Cube Primer: Mono-U Control

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Mono-Blue Control

Blue; traditionally the most powerful color in all of Magic. Since cube gets to play any cards it wants, it has access to the most broken of the blue cards, and getting to play Islands is always a sure sign of a good time.

Bombs (These are cards that can win the game single-handedly and could possibly pull you into the archetype on their own)

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Aetherling
Vedalken Shackles
Time Walk

Jace is, well, Jace. There is a reason for his absurd price tag (hint: it's his absurd power level). Brainstorming and bouncing creatures turn after turn while building to a game-ending ultimate (which is not out of the question in cube) makes Jace your go-to
guy for Mono-Blue whenever possible.

Aetherling is a new addition to cube, but resolving him with an untapped Island will usually spell "game over" for your opponent. He is just so difficult to get rid of; the stars have to align for an Aetherling to be properly dealt with. He is also good whether you are ahead or behind on board, and is just everything you could ever want out of a blue finisher.

The Shackles are one of the main reasons to be Mono-U or close to it; the card rewards you for having more islands. The card is certainly playable (and quite powerful) in an evenly split U/X deck, but in Mono-U, the card just gets better every single land drop. Being able to steal Grave Titans late-game is much better than only being able to steal Masticores. And being able to send the creature back for a better one (basically) whenever you want pushes this card way over the
top.

Time Walk is a bomb. Not one that necessarily means Mono-U, but a bomb nonetheless. Being able to use your win-cons before your opponent is given a chance to deal with them is very powerful, and sometimes even Explore is good enough given the right circumstances. As if taking an extra turn for 1U wasn't good enough, the versatility of early-game vs. late-game usage makes this card just bonkers.

Priorities (These cards are needed to make the deck go; they may not be the most powerful cards in your deck, but without them your deck will suffer greatly)

Draw Spells (Ancestral Recall, Preordain, Impulse, Deep Analysis)

Counterspells (Force Spike, Counterspell, Force of Will, [card]
Arcane Denial[/card], Cryptic Command)

Value Creatures (Vendilion Clique, Snapcaster Mage, Glen Elendra Archmage, [card]Man-o'-War[/card])

There's a lot going on here, and while drafting a Mono-U strategy, you'll often have the choice between multiple categories listed here. Evaluate what your deck needs the most, and prioritize these categories without forgetting any of them overall. Also, prioritize cards like Cryptic Command, Mulldrifter, Venser, Shaper Savant and Glen Elendra Archmage that fall into multiple categories.

Draw spells are the "bread and butter" of the Mono-U control deck. Literally, they are what keeps your deck moving. Having access to more of the creatures/spells you need than your opponent is
the way you win games, and these are the cards that allow you to do that. It doesn't matter how many sweet 4-6cc creatures and bombs you have; if you can't get them into your hand, they don't help you at all.

Counterspells are the way blue answers things it can't otherwise deal with, like Sulfuric Vortex, Troll Ascetic, or Armageddon. Knowing which spells to counter is often a nuanced piece of playing the Mono-U deck, but you can't make those decisions without having the counterspells to begin with.

Value Creatures are often times chump-blockers later on, but luckily, they come with some value already attached (hence, the name). Cards like [card]Man-o'-War[/card] and Aether Adept are great for keeping aggressive creatures at bay while you find another way to deal with them, and then blocking at the same time. Cards like [card]Vendilion Clique[/
card] and Snapcaster Mage are powerful ways to interact with your opponent's hand (or your own) and your graveyard, respectively, which are not things Blue often can interact with. Knowing how and when to use these cards takes time and practice as well, but using them correctly make for some of the most powerful plays Blue has to offer (Snapcaster Mage targeting Ancestral Recall, anyone?). Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal are cards that go quite well with these types of creatures, if you end up with enough of them to make it worth it.

Draft ‘em if you see ‘em (Take advantage of these cards when they appear in your packs, but make sure you don’t ignore the above categories)

Control Magic Effects (Control Magic, Bribery, [card]Treachery[/card:
1ur20agb], Sower of Temptation)

Clones (Phantasmal Image, Phyrexian Metamorph, Vesuvan Shapeshifter)

Win Conditions (Consecrated Sphinx, Meloku the Clouded Mirror, Jace, Memory Adept, Inkwell Leviathan)

Control Magic Effects can overlap with Win Conditions, as sometimes you just steal your opponent's Griselbrand and kill them with it. Or take their Woodfall Primus out of their deck and blow up their stuff. Sometimes, these cards can just brick, especially against the hyper-aggressive decks, but that's what the sideboard is for. It's more than worth it to mainboard these cards, as they are often quite good while you are behind or ahead on board position.

Clones are similar, in that you are (
in a sense) winning the game using your opponent's creatures. However, sometimes you just want another Consecrated Sphinx or Aetherling (Or Vedalken Shackles!), and these cards can help you do that.

Win Conditions are just that; they win you the game once you've controlled the board enough that you can afford to do so. These cards sometimes can help you from behind (Meloku, the Clouded Mirror, but sometimes they are just there to seal the deal (Inkwell Leviathan, Jace, Memory Adept). Either way, they are important pieces to your strategy; don't get caught with a deck full of cantrips and counterspells with no way to finish off a properly-controlled opponent.

Make sure you have: Enough early spells. It's easy to fall into a trap of 4cc.dec, but make sure to prioritize the 1 and 2cc cantrips
and counterspells over a deck choc-full of goodstuff 4-drops. When Mono-R curves out with a 1, 2 and 3 drop, you'll be glad you had Ponder Turn 1, and Miscalculation Turn 2 rather than just twiddling your thumbs while they took out at least half your life total unopposed.

Only a light dusting of: Win Conditions. This is the same story as with Mono-G ramp; with just a few win-conditions in your deck, you'll find one of them by the time you want to be casting it. A hand full of 6-8 drops on turns 1-4 does you no good, and only makes your aggro-matchups that much worse than they already are.

Stay away from: Having too many cards of one category listed above. The best decks have a balance of all of them, don't load up on one at the expense of another.

Best splashes: Green for Mystic Snake or Simic Sky Swallower, White for [card]Supreme Verdict[/card:
1ur20agb] or [card]Sphinx's Revelation[/card]. There are tons of viable splashes for this deck, but I listed some of the more potent multi-colored ones here. Mystic Snake is a counterspell strapped to a body, while Simic Sky Swallower is a huge, flying, trampling beater that is nigh-impossible to get rid of. Supreme Verdict (and other Wrath effects) fit very well into this deck when you can build it around having few creatures (and your oppt. will most likely lose more from this card than you will anyways), and [card]Sphinx's Revelation[/card] is everything you want to be doing in this deck; drawing cards and nullifying your opponent's combat steps.

Cards you can likely wheel: Wheeling specific cards can be difficult, depending on not only your playgroup but also the specific draft. Blue is oftentimes overdrafted (in my group anyways), so either
you have to cut it early and hard, or catch signals that no one is drafting blue (which sometimes happens). In this case, the tempo-based counterspells (Memory Lapse, Arcane Denial) can go pretty late, but otherwise just keep track of the categories mentioned above, and prioritize based on those, and you should be fine.

Cards to hate, if you’re into that sort of thing: Stone Rain/Armageddon effects (Strip Mine, Armageddon, Pillage), Discard Spells (Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach, Stupor). Hate-drafting isn't recommended with this archetype, as there are a lot of pieces you have to assemble for the deck to work properly. But if you insist, ways you can lose the game (other than just straight aggro) is if your opponent can interact with your manabase or hand. These are both essential pieces to your
gameplan, but counterspells work better than hate-drafting most of the time.

Sample Decklist:
[deck]Mono-Blue Control[/deck]