Used to thrash on Halimar Depths for years, then I recently tried it out in decks. Honestly, it's amazing, really overperforming, the card selection is often really good and it still taps for a blue.
I love minamo, specifically for its aibility to untap Nykthos. Its amazing! And until then it comes in untapped and taps for a blue. If you are playing a slow blue deck that wants the long game, its wonderful.
I’ve always been partial to Saprazzan Skerry too for mono blue. Comes in tapped but it has two counters and you can remove a counter and add two blue. If you have some proliferate you can keep it around. Not a bad land that would make this list I think.
Halimar depths is a relic of the past, it’s ability is just very meh and coming into play tapped is brutal. Plus not being an island is a huge downside for a ton of blue cards want islands
What's you're thoughts on a mutate tribal deck based around otimis ability, I've been trying to find a way to make it work in a fun way but it's not clicking, flash seems like a good thing to be based around but so does having a deck full of permanent then make it recursion based
Mutate lends itself well to Voltron/Control. Mine focuses on removal effects. I stack a bunch of mutate effects, and remove/neuter/kill anything that will prevent them from attacking and dealing damage. Given that many mutate creatures have removal effects built in, you can really load up on these effects. And with Otrimi starting as a 6/6, it's not hard to deal lethal commander damage with him.
I would look up something like Pernicious Deed, since Otrimis CMC is 6, you can crack it to destroy all creatures, enchantments and artifacts thats 5 or lower
It's not mono-blue(or even mostly blue) but I have Oboro, Palace in the Clouds in my Omnath, Locus of Creation deck. Always being able to max out my available extra land plays to get all three landfall triggers each turn he's in play is really strong, especially coupled with some other powerful landfall cards like Felidar Retreat or Avenger of Zendikar.
I do play thassa's oracle in casual, but only with enter the infinite (so it becomes a 14 mana combo), or in decks of mine where I can actually draw the whole deck naturally (I have a few of those) mostly as an insurance that I don't lose to decking myself, so I think it's ok, I think I only ended up winning with her 2 or 3 times ever and nobody ever complained.
@@edhdeckbuilding awesome. Love the content by the way. It’s kind of refreshing to hear someone talk about a lot of these underrated gems rather than the typical stuff. Please keep it up!
12:28 On why lands are rarely legendary anymore, apparently Wizards has said that they don't like that in playset formats you can have legendary copies get stuck in your hand. imo it's a crap excuse, with an equally crap lore explanation given("you're establishing bonds with the leylines")
Tolaria west is really good to help me get field of the dead in my archelos deck Or anything who can copy it... Can get me bojuka also Memorial to genius is good too
The best one without question is Urza, Lord High Artificer. There are several ways you can build the deck, but the most common is Artifact Stax. He has 2 very powerful abilities one that lets him tap any of your untapped artifacts to make a blue, which when combined with a lot of the instant speed answers you'll run will give you a lot of defense on your opponents turn, and the other is his ability to pay 5 (which can be paid by tapping artifacts of course) and then shuffling your deck and exiling the top card of your deck, which you may then cast for free. This effect can allow you to cheat some real degenerate stuff into play, but you have zero control over what you get because you're forced to shuffle first. But the Stax setup is real brutal to play against in a 1v1 because cards like Static Orb, Winter Orb, and Back to Basics will basically have zero effect on you if you control Urza, as when your turn rolls around you can just Tap them (tapping B2B doesn't stop your special lands from staying dead though) at the end of your opponents turn so they're forced to play with effectively no mana, and you get a normal untap step. In addition you can run Thassa's Oracle and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries to great effect as Blue has access to 2 easily accessible infinite mana combos that Urza can use to win the game if he's allowed to setup or has his opponent locked out. You can slap Dramatic Reversal on your Isochron Scepter and then tap your artifacts for blue with Urza to generate infinite mana as Dramatic Reversal will untap your artifacts over and over again. You need several artifacts to make this work, but your deck should ideally be loaded with 22-26, low cost/high value artifacts so it shouldn't be an issue. Then you just exile your entire deck with Urza and self draw with Jace. You can do a similar thing with Grand Architect and Pili-Pala by having the Architect make Pili Blue and then tap Pili to make 2 colorless with Architect (this is free), then Pili's unique effect allows him to untap himself for 2 colorless to make a Blue. This makes +1 positive mana of any color, which you can then dump into playing Urza infinitely.
I have Thassa, Deep Dwelling deck that's my favorite. She's also one of the few mono blue commanders that is creature heavy. I have a lot of fun with it, and her being an indestructible enchantment lets you play with your commander out much more often than most decks.
Suprised not to see Magosi, the Waterveil in here. Karn's Bastion + Magosi, The Waterveil, + Nesting Grounds = Infinite Turns if you can cast an extra turn spell initially. I run that combo in all my casual to mid-tier mono blue decks
I dislike Coral Atoll. It's just slowing you down too much since you have to bounce an untapped island and it comes in tapped. Also there is not much payoff if you don't build around landfall or untap.
I disagree with 90% of the lands you listed most of them just aren’t worth it. Islands are very powerful for cards like high tide, spectral deluge and a number of other cards that care about the number of islands. The only non island lands you play need to be very powerful
I genuinely hope your channel grows and gets huge. Lots of quality videos you release.
thanks alot.
Used to thrash on Halimar Depths for years, then I recently tried it out in decks. Honestly, it's amazing, really overperforming, the card selection is often really good and it still taps for a blue.
*angry nitpicking nerds noises*
If you don’t get it, don’t worry about it. To explain, there’s an mtg RUclips channel called the nitpicking nerds that hate that land 😅
Caste Vantress is an insanely great land in a deck that revolves at least partially around the Partner sphinx from Commander Legends.
I have it in my Krark/Eligeth, and ya it does great work in that deck.
Building a patron of the moon deck right now. This list was super helpful, thanks!
I do agree with your thought about transmute.
Great vid as always
Just decided to make an Orvar deck, and man the Riptide Lab + flickers are insane protection, thanks!
Mystic Sanctuary is an auto-include in any of my two-color blue decks. It is also in my Jeskai Spellslinger deck.
I love minamo, specifically for its aibility to untap Nykthos. Its amazing! And until then it comes in untapped and taps for a blue. If you are playing a slow blue deck that wants the long game, its wonderful.
I’ve always been partial to Saprazzan Skerry too for mono blue. Comes in tapped but it has two counters and you can remove a counter and add two blue. If you have some proliferate you can keep it around. Not a bad land that would make this list I think.
I’m a big believer in halimar depths and cephalid colosseum. In those tight games, sometimes you just need that greater reach to control what you draw
Halimar depths is a relic of the past, it’s ability is just very meh and coming into play tapped is brutal. Plus not being an island is a huge downside for a ton of blue cards want islands
What's you're thoughts on a mutate tribal deck based around otimis ability, I've been trying to find a way to make it work in a fun way but it's not clicking, flash seems like a good thing to be based around but so does having a deck full of permanent then make it recursion based
Mutate lends itself well to Voltron/Control. Mine focuses on removal effects. I stack a bunch of mutate effects, and remove/neuter/kill anything that will prevent them from attacking and dealing damage. Given that many mutate creatures have removal effects built in, you can really load up on these effects. And with Otrimi starting as a 6/6, it's not hard to deal lethal commander damage with him.
I would look up something like Pernicious Deed, since Otrimis CMC is 6, you can crack it to destroy all creatures, enchantments and artifacts thats 5 or lower
It's not mono-blue(or even mostly blue) but I have Oboro, Palace in the Clouds in my Omnath, Locus of Creation deck. Always being able to max out my available extra land plays to get all three landfall triggers each turn he's in play is really strong, especially coupled with some other powerful landfall cards like Felidar Retreat or Avenger of Zendikar.
Magosi, the water veil is another one that should also be legendary, its a weird card, not bad, but hard to use well.
I do play thassa's oracle in casual, but only with enter the infinite (so it becomes a 14 mana combo), or in decks of mine where I can actually draw the whole deck naturally (I have a few of those) mostly as an insurance that I don't lose to decking myself, so I think it's ok, I think I only ended up winning with her 2 or 3 times ever and nobody ever complained.
not surpriest transmute is nr 1! you realy like this ability^^
well there is no number one here. but yes it's very versatile.
I mean it’s a tutor in blue it can find both mana crypt and pact of negation
Would like to see one of these for red and white. Not sure if there already is one, but I’m curious about what you would suggest.
they're coming
@@edhdeckbuilding awesome. Love the content by the way. It’s kind of refreshing to hear someone talk about a lot of these underrated gems rather than the typical stuff. Please keep it up!
I play a lot of these in my neban wizard tribal deck
12:28 On why lands are rarely legendary anymore, apparently Wizards has said that they don't like that in playset formats you can have legendary copies get stuck in your hand.
imo it's a crap excuse, with an equally crap lore explanation given("you're establishing bonds with the leylines")
but that's what makes them better. minamo being legendary means you can have no other draw backs. and it keeps people honest in other formats.
Tolaria west is really good to help me get field of the dead in my archelos deck
Or anything who can copy it...
Can get me bojuka also
Memorial to genius is good too
Sweet tech run pact of negation it turns Tolaria west into a tutor for a free protection spell
What are the best mono blue commanders. I'm imterested in making one but dont know where to start.
The best on a budget cosima I have a list that cost $100 not including basics that competes with my buddies near cedh deck
The best one without question is Urza, Lord High Artificer. There are several ways you can build the deck, but the most common is Artifact Stax. He has 2 very powerful abilities one that lets him tap any of your untapped artifacts to make a blue, which when combined with a lot of the instant speed answers you'll run will give you a lot of defense on your opponents turn, and the other is his ability to pay 5 (which can be paid by tapping artifacts of course) and then shuffling your deck and exiling the top card of your deck, which you may then cast for free. This effect can allow you to cheat some real degenerate stuff into play, but you have zero control over what you get because you're forced to shuffle first. But the Stax setup is real brutal to play against in a 1v1 because cards like Static Orb, Winter Orb, and Back to Basics will basically have zero effect on you if you control Urza, as when your turn rolls around you can just Tap them (tapping B2B doesn't stop your special lands from staying dead though) at the end of your opponents turn so they're forced to play with effectively no mana, and you get a normal untap step.
In addition you can run Thassa's Oracle and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries to great effect as Blue has access to 2 easily accessible infinite mana combos that Urza can use to win the game if he's allowed to setup or has his opponent locked out. You can slap Dramatic Reversal on your Isochron Scepter and then tap your artifacts for blue with Urza to generate infinite mana as Dramatic Reversal will untap your artifacts over and over again. You need several artifacts to make this work, but your deck should ideally be loaded with 22-26, low cost/high value artifacts so it shouldn't be an issue. Then you just exile your entire deck with Urza and self draw with Jace. You can do a similar thing with Grand Architect and Pili-Pala by having the Architect make Pili Blue and then tap Pili to make 2 colorless with Architect (this is free), then Pili's unique effect allows him to untap himself for 2 colorless to make a Blue. This makes +1 positive mana of any color, which you can then dump into playing Urza infinitely.
I have Thassa, Deep Dwelling deck that's my favorite. She's also one of the few mono blue commanders that is creature heavy. I have a lot of fun with it, and her being an indestructible enchantment lets you play with your commander out much more often than most decks.
Suprised not to see Magosi, the Waterveil in here. Karn's Bastion + Magosi, The Waterveil, + Nesting Grounds = Infinite Turns if you can cast an extra turn spell initially. I run that combo in all my casual to mid-tier mono blue decks
How have I never seen nor heard of this card
funny thing, i actually cut it out of the video because i made a glaring error while recording.
Can you do one for a 5 color deck?
Mystic Sanctuary is banned in modern and pauper.
Islands
Best thing you can do with a mono blue deck, is not play mono blue decks. ;D
I dislike Coral Atoll. It's just slowing you down too much since you have to bounce an untapped island and it comes in tapped. Also there is not much payoff if you don't build around landfall or untap.
👍🏼👍🏼
I disagree with 90% of the lands you listed most of them just aren’t worth it. Islands are very powerful for cards like high tide, spectral deluge and a number of other cards that care about the number of islands. The only non island lands you play need to be very powerful
What is "blue decks"?
decks that have blue obviously.
@@edhdeckbuilding /rwoosh 😂😂
No sorry, mate. Was just trying to be joking about not really playing blue. 😂
Really appreciate your video though.
oh. sorry. sarcasm doesn't come across very well in text.
Aren't islands bad enough lol
9:15 never play agains simic ... wierd