Subject: mono-u deck 'The Blue' Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 12:07:07 +1300 From: "Simon Connell" To: First, about the name. I noticed, to my surprise, that on the January 98 list of decks to beat, there was a deck called 'The Blue'. This what I have been calling my mono-u decks for a while, so I just want you to know I'm not copying. anyway, The Blue IV 1.2 Temporal Distortion/Plateau version (T2) for a type II in about a week from now 4 Ophidian 4 Man 'o' War 2 Suq 'Ata Firewalker 1 Rainbow Efreet 1 Air Elemental 4 Counterspell 4 Dissipate 4 Power Sink 3 Memory Lapse 1 Dismiss 1 Desertion 4 Impulse 1 Sapphire Medallion 1 Flood 1 Disrupting Scepter 1 Capsize 18 Island 4 quicksand 1 Winding Canyons the deck's not perfect, mainly because I haven't bought or traded enough tempest yet :) It probably wants another capsize, maybe whispers of the muse. The Dismiss/Dissipate ratio probably should change, too. Also, more sapphire diamonds could be good. the aim of this deck it to stop the other deck with counters, mano etc., and then get to a point called the 'plateau'. this is when you're almost certainly going to win. The plateau usually means a couple of counters in hand enough mana to cast them, no big threats on table you can't deal with, maybe an ophidian on board for the draw, and one of the controlly cards like Flood or Capsize. and a scepter and the mana to use it would be nice. when you get to this point, you just counter anything nasty, lapse occasionally to get time advantage, and either slowly kill with firewalkers/manos/satan or beatdown with air ele or rainbow. SIDEBOARD here's where the problem is. I'm not too experienced at sideboard design, and this is what I have so far: 4 Hydroblast 1 Chill (need more) 2 Energy Flux (kills worb; worb doesn't kill me) 2 Disrupt (vs. burn, pyroblast) 1 Grindstone 1 Wand of Denial 2 Boomerang 2 Nevinyrral's Disk the last two are mainly against green anti-blue (Choke, City of Solitude, Scraggy) which I fear (? - do I need to?), as I can't think of any better solutions. any help on this s/B would be appreciated at kingminos@clear.net.nz King Minos of Crete, Judge of the Underworld