M11 Part 2: True Blue Power

[Lelouch32]

M11 Part 2: True Blue Power

By: Corlando

Alright, we’re back with part two of my look at M11. Hope you guys have liked it so far, so let’s keep the fun rolling.

Blue has definitely seen an upgrade with M11. From the fun counterspells, to the terrifying merfolk, to one of the biggest creatures in the game, Blue has definitely solidified itself as a real true threat in every sense of the word, Just in case Jace, the Mind sculptor wasn't a clue. Without anymore delay, let’s hop on in.

In this expansion, Blue saw the reintroduction of a well-known card, Mana Leak. Several of other reviewers and commentators have already spoken about how awesome Mana Leak is so I really feel like a parrot right now. Oh well. First Mana Leak is a :mana1::manau: spell that forces an opponent to pay 3 extra mana to actually finish the target spell. This is just mean. Now with Deprive, Mana Leak, etc, in its holsters, Blue is set to nullify most decks if not all. Now where did I drop that cracker.

Another great spell Blue gained with M11 is the hilarious Redirect. This is a great card in some blue decks and can be down right scary against certain decks. This :manau::manau: spell gives you the ability to choose a new target for target spell. This means a deck with Redirects in it can essentially wield four of the spells in their opponent’s deck. Got Lighting Bolts? How about you take the damage? Got Oblivion Ring? Why not neutralize your Sun Titan instead? You’re going to Reverberate your kicked Burst Lighting? Well I’ll redirect your Reverberate to copy my Redirect and then have the copy Redirect switch the target on your Burst Lightning. See, the possibility for craziness is there for the taking.

But amazing spells are not the only thing Blue was given in M11. Blue now has a number of grand creatures, each ready to bring the beatdown in its own special way. First we have Clone… no wait it’s a Baneslayer Angel… no now it’s a Pelakka Wurm… now it’s a Conquering Manti- WOULD YOU JUST PICK SOMETHING ALREADY!!! Anyway Clone is definitely a great card for Blue, helping to keep the battlefield even until the opportune moment. Imagine this, your opponent has just played a Baneslayer Angel. You’re dead next turn if you don’t do something. You draw a Clone so you play it and copy their Baneslayer Angel. Your opponent attacks thinking that they’ll just cancel out, but you Unsummon your opponent’s angel. Now you have the power and you win. See what fun can be had when playing with your clone... why does that sound so dirty?

Another great creature that I personally love is Stormtide Leviathan. This is an awesome creature with terrific abilities and amazing power. Granted this 8/8 creature for :mana5::manau::manau::manau: is rather expensive and probably won’t see tournament play, but I think that it is such a big card that it is possible. Looking at Stormtide Leviathan we see three pretty interesting abilities. First it has Islandwalk. Not bad because most blue decks play Spreading Seas so why not have an unblockable 8/8? The next ability reads, “All lands are Islands in addition to their other types.” Essentially what this means is that this one creature floods the entire battlefield. Oh if only holographic technology were further along to the point we could hold holographic battles, playing this card would look so cool. Stormtide Leviathan’s final ability reads, Creatures without flying or islandwalk can’t attack.” This basically shuts down 90% of all creatures currently in the game which is so excellent. This ability really plays into the feel of the creature, making it feel like you have actually flooded the battlefield. Stormtide Leviathan is a great card and one that I personally hope to see make tournament play.

Blue has also obtained a few great enchantments to help it wreak havoc on an opponent’s game plan. Mind Control makes it back in full swing and we all know the only thing better than cloning your opponent’s big creature is cloning their big creature and then next turn stealing it away from them. One quick note on the artwork for this card, I love this artwork. This artwork brings two main interpretations to my mind. First is that the dominating blue mage is controlling the monster with the greatest of ease. The other… the monster is captivated by the shiny object in front of his face and the blue mage is wondering if he really is doing anything to control the creature. Yeah for shiny objects!!!!!

Another great enchantment we saw come our way is, of course, the Leyline of Anticipation. Leyline of Anticipation has the ability to be put on the field immediately if you start with it in your opening hand and gives all the permanents you control flash. This is downright scary because now any deck becomes a “End of your turn/ During your turn” deck. End of your turn Wall of Omens. End of your turn Mind Control. During your turn Stormtide Leviathan. The possibilities for complete shut down of your opponent’s deck is there and it is just waiting to be tapped.

Well I believe it is now time for the deck of the week. This deck I like to call Jace’s Trickery because it does nothing but mess with your opponent and their creatures. Also this is the most expensive deck that I have built yet, thanks to Jace the Wallet Slayer, but I feel this deck might also work with Jace Beleren. Depends on which way you want to go with it. Without much more, here is the deck:

Jace’s Trickery:

Creatures:
4x Augury Owl
4x Clone
4x Conundrum Sphinx
4x Sphinx of Jwar Isle

Spells:
4x Mana Leak
4x Deprive
2x Leyline of Anticipation
4x Mind Control
4x Preordain

Lands:
4x Halimar Depths
20x Island

Leader:
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jaces-trickery/

Thanks everyone for reading this article. Sorry that they are coming out so sporadically, but when you have a job that keeps you up till 11:30pm sometimes, there’s hardly anything you can do, once you get home, but to just pass out… preferably on your bed. Anyway enough about me. It’s time for the Closing Questions section.

1. Now we all know that Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a great card, but how does Jace Beleren stack up against him?

2. Do you think Wizards should have reprinted Jace Beleren or instead reprinted Jace, the Mind Sculptor?

3. With the introduction of several good merfolk in recent sets, do you think someone will try to pull together a standard merfolk deck?

Well my time is up. I hope you all enjoyed this article and I hope to have the next one out in a more timely matter. And as always, “Etherium is limited. Innovation is not.” This is Corlando signing out.

[MDStrawHat]

Hi cheers for the article, in answer to the questions:

1. I think It's a technical fact that the mind sculptor has a better/(more favourable) draw mechanic and much more besides, so its superior in every way. The only thing I can think of that Beleren has on the other is cheaper mana cost.(not to mention cheaper real life cost)

2. Personally I'm happy that beleren was reprinted and not the mind sculptor, I think many people will be happy to see JtMS rotate out of standard particularly those people who don't own one. Aside from that it's nice when the metagame is being taken in a completely new direction. Whilst I appreciate that JtMS is good for the revenue of WoTC I think cards like that are bad for the game. I would like to see no cards go above $20. Innovation and Ingenuity should be what makes a good decks IMHO.

3. On this one I don't really know I would think not, Maybe they might just include a few individual merfolk like caller of the Gale and perhaps Enclave Cryptologist, probably will see Lullmage Mentor (because of all the extra counterspells in the format now) to provide chump blockers each time they counter.

Thanks for the piece.:D

[08merlin527]

Hi, This is a great article - gave me a few ideas! In response to your questions:

1) Jace the Mind Sculptor is cool, with basically a brainstorm each turn. He is really powerful, but one more mana than jace beleren. Also, his final ability is awesome, but it is very unlikelyto ever happen. This in my opinion makes Jace Beleren slightly more playable.

2) I agree with MDStrawHat - expensive cards are good for WotC, but I think that it will be good for JtMS to go. It will hopefully take a bit less off mill decks, and more on real blue - controlling creatures and countering...

3) Yes, I do actually. There are loads of cool merfolk, and it is a powerful tribal creature type - it is almost a certianity we will see - probably a sucsessfull - one. However, is there an 'oona' for merfolk?

Thanks again for such a great article.

[jamike84]

Me and a few of my buds bought a couple of booster boxes over the weekend and I immediately gravitated towards blue after opening my share of the packs.

Needless to say, with a handlfull of mana leaks, redirects, mind controls, and unsummons I completely controlled the table. Unfortunately I didn't pull any stormtide's and had to rely on Harbor serpent as my muscle.

I think blue in standard is gonna be quite the force to reckon with, and I'm really looking forward to mass polymorphing all my augury owls into stormtides and lorthos

[Safearus]

A great read, and I will admit. M11 alone could be considered near standalone especially in the case of the blue color. However with some of the other Standard legal sets it becomes quite powerful... I've turned to making more blue decks since this point.

[D_ROC]

@ Lelouch : another great article like always
With cards like traumatize, tome scour, jaces erasue, and diminish as well as what you already mentioned, I really think it's going to get very interesting in tournament play. I'm dreading playing anyone with blue. My Vamps dont stand a chance. What's the point of captivating vampire if someone just unsummons or diminishes the creature. :mad: Well, to the questions:
1: For the money and mana alone Beleren in my opinion is the better of the two. But I'm a penny pincher.
2: I think they did the right thing since Beleren was rotating out.
3: With sovereign reprinted i would think so, and might do so myself, maybe with some white so I could go with sejiri merfolk as well. First strike + Lifelink = awesome.

Thanks Lelouch, you're the man. Keep 'em coming please.

[BigBruce98]

Another great article! I always read yours.
Enough flattery, question time!

1. Unfortunately, in a world of Jace 2.0, baby Jace don't stand a chance. The only reason he will see play is as an answer to Jace 2.0 (i.e. Legend rules)

2. They should have reprint Jace TMS, just to see a drop at his price tag. Look at Baneslayer, 30 bucks a pop. Not long ago, she was still at 50$ a piece!

3. Someone might actually try to build a Merfolk deck. Will it see some serious play, that I don't know. I think some pieces are missing. I may have miss some (I'm sure I have) but aside from the Sovereign, there aren't many good Merfolk nowadays. Lullmage requires alot of Merfolk on board to be good. Trickster relies too much on your opponents. Coralhelm Commander is a good one, but requires too much mana to be on a "Lord" level, mana you want too spent on counterspell instead of sinking it on a leveler. And the uncommons one are not so good IMHO (None in M10 and M11, Seastalkers and Wayfinder in Zen are really crap, Sejiri Merfolk (WWK) is a good one, but requires a Plain to be great, Skyscout and Cryptologist in ROE are good but not awesome) I see them as a budget deck for FNM or casual play, but not a contender by any means.

P.S You are mistaken on one of your examples for Redirect. You cannot cast it on a Oblivion Ring, because when O'Ring targets it's no longer a spell but an ability on a permanent (that's why O'Ring and Journey to Nowhere can take care of Emrakul!)

That's it, keep up the good job!

[Makers]

Been Working on a Type2 Merfolk deck since M11 came out.


http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=77912 (http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=77912)

Still needs a little bit of work, but seems to play pretty nice. No one expects to run up against a Merfolk deck in FNM very often...

[Lelouch32]

Over all not bad... but there are a few things I would change.

First off, drop the Cosi's Trisksters, you'll never use their ability and they take up valuable space that could be used for something else.

Second, this deck really doesn't take advantage of something that I believe you should. Card Draw. As a Blue deck you should have a few spells in your deck that give you a few cards. My suggestion is Scroll Theif which gains you cards every time it inflicts damage on an opponent.

Third, Drop Thada. She will be great once Scard of Mirrodin hits the scene, but right now it is best to really just let her slide. You could easily replace her with something that either gets you merfolk tokens, such as the Lull-mage, or a spell designed to help you inflict damage Distortion strike.

If possible I think you need to drop another spell and add in Merfolk Spy. Granted he is a 1/1, but he has the ability to force your opponent to reveal a random card. This gives you information on what is coming up and therefore helps you figure out what spells should be countered.

[Makers]

Love the Idea for the Scroll thief + Distortion Strike combo. Basically 2 card draws for :manau:, and it 4 damage over 2 turns. Never thought about that.

I've had the merfolk spies in since the beginning, always loved them for this deck.

Going to play this config this weekend at FNM, I'll let you know how it turns out.

[Lelouch32]

That would be great.

I would love to write and article around merfolk so getting this deck tested would be beautiful. Thanks.

[Cyphortec]

Stormtide Leviathan/ Quest For Ula's Temple Deck i made, that i think worked out really well.

http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=80270

[Makers]

Went with a new build last week for FNM after a little play testing, and it worked out quite well.

Merfolk skyscout with a Merfolk Sovereign works better than you would imagine.
Went with the 2x Conundrum Sphinx, 2x Sphinx of Jwar Isle combo as well.

First game: Went up against a Conscription Deck.
Kept unsummoning and into the roil his Knight of the Reliquary, which made him mad. He tried to cast Eldrazi Conscription, I redirected it to my Merfolk Skyscout...quick 2-0 match.

Second match was against a Cheaper version of a superfriends type deck.
Pretty straight forward, just kept countering and into the roil his PW, then redirect and Mana leak his counters.
Got some great card draws and basically overran him.

Third match...Came up against a full U/W control. Got a really bad draw, tried to mulligan, came out worse. second game, managed to take him out quickly by casting almost all of my creatures at the end of his turn, took him down pretty quick. 3rd match he drew pretty much a perfect hand and then handed my ass to me. I never drew a counter at all 3rd game. lost quickly 1-2.

Few things I've come to realize.
1. Redirect is my new favorite counter. Nothing like redirecting a path to exile onto a Baneslayer.
2. Of the games I played, i would say i got a layline in my opening hand about 50% of the time. Nothing better than throwing out a Sphinx of Jwar Isle and the end of their turn, then look at the top card to see what your going to draw next.
3. Conundrum Sphinx works perfectly in a deck like this with Halimar depths and Sphinx of Jwar Isle. Its an extra card draw everyturn, huge card advantage.
4. If they are playing blue as well, just change out the Spreading seas and add in Ponder or distortion strike. If they are playing red or green, change out the unsummon with Flashfreeze. If its a black Vamp Deck, grab your ankles...

Going to try it again this week at FNM and see if it was just the draw of the cards, or if this deck will actually work in a tournament.

[Lelouch32]

Great to hear that you had a lot of fun with the deck. Hope you continue to have success.

[Zeus_Bigbear]

Glad to hear that a merfolk deck is actually working out. Might try it myself. As far as blue goes, I have to contend that it really has nothing on Red, least of all Red Deck Wins or even a decent Raid Bombardment deck (which is what I run now). Blue is fun but altogether slower than red which makes red a veritable threat. Any other color its good against. Jace... well Nobody ever really could explain to me why he was going for $60. I mean I get you can't bolt him as soon as he touches down, but with my deck I usually don't even need to worry about him doing anything so I don't even attack him and I beat the person about 1 or 2 turns outside of when he is played. Honestly, when I look for good cards, I look for cards that create a solution to a previously unanswered problem with that color. Like Kor Firewalker. It says goodbye to red. Jace 2.0 does nothing outside of his colors boundaries, just does them on steroids. In my opinion, not nearly worth as much as he's going for.

P.S. And even though you can't bolt him when he comes into play because they'll just use his +2 ability, most people will just use the 0 ability if you leave him alone for a half a second, then you may bolt to your pleasure!! Works everytime.