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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Mono Blue Morph/Control Deck
January 23, 2008

Hey there Bmoor, I have a Mono Blue Morph deck that I've been changing up and tweaking for the past month. I really have a lot of fun playing with it when it gets rolling, but I noticed that it has a trouble against faster decks. So before I go into depth, here's the decklist:

Creatures:
4 Shaper Parasite
2 Fledgling Mawcor
2 Aquamorph Entitiy
2 Aphetto Achemist
2 Coral Trickster
1 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
2 Ixidor, Reality Sculptor
2 Ixidron
2 Serendib Sorcerer
2 Merfolk Thaumaturgist
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Arcanis the Omnipotent

Artifacts:
4 Dream Chisel

Spells:
4 Counterspell
4 Mana Leak
4 Ovinize

Mana:
24 Island

So the way this deck would ideally work is a combination of a few cards to break through the defenses of the opponent. I call 2 of the cards "setup cards" and 2 other cards "finisher cards"

The "Setup Cards" are Serendib Sorcerer and Ovinize. These cards turns a single creature into a 0/2 or a 0/1 with no abilities, respectively. The "Finisher Cards" are the Merfolk Thaumaturgist and the Shaper Parasite. The Merfolk Thaumaturgist switches the power and toughness of a creature, so a creature with 0 power would die. The Shaper Parasite's morph ability is to give a target creature +2/-2 or -2/+2. And again, with 0/2 or 0/1, the +2/-2 option would kill the creature. Of course, the Serendib Sorcerer/Merfolk Thaumaturgist is the ideal combo, since it can be used each turn with no mana cost. I thought the Aphetto Alchemist fit in rather nicely with this combo as well.

Besides that combination, the other creatures I put I think compliment each other relatively well. The Aquamorph Entity morphs into either a 1/5 or a 5/1, and with the Merfolk Thaumaturgist I can switch that to create a strong attacker or a big wall for a turn. I use the Coral Tricksters to tap/untap enemy creatures to get past them, or to use my creature abilities again. Fledgling Mawcors are decent 2/2 morphing fliers. The Vesuvan Shapeshifter is simply awesome.

Of course, Ixidor, Ixidron, and Dream Chisels are a must in a blue morph deck.

I use Teferi sort of like a crooked referee. He stops the other player from casting spells during my turn (especially helpful during the combat phase), and he lets me summon creatures at the end of the opponent's turn, so they can have what I like to call "ghetto haste."

I play Arcanis kind of like an awesome decoy. His ability is awesome, and he can come back to my hand if he gets into any trouble, provided if I have enough mana. Drawing cards via Arcanis has definitely given me the upper hands in some of the recent matches I've played with this deck.

And last but not least, the Counterspells. I generally use these to counter things that would give my creatures a hard time. I generally use them against spells, enchantments, and artifacts as opposed to creature summons. Unless of course, if that creature is too much for my Ovi/Sorcerer & Merfolk/Parasite combo to handle. Mana Leaks are great in my opinion since if the player REALLY wants to cast the spell, he/she has to pay an extra 3 mana. I've thought about putting in some Brine Elementals to compliment this.

I've messed with this deck for awhile now, so I've considered alot of options. I've been thinking about taking out the Mawcors and Tricksters and placing some Willbenders or Mischievous Quanars in their place, to further the control aspect of the deck. Maybe some other Counterspells besides Mana Leak? I've tried Raven Guild Master in past incarnations of this deck, but not with this one. With the added control that this deck has over past revisions, do you think I should put him in? His ability is pretty nasty.

The downfalls that I can see with this deck are that it's somewhat of a mana hog, it struggles a bit in the early game, and it doesn't have any creatures that pack a mean punch (besides Ixidron) Aquamorph Entities are potentially 5/1s, but that's rather fragile. Perhaps I could throw in some Brine Elementals to solve this? Like I said earlier, they would compliment Mana Leak pretty well, and they are 5/4s. On the other hand, their morphing cost is rather steep at 7. I've even tried putting in some green morphs like Krosan Cloudscraper, Krosan Colossus, and Root Elemental... Help!!!

Well that's all I can really think of at the moment... Ugh, sorry for such a long email, I hope you don't just put this in the trash...

Anyways, I hope you have a great New Years! I look forward to hearing from you soon!!!
 
Well, the deck looks like a lot of power and a lot of options, but the main problem here is a bit of a lack of focus.
 
On the whole, the deck is monoblue Morph.  It does this fairly well, or seems to anyway.  But then there's the combo of giving opponent's creatures zero power and then killing then with Thaumaturgist or Shaper Parasite.  This doesn't really fit the rest of the deck.  It's two two-card combos (with some interchangeability) that kills a creature.  One creature, with two cards.  Does this seem effective to you?  Combos should do a bit more than kill creatures, I'm afraid, since even in blue there are plenty of ways to get rid of a creature with only one card.  Take out Serendib Sorceror and Merfolk Thaumaturgist.  Shaper Parasite can stay in, because it's a Morph creature, and Ovinize can stay in, because it is in fact a card that can "kill" a creature all on its own.  (Hint: blocking may need to be involved.)
 
Okay, now we need to supply you with some early game.  You may need to play Coral Trickster face up, as it is a 2/1 for 2, if your opponent comes fast out of the gates.  Another option is Fathom Seer.  Now, playing Fathom Seer face up just for the 1/3 for two is a pretty bad play, but if you think you need to, don't be afraid to.  You also could use some extra ways to draw cards if you don't see your single Arcanis, and Fathom Seer does that beautifully as well.  But for a turn-two blocker, you'd be much better off with Wall of Deceit.  It'a a Wall with Morph that can turn itself back face down when you'd rather attack with a 2/2 than block with an 0/5.
 
Another card that helps speed up blue control decks is Force Spike.  Like Mana Leak, but faster.  The only trouble is, it becomes fairly useless in the late game.  So maybe just Wall of Deceit.
 
Your next move should be to soup up your creature selection.  Shaper Parasite is nice, but you also metioned that Aquamorph Entity is currently your main damage dealer.  Well, Brine Elemental would indeed work well with that, but it's not the only one.  I''d like to see a few Maelstrom Djinn in here.  Evading around blockers is always preferable to just attacking into them, so even Mistform Seaswift could be of use in this capacity.  Maybe it is just a 3/1, but it has flying.  Remeber, unmorphing a Shaper Parasite can force through the last 2 points as long as your attacker can survive the +2/-2.  If you can find/afford one, Quicksilver Dragon would also make a great addition.
 
Finally, replace two of your Islands-- one with Zoetic Cavern and one with Shimmering Grotto or some other land that taps for any color of mana.  Zoetic Cavern acts as the "booby prize", so that when your opponent is trying to figure out which face down creature to hit with his Nameless Inversion, there's the possibility of merely hitting a land... or of you unmorphing a land which will suddenly no longer be a legal target for his kill spell.  Shimmering Grotto, or Vivid Creek or Mirrodin's Core or what have you, will give you the possibility of unmorphing an off-color morph, thus making your opponent think that those face down cards could be almost anything.
 
Because after all, what good is Morph if you can't try and bluff?
 
Good luck, and work on that Poker face!
 
~BMoor


  


 

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