How burdensome is the mono blue  restriction?

 “Restriction breeds creativity.”

— Mark Rosewater (maybe)

What is the first thing that comes to mind when I mention Mono Blue Cube?…For me, I naturally think of Counterspell, Mana Drain, Mana Leak, Remand, Force of Will/Negation, and Divination, naturally; which are simply the best cards in Magic: the Gathering and the most fun, as long as I am casting these spells. Nonetheless, we know that there is much more to each color of Magic, and today we are going to take a cruise through the ocean of blue mana and delve deep within.

In this article, I will outline and describe three design pillars I used to build the Mono Blue Cube: 

• Aggressive Strategy Design
• Combo Strategy Design
• Control Strategy Design
• (Mystery Pillar)

Additionally, as the pillars are set in place and built up, I’m able to find supportive elements that become cross functional and can work in multiple strategies. This is the magical sweet spot of Cube design; there is nothing sweeter than finding a card that fits beautifully into two, three, and even more strategies.

I will not bury the lede an further, here’s the entire Cube list.

Cube Cobra List
LJAW’s Mono Blue Cube
(360 Card Vintage Cube)

 

Aggressive Strategy Design

The Aggressive (Aggro) archetype tends to be associated with decks that simply want to turn creatures sideways: White Weenie, Red Deck Wins, Naya Zoo, Affinity, Infect, and so on. However, this strategy is more nuanced when you think about having a lower than average mana curve, which allows you to fully maximize your resources, both from the full usage of your mana each turn and casting all of the cards in your hand.

The ideal outcome of an aggro strategy is beating your opponent with your last card in hand, while they are stuck with three to four cards still in hand. Thus, giving them the opportunity to saddle their sadness for the journey to their next match.

So what creature types come to mind when you think mono blue aggro? Legacy merfolk, Lorwyn standard fairies, Theros blue devotion’s Master of Waves surfing through standard, and this is where I began my search.

After digging through the rich history of Merfolks on Scryfall, I realized that Merfolks are extremely diverse, and I will be able to use them for my aggro strategy, and as a serendipitous encounter, many of these sea citizens will fit into my combo and control strategies, so let’s gooooo!

Here are some of the key players:

• Lord of Atlantis – Islandwalk may become an issue. I have a few ways to neutralize it, but I have my eye on this master of tactics.
• Master of the Pearl Trident – I’m watching you too.
• Rootwater Hunter – that’s right, I have a pinger sub-theme.
• True-Name Nemesis – just increase the power level of the Cube. This rogue may also get cut, but I want to play it out first.
• Master of Waves – go wide with blue devotion.
• Alandra, Sky Dreamer – adds a different flavor to the Merfolk deck, there are plenty of draw cards in the Cube.
• Ink Dissolver – a bit of mill flavor too. I have a larger than Merfolk mill archetype that I’m testing out. We are talking about blue here, so mill fits well into this Cube, but players tend vehemently hate mill or are just okay with it, which is not quite the recipe for greatness.
• A total of 46 Merfolk creatures, which you can see with this sorted view.

Moreover, as I scrolled through all of the Merfolks, I noticed that many of them were Wizards as well, so I decided to incorporate a Wizards creature type sub-theme. Because of the Merfolk overlap, there is still an aggro element to them, but I was able to open up the creature decks a bit and to explore area areas of the sea.

Here are some of the key players:

• Azami, Lady of Scrolls – the EDH mono blue commander also, but she will also draw you into the win: Thassa’s Oracle and Laboratory Maniac, for example.
• Snapcaster Mage – how how I have won many a game by two for ones and increments of two damage.
• Stonybrook Banneret – plays a strong role in both Merfolk and Wizard deck.
• Ertai, Wizard Adept – bring back the classics and hard counters on a stick. Along with Vidmage Prodigy for more hard counters.
• And event Memnarch, for the artifact ramp deck, is a Wizard
• A total of 61 Wizards, which you can see with this sorted view.

After noticing that I have more total Wizards than Merfolks, Wizards must be the more dominate creature type. On the other hand, the Merfolks are going to be the primary aggro deck, and I can envision these deepsea denizens dominating future drafts.

Now that I showed you the aggro strategy and brushed against another pillar strategy with the Wizards, let us take a look at the next pillar – Combo Strategy Design.

 

Combo Strategy Design

Intestinally, this is where I actually began building this Cube. I want every blue mage out there overflowing with nostalgia and the feeling of sheer power. So let us talk a look at the available options:

• A Stifling Ordeal: Phryexian Dreadnought + Stifle. I am willing the gulp down that delicious phyrexian oil for a 12/12 trampler on turn two. Additional Stifle effects include Sublime Epiphany, Nimble Obstructionist, Trickbind, and Tale’s End; none of these cards are as good as Stifle in this combo, but it opens up their play in other deck types. And they can be used to stifle a planeswalker’s ability. It is an achievement unlocked when you stifle an opponent’s planeswalker’s ultimate.
• Tinker Me Blue: Tinker + mana rock + big CMC artifact. Keep in mind that I want the flavor of this Tinker to be different from the MTGO Vintage Cube, so I included other fun big CMC artifacts: Hulking Metamorph, Triplicate Titan, Platinum Emperion, Cityscape Leveler (I know, in Vintage Cube but this guy is still newish), Portal to Phyrexia, The Magi Mirror, Memnarch, and Wizard’s Spellbook. The cube is loaded with mana rocks, so there will not be an issue of finding a target for Tinker.
• Build me an Academy with these Mana Rocks: Mana rocks + Upheaval and/or Stroke of Genious. I have the classics with Thran Dynamo, Worn Powerstone, Mind stone, Thought Vessel, Basalt Monolith, Everflowing Chalice and many more. Additionaly, Tolarian Academy fits well in this deck.
• Show and Tell Me More: Show and Tell + Big CMCs. Naturally, you could run all of the big CMC creature artifacts, but I also included some sea saltiness: Omniscience, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, Ancient Silver Dragon, Kederekt Leviathan, Deep-Sea Kraken, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Kiora Bests the Sea God.
• Dream It, Dreamer: Dream Halls + Big CMCs. Both players are giving the opportunity to dream big, but you have built your deck to dream bigger.
• Laboratory of Mysteries: Win conditions include Laboratory Maniac, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, and Thass’as oracle. Ways to empty your library include Strok of Genius, Jace, thePerfected Mind, Unctus, Grand Metatect + Second Wind, and maybe the card I’m most excited to try to win with — The Magi Mirror. I flew too close to the Elraine sun and always decked myself with this card; but now is my moment to outshine the sun.
• I draw 7, you draw 1: Basically, pick up the Narset, Parter of Veils and/or Hullbreacher and play your draw 7s: Time Spiral, Time Twister, and Echo of Eons (+Lion’s Eye Diamond).
• Lurking for Trouble: Emry, Lurker of the Loch + Mind Slaver and/or value cards such as Mishra’s Bauble and Urza’s Bauble.
• Hurry? But I Have All The Time: Time Value + Voltaic Key. This combo may be too powerful for the Cube, but I want to test it out and see how it performs and if it’s well enough liked.
• Don’t Hate the Donate: Donate + Illusions of Grandeur.
• Classics:
  • Capsize Nevinyrral’s Disk
  • Counterbalance + Sensei’s Top
  • Brine Elemental + Vesuvan Shapeshifter
  • Mindslaver + Academy Ruins
  • Karn, the Great Creator + Mycosynth Lattice (+Liquimetal Torque).

Overall, it will be fun navigating the draft to see which combos you can pick up and if you can overlap on a couple.

 

Control Strategy Design

You have been waiting patiently to get to the classic blue mage magical arsenal: counterspells, draw spells, and blue’s removal spells.

Counterspells:

Whether we like it or not, this Cube forces you to be a blue mage and we all know what blue mages love doing, allowing you to have fun only when they say you can.

• Counterspell
• Mana Drain
• Force of Will
• Force of Negation
• Pact of Negation
• Mana Leak
• Remand
• Cryptic Command
• Mystical Confluence
• Supreme Will
• Archmage’s Charm (triple pip not a problem here)
• Discontinuity
• And a few more.

Draw Cards:

From a blue mage’s perspective (and secretly everyone else), drawing cards is the best part of Magic: the Gathering.

• Treasure Cruise
• Ancestral Visions (note: not Ancestral Recall because that’s already being done in the Vintage Cube)
• Fact or Fiction
• Dig Through Time
• Blue Sun’s Zenith
• Thirst for Discovery
• Gush
• Pull from Tomorrow
• And a few more.

Additionally, we have cantrips:

• Serum Visions
• Ponder
• Portent
• Sleight of Hand
• Opt
• Consider
• Gitaxian Probe

Removal Spells:

Direct removal is not quite the blue thing to do; however, we do have goodish substitutes that will work if some of the pesky creatures get past our counterspells:

• Pongify
• Rapid Hybridization
• Imprisoned in the Moon
• Kasmina’s Transmutation
• Reality Shift
• Ravenform
• Curse of the Swine (one of my favorites)

And the control player actually only needs one card that is a win condition, which are plenty in the Cube, but I recommend a couple here:

• Snapcaster Mage
• Arcane Proxy
• Torrential Gearhulk

 

Blue Vibe Strategy Design

As I worked through these three strategy designs, I sort of stumbled upon another pillar; it is simply cards that have a fun blue vibe.

 Taking Turns: Turns can become too powerful and extremenly unfun to play against, so I kept it to a minimum and did not include the normal stars:

• Lighthouse Chronologist
• Temporal Trespass
• Timestream Navigator

Tutors: If we have combos then we also want additional ways to find those pieces:

• Merchant Scroll
• Intuition
• Mystical Tutor
• Solve the Equation
• Cunning Wish
• Fae of Wishes – I am rather excited about the Wishes and how they will play out.

Control Magic: This is quintessential blue magic right here. So if your opponent decides to Show and Tell a fattie bo baddie on turn 3, then you can just Control Magic it on your turn 4.

• Control Magic
• Treachery
• Old Man of the Sea
• Gilded Drake
• Blue Sun’s Twilight
• Vedalken Shackles

Clones: Similar to control magic, clones are classically blue:

• Clone
• Glasspool Mimic – I like how this also fits into a land slot.
• Phyrexian Metamorph
• Phantasmal Image

Multiple Blue Pips: This may be the most exciting find during the Cube design process, because it is extremely unique to this Cube. Normally, when multiple pips of a color is required, it can become very restrictive on casting that spell on time, but when all mana is blue, multiple pips are the same as the mana value, so things can get very interesting very quickly.

• {U}{U}
  • Boomerang
  • Dance of Many
  • Dandan
  • Legacy’s Allure
• {U}{U}{U}
  • Charisma – works well with pingers.
  • Fated Infatuation
  • Fractured Sanity
  • Tempest Djinn
• 2{U}{U}{U}
  • Cavalier of Gales
  • Future Sight
  • Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
  • Axami, Lady of Scrolls
• 3{U}{U}{U}
  • Guile
  • Sea Gate Restoration
  • Arcanis the Omnipotent
• {U}{U}{U}{U}
  • Demilich
  • Mass Manipulaiton
• 1{U}{U}{U}{U}
  • Invoke the Winds

 

The mono blue restriction was aiding rather than taxing.

Is we started out my Mono Blue Cube design journey, I knew that I wanted to start with the three main deck building strategies:

• Aggressive Strategy Design
• Combo Strateg Design
• Control Strategy Design

Morever, I found another pillar that fits the Cube perfectly.

• Blue Vibes Strategy Design

If you are ever in the Indianpolis, Indiana area and want to draft this Cube in person, let us know in the Indy Cube Commonwealth Discord and we will schedule a time to Cube draft with you.

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