Blue is Back Baby!

Meto5000

So I know I was one of the people who were discounting blue lately. "Blue's too slow," was my main complaint. Nope. I've brewed up this deck that can reliably attack for 30+ by about turn 4. And every turn after that you get about ~6 extra power minimum. So before I talk about the deck any further, let me show you the cards:

Noyan for Days Deck
Creatures (2):
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper (***)
Harbinger of the Tides (*)
Spells (8):
Anchor to the Aether (**)
Day's Undoing (***)
Stratus Walk (***)
Coastal Discovery (***)
Disperse (*)
Artificer's Epiphany (***)
Anticipate (**)
Turn to Frog (*)

*** Required for Deck
** Very good in Deck and better than most other options
* Good in Deck but better options are available

The point of this deck is to get Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper on the board as quick as possible and cycle through as many spells as you can every turn. I have 3 spells that cost 3 or less which means every time I cast Day's Undoing, I typically cast at least 1-2 extra spells for free. By the time Noyan Dar attacks he typically has 13-16 power already; unlike cards like Soulblade Djinn and Ringwarden Owl the buff is permanent. By the time the game ends Noyan Dar will have anywhere between 30 to 45 power. It's insane.

Most of my spells cantrip (draw a card) so even if Noyan Dar isn't in my opening hand I can find him very quickly. The deck also features some efficient tempo cards like Disperse, Harbinger and Mizzium Meddler. Turn to Frog is only "okay" in this deck and should be replaced by Talent of the Telepath but that's the single rare card I haven't been able to get from Origins. The deck is somewhat weak to bounce and kill spells (though not the Chandra variety since Noyan Dar gets out of the range of damage spells like Exquisite Firecraft very quickly), though once you cast Noyan Dar your opponent has about 2 turns to answer him before it doesn't matter anymore.

The one other card I would add to this deck if I had it is Exert Influence. Exert Influence is a much better option than either Harbinger or Mizzium Meddler, but unfortunately it's mythic so it's unlikely I'll see it any time soon.

I'll be honest, I haven't tested this deck out in QB yet. I've only playtested it in a full playthrough of storymode but I've been able to beat every single OP storymode level with the deck so I'm fairly certain it's legit. If/when I'm able to add Exert Influence and Talent of the Telepath I don't think any other deck would be able to compete with it.

Note: If you want to have a slightly more controlling version of the deck you can replace Turn to Frog, Harbinger or Mizzium Meddler with Brawler's Plate. It can make the deck a LOT slower but it might save you some damage if that is a concern.

majincob

Thanks for the notes! I'm hoping to get Noyan Dar sometime. I have a blue deck that I like but it is running the owl instead of Noyan and Disciple of the Ring with Sword of the Animist. Disciple and sword pretty can drain 8-12 mana every turn pretty reliably. Mizzium is out because he is sub-par now for control compared to the disciple.

The deck is still fairly controlling, but I used it to complete all the crystal challenges on the latest story mode (except the 90+ life one of course it's not great at the speed ones so I probably used green to do those).

Here is my current blue deck:
Talent of the Telepath
Disciple of the Ring
Day's Undoing
Sword of the Animist
Brawler's Plate
Disperse
Harbinger of the Tides
Ringwarden Owl
Anchor to the Aether
Turn to Frog

I'd like to get Exert Influence instead of Brawler's Plate. And of course Noyan instead of the owl. Although having Noyan and the owl and just running 3 mana spells and cantrips could be very fast. The thing to remember is that with Day's undoing all your spells cost 3 less as long as you can keep chaining the undoing, which is not too hard as talent (which only costs 2 post undoing) can dig for and cast it on the same turn.

Meto5000

majincob wrote:

Thanks for the notes! I'm hoping to get Noyan Dar sometime. I have a blue deck that I like but it is running the owl instead of Noyan and Disciple of the Ring with Sword of the Animist. Disciple and sword pretty can drain 8-12 mana every turn pretty reliably. Mizzium is out because he is sub-par now for control compared to the disciple.

The deck is still fairly controlling, but I used it to complete all the crystal challenges on the latest story mode (except the 90+ life one of course it's not great at the speed ones so I probably used green to do those).

Here is my current blue deck:
Talent of the Telepath
Disciple of the Ring
Day's Undoing
Sword of the Animist
Brawler's Plate
Disperse
Harbinger of the Tides
Ringwarden Owl
Anchor to the Aether
Turn to Frog

I'd like to get Exert Influence instead of Brawler's Plate. And of course Noyan instead of the owl. Although having Noyan and the owl and just running 3 mana spells and cantrips could be very fast. The thing to remember is that with Day's undoing all your spells cost 3 less as long as you can keep chaining the undoing, which is not too hard as talent (which only costs 2 post undoing) can dig for and cast it on the same turn.

I used to run a very similar deck, but the speed difference between my deck and your deck is actual insanity. Disciple is just super slow to get going, especially if you're relying on having Sword of the Animist out as well. Ringwarden Owl is nice, but it only gets +2/+2 instead of +3/+3 like Noyan Dar. And if you have a good turn with Owl, you might attack for an extra 12 damage or so, but next turn he's back down to his normal 4/4. Once Noyan Dar gets going he just keeps on growing bigger.

This is what a slightly above average game looks like for me: (A typical game looks similar but about 1-2 turns slower)
Turn 1: Gain mana
Turn 2: Cast Noyan Dar and 1 cheap spell, Noyan Dar is now a 7/7
Turn 3: Cast Day's Undoing and 2 extra spells for free, Noyan Dar is now 16/16, Attack, Total damage done: 16
Turn 4: Cast a cheap spell and a second Day's Undoing and 2 extra spells for free, Noyan Dar is now a 28/28, Attack, Total damage done: 44
Turn 5: Cast 2 cheap spells, Noyan Dar is now a 34/34, Attack, Total damage done: 78
Turn 6: Cast 2 cheap spells, Noyan Dar is now a 40/40, Attack, Total damage done: 118 (or enough to kill any current Planeswalker)

Your deck is a typical Origins style Blue Deck. Very good, very controlling, but unless everything lines up perfectly, it's slower than red, green and white decks. Noyan Dar is like Disciple/Djinn/Owl on steroids. Who cares if your opponent cast big creatures since you can just Disperse everything back to their hand or Frog the creature in a pinch. Once you cast Noyan Dar, your opponent has a very short 2 turn window where they can deal with him or die.

BassMuffinFIve

Until they add a way to craft/actually get cards you want, then this deck is off limits to me. For shame!

Meto5000

BassMuffinFIve wrote:

Until they add a way to craft/actually get cards you want, then this deck is off limits to me. For shame!

Crafting *needs* to happen, it just needs to. Now that the world has moved on to BFZ there's only a snowball's chance in hell that I'll ever be able to acquire the Origins cards that I'm missing.

BassMuffinFIve

Meto5000 wrote:

BassMuffinFIve wrote:

Until they add a way to craft/actually get cards you want, then this deck is off limits to me. For shame!

Crafting *needs* to happen, it just needs to. Now that the world has moved on to BFZ there's only a snowball's chance in hell that I'll ever be able to acquire the Origins cards that I'm missing.

20,000 runes for a rare
50,000 runes for a mythic

perhaps? 50/100??

majincob

Meto5000 wrote:

Once Noyan Dar gets going he just keeps on growing bigger

I mean, sure. but I don't have one .

loroku

This thread is another excellent example of how MtG:PQ can make money by adding a crafting option. Once people start getting together cool or powerful combos, all that is missing are the cards: and chasing those cards is impossible without crafting. But people will always be happy to chase the newest cool thing, and will happily craft their resources away to achieve it.

Also, on-topic: this is a great deck suggestion!

BassMuffinFIve

Meto5000 wrote:

So I know I was one of the people who were discounting blue lately. "Blue's too slow," was my main complaint. Nope. I've brewed up this deck that can reliably attack for 30+ by about turn 4. And every turn after that you get about ~6 extra power minimum. So before I talk about the deck any further, let me show you the cards:

Noyan for Days Deck
Creatures (3):
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper (***)
Mizzium Meddler (*)
Harbinger of the Tides (*)
Spells (7):
Day's Undoing (***)
Stratus Walk (***)
Coastal Discovery (***)
Disperse (**)
Artificer's Epiphany (***)
Anticipate (**)
Turn to Frog (*)

*** Required for Deck
** Very good in Deck and better than most other options
* Good in Deck but better options are available

The point of this deck is to get Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper on the board as quick as possible and cycle through as many spells as you can every turn. I have 3 spells that cost 3 or less which means every time I cast Day's Undoing, I typically cast at least 1-2 extra spells for free. By the time Noyan Dar attacks he typically has 13-16 power already; unlike cards like Soulblade Djinn and Ringwarden Owl the buff is permanent. By the time the game ends Noyan Dar will have anywhere between 30 to 45 power. It's insane.

Most of my spells cantrip (draw a card) so even if Noyan Dar isn't in my opening hand I can find him very quickly. The deck also features some efficient tempo cards like Disperse, Harbinger and Mizzium Meddler. Turn to Frog is only "okay" in this deck and should be replaced by Talent of the Telepath but that's the single rare card I haven't been able to get from Origins. The deck is somewhat weak to bounce and kill spells (though not the Chandra variety since Noyan Dar gets out of the range of damage spells like Exquisite Firecraft very quickly), though once you cast Noyan Dar your opponent has about 2 turns to answer him before it doesn't matter anymore.

The one other card I would add to this deck if I had it is Exert Influence. Exert Influence is a much better option than either Harbinger or Mizzium Meddler, but unfortunately it's mythic so it's unlikely I'll see it any time soon.

I'll be honest, I haven't tested this deck out in QB yet. I've only playtested it in a full playthrough of storymode but I've been able to beat every single OP storymode level with the deck so I'm fairly certain it's legit. If/when I'm able to add Exert Influence and Talent of the Telepath I don't think any other deck would be able to compete with it.

Note: If you want to have a slightly more controlling version of the deck you can replace Turn to Frog, Harbinger or Mizzium Meddler with Brawler's Plate. It can make the deck a LOT slower but it might save you some damage if that is a concern.

With all this card draw in your deck, you probably want to include Sphinx's Tutelage. Tutelage also has the benefit of turning on Artificer's Epiphany.

I've always liked Anchor to the Aether more than disperse, too. Has no drawback (aside from 3 more mana cost) AND draws a card.

With all these shenanigans your opponent's hand is likely to be full as well, so I would cut Harbinger of Tides (Anchor/Disperse) for Scour from Existence. My dream list would look something like:

Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper

Artificer's Epiphany
Anchor to the Aether
Stratus Walk
Coastal Discovery
Day's Undoing
Talent of the Telepath
Sphinx's Tutelage
Turn to Frog
Scour from Existence
Exert Influence

Well ****. That's 11 cards. This is hard Would be nice to have a backup win condition for when Noyan Dar gets answered. Perhaps Harbinger gets added back in then. Or Disciple of the Ring? She can easily end games herself. If we had to cut a cantrip, then Stratus Walk would be the one to go. Or if we had to cut a removal, I would cut Turn to Frog. Just never liked it that much for some reason. Maybe that 1/1 left behind has gotten big many times before when against a green deck

Meto5000

I cut Harbinger for Anchor to the Aether, it was just too slow, plus anchor gets boosted by Day's Undoing so there's a lot of times where I can just cast it for 4 if I need it.

I thought about including Sphinx's Tutelage but it doesn't really help my overall gameplan. It doesn't get boosted by Day's Undoing. Plus, I'm cycling through my and my opponent's hands so often that the benefit of it gets lost a lot. It's also not really reliable. Yes, it slows them down, but if they get lucky with cascades, I'd rather have a Disperse or Anchor handy to deal with troublesome creatures. I guess it could replace Meddler but having only 1 creature could slow me down when I need to cast Stratus Walk on SOMETHING in order to find my Noyan Dar.

Scour from Existence is a terrific card but it's pretty expensive to cast. It's a maybe to get included instead of Turn to Frog. Again, I'm cycling through my hand as quickly as possible so cards over 9 mana need to be really, really good for me to include.

BassMuffinFIve

Meto5000 wrote:

I cut Harbinger for Anchor to the Aether, it was just too slow, plus anchor gets boosted by Day's Undoing so there's a lot of times where I can just cast it for 4 if I need it.

I thought about including Sphinx's Tutelage but it doesn't really help my overall gameplan. It doesn't get boosted by Day's Undoing. Plus, I'm cycling through my and my opponent's hands so often that the benefit of it gets lost a lot. It's also not really reliable. Yes, it slows them down, but if they get lucky with cascades, I'd rather have a Disperse or Anchor handy to deal with troublesome creatures. I guess it could replace Meddler but having only 1 creature could slow me down when I need to cast Stratus Walk on SOMETHING in order to find my Noyan Dar.

Scour from Existence is a terrific card but it's pretty expensive to cast. It's a maybe to get included instead of Turn to Frog. Again, I'm cycling through my hand as quickly as possible so cards over 9 mana need to be really, really good for me to include.

Yeah I think I am coming at it too much from the control perspective. I get that you are wanting to keep things cheap for the combo power of Day's Undoing. Cards like Anticipate are a nod to that. Coastal Discovery seems downright dirty in this deck. Overall this seems more explosive than the white version listed last week, (with Relic Seeker and Serene Steward and Lantern Scout) but perhaps overall less consistent?

Meto5000

BassMuffinFIve wrote:

Yeah I think I am coming at it too much from the control perspective. I get that you are wanting to keep things cheap for the combo power of Day's Undoing. Cards like Anticipate are a nod to that. Coastal Discovery seems downright dirty in this deck. Overall this seems more explosive than the white version listed last week, (with Relic Seeker and Serene Steward and Lantern Scout) but perhaps overall less consistent?

The deck is very consistent, but it's really weak to kill spells. (Bounce spells not so much since I'm almost always at 6 cards in hand). It helps that he does so much damage so quickly, but 1 kill spell at the ready is really all it takes to defeat this deck. I think this deck is a Story Mode superstar maybe only "really good" in quick battle.

madwren

I talked about my Noyan Dar deck here, and it's fairly similar, except that it isn't as reliant on Noyan Dar. Unfortunately, I don't own Harbingers.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=43529&view=unread#p515896

Creatures: 4
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
Sigiled Starfish
Coralhelm Guide
Mizzium Meddler

Spells: 6
Rush of Ice
Talent of the Telepath
Day's Undoing
Anticipate
Alchemist's Vial
Disperse

I'm finding that disabling is far preferable to bouncing, because it always works and doesn't clog up your hand. I had Stratus Walk in, but felt vulnerable to creature rushes and took it out.

Edit: replaced Clutch with Disperse

BassMuffinFIve

madwren wrote:

I talked about my Noyan Dar deck here, and it's fairly similar, except that it isn't as reliant on Noyan Dar. Unfortunately, I don't own Harbingers.

viewtopic.php?f=37&t=43529&view=unread#p515896

Creatures: 4
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
Sigiled Starfish
Coralhelm Guide
Mizzium Meddler

Spells: 6
Rush of Ice
Talent of the Telepath
Day's Undoing
Anticipate
Alchemist's Vial
Clutch of Currents

I'm finding that disabling is far preferable to bouncing, because it always works and doesn't clog up your hand. I had Stratus Walk in, but felt vulnerable to creature rushes and took it out.

If you are going the disabling route, then Retreat to Coralhelm should be an auto-include. Card is legit good. I run it just for the card draw.

shteev

majincob wrote:

I'd like to get Exert Influence instead of Brawler's Plate

It seems to me like you'd probably want to run both. The first Exert Influence you cast should be a solid spell, but you might well run out of creature spots by the time you cast the second... if you do, you'll want to play something that kills your creatures while generating a significant advantage, and Brawler's Plate seems like it fits the bill.

EDHdad

One unsung hero in your deck is Coastal Discovery. Coastal Discovery with Day's Undoing effectively gives you a 9-card deck.

As for Disperse vs Anchor to the Aether, I personally prefer Disperse. You can cast it naturally with just one match of blue, black or white. Anchor to the Aether takes at least 2 matches to cast naturally. If you draw Disperse with Day's Undoing, it only costs 1. If you draw it with Talent of the Telepath, it's free.

Disperse is a tempo play, not a kill spell (when used on non-token creatures). If you have a 27/27 Noyan Dar and your opponent has a 1/1 Caterpillar, maybe you let it live. If you have a 4/4 creature and your opponent buffs their caterpillar to 27/27 Reach with first strike, maybe it's time to bounce the caterpillar.

I do like Sigiled Starfish for the ability to draw cards, and the 5 toughness can be pretty relevant. I don't have Noyan Dar but I'd love to get one and this deck sounds like a blast.

soultwist

Digging up an old thread here, but holy balls I just realized that exert influence was permanent!

I was actually trying to figure out how to come up with a blue deck I actually liked to play. WOW, Im actually kinda excited right now!