Dear Mattedesa,

 

I wanted to build a mono blue Standard deck that counters everything and then uses one or two evasive creatures to swing in for the win, similar to the deck Randy Buehler used in the 1998 World Championships. I basically replaced all of the old cards with standard versions, and this is what I got:

 

Instants:

4 Dissipate

4 Cancel

4 Stymied Hopes            

4 Nullify

4 Dissolve

4 Disdainful Stroke

4 Jace's Ingenuity 

2 Aetherspouts  

 

Creatures:

2 Pearl Lake Ancient     

 

Artifacts:

4 Haunted Plate Mail

2 Perilous Vault

 

Lands:

22 Islands

 

It seemed pretty good on paper, but it seems to be lacking something. I was wondering if there is a way to improve this deck a bit. Can you take a look at this deck and give me some advice on how to make it better?

 

Thanks,

Antonio

 

---

 

Antonio,

 

Thanks for writing in. This is the classic blue counterspell deck, otherwise known as a permission deck, since your opponent basically has to ask permission to play each spell. It seems like a good strategy, and it's worked in the past, so it should be good now, right?

 

Not necessarily. A few things have happened in Magic since the deck Antonio mentioned was a championship deck. Here's the 1998 deck for reference: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/1998-randy-buehler-world-championship-decks/

 

The main change that relates to this deck is that people really don't like playing against permission decks. It's not a lot of fun to be on the receiving end of 24 counterspells. Wizards saw this, and as a result, the quality of available counterspells has gone down in recent years, and the quality of cheap, efficient creatures has gone up. 

 

In the 1998 championship deck, there were 8 counterspells costing 2 mana that could hit any kind of spell with no real drawback, so once you got 2 mana, you could pretty much stop anything they tried to put out. Mana Leak lost value later, but was a pretty solid counter early. In addition, there was Force Spike that could counter someone's first turn play, and Quicksand that could take out any small creatures that snuck into play.

 

Now, all your 2 mana counterspells are conditional. Stymied Hopes is basically Force Spike with double the cost. Nullify only hits creatures or auras. Disdanful Stroke only hits expensive spells. There's no cheap blue card or land that can help you deal with quick creatures as well as  Quicksand did. 

 

The sad truth is that a deck built almost exclusively around counterspells is going to have a hard time keeping enough mana and enough counterspells up to keep all the threats at bay. You're usually paying three mana per spell to stop their spells. There are just too many great spells that cost less than that, so you are often going to be spending more mana to counter their spells than they are trying to cast them. That eventually adds up to a losing battle for you.

 

Another reason blue counterspell decks are hard right now is the emphasis on multicolor decks. So many of the good cards out right now require you to use two colors. With all the dual lands available, it's not much harder to get your mana for running two colors than one. By sticking to a mono-blue deck, you cut your options way down.

 

So, is all hope lost? Not quite, but we do have to tweak things a bit. We have to assume that the opponent is going to sneak a spell or two through here and there. Aetherspouts is a good choice - let's bring in more of those. I think 2 Perilous Vaults are about right, but both of these cards do nothing until we get 5 mana. We need a cheaper option. Let's put in Voyage's End. It's a 2 mana way to temporarily get a creature out of the way, and hopefully, you'll be able to counter it when they try to recast it. Plus, the scry ability can be a big help when setting up your next draw.

 

+2 Aetherspouts

+4 Voyage's End

 

Next, to make sure you have enough counters to deal with their threats, you need to draw cards. Jace's Ingenuity is decent, but it's another 5 mana spell, meaning it's going to be hard to counter something and play this in the same turn. I would rather see you use Dig Through Time instead. While it only nets you 2 cards, it's much more likely you'll find 2 useful cards since you get to look through 7! By the time your hand is running low and you need a draw spell, you should have plenty of cards in your graveyard to delve away, and this should cost you less than Jace's Ingenuity.

 

-4 Jace's Ingenuity

+4 Dig Through Time

 

Now for your creatures. Pearl Lake Ancient is a big fatty that has flash and is hard to kill. It's hard to argue against him for this deck. I see why you chose Haunted Plate Mail, but I have a different suggestion: Consecrated Sphinx. It does cost one more and have one less power, but the flying helps, and scry 3 on each attack is a HUGE deal. Looking through three cards each turn makes it three times more likely that you will have something useful to play next turn. Plus, the chance to give the sphinx hexproof makes him pretty tough to kill as well.

 

-4 Haunted Plate Mail

+3 Consecrated Sphinx

 

You've probably noticed that I've added a lot more than I've taken out. It's come to the hard part - what do we trim? To me, the least efficient counterspell you have is Disdainful Stroke. By the time your opponent is playing spells that cost 4 or more, you should have plenty of mana to use your 3 mana counterspells. There's no need to clutter your hand with counters that aren't going to work more than half of the time. Next, I would drop Cancel. With 8 other counterspells costing three that do more, I think it is the weakest link.

 

-4 Disdainful Stroke

-4 Cancel

 

Finally, we come to the land. Since you are playing mono-blue, you can afford to run a few utility colorless lands. There aren't many good ones - certainly nothing like Quicksand - but I think we could get away with a few Radiant Fountains. They'll help against the hyper-aggressive decks that will be your worst enemy. Plus, a total of 25 lands makes it much more likely that you'll not miss land drops. It's crucial in control decks to play a land each of your first several turns to stay ahead of the opponent.

 

+3 Radiant Fountain

 

I would play with some of these changes and see if they help. It's less of a permission deck and more of a general control deck, but I think it might work better in today's Standard environment. As with any deck I work on, these are only ideas, and some additional tweaking may be needed after playing a while. If I were playing this deck, this is the list I'd try:

 

Instants:

4 Dissipate        

4 Stymied Hopes

4 Nullify

4 Dissolve

4 Dig Through Time

4 Aetherspouts

4 Voyage's End

 

Creatures:

2 Pearl Lake Ancient

3 Consecrated Sphinx

 

Artifacts:

2 Perilous Vault

 

Lands:

22 Islands

3 Radiant Fountain

 

 

Have fun, and keep an extra deck handy in case your friends get tired of not being able to play spells!

 

- mattedesa