Reddit user and U Tron legend u/TKOS7 writes in his legendary primer on the much-maligned, just as beloved hardboiled Modern control deck: "people new to building the deck often mistake us for being a Tron deck that splashes blue, as opposed to a blue deck that splashes Tron." This is an insightful nugget of deckbuilding wisdom that might seem confusing to anyone who hasn't played against Spreading Seas or Blood Moon with U Tron and realized you can basically ignore those cards and your deck will continue to run pretty much as normal. U Tron uses Tron as a pathway to get its big mana wincons online faster, but that doesn't mean it relies on Tron to win games, and the majority of its most important spells require blue mana to cast. U Tron in its control incarnation is a wonderfully interactive, incredibly fun deck whose only real downsides are a serious learning curve and a tendency to cause even journeyman pilots to time out on MTGO from all the decision time and Mindslaver loops. That being said, playing U Tron can sometimes feel like a frustrating tug of war: do you jam your low-to-medium-curve, sorcery speed plays like Thought-Knot Seer and whatever 2 drop artifacts you’re playing as soon as you have the mana, or do you hold it up to activate your Maps and utility lands and keep your counterspells, removal, and dig spells open? There’s also sort of an awkward space around turns 5 and 6 where it can be difficult to gauge exactly what your game plan is supposed to be, and where the wrong decision between wincons and waiting can spell doom for even the most patient and experienced U Tron faithful. What I've whipped up here to try and alleviate some of those issues is what u/TKOS7 would describe as a "Tron deck that splashes blue;" that is, a deck primarily concerned with making lots of colorless mana, casting TKS and Reality Smashers to weaken your opponent’s hand and pressure their life total, and eventually finishing the game with Eldrazi beats or Ugin, but playing blue for access to the excellent Condescend, Supreme Will, and Repeal to protect your winning pieces, disrupt your opponent’s game plan, and set yourself up to keep drawing gas in that crucial mid-to-late game period. This is much more straightforward than typical U Tron strategy - u/TKOS7 calls it the “least linear deck in Modern,” whereas the game plan here is at least halfway closer to that of an Eldrazi Tron build - but the deck holds onto some of the unpredictability and grind of U Tron. While its greater resemblance to more stock Tron lists might make it more susceptible to the usual hate Tron faces out of unfriendly Modern sideboards, this version also pressures opponents, deals with resolved creatures, and draws removal better, and I think it’s definitely worth some experimentation. It’s also just as budget-friendly as its control big brother!
This whole deck was inspired by what a house Thought-Knot-Seer is in typical U Tron, even though it’s not even really a perfect fit for the game plan, leaving you tapped out in the midgame and disrupting a hand you should theoretically have answers for anyway. The thing is, TKS is the answer already, and it’s also a serious threat - a 4/4 body chunking in for damage or blocking every turn has to be dealt with at some point. In a deck more focused around getting it down than normal U Tron is, TKS is an absolute house, and coupled with its Kozilek lineage brethren, it can end games in a hurry. Reality Smasher is on one level a very simple design - a 5/5 with trample that can attack right away and takes a two-for-one to kill - but that simplicity is deceptive, and the way the card warps games around itself is striking. Along with TKS and Endbringer, the pressure Reality Smasher puts on your opponent’s life total will be significant, and once you can resolve multiples or get an Ugin down once your opponent has spent all their cards dealing with your Eldrazi, the end of the game will probably come quickly. I really can’t overstate how powerful Reality Smasher is. You could probably just throw it in regular U Tron and be successful, which has been tried more often for the last of our mainboard Eldrazi, Endbringer. Endbringer may be the most fun pinger ever printed, and in a deck with lots of colorless mana, it can activate its mana sinks nearly every turn, freezing your opponent’s problem creatures and drawing you enough cards that you won’t even miss Thirst For Knowledge (okay, maybe not that many). Just like Reality Smasher, this guy is a must answer threat, quite capably living up to its name and finishing the game in style. It’s also a better fit for this kind of list - a Tron deck that likes keeping mana open - than the usual U Tron 6-drop, Wurmcoil Engine.
Expedition Map and Mind Stone are classics in all versions of Tron, but Mazemind Tome is a more recent addition that in my experience has performed admirably even in the powerful post-MH2 format. The lifegain can be deceptively useful, but the way this thing sets your draws up (especially since the deck loves having 2 mana open and the Tome provides something to spend it on before you can get Endbringer online if you haven’t had to counter anything or Map for a land) is really impressive. Ugin is Ugin. There isn’t much to be said about him that hasn’t already been, but suffice it to say that there’s a reason he’s here instead of Karn Liberated. And that’s Karn Liberated.
Condescend, Repeal, and Spatial Contortion are U Tron staples, and Contortion is even more useful here than usual since the pump factor is important in a deck that actually cares about your opponent’s life total, and Supreme Will has impressed me whenever I’ve gotten to play with it. It’s kind of like a weaker Archmage’s Charm that you don’t have to be heavily into blue to play, except it actually digs deeper than Archmage’s Charm, which is great given our comparatively low threat density here. What really surprises me is Warping Wail, since it seems like a phenomenal use of the 2 held mana we find ourselves with so frequently. u/TKOS7 isn’t super impressed with it, which I guess I get, but all three of its modes seem remarkably useful, and much less narrow than, like Remand, Mana Leak, or Rune Snag if you’re crazy like me. Maybe people play this in normal U Tron and I’m just living under Urza’s Rock. People must play this, right?
The sideboard here is pretty cool, if you ask me. Including the Mindslaver/Academy Ruins/Platinum Angel/Treasure Mage package in the sideboard lets you introduce a totally new win condition later into the match that needs different answers from your main plan, being in blue gives us way better answers and more counterspells than Eldrazi Tron normally gets to have in the sideboard, and Elder Deep-Fiend is an underrated tech option in Tron in general and seems especially good in this build against creature matchups and decks that need lands and operate mainly at sorcery speed (e.g. Titan).
Overall, I’m hopeful about this idea! I’m gonna try this out in some leagues and report back on how it does.
