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hgkenshin

Date Joined: Oct 24, 2011

Posts: 77

As the title states I am looking for some good mono blue multiplayer deck ideas.

I already have a blue/black faerie deck which I enjoy playing but I wanted to make a mono blue deck and I am not really sure what route to go.

I know blue does not tend to shine with aggro decks so I am thinking control but I really don't know how to build a good control deck for multiplayer and I was wondering if some of the more experienced players here could possibly suggest some ideas or point me in the right direction?

If someone has some links or something as well for decks that would be appreciated as well but ultimately I like to make my own deck ideas - just not sure where to start on this one.

Thanks.

Tich

Date Joined: May 27, 2006

Posts: 2,105

Mill could work. Mesmeric Orb

and then maybe some Propaganda

, Pendrell Mists

and Copy Enchantment

effects to protect you. Riddlekeeper

, Fog Bank

, Guard Gomazoa

and Wall of Frost

all come to mind too.

You could also play a Ebony Owl Netsuke

+ Iron Maiden

deck that forces everyone to draw tons of cards via Howling Mine

, Temple Bell

, Font of Mythos

, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea

, Kami of the Crescent Moon

and more. The same protection spells and effects used in the previous deck apply for this one as well.

A Tron deck might work too. You basically abuse Urza's Mine

+ Urza's Tower

+ Urza's Power Plant

to do fun stuff. Cloudpost

+ Glimmerpost

(+ Vesuva

) can work well too. You can do things like use Academy Ruins

to recur Expedition Map

to tutor for your special lands and/or Eye of Ugin

and eventually start hardcasting massive colorless threats such as Eldrazi. You can also do something like Capsize

+ buyback a Nevinyrral's Disk

over and over and somehow win while doing it. Maybe Indestructible creatures or something. Anyways, the deck could just play a bunch of Mulldrifter

and Thirst for Knowledge

effects that draw cards and you basically just play lands until you win. Rhystic Study

and Mystic Remora

would both make fine draw engines, but obviously aren't useful if you opt for a Disk build.

My guide to Black multiplayer cards and strategies:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/18893722?sdb=1&post_num=1#322195706

My guide to Red multiplayer cards and strategies:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/28999213/?sdb=1&post_num=1#517562879

My guide to White multiplayer cards and strategies
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29011349/?sdb=1&pg=last#517773211

My guide to Green multiplayer cards and strategies
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29034323/Tichs_Guide_to_Green_Multiplayer_Cards_and_Strategies

hgkenshin

Date Joined: Oct 24, 2011

Posts: 77

Thanks Tich, some solid ideas there, I like the milling concept just seems like you'd get targeted quickly and focused down.

Tich

Date Joined: May 27, 2006

Posts: 2,105

May 1, 2012 -- 4:30PM, hgkenshin wrote:
Thanks Tich, some solid ideas there, I like the milling concept just seems like you'd get targeted quickly and focused down.

Indeed. There's a reason why I listed more defensive cards than anything else. Having a board full of Propaganda s, Pendrell Mists and Copy Enchantment s on either makes it very hard to attack, and very painful if Mesmeric Orb is in play.

My guide to Black multiplayer cards and strategies:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/18893722?sdb=1&post_num=1#322195706

My guide to Red multiplayer cards and strategies:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/28999213/?sdb=1&post_num=1#517562879

My guide to White multiplayer cards and strategies
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29011349/?sdb=1&pg=last#517773211

My guide to Green multiplayer cards and strategies
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29034323/Tichs_Guide_to_Green_Multiplayer_Cards_and_Strategies

hgkenshin

Date Joined: Oct 24, 2011

Posts: 77

Yea that is true, just have to get the right cards out. I am liking the idea though, wonder how much that will cost me. I'll look into it.

hgkenshin

Date Joined: Oct 24, 2011

Posts: 77

Tich any ideas on how to do a mono blue control deck for multiplayer? Think that's viable or do you think it would be too hard to control multiple opponents? When I play it's usually versus two others.

I still think I am gonna go with the mill idea as it looks like it could be fun to play.

And if you are busy it's no problem, you've helped me more than enough already.

Tich

Date Joined: May 27, 2006

Posts: 2,105

That would be my Tron deck. I don't like the idea of countering spells when you're facing off against multiple opponents. I would rather do something like Capsize

a Nevinyrral's Disk

every turn to keep the field clear of permanents and not having to worry about trading 1-for-1. If it isn't clear, you just activate the Disk then bounce it with the trigger still on the stack to blow up the world while still preserving your Disk. You never actually lose cards (you're buying Capsize

back) so eventually people will run out of threats at which point you can play some big bomb and win. Again, I like Eye of Ugin

because it represents unlimited threats as long as you have a creature such as Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

or Darksteel Colossus

in your deck. Oh, and it's worth mentioning that Spell Burst

is good in this style of deck. Countering spells is fine when you can do it an infinite number of times.

If I absolutely had to build some sort of Control deck, it would include a ton of draw spells to ensure that I could survive trading 1-for-1. Rhystic Study

and Mystic Remora

are the two draw engines that come to mind. I might even try and Forbid

things up with like Mind Unbound

or something. I dunno, I hate counterspells in multiplayer so I don't actually have a deck in mind.

What I will say is that I only build decks that could win ~8 player games if needed. I like having "infinite threats and answers." I don't like expending resources to 1-for-1 or 2-for-1 people. Eventually someone will play something that you won't be able to stop if you play like that. That's why my version of a Control deck isn't what immediate springs to your mind. I hate Counterspell

and Think Twice

and whatnot, but I'm guessing that's what you want to play with. I'm not the guy who can help you with those kinds of decks, because I find those cards to be horrible in big Chaos games. I'd rather build a deck that has a legitimate shot at beating 7 people if need be.

My guide to Black multiplayer cards and strategies:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/18893722?sdb=1&post_num=1#322195706

My guide to Red multiplayer cards and strategies:
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/28999213/?sdb=1&post_num=1#517562879

My guide to White multiplayer cards and strategies
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29011349/?sdb=1&pg=last#517773211

My guide to Green multiplayer cards and strategies
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75842/29034323/Tichs_Guide_to_Green_Multiplayer_Cards_and_Strategies

trann

Date Joined: Mar 7, 2012

Posts: 21

Saw this post and thought I would provide a sample decklist I constructed:

Lands
14 x Island

4 x Terramorphic Expanse

4 x Evolving Wilds

2 x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

Artifacts
4 x Elixir of Immortality

4 x Mesmeric Orb

Plainswalkers
1 x Jace, Memory Adept

Creatures
3 x Dreamborn Muse

4 x Fog Bank

4 x Hedron Crab

3 x Laboratory Maniac

3 x Riddlekeeper

Enchantment
3 x Memory Erosion

Instants
3 x Archive Trap

3 x Thought Scour

This deck abuses Hedron crab + fetchlands to mill out targets while spreading the love to everyone else with the other board-wide mill cards. You can choose to be the target of that crab mill to win with the laboratory maniac + Jace, or keep him as insurance and mill out the biggest threats on the board one-by-one. With two crabs and a fetchland you can mill 12 cards in one turn. Oboro is there in case you cant play a fetch and still want to bounce->play a land. You can go more in-depth into this by splashing green with Fastbond

and recurring Oboro (watch your health!).

Dreamborn isn't being used to her full advantage since I omitted Forced Fruition

and similar global draw spells, but I think just her threat will either force your opponents to deal with her directly or keep their hand sizes small.

By all means replace the Fog Bank

s or Riddlekeeper

s with Propaganda

/ Pendrell Mists

to diversify your defense against creature removal.

XavarirX

Date Joined: Jul 31, 2009

Posts: 71

Stop making mill decks without Undead Alchemist

! It's like a free win!

Keino

Date Joined: Aug 27, 2009

Posts: 2,905

Counterspells in multiplayer are better for combo decks rather than control decks. I use counterspells in a mono-blue platinum angel

+ diplomatic immunity

build to prevent people from using sacrifice effects, mass bounce, or any disruption of their own. Since it doesn't incite players into attacking me by inconspicuously drawing a bunch of cards and playing thran dynamo

s, once it hits off, it pretty much seals the game when darksteel forge

hits the board.

It is very hard to make a control deck for multiplayer without using some kind of game lock. Stasis

decks are a perfect example of this. But as you might imagine, these can quickly become boring to play against. If you just toss some counterspells into a deck, the most you will do is annoy people, which usually gets you killed.

As for the mill deck, you might like narcomoeba

, gaea's blessing

(or any of the eldrazi lords), and I personally prefer the null brooch

+ ensnaring bridge

combo. If you use laboratory maniac

as a wincon, you might as well use hermit druid

and build a deck based completely around the two.

HOW TO AUTOCARD!
When posting in a text box, type [c]Plains[/c] to make your post show Plains

.
Are you making a casual mill deck? Please read. Show

Control is the key of a mill deck. You should free up your mana as much as possible so that you can respond to whatever your opponent is doing. Having some way to remove threats, both real and percieved, is necessary to survival. Real threats are those that are already on the field, and are something a simple unsummon

or doom blade

can remove. Percieved threats are those that aren't on the field, something a simple duress

or counterspell

can deal with. Controlling the board will allow your mill deck to continuously perform, if you use permanent style mill, that is.

One-Shot Mill spells are something you should avoid. You can toss tome scour

s at your opponent until your hand runs out, but that isn't going to be enough to mill them to death. With 1-shot mill spells, like tome scour

, you have to treat them like burn spells. Therefore, the only "good" 1-shot mill spells are sanity grinding

(in the right deck) and mind funeral

. Try to find more permanent styles of milling, like memory erosion

, hedron crab

, and curse of the bloody tome

, so that you don't have to waste your mana each turn doing something that those permanents can do with a single mana/turn investment. Keeping your mana open allows you to respond with control elements.

Traumatize

Rant. Traumatize is a terrible card for a multitude of reasons. First, it costs 5 to cast, which is a large investment for a mill deck. Milling half a library sounds neat, but if you do the math, it really isn't that much. An average 60 card deck starts with drawing 7 cards. Then, barring any draw spells on their end, or ramp on yours, 5 turns will go by, where they draw 5 more cards, leaving 48 in the deck. Unless they had a deck with more than 60 cards, or you ramped it out, the most you'll ever mill with a single Traumatize on turn 5 is 24 cards. That's not too shabby, but hang on, there's more! If they drew any additional cards or if they were milled before turn 5, that number will be much lower. In addition, any more Traumatize's you draw will only mill less and less as the game goes on...which is the point of a mill deck. My whole point on Traumatize is the it is NOT worth the 5 mana investment, not even with haunting echoes

. You can mill more than 24 before turn 5...which you can then cast the echoes.

If you look at a mill deck like a burn deck, you'll notice that it takes longer to win with mill than with burn. For example, lightning bolt

costs 1 and does 3 out of the 20 damage needed to win (barring any lifegain or damage prevention). For mill, that same investment of 1 would have to mill 9 cards out of an average 60 card deck to be the equivilent of lightning bolt

. The problem is that there is no mill card that can do that...except hedron crab

, over a period of time. The initial investment of 1 will pay off in 3 more land drops to make the crab equal to a bolt. However, the crab nets you more mill beyond those 3 land drops, making it better as the game draws on. Other cards, like curse of the bloody tome

, are excellent ways of milling an opponent because the initial investment of

is all you have to pay in order to put your opponent on a clock. All you have to do is stay alive, which is the true goal of a mill strategy.

There are other ideas for mill decks that are specific to certain types of strategies. Combo mill decks can mill an entire player's library out from under them. Secondary mill strategies are usually tied to another strategy, like drowner of secrets

in a merfolk deck, or halimar excavator

in an ally deck. Milling can be done in certain decks that are able to ramp out enough mana to make use of the higher costing mill spells, like using 16 x post

to pay for X on sands of delirium

or for ambassador laquatus

. Multiplayer mill decks are even tougher to build, but can be done. Being a slower environment[/c], it is easier to ramp in multiplayer, allowing for big X spells, like mind grind

, to be useful. Consuming aberration

is another star player. The more straightforward strategy is to use mesmeric orb

and dreamborn muse

while being the only deck at the table that can deal with it

. There are always new strategies coming out with each new set, so check gatherer for any new mill cards that you find to be the most fun for you!

Now you can say that you haven't fallen into the trap that most new players fall into when they build their first mill deck!

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