Second of my old-style mono-colored decks is mono-blue control. This deck started as your basic, run-of-the-mill permission deck, keeping my opponent out of the game with delightful cards like Force of Will and Counterspell. Using the old playstyle as a namesake, I give you…
I always hated Morphling, but ran it anyway because that and Mishra’s Factory were how you won with counterspells back at the turn of the century. All that began to change when they printed Hedron Alignment. From the moment I saw this card, I knew I wanted to make it work. The only question was how.
I tinkered with a a number of iterations: blue-black self-mill, blue-red card draw, blue-green fog, blue-white enchantments, and could never make it work reliably. In my frustration, I quipped to Fairfield that the only way to make this deck win was to hide it behind a wall of counterspells.
Why not? I never liked the win condition in my blue counterspell deck and blue had the tools I needed to get my four copies where they were needed. Furthermore, I always envisioned and portrayed Dr. Awgo, the eponymous wizard of my blue control deck, as a gentleman occultist from Victorian gothic horror.
Then I played The Room. Then its sequel. Then all of its other sequels. In one weekend. If you haven’t played those games yet, I recommend that you do, but needless to say they gave me the narrative of my deck and turned it from a mechanical control deck to a story about a paranormal researcher that seeks to align runes to gain unimaginable power.
This deck feels like what a blue combo deck always should have been: a reclusive caster performing arcane experiments in the hopes of unlocking a multiverse-shattering secret. I’m not trying to unravel my opponent’s mind or beat them senseless with automatons and shapeshifters. Such efforts are beneath me. I just want to be left alone to complete my valuable work, albeit work that will inadvertently result in the demise of my enemies.