Selesnya is my favorite guild. I love ramping my mana. I love the synergy between token generators + anthem effects. I love midrange and archetypes centered around synergy and value. As you can imagine, my eyes lit up during GRN spoiler season and seeing what Selesnya had to offer.

The current Standard format so far has shown us a wide variety of ways to build Selesnya. Obviously, there are many overlapping similarities and recurring themes among these lists, but they are different enough that when you play a tapped Temple Garden on turn 1, your opponent still doesn’t know what to expect.

Here’s a post featuring the many different ways to build Selesnya.

Which one(s) are you currently piloting? What are your experiences with playing Selesnya in the current format? Any new tech you’d like to share?

Enjoy!

Selesnya Tokens

Sample List

A classic, well-known, tried-and-true strategy that has worked in Standard seasons past. The premise of the deck is to simply go wide with token generators like Saproling Migration, March of the Multitudes, and History of Benalia. Then grow the tokens via Trostani, Shalai, or Venerated Loxodon.

This strategy can overwhelm opponents with more creatures they can block, renders single-target removal ineffective, packs enough punch to pressure control decks while providing blockers and life gain to stifle aggro decks.

The deck is naturally soft to board sweepers, like Deafening Clarion or Ritual of Soot.

There are a few different variations of the list. Some include Benalish Marshal for an extra anthem effect. Others include Hunted Witness and Adanto Vanguard for more resilience to sweepers.

Selesnya Aggro

Sample List

A simpler, more streamlined version of Selesnya. The deck invests less into a go-wide tokens strategy and more into aggressive and resilient attackers like Adanto Vanguard, Thorn Lieutenant, and History of Benalia.

Some parts of the token strategy still remain, with Trostani and sometimes March of the Multitudes, but the deck typically sticks to threats that are good on their own.

Because the deck is less reliant on synergy, it has a lot of flexibility in the decklists. Some use Planeswalkers like Ajani, to beef up their army. Others instead use The Immortal Sun as an all-purpose late game power card.

The lack of powerful synergies weaken the deck in the mid and late game, but is also less vulnerable to cards that can disrupt and break apart these synergies.

Selesnya Angels

Sample List

A Selesnya take on a commonly Boros strategy. This deck employs a mixture of aggressive ground beaters in the early game, an armada of midrange flying Angels all bolstered by Lyra Dawnbringer, backed up by Planeswalkers.

The deck attacks from several different angles. Early threats like Adanto Vanguard and History of Benalia are particularly effective against control decks. The big bodies and lifegain on the angels crushes aggro. Tocatli Honor Guard shuts off the plethora of ETB triggers from the ubiquitous Golgari midrange decks.

Compared to the Boros version, Selesyna Angels loses out on Aurelia, red’s removal spells, and Deafening Clarion . However, it gains the pump ability on Shalai and one of the strongest Planeswalkers in the meta, Vivien Reid, and a few strong sideboard options like Carnage Tyrant.

Selesnya Wings

Sample List

This is a more unorthodox approach that has been picking up steam lately. This deck features hard-to-remove creatures like Adanto Vanguard, Vine Mare, and Carnage Tyrant, and threatens to enchant one with On Serra’s Wings and run away with the game.

The deck is naturally mana hungry, using Llanowar Elves and Druid of the Cowl to propel itself into the mid-game where it can enact its strategy. Planeswalkers like Karn and Vivien Reid gives the deck more late-game power and value. The deck can also go wide with March of the Multitudes, combined with Flourish.

The deck is capable of going over the top of other midrange decks. However, with the growing popularity of Carnage Tyrant, control players are responding with more ways to answer Hexproof creatures.

Selesnya Explore

Sample List

A different version of the tokens deck, combining the tokens strategy with a heavy investment into the Explore mechanic. The package of Merfolk Branchwalker, Jadelight Ranger, and Wildgrowth Walker give the deck consistency, value, and lifegain. Path of Discovery takes that to a whole new level, often pumping Wildgrowth Walker into double-digit power/toughness.

Token generators like Trostani, March of the Multitudes, and Memorial to Glory give multiple Explore triggers at once, growing the tokens while allowing you to dig through your deck. The Immortal Sun further grows your army while shutting down opposing Planeswalkers, and drawing you extra cards.

Because the deck relies on multiple layers of synergy, it often results in awkward opening draws. Also, with the huge target on Golgari Midrange’s back, this deck does suffer from splash damage from white decks packing Tocatli Honor Guard to combat the popular Golgari deck.

My overview of the Mono Blue Tempo deck seemed to be well received (thanks for the kind words!), so I thought it would be worth doing another post or two drilling into some of the nuances of playing the deck. One thing that a few people asked about was how to beat it. There is a simple answer: pick up an aggressive deck. However, this advice comes with a caveat. Mono Blue Tempo matches up poorly against some aggro decks and well against others. The interesting part is that, in my experience, it matches up better against the better aggro decks while it struggles with the more fringe aggro decks.

I’ll walk through a deck list that I find usually beats me when I’m piloting mono blue. I’ll then walk through a deck list that I usually handle pretty well. I’ll try and explain the difference in results. Finally, I’ll walk through a play by play from a competitive league game on MTGO that I think exemplifies how it looks when Mono Blue Tempo is taking care of business against an aggro deck.

The Bad

Two very similar lists have posted 5-0 competitive league results playing Gird for Battle. I’ll focus on the most recent: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1448981#paper

3 Legion’s Landing
4 Duskborne Skymarcher
4 Healer’s Hawk
4 Rustwing Falcon
4 Skymarcher Aspirant
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Remorseful Cleric
4 Benalish Marshal
4 Venerated Loxodon

4 Gird for Battle
3 Pride of Conquerors

18 Plains

I have literally never won a game against this deck when it curves out. It can throw up some hands that I think mono blue couldn’t beat even if our opponent allowed us to stack our deck. One drop -> double one drop -> Vanguard + one drop + Loxodon -> Benalish Marshal… they can send a ludicrous amount of power and toughness into the red zone on turn four.

The only way we have to interact with them in the first couple turns is by blocking or perhaps trickstering something. Even if you’re running main deck Essence Scatter, are you really going to pass the turn without casting anything in the face of three one drops? If you have the Scatter and make the read to counter the Loxodon, their board presence is still substantial.

Blocking is made difficult by their alternate line of play of one drop -> one drop + gird for battle. Mono blue can’t do anything but chump block a Girded Rustwing Falcon until it gets up to a Tempest Djinn. Just getting a Girded Healer’s Hawk or Duskborne Skymarcher off the table requires trading with a two drop. And if you tap out on turn two intending to offer that trade then you’re just asking to get blown out by Benalish Marshal hitting the table on turn three. Or a second Gird for Battle giving you flashbacks to Travel Preparations. Chump blocking a Rustwing Falcon with your Tempest Djinn is a bad feeling.

This deck pounces on the vulnerability created by the fact that Mono Blue really wants to spend the first two turns developing its board without worrying about what the opponent is doing. It creates a board state almost immediately that forces the Mono Blue deck to tap out in order to stabilize. This basically blanks the Mono Blue countermagic for the first three or four turns of the game.

Why isn’t this 18 plains deck taking over standard? Two reasons: (1) consistency; (2) other matchups. The deck is running 18 plains and 19 one drops. It’s not always going to bring things together in the right ratios. Usually when I’ve gotten game wins against this deck it’s when they got stuck on one land or they hit their first five land drops. Also, the deck is somewhat vulnerable to spot removal and extremely vulnerable to sweepers. Deafening Clarion will routinely be a three for one (or worse), as will Ritual of Soot. It’s hard to outrace a three or four mana sweeper that kills all of your guys.

In the latest 5-0 deck release, the White Weenie representative has dropped the Gird for Battle and gone up to 19 plains: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1454707#paper

The natural evolution of aggro decks is to get slightly bigger over time, as exemplified in the next deck. This is exactly what a Mono Blue pilot likes to see.

The Good

The Boros Weenie deck that 8-0’ed the MOCS has been popping up a lot in the competitive leagues lately. It is still very aggressive, but it’s undeniably more consistent and balanced than the all in deck discussed above: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1444555#paper

3 Legion’s Landing
4 Dauntless Bodyguard
3 Healer’s Hawk
4 Skymarcher Aspirant
4 Adanto Vanguard
4 Knight of Grace
4 Benalish Marshal
4 History of Benalia

4 Heroic Reinforcements
3 Conclave Tribunal

4 Clifftop Retreat
1 Mountain
14 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry

Where the other deck was looking to curve 1 into 1 + 1 into 1 + 2 or 1 + 1 + 1, this deck is content to curve 1 into 2 into 3. It features more individually powerful cards and it even has a little bit of interaction. This deck will not lose to itself nearly as often as the 18 plains deck will. It holds up better after a Deafening Clarion. It also has a much harder time running Mono Blue Tempo out of the building.

I believe the key difference is that Mono Blue Tempo is much more comfortable facing one spell per turn than two. Even if that one spell is better than the two spells. Mono Blue Tempo actively wants to deal with threats one card at a time. It doesn’t really have the capacity to deal with multiple threats at once. It also tends to spend a similar amount of mana to deal with a threat regardless of what it is. Teferi and Gird for Battle both eat a single Spell Pierce.

You sometimes hear sports commentators talk about how an attacking team “asks questions of the defense.” If you ask Mono Blue Tempo questions one at a time, in an orderly fashion, it has a good shot at coming up with the right answers. Even the really tough questions. On the other hand, if you can put it into the lightning round and start firing questions left and right then it can flub some easy ones.

There’s a similar dynamic with mono red aggro. Go low to the ground and start attacking the life total on turn one and on the Mono Blue Tempo side of things I’ll start figuring out where I’m going to go eat lunch after the loss. Go Big Red and try to win with four and five drops and I’m at least in the game. The red matchup is of course worse overall because of the cheap removal that lines up well with Team Blue.

The Example

I know that the plural of anecdote is not data. I don’t offer this specific game as proof that this is a good matchup. However, the discussion above is pretty abstract. I think it helps to have a more concrete example to illustrate what I’m talking about. For what it’s worth, in my experience this game is a fair representation of how it feels to pilot Mono Blue Tempo against mid-sized aggro when you both have good hands.

This is game one of a three game match in a competitive standard league. I am on my usual list. I lost the die roll and am on the draw:

I keep seven: Island, Island, Island, Trickster, Trickster, Djinn, Spell Pierce

Not an exciting hand, but I’m not going to mulligan a three lander. Especially if it has Tempest Djinn.

Opponent mulligans to six and leaves a card on top.

Opp T1: plays Plains, casts Skymarcher Aspirant

This gives me a sinking feeling. My initial thought is that I’m up against the eighteen plains deck with no one drop of my own. I do take some comfort in the Tricksters.

My T1: draw Curious Obsession, play Island

This really puts to the test the idea that you’re always happy to draw Curious Obsession. The good news is that now if I’m able to stabilize then the Obsession makes sure I can pull away. The bad news is that I can’t play anything on turn one.

Opp T2: plays Clifftop Retreat, casts Adanto Vanguard; attacks for 2

My T2: draw Merfolk Trickster, play Island

I am very thankful not to see the dreaded double one drop play on turn two. With multiple Tricksters in hand I’m not worried about the Vanguard.

Opp T3: plays Plains, casts Benalish Marshal, attacks with the team; I flash in Trickster and trade with the Vanguard

For those of you scoring at home, the Trickster blanks the Vanguard’s abilities. This includes the pump from being on the attack and the ability to make itself indestructible (if the opponent pays four life before the trigger resolves then the trickster also wipes out the indestructibility). The pump from the Benalish Marshal sticks around and makes the Vanguard into a vanilla 2/2 that trades with the Trickster. The Aspirant gets in for 3, making the life total score 15-20.

Opponent has two cards in hand, with three lands, Benalish marshal, and Skymarcher Aspirant in play.

I have two islands in play. My hand is Merfolk Trickster, Merfolk Trickster, Tempest Djinn, Curious Obsession, Spell Pierce, Island.

My T3: draw Siren Stormtamer, play Island

Opp T4: plays Clifftop retreat, casts Knight of Grace; precombat I flash in trickster and tap marshal, he passes with no attacks.

To me this is a pretty clear indicator that the opponent has a Benalish Marshal or Heroic Reinforcements in hand. If he’s holding blanks then the natural move is to attack with the Skymarcher to clear the board for his big guys to get in next turn. Keeping the Skymarcher back makes sense if he’s holding a pump effect that will let the Skymarcher attack through a Trickster. He probably would have played the Marshal if he had it, so I’m expecting (hoping for) Heroic Reinforcements next turn.

A mono white deck might be holding Pride of Conquerors, but Boros usually doesn’t run that card.

My T4: draw Dive Down, pass

Opp T5: plays Mountain, casts Heroic Reinforcements; I Spell Pierce; precombat Merfolk Trickster taps Benalish Marshal; he sends Knight of Grace into the red zone; I double block so it trades with one trickster.

I don’t love the attack there. I suspect the opponent didn’t appreciate how much trouble I would have blocking the Knight of Grace as a 3/3. On the other hand, by trading off it does set the Benalish Marshal up for an attack next turn.

Opponent is now hellbent with Marshal, Skymarcher Aspirant, and five lands; I have trickster and three islands in play with djinn, obsession, stormtamer, and dive down in hand. Life total is 15-20.

My T5: draw Warkite Marauder, play Djinn

I don’t want the Marshal getting into the red zone and chipping away at my life total. I’m hoping to fade a draw step here. The Boros Weenie decks are usually very light on removal, and I’m a little worried that if the game drags on the opponent can chain Marshals, histories, and four drops to put me in trouble. If the opponent does draw removal right away it isn’t great, but I can still salvage things. If the opponent draws a land or a little creature then I should be golden. I just really don’t want the opponent to draw Heroic Reinforcements.

Opp T6: casts Heroic Reinforcements, attacks with Benalish Marshal, Skymarcher Aspirant, and two tokens; Merfolk Trickster chumps Marshal and Tempest Djinn eats a token; I take seven going to 8.

My T6: draw Wizard’s Retort, play Stormtamer

The Heroic Reinforcements means that I have to abandon the dream of suiting up Tempest Djinn and getting in while my little guys sit back and block. Fortunately, keeping the Tempest Djinn on defense means that my opponent doesn’t have good attacks. The Retort offers some security against any future heroics.

Opp T7: draw, go

My T7: draw Wizard’s Retort, put Curious Obsession on Stormtamer, attack, draw island; play island

From this point I was firmly in control of the game. The opponent didn’t resolve another spell while I gradually built up a larger and larger attacking force.

Obviously my hand was quite good. I want as many tricksters as I can get against aggro, one Djinn was exactly what I needed to fortify my defenses, Spell Pierce was clutch, and Curious Obsession sealed the deal at the end. On the other hand, the opponent was on the play and after going to six they got pretty much what they would have asked for out of their deck: a one drop, two two drops, Benalish Marshal, and two Heroic Reinforcements, all coming down on time with no mana problems. The opponent didn’t make any blatant misplays. And the opponent never really came close to winning.

I’m pretty sure that if you gave the 18 plains deck a six card hand as good for it as this hand was for the Boros aggro deck then I would have been run over. What’s the difference? Well, look again at what the Boros player was doing. If you notice, they only ever cast one spell per turn. It’s very hard to beat Mono Blue with one spell per turn.

I think you can generalize this to other deck types to some extent. It might not always be two threats. It might be a threat plus an answer. Or a sweeper plus a counterspell. However you’re doing it, if you want to thump Mono Blue then you really want to be double spelling as quickly as possible.

Conversely, I think this game shows how there’s more to piloting Mono Blue than just slamming Curious Obsession ASAP. You don’t need to make any sick reads or leaps of genius. You just have to recognize you’re on the defensive and then try to line up one for one trades and spoil your opponent’s attacks. Eventually the goal is to start connecting with either an Obsession or a Djinn, but you don’t have to be in a hurry to turn your guys sideways. Just ride out the initial onslaught and you should get a chance to turn things around.

Unless you see Gird for Battle. Then you’re in trouble.

Mono Blue Tempo has been putting up results since rotation. It’s shown up in every release of 5-0 decks, it’s popped up in big tournament top 8s, it has won its share of PPTQs, and Gabriel Nassif took it to the top 2 of a GP. Despite that, the tone of people posting about success with the deck has been almost apologetic. It’s almost like the deck doesn’t cost enough for people to take it seriously.

I’ve seen some good individual matchup analyses and high-level overviews of this deck, but I haven’t seen that anybody has written up a comprehensive guide. I figured I’d throw my hat into the ring.

Who am I?

Just a guy. Been playing mtg off and on since Revised. I have a long standing fondness for low to the ground mono-colored decks. My modo fortunes tend to ebb and flow with their quality. I have had a share of the competitive trophy league off and on for these last few weeks, largely on the back of mono blue tempo. Previously I’ve never even really been on the first page of the trophy results.

At the very least, I’m confident that I’ve put enough reps in with this deck that I have a decent idea of what I’m talking about.

​

Why play this deck?

Three main reasons: (1) the nut draw is really good; (2) you can steal more wins than you think; and (3) the deck rewards good play and harshly punishes bad play.

The nut draw of one drop into Curious Obsession into counter everything relevant beats a lot of opposing hands. I’m not saying that you should play the deck just to mise people out when you spike the nuts, but whether you’re playing a long tournament or grinding online it’s nice to get free wins every now and then.

Even if you don’t get Curious Obsession going, it’s quite possible to win games. The combination of Tempest Djinn and Merfolk Trickster can outrace more creatures on the other side of the board than you would expect. Especially when backed by a bit of counter magic.

The harsh punishment of bad play isn’t necessarily a feature, but it’s a result of the fact that you have a lot of choices with this deck. For good or ill, after most games you will feel like the outcome was a result of your decisions.

The one thing you don’t have is a reset button. This does mean that when things go horribly wrong you can reach a no-outs situation a little quicker than some other decks. As a result there is a lot of pressure on you to stop things from going horribly wrong in the first place, but you do have a decent suite of tools available to do just that. Sometimes it doesn’t work out–it’s a competitive game, after all–but the deck doesn’t get totally steamrolled all that often if you’re on form.

​

What is the deck?

The various versions of the Mono Blue Tempo deck have coalesced into a core of 48 cards:

20 Island

4 Mist-Cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Tempest Djinn

4 Curious Obsession

4 Wizard’s Retort
4 Dive Down

The remaining twelve cards and sideboard are where you can personalize the list to your tastes. The core is strong enough to win with just about any cheap blue cards, but there are some patterns in how the successful lists usually fill out the deck.

2-4 two drop fliers: 0-4 Nightveil Sprite and 0-4 Warkite Marauder
2-6 card draw effects: 0-2 Chart a Course and 0-4 Opt
2-4 additional counters: 0-2 Essence Scatter and 0-4 Spell Pierce
0-3 tempo plays: 0-1 Sleep and 0-2 Exclusion Mage
0-1 island (usually the extra island comes along with Sleep and Exclusion Mage as they bump up the curve)

The sideboards typically have some anti-aggro cards, some counterspells, some racing tech, and a little spice. Note that the counterspells are more for tuning than for wholesale inclusion. You usually don’t go up past 10 total counters after sideboarding.

I prefer a list that is on the more tempo-ish end of the overall spectrum: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1448999#paper

20 Island

4 Mist-Cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Warkite Marauder
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Tempest Djinn

4 Curious Obsession

4 Wizard’s Retort
4 Spell Pierce
4 Dive Down
4 Opt

Sideboard

2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Exclusion Mage
3 Surge Mare
2 Deep Freeze
1 Sleep
1 Selective Snare

Why four Warkite Marauder? I like having twenty creatures. It helps a ton against flying blockers, and a lot of the meta features flying blockers at the moment. With Chainwhirlers at a low ebb the one toughness doesn’t matter that often.

Why four Spell Pierce? It maximizes the chance of a nut draw. It’s also a monstrous tempo swing when it’s good. While there are matches where it’s mediocre, it’s never straight up dead the way Essence Scatter can be. I understand if you don’t want to go all in on the Spell Pierce, but I’ve hit enough planeswalkers with them that I’m reluctant to trim on them.

Opt over Chart a Course? Opt is better when we are digging for what we need early. It has the same chance of finding a good card in the top two, it has half the mana cost, and it can be cast using “leftover” mana on the opponent’s end step. Chart a Course is better for refueling later in the game. I put a higher priority on the early game with this deck, so I like Opt. Reasonable people can disagree.

Why not have Essence Scatter, Sleep, or Exclusion Mage in the main deck? I like consistency for game one. I’d rather consistently have access to Spell Pierce when I need it than occasionally have the Essence Scatter or Sleep. In my experience the anti-creature suite is usually a nice to have rather than a need to have (and we do already have Retort, Trickster, and Marauder for board management), while when you need Spell Pierce you really need Spell Pierce. Your mileage certainly may vary.

Surge Mare? Every mono-blue sideboard seems to have a few pet cards in it. Surge Mare is mine. I originally added them for the red matchup after Diamond Mare let me down a few times. It’s okay there as an 0/5 wall that makes them spend some burn to get their Steamkin and Chainwhirlers through to your face. Where it has really surprised me is in the Golgari and Jeskai matchups. Against Golgari it can block their biggest explore team member indefinitely and threatens to greenwalk in for four at the end of a race. Against Jeskai you can play it on turn two and be confident you’ll get to untap with it, as it shrugs off Justice Strike, Lava Coil, and Deafening Clarion. When it has a clear run it makes a wonderful Obsession carrier.

Deep Freeze is so you have an out against Niv-Mizzet. Selective Snare is tentative tech for the 18-land white blitz deck that just popped up. Everything else is fairly straightforward.

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How do you play the deck?

Generally speaking, your game plan has three stages:

(1) Apply pressure with cheap early creatures.

(2) Disrupt the opponent’s plan with countermagic and Merfolk Trickster.

(3) Play Tempest Djinn with protection available to close it out.

If you have a Curious Obsession going, you can often skip step three. If you don’t get a Curious Obsession, the smooth transition into Djinn beatdown is key. If you don’t have an Obsession or a Djinn then you need your hand to line up perfectly with the opponent’s, or for the opponent to have a bad hand.

The big skill tests involved in playing the deck are: (1) when to play Curious Obsession; (2) when to play Tempest Djinn; (3) when to tap out; (4) when to use counterspells; (5) which counterspell to use; and (6) how to use Merfolk Trickster.

When do you play Curious Obsession?

Rule of thumb: when you are confident you can get two hits out of it. In general it’s more important to get it in play safely than it is to get it down quickly.

It’s often a good idea to wait until your opponent is tapped out before running the Obsession out there if the opponent runs instant speed removal. Otherwise you risk getting dragged into a big fight during your turn that leaves the door open for the opponent to resolve a bomb on their turn.

Consider the situation where you have four islands in play after making your land drop for the turn. You have a Mist-Cloaked Herald and Warkite Marauder in play, and Curious Obsession, Dive Down, and Wizard’s Retort in hand. It’s tempting to slam the Obsession, but if the opponent responds with a kill spell you will be forced into using your Dive Down. You’ll get to draw a card, but your opponent will get to land their Cleansing Nova or Doom Whisperer or Teferi or Ral or what have you. It’s even worse if you get maneuvered into tapping out so the opponent knows the coast is clear.

When do you play Tempest Djinn?

Rule of thumb: when you can protect it. Necessary protection can range from a single untapped island and a Stormtamer or Dive Down to enough mana and countermagic to keep Teferi off the board.

You really don’t want to cast a Tempest Djinn only to see it die right away. You really really don’t want the opponent to kill your djinn and get a planeswalker in play while you stare at your Wizard’s Retort in hand that you can’t cast.

The easiest way to lose a winnable game is to get your Tempest Djinn killed when you didn’t have to. Obviously there are situations where you don’t have a choice and you just run it out there and hope it sticks, but if you have the chance to set up some protection for it you probably should.

When do you tap out?

Don’t.

But if I tap out this turn I’ll be way ahead and as long as my opponent doesn’t do anything too bad I’ll be winning on board and I’ll never tap out again.

No. Stop.

Your opponent put cards into their deck because they were good. Your opponent kept this hand because it had potential. In all likelihood, your opponent is holding strong cards that have not been cast because your opponent didn’t have enough mana and/or was respecting the power of your untapped islands. When you tap out, it gives your opponent the green light to do horrible, horrible things to the board state. Don’t turn into one of those people who whines about how the opponent “always has it” after you punt away a winnable game.

So I should never ever tap out?

Well, ok, that’s not quite right. Sometimes you do have to take some chances in order to advance the board state. Of course for the first couple turns you need to get your guys on the board to start the beats. After that, the most obvious situation where it’s ok to tap out is if you are losing badly on the board. If it’s clear that you will lose if you let things continue as they are, go ahead and slam your best cards. Tap out for Tempest Djinn in order to stabilize the board. Tap out for a Curious Obsession or two in order to try and draw out of your situation.

Just be aware that once you enter YOLO mode the most likely outcome is that you will lose. You are gambling on the opponent’s hand being worse than it looks. Sometimes it works out and you steal the win. Usually the opponent has some removal and you lose. You want to take your best shot to win in an unfavorable situation, but it often won’t work out.

The more murky situation is when things are neutral but you feel the game slipping away. Whenever you play an aggressive deck you should have that clock going in the back of your head. If you’re reaching the point in the game where you will be in trouble if the board isn’t tilted your way then you can start taking some chances in order to push things in your favor. But, honestly, you should feel bad about tapping out and you should be looking for reasons not to do it. Most of the people that I see piloting this deck against streamers that I follow are way too eager to tap out.

In general, the better your hand, the more reluctant you should be to tap out.

What spells do I counter?

Rule of thumb: If you’re winning, counter opposing spells that make it so you are losing. If you are losing, counter anything that makes it worse. If you’re winning and they cast a spell that will level things out (in other words, a sweeper), evaluate the context: if you have multiple counters, go ahead and counter it. If you only have one… how many cards are you drawing next turn? How quickly can you close the game out if you counter? Can you rebuild quickly if you let it go? If the game is going to last for a while, you may want to let the sweeper through so that you have a counter available for the next bomb.

Be very careful of picking counter battles during your turn, doubly so against Jeskai control. It’s usually not worth stopping their removal if it means letting them resolve Teferi. Now, if you can do it with one mana open and snipe Teferi with a Spell Pierce on the next turn, then by all means go for it.

Which counter magic do I use?

This comes up when the opponent uses targeted removal. You will often have a choice between some combination of cashing in a Stormtamer, using Dive Down, or casting Spell Pierce. This can be a tougher decision than you might think. The obvious point is that using the Stormtamer will cost you points of damage while preserving the mystery of what’s in your hand. The more subtle point to consider is what is coming next.

Spell Pierce, in the early to mid game, can counter sweepers and keep planeswalkers off the battlefield. It can’t do anything to a Ravenous Chupacabra and it quickly loses its ability to stop cheap removal spells. Dive Down can stop any targeted removal and save a selected creature from a Deafening Clarion, but it can’t do anything about Cleansing Nova or Settle the Wreckage. Siren Stormtamer can stop targeted removal and even provides unconditional protection against effects that target you (most notably Settle the Wreckage) but itself is a 1 toughness creature that can die more easily than you’d like.

If the opponent is only on sorcery speed removal (often the case for Izzet Phoenix against a Djinn) and you are tapping out, then the Dive Down will protect your creature for the whole turn while the other two only protect it from the current threat.

Basically, you need to think about how you intend to navigate the game and what you will need protection against in the future before you decide which resource you want to expend in the moment.

How do I use Merfolk Trickster?

As an ambush creature, the Trickster can eat any 1/1 or 1/2 attacker. Most notably this includes Adanto Vanguard, Mist-Cloaked Herald, Ghitu Lavarunner, and small flyers.

As a combat trick, the Trickster can zero out the power of Tempest Djinn, Enigma Drake, and Crackling Drake. If you have one Trickster on the board and another one flashed in fresh, the two of them can take out an attacking djinn/drake and survive the experience.

As a tempo play, the Trickster can save you a lot of life for one turn by tapping down one attacker and chump blocking another. You usually want to deploy this particular trick as late as possible unless the Trickster can trade with an attacker (e.g. a big Branchwalker).

In a pinch, the Trickster can shut off a Wildgrowth Walker in response to an explore creature being cast.

If you don’t have any other bodies available, the Trickster does a reasonable job of beating down for its casting cost, although you’ll need to have a ton of permission on hand if you want to keep the board clear and actually suit it up with a Curious Obsession.

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How about the specific matchups?

Mono Blue Tempo is a deck that really benefits from its pilot understanding the matchup it’s in. If you approach each game with an idea of how it’s going to go and a plan for victory you’ll do better than if you just try to cast your best card every turn. Below I’ll walk through the most common matchups that I’ve run into and give my thoughts. The sideboarding suggestions are relative to my preferred list. Most mono blue sideboards have cards aimed at similar things (tuning counterspells, anti-aggro tech, race-winning tech). If your deck differs from mine in the particulars then just treat the suggestions as pointing towards which area of your sideboard you should at least consider in each matchup.

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Golgari Midrange

I find this matchup to be pretty good for us. It gets better the more expensive the spells are in their deck and hand. When they go low to the ground with the Wildgrowth Walker and explore creature beatdown things can get scary. When they try to win by resolving 4-5-6 mana bombs we’re usually ok.

Be very aware of the need to protect your key creatures. They will always have something in hand that can kill your obsessed guy or your djinn. Always. The good news is that they tend to tap out in order to forward their own game plan, so you can usually suit up your guy with obsession for a free hit and not need to worry about countermagic until you pass the turn.

Don’t get pulled into a grind fest. You want this to be a race. Even if you’re losing it in the initial stages, the Djinn and/or Trickster can catch you up in a hurry. Be aware of your djinn math. A turn four djinn hits for 5-6-7, ideally, so if your early creatures can chip in for 2-5 points of damage they have done their jobs and can go to chump block mode. You also need to get out on the front foot so you can race Carnage Tyrant if it shows up.

It’s possible to get bombed out of the game if you run out of countermagic before they die. In general, though, an opponent who plays one big spell a turn and can’t interact on the stack is our favorite kind of opponent.

Sideboard: -2 opt, -2 spell pierce, -2 trickster; +2 essence scatter, +2 disdainful stroke, +2 surge mare

Tune the counter suite and use surge mare to manage the race. Bounce tech is not good here. You can run sleep if you want, although it’s basically just a fog.

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Jeskai Control

Patience. Patience. Patience.

The main thing is not to let them resolve the spells that tilt the game in their favor. On the draw against a glacial fortress I’ll often keep spell pierce up for Search for Azcanta or Azor’s Gateway if I have it. You want to keep them under steady pressure and counter their bombs. If they have a hot hand they can power through and beat us, but usually I think we have a solid chance.

The way you lose this matchup is by tapping out to overextend into a wrath. Don’t do that. The spells they want to cast are Deafening Clarion on three, Crackling Drake on four, and Teferi or Cleansing Nova on five. Plan accordingly.

The other way you lose is by casting Curious Obsession into open mana, getting drawn into a fight over it and winning the fight only to see the opponent untap and blow you out. Don’t do that, either. Ideally, you want to cast Curious Obsession before the opponent has removal up or after the opponent tapped out in an attempt to cast a bomb that you countered.

You do want to keep them under enough pressure that they can’t just casually find and cast a Niv-Mizzet, especially post board. Finding the right balance can be tricky, but that’s part of the fun, right?

Sideboard: -2 spell pierce, -2 opt, -2 marauder, +2 surge mare, +2 disdainful stroke, +2 negate

Again, tune the counters. Surge Mare is sneaky good here. It’s almost guaranteed to survive until you untap, it’s great value with Obsession, and in a stagnant game swinging for two a turn with a loot is pretty solid.

The marauders are better against Lyra while tricksters are better against Legion Warboss. It’s a matter of which one you think is more likely. Personally I’m a little more scared of Warbosses coming down while I’m not ready to counter them.

The matchup gets tougher post board. Jeskai has access to all kinds of crazy stuff depending on how they want to approach things (Warboss, History of Benalia, Rekindling Phoenix, Lyra, and Niv-Mizzet are all possibilities). Fortunately, sideboard cards alone aren’t enough to switch them completely into a beatdown deck. They still want to control the board. Stick to the basic plan of early pressure + counterspells and you should be all right.

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Izzet Phoenix

This one is rough. They play cheap removal and lots of flyers and don’t even need to resolve their spells to win. They also have multiple Niv-Mizzets lurking in the sideboard. Gross.

The playset of Warkite Marauders has brought my personal record in this matchup from roughly 0% win rate to a smidge below 50%. It’s just impossible to keep all of their flyers off the board. You need the Marauder in order to make clean attacks.

If you’re going to win this one, what you need to do is to race their phoenixes with your team while using your counterspells to keep drakes off the battlefield. Spend your spell pierces freely on their cantrips. You need to throw a monkey wrench in the machine and keep them from reaching critical mass.

In all honesty, if they play a turn two Electromancer–especially in game one, and especially especially off an island and a dual land–well, don’t concede early, but go ahead and mentally prepare yourself for the experience of a loss.

I always feel like I got away with something after I take a match from the phoenix deck. Objectively speaking, I think the deal is that their best hands will just beat us but in a battle of mediocre hands we have a slight edge.

Sideboard: -4 spell pierce, -2 opt; +2 essence scatter, +2 Deep Freeze, +1 sleep, +1 exclusion mage

Again, you are looking to keep drakes away and race the phoenix squad. In a pinch you can refrigerate the phoenix, but you really want to save Deep Freeze for Niv Mizzet. In a way, our deck’s extreme vulnerability to Mizzy P can work in our favor. The Izzet deck will keep bad hands that have Niv Mizzet and will play out the game with the thought that casting Niv Mizzet guarantees victory. That means that any time we can put him on ice we should have a fighting chance to win.

If they untap with Niv Mizzet we do in fact lose, though.

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Angels

Bomb after bomb after bomb.

They have more bombs than we have ways to counter them. They also have largely moved Deafening Clarion into the sideboard. You want to keep the pedal to the metal and close the game out ASAP. We actually do a good job racing their cheap dudes. The danger is that the angel squad will take over.

Marauder helps a lot here. It’s hard to keep all the angels off the field. Being able to attack through one of them can decide the game.

The trickster also shines in this matchup. Whether its eating Adanto Vanguards, turning off angelic abilities, or clearing the way for the fatal attack, you should be able to get some good value out of it. The Tocatli Honor Guard does shut off the trickster, so be aware of that. The Marauder does work just fine in the face of the Honor Guard, of course.

If they go on the little dudes + Ajani plan it can be correct to ignore Ajani and go at their face as long as you can win the race. The enemy gate is down.

Sideboard: -4 spell pierce, -2 opt; +2 essence scatter, +2 disdainful stroke, +1 selective snare, +1 sleep

The sideboard plan is geared to fend off their bombs. Selective Snare and Sleep can buy us that crucial turn that lets us close out the game. It’s also possible some number of Exclusion Mages should be in there, depending on your read of what they’re doing with their Honor Guards.

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Mono red aggro

The good news is that you aren’t going to see this matchup a lot. The bad news is that you aren’t going to win this matchup much, either.

Magical Christmasland plan: use Trickster to eat one early attacker and trade with another, then play and protect a Tempest Djinn to stonewall their assault and turn the corner.

Actual outcome: all of your guys die to a flurry of burn while you take damage from a mob of cheap creatures, then the burn gets pointed at your face and you lose.

If you draw a lot of Djinns and they flood out then it’s possible to steal game one, but it’s rough.

Sideboard: -3 Spell Pierce, -2 Opt, -2 Mist-Cloaked Herald; +2 essence scatter, +3 surge mare, +2 exclusion mage

You are looking to hold the ground until your Tempest Djinn can take over. I find Surge Mare does a better job of preserving my life total in this matchup than the Diamond Mare. You also need to be conscious of either not overextending into a Chainwhirler or keeping a counter ready for the Chainwhirler. As an added bonus, you also have to make sure they don’t resolve an Experimental Frenzy and that you can beat a Rekindling Phoenix. Good times.

What if I don’t draw a Tempest Djinn? Good question. In that situation you should smile and accept the result with dignity. Remember, it’s just a game. Losing builds character.

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White-based aggro

We have a much better shot in this matchup than we do against mono red. Their relative dearth of removal and reach make a huge difference.

The basic strategy is to trade creatures aggressively except for your one evasive Obsessioned attacker (if you have one). Try to keep their big three drops off the table. Getting to spell pierce a History of Benalia will help your win percentage. So will eating an Adanto Vanguard with the trickster. Remember when the race is in its final stages that you can trickster the Benalish Marshal to turn off the pump. Tempest Djinn is huge here as a blocker and then as a closer.

If you ever get to pass the turn with countermagic up and a neutral board state after turn four or so then you should win.

The eighteen land white weenie deck presents a more extreme version of the basic problem. They also present the annoyance of flying chump blockers to disrupt our racing math. The good news is that their deck is fairly prone to lose to itself by way of mana screw/flood. The bad news is that their nut draw is pretty unbeatable for us. So it goes.

Sideboard: -4 Spell Pierce, -2 Opt, -1/2 Dive Down; +2 essence scatter, +2 exclusion mage, +2 surge mare, +1 sleep, +0/1 selective snare

Put on your racing shoes. Against the 18 land version you pull a second dive down to make room for the snare. You want to bounce their +1/+1 counter carriers as much as you can.

Be aware that the bigger white(-ish) weenie decks will be wanting to get to Heroic Reinforcements and/or Experimental Frenzy on four. You can’t always do anything about it, but if you can protect yourself from those bombs by waiting a turn or so to start trying to get damage in then you should probably do so.

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Ramp Decks

This matchup is where we get to be the fun police. Anybody trying to cast Zacama, Omniscience, or Lich’s Mastery is obviously trying to relocate too much fun over to their side of the table. We can’t allow that. Hang onto your share of the fun by countering their wraths while keeping a counter back for their payoffs. Also make sure to develop the board enough to race Carnage Tyrant, and you’ll be fine. Go down opts and possibly spell pierce in exchange for your favorite counters. If you’re up against a list that skimps on targeted removal you can also trim dive down. This is the rare situation where 12 counters can be the right configuration post sideboard.

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Mirror Match

In the mirror you have a 50/50 chance of a really interesting match with lots of tactical decisions and a 50/50 chance of a stupid runaway.

In general the early game is all about Curious Obsession and the mid-late game is about Tempest Djinn. The side that’s attacking is usually the side that’s favored.

Merfolk Trickster is a powerful card throughout the game. It can eat an attacking one drop or zero out a Djinn’s power. If the opponent has one creature and puts obsession on it, Trickster can try and tap it to make the Obsession fall off.

Warkite Marauder is a beast in the mirror as well. It makes blocking a nightmare. You can get some counter-blowouts out of countering the trigger with Dive Down.

Stormtamer Siren can counter Trickster triggers, Marauder triggers, and Sleep.

The mirror is the one time you are happy to jam Tempest Djinn on turn three. You should be far more worried about the Djinn being countered than the Djinn being removed. Any time the opponent is tapped down go ahead and slam the Djinn. Note that post board you do want to be aware of bounce effects and random tech (Entrancing Melody has blown me out on occasion). I think it’s usually more correct to play around countermagic than the other stuff, but if it’s possible to play around both then you should.

It’s more possible than you might think to win despite a Curious Obsession disadvantage. I have won a game where my opponent had two heralds wearing an Obsession each and I had no Obsessions of my own… because I had two Djinns and a Marauder beating down. Keep an eye out for that transition from when card advantage matters to when life totals matter. Sometimes you want to sell out to stop the Obsession value train and sometimes you want to just ignore it and try to kill them.

Sideboard: -2 spell pierce, -2 opt, -2 dive down; +2 exclusion mage, +2 essence scatter, +1 sleep, +1 selective snare

Spell Pierce is weird in the mirror. Early on it can be your only defense against an obsession. Later it’s at best a Dispel. I think you want to keep some around, but I’m not sure that it’s right.

Dive Down can be pretty handy. Since blue removal is so weak I think it’s fine to trim some but I like to keep a couple copies in. One thing you want to watch out for in the mirror is that blue has some weird tech that can be thrown at your creatures (Selective Snare, Deep Freeze, Entrancing Melody). There’s also the bread and butter Trickster/Marauder/Exclusion Mage triggers you may want to stop. Worst come to worst it’s a decent combat trick.

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Final Thoughts

Mono blue tempo is a good deck. Not good for the price. Not good for a mono colored deck. It’s just good.

It’s also fun to play. You have a lot of choices, starting early in the game. You get a lot of chances to make mistakes, but also a lot of chances to make good decisions. Once you’ve played it a few times and start to get a feel for the deck I think you’ll enjoy playing it.

I hope this guide was useful. The length got away from me a bit, and I’m sure I got some things wrong. Please share your observations from playing with the deck so people don’t get sucked into following my bad advice.

Hi all

I love MTG, started playing paper during Mirrodin and stopped around end of Darksteel period as it was too expensive a hobby as a teen. Loved it though.

Recently, read that MTGA exited closed beta, tried it and I am having a blast.

I am such an addict to MTG that I find myself checking this subreddit multiple times a day when I’m working, commenting on posts just to feed my addiction. What I noticed is that many players encounter difficulties in building a collection while remaining F2P.

I have played for 3 weeks so far and I have a fully fleshed out Golgari, RDW and Izzet Drakes deck. If you are interested on how I did it, please read on and maybe it will inspire you to do the same.

Assumptions

• You have dropped $5 on the welcome pack to support the developers.
• You like MTG and want to improve your game and increase your w/r
• You have to invest time in the game. You either invest time or money. You can’t do neither and expect to have a competitive deck. That just doesn’t sound logical.
• Track your games. It helps you make decisions as to which formats to play and how to tech your deck against common match-ups.

Guide

• Go to www.mtgtop8.com. Figure out which of the decks in standard really resonates with you. It is important to really find a deck that you find fun to play with, because you are going to play A LOT of that deck. The cheaper the deck is, the faster you can start playing competitively. I chose Mono Red at the start.
• At the start, use the starter decks (I recommend the merfolk/vampire (BW) one and do your dailies, preferably for 15 wins. Minimally do 4 wins, which gets you (1050 gold – 500 + 250 + 100 x 3).
• Buy packs that are in the same format as the cards you require. Overtime, your deck should slowly come together and you can use wildcards to craft those you lack. Took 1 week for me to get a full Mono Red deck.
• Test your skills in ladder, but don’t spend too much time on it. Once you get how your deck works, and get a flavor of what decks other people play and your game plan against them, start playing Constructed Event (CE). It’s this format that you pay 500 gold to enter and you play until you get 7 wins or 3 losses. The higher your wins, the more gold you get back, and at the end of your run, you get 3 cards (ranging from uncommons to rares, depending on your number of wins).
• Keep doing CE. I average about 64% w/r on CE, which is about 5 wins. Takes me an hour to finish all 8 games (5-3) and get 2 uncommons and 1 rares. I play about 2 hours a day on average and overtime you will get better and your w/r increases. With a higher w/r, you get even more gold and more rares, which really help with your collection.
• Any spare gold goes into buying packs as that gets you wildcard progression which is the key to getting the (next) deck that you want
• Overtime, once you get better and more confident with your deck, consider going BO3 Competitive Constructed (CC). Based on my analysis, stick to CE if you can get 6 wins on average. Otherwise, check your CC w/r. If you can get 3 wins on average for CC, do CC. If you can’t do either, stick to CE. I will provide my argument in a separate paragraph.
• If you do this consistently, you will end up with a lot more gold, a lot more card rewards, which will all contribute to your collection and get you the cards that you need. My current deck status: https://imgur.com/a/OxD0RPj
• Also, don’t be in a rush to complete 500 gold quests as you can re-roll to 750 gold the next day if you get a 750 gold quest the next day. Every gold counts!

CC or CE?

• This was a question on my mind at the start. For starters, just do CE. It has a low cost of entry (500 gold) and at 50% win rate, you get 3 uncommons at the cost of 100 gold, which is not bad. If you can get 57% w/r or 4 wins, you get 2 uncommons and 1 rare/mythic for no gold loss, just time invested. This 4 wins should be your first target to hit consistently. Improve in your piloting and you should hit this in no time.
• Next milestone is to hit 5 wins consistently. Once you are there, start trying CC. 5 wins in CE is 62% w/r, getting you 1 rare/mythic and 2 UCs. 3 wins in CC is 60% w/r, getting you 2 rare/mythic and 1 UC. So CC is better if you can get 60% w/r. Granted, CC games take longer, but the gold profit is also higher. 5 Wins on CE gets you 100 gold profit but 3 wins on CC gets you 500 gold profit.

I have done the analysis and I recommend the below. I have taken into account time spent into my analysis

• Play CE if you can only get 4 wins or below on CE.
• Play CE if you can get 5 wins on CE but 2 wins on CC.
• Play CE if you can get 6 wins on CE but 3 wins on CC.
• Play CC if you can get 5 wins on CE but 3 wins on CC
• Play CC if you can get 4/5 wins on CC.
• If you can get 2 wins on CC and 3 wins on CE, it is tricky. 1 game takes about 7.5 mins. Assume BO3 to be 2.5 games on average and a 2-2 CC game will take 75 mins. 3-3 CE will take you just 45 mins and 3 UCs. A 2-2 CC gives you 1 rare and 2 UCs. So it all depends on whether you want to sink the time to get that rare upgrade.
• Play CC/CE rather than buying packs even if your w/r is <50%. At 33% w/r for CC (1-2), you get 1 rare and 2 UC for 500 gold, which is better than 1 pack for 1000 gold. However, the other cost to you is time.

That was a long text but I hope it is useful. I won’t touch on draft because by now, it is clear that if you want to make a specific deck –> buy packs and not play draft. And if you want to build a general collection and vault progress –> play draft. If you love to play draft –> play draft.

Other Tips from Comments

• At some point, your collection will be like so huge (80-90%). When that happens, it might be worthwhile to save the gold in preparation for the next expansion.
• Let your current collection decide what you build. You want to get the ball rolling in CE as soon as possible, and fortunately standard has a lot of viable decks at the moment, so just pick one of the top decks that you are closest to completing.
• Once you have most of the GRN cards you need, stop buying GRN packs. You get 3 per week for free, so start opening from other sets you need cards from.
• Where possible, avoid crafting that 4th copy of a mythic/rare unless you absolutely need it for a deck to function. I’ve avoided completing the 4th shock and check lands for most decks. Yes, your deck will be a little off in terms of mana, but there are guild gates and the other tap duals you can substitute. Even important cards like your major threats and bombs can be subbed out for one different card. Avoiding 5th copy rewards is a big deal when starting off because every 5th copy is essentially a wasted Wild Card.