Mono U Tron Primer
Around the idea of putting each of the three Urza Lands out (Urza’s Power Plant, Urza’s Mine, and Urza’s Tower) to produce 7 mana as many Urza Tron decks do, this deck is a dedicated control deck stylized to fit a certain meta. Similar to playing EDH in Modern.
The idea of this deck is to fight like a tempo deck until turn 7+ without having a threat out. Purposely limiting the opponent from doing what is needed to win, so that we can. There is no straight forward way to play the game when a hand of seven is never consistent enough to have redundancy. This deck requires more thought to each matchup than just blanking a hand.The goal isn’t to assemble the 3 Urza Lands as fast as possible, but to utilize them to win the game in the long run. Normally, achieving a full set of Tron Lands doesn’t occur until turn 4 or 5.
While there are many tools to balance and perfect the deck, there are also many routes to establish the type of deck into the style of your choosing. The deck is fairly easy to manipulate and alter for a person’s style and meta understanding. From the Treasure Mage, Solemn Simulacrum build to the Chalice Build and even builds utilizing value cards such a Gifts Ungiven as a 1 to 4 of build.
Mono U Tron focuses on the ability to use permission spells (Remand, Condescend, Spell Burst, Repeal and Dismember) to stall the game out until the moment where the deck can stabilize on its own or access a game-winning lock or move. The ability to sculpt a perfect hand is normal when each permission spell exists to also provide value of replacing itself through a cantrip or filter into the next draw step. Almost no spell is dead in the deck at any given moment.
The style I chose was a straight U Tron control deck with cards such as Chalice of the Void and Dig Through Time to easily flow value from one card to the next and still being able to hold my back for more much needed answer cards.
1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Expedition Map
3 Talisman of Dominance
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Mindslaver
1 Batterskull
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Condescend
3 Remand
2 Dig Through Time
2 Dismember
2 Repeal
1 Spell Burst
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Academy Ruins
7 Island
Sideboard:
2 Aetherize
2 Dismember
2 Sun Droplet
2 Negate
2 Spell Snare
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
A Well-Oiled Machine is normally what this deck is referred to as since each part of the deck is meant to work with each other to achieve the ultimate goal; Win, but with style. And that is where the interest part begins. Play the game at your own pace with an array of permission and answers. This deck has one of the best late game stages. The inevitability that this deck will win the longer the game goes is the reason this deck is permission-based.
Sundering Titan, Platinum Angel and Wurmcoil Engine. These cards are complete all stars and are part of the Well-Oiled Machine. This is when the machine works to bring out, these cards are the main ways to win the game. This is where EDH comes into Modern. Playing these cards is basically playing EDH in a competitive setting, even when Sundering Titan is banned in EDH.
Sundering Titan is Mono U Tron’s Blood Moon, but better. The way to punish any greedy deck or just any regular deck, too. This kills both basics and shocklands. A one-sided armageddon that wins the game just by itself. The body of this creature isn’t anything to just pass by since dealing 7 a turn destroys any threat, while still having an amazing ass to back it up. Answers are useless against this card since it just attacks their land base again. The curve topping card couldn’t be a better choice to use when we’re always the permission deck.
Platinum Angel is the deck’s way to slow down or complete stop an opponent’s game plan. Sometimes this card is an only out, other times the opponent just doesn’t know what to do. When unanswered, Platinum Angel wins the game entirely. Dealing 4 a turn while providing the ability to overextend is the purpose of playing Platinum Angel.
Wurmcoil Engine is a deal-with card that plays well with Oblivion Stone. It is best creature to stabilize, and later win the game. Against Aggro and Midrange decks, Wurmcoil Engine is almost an unstoppable force that can’t be answered with combat tricks or one-shot removal spells unless they’re packing Path to Exile, which isn’t so horrible anyways. Path to Exile only hits 4 cards in the deck, and further advance the length of the game, where Mono U Tron will ultimately win.
Snapcaster Mage is a utility creature more than anything. While it can help to slow down decks that are faster than us early enough, the main goal is to use it as an access to any spell in the deck. Need another Repeal, Remand, or Condescend? Snapcaster Mage acts as another copy of any spell while still putting a threat on the board or just a potential blocker so our life total doesn’t go all that low.
Now, the lack of regularly used cards such as Treasure Mage and Simulacrum are because they are lackluster. In the long game, they do nothing and are dead draws. I don’t want to use them stall out the game when I can use more efficient cards that are almost never dead, even in the late game. Without them, I still am able to punish my opponent while obtaining value for each spell I cast. They are stallers at best that don’t put up a needed clock or force my opponent to play around decisively. Cards like these two are training wheels to help people to learn how the deck functions, but are not needed in the long haul goal of winning.
People will think that these are staples when just witnessing what the deck is, but when familiar with the deck, there are more times when they just cards in hand than cards on the battlefield. Against a much faster meta, these cards are in their best shape to be used, but are only turn 3–4. That point is when Treasure Mage and Solemn Simulacrum are at their most useful.
Expedition Map is Mono U Tron’s Birthing Pod. With 4 of each Urza Land and three different one-of lands. With this land base, it is essentially to either fuel win conditions or consistently keep up the ability to lock people down, in terms “fuel our win condition.” Mono U Tron doesn’t run fetchlands, so Expedition Map is the catch-all makeshift fetchland that allows for the set of one-ofs and reliance of each land. Since they part of what this deck was built around, they are needed to be drawn most of the time, which is why I chose to play 4.
Talisman of Dominance is meant to filter the opening hands when the nine blue sources aren’t enough. It is just another land most of the time, but it does help to take off less damage from a Dismember casting. Usually good to help ramp into a turn 4 Batterskull if that is the deciding turn whether aggro decks win or not. Otherwise, it is usually the Island that needed to cast most of our permission spells when there aren’t any islands in the opening hand. As Island 9–11, I wouldn’t run more than 3 in the off chance to be filled with them. While they aren’t a dead draw, they are just horrible in consecutives.
Chalice of the Void is meant to be a constant source of permission against the current meta, which is ravaged by Delver and Burn. Chalice is an important tool in many bad match ups so that this deck can keep up with their speed or slow them down enough to keep up with the deck’s speed. I originally used four copies in the main deck. The change was meant to increase the power of this deck in an opponent meta. When Chalice of the Void is good, it can win the game on its own. When Chalice of the Void is bad, it is one of the worst cards in the entire matchup, which is why I would suggest to only play 2 in the main deck is playing any.
Oblivion Stone is the Chalice of the Void when things resolve. Oblivion Stone is the catch-all sweeper that destroys almost every problem left on the board. I have to play around this card as much as my opponent, though, since it does destroy many permanents on my side of the field such as Chalice of the Void and Talisman of Dominance, but slowing down the opponent is more of a necessity than limiting the game plan. With enough mana, Oblivion Stone could be a completely one-sided sweeper when using its second ability unless there is enough pressure on the table to force an immediate crack of Oblivion Stone.
Mindslaver is an out. The ultimate lock in the late game. This and Academy Ruins allow each turn to be played in favor of the Mono U Tron player. Inexperienced Thoughseize players would choose the win condition before limiting us, and Academy Ruins play completely around what Thoughtseize accomplished. While needing a 12 mana investment as minimum, Mindslaver could be shot off immediately to limit the opponent’s game plan and still taunt the opponent from the afterlife. While not a common feat to win with, it feels damn amazing to win in this style.
Batterskull is more of a way to stabilize than win the game, but by the time Mono U has stabilized, Batterskull becomes a win condition that is almost impossible to deal with due to overwhelming, consistent mana. Equipping Batterskull onto a Wurmcoil is some of the most trolling outs against an opponent, and Batterskull doesn’t die to any straight removal spell. This card is used to stall the board out until the Mono U Tron player has developed and out valued the opponent in terms of resource.
The instant and sorcery spells in the deck offer more than just one-to-one trading for card.
Condescend flows our draw steps to delve into the deck for cards during the right moment, while filter draw steps with ease. Both early in the game to make sure hitting land drops isn’t a problem and in the late game when the opponent doesn’t have as much mana to produce as the Mono U Player. Condescend is the go-to counterspell in the deck to answer any troublesome cards when Remand doesn’t do what is needed.
Remand is the other counterspell that provides value. Instead of answering any specific card, Remand is used to slow down the opponent’s progress of increasing his or her board state while drawing into another live card that is either an answer or a win condition. The cheapest counterspell in the deck meant to limit the opponent’s actions while providing us with another card and stalling the game until Mono U Tron reaches the late game to win.
Repeal and Dismember are the way to deal with troublesome permanents that filter through a sweep of counterspells. While Dismember doesn’t replace itself, it is still useful to destroy an early Tarmogoyf or troublesome Wild Nacatl without the use of any Blue resource. It also helps if trying to threaten a counterspell later that same turn.
Thirst for Knowledge is meant to be a value card at best, or a way to abuse Academy Ruins later on. When Expedition Map, Chalice of the Void and Talisman of Dominance become lackluster, they are just dead cards in hand until Thirst for Knowledge is used. Instead of being a dead card, they replace themselves with a newly drawn card while also filling the grave so that Dig Through Time is easier to cast early on.
Besides Snapcaster Mage and Academy Ruins, the graveyard is hardly used outside of those two cards. Delve at least allows for better use of cards within the graveyard, specifically in the form of Dig Through Time as another value card. With cheap counterspells and cheap artifacts hitting the grave after each turn, Mono U Tron is able to fill the graveyard in a substantial amount of time to make Dig Through Time to be reliable. Instead of just drawing into blind cards, Dig Through Time can finish any type of game being played. Dig Through Time finds the missing Urza Land missing from completely the Tron set, the combo lock of Mindslaver or Academy Ruins or any bombs that are hidden with the deck. Later in the game, Dig Through Time is easily hard casted when the graveyard becomes less beneficially, so it works in both the Late and Early portion of the games.
Fabricate is a card that trades for itself to search for any bomb or helpful artifact at the moment, perfect for a certain situation. At worse, Fabricate would be used to search for an Expedition Map or Talisman of Dominance if behind, but those situations occur less than frequent. Snapcaster helps to fill the gap of being behind, where Dig Through Time can play the same role as Thirst for Knowledge and Fabricate.
Spell Burst is the star permission spell in the late game. Buyback creates a Spell Burst counter lock with enough mana present. The main reason to play Spell Burst is the inevitability of Spell Burst locking when there is more mana than known what to do with. The ability to keep up a counterspell after a counter war and still have more fuel for later counter wars to exist.
The land base is shifty between 23 to 25 lands, with 24 lands being the average in Mono U Tron and many other control decks. This land base is meant to be efficient and utilized throughout each point in the game.
Islands are sometimes, more than not, the most important lands in the deck. Hitting Blue is more important than hitting any other land in the deck. As the permission spells are the backbone of the deck’s success, the islands are the most reliable sources for blue mana. There have been a plethora of games lost due to colorless land keeps and no drawn into a blue source. Instead of being behind on lands, it is the lack of consistent sources of lands that can screw this deck over.
Oboro, Palace in the Clouds is Island #8 that helps to fuel the need of hitting blue. With a single colorless land, Oboro, Palace in the Clouds efficiently encases the ability of hitting two sources of blue in a single turn. But there is also utility against Jund/BGx decks that utilize Liliana of the Veil, especially her discard +1 ability. To spice this up, send Oboro, Palace in the Clouds back to your hand and then discard upon resolution of Lilian of the Veil’s +1 Discard ability.
Tectonic Edge and Ghost Quarters are land hitters against greedy or problematic lands. Against Control, Tectonic Edge can stop Celestial Colonnade or any dual land that they play. It can stop an early play of Cryptic Command. Ghost Quarter is the same idea, but it doesn’t put them back except on the number of sources in any specific color of mana. But Gavony Township and Treetop Village become less scary when they do not exist. Both Tectonic Edge and Ghost Quarter hit lands early on when casting a Sundering Titan is a little world’s away.
The Urza Lands (Urza’s Power Plant, Urza’s Tower, and Urza’s Mine) are the namesake of the deck, the way to ramp into the silver bullets turns before any regular deck would normally cast them. There is no reason to not run a playset of each. While Mono U Tron doesn’t focus on assembling the set as early as GR Tron does, there are still tools to increase the speed of Mono U Tron in terms of resource and strength.
