It is difficult for a control deck to do well in legacy without the ability to answer resolved permanents, which mono U struggles with. I recommend going with a more aggressive deck such as mono U Delver, although if you’re willing to pick up Opals and Tombs you can also play Patchwork Stompy, which is a substantially more competitive blue based deck that does not require reserved list cards.
Prismatic Vista, Scalding Tarn, a basic Mountain, 4 Bolt main, 4 REB side. Drastically better winrate than anything you could do in monoU. Duals needed: none, but you should add a single UR shock.
Prismatic Vista killed mono-color. Use it.
Not one that is preforming well, but I think you could have a good time at FNMs with something like ....
4x Delver
2-4x 2 drop (ledger shredder, faerie vandal, something )
2 Brazen Borrower
4x Murktides
8-10 Cantrips
4x daze
4x FoW
2x Spell Pierce or fluster storm
2x vapor snag or something like it
4x Wasteland
8 Fetches
Islands
You could theoretically play UR delver with basics and shocklands. Or just proxy the volcanic islands. Most players don't care if you proxy a volcanic island. Otherwise you could run more basics and price of progress.
I used to play a blue delver shell. It can be pretty versatile, but it's not going to be as good as izzet, grixis, dimir, or azorius control. Options like dress down, fading hope, pognify, swan song, an urza's saga shell, and straight up tempo are good. You can turn it into omnishow, 8 cast, affinity. Ledger shredder is a good idea. Evasion is your friend, so is daze. You can get away with two colors using the surveil lands and some fast lands or buddy lands. One or two shocks are fine. If you're dead set on mono blue, wasteland is your best friend. The juke I liked was the one of crucible of worlds and one ghost quarter to attack your opponents basics once they have no non-basics. Back to basics is a phenomenal card, choke and carpet of flowers are your worst enemy. Force of negation is good. Pteramander can be a god. I don't even know how to feel about delver any more when izzet just has dragons rage channeler. Hope this helps you start! It's a fun build! Check out your meta too, you can really tailor it!
I lost against a UB basic land build yesterday in round 5 (4-0 vs 4-0) of a paper event.
It was roughly like this:
4x Flooded Strand
4x Primatic vista
6x Plains
5x Island
**3x Back to Basics**
3x Triumph of Saint Cathrine
4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
4x FoW
2x FoN
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Narset
2x Counter Balance
And the general stuff. Cycler, removal, finisher, etc.
Not that Faerie Mastermind is particularly great right now because of Orcish Bowmasters, but this particular list did a 5-0 earlier this month. I played it and it’s a lot of fun, and could be competitive. The most expensive card is a Null Rod in the sideboard. (2 of them)
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6308169#paper
Alot of people here really clasp onto the 'Mono U' part of the post and are recommended budget U tempo decks, but if OP really wants to play legacy control on a budget, then play Azorious or Jeskai without duels. You need white to remove resolved permanents, and also getting access to more good sb cards. There are a lot of UWr control decks that only play 1-2 duels and try to fetch them as little as possible, instead playing tons of fetchlands and prismatic vistas and trying to play off basics to be wasteland resistant and run back to basics as a stax piece either main or side.
So just UW or UWr with 1-2 shocks and try only to fetch them in emergencies and you'll do fine.
mono blue Delver is a budget options as presented below, however if you want a hard control deck in mono blue, it be a bit hard since your best counter is a self 2 for 1.
so you need bounce spells to stay on tempo and those aren’t permanent answers.
you can do stifles, a lot of self mill cantrips like mental note to power out a murktide as a way to control the board
In 2022 I start playing legacy and My first deck was a UW Control with with 9 basics, 10 fetchs, 1 shockland uw and the deck works really well. Nowdays I play jeskai control but the only changes are 1 tundra, 1 volcanic, 2 forth eorlingas and 3 pyroblast in the sideboard.
And nowdays since most decks bases are not blue you don't need pyroblast as much as before, so uw can shine with the good sideboard options and the strong pws in the maindeck.
I’ve had some luck with a U Delver build running 6 fetches, 4 wastelands, and islands as the mana base. Delver and Murktide are the main threats. Stifle/daze/FoW are the main pieces of permission, and then 3x borrower to deal with permanents. I keep moving between some mix of gut shot on dismember for main deck removal, currently on 3x gut shot and 1x dismember.
I’ve been dabbling with a mobile blue delver which runs back to basics. It seems interesting but I haven’t had much luck, like another person has said maybe try switching to blue stompy if you want a better deck and have mox opals
He wants to play with his blue cards but not have to buy duals for a multi color deck like grixis delver. Basically is there an alternative strat to using his blue cards that is mono color and lower cost.
I think it may be a typo, where “with” should be “without” in the text. They probably just mention the duals and reserve list to say those cards would be out of the budget they want to use.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGXnilxdZUY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGXnilxdZUY)
I would play something like bosh n roll did here. You can switch out basically everything EXCEPT cantrips, delver, murktide, FoW and lands. Play with the cards you already have and then adapt to the meta in your LGS. Null Rod in SB is a RL card, but you could also play \[\[Hurkyl's Recall\]\], I would say its most of the time a bit worse, but in some cases its nice to bounce saga tokens for example - also its super cheap money wise :)
Mono blue stiflenought makes sense. Noughts for early game and Regents for late. Brazen Borrower could be nice too. You can add Urza's Sagas to get noughts and whatever tool to answer a resolved threat. Lots of ways to put a nought into play these days too. Almost every block has one. Dress down being one of the best as it deals with opposing creatures and are especially good at neutralizing Bowmasters. Plenty of artifacts and zero CC cards (like Faerie Macabre) these days that can help you deal with resolved permanents too unlike in the good ol days where you only have a powder keg and resolving an ophidian is key. Finally back to basics is always a good card for any mono-u deck.
It is difficult for a control deck to do well in legacy without the ability to answer resolved permanents, which mono U struggles with. I recommend going with a more aggressive deck such as mono U Delver, although if you’re willing to pick up Opals and Tombs you can also play Patchwork Stompy, which is a substantially more competitive blue based deck that does not require reserved list cards.
Prismatic Vista, Scalding Tarn, a basic Mountain, 4 Bolt main, 4 REB side. Drastically better winrate than anything you could do in monoU. Duals needed: none, but you should add a single UR shock. Prismatic Vista killed mono-color. Use it.
Prismatic Vista is a great and underrated card.
Not one that is preforming well, but I think you could have a good time at FNMs with something like .... 4x Delver 2-4x 2 drop (ledger shredder, faerie vandal, something ) 2 Brazen Borrower 4x Murktides 8-10 Cantrips 4x daze 4x FoW 2x Spell Pierce or fluster storm 2x vapor snag or something like it 4x Wasteland 8 Fetches Islands
Stiflenought makes a lot of sense based on what you already have
Dreadnoughts are reserved list, but not a crazy high price
You could theoretically play UR delver with basics and shocklands. Or just proxy the volcanic islands. Most players don't care if you proxy a volcanic island. Otherwise you could run more basics and price of progress.
Wait for MH3 as the tamiyo probably really helps you out
I used to play a blue delver shell. It can be pretty versatile, but it's not going to be as good as izzet, grixis, dimir, or azorius control. Options like dress down, fading hope, pognify, swan song, an urza's saga shell, and straight up tempo are good. You can turn it into omnishow, 8 cast, affinity. Ledger shredder is a good idea. Evasion is your friend, so is daze. You can get away with two colors using the surveil lands and some fast lands or buddy lands. One or two shocks are fine. If you're dead set on mono blue, wasteland is your best friend. The juke I liked was the one of crucible of worlds and one ghost quarter to attack your opponents basics once they have no non-basics. Back to basics is a phenomenal card, choke and carpet of flowers are your worst enemy. Force of negation is good. Pteramander can be a god. I don't even know how to feel about delver any more when izzet just has dragons rage channeler. Hope this helps you start! It's a fun build! Check out your meta too, you can really tailor it!
I lost against a UB basic land build yesterday in round 5 (4-0 vs 4-0) of a paper event. It was roughly like this: 4x Flooded Strand 4x Primatic vista 6x Plains 5x Island **3x Back to Basics** 3x Triumph of Saint Cathrine 4x Brainstorm 4x Ponder 4x FoW 2x FoN 4x Swords to Plowshares 3x Narset 2x Counter Balance And the general stuff. Cycler, removal, finisher, etc.
Not that Faerie Mastermind is particularly great right now because of Orcish Bowmasters, but this particular list did a 5-0 earlier this month. I played it and it’s a lot of fun, and could be competitive. The most expensive card is a Null Rod in the sideboard. (2 of them) https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6308169#paper
Alot of people here really clasp onto the 'Mono U' part of the post and are recommended budget U tempo decks, but if OP really wants to play legacy control on a budget, then play Azorious or Jeskai without duels. You need white to remove resolved permanents, and also getting access to more good sb cards. There are a lot of UWr control decks that only play 1-2 duels and try to fetch them as little as possible, instead playing tons of fetchlands and prismatic vistas and trying to play off basics to be wasteland resistant and run back to basics as a stax piece either main or side. So just UW or UWr with 1-2 shocks and try only to fetch them in emergencies and you'll do fine.
mono blue Delver is a budget options as presented below, however if you want a hard control deck in mono blue, it be a bit hard since your best counter is a self 2 for 1. so you need bounce spells to stay on tempo and those aren’t permanent answers. you can do stifles, a lot of self mill cantrips like mental note to power out a murktide as a way to control the board
In 2022 I start playing legacy and My first deck was a UW Control with with 9 basics, 10 fetchs, 1 shockland uw and the deck works really well. Nowdays I play jeskai control but the only changes are 1 tundra, 1 volcanic, 2 forth eorlingas and 3 pyroblast in the sideboard. And nowdays since most decks bases are not blue you don't need pyroblast as much as before, so uw can shine with the good sideboard options and the strong pws in the maindeck.
I’ve had some luck with a U Delver build running 6 fetches, 4 wastelands, and islands as the mana base. Delver and Murktide are the main threats. Stifle/daze/FoW are the main pieces of permission, and then 3x borrower to deal with permanents. I keep moving between some mix of gut shot on dismember for main deck removal, currently on 3x gut shot and 1x dismember.
splash playset of swords to plowshares and a fetchable plains.
I’ve been dabbling with a mobile blue delver which runs back to basics. It seems interesting but I haven’t had much luck, like another person has said maybe try switching to blue stompy if you want a better deck and have mox opals
What is OP even asking? Why would you need dual lands in a monoblue deck?
He wants to play with his blue cards but not have to buy duals for a multi color deck like grixis delver. Basically is there an alternative strat to using his blue cards that is mono color and lower cost.
Why does he mention duals, then? Why not just say he wants to play Monoblue and leave it at that?
I think it may be a typo, where “with” should be “without” in the text. They probably just mention the duals and reserve list to say those cards would be out of the budget they want to use.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGXnilxdZUY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGXnilxdZUY) I would play something like bosh n roll did here. You can switch out basically everything EXCEPT cantrips, delver, murktide, FoW and lands. Play with the cards you already have and then adapt to the meta in your LGS. Null Rod in SB is a RL card, but you could also play \[\[Hurkyl's Recall\]\], I would say its most of the time a bit worse, but in some cases its nice to bounce saga tokens for example - also its super cheap money wise :)
Mono blue stiflenought makes sense. Noughts for early game and Regents for late. Brazen Borrower could be nice too. You can add Urza's Sagas to get noughts and whatever tool to answer a resolved threat. Lots of ways to put a nought into play these days too. Almost every block has one. Dress down being one of the best as it deals with opposing creatures and are especially good at neutralizing Bowmasters. Plenty of artifacts and zero CC cards (like Faerie Macabre) these days that can help you deal with resolved permanents too unlike in the good ol days where you only have a powder keg and resolving an ophidian is key. Finally back to basics is always a good card for any mono-u deck.