Mono Blue Devotion in Pioneer
I’ve always been a fan of Merfolk in modern, but not necessarily because I love the tribe. Don’t get me wrong, fish are great, and having an unblockable team of 4/4s or 5/5s is a ton of fun. But the real reason I love it is because it’s the one deck that can really make use of Master of Waves. The feeling of dropping MoW and getting 5+ tokens is a great one, and for just 4 mana, it’s also a great deal. So naturally, when I saw this Mono-Blue Devotion list with 3 Master of Waves, I had to give it a try.
Master of Waves and Thassa, God of the Sea are our main payoffs and what everything else is built around. Thassa gives us a big indestructible creature with some nice abilities to help get ground beaters through or a giant Tempest Djinn through a flying blocker. Master of Waves is the definition of an army in a can with his waves of Elemental Tokens. Assuming you curve out, you can play him on turn 4 and end up with seven tokens, it is very hard to overcome that for your opponent if they can’t take out Master of Waves, which isn't an easy feat in general and near impossible for Red decks. All of these are great payoffs if you curve out, so what does our curve look like?
We start off small with Cloudfin Raptor, a beater that requires little initial investment but can get huge as the game goes on thanks to scaling Tempest Djinns . Next, we have Siren Stormtamer, which gives our other creatures some protection while being able to swing in the air. Harbinger of the Tides gives us a way to gain some tempo, and can be done on an opponent’s turn to really catch them off guard. Merfolk Trickster plays a somewhat similar role, letting us make an opponent’s creature more vulnerable before combat damage or stopping a creature from attacking or blocking entirely. Our last two-drop, Tidebinder Mage, gives us a way to hold out longer against decks with big, aggressively-statted creatures, like Questing Beast or Glorybringer. Brazen Borrower is a great tempo play that turns into an attacker, and Tempest Djinn is a great creatures that also does a very good job increasing our devotion. Gadwick, the Wizened can draw us lots of cards in the lategame, while still being a relevant turn 3 play that generates value over time.
For spells, we have Wizard’s Retort, which acts like Counterspell a surprising amount given that 18 out of our 30 creatures are Wizards. We also have Curious Obsession, which can generate a lot of card advantage with the condition that we just keep attacking. Thankfully our fliers are good at keeping the attacks going. For lands we mostly have basic Islands to help out Tempest Djinn, but there’s also a single Castle Vantress to let us fix our draws in longer games.
In the sideboard, Mono Blue has a fistful of counterspells to no one's surprise. Spell Pierce and Negate let us deal with spell-based decks, while Aether Gust and Tidebinder Mage help against more creature-based red and green strategies. Entrancing Melody lets us steal threats from our opponent, Ashiok, Dream Render stops our opponent from tutoring while keeping their graveyard empty, and Jace, Memory Adept can help out a lot in long games or can work alongside Ashiok to punish decks that like milling themselves.
Tips
- If you have both Merfolk Trickster and Harbinger of the Tides in hand, you can play Trickster to tap a creature down, then Harbinger to return that creature to its owner’s hand. This won’t always be useful, but it’s worth remembering.
- If you have a Gadwick on board and a Harbinger of the Tides in your hand, casting Harbinger will trigger Gadwick, allowing you to tap a creature. Then, once Harbinger resolves, you can bounce that creature.
- If you have a creature enchanted with Curious Obsession, Thassa can make sure you always get to swing in and draw a card.
Extra Spice
- Mausoleum Wanderer is a great card even without other Spirits backing it up, since it increases your devotion while slowing down your opponent’s game plan. In this deck, Judge’s Familiar is functionally identical, so feel free to use that instead.
- Spectral Sailor is a nice one-drop that synergises with Mausoleum Wanderer and also generates card advantage when you need it.
The deck does a lot of things well, and is a quite good Master of Waves deck. It has tempo elements, is a bit on the aggressive side, but also isn’t necessarily afraid to play a longer game. Gadwick can help keep your opponent behind, and cards like Tidebinder Mage and Harbinger of the Tides make sure your opponent is constantly rebuilding and unable to stabilize. Give it a try, and I think you’ll find that an army of 2/1s can be surprisingly effective.
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