Mono-Blue in standard.
Standard forum
Posted on March 7, 2015, 9:22 p.m. by EssTea
Hey guys!
Do any of you think Mono-Blue devotion can make a come back in the current standard meta ? Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir slowly released cards that could make the deck come back : Reality Shift, Cloudform, Frost Walker and last but not least Shorecrasher Elemental
The archetype still lacks a good 
creature... I don't think playing Mindreaver for the devotion is a good thing.
Anyways, what do you guys think? In a format where removal is a must, I wonder how far could Mono-Blue Devo go (I guess as far as Green Devo probably?).
Gudul Lurker is probably something you'd have to use in the deck.
Anticipate is a fantastic card in general and you'd probably want it.
Scion of Glaciers? It's pretty bad but it's devotion.
Encrust Isn't half bad, makes things like Sarkhan and Whip unable to untap, and adds devotion.
Wall of Frost? Again, not great but it adds devotion. With Thassa and unblockability, it's not like you need to be a hyper aggro deck. Um, yea it dies to a removal spell but honestly, if they waste a removal spell on a wall, I wouldn't be upset.
March 7, 2015 9:38 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #5
Shorecrasher Elemental definitely is a boost. I'm not sure that the same aggro approach is viable, but a control build could work.
March 7, 2015 10:08 p.m.
This is my version of mono-blue for post-Dragons play. I'm still playtesting sop not all the numbers in MB/SB is set. But I really likes how the deck plays and it has loads of flexibility. Especially after SB where it can become a tempo or control deck depending on what your opponent is playing. So far it's been wreking control decks and midrange decks, but I'm having some problems with burn heavy decks like Jeskai-Tempo so more tinkering is needed there.
Blue/Colorless Aggro Playtest
Standard*
SCORE: 8 | 5 COMMENTS | 1134 VIEWSMarch 9, 2015 9:26 a.m.
Also Master of Waves is a trap and you should not play him. There is to much removal and efficient sweepers in the format that handle him. It's better to just drop solid creatures and make your stuff unblockeble with Thassa, God of the Sea, her activated + scry is a bigger payoff then dropping a Master of Waves. In the current format the tokens from Master is just not good enough.
March 9, 2015 9:30 a.m.
Well... Yes there's a lot of removal in this format right now. Then, if Master of Waves is a trap, so is every other creature? Not all decks run Siege Rhino or Mantis Rider. Some creatures need to be let a turn to do something and Master of Waves is one. Followed by a Bident of Thassa I can see the tokens closing the game real quick by drawing 3-4 cards.
March 9, 2015 12:30 p.m.
I like Omenspeaker for the 2 drop... though hopefully we get better, with some utility and 2 Devotion.
It's a good Scry with a body that blocks the Reality Shift creature.
March 9, 2015 1:01 p.m.
I'm not sure why you would say (paraphrased) "Remove the reason for playing Blue Devotion, so that you can run a card that's already in the deck and not competing for a slot in the deck."
Sure there's a lot of removal in the format... but playing a creature like Master of Waves, which MUST be answered is kind of the point. Force them to use the removal when you want them to, rather than allowing them to use it at their discretion.
Besides... with Mirror Mockery, you're getting an extra +1/+1 for Elementals while attacking and adding another swarm of tokens each turn.
March 9, 2015 1:26 p.m.
...how did I miss that with Mirror Mockery? That has some brutal potential power.
March 9, 2015 1:37 p.m.
@xcn
Plus, if needed, it essentially negates one of your opponents creatures. - They attack, you just block with the copy... I love that it pretty much just kills Siege Rhino.
So, Mirror Mockery 1) gives devotion, 2) acts as pseudo removal, and 3) gives explosive synergy.
It is an awesome card!
I'm going to keep an eye out for places to play it in Modern... I've already considered Merfolk (on Lords) to give additional +1/+1 when attacking, as well as ferries to get additional Vendilion Clique (and other) triggers. - Perhaps in a few decks with Snapcaster Mage, though that feels counter productive, as you'd rather be drawing spells in most of the deck he's in.
March 9, 2015 1:44 p.m.
Master of Waves seems like a large mana investment for the deck but in this standard environment 4 mana is nothing. Especially if you are going to be running Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. He a bunch of your creatures, provides chumps for days and has pro-red. If you are wanting to do Mirror Mockery shenanigans in this deck he will be the dude you want to cast it on.
March 9, 2015 5:27 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #15
This is a super janky idea, but I would like to see someone combine Bident of Thassa with Mirror Mockery for profit.
March 9, 2015 5:51 p.m.
What I'm saying is not that Master of Waves is a bad card, but your playing a load of bad 1 drops to make him work. The reason Master was so good was because you would curve your Cloudfin Raptor, Judge's Familiar, Tidebinder Mage, Frostburn Weird and Nightveil Specter into him. Not because Master of Waves made them good, but because they could win the game quickly by them selves without Master ever showing up.
While there is a new good devotion enabling card in Shorecrasher Elemental the rest of the deck is just a pile of cards that are rather bad and your working very hard to make them decent just so you can justify playing them togeter with Master. The old mono-blue deck was good because it was a solid beatdown-aggro deck with some distruption even if you never got to Master.
So yes, I think Master of Waves is a trap in the current card pool and IMO you can build a mono blue aggro deck that should be OK after DTK. But there is a difference between trying to build a mono-blue deck and trying to build a Master of Waves deck. One is all about speed, evasion and synnergie while the other is trying to force a payout card that is very fragile and hoping it sticks. Because if it wont stick your playing 1/1 flyers for 1 while your opponents are doing more powerful stuff and your just chumping their creatures.
March 10, 2015 9:02 a.m.
Scion of Glaciers, I don't see why this isn't a first choice, sure it looks bad and possibly would be outside of MUD, but it is an elemental, it is 5 toughness without master and a 6 attacker when safe, and it's similar to Frostburn Weird, and 2 devotion is better than 1. Then you have Hypnotic Siren which is perfect early and late game against creature decks. Also worth looking into is lightly splashing a second color for very many cards that would be useful to it.
March 12, 2015 11:20 p.m.
I think if you want to play MUD it's going to be in a midrange deck with 14-16 creatures, and some good counterspells, removal and card draw.
The 1-2 mana creatures just aren't as good, and you don't have mutavault. However, blue has some fantastic card draw spells, some fantastic counter spells, and some very decent removal spells. I would try and design in midrange.
That new 3UU Ice dragon that taps things seems decent, especially if you toss in some monastery siege's.
kyuuri117 says... #2
I think if you went like, mostly flyers, you could get away with reality shift. Mono-blue's aggro creatures are kinda weak so anything on the ground, like frost walker, is just going to die to whatever you made into a manifest with Reality Shift.
There's that new 1U 2/1 flyer that has megamorph on it. It's not great, by any means, but it does add another creature.
I do think that Shorecrasher Elemental is pretty dang good though. Aside from board wipes, you are making them two for one it to get rid of it, and it's a ton of devotion.
March 7, 2015 9:31 p.m.