Mono blue

[leokula]

Hi there guys!

First post at Magic board turns out that my girl's brother plays Magic and so I'm getting back to it after about 8 years I don't own a card lol My favorite sets are mercadian masques, nemesis and prophecy, and so the blue deck i'm playing has a lot from these. My favorite color has always been blue, never played any other color, never played anything other than flying creatures with counterspells Cool thing is now I have some money to invest and buy stuff I couldn't trade for when I was 15.

Well here is the deck. Want to know what you guys think of it. I think it's legacy or vintage, not sure, and definitely for casual play. Bear in mind tho I'm not changing this. I know it's flawed but this is the deck I played back then with some cool stuff I didn't own and it features my favorite Magic cards.

~30x Islands ( not sure yet, needs playtesting )
4x Counterspell
4x Arcane Denial
4x Foil
4x Daze
4x Rootwater Thief
3x Spiketail Hatchling
3x Spiketail Drake
3x Spitetail Drakeling
1x Archivist
1x Alexi, Zephyr Mage
2x Tidal Kraken
1x Avatar of Will
1x Predator, Flagship
1x Spellbook
2x Kraken's Eye
2x Sapphire Medallion
2x Rhystic Study
1x Denying Wind
2x Fog Bank

The idea is to counter anything I want, hit with the flying guys and let the kraken finish the game. I think I have a good set of counters (and drakes!) so that (almost) nothing will touch the kraken. The medallion is awesome, specially for some late game, fog bank is my lead blocker , rhystic study and archivist will help me draw, kraken's eye will help me specially against burning or direct damage.

The wind is there cause I love it and avatar of will is there cause it's one of my fave pictures and there's a remote chance I play him for 2 Alexi is great too and will get me rid of nasty creatures buggin me.

About the islands, I'm not sure how many to add. Need to play and see how often I'll throw them away for foil.

LMK what you think!

[SomeRandomDude]

So what format are you looking at? This looks like legacy, and I'll give you a hint. Counterbalance + Sensei's Divining Top is THE BEST counterspell engine (hence its banning in extended). It rocks massively. I love the life-gaining artifact cycle, like Kraken's Eye, Angel's Feather, etc. I'd also see if you can play Guile, perhaps. Guile is the way to make a dedicated counterspell deck work. Now you can counter your opponent's stuff and play it yourself for free. If you can turn out Guile fast enough with Sensei/Counterbalance, it effectively locks down your opponent, while you sit back and swing for 6 till they're toast, or if they try to run something through, you get it.

Typically, about 24-25 lands are good for control, but with how heavy you're going on control, you may want 26. I think that 30 is a bit much, you'll get extremely mana flooded. Some people like running mass quantities of lands paired with, say, Oona's Grace, maybe an odd Call the Skybreaker.

But I'd just run 26, add in 4 each of the Sensei's Divining Top and Counterbalance, dropping 4 cards appropriately, and perhaps dropping 4 more cards for a set of Guile.

Possibly also run some Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir. It prevents your opponent from countering your counters, and if you do have creatures, it allows you to EOT them so you can keep mana open for countermagic, while ensuring that your opponent doesn't respond with their own EOT.

[FM]

Ok, first thing, the deck is huge. Even for casual play, I'd strongly advise playing a 60-card deck, goes a long way. With this in mind, I think the deck is neat, a really common fly-over and keep-them-in-check strategy, which I've always been fond of (actually, is what I usually strive at in Limited). Since you don't want to change the deck, I'm not sure what advice you'd be looking for, other than reducing its size. As for stuff that could go, 60-card control decks that play big spells will usually pack 25 lands, 26 at the very most but 25 tends to be fine. Also, since you don't need so many colored mana so often, I'd toy around with some other lands, like Urza's Factory and Faerie Conclave, for starters. You could probably also cut down on the life-gaining artifacts. Life-gaining is not that great in Constructed, usually only if as part of a combo. Life gaining just for the sake of it is not that powerful. For cheap counters (both money-wise or game-wise), I'd take a look at Force Spike (amazing in these kinds of decks), and Mana Leak/Rune Snag. I'll wait for your input to see where I could go from here.
PS: Bonus points for the Spiketail suite, I LOVE those!

[leokula]

Hey Felipe, thanks a lot for the review!

I'm glad u liked the spiketail guys I love them too!

On the lands, ur absolutely right. I thought about it before, but didn't find a cool land to add. U suggested nice ones, i'll think about them. About kraken's eye, i thought that gaining life was always welcome, but since ur saying otherwise, i might as well cut one for something else.

Do you have a Rhystic Study? F***, can't find it! magicdomain, magichouse and bestdeck don't have them! Was trying to find something to help me draw like rhystic study but didn't find anything, neither rare cares... thought about coastal piracy, but rhystic study is a lot crazier! U have any nice enchantment that will get me to draw?

On the counters, i think my 16 are ok, thanks for the tips anyway! mana leak is awesome old school counterspell... used them before but completely in love with foil ATM!

On the size, I promise I'll think about it

Thanks again!

[SomeRandomDude]

Pretty sure Mana Leak got banned.

Seriously, though any heavy control based deck should run the Sensei/Counterbalance combo.

[FM]

He's playing a Casual dekc, Countertop is overkill. He won't be playing against moxen-filled decks anyway, so it wouldn't work all that well. As for card-drawing, I never really liked Rhystic cards, because your opponent can prevent you from using it, or it means you won't be getting cards unless you plan early on. For card drawing, I like Ancestral Vision a lot (should've gotten cheaper now, with its rotation, a bunch of people would be selling their copies to prepare for the new Standard format), though the usual suspects would be Compulsive Research, Thirst for Knowledge and 2 Tidings on the higher end. Aeon Chronicler also comes to mind, unstoppable (mostly) card-drawing and a big body to boot. When you make up your mind on the size, if you choose to reduce it, we can see what can be done from there.
PS; Just remembered. Courier's Capsule might be nice, as well, paired up with Academy Ruins as a land (I played Bottle Gnomes in my deck that had Academy Ruins, it's almost a combo for life-gaining, although Gnomes were on the sideboard only).

[leokula]

I was thinking of removing 4x lands + 1x kraken's eye to add another rhystic study + 4x brainstorm... would speed things up for me and multiple rhystic studies would be insane. What u think?

Reading all the cards u mentioned in ur post!

[FM]

Nice. Think about Isochron Scepter, too. GO ahead, read it.

[leokula]

F*** me... tis awesome indeed!! I'll definitely try to fit him in... I'm thinking of another archivist too, I love him so much. I can probably drop a sapphire medallion... don't know, thinking about it.

Playing LOTR and SW makes me want to draw like crazy! I think my drawing engine will be the 3x rhystic study, 4x brainstorm and 2x archivist. Let me know felipe, u think brainstorm rocks? So far I think it's the best cheap card drawing instant. The advantage to look "three turns ahead" seems just so wicked!

[FM]

Brainstorm is an awesome card. So awesome that it got restricted in Vintage, the most broken format there is. However, Brainstorm is not a draw spell, although commonly mistaken for one. Brainstorm merely replaces itself, since you use up one card to end up with one extra card in hand. However, the fact that you get to look at three is enough to get a lot of combos going. Also, Brainstorm is so amazing because it's the ultimate answer to a turn one Thoughtseize or Duress, since you get to protect your most valuable cards by putting them on top of your library.
I'd pack 4 Brainstorm, sure, but that's not enough for drawing. And as Archivist, I don't like engines built on creatures, they die too easily. I'd rather have, like, Fire//Ice for imprinting on an Isochron Scepter, or even Think Twice.

[leokula]

hmmm.. didn't know about brainstorm being restricted... but just came upon Ponder... that's almost the same, except for being a sorcery, plus u get the chance to shuffle library if you want... probably using that instead.

Will think more about my drawing engine and let you know!

[FM]

Which is also restricted in Vintage, for the same reason. LOL. Anyway, since it's a casual deck, just play 4 Brainstorms, no problem at all.

[SomeRandomDude]

Nice. Think about Isochron Scepter, too. GO ahead, read it.

And then read Orim's Chant.

Sorry. I'm just a sucker for brokenness. If you run a set of Isochron Scepters, methinks you can toss in Orim's Chant anyways without having to shift the manabase. Because then its 2 free mana. Or you could run a set of Tundras or some dual to cope with the added white. Its just a shame seeing Isochron Scepter being used without Chant.

[FM]

He plays casual. Scepter-chant is, in no way, a fun deck for casual play, not to mention Orim's Chant costs a lot, hard to get. I won't even mention Tundras...

[SomeRandomDude]

What's funner than runner over a casual deck with Scepter/Chant and Counterbalance/Sensei?

Meh. At least pack Guile.