MTGGoldfish is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a commission.
Browse > Home / Strategy / Articles / Much Abrew About Nothing: Mono-Blue Control (Modern)

Much Abrew About Nothing: Mono-Blue Control (Modern)


Hello everyone! Welcome to the new and improved Much Abrew About Nothing. Last week when I was making the Instant Deck Techs, my bet was that the UB Zombie deck for Standard would be the clear winner. People love Zombies. At the same time, I was hoping against hope that the mono-counterspells deck for Modern would win because the deck looked super spicy and right up my alley. In the end, not only did Mono-Blue Control win, it ended up being the most popular Instant Deck Tech to date! So good job voting everyone!

We'll have some notes on Mono-Blue Control after the videos, but first quick reminder. If you enjoy the Much Abrew About Nothing series and the other video content on MTGGoldfish, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish Youtube Channel to keep up on all the latest and greatest.

Mono-U Control: Instant Deck Tech

Mono-U Control vs UR Delver

Mono-U Control vs Merfolk

Mono-U Control vs Mono-Green Stompy

Mono-U Control Wrap Up

Thoughts

  • First off, we went 3-0 in matches, including matches against UR Delver and Merfolk, which seemed like bad matchups. As such, it's really hard to complain about the results. It doesn't get any better than undefeated!
  • As far as individual cards, Plumeveil, especially combined with Stubborn Denial for protection, was really strong. No one expects Plumeveil, and as a result we were able to surprise a lot of attacking creatures. 
  • Vedalken Shackles is the most important card in the deck. Apart from plays like bouncing a creature with Cryptic Command and countering it on the way back down, it's our only way of dealing with resolved creatures. Even better, people don't really seem to know how to play against Vedalken Shackles. Player tip, typically you either need to wait until you can kill it, or wait until you can overwhelm it by getting a bunch of creatures on the battlefield at once. What you don't want to do is continually suicide your creatures into your own creatures, which is a technique some of our opponents used. 
  • On the other hand, we had a couple of cards that were just too cute for their own good. Probably the best example is Guile. While the idea of stealing our opponents spells and creatures when we counter them is fun and exciting, a big, hexproof creature like Sphinx of the Final Word or more card advantage like Consecrated Sphinx would be much better in the finisher slot. Warmonger's Chariot suffers from the same problem. Yes, beating down with a Plumeveil is unique, but most of the time the equipment does nothing.
  • The biggest problem with the deck is that its really struggles when it gets behind. We just don't have many answers for opposing creatures that slip through the cracks. The next biggest problem is that there are a few fairly common cards in Modern that our deck simply can't beat. Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial invalidate a huge percentage of our deck. Creatures with islandwalk (i.e. Merfolk) are rough. Creaturelands are uncounterable threats, and Burn is likely unwinnable pre-board, and post-board we are leaning extremely heavily on Spellskite. As such, this deck feels like the type where you need to dodge your bad matchups to be successful. 
  • Overall, the biggest question for the deck is, "why Mono-Blue?" Being Modern, a world of insane mana, it would be pretty easy to splash a second color and still keep enough Islands to fully power up Vedalken Shackles. For example, we could easily play four Flooded Strand, four Hallowed Fountain, and four Prairie Stream, only lose four of our 20 Islands, and be able to significantly improve some of our biggest weaknesses by playing Supreme Verdict, Path to Exile, and awesome sideboard cards like Kor Firewalker, Stony Silence, and Timely Reinforcements. If I continue playing something similar, I'll definitely be testing a UW version cutting the Warmonger's Chariot and trimming some of the counterspells for some wraths and spot removal.

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Thanks again for voting for Mono-Blue Control. I really, really loved playing the deck. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.



More in this Series

Show more ...


More on MTGGoldfish ...

Image for Much Abrew About Nothing: Demonic Tentacles much abrew about nothing
Much Abrew About Nothing: Demonic Tentacles

Crushing the competition in last week's Instant Deck Tech voting, today we are looking to make a Demonic Pact and Languish our opponents!

May 2 | by SaffronOlive
Image for Podcast 476: Are These MTG Arena Conspiracy Theories Real? podcast
Podcast 476: Are These MTG Arena Conspiracy Theories Real?

Seth and Crim discuss post-ban Modern, Crim's recent Standard tournament and whether or not a massive list of MTG Arena conspiracy theori...

Mar 18 | by mtggoldfish
Image for Every You "Lose the Game" Card Ranked from Easiest to Hardest video
Every You "Lose the Game" Card Ranked from Easiest to Hardest

Magic has 18 cards that can make the opponent lose the game directly, and today, we're going to rank them all from hardest to easiest!

Mar 18 | by SaffronOlive
Image for Weekly Update (Mar 17): Violent Outburst Banned in Modern weekly update
Weekly Update (Mar 17): Violent Outburst Banned in Modern

This week in MTG news: Violent Outburst Banned in Modern.

Mar 18 | by mtggoldfish

Layout Footer

Never miss important MTG news again!

All emails include an unsubscribe link. You may opt-out at any time. See our privacy policy.

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Twitch
  • Instagram
  • Tumblr
  • RSS
  • Email
  • Discord
  • YouTube

Price Preference

Default Price Switcher