Testing has been completed. This is Blue/White Control Tron.
What is different about my version of of the standard W/U tron deck? Simple this is not a Gifts Ungiven deck. I found that the combo variant of this deck is not to my playstyle. I am just not a big fan of Gifts Ungiven as i am not a fan of clockwork style decks. Decks that just go through the motions without changing it up much. So I took the Mono Blue tron Deck list. Which is a pure control deck. and then merged it with the hate cards that white can provide and i have created this control deck.
First the mana base.
I kept it as simple as possible for the sake of consistency but also protection. I am running six Basic lands in order to protect me from BloodMoon and Ghost Quarter. Tron decks hate these cards and having two colours can really ruin everything if one of those cards hit. Sure we are trying to play a game where they don't but this is just a safety net. I am only running two Flooded Strand as the manabase is already really tight and with the draw power we have i don't see a need for more than that. Course i willing to test more but so far this is what i am happy with.Academy Ruins is here mostly for the Mindslaver win condition. Although it can be helpful bringing back Wurmcoil Engine every turn should i need it. Celestial Colonnade is not run in the deck as i think it makes the deck inconsistent. The land enters in tapped and requires more mana than it's worth to dedicate to it. We need our coloured mana to cast our counterspells and interact with the opponent. Colonnade takes away from that. I do not thing it is helpful in this strategy.
Main board - Interactions
Gitaxian Probe - Lets me look at my opponents hand turn 1 so i know if i want to play my blue source first or my white. Also the cantrip is very nice.
Mana Leak - I would prefer to run another counterspell in it's place. But with it only have one blue symbol on the card it makes life so much easier. This tends to get sided out against decks that also generate a lot of mana.
Path to Exile - Main reason why i play white. It's an amazingly powerful card and will win games. And 1 mana is perfect.
All Is Dust - The only maindeck sweeper that i run. I have found that i never really need more than one but with affinity being very popular in my local meta it can be pretty useless. Hence why i only run one.
Spell Pierce - Just a very strong counter spell in modern. I run only two main as most stratergies in my meta are creature heavy but i still run them to deal with other counter spells. i run an extra in the side for the control match up and horrible combo match ups.
Remand
- the most staple modern counterspell. And the draw card is needed.
The tool box
Treasure Mage
- This deck takes a lot of inspiration from Mono Blue Tron. As a result i couldn't not run this card. It searches our win cons and unless they unban Dig Through Time (side note they wont) this will be the best substitute until then.
Expedition Map - We are a land focused deck. We need three different non basics for the mana to flow and we need Academy Ruins to use one of our win conditions. I run four as i want to see every single one in a game.
Serum Visions/Gitaxian Probe - Standard draw spells. We need to dig for what we want so these are perfect.
Sphinx's Revelation
- feels like Ravnica standard again. But this card is the biggest boost to drawing cards. and the life game can be a god send. I am experimenting with running more than one. But for now this is acceptable.
The Win Conditions
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - Normally Karn Liberated would be the walker of choice in a tron strategy. But with Karn he is only any good when he is played fast. Yeah he could come down turn seven and destroy my opponents hand/board. But it just seems a bit slow for that. I will test him again in future. But Ugin, the Spirit Dragon has an immediate effect. Clears pretty much everything ran in modern with only a minus 3/4 and will just burn my opponent every turn after. I think in this deck he is better than Karn Liberated but if i wanted a more tempo game strategy karn could be played along side ugin.
Sundering Titan - This card ends games. Vs mono coloured strategies like murfolk this will just end the game on the spot. Yeah you will likly destroy some of your own lands but that will not matter cause at this point you only want you lands without Basic types on them anyway. And if they play more colours they will hesitate dealing with it as you will just blow up the other half of their mana base. Note this guy gets sided out a lot for me just cause it's kinda useless vs affinity. and out of the 8 modern players in play with regularly. 3 of them run robots.
Wurmcoil Engine - a deathtouch lifelink beater. He will stable out any rough midgame you might of had. Only run two because with running
Treasure Mage
it's like running 6 in the main deck. But i have an extra in the side board for match ups that would need it.
mind slaver
- This plus Academy Ruins and twelve mana is a guaranteed win if you pull it off. If you don't know the combo. Play Mindslaver (six mana) activate it's effect and sac (Four mana so ten total) Then use Academy Ruins to put it on the top of your deck]] Then you pass. When you control your opponent tap all their lands and end their turn. You Do this until they are milled out. They cannot out to it because all their land is tapped and if you must you can cast any 0 mana spells they may have just to be safe. And you wont mill out because you keep putting Mindslaver on top. this trick can be pulled off with as low as 7 lands (two towers. plus 3 others and island and ruins) But this is a slow deck. And that is the point. You win in time. And that is important to know.
Sideboard
Cyclonic Rift - It was in the maindeck for a while but it's been put into the side for now. If i can figure out what to cut it will certainly go back in.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite - A win card vs any aggro focused strategy. Kills of anything from Zoo to affinity and is very difficult to deal with.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
/
Eye of Ugin
/Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - these cards come under that strategy of a pseudo transformation sideboard. If i know my opponent will side in a lot of artifact hate to stop my Mindslavers or Wurmcoil Engines I can swap them out and the Academy Ruins to play these guys instead. It is more for the surprise factor as they wouldn't expect it. I put in Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre too because casting him for 9 mana vs the 13 needed for emrakul (assuming i have eye of ugin in play) just helps a lot. I could run Kozilek, Butcher of Truth for an even cheaper casting cost. But i like the indestructible of Ulamog so it requires less protection.
Ghostly Prison - It's not a common card to see sided in but it will catch aggro players off guard as they will not suspect it. And it's unlikely to see Abrupt Decay as this would likely be the only target for it and they don't know we have it as it isn't in the main board.
Kataki, War's Wage - A robots hate card. A must run pretty much.
Spell Pierce - Just an extra vs any heavy control or combo match up for example twin.
Supreme Verdict - Again an anti aggro card. although i can see it getting cut in the future.
Wurmcoil Engine Just an extra in case i need it or for match ups where sundering titan is useless. example robots.
Maybeboard
Batterskull - Seems like a good idea. A constant threat that can protect itself. Something i wanna try.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
- I have no idea how good this would be in modern. But i do think it's worth at least a stab. Plus ATM it's way cheaper than Snapcaster Mage
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur - it's one of those cards they will never see coming. And i think it has some potential. But still, testing is needed.
Kor Firewalker - There are pretty much zero mono red players in my local meta. But i keep these guys handy if they ever come back.
Narset Trancendent - it seems like such a good card. it's just hard to make space for it. I keep testing it. It's just really rough at the moment.
Snapcaster Mage - it's expensive. I don't own any. And i really don't want to buy them. if i can get them through other means i will. But not at their current price.
Thank you for reading this. Hope you like the deck and leave any feedback you may have.
