[Primer] Mono Blue Control

[Alex]

Also I'm not sure what you mean by "pay an extra mana to counter everything" when Counterspell and Deprive both counter everything. That's why I assumed you meant over Essence Scatter.

[hamfactorial]

Damn you, black expansion symbols!

[hamfactorial]

Sorry, I suppose you're right. I wasn't looking to replace Essence Scatter with Cancel, but I was comparing their effects.

[zemanjaski]

You can't discuss cards in a vacuum, what would you cut? It's not that a 3 mana counter is bad, it's that:
- the format is quite fast and the sooner you're casting two spells a turn the better; this necessitated less quicksand and more island, both to satisfy all the UU costs and to get Spire Golem online sooner; and
- you can run too many counters. If you look through the progression of my list there are fewer counters over time, more creatures and effects like repeal; you need to interact with the board a tremendous amount in pauper.

That's why I ended up with Essence Scatter. It's cheap, easy to cast and very good; pauper is a creature format. Being able to stop a Specter or Myr Enforcer on the draw is so critical; there isn't a deck without targets; even the formats control decks run value creatures, and a 2 mana counter is ideal if youre going to fight over a spell. Other options include:
- Prohibit. Most
people prefer this. My concern is that going long it very inefficient, or can't counter a hardcast Mulldrifter / Gray Merchant / Myr Enforcer / Crusher etc. you know, cards that really matter;
- Mana Leak. Very good in theory; but the games you win go long and even the 16 land decks will make it dead eventually; decks like MBC, Affinity, Mono Red or Mono Blue blank it verys quickly;
- Miscalculation. Worse than Mana Leak. It cycles isn't compensation for "does nothing".
- Muddle the Mixture / Dispel. Creature format.

I don't hate three mana counters, but the test for inclusion MUST be very high. Will be interested to hear results; Dissolve is probably the best option. I don't mind Condescend either.

[DarthStabber]

rune snag is probably the best pay mana or counter spell, I used it in the MUC deck I was running before I switched to aggro faeries, it stays fairly relevant if you are running some looters (I was using looter il-kor to good effect) since you still get value from them when you pitch them. In an aggressive blue deck miscalculation might be ok, just because you need the early cover.

My recommendation for zem is to try aura flux in the board. It does some serious work against any deck leaning on enchantments, especially hexproof.

[zemanjaski]

Logic Knot isn't horrible either.

I am Aura Flux in my notes from the last time you mentioned it If the pauper metagame heads back towards Hexproof, it's going in don't worry!

[DarthStabber]

It's huge in my local paper pauper meta, so I am fairly used to watching the funny facial contortions it causes (before I switched to infect and then burn).

Sadly when I lend aggro faeries out to people they will board it in against any deck that uses an enchantment (I frequently lend out decks to ensure we have enough players for pauper, and I would feel aweful lending out a deck I would not play myself). I had somebody board it in against infect to "deal with rancor", and yet the piracy charms in the board at the time were not boarded in, it was a sad spectacle, needless to say when then played me all they did was board in the BEBs and it was an easy 2-0, at least he didn't board in the excludes "because I have creatures".

Actually zem, what about looter il-kor? He's not card advantage, but he's excellent filtering while getting through some chip damage, and with shadow he's effectively
unblockable.

[zemanjaski]

Sideboarding is a very misunderstood art.

[DarthStabber]

I think next level magic should come with the starter decks.

[Alex]

I'm finding it incredibly difficult to beat some mono blue faeries lists while staying on the clock. The matchup comes down to who can F6 more EVERY single time I've played it. Very frustrating. There have been a few games where I've had to mill my opponent out with Oona's Grace...that's how fucking bad it is.

[zemanjaski]

Yeah that is my experience in mirrors as well; it is why I had 2 copies of Curse of the Bloody Tome in my board previously; Spire Golem to block + Curse = inevitability; but....meh. With more familiarity you get better at it. The Oona's Grace mill win-con comes up in a few other matches as well (all the dredge variants for example). Its a nice extra angle to have.

[Alex]

There has to be something better than Curse of the Bloody Tome, though. I do have some free slots in the board, and I may even cut Preordain from the mainboard completely, but the spell I replace it with has to be better than Curse.

[Alex]

I was toying with the idea of simply converting the creature base to all U walls and playing Doorkeeper, though. It seems like most matchups don't have a way to interact with that much toughness.

[DarthStabber]

There has to be something better than Curse of the Bloody Tome, though. I do have some free slots in the board, and I may even cut Preordain from the mainboard completely, but the spell I replace it with has to be better than Curse.

[card]jace's erasure[/card] was an option I brought up in the Ub thread that might offer what you're looking for, the more you draw the more you speed the mill (and you can still oona's grace yourself while milling them. It's cheaper than the curse, and interact hilariously with brainstorm.

[hamfactorial]

What about Frostburn Weird as a finisher?

[Alex]

I played against Frostburn Weird, I was not impressed. It does trade with Spire Golem, but that's...pretty much all it does.

[zemanjaski]

Actually, will take on board some of what I am hearing:

In the sideboard try:
-3 Curse of Chains
+2 Aura Flux, +1 Errant Ephemeron

Frostburn Weird is surprisingly bad.

[zemanjaski]

Curse of Chains was only for Affinity, and I am not facing very much of that.

[Alex]

Yeah I was thinking I'm going to drop Curse of Chains for something like [card]Jace's Erasure[/card] or Trespassing Souleater. Souleater is as inevitable as it gets, and it is likely faster than Erasure, which leaves more time on the clock. Also has synergy with the Spectral Flights I'm already running.

[Alex]

One-Eyed Scarecrow is also another annoying card for the mirror.

[zemanjaski]

I like Souleater, that seems good for the mirror and has better synergy with plan A anyway. Ephemeron is nice because its such a hard card to deal with, its easy to resolve and it breaks the board stalls. So I would prefer to have that singleton; Scarecrow is super effective, but doesn't help with Spire Golem's are looking at each other, which I think is the bigger issue.

[DarthStabber]

Here's the MUC pile I used to run, though it's hardly traditional, it can pretend to be aggro and spiketail drakeling is realer than people give him credit for
[Deck]
Dudes
2 sentinel of glen elendra
2 spire golem
4 spiketail drakeling
4 looter il-kor
4 man-o'-war
2 errant ephemeron

spells
4 runesnag
4 counterspell
4 seal of removal
4 dismiss
4 think twice

Land
18 island
4 lonely sandbar
[/deck]

[zemanjaski]

Alright about to play in a gatherling.com Pauper tournament; its 5 round + top 8. Will post results and thoughts after the event.

Follow along here: http://gatherling.com/eventreport.php?e ... ays%204.11

[deck]Pauper MUC v4.1[/deck]
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Spire Golem

Instants
4 Counterspell
4 Deprive
2 Essence Scatter
4 Exclude
2 Oona's Grace
4 Repeal
4 Think Twice

Sorceries
4 Preordain

Lands
20 Island
2 Quicksand

Sideboard
2 Aura Flux
1 Errant Ephemeron
4 Hydroblast
4 Piracy Charm
2 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Serrated Arrows
[/deck]

Results:

Swiss
2-1 vs UG Elves
0-2 vs Affinity
2-0 vs
MBC
2-0 vs UB Trinket Control

Top 8
2-1 GW Hexproof
0-2 Affinity

Of course I take my Curse of Chains out after saying I never play Affinity, then play against it twice

[Helios]

Good luck Z!

[hamfactorial]

Smash 'em

[Alex]

I've never seen this Gatherling thing before, looks sweet.

[zemanjaski]

Yeah this will be my 6th event, I have 5 cashes previously. They're very well run, would recommend. You're usually winning 3-4 tix for a top 8 and sometimes 10+ for a crown.

[hamfactorial]

Sweet, I didn't know about this website. Time to see what's on tap for Modern!

[zemanjaski]

Finished 3rd. Lost to the same Affinity player in the Swiss and the Top 8. Had the Pyroblast everytime!

[Alex]

Finished 3rd. Lost to the same Affinity player in the Swiss and the Top 8. Had the Pyroblast everytime!

Ugh, happened to me earlier against another mono U player. Motherfucker would put into the red zone and randomly have Mutagenic Growth in his list, literally had it every time I went for trades to break the stall. Feels bad.

Also who the fuck plays Mutagenic Growth in mono U? That guy should feel bad.

[zemanjaski]

It happened in Game 2 of both the Swiss and the Semifinal:

Him: three mana available, cast Carapace Forger
Me: exclude
Him: Pyroblast
Me: die to a 4/4

[Alex]

I do hate that feeling of "They always have it," but then I have to remember that's probably how they feel every time I tap mana.

[zemanjaski]

Yeah. I still feel terrific about the deck. The Errant Ephemeron spot is up for negotiation; what's the nastiest hate card for our most hated matchup?

[Alex]

Honestly probably some type of hate card for the U mirror, like we were talking about earlier. That matchup sucks SO much.

[DarthStabber]

Looter il-kor - digs and clocks.
Waterfront bouncer - does good things, even in the mirror.
Viscerid Deepwalker - almost made it into several decks, blue "firebreathing" is badass (would that be water breathing?). In tests he has performed surprisingly well especially from suspend. The lack of evasion is why ephemeron usually gets the nod over him, but it would be interesting to see someone else poke around with it.
benthic giant - have done no testing and minimal theorizing around this guy, but he caught my eye for pauper during the prerelease, might have some merit.
prescient chimera - I just don't want to be the one to do the testing on this one, but at first blush it seems decent.

[Alex]

Benthic Giant seems pretty sweet for a list like mine.

[Alex]

Also, Preordain feels pretty awful, I've decided that I'm replacing it with 2 Sea Gate Oracle and 2 Echoing Truth.

[zemanjaski]

I came up with Benthic Giant as well. The Deepwalker is a nice 2-for-1 in the mirror; Chimera suffers from being walled as well, although it will at least help you find some sweet cards. They're all good choices really, although Ephemeron is going to be the easiest to resolve, so I think that wins out for me (it can also fight through Spire Golem whereas Chimera cannot).

At least the way I play, Preordain is the best card in the deck not called Delver of Secrets

[zemanjaski]

Sea Gate Oracle does overperform though in so many matchups, especially against the removal heavy control decks.

[Alex]

At least the way I play, Preordain is the best card in the deck not called Delver of Secrets

I've found that more often than not I sit on Preordain for WAY longer than I would like. I'd say my favored card in the deck thusfar has been Spectral Flight, but I think that I'm very quickly going to get on board with Echoing Truth.