Mono Blue Tron is a deck that revolves around acquiring more resources than your opponent and ramping into some of the most powerful spells in all of magic. What enables this deck to acquire these resources any faster than your conventional midrange or control deck? Your answer lies in the lands and they way you get to them. Tron Lands (Urza's Tower, Urza's Mine, and Urza's Power Plant) are the namesake set of cards in this deck. These lands and the decks that use them are referred to Tron lands and Tron decks respectively, The name is derived from an 80s cartoon involving 3 robots that could link together to make a more powerful robot known as Voltron. Similar to the cartoon, these lands produce singular colorless mana however together they tap for 7 colorless mana. With this powerful resource available to you you can win in many different ways. But the hard part is getting to this stage. Unlike Green Red Tron which focuses on establishing tron as fast as possible with land fetches--such as Sylvan Scrying-- and then getting out a game finisher as fast as possible, Blue Tron plays the slower game. It slows down its opponent using powerful permission and counter spells and wins with any of its many flexible Wincons. If this deck is played well, it is a well oiled machine that is almost impossible to beat. It is not forgiving however so be ready to lose-- a lot before you start putting up real results. A common misconception about U Tron is that it is not competitive and inferior to it's other Tron Counterparts. This is incorrect. Although this deck is low in cost for a modern deck, it is extremely competitive. If I had all the money in the world, I would still play this deck. I hope the rest of this primer is informative and will convince you to play this amazing deck or at the very least check it out and give it the respect it deserves. If you dont it'll be your funeral next time you run into it.
The Primer
Overview
Reading this decklist
Reading this decklist
This Decklist is organized into 8 categories. Here is a quick overview of what each category is and what purpose it serves in the deck.
Lands-- This includes the namesake three land comno Urza's Tower, Urza's Mine, and Urza's Power Plant. Additionally we have some lands that will give you value in ways other than just its mana ability throughout the game. We also have a few synergies that can be absolutely game ending for our opponents if carried out correctly and used in the right moment.
Value Cards-- These cards provide us with the utility that this deck needs to get through tough games. Within this category we have pre boarded counters to their land hate as well as some cards that always will have value but will often times be sided out after game 1 depending on the matchup.
Card Draw--These cards fuel our deck. They keep us drawing into cards that are relevant. They sometimes even flat out win the game for us too. This is the soul of any control deck and this deck is no different.
Removal / Pseudo Removal--This deck is a mono blue deck which, while it makes it easier to run a Tron powered mana base, limits us on how we interact with their board after they have resolved a threat. This section includes the bounce, kill, and boardwipe within this deck.
Win Conditions--These are the cards that will close the game out for us. Because this deck runs a decently large tutor package we have a few different wind conditions that each thrive in their own situation.
Tutor-- These cards allow us to run a more toolbox type strategy at times. It also helps us thin our deck a bit, find the win conditions we need, assemble Tron, and even stave off aggressive decks.
Counterspells--This is our main route that we will take to delay our opponent and keep them locked in the early stages of their game. All of our counterspells give us additional value in some way Remand replaces itself. Condescend lets us craft our next two draws. Spellburst gives us a soft lock later on in the game while still having relevance in the early game.
Sideboard--This decks sideboard is more important than most decks as it really tunes the deck to each specific matchup. This is one of the most important aspects of the deck
Deck Colors
Deck colors
The colors of Mono U Tron are quite self explanatory... Mono U . Yes Dismember is a black card but unless your opponent casts an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth you are never going to cast it without paying life. Besides unless you are really tight on life the value we get from casting this card on 1 is exactly what makes this deck work.
Now what does blue have that the other colors dont? Counter, Draw, Tutor, Bounce Value. Blue gives us access to all that good stuff. What it doesnt give us access to is land fetch, artifact removal, and board wipes. But its all good we make up for this with some cool artifacts and being less reliant on Tron to win. We include some really solid eldrazi in this list too which helps us bridge the gap between the early mid and late game.
Deck strengths
Deck strengths
Mono U Tron is very effective against a lot of decks. It absolutely wrecks havoc in the mid to late game and has early game ability to keep pace with more aggressive decks. Its powerful control spells help keep the board relatively clean until we can pull a win conditions out of the decks pool of options. Efficient draw spells get us ahead in card advantage and the Tron lands get us ahead in mana resources. When you are looking at decks that look to win in the mid to late game this deck has no match.
Deck weaknesses
Deck weaknesses
Like all types of Tron, Blue Tron has trouble making it through the early game due to the fact that Blue Tron doesnt run cards that are interactive enough in the early game. This being said it does have some cool cards, such as Spatial Contortion and Repeal, that can help stall until you set up to take the game with ease be it with a well timed Mindslaver or even that pesky Platinum Angel with plenty of backup permission. It also has trouble against quick Combo decks that arent entirely reliant on one card (ie. Storm) but yet again we have plenty of answers to deal with this archetype as a whole. In an attempt to improve our matchups against these quicker decks we have cards like Solemn Simulacrum (aka Sad Robot)) as well as cards like Spellskite out of the SB. These cards make this deck playable in this meta but by no means makes the matchups favorable. Each mistake makes a huge impact on the game if you are playing against an aggro deck.
The Strategy
General strategy
General strategy
The general strategy for Mono U Tron is stall until late game when you will have either Mindslaver lock (Academy Ruins + Mindslaver
) or just simply better creatures than them (it is hard to beat a Wurmcoil Engine or Sundering Titan). The way that you get to this stage is the part that takes the most skill. Knowing when to bounce their creature and when to counter their spell is a skill that can only developed over time but one that will reward you whenever you play with a control deck. Be observant and sharp when it comes to identifying your opponent's deck by the first 2-3 lands/spells they play so you can know what their danger cards are so you can hold back Control magic for that threat. Always take notes so that you can better SB against them and have better information for game 2-3 and all the rest of the games that you play against that archetype. Jot down differences between their deck and the deck that comes to your mind when you think of their particular archetype. These notes will often sway the game in significant ways. This being said, having more knowledge on the archetypes then the average magic player (having several different decklists come to mind when thinking of a archetype instead of just one) will also go a long way to making you better at this deck.
Early game
Early game
Your early game is your hardest stage of the game for the Mono U Tron deck and thus must be played almost perfectly. Your game plan should be to get to your mid game as fast as possible. This means getting Tron Lands our while countering their early game threats such as Liliana of the Veil. You want to stay at as high of a life total as you can although it is quite common to drop beneath the 10 life mark before you stabilize. Chump Blockers are also quite important in this stage of the game as they can prevent damage, potentially trade for one of their creatures, and all of them help you reach your mid game faster or ensure you can survive once you reach your mid game.
Mid game
Mid game
Although not as important as your early game, your midgame is also essential to winning. In your mid game you want to be setting up you late game by drawing aggressively with Thirst for Knowledge and getting as much mana as you can. This is also when your Epiphany at the Drownyard turns on and you can start to snowball by drawing large amounts of cards. Your previously mentioned Chump Block creatures do lose their effectiveness ever so slightly in this stage but still retain their value through their abilities. Dropping a Wurmcoil Engine or Sundering Titan in this stage is a good play although you have to remember to hold mana up in some cases for their threat. In this stage of the game the Mono U Tron deck becomes less of the Control deck and more of the beatdown deck. This means its less relevant to try and counter everything they do and more relevant to try and play stuff that puts them on their heels.
Late game
Late game
The late game is where Mono U Tron thrives. Almost always are your creature better than theirs and Wurmcoil Engines life-gain allows you to attack aggressively into them even if you don't have a blocker. In this phase, Mindslaver lock is entirely possible and is your go to Wincon. Mindslaver, on its own, can also be extremely devastating because you can attack them for half of their life total if they don't block then you are free to cast The Slaver on your second main phase and swing in for the win next turn. This is the time that you win.
Contingency Plan
Contingency plan
Mono U Tron is NOT a forgiving deck and thus should be played with care. In the case that something goes terribly wrong it will be a long hard fight to come back from it but it can be done. In most cases you will merely want to get a Wurmcoil Engine out and try to preserve your life total until you can re-stabilize. This often entails abandoning a lot of your control game plan and tapping out often to get back on terms with your opponent. Bouncing (Repeal) their creature back to their hand is also a good way of coming back because it can set them back 1-2 turns and it draws you a card. Oblivion Stone (more commonly known as O-Stone) is also a great way to come back from bad position. Finally, Platinum Angel can keep you a live for a while longer and is great against most combo decks and a lot of quick decks that have run out of steam (card advantage.) If you are playing against a control deck, rarely will you have messed up bad enough to have to abandon your normal game plan to win however you will have given them momentum in the form of Tempo and card advantage when you mess up so they will be in the driving seat for a while. The only time that you are really under pressure is if they have an on board creature that you don't have an answer to or they have many more Direct Damage Spells in their hand then you have counters.
Mulligans
Mulligans
The art of taking a Mulligan is an art that takes a lot of time to master. Mono U Tron was one of the decks that really benefited from the addition of the Vancouver Mulligan Rule because Mono U Tron's Mulligans are not very good. Knowing what you are going to draw into can drastically change your game plan and help you decide if you are going to go all out Tron or play the more classic control game. In addition to this if the card is useless you can ship it to the bottom in the hopes of drawing into a better card. There is no "rule" about when you should mulligan and when you shouldn't however you want 2-4 lands and some mixture of Removal and Counterspells and draw. Keep in mind that cards like remand in your opening hand are good but wont give you any tempo advantage until they start casting three drops Aside from that you are pretty much free to do what you'd like. Another thing to keep in mind is that there are many times when you can and should keep a hand with no Tron pieces or fetch. This is because you can win with ease even without having Tron. On the flip side there are also times when you should mulligan even if you have natural Tron or the ability to get Tron quickly. The one time that you may want to keep this hand is if you also have a creature to ramp into after you get Tron. Remember that this can put you in a bad position if they have an answer to it and you have no permission to answer their answer. Having no blue gives your deck no depth or ability to adapt to the situation that it is in. Other then that you want to mulligan the way that you would mulligan with any other deck.
Matchups and sideboarding
Matchups and sideboarding
Note that in matchups that are bad for you and there are more useless cards in your main then useful cards in your SB, Relic of Progenitus can be sided in as cantrips as it is sometimes better than whatever you already have in the main. Also against all decks with LD effects or against Tron, side in Crucible of Worlds. Not only is it good against LD it is also insane in the mirror when you can get recurring Ghost Quarter. If you ever play a Lantern Control deck the Crucible is really powerful. Remember you can side however you want to. I still stray from this guide to sideboarding every once and awhile so feel free to do so and improve upon the existing guide. NOTE THIS IS NOT UPDATED TO THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE DECK. WHILE A LOT OF THE CONCEPTS WILL REMAIN THE SAME THE EXACT CARD CHANGES ARE NOT GOING TO ALWAYS REFLECT THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE DECK.
Mono U Tron has a fairly simple strategy but has a surprising amount of synergies and combos in it.
The Combo:
Academy Ruins + Mindslaver
+ 12 mana=a very one sided game. The combo works like this. You pay 6 mana and cast Mindslaver. You then pay another 4 mana and activate Mindslaver. You then pass turn. You control their turn doing the most detrimental things for you opponent as you can including looking at their SB and fetching for lands and failing to find one (even if they do have one). Then, on their End Step you activate Academy Ruins and return it to the top of your library. You then untap, upkeep, and draw... guess what...Mindslaver. This will eventually mill them out and if they control a Spellskite and have an even life total you can kill them right there as long as they have a spell/ability on the stack (remember you can put one on the stack for them or cast one yourself and then target it with Spellskite). This is not a loop so you can not win instantly but you can keep your lands tapped and announce that they are shortcuts and go through the rest of their decks in about 5 minutes. Unfortunately you can no longer look at their SB so dont try to do that.
The Synergies:
Wurmcoil Engine/Sundering Titan/Solemn Simulacrum all have "when this creature dies" or "when this creature leaves the battlefield" effects. This means that even if you can't activate your O-Stone's first ability, you will still be retaining some value from you creatures.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon's -X ability affects their permanents only most of the time, which is an excellent board wipe.
Academy Ruins+any artifact can create a very lethal loop of dangerous artifacts.
Chalice of the Void can be returned for 1 blue by Repeal and recast for a new value of x if you need to.
These Combos and Synergies are a very large part of this decks functionality and are very powerful when used in the right scenario.
Card Choices Explained
Lands
Lands
The mana base of this deck is an attempt to create a perfect mixture of tron lands, LD lands, and color fixing. NONE of these cards should be traded for SB cards in game 2-3 except potentially Gemstone Caverns. This change can make space for an extra spell if we want to gamble with being mana screwed.
Academy Ruins--This land is perfect in a deck that has lots of Artifacts. It is part of the Mindslaver lock Wincon and can resurrect your other Wincons such as, Wurmcoil Engine, Sundering Titan, and Platinum Angel. In desperate situations it can resurrect an Expedition Map (however it is important to note that you should not search for the Ruins right off the bat if you are planning to return the original Map to the top continuously until you have tron. This is a bad idea because it means that you are not drawing fresh cards each turn. Your opponent knows that your hand is not changing. You will be constricted on mana this entire time and you need untapped lands. You are the Control deck). It can also resurrect O-Stone to create a continuous board wipe.
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds--At first look this land may seem like a flashy investment that holds no real value in the game. If you thought this, you are terribly mistaken. Oboro will make your life easier. It can filter colorless mana into mana if need be (Tap for , activate second ability, return to hand, play it again, tap for ). It can is also a mana source that can't be chosen by Sundering Titan. Finally, debatable its most important ability, its ability to be returned to your hand. You can do this in response to the + ability of Liliana of the Veil and then discard it.
Gemstone Caverns--This card is just a regular land in some games but the times that you are going second and have it in your starting hand, being able to have a land on the field before the game even starts can put us really far ahead and can level the playing field against mroe aggro decks.
Ghost Quarter--Tectonic Edge's little brother. This card is slightly more versatile because it can be used whenever, at no mana cost, and can kill a pesky Blinkmoth Nexus against Affinity or Infect. It can also tick down Wild Nacatl's P/T. Finally one of its most effective traits is that it can be used to target your own land in response to a LD effect. Synergizes well with Crucible of Worlds to give you a soft lock.
Mirrorpool--This is a flex spot however for now I am going to keep using it due to its insane ability to copy stuff in the counter war, give you extra value off of Spatial Contortion and Dismember and its awesome ability to copy cards like Sundering Titan and Wurmcoil Engine.
The Islands--I was going to use mountains but someone told me that these worked better in a Mono U Tron deck.
Value Cards
Value Cards
These cards give us value throughout the game in less visible ways. They wont always be good or relevant and are often sided out in some manner. However in game 1, the cards that are in rarely hurt you and 99 percent of the time have a use.
Chalice of the Void--This deck has evolved to become a sort of hybrid version of Chalice Tron vs Talisman Tron. A single chalice gives us a lot of hate against a lot of decks and also can be fetched using your Fabricate as well as Trinket Mage. This card almost always has value. Does the deck you're playing against have a lot of quick 1 drops? Play it for 2 mana and stop them in their tracks. Do you have Tron and you're playing against a deck with a Tasigur, the Golden Fang? Drop 12 mana and prevent them from winning. It generally has more value in the early game as it is exponentially easier to cast. Be aware that while casting it for 4 with X equaling 2 can sometimes be advantageous you also shut down a lot of spells in your own deck. Same thing applies for X on 1. Note if you are playing against Affinity playing it on 0 is sometimes a very powerful play.
Pithing Needle--This card is always guaranteed to shut down a card. In some decks it absolutely destroys them. It can be searched for with both Fabricate and Trinket Mage. Some good cards to target are any fetchland, Blinkmoth Nexus, Inkmoth Nexus, any other man land, and planeswalkers. Also remember that the ETB effect on the Needle is not in fact an ETB trigger, rather it is attached to the card when it enters. This means that if they dont respond to the casting of the pithing needle they wont be able to respond to the ETB trigger as there is none.
Solemn Simulacrum--This card is hated by some but I believe that it is one of the most necessary creatures in the deck. First, it is a chump blocker (always welcome) and although it is 4 mana it is well worth it. It is most valuable in the early to mid game because getting an extra land is really important in these stages. Its other ability that allows you to draw a card when it dies is incredible. Not only does it make it have late game value if you control an O-Stone, but it also helps you further your game or help you stabilize by drawing you a card. This card will never be sided out because we only run 1. This being said, getting behind on mana due to your lack of the Sad Robot is not where you want to be.
Card Draw
Card Draw
The Card draw in this deck is what makes the deck go. These cards will always make sure that you have an answer in hand as well as help you accelerate into the late game. As far as control decks go this one has a small number of counterspells and removal spells but it makes up for it with its number of card draw spells. Additionally Epiphany at the Drownyard can literally be game winning.
Epiphany at the Drownyard--Another powerful draw spell. It turns on in the mid game and thrives in the late game. Make sure that you time when you cast this well because it will take up a lot of your mana and if you dont have mana up for permission you can be heavily punished.
Thirst for Knowledge--Your card draw in this deck. I have never sided one out but that is my personal game play. I could see siding 1-2 out but this will make the draw power of your deck go down a fair amount so know what you are doing when you do it. In other words dont do it blindly. Note that some people have decided to run Supreme Will over this card. They trade raw draw power for more versatility so this is personal preference. You can even do a split between the two.
Removal / Pseudo Removal
Removal
These cards are like the cleaning crew. When something slips past our counter spells we have these to send them back to where they started or with some cases straight to the GY.
Cyclonic Rift--This card is a simple bounce spell that can hit any nonland permanent but it scales beautifully into the late game with its overload cast ability that can wipe the enemy's board.
Dismember--This card will always have value except for when you're low on life. This is really good against midrange decks as well as having some good value against burn and other aggro decks if drawn early. Is fantastic against Infect.
Oblivion Stone--Other than Cyclonic Rift, this is your only true board wipe. Excellent for clearing a congested board and good for stabilizing. This is sided out against a lot of aggro decks or control.
Repeal--Your bounce spell of choice. It doesn't do much against creatures with ETB effects but is a cantrip. Excellent in this deck. Side this guy out against decks like Jeskai Flash or creature light decks. I almost always keep 1 in the main.
Spatial Contortion--Early Game removal that can be used to pump up a Wurmcoil Engine. Be careful about targeting their creature if they have a way to pump it high enough to keep it alive as this will have made you take more damage. This card will be sided out in some matches. Its number will also go up to 4 in other matches.
Win Conditions
Win Conditions
The Win Conditions within this deck are very versatile and all give you value in some form. They individually fit into different situations but will never hurt you to cast (with the exeption of Sundering Titan at times.) All of them are beneficial to the overall strategy of this deck and are necessary to its performance. Some will be moved to the SB depending on the matchup. It is NOT uncommon to have a mere 2-3 Win Conditions after game 1. So dont freak out if the following info on card choices suggests drastically changing the amount of wincons in the deck.
Mindslaver--Your go to Wincon that allows you to control your opponent's turn for the rest of the game. Keep in mind that even a single activation of the 'Slaver can be devastating. There are a lot of games where siding one out will make a lot of sense. Often aggro decks will be the cause of this change. Understand that if you side this out you will have lost your go to WinCon. There will be times when this trade off is necessary however.
Platinum Angel--This creature is an interesting creature. Rarely are you going to use this card as Wincon because it is killed so easily however against decks that dont have an answer to it. More often it is a desperate attempt at staying alive. It is very fragile and thus some people think that Platinum Emperion is better but I believe that this is incorrect. First of all Platinum Emperion does not protect against Infect. Secondly, Platinum Emperion costs 8 mana. A lot of times you are hard casting Platinum Angel because you don't have Tron yet. There is no way that you are going to be able to hard cast a Platinum Emperion. This IS a card that you will side out a lot. It is mostly insurance against aggro decks or combo decks. It is useless against decks like Jund.
Sundering Titan--This creature is amazing in this deck. He absolutely destroys all 3+ color decks (which there are a lot of in Modern right now). His leaves the battlefield effect is also good because he still has effect if your opponent has Path to Exile. He is also a very effective Wincon. Aside from that, he is just a 7/10. That's about all there is to say. This guy will be sided out a fair amount due to its reduced effectiveness against 1-2 color decks. A brutal combo with this creature is to copy it with a Mirrorpool thus you will have 2 ETB effects as well as 2 leaving the battlefield effects.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon--Another Wincon. It can't be tutored for but is very good as a one of. What makes Ugin so incredible is that it can protect itself when it is played so you don't need a creature to block with to ensure that you keep your Ugin. The Dragon's first ability can be a wincon by itself. It's second ability is a board wipe that rarely affects your own board state in any major way. And it's ultimate ability is almost always a win con. It puts you out of Bolt range, draws you a ton of cards, allows you to play Wincons for free. A lot of times it leads to Mindslaver Lock. Side it out against decks that are aggro or affinity/tron.
Wurmcoil Engine--This is your go to stabilization card. It gains you a ton of life and has a fair amount resilience. It also retains some of its value if you have an O-Stone. It is also a good Wincon in and of itself. Sometimes one will be sided out when our opponent has an aggressive deck with PtE such as Naya Midrange. Batterskull is sided into the main in the place of your Wurmcoil Engine. It is important to not that we dont need the lifegain against a lot of decks (Jund, Abzan, etc.) however it is still a great creature that will give you a disgustingly large amount of value in grindy games.
Tutors
Tutors
These cards help us thin our deck and find the cards that we need to make our deck work. Some of these cards can also chump block if needed. Generally speaking these cards will not be sided out as they are a pretty integral part of the deck.
Expedition Map--Your fetch for your Tron Lands and other lands (Oboro, Palace in the Clouds/Islands if you are desperate for blue, Academy Ruins for your Mindslaver lock, and Tectonic Edge/Ghost Quarter if you need to destroy land. If you have Crucible of Worlds on the field you can search for a Ghost Quarter as well in order to lock them out of mana eventually. You rarely will side this out but there could be a scenario when you want to side it out because it gives you the least value in the certain matchup. Keep in mind that if you side this out you have to understand you wont get the lands that you need as reliably and wont get Tron as quickly either.
Treasure Mage--This is also an uncommon card choice because it can only tutor for artifacts with cmc 6 or greater compared to Fabricate that can search for any artifact. The big difference is that Treasure Mage is a 2/2 body that is an excellent chump blocker. Rarely will this card be sided out. We only run of these as we only need one to greatly improve our odds of getting a win condition. It gives us the flexibility to tutor for the card that best helps us at that stage of the game.
These cards delay our opponent and keep them stuck in their early game while we accelerate into the middle and late game.
Condescend--One of your best counter spells. The scry 2 is incredible and a lot of times you are gaining insane tempo of of it because you can cast with x=1 for 2 mana and potentially counter their huge threat. This can be sided out sometimes so if you feel it is not performing for you go for it.
Remand--Another good counterspell. Even though it does not completely counter it, it can provide insane tempo and it is a cantrip. Very similar to Condescend in that it can be sided out sometimes. Whether you side this out or Condescend out (or a mixture of the 2) is your choice.
Spell Burst--This is your endgame soft lock spell. If you have Tron it is almost impossible for them to resolve anything. It is also a counterspell in the early game that can be used in a pinch however it is not efficient at all. I wouldnt side it out. Its a one of. It does its job. Keep it in.
Sideboard
Sideboard
The Sideboard of this deck is subject to change as the metagame of my LGS changes. This is the current version. Use a flexible SB in your own decks to improve all of your matchups.
Dismember--This card is good against midrange decks and Infect. It is one of your only true kill spells and thus is necessary.
Gemstone Caverns--This card is often put in if we are on the draw in game to and against a fast deck. Being able to manipulate how many lands we have post game 1 is also really powerful as it allows us to significantly adjust our deck based upon what matchup we are against.
Hurkyl's Recall--This card is your best anti-affinity card. Hitting one of these guys in a game against affinity is game changing. Although they can just recast all of their artifacts it still sets them very far behind.
Negate--This card is used because it is your hard counterspell against non creature heavy decks. It is also very efficient and is normally just what you need in a counter battle.
Relic of Progenitus--This card is your delve hate. It provides a cantrip, wrecks storm and Grishoalbrand, diminishes Snapcaster Mages effect on the game, and neutralizes Tarmogoyf. It can additionally just let you cantrip which is sometimes better than anything else in your main.
Spatial Contortion--Another two in this SB compliments the 1 already in the mainboard. This goes in against quick decks.
Spell Pierce--This is another noncreature spell hate card that is very good against more aggro non creature decks (as it only costs 1 blue) but also good against control decks. It only counters if they cant pay 2 mana however its ability to counter any non creature spell vaults it over Dispel by a bit.
Spellskite--Two of these improve our matchup against aggro decks and decks like infect. One or both can also be sided in against decks with white at times in order to protect our Wurmcoil Engine against Path to Exile but this is usually not worth it. It can be fetched for with Fabricate as well.
Trickbind--This card is an interesting choice because a lot of people prefer Squelch. I was part of this group for a long time before I was convinced that Trickbind is better. The reason for this is simple. Though Trickbind does not provide the card draw, it is better in more matchups. It is way more effective against Grishoalbrand because of its ability that says that the same activated abilities cant be activated again that turn. It counters Grapeshots triggered ability for the rest of that turn and that is very powerful as storm is one of the most prevalent decks today. Finally it is sided in against the Affinity matchup which greatly improves that matchup.
Wurmcoil Engine--This card is good against burn and other quick decks. It can help us stabilize if we get it out early. Its great in grindy games, as long as they dont have access to Path to Exile, because it has very potent resilience to normal kill spells. We run it over Batterskull because it can be fetched by Treasure Mage and is altogether better against midrange decks.
Other Information
Building this deck
Building this deck
The Mono U Tron deck is a deck that can be customized to your specific need. Do you like the more early game capable version? Do you like to run 2 Ugin instead of 1? This is all up to you. The one tip that I can give you is to playtest a lot with your change. This is the kind of deck that can change drastically with only one card change. Another good aspect of this deck is that it is fairly cheap being compared to some of the other decks in the modern deck right now. It can also be upgraded over time but still will function well in the early stages of your investment. This build is about $300 + or - about $50. It also can be converted to the more popular Gr Tron although personally I believe that Mono U Tron is better. Some cards that are good budget alternatives include
Some people also run Platinum Emperion as budget alternative to Platinum Angel however I would NOT recommend this as it will bring the overall power and overall ability down.
Event record
Event record
I've played this deck a lot in non sanctioned events but less so in sanctioned events. Here is the Tournament Report that I have so far.
Modern SCG State Champs: 3-3. Bogles-Win-2-0. Jeskai Flash/Control-Win-2-0. Bloom Titan-Loss-0-2. Affinity/Shrapnel Blast-Loss-1-2. Jund-Win-2-0. Grixis Twin-Loss-0-2.
Modern Tues. MTG: 2-2-1. BR Aggro-Loss-1-2. Infect-Loss-1-2. Mono U Jank Fatties?-Win-2-0. Soul Sisters-Tie-1-1. Podless Collected-Win-2-0.
Modern Tues. MTG: 2-2-1. Jeskai Ascendancy Combo-Loss (due to silly mistake)-0-2. Podless Collected-Win-2-0. Podless Collected-Loss-1-2. Grixis Twin-Tie-1-1. Buy-Win-2-0.
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This deck is the product of many long long hours of playtesting, building, acquiring the cards, and writing this primer so it would mean a lot to me if you guys would comment and give me suggestions,tell me what you think, and try the deck out. Also if you are going to suggest a card please remember that this is competitive, modern, tournament deck that is very high quality so only suggest viable cards that you think will improve the deck and make sure they are modern legal. Also remember to upvote, and let's try to get this decks rating up to 500. Thanks all and remember, to upvote. Play Better Magic. Show Your Support By Upvoting
This deck has needed a remodeling for some time now... I have had some time off from magic and coming back into the game I had a chance to look at the deck in a different light. The first problem that I had to address was the fact that mono U tron and Control Decks in general have always had terrible matchups against aggressive decks such as infect and burn. Previously I had decided to just except this fact and try not to ever play those aggressive decks. Unfortunately with aggressive decks such as those making up almost half of the metagame I realized that I could not do this. This prompted me to make some changes to the list (more on that later) but more importantly it made me analyze the way I played the deck and see if there was anything that I could do about my own habits to make those aggressive decks easier matchups. The first step in this analyzation process was to look over some of the replays from Cockatrice and Untap.in. My conclusion was that I was not countering the most important stuff and thus would counter Goyfe instead of holding back on the counter and instead countering there much more dangerous Liliana. Sure I was taking more damage this way however this stopped a much larger threat in the long run. Now with the deck that I was previously running I would never get to that "long run". I would die much sooner than that. So with that in mind I went to change the deck. What I decided was that if I wasn't going to counter their earlier threat I would have to have some other form of removal and/or bounce. Dismember and more bounce in the form of another Repeal and a Cyclonic Rift were my answers to this. With the addition of these spells, my Infect matchup goes up considerably and my already solid matchups against midrange decks got even better. The one problem that I still had was Burn. My solution to this was 2 Bottle Gnomes in the SB. These additions, I feel, make the deck a lot stronger overall. Not only do these changes help out with the new mindset that you should playing this deck with (only counter the real threats and mop up the semi threats later with bounce and removal) it also makes the aggresive matchups better because they will generally have threats on the board before you ever have permission up. The extra bounce and removal will help because you can get rid of their threats after they come off the stack.
A quick side note.
With these large changes to the deck, I feel like I need to make it clear that the play-style of this deck also needs to be changed. No longer should you be tapping out on turn four to cast your defensive Solemn Simulacrum. Often times I realized that I had had to do this play because I would die next turn. Hopefully with the addition of the onboard removal and bounce this will no longer be the case and instead you can cast it on turn 6-7 with some permission in hand.
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