Mono Blue Devotion...splash white?
Standard forum
Posted on April 13, 2015, 9:22 p.m. by IzzetGod
Does anyone think that if Mono-Blue Devotion does come back as even a Tier 2 deck, could do better if they splashed white for some cards like Gods Willing? You could run 4x Temple of Enlightenment and some Flooded Strand with maybe 1 or 2 Plains.
RoarMaster says... #3
Well, if you splashed white, it wouldn't be mono blue now would it? ;)
April 13, 2015 9:59 p.m.
I Believe mono-Blue is very strong; however with how powerful and heavy amount of multi-colored cards it's insane not to add black, red or Green (green for Courser of Kruphix or Siege Rhino) to a deck.
Right now in standard (including standard cards seeing modern and other formats) black and red provides a huge benifit to control decks. Such cards as; Thoughtseize, Bile Blight, Hero's Downfall, Magma Jet, Mindswipe and Crackling Doom, all provide disruption and/or removal and straight up value.
I highly suggest adding instead of White, red or black.
April 13, 2015 10:02 p.m.
It was meant for RoarMaster, but you can also consider it for yourself as I disagree with roughly everything your post contains. Not to be a prick or anything...
April 13, 2015 10:08 p.m.
Yeah I guess it is kind of a situation depending on the meta, but I don't think Mono-Blue is dead.
April 13, 2015 10:12 p.m.
Fair enough, can I ask what you disagree with so as to broaden my view?
April 13, 2015 10:12 p.m.
Mono-Blue isn't dead, but compared to what else is in the Meta, it cant win as many as it used to.
April 13, 2015 10:13 p.m.
I'd never add Courser of Kruphix to a MUD deck. The casting cost of 1GG is too taxing for the mana base as this deck archetype wants to resolve as many permanents with Us in their costs as possible. Not only that, Courser of Kruphix doesn't actually add anything to the deck. The lifegain is silly considering you're playing a weird hybrid of aggro, midrange, and tempo and the pseudo-draw land ability is just meh. Siege Rhino is the same deal. You want that 4-drop slot to be filled with Master of Waves and Clever Impersonator anyways.
The problem is that MUD is not a control deck. Black removal comes primarily with BB costs. Really taxing once again. Even U/B control has to run some awkward tapped lands to make sure they get to cast the UU and BB spells they often need to resolve on turns 2 and 3 in order not to die. A deck like MUD also wants to use its mana as efficiently as possible. Leaving up a chunk just for things like Mindswipe is unreasonable.
MUD's biggest problem has always been dedicating huge amounts of tie and effort to build up a board with UU symbols to make that Master of Waves impactful upon resolution. Then the guy just dies to a Hero's Downfall and you're left with jack. At least white has some cheap protection spells to combat that. Hall of Heroes and Obelisk of Urd can help though. Still, MUD likely won't be coming back. It lacks the tools to deal with the monsters and token dominated meta, not to mention it's still as weak to boardwipes as ever.
Does that make my stance a bit more clear?
April 13, 2015 10:28 p.m.
Totally makes sense Courser of Kruphix, I diverged form talking about MUD to straight Mono-Blue and how Mono-blue isn't as good without the addition of red or black. My mistake your point is very valid. If it were me adding a colour to MUD it would be black, as it adds versatility.
April 13, 2015 10:36 p.m.
RoarMaster says... #13
Humour; it's a dish best served to the chorus of booing. :)
April 13, 2015 10:39 p.m.
As well the addition of a colour at the end of my initial comment was to say MUD is not as strong in the meta currently and my offer of subsitution was to add red/black. I don't want to have any "beef" with a fellow User, I apologize for adding any confusion.
April 13, 2015 10:40 p.m.
No, I wasn't trying to start anything. Your post went through as I was posting mine, so I just found it funny how it the gif I used applied to both you and the intended recipient.
April 13, 2015 10:44 p.m.
That's actually pretty funny. Glad no blood was spilt, as on the internet it is easily done.
April 13, 2015 10:47 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #17
I honestly do kind of like Black as a splash. Thoughtseize can remove Thassa-specific answers or clear the way for Master. Ultimate Price is good cheap removal, and you can play Murderous Cut to avoid double-Black. Boon of Erebos may also be worth consideration.
April 14, 2015 12:44 a.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #18
With White, Spear of Heliod would be very tempting despite its awkward cost since both it and Hall of Triumph are Legendary, so they can split the load.
April 14, 2015 12:48 a.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #19
Or be the IzzetGod and splash Purphoros, God of the Forge.
And since there's only one color combo left, Prophet of Kruphix. Yeah son.
April 14, 2015 12:52 a.m.
I always wanted to splash Purphoros, God of the Forge into a deck with Master of Waves. I used to do it when I played 2HG!
But if I do, after sideboarding; they'll no my intentions are to kill them with Purphoros instead of being aggressive so they'll just Erase the God and I'll have nothing I can do...
April 14, 2015 6:57 a.m.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #21
This is a fun thread. I just like how everyone just said, "No, MUD is not a thing, but let's make MUD a thing and splash this color or that color"....and RoarMaster had it right, now this is not about MUD anymore. This topic should be renamed, "What colors to play with Blue...". So misleading.
April 14, 2015 10:41 a.m.
So we can all agree MUD isn't as good as a splashed Blue?
April 14, 2015 12:18 p.m.
I guess so...the title ain't misleading...it just turned out to be misleading lol.
April 14, 2015 8:57 p.m.
It's alright to convert from your monoblue wrongdoings to the Azorius master race. Kneel mud peasants and you shall be forgiven.
Jk I don't think splashing white is the greatest of ideas. Sure you get access to protection, but blue has countermagic which is just as good. Stubborn Denial doesn't give you the scry, but if you play Anticipates and Dig through Times you won't need that much scry anyway.
April 15, 2015 4:36 a.m.
Kroto, but the main thing was to survive removal. The countermagic is basically the go to for surviving it, but with something that can give protection is just a perk incase you don't have said counterspell.
April 15, 2015 7 a.m.
I think Blue devotion would suffer more from a splash than benefit from it. If I was to splash something it would be removal from black since Mono-u does not have efficient ways of dealing with threats, however splashing black would mean running 4 Mana Confluence, 1 Temple of Deceit, 4 Polluted Delta and a swamp. Not only is it a painful mana base, Shorecrasher Elemental requires triple blue, I can imagine fetching a swamp for Ultimate Price but then being unable to curve out shorecrasher, or simply delaying the swamp to play shorecrasher (add to that the 2-3x nykthos and you've got yourself very frequent uncastable shorecrashers). All I've just said applies to splashing white too.
So splash creatures instead of removal? What viable creature still gives blue pips? Daxos of Meletis lol?
And why splash for protection spells when blue has counter spells?
Anyways, I've been working on Blue devotion for the past two months and I can say that you've got two choices with mono-U, it's either you go the Ensoul Artifact route which is more comboish and less consistent or you go the devotion route which is more aggro and consistent. If you do go the devotion route, go all-in on devotion just like MUD did in ravnica/theros and just like mono-green right now, that means running something like 28 creatures and only 2-4 non-devotion (probably removal) cards. I've seen too many mono-U builds on this site with shenanigany instants, they'll never make it tier 2.
If anyone cares to have a look at my Mono-U devotion build just click on my profile (on cellphone right now so I can't link). As I've said I've been working on the deck a lot, and from a competitive standpoint!
Arvail says... #2
First, it needs to find a good 2 and 3 drop. Splashing is an option, sure, but that's largely a meta-based call. Origins will be legal with Theros at the same time, no? If so, there's a chance they'll get the creatures they need. MUD is largely dead.
April 13, 2015 9:34 p.m.