything?

[Alex]

Being that I'm new to playing blue, forgive me if this question is dumb. Is the extra cost on a card like Cancel worth it for the ability to counter anything?

Over Essence Scatter, you mean? I'm not in love with Essence Scatter personally, but being able to slam a Spire Golem and then simply counter anything that can get in its way has merits on certain draws. If you're going to play a 3 mana counterspell it should be Dissolve or Dissipate though. Dissipate is actually probably a huge beating in the mirror.

Some lists play Miscalculation but I don't like that card that much.

[hamfactorial]

Not over Essence Scatter, just as a general concept. It helps me to understand whether the "counters everything" clause is worth paying 1 extra.

Nice tip on Dissipate, too. I thought it was an uncommon.

[Alex]

I lied, Dissipate is uncommon. I for some reason thought it was common back in Mirage.