sorry for the late reply, just be cautious against aggro, jeskai, abzan and dragons especially, Dragonlord Atarka and Dragonlord Dromoka

play aggressively but try not go all in without counter spells and mana to cast them

Took this deck to game day and went undefeated. Thanks for posting this list. I tried about ten different versions of the deck before just deciding to stay with the original list. I actually got scoffed at a few times when I told people I was playing Mono-blue aggro. They thought I was joking.

The trick to playing this deck is to find the right tempo for it. Playtest a lot. Not a lot of other decks I know of play quite like this one. More often then not I was holding back a lot of pressure just to keep the control up. Patience is everything with this deck.

In case you were interested, this is the closest I could come to something else.

Izzet's Thopters Playtest

Standard* Silight

SCORE: 0 | 0 COMMENTS | 1 VIEWS

Hey Silight, could you go more in depth on how to play the deck, and it's pace? I love this deck, but I went 2-2 at FNM last night, and 1-3 today at game day. If you and the creator can go 4-0 at FNM/Game Day, I REALLY want to know how you guys do it. I would really appreciate it, and I'd hope others reading this would appreciate it too.

Placed 10th on game day. So close to top 8 out of what I believe was 40 some odd people. I believe if I would have play tested a little more I would have placed a little higher.

Game 1 (lose 2-1) to a guy who was playing Dark Jeskai, he ended up placing 4th. I could have won but I didn't do the deck justice.

Game 2 (win 2-0) vs some blue/green "Assualt Formation/Defender Walls" deck. EZ PZ

Game 3 (win 2-0) vs some ally deck, this match was a little harder game 1 because of some lifelink but I was able to grind it out and lay the war horn for the win. Sideboarded game 2 and took game to pretty easily.

Game 4 (win 2-0) vs Azban Aristocrats it seemed pretty easy both games.

Game 5 (lose 2-0) vs Atarka Burn, got some pretty bad draws game 1, and game 2 got rekd. GG

Overall this deck is the beez knees. I should have won the 1st match and the 5th match I just got some bad draws. shits pretty solid.

The only difference was that I was running 4 mirror mockery and 4 scatter the winds, -1 gudul lurker and -1 stratus dancer

Hey pacman, I picked up your build and played a few games online. And I gotta admit: It's a really nice deck :).

But, as always, there are a few things I feel can be enhanced.

For instance the Negate is a bit expensive in the early game. I'd rather use Stubborn Denial which is essentially a Negate in the first turns. And afterwards it will still be a problem for your opponent. And if you're lucky to have a Shorecrasher Elemental out, it is a Negate for the same cost.

Horribly Awry could be a spell to consider, depending on which matchup to play against. I'm not sure about that, though. Maybe I'd rather play Clutch of Currents or Rush of Ice instead.

As a few people have already mentioned: Silumgar Sorcerer could be a nice addition as well. Any flash creatures are good on their own, only for having this ability (they will bypass every sorcery speed removal at least for a turn and let you hold up other counter spells, which seems to fit perfectly in this deck). Being a flyer with a 2 in front seems to be a nice addition. Being a counter spell on a stick as well. I don't see any way to not play this guy other than simply having no space to squeeze him in. And I think he's worth it to squeeze in ;).

Keep on creating such nice decks. Really appreciate it =D

Hey, what do you think of my white splash approach? You would obviously add fetches if you have the money for them.
UW Aggro

I went winless with this deck at FNM & GameDay. landfall ran a muck on this deck. Scythe Leopard and Makindi Sliderunner totally ran through it.

well done silight, I placed top 8 at two different stores for the two gamesdays, one thing I gotta admit is silight is right tempo with the deck is everything, you laying early threats with War Horn and countering out your opponents threats is the general strategy, and silight I get questioned about playing the mono blue all the time until the game is over and they question everything about magic :) nah thanks forth feedback man and well done, to the Silumgar Sorcerer issue, it's space and curve issues that stop me running the card, grumpy12315 I wouldn't mainboard 4 Mirror Mockery it can be a dead draw in excess, you win with spamming creatures mainly, so cutting creatures is bad

did you not out aggro the landfall decks? did the Reality Shift not give give you time to get Shorecrasher Elemental and Whirler Rogue out to beatdown and block?

When should I keep mana up for countering spells vs using it to play creatures and attempt to flood the board? Part of me wants to flood, but I also fear removal and want to keep mana up to stop said removal.

Love the deck man, I just can't seem to fucking pilot it correctly.

but well done grumpy12315, thanks for trying the deck

Thanks for sharing this deck. I'm building it and will play it at FNM!

+1

thanks and it's a pleasure

Huzzah. Nice deck, thanks for sharing!

pleasure:) thanks for supporting

Mirror Mockery is a fun card. Took me two weeks to get a third though for my spell return ETB creatures. Harbinger and Shorecrasher are both hard to get a hold of. So don't know if trying this is even possible. I would probably add Taigams Strike somewhere. Works very well on Mockery creatures with a free rebound follow up.

I had a huge issue getting my own set of Shorecrasher Elemental, less so Harbinger of the Tides, Silumgar Sorcerer, Eldrazi Skyspawner and Hangarback Walker if they are easier to get could work as replacements, the only issue with Taigams Strike is its slightly out of the curve so risky to play

Rebound is worth it I think. You can replace the thopter spawner or shoecrasher. It doesn't suffer from summoning sickness, so you could use it to really bring that momentum up. I think the unblockabke part is key here. Especially with Mockery. No deathtouch blockers to kill your beefed up faerie.

Alright, Gfdbobthe3, I'll try. There is no substitute for play testing the deck though. Untap.in is a great site for playtesting.

First, know your meta. This is advice for any deck, but more for this one then most. I switched out Horribly Awry with Negate in my main board because I thought I was going into a creature heavy meta, which means that removal is a bit rarer in decks so I wouldn't mind so much trading a creature for a removal 1v1. Removal is more rare then creatures in my meta, so it is a little more valuable.

Actual game play, make sure you don't rush the deck. While the deck is aggro, don't go nuts. This deck wins quite a few games just by having a more consistent mana base then the most common other decks. Pay attention to their land and play around it. You have inevitability on your side with unblockable creatures, even if it takes you ten turns to win. More often then not, you are going to be doing just enough to win, no more. This is not a deck for Timmys.

Pacman97edition breaks the deck down really well. Shorecrasher Elemental is in here over a card like Eldrazi Skyspawner because the flicker ability gives you a ton of options. We like options. Keep your options open.

thanks silight for helping out more, you seem to understand the deck very well, meta analysis is very important, I have a very control midrange based meta with loads of walkers and boardwipes so Negate is my mainboard and my sideboard is mostly for the artarka red and warrior decks, if my meta was more creature based I'd mainboard Horribly Awry, as silight said earlier tempo is everything you'll always be able to deal just enough damage, controlling the pace of the game right generally will win you most games, playtesting will make you a master at that, thanks for the help dissecting the deck silight

Mizzium Meddler would be a nice Sideboard I think. You can protect your Enchanted or Face-Down Creatures, or steal buffs from opponent's own creatures. A versatile card that keeps momentum up on your side.

I really enjoyed playing this deck, especially the fact that I could put together a deck that would win at least a round competitively for under $20 (I had a bunch of the cards already) and well under the current Standard cost of $500-$900 a deck. I didn't get a chance to play test so I was going in cold.

That said, I went 2-2 at Game Day in a field of about 24 people, and I really may have gone 1-3 except my son and I were matched up against each other and he conceded to me since he had no points yet and I would have a better chance at winning something that way. Note that our usual haunt for events is, for better or for worse, extremely competitive, with many people who play competitively.

In the first round I won 2-1 over a green/white deck of some sort that wasn't that great. My opponent made top 8 the previous day at a smaller shop (hmm, maybe I'll go there for the next game day!).

In another round I played a 5 color Bring to Light deck. All three games were very close and I lost 1-2. I don't think there was anything I could have done better in that round, except perhaps take an additional mulligan when one of my hands looked like it would have a slow start. I lost after my negate on her languish was negated and I was tapped out.

I also played an Abzan deck that took me out 2-0.

I found that [Mirror Mockery] was an interesting card. It was a ton of fun to put it on [Whirler Rogue] during one game and ended up with 8 Thopters (yay!). In another game I put it on the opponent's Siege Rhino and stopped it from attacking, but unfortunately I didn't have anything that could bust through on the board because the next card was a Mantis Rider and I had no Lurkers... better removal would be nice but I still like [Mirror Mockery] better than [Clutch of Currents] (two card removal because you need to counter when it gets cast again) or [Rush of Ice] (one-turn removal).

I could probably get better at playing this deck as I usually play mono red aggro in standard events and I really had to hold back to keep mana for countering.

Someone earlier called this deck blue aggro but I would call it midrange rather than aggro due to all the counter spells.

nice, depending on match ups and draws it can be aggro with turn 5 wins but most games drag slightly longer, Mirror Mockery is really that such a niche but effective card working defensive and aggressively, thanks for using the deck, Mizzium Meddler, might be fun to tease a control opponent with, I might try it in sideboard and take out the Shorecrasher Elemental just against the control players who infinite obliterate it with mana to Dispel my Negate