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I Call it Standstill

Modern* Control Mono-Blue

Roboblade604


Sideboard


Angry at that zoo deck that you can never out-speed? Jealous of that Burn deck? Want to play actual control without selling your first born? Then have I got a deck for you!

Affectionately known to some as "muck" or "draw-go" (since all you will be doing is drawing and passing the turn), MUC (Mono Blue Control) is a popular deck in the legacy format, running cards such as Force of Will, Daze, Counterspell and Mana Drain and other such cards that are cheap and do what we Blue mages love: Countering.

The main goal of the deck is to counter the opponent and keep them from doing anything that we don't want them to do while we get card advantage and dig to our win cons. And when I say anything, I mean ANYTHING (except drawing and playing lands, of course. Blue hasn't advanced that far yet.)

Main Counterspells

Our counters of choice early game will be Rune Snag and Mana Leak, since both effectively counter any spell that doesn't cost 1-2 mana. The reason why we run both is that Mana Leak is good early game and Rune Snag is better for the later turns, which this deck loves to run into. Rune Snag also LOVES Kaho, Minamo Historian, but we'll get to that later.

We also run Spell Pierce, a recent addition on account of the budget. A turn one counter is always a good thing. For us. Its also a good turn one play for when we don't start with Delver of Secrets.

Our hard counters are Dissolve and Deprive. We don't run Cancel because it has the same cmc as Dissolve without an added benefit. Dissolve gives us some much needed digging. Deprive is for the later turns when they have mana to combat Rune Snag and Mana Leak.

Logic Knot is in as a 2 of because its another Counterspell. We'll be putting enough cards in our graveyard for this to be a thing. Treasure Cruise would also be amazing in this deck if it wasn't banned.

Lands

We need to be ready to counter spells at a moment's notice, and since we're in blue and only blue, Islands are good enough. Faerie Conclave is needed to ping the opponent while they don't have creatures because they're all in the grave (muahahahaha). The conclave can also be an instant speed chump blocker or kill spell, depending on the situation.

Card Advantage

Our draw spell of choice is Think Twice because we can recast it if our hand is dead. Our dig spell of choice is Anticipate. It digs through three and 66% of the time we get a counter spell and two Islands off of it, and we don't need the Islands late game, after were already set. Dictate of Kruphix lets us get an extra card every turn and can be flashed into play with the same mana needed for a counter spell.

Creatures

Delver of Secrets is our main beater. It is often a 3/2 flier that deals the most damage out of all of our creatures. It gets flipped easily since most of our deck is counterspells.

Pearl Lake Ancient is a "finisher." He isn't needed but can often be a 6/7 out of no where since it has flash. He is only a finisher since he has the highest damage output per swing.

Our final creature, Kaho, Minamo Historian, is a toolbox. She comes in turn four and gives us turn-ly access to one each of Boomerang, Anticipate, and Rune Snag. Boomerang is for taking care of those pesky one-drops that aren't worth the three mana for countering. Anticipate is there for after were done countering spells and have extra mana. Rune Snag late game on Kaho is a repeatable Counterspell.

Conclusion

This deck is a budget list, and many alternatives exist, such as Hinder and Remand. However, the deck can and will win against many $300+ decks. Good matchups are Twin, zoo, and creature decks. Bad Matchups are burn, Bogles, and 1cmc creature decks.

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Date added 9 years
Last updated 8 years
Legality

This deck is not Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

2 - 0 Mythic Rares

5 - 4 Rares

5 - 5 Uncommons

30 - 2 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.28
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