Impending Horrors

Pioneer Control Counterspell Horror Mono-Blue

PhocusEnergy

Instant (26)

• 4x Consider
• 4x Opt
• 3x Blink of an Eye
• 4x Censor
• 2x Mission Briefing
• 2x Negate
• 2x Tragic Lesson
• 3x You Find the Villains' Lair
• 2x Engulf the Shore

Creature (12)

• 4x Curious Homunculus  ^Flip
• 4x Thing in the Ice  ^Flip
• 4x Chasm Skulker

Land (22)

• 18x Island
• 4x Mystic Sanctuary

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Sideboard

Instant (11)

• 2x Annul
• 3x Mizzium Skin
• 4x Essence Capture
• 2x Negate

Artifact (4)

• 4x Soul-Guide Lantern

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Maybeboard

Instant (4)

• 1x Alchemist's Retrieval
• 1x Fading Hope
• 1x Thirst for Discovery
• 1x Out of the Way

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A mono-blue control deck based around a simple idea - keep your opponent at bay until you can flip Thing in The Ice and take over the game. Holding off your opponents offense until they have to face major under-costed threats is a consistently rewarding game plan that should give you a lot of fun games.

All suggestions and critiques are welcome!

Creatures

• Thing in the Ice  /Awoken Horror is our bread and butter, often winning a game by itself if allowed to flip.
• Curious Homunculus  /Voracious Reader   will help us cast our spells more rapidly, and can quickly become a threat in the late game when it flips.
• Chasm Skulker benefits from the extra cards we'll be drawing, and is also a horror (and therefor not bounced by Awoken Horror).

Non-Creatures

• Opt draws a card for one mana at instant speed.
• Consider a better (in this deck) Opt
• Negate counters our opponents non-creature spells.
• Censor counters our opponents spells unless they pay an extra mana, and can be cycled away in the late game.
• You Find the Villains' Lair can counter an opponents spell, or give us a Faithless Looting effect (which is better for us than cycling because it's still casting a card for Thing in the Ice).
• Mission Briefing can re-cast spells we've already used or discarded.
• Blink of an Eye can bounce any pesky permanents that get through our counterspells.
• Tragic Lesson combos with Mystic Sanctuary to keep us constantly drawing cards in the mid-to-late game.
• Engulf the Shore clears the path for our large creatures late-game.

Sideboard

• AEtherize is a one-sided board wipe against aggressive wide creature decks.
• Annul is great against artifact or enchantment decks.
• Essence Capture will do work against creature-based decks.
• Mizzium Skin saves our creatures against removal-heavy opponents.
• Soul-Guide Lantern works against graveyard strategies.

Top Ranked	Achieved #26 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #4 position in Pioneer 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Pioneer legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Rares 8 - 8 Uncommons 22 - 7 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.13
Tokens	Squid 1/1 U
Folders	Mono-Blue Pioneer, Potential