Mono Blue Control

Of late in the weekly Standard Pauper Deck Challenge event, DrChrisBakerDC has been quietly stacking up wins with a deck that seems to be somewhat under the radar: Mono Blue Control. In fact, he took first place with the deck in both SPDC 29.05 and 29.07, going undefeated in both events. This archetype has yet to make an appearance at MPDC, but with its recent success, I expect that will change very soon. So I thought today I would take a look at the decklist and point you towards the videos that Chris submitted a couple weeks ago covering the deck.

Mono Blue Control

1st place by DrChrisBakerDC in SPDC 29.07

Creatures 4 Jeskai Sage 4 Whirlwind Adept 1 Nimbus Naiad 1 Palace Familiar 10 cards Other Spells 4 Divination 4 Griptide 4 Nullify 4 Treasure Cruise 3 Rise of Eagles 2 Anticipate 2 Negate 1 Cancel 1 Voyage's End 1 Whisk Away 26 cards

Lands 16 Island 4 Evolving Wilds 4 Radiant Fountain 24 cards Sideboard 4 Sidisi's Faithful 4 Coral Barrier 3 Disdainful Stroke 2 Voyage's End 2 Negate 15 cards

This is a classic Control list for Standard Pauper, playing lots of permission spells and card draw and then winning off the back of a particular potent late game creature - in this case, the surprisingly effective Whirlwind Adept. The list is also optimized to power out Treasure Cruise as quickly as possible, utilizing the 'cantrip' creatures, lots of spells, and even Evolving Wilds to get a bunch of cards into the graveyard as quickly as possible. Other than the hard counters, the deck also dedicates several slots to bouncing an opponent's creatures with Griptide and the like, giving it the time it needs to eke out some major card advantage and transform that into a win.

If you'd like to go more in-depth into this deck, see some matches, and see how the deck has changed since its original form, check out Chris' videos below. This is definitely a great deck, and one that I will be digging into more in the days ahead. Thanks for reading!