Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Becoming A Modern Man!  In this article I will be looking at a rather interesting Mono-Blue Tron deck that plays some of the most powerful artifacts in Modern.   The deck recently won a Modern Premier event piloted by shoktroopa.  Here's the list:

Mono-Blue Tron

1st Place Decklist by shoktroopa Modern Premier #4965298 on 02/04/2013

Creatures 1 Platinum Angel 3 Solemn Simulacrum 1 Sundering Titan 4 Treasure Mage 2 Wurmcoil Engine 11 cards Other Spells 4 Condescend 4 Expedition Map 2 Mindslaver 1 Oblivion Stone 4 Remand 3 Repeal 1 Spell Burst 3 Talisman of Progress 4 Thirst for Knowledge 26 cards

Lands 1 Academy Ruins 8 Island 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds 1 Tectonic Edge 4 Urza's Mine 4 Urza's Power Plant 4 Urza's Tower 23 cards Sideboard 3 Dismember 3 Pithing Needle 2 Relic of Progenitus 3 Spell Pierce 2 Spellskite 2 Trickbind 15 cards

DECK TECH

Creatures

Treasure Mage
Treasure Mage can tutor up any of your big finishers.  Treasure Mage is very useful for finding the card you want when you want it.

Solemn Simulacrum
I have mixed feelings about Solemn in this deck.  Turn 4 is kind of a long time in Modern and so Solemn can often be a bit slow for what is usually a chump blocker.  Conversely, Solemn is a nice way to ramp you up if you haven't managed to put Tron together and a good way of thinning your deck after that.  I would like to play Grand Architect in this spot as I think it would work as a powerful accelerator, but sadly the UU in the cost means it's not really viable along with Tron.

Wurmcoil Engine
The 6th Titan, Wurmcoil Engine is a serious threat whether it comes down on Turn 3 or later in the game.  Ideally, it comes down on Turn 3 and starts tearing up the opponent but sometimes you have to settle for it coming down a little later.  Wurmcoil is a little weak to Path to Exile but otherwise very difficult to handle for most opponents.  This is usually my win-condition of choice.

Platinum Angel
Platinum Angel is an interesting inclusion.  Although it can be somewhat fragile, it can also be game winning if your opponent can't find an answer to it.  At the very least, it can usually buy you some extra turns while your opponent digs for an appropriate answer.


Sundering Titan
Sundering Titan is a massive body but he also loves destroying greedy manabases.  As Ravnica duals have two basic land types you can often blow up a good amount of an opponent's manabase with Titan.  Your opponent is then left to deal with a 7/10 while also trying to build back their resources.  A tough task!  Also, there's the added disadvantage that it you happen to kill Sundering Titan then he'll just blow up your lands again, he's kind of spiteful like that.

Artifacts

Mindslaver
Mindslaver is one of the most unique effects in Magic.  Being able to take over an opponent's turn is really crazy and a lot of fun.  Trying to cause as much havoc as possible while playing your opponent's turn is a tactical perspective that is rarely seen in Magic.  Having to think tactically about what the worst thing you could do with the board state can be a real challenge but it's very fun.

Having said all that I would still considering cutting one Mindslaver from the deck.  The fact is sometimes Mindslaver feels a bit redundant as all you can do is tap your opponent's lands and pass back to yourself.  As the deck doesn't run a lot of creatures, forcing your opponent to attack into your blocks doesn't happen that often.  I still think there should be one Mindslaver in the deck, particularly as you can lock your opponent out of the game alongside Academy Ruins, but I would consider cutting the second.

Oblivion Stone
Oblivion Stone is a great sweeper in a deck that would otherwise have difficulty playing a sweeper.  Not only does the Stone blow up pretty much everything on the board, you can also protect your own permanents with fate counters.  The Stone is a little slow but particularly when combined with Academy Ruins it can be game-breaking.

Expedition Map
Expedition Map helps you find your Tron pieces or can find your lone Academy Ruins if you've already managed to set up Tron.

Talisman of Progress
As there isn't any reason to make white mana in this deck, you could use any other blue talisman.  Also, I'm not sure whether a talisman or a signet, such as Azorius Signet, is to be preferred.  The signets have the advantage of not making you lose 1 life to use them for coloured mana but they can't make mana independently, so there's a choice to be made there.  Not sure which one is correct.

Counterspells

Condescend
Condescend is our first X counterspell.  Condescend is a great counter as it not only allows you to counter but it also lets you set up your deck by Scrying for 2.  Scrying can be particularly useful when you are looking for Tron pieces.

Spell Burst
Spell Burst is great once you have Tron online as it's quite possible to lock your opponent out of the game by simply countering every spell they play and paying the buyback on Spell Burst.

Remand
Remand is a very useful card for slowing your opponent's tempo and digging you that bit deeper into the deck.  Buying time and taking your opponent into the long game are things this deck really wants to do.

Lands

The UrzaTron
Of course, it isn't Tron without the UrzaTron pieces.  The Mine, Power Plant and Tower when united provide you with 7 mana which is enough to play almost everything in the deck (barring Sundering Titan).

Academy Ruins
Academy Ruins is very awesome if you can get it online as it allows you to put your best artifact creature back on top of your deck to play it again.  Alternatively, you can get back an Oblivion Stone to get another board wipe against your opponent.  Finally, you can bring back Mindslaver which provided you have enough mana can create an infinite loop in which your opponent never gets to have control of their turn again.

Sideboard

• Dismember gives the deck some much needed removal out of the board.  The only real problem with using Dismember is that against very aggressive decks it may just have the effect of killing you quicker.  However, it useful to get rid of troublesome creatures.  Aven Mindcensor can be a particularly annoying card for this deck as it limits your Expedition Map and Treasure Mage searches.
• Spell Pierce gives you some additional countermagic, which can be useful when creatures aren't your primary concern.
• Spellskite will take a bullet for any one of your artifacts and is also a decent blocker against aggro decks.  The deck is fairly resistant to artifact destruction with cards like Wurmcoil Engine and Sundering Titan but a lot weaker to cards like Path to Exile, which is pretty much the worst thing that can happen to your Wurmcoil.
• Relic of Progenitus is nice against any deck using the graveyard as a resource, be it by using Deathrite Shaman, Snapcaster Mage, Persist creatures or otherwise.  Relic is always a useful card to have in your sideboard.
• Trickbind is an interesting card that I've rarely seen in sideboards.  Perhaps that's because it's rather complicated.  Trickbind can do a variety of different things including counter the Storm ability on a Grapeshot or Empty the Warrens or counter a Birthing Pod activation.  It can buy you an extra turn against Splinter Twin or a Kiki combo.  I believe it can even counter the activation of fetchlands.  The problem I have with Trickbind is that I'm not sure where exactly it shines as a sideboard card.  Worth having a mess around with I think.
• Pithing Needle fulfills a similar role to Trickbind in that it can turn off a specific card, be it Birthing Pod, Kiki-Jiki, Inkmoth Nexus or what have you.

COST
There are some expensive cards in this deck but as I already owned Remands, Spellskites and Wurmcoil Engines I managed to put this together fairly cheaply.  At the very least you don't have to shell out for the Zendikar Fetchlands to play this deck.  There's still quite a pricetag but as Modern decks go this is pretty reasonable.

Main Deck

2 x Wurmcoil Engine= 16.28
1 x Oblivion Stone= 11.07
4 x Remand= 10.32
2 x Mindslaver= 4.80
4 x Condescend= 3.20
3 x Solemn Simulacrum= 2.73
1 x Sundering Titan= 2.03
1 x Academy Ruins= 1.86
4 x Thirst for Knowledge= 1.00
1 x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds= 0.91
1 x Platinum Angel= 0.44
4 x Urza's Mine= 0.44
4 x Urza's Tower= 0.40
4 x Expedition Map= 0.32
3 x Talisman of Progress= 0.30
4 x Urza's Power Plant= 0.28
1 x Tectonic Edge= 0.25
3 x Repeal= 0.24
4 x Treasure Mage= 0.16
1 x Spell Burst= 0.05
Total: 57.08 tix

Sideboard

2 x Spellskite= 14.86
3 x Dismember= 3.12
2 x Trickbind= 0.82
3 x Spell Pierce= 0.24
3 x Pithing Needle= 0.18
2 x Relic of Progenitus= 0.16
Total: 19.38 tix

Grand Total: 76.46 tix

GAMEPLAY

My first matchup is against a Merfolk deck. Our deck doesn't generally have a great matchup against aggressive tribal strategies but Merfolk isn't the fastest tribal deck and we can get around most of their countermagic if we get Tron online.  Wurmcoil Engine is great against Tribal decks as the life gain generally sets them back too far too recover from.  My opponent managed to get around that Game 1, thanks to Lord of Atlantis but in the next two games they succumbed to the power of the Wurmcoil Engine.

My second matchup is against Kiki-Pod.  In my experience this matchup is pretty good.  You definitely have to be wary of the combo but otherwise Kiki-Pod tends to give you the kind of time you need to set yourself up.  From there you can use your counters and superior mana generating capabilities to control the game.  This matchup gets even better after sideboard as you can bring in your Pithing Needles and Trickbinds, as well as your Dismembers for their Angels.

My third matchup is against Elemental Combo, a deck I've covered in a previous article.  This deck varies a little from the build I used as it uses Death's Shadow rather than Kiln Fiend and plays Thoughtseize to ensure it loses enough life to make Death's Shadow big.  This matchup was very tough as the deck is very fast and there are only limited ways in which our deck can interact with it.  I've found the Infect matchup to be similarly unfavourable.

CONCLUSION
Mono-Blue Tron is a fun and interesting deck.  The deck plays a very good long game but can suffer a little in the early game against fast aggressive starts.  I'm not really convinced that this deck is better than the more staple RG Tron deck, which is better at setting up Tron, has better ways to deal with early pressure such as Pyroclasm and goes over the top using Eldrazi rather than the comparatively less game-ending Platinum Angel and Sundering Titan.  Having said that, Mono-Blue Tron does have its upsides such as having countermagic, which means you're less vulnerable to opposing combo decks.  Mono-Blue Tron is also a little less reliant on putting Tron together as you can hardcast everything in the deck without necessarily putting Tron together, a much more difficult feat with Emrakul or Ulamog.  The final advantage is that Mono-Blue Tron is much cheaper than RG Tron as you don't have to splash out for Karn Liberated, Grove of the Burnwillows and the Eldrazi.

That's all I've got for this edition of Becoming A Modern Man!  If you're eager for more then please check back over my previous articles.  Unfortunately, it's exam time for me and so I might not be able to provide you with a new article for a short while.  However, I still have plenty of Modern decks that I want to try out so I doubt I'll be gone too long.  Until next time!

Thanks for reading,

Oliver Law (olaw on MTGO)