Instant (16)
Land (20)
Enchantment (8)
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Hello there! Welcome to the wonderful joy of Blue Foretold, a new variant on the classic Blue Moon control deck, highlighting a unique and powerful "janky EDH" blue mythic from Amonkhet, As Foretold!
As Foretold is quite a card to talk about, so instead of having a huge section on it in the deck breakdown, let's talk about it for a bit here:
As Foretold allows you to cast cards without a converted mana cost like Ancestral Vision, Restore Balance, Hypergenesis, Lotus Bloom and Living End, when As Foretold has 0 counters on it, without suspending them.
As Foretold reads "X or less", not must be "X". So, if you have one on the battlefield with 5 time counters on it, you can still use it to cast a Remand for 0.
- As Foretold also reads Once each turn meaning that there is a restriction of once per turn, on your turn AND on your opponents turn. So, on your turn, cast an Ancestral Vision or Chandra, Torch of Defiance once it gets to that point, and on your opponents turn cast your Negate, Remand, Cryptic Command or Izzet Charm!
- As Foretold doesnt care where you are casting the card from, simply that you are casting it. If you use Jace, Telepath Unbound s -3 ability to Yawg Will an instant or sorcery in your graveyard, you can use As Foretold to play it for free, assuming you have enough time counters. This also interacts well with Chandra, Torch of Defiances +1 ability to exile cards.
I've been playing this deck for a little over a month now and I am yet to not cash out at the end of an event. The deck has a lot of interesting and strange interactions you don't often see in Modern and has my opponents confused, and in my opinion, if your opponent doesn't know what you're doing, you already have an advantage.
There's a lot to talk about, so I'm going to break it up by the important... "packages", I'll call them. In each of these packages Im going to discuss all the cards that fall into the category within the deck and some options that are available.
As Foretold: WHAT? The card the package is named for is important to the package? MAH GAWD. Yeah, this is a very important piece of the deck and you are definitely hurting a bit if you dont have one, but thankfully this deck isnt dead in the water without one, as you are built as a fairly resilient UR Control deck.
Ancestral Vision: Draw three cards. Three of the best words printed on a magic card. Getting to cast it for free? Costs 3 mana upfront. Your opponents face when you cast it again with Jace, Telepath Unbound from the graveyard? Priceless.
Restore Balance: Sometimes a one-sided Armageddon (with Greater Gargadon explained in the WIN CONS section), sometimes a simple Wrath of God (yeah, you don't have any real creatures in this deck), sometimes a Wit's End (sometimes you do run out of cards.), but always free (because As Foretold is awesome). This card is pretty powerful and one of the reasons the As Foretold package is powerful enough to be in the deck.
Tolaria West: Yes, a land is, in fact, a part of this package. Tolaria West is a land that enters tapped and only taps for blue, which sucks, BUT! it can be used to Transmute for Restore Balance or Ancestral Vision (Also Tormod's Crypt post board). This small interaction is worth running a few of the card, as it lets us tutor for a god damn BOARD WIPE. That's just super powerful, and I am willing to accept the games where I have to play it turn 1 and be sad. That's why there is a one of Deprive in this list as I test bouncing that turn 1 Tolaria West to counter a spell and then later Transmute for something better. Like an Ancestral Recall.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance: So, red Jace, the Mind Sculptor this is not, but straight value it is. It is a clock, it is acceleration, it is removal and once it ults, the game will be over once you cast, 2-3 spells.
Greater Gargadon: This card is honestly only in the deck because of the interaction with Restore Balance. With a Gargadon suspended, you cast your Restore Balance using your As Foretold. You then have to declare that you are holding priority, tap all your lands to float mana, and sacrifice them ALL to Greater Gargadon's second ability, removing all those pesky time counters. Make sure to leave at least one time counter on it if your opponent has mana available so that they don't simply float mana as well and use a Path to Exile or Terminate to kill your beast. Once the Restore Balance begins to resolve, it will see that you have no lands and force your opponent to sacrifice all of theirs. Not many decks can come back from a damaging effect like that, especially when it is followed up by a 9/7 haste creature the following turn.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy : This card is one of the sweetest cards in the deck. The interactions this card brings to the table push the deck into weird territory. (He's also a Path to Exile target against UW control decks, and they get punished by Blood Moon real fast if they do that.) Aside from the great value that the loot ability provides, the flip side of card:Jace, Vryn Prodigy is very powerful, especially in this deck. The -3 ability is specifically worded so that you can cast Ancestral Vision from your graveyard if you have an As Foretold on the battlefield. This gives you a lot of late game power, to just draw all the cards and grind your opponent out with pure, unfiltered value.
Batterskull: This is always an option as well. Being colorless, Batterskull is very easy to cast and can protect itself by bouncing to your hand. The card is just good and slamming one in the mainboard is pretty reasonable.
- Cryptic Command: Good card. Play a couple. 2-4 depending how deep you want to go.
- Izzet Charm: I have an unhealthy relationship with this card, in that, I will always try to play it in any UR deck I play. Always. Drafting? Grab an Izzet Charm from my binder and play it. Standard? Screw the fact RTR rotated years ago. This card is my favorite card. While not an amazing counterspell, Spell Pierce for two mana still pierces some spells. I have always liked having one in the deck, a bit of a fun-of, but as soon as you put the second one in, its too much.
- Spell Snare: Tarmogoyf, Snapcaster Mage, Temur Battle Rage, Mana Leak, Countersquall, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Baral, Chief of Compliance, Goblin Electromancer, Destructive Revelry, Disenchant, Celestial Purge, Negate. Know what all these have in common? Yeah, they are CMC 2 which means they lose to Spell Snare. They pay 2, you pay 1. Awesome trade.
- Remand: I love this card in Blood Moon decks. When your opponent is already hosed on mana, Remand stays relevant in the later stages of the game, forcing your opponent into playing only one or two spells a turn.
- Dispel: Ive toyed with running one or two of these in the main board. As a counterspell, it hits most removal for our Blood Moon and As Foretolds as well as just incidentally picking off opposing counter magic. If you have room, one of these is reasonable.
- Deprive: I love this card because it lets me get value from Tolaria Wests that I played early in the game later on. A hard counter at 2-CMC, sometimes it is worth losing the tempo against certain decks, to answer a threat.
- Mana Leak: A two mana soft counter is not necessarily an amazing counter spell in a deck that plans to go into the long game, however, in the first few turns this is effectively a hard counter and should be used first.
- Negate: As with Dispel, I have tinkered around with playing this mainboard to respond to my local meta of Tron. Being able to deal with noncreature spells is important in Modern right now.
- Logic Knot: Unlike Grixis which relies on the graveyard with Tasigur, Gurmag and other delve cards, you get to consider Logic Knot as an actual answer. It is a situational card for sure and is sometimes terrible, but it is sometimes worth it as it can be better than Mana Leak. The double blue is a negative so bear that in mind, and dont forget to save some spells for Jace, Telepath Unbound .
Counters deal with stuff before it happens, Win Cons close out the game. But we do need a way to deal with stuff that has already resolved, before our Blood Moon + counter magic shuts them down.
I mean, it isn't much of a package as it is giving me a slot to put the Blood Moon and the lands in the breakdown. Because of Blood Moon, you'll notice that I'm running only 3 red sources. With the ease of access to the Steam Vents using all 8 fetches, and the 1-of Mountain using the 4 tarns, you don't actually gasp for the red that much and it is enough. Blood Moon turns all your fetches into card:Mountains as the game goes on anyways, and you only need 1 red to operate comfortably.
Blood Moon: People don't respect the moon.
Island: Still the best basic. You probably want between 5 and 8. Im on 6 comfortably.
Scalding Tarn: Blue fetch that can sometimes fetch a mountain. 10/10 would fetch again.
Polluted Delta: Any blue fetch would do, honestly. If you want to try adding another color, make sure it is a blue fetch + other color. Blue is the most important color. Blue Moon. Blue.
Steam Vents: Blue source AND a red source! The value! You can run a few of these, probably 2-3 is the sweet spot.
Mountain: Having a red source you can fetch without shocking yourself is sometimes relevant. I've had to do it enough to know not to cut it. I recommend running at least one.
Ignorant Bliss: Read this card. Read it again. Read it a third time. Its so bad. But when you cast a Restore Balance, hold priority cast this Then you get to make your opponent discard their entire hand. Thats the dream at least. Ive done it twice in sanctioned Magic. It felt great.
Engulf the Shore: This card seems like it would only ever fit in a Blue Moon style deck and I want to try it every now and then. It isnt terrible but it isnt ever AMAZING.
Wheel of Fate: I just want this card to be in a deck. I want to draw seven cards and have it be worth it.
Feel free to comment any questions/suggestions/insults/observations you may have regarding "The Great Pile of Blue and Red Cards"!
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Revision 4 See all
(7 years ago)
| -1 | Batterskull | side |
| +1 | Dispel | side |
| -2 | Dragon's Claw | side |
| +3 | Leyline of Sanctity | side |
| -1 | Swan Song | side |
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 7 years |
| Last updated | 7 years |
| Exclude colors | W |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 8 - 1 Mythic Rares 24 - 8 Rares 9 - 3 Uncommons 12 - 3 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.59 |
| Tokens | Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Manifest 2/2 C |
| Folders | Unique Decklists, Decks, Decks I Like, Interested, Excellent, modern competitive ideas, control opponent, modern |
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