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CardDraw (2)
Clues (10)
Counters (7)
Land (24)
Removal (9)
Thopters (7)
WinCon (1)
Sideboard
Maybeboard
Other (15)
Tamiyo's Journal | Art by Chase Stone
This started from a copied deck that has since changed to where it's no longer a copy of said deck as it stands now. I give credit to user xavrr for inspiring my variant of his older version of ? 8- & Co. ?. I'm glad I was able to save it as it was in case he tweaked it because he did make major changes and basically overhauled it and completely changed it's theme. I also wanted to tweak his version a little but not that drastic to disclude the main theme for the most part this is basically a 1:1 copy of his deck, the older version. Also credit for thesquidlabs for his alter featured card art I use.
If you got suggestions please comment which cards I should replace, and if you like the deck's flavor and thematics feel free to +1 Upvote
I liked the idea of a deck based around Investigate and Clues.
Any deck based around heavy Artifacts should want to run Whirler Rogue.
Also Hangarback Walker is a amazing Artifact Creature that should be featured in any said deck.
And since 1/1 Thopter became a part we should include Thopter Spy Network .
The Spy Network and the Clues are ensuring we have plenty of draws while you slowly build up a army.
Thopter Spy Network and Tamiyo's Journal ensure we're getting free artifacts -- two Artifacts a turn for Whirler Rogue to tap and make a built up Hangarback or anything else unblockable.
Sneaking in damage when we can is what it's all about.
Mix in some powerful blue counter spells and white board wipe with other strong disruption/removal through Reflector Mage and you got the makings of a strong Azorious Deck.
This deck is fairly self-explanatory!
Hangarback Walker | Art by Daarken
When you see a power card -- You play the power card. And this is one of the most powerful and most played cards in all of Standard right now.
This deck features it and lifts it up to new heights though.
It's a threat, it's value doesn't end, and it has a lot of crazy good synergies in this deck.
The rest of the deck is almost designed perfectly around it as a win con.
For starters, Whirler Rogue needs you to tap 2 Artifacts. He's one artifact but if he dies he floods the field with multiple artifacts. When it dies for every counter on it you get one!
If you control a Thopter Spy Network it'll abuse these tokens to draw you a lot of cards should they fly through for damage unblocked. By itself the Thopter Network puts 1 in each turn.
Even better than Thopter Spy Network's first ability though is the Hangarback Walker which gives us another engine to flood the field with flying 1/1 Thopters. There is no quicker way than Hangarback Walker to flood the field with Artifacts.
Anytime a creature replaces itself with more creatures when it leaves is good. The fact you can use every 2 of those creatures to work exactly with Whirler Rogue and make creature(s) unblockable is just what the deck wants to do.
As a early creature to attack/block with, you can stall the board somewhat and play defense or be proactive and attack in on the right turns where you can sneak in damage.
But you honestly should try to utilize his ability to tap and put more counters on himself if you don't need him that turn. Pump it up for every turn and wait for the Planar Outburst explosion of 1/1 Thopters when it dies.
It's scales into the late game so he can be played with effectiveness at any point.
Once you've built it up all you gotta do is put the pressure on them and attack in. Either they block it or they don't. (just watch out for Exile removal). If they block and kill him off don't worry he'll replace himself with all those Artifact thopter tokens that Whirler Rogue can then use or that can attack in next turn themselves. If they don't block your dealing tons of damage with Hangarback and if you want to make sure they cannot block him just use Whirler Rogue tapping Tamiyo's Journal and another Artifact like a Clue to make it unblockable.
It's almost better that you swarm the field with enough flyers so you're drawing a bunch of cards thanks to Thopter Spy Network when each one connects and is pinging them to death 1 damage at a time.
Clues
Aside from all the Thopters and the power three cards (Whirler Rogue, Thopter Spy Network , and Hangarback Walker) that represent the "Blue" in the the Blue's Clues title, the other major focus of this deck is on Investigate.
The new keyword ability/mechanic gives us more Artifact tokens called "Clues" hence the name for the deck -- Blue's Clues.
Most decks don't focus around this but they might run a few cards that Investigate here or there. I wanted to break the mechanic. To do this we just got to sit down in our Thinking Chair and think...think...think!(okay sorry enough with the Blue's Clues references)
This is the focus card of the deck.
Our "Handy Dandy Notebook" tutors up anything and gives us free Clues every turn.
Investigate every turn it's in play fuels one of the main themes and resources of the deck.
Artifacts and specifically Clues.
Then you can spend mana and sac Clues for card advantage and draws when you don't got nothing else to play and don't wanna save untapped mana for counter spells.
You can also choose to save them for later and gather three up to tutor anything at instant speed.
Trail of Evidence | Art by Daniel Ljunggren
When you run this along with a bunch of blue counter spells it will give us a lot of free Clues to use with other cards later on.
We also got Erdwal Illuminator who doubles our first Investigation of the turn giving 2 instead of 1.
Go into their turn with none and come back on your turn with 2 is pretty nice.
Thraben Inspector | Art by Matt Stewart
The best one drop in Standard is actually a very underrated card right now and it is an absolute all star in a deck like this.
Thraben Inspector
or as I like to call him Inspector Gadget gives us a great start to our deck. One of the better curves from our deck involves playing Inspector Gadget, popping the Clue on turn 2 for a draw, and then surging ahead the rest of the way. Depending on what card you drew (Reflector Mage is perfect) you could really have a explosive first three turns.
Getting the Artifact/token theme going early setting up later cards to come. What more could you ask for?
Plus it doesn't really lose value later in a match either, as long as it ETB's you Investigate which is always useful and it's so cheap that you can still play other cards. If you draw this late or early it has value. More value early but still pretty good later on.
It's greater yet when you can flicker it with Eerie Interlude triggering it's ETB effect multiple times, while also flickering Reflector Mages to clear their board.
Declaration in Stone | Art by Tyler Jacobson
We just got a letter
We just got a letter
We just got a letter
Wonder who it's from!
Oh, it's from Nahiri...
Whats it say?
(The flavor overload here is too much. Between the flavor text on this card and the card art matching on Declaration in Stone + Tamiyo's Journal - see the full image at top of description.)
At first glance the card looks like another removal, one the best removal spells in standard actually, but there's more to it in this deck.
You can even use it to your advantage and tag your own creature(s) with the Declaration in order to get some card draws or to tutor up anything. It can be sneaky valuable at times similarly to how Path to Exile was for this same type of self effect.
Declaration in Stone is overlooked for it can be deceptively used to gain you Clues should you hold no other way to do so in your hand.
You being the target player can exile a non-token Reflector Mage or Thraben Inspector or any other creature that's already done it's job and gain clue(s) when you have no other way to do so that turn.
It sucks we can target a 1/1 Thopter and do this but it's an option we have in a pinch nonetheless.
Maybe you need just one more Clue for Tamiyo's Journal to tutor.
Don't have, but need, 3 to give up to Tamiyo's Journal. Combined with Erdwal Illuminator you can exile just one creature and gain 2 clues towards the 3 you need. Losing one creature isn't so bad especially when they've already done their duty when they ETB'd.
As a target removal spell it's very powerful vs token themed decks, taking with it all that share a name, I really like how this deck shapes up vs Silverfur Partisan + Zada, Hedron Grinder decks that are pretty popular right now (I even have a couple variants of them) because it absolutely destroys those 2/2 Wolf tokens or the multiple Silverfur Partisans that deck needs to be successful.
If it's a load of tokens your facing, for 2 mana they are all exiled and your opponent doesn't even get to investigate!
But if it is non-token, it's still pretty powerful in that it Exiles and you most likely won't mind replacing their powerful creature with a clue. Having only a medium drawback in giving your opponents Clues is certainly relevant, but if they are under pressure, it is incredibly unlikely that they will have time or mana to pay to draw a card before deploying the rest of their hand.
When it's all said and done this is amazing Removal.
Others Show
We've already gone over some of the cards like Declaration in Stone but here's the other main players for removal/disruption.
Reflector Mage
He's just a great curve on T3. Likely bouncing their only creature freeing your Inspector Gadget up to sneak in damage. They cannot play that same card again for a turn.
This is also even greater if you can flicker it via Eerie Interlude/Essence Flux.
Negate, Clash of Wills , Void Shatter :
Counters. The Clash of Wills is amazing if your opponent taps out all their mana to cast whatever it is they are trying to cast. Negate is strong counter to their removal spells or planeswalkers and can be used to effectively counter their counter as would be a Dispel. All good vs other Control matchups.
Tutoring up a Dragonlord Ojutai via Tamiyo's Journal is a pretty powerful play because it puts them on a short clock, 4 turns or less, and is hard to get rid of or deal with. It'll enter untapped and unless they counter it (which we can just counter their counter) we should then have no worries once it's in play. Always Watching gives it Vigilance which in turn gives it permanent Hexproof once it's in play.
In all seriousness it usually ends it in a hurry.
Anticipate on a stick could be helpful too.
Also the danger with the main win con being a army of 1/1 Thopters is an opposing Declaration in Stone or Virulent Plague or other problematic spell that completely destroys our whole board.
Of course we can just counter them spells hopefully should we be vigilant and patient in holding onto our coveted counter spells that is.
Running the Always Watching + Dragonlord Ojutai ensures we have at least another way to win against said decks.
If you do this deck would practically sell itself; you get to play some of the strongest cards. Creatures like Dragonlord Ojutai the best 1-drop Thraben Inspector, the best removal spell Declaration in Stone, and more powerful cards that have been Standard staples in Hangarback Walker and Reflector Mage among others.
Crush of Tentacles - Like Planar Outburst this is also good against token strategies and never can have enough boardwipes. Surge it off a X=0 Hangarback Walker for an 8/8 Octopus as well and then make that unblockable.
Learn from the Past - Strong against Delirium/Graveyard themed Shenanigans and against the Mill (Tutelage) decks that are starting to pop up here and there.
Now it's time for so long
But we'll sing just one more song
Thanks for doing your part
You sure are smart!
You know, with me and you
And our friend Blue ()
We can do anything that we wanna do!
If you want another variant of this theme/idea check out
Blue's Clues (SOI STANDARD)
Standard*
SCORE: 75 | 45 COMMENTS | 23549 VIEWS | IN 34 FOLDERS
I knew inevitably someone would break Briarbridge Patrol and get out a really early Ulamog. Heck I saw that card and had the immediate same idea just never finished and published that deck I'm still working on it.
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| Date added | 8 years |
| Last updated | 8 years |
| Key combos | |
| Legality | This deck is not Standard legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 1 - 2 Mythic Rares 23 - 5 Rares 13 - 2 Uncommons 6 - 6 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.72 |
| Tokens | Clue, Octopus 8/8 U, Thopter 1/1 C |
| Folders | Followed |
| Votes | |
| Ignored suggestions | |
| Shared with | |
| Based on |
xavrr
STD
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