9.15.04 

[Mono-Water/Lancer Stall]
Mono-Water’s success is largely due to tactics like bouncing, stalling & drawing into killer hitters like Crystal Lancer. There are many ways to build a successful Mono-Water deck, and how one sets out to achieve the build’s win condition is very important. DaRkNeSs MaStEr’s deck strategy aims for the Lancer/blocker stall. He writes:

Okay, my deck's sole purpose is to get out chump blockers/Liquid People for my Lancers, then evolve. I don't have that many and I am on a budget as of now, kinda! I might be able to get 1 Paladin, if I'm lucky, so here it is. I HAVE 2 EMPTY SLOTS x4 FOR CARDS, PLEASE FILL THEM OR I MIGHT MYSELF!

Here’s his deck LancerUv2:
Crystal Lancer x4
Corile x4
Aqua Shooter x4
Aqua Hulcus x4
Aqua Vehicle x4
Marine Flower x4
Aqua Soldier x4
Plasma Chaser x2
Aqua Sniper x2
"Open Spot" x4
"Open Spot" x4
40 cards

DaRkNeSs MaStEr can have strong Mono-Water deck without Paladin, and has expressed that he’s working on getting more Emeral through trades. While DaRkNeSs MaStEr’s deck was presented to me unfinished, his card choices reflect the importance of being able to evolve Liquid People into Crystal Lancer. It would have been better if he filled his remaining slots with his own deck choices, because it’s a bigger window to what he sees as his deck’s mode of operation. I slapped 4 Brain Serum and 4 Spiral Gate into the open slots to get the deck rolling for fixes.

Some pre-fix playing observations:
The deck was awkwardly slow with getting Lancer onto the field. Getting Lancers into hand through Serum and Hulcus was not a problem, but lasting long enough versus speed decks was a chore. Moreover the venerability of most of the Liquid People evo bait and lack of efficient stall blockers gave opponents ample to time to kill off evo bait or evolve into nasty guys like Barkwhip and Valdios. Essentially, this deck did not stall well enough against a variety of decks to get Lancer out and hitting. More stall could make the build stronger and deter massive early turn shield loss from speed decks. Drawing and bouncing also could use a boost.

[Creatures]
[Liquid People Evolution]
DaRkNeSs MaStEr has the requisite 4 Crystal Lancer in his deck. All DaRkNeSs MaStEr needs to decide is which evo-bait Liquid People to put in the deck. Let’s evaluate some other his choices:

--Aqua Shooter: versus a blocker deck his attacking status wasn’t that much of a plus because it’s underpowered, and it was a prime Critical Blade target versus Darkness. In the mirror match packing Paladin, Shooter was bounced and that set back evolving into Lancer.

--Aqua Vehicle: versus Diamond Cutter and speed decks packing destruction like Hammer Vehicle was best left to drop as backup—essentially best when dropped the same turn Lancer could be summoned (8 mana). Having it in the deck gave cushions for when Hulcus needed to be dropped early for the draw. Nice early hitter versus blocker-less decks.

--Aqua Sniper: could evo it into Lancer—but that would signal something is wrong with the way his deck is operating. Sniper’s really there to act as Teleportation and to be another hitter on the field. But in the state that his deck’s currently in, it ended up as mana most often when drawn.

-4 Aqua Shooter
-2 Aqua Sniper

[Blockers]
Blockers are walls to keep DaRkNeSs MaStEr in the game long enough to get 1 or 2 Crystal Lancer on the field. DaRkNeSs MaStEr’s original build hints that he wants ample blocker stall and a bit more aggression for his deck. I built ones with 4, 8 and 12 blockers and ultimately settled on 8 in order to give the deck room for ample stall and offense.

--Angler Cluster: 3 mana for a 6000 blocker in mono-Water is a steal. Cluster is the needed stall for this build because it’s effective defense from 3rd turn past the 7th versus many decks.

--Marine Flower: Most of what Marine Flower blocked killed it, thus weakening the stall potential of the deck.

--Hunter Fish: in match ups—Hunter Fish proved to offer more tactical advantages because it took out early hitters, especially the Fire ones that are forced to attack—serving as removal.

- 4 Marine Flower
+4 Hunter Fish
+4 Angler Cluster

[Other Hitters]
Relying on just the Liquid People to knock off shields or provide advantages is not very effective against certain decks. Packing other hitters offers more strategic choices, especially when those hitters have card effects.

--Corile: added another strategic element to the deck—change the game’s tempo. Corile was more effective against decks not running much mana gain with cheap cast evos like Barkwhip.

--Plasma Chaser: hit the mana zone often simply because at those moments blocker and Liquid People drops were more urgent. The deck needs more ‘guaranteed’ draw sources, so I’m going to suggest adding key draw spells below.

-2 Plasma Chaser

[Spells]
The major strategy of the deck is stalling for Lancer, but simply drawing one card at a time isn’t going to make the cut. This deck needs draw power as another source of deck speed. Shaper is a sweet card—4 draws in mono-Water. It was cast at opportune times—when there was a good amount of stall out in my field and my opponent’s field wasn’t immediately threatening. I found Serum & Hulcus to be enough draw for the deck, but Shaper was very helpful when used as it drew into greater casting options.

+4 Brain Serum
+2 Psychic Shaper

Bounce is Water’s ‘removal’ and this build can use even more of it. Teleportation is only a Rare, and goes for $0.50 to $1.50 at most stores. Teleportation worked best against decks like Darkness/Fire Rush and Darkness/Water. It still had some legs versus many other decks, but more so for the decks with ample summoning sickness creatures and low mana gain. DaRkNeSs MaStEr left Spiral Gate out of his build for reasons unknown to me, but it worked great in the deck.

+3 Teleportation
+4 Spiral Gate

Here’s the fixed build:
4x Crystal Lancer
4x Aqua Hulcus
4x Aqua Solider
3x Aqua Vehicle
4x Hunter Fish
4x Angler Cluster
4x Corile
4x Spiral Gate
4x Brian Serum
3x Teleportation
2x Psychic Shaper
40 cards

The deck’s goals are the same, but executed more effectively. No matter the match up, finding windows to attack, knowing what to bounce, getting out crucial blockers, and hitting with Lancer will be the keys to winning. DaRkNeSs MaStEr should continue to tweak his deck and experiment with elements such as more bounce, different or more draw sources, shield setting with Emeral and even Paladin. This deck strives for turn six and beyond to knock off shields with Lancer, so many of DaRkNeSs MaStEr’s crucial decisions will be made going into the mid game. Good Luck, DaRkNeSs MaStEr!