Monday, March 11, 2013

Modern - U - Monoblue Izzet



Deck Rating (at time of initial publication):
 ★★★☆
4/5
"Remarkably fast and with a strong tempo."

      What This Deck Does
  • Utilizes extremely early-game creatures.
  • Prevents a mid-late game presence from your opponent.

     Features Worth Noting
  • All creatures, except for two Snapcaster Mages are one-drops, leaving open mana to respond with.
  • A total of 6 1-drop enchantments allow the deck to be heavily aggressive while retaining mana open. (this allows for you to stop them from getting 2 of your cards for one of theirs--or more frequently its too fast for that to even be an option.)
  • Clout of the Dominance gives every creature you control shroud, making them particularly difficult to deal with.
  • Fewer lands allow for slightly increased consistency. Each addition of an island fetch land will increase this consistency even further.
  • Boomerang allows you to solve almost every problem you'll be presented. If no problems arise, and you have it early, use it to bounce your opponents lands and keep them stuck in an early gamestate.
  • Using Snapcaster Mage for a Gitaxian Probe may seem wasteful, especially since you already have knowledge of an opponent's hand, but if you don't a counterspell ready in your hand, it can be a strong play which will allow you to keep pressure on your opponent.
  • Gigadrowse is a very powerful card. In certain match ups it acts as a strong control card, tapping down opponents' lands. In other match ups it allows you to get damage through via tapping down opponents' creatures. All of this while allowing you to exile excess copies cast to Nivmagus Elemental, giving him +2/+2 permanently per replicated copy.



     Deck List
Creature - 17

Enchantment - 6


Instant - 15


Sorcery - 4

Land - 18
14 x Island

4 x Any blue fetch land
(or 10 and 8) 
   Important Notes:
Don't think of, or play, this as a Nivmagus Elemental deck. Nivmagus is a helpful card, sure, but Stream Hopper is far more likely to win you a game against a good opponent than Nivmagus is.

Do not be afarid to spend life on a Gitaxian Probe if you are not against extremely fast aggro. Even against extremely fast aggro, it's probably still best to spend the life to keep the mana open and ready--this goes doubly so if Spell Pierce has been sided out for less strict counterspells.


     Match Ups Worth Noting
   Opponents with the option like to board in a Spellskite (believing that it will stop Clout of the Dominance and Unstable Mutation from being effective and keep their lands from being boomeranged back to their hands). Vapor snag forces them to tie up all of their mana replaying spellskite, preventing them from accomplishing anything.
   Spell Pierce is practically worthless against certain decks (such as Tron). They should be side-boarded out in many instances (for Mana Leak, Deprive, or more local-meta appropriate cards such as Hurkyl's Recall).