Introduction
Mono Blue Tron is a little bit different approach to famous Urza's Land decks out of which G/R Tron is probably the most recognizable.
The main theme of the decks are 3 land cards:
Urza's Tower
,
Urza's Power Plant
and Urza's Mine. Having all 3 on the field makes the lands produce some additional mana, up to 7. The deck abuses the great mana advantage the spoken lands give, especially if assembled in the first few turns. At this point you are able to drop huge threats that close the game quickly and are hard to deal with. Among the popular cards that appear in any Tron deck we can mention: Wurmcoil Engine, Karn Liberated, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn etc.
What is the thing with Blue Tron?
Blue Tron is a control based deck, that wants to take long games, uses counterspells, bounce and few sources of card advantage to stabilize situation on board before dropping on of it's own wincons. With the mana advantage generated by Urza's lands it excells great at using X-mana spells (namely Repeal, Condescend etc.) with addition with usual modern counterspells like Remand. The additional aspect is being able to tutor most of the threats thanks to cards like Treasure Mage, Fabricate or Gifts Ungiven.
The most famous play of this deck is Mindslaver lock, which requires to have acess to 11 mana open as well as Mindslaver and Academy Ruins. This allows you to cast and use Mindslaver as well as being able to put it back on top of your library from graveyard. This creates a loop that results in opponent being controlled by you every turn. Despite the control approach the deck can sometimes go for extreme tempo games when assembling tron in the first turns of the game. Dropping a turn 3 Wurmcoil Engine or
Sundering Titan
may very often spell the end for opponent.
Why no Karn Liberated?
The thing with Mono Blue Tron is, you don't rely that much on getting all pieces of Tron asap, which results in you not being able to drop Karn on turn 3 or 4 at the time when the spoken planeswalker turns out as an enormous threat. In opposite to G/R Tron we only use Expedition Map as only way of finding Urza's lands and at many times we don't even want to play those lands on the spot as sometimes holding into basic Island opens up mana for counterspells. Some decks do play a single Karn, but I find it to be highly ineffective.
Card choices and explanation
Urza's Tower
,
Urza's Power Plant
, Urza's Mine - asbolute core of the deck and the reason we play this list, nuff said.
Academy Ruins - used to get back our wincons as well as Oblivion Stone. Part of Mindslaver-lock combo.
Tectonic Edge - a single copy is always useful especially against greedy manabases and mirrors.
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds - untapped blue source that is not basic land (
Sundering Titan
). Allows for some fixing thanks to blink for colorless mana.
Expedition Map - pretty clear here - search for the lands we need
Mindslaver - one of our big wincons. Even single use can be devastating. Can lead to a full-lock that will win a game for us.
Oblivion Stone - great sweeper, that can also leave some of our cards we need on field. Tutorable through Fabricate and can be used back again via Academy Ruins.
Talisman of Dominance - ramp, fixing, allows for a bit less painful Dismember post-side.
Counterspells and bounces - nothing to explain here much. We use ones with X-mana cost because we have mana advantage, pair it with most popular counter in modern, being Remand. Cyclonic Rift overload is also easy to pull off. Additional twist is, those cards gives us sort of card advantage (either scry or draw).
Thirst for Knowledge - instant speed draw. We don't have to worry about discarding artifacts, since we can have them back easly.
Fabricate - our way to search for wincons. Notice it's the only card that can also bring us Oblivion Stone
Platinum Angel - forces opponent to waste a card or 2 on it, otherwise we can freely play to close the game in our favour. Most of the times it's auto-win against Auras, that often don't play any removal pre-side. Even burn has to use 2 cards to get rid off it. It's extremely strong when we pair it with few counterspells in our hand.
Solemn Simulacrum - ramps for Islands and gives us draw when dies. Usually just a chump blocker.
Sundering Titan
- this guy totally rapes greedy manabases. When playing against 3 or more colour dekcs, dropping it as early as turn 3 (tron plus talisman) may just spell an easy win. Pair it with Oblivion Stone to totally clear opponents table with 2 land destroying triggers.
Treasure Mage - chump blocker and tutor for wincons.
Wurmcoil Engine - huge threat that is not easly dealt with because of its ability. Works wonders when dropped early against aggro decks. Hates Path to Exile.
Sideboard and rest to follow...
