Jason Chung was playing the Grixis Moon a year ago or so. I think the main prolbem with that deck was the mana base, because if you want to be able to cast terminate second turn, and cryptic on fourth, you're going to take quite some damage.
Hello French Player, I recall you from the old Suicide Zoo thread more than a year ago, back when Death Shadow wasn't such a phenomenon hehe.
I think the main problem right now is that cards such as Mana Leak and Lightning Bolt are at an all time low it being useful. Lee Sheen Tiang and Jason Chung were having a lot of success with this deck 1.5 years ago because back befor ethe Eldrazi winter, bolt was in a strong position and so was shackles.
The deck needs a way to deal with an early Tasigur/Angler and DS.
I still think Blue Moon is more of a metagame call. I personally wouldn't play this unless you think your deck has a good metagame against the field.
(Also I strongly recommend 2x Dismember in the main. The card is insanely good, especially in a 2 color deck that doesn't do that much damage)
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I don't think we can play enough basics to get good use out of Skred. At this point I've pretty much put Blue Moon down until Lightning Bolt actually does something again. I'll play it at an FNM here and there but it's really not worth bringing to a large tournament IMO.
I'll be taking this to an SCG open.
After researching/testing the deck, I feel like I've come to a decent list. I think Blue moon has a decent shot against everything in the mete right now, and is favored against the boogey man that is Eldrazi tron. I know Doozy thinks that the deck (or maybe just bolt?) is in a bad place, but if you look at coco counters, affinity, and other decks in the meta, I think bolt is fine.
I'm interested in discussing the deck and hearing what you all have to say. I've got some faith in the deck and would like to brainstorm the deck, focussing primarily on the sideboard. What are the bad matchups for the deck? what are the good matchups? our primer really sucks so I'm mostly learning from experience.
I also think Bolt is fine in the right matchup. However, having no removal other than burn spells while trying to take the game late is the problem in this meta. Our E-Tron matchup is fine, as long as we land an early Blood Moon. Without it, we're facing the issue I just mentioned. Other strategies are also playing bigger creatures to fight the meta, which doesn't help.
Favorable matchups are generally decks with greedy mana bases. Almost everything else is 50/50 or worse.
That's how most Blood Moon decks work.
Our Death's Shadow match up is bad, even with sideboard. I wouldn't feel comfortable playing a deck that is very unfavored against the current best deck in an SCG Open.
I'm also not impressed with Platinum Emperion right now. A ton of Path to Exile decks are being played.
Your sideboard looks ok. Inferno Titan & HoD don't seem like they earn a slot. Definitely find room for 1-2 copies of Negate. I recommend some number of Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Relic of Progenitus, Jace Architect of Thought (vs control/Lingering souls) and Vandalblast. You can safely cut a copy of Anger and Vapor Snag.
I've been trying to make the deck work in this meta for months now with some success. It is a good deck, and you will win games. UR control is just not well positioned compared to the top tier meta.
Been playing this for a few months now and this is the list that I have (Mostly) Settled on. This is much different than most blue moon decks that try to control the game until your opponent runs out of gas. This deck is more tempo oriented and is better fitted to outpace Grixis DS that this deck tends to have problems with. Hazoret may become an EE and one of the sulfur falls or the mountains will become an academy ruins. I am probably going to test that out tomorrow.
Hello everyone, I'm a Storm player, I recently bought a couple of Blood Moon for my sideboard and fell in love with the card. Since then I've been trying to brew around it but didn't like the slow control version with big finishers, and the Shackles just seems useless in the current meta. So I've been toying around with Thoguht Scour and Cryptic Serpent with decent results, I really recommend you try them. The weaker piece of my deck is the Delver, but can steal some games. Unfortunately going for 3 every turn against any Shadow seems like your'e doing them a favor, so I need a different wincon, that's why I need some feedback. Overall the deck is more tempo oriented and sometimes can finish the game rather quickly, the cycling cards help fixing a lot of hands and fill the graveyard for the Serpent. Anyway, I'd be happy to hear some opinions, thanks!
"The sparkmage shrieked, calling on the rage of the storms of his youth. To his surprise, the sky responded with a fierce energy he'd never thought to see again."
I've been playing Blue Moon for a couple months now running a list based off what a mate of mine has been running for a while with a bit of success, I've been tweaking the list for awhile to suit how I think the meta is shaping up. However the store I play at casually has a very mixed meta, and a very slow one, I think the most represented archetype is either Mono Blue Tron or BW Tokens, but most people have a second deck or so and switch it up. My local store ran a larger tournament on a weekend recently and I managed to take it down with the following list.
The deck preformed really well and I got a lot of lucky top decks throughout the tournament. Here is the decks I played
UW Control (2-1)
-3 Burst lightning
-2 Blood Moon
-1 Electrolzye
+1 Vendillion Clique
+2 Negate
+2 Dispel
+1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
8 Whack (2-0)
-4 Blood Moon
-2 Remand
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+2 Anger of the Gods
+2 Roast
Cheerios (2-0)
-3 Blood Moon
-2 Remand
+1 Vendilion Clique
+1 Anger of the Gods
+1 Engineered Explosives
+2 Dispel
Affinity (2-0)
- 2 Blood Moon
- 3 Remand
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+2 Anger of the Gods
+1 Ceremonious Rejection
+1 Engineered Explosives
Then cut to top 4
UB Mill -(2-1)
(Note this deck is more real than ever, Freying Sanity did work throughout this match up, Also I boarded incorrectly in this match up in hind sight and should of kept in more blood moons because there big 8 mill spells are UB and it's hard for them to get all those colours so even just remanding to stall for time worked out incredibly)
-3 Burst Lightning
-1 Ancestral
-3 Blood Moon
+1 Vendilion Clique
+2 Dispel
+2 Negate
+2 Spreading Seas
Affinity (2-1)
- 2 Blood Moon
- 3 Remand
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+2 Anger of the Gods
+1 Ceremonious Rejection
+1 Engineered Explosives
Sorry I can't give more analysis on the mach ups but my memory isn't great, the main take away is that Blood Moon is an incredible card to hide behind and I will continue to do so throughout the PPTQ Season, I'll try post any results I get. Also Mill is very scary if we can't get a clock down quick enough or don't draw counters we can just straight up lose.
If you're already playing thought scour, enigma drake is genuinely powerful. Its likely even better than cryptic serpent, as flying can be very relevant.
I do like your take on the deck, as actually winning the game quickly has always felt like this deck's biggest challenge.
If you're already playing thought scour, enigma drake is genuinely powerful. Its likely even better than cryptic serpent, as flying can be very relevant.
I do like your take on the deck, as actually winning the game quickly has always felt like this deck's biggest challenge.
Thanks for the response. I tried Enigma Drake, in fact I was so hyped I bought a couple of foil ones haha, but I ended cutting them down and just putting delvers. The problem with the drake is that it plays constantly with the graveyard, and if opponents realize that you're that graveyard dependant they will shut you down easily. A single copy may work, but the serpent just enters the game and you forget about it, also casting for 2 mana instead of 3 sometimens make a big difference.
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"The sparkmage shrieked, calling on the rage of the storms of his youth. To his surprise, the sky responded with a fierce energy he'd never thought to see again."
Not saying your wrong or anything, you make very good points, but as I see it:
You will rarely cast the serpent on turn 2. I'm not even sure its possible, but its certainly rare.
Its possible you won't be able to cast it until t4-t5, especially if you don't find a thought scour.
Enigma drake, at the least, is always castable on t3, even if you slap it down as a 2/4 or something. It still flies, it still blocks, and it can still grow.
While cryptic serpent is theoretically better against graveyard hate, in practice they both get hit pretty hard, and really, how often do you expect people to board in graveyard hate against blue moon? They typically board in several pieces of hate for moon itself, and probably can't keep bringing more things in without watering down their deck.
Hello everyone, I'm a Storm player, I recently bought a couple of Blood Moon for my sideboard and fell in love with the card. Since then I've been trying to brew around it but didn't like the slow control version with big finishers, and the Shackles just seems useless in the current meta. So I've been toying around with Thoguht Scour and Cryptic Serpent with decent results, I really recommend you try them. The weaker piece of my deck is the Delver, but can steal some games. Unfortunately going for 3 every turn against any Shadow seems like your'e doing them a favor, so I need a different wincon, that's why I need some feedback. Overall the deck is more tempo oriented and sometimes can finish the game rather quickly, the cycling cards help fixing a lot of hands and fill the graveyard for the Serpent. Anyway, I'd be happy to hear some opinions, thanks!
Thanks for the feedback. I've been testing with two copies of Enigma Drake and its been nice, it suffers from graveyard hate thought, there's a lot of mainboard Relic of Progenitus right now. But sometimes can swing for 10+ and end the game.
I've thought of Young Pyromancer but the mana curve is odd, you usually want to be untapped turn 2 to counter or remove something then cast Moon turn 3. Also YP turn 2 into Moon turn 3 feels odd too. However, I've been thinking of a token producer engine or a bomb, and maybe The Locust God can be both. I'm not sure if you have discussed the card before, but it seems interesting as a one-off finisher, the flying haste tokens are nice and it only really dies to path.
PD: I don't own a fourth Snap right now but maybe soon
"The sparkmage shrieked, calling on the rage of the storms of his youth. To his surprise, the sky responded with a fierce energy he'd never thought to see again."
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BGX Midrange
URX Control
I think EE in the main might be a good option
I think the main problem right now is that cards such as Mana Leak and Lightning Bolt are at an all time low it being useful. Lee Sheen Tiang and Jason Chung were having a lot of success with this deck 1.5 years ago because back befor ethe Eldrazi winter, bolt was in a strong position and so was shackles.
The deck needs a way to deal with an early Tasigur/Angler and DS.
(Also I strongly recommend 2x Dismember in the main. The card is insanely good, especially in a 2 color deck that doesn't do that much damage)
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Blue Moon is a deck to play in a meta where Jund style decks are predominant. Storm and DS on te other hand give it a tough time.
BGX Midrange
URX Control
After researching/testing the deck, I feel like I've come to a decent list. I think Blue moon has a decent shot against everything in the mete right now, and is favored against the boogey man that is Eldrazi tron. I know Doozy thinks that the deck (or maybe just bolt?) is in a bad place, but if you look at coco counters, affinity, and other decks in the meta, I think bolt is fine.
I'm interested in discussing the deck and hearing what you all have to say. I've got some faith in the deck and would like to brainstorm the deck, focussing primarily on the sideboard. What are the bad matchups for the deck? what are the good matchups? our primer really sucks so I'm mostly learning from experience.
// 60 Maindeck
Creature
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1 Platinum Emperion
Enchantment
3 Blood Moon
spells (27)
3 Cryptic Command
2 Remand
1 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
1 Dispel
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Izzet Charm
2 Electrolyze
4 Serum Visions
3 Ancestral Vision
2 Madcap Experiment
1 Roast
8 Island
2 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Inferno Titan
2 Thing in the Ice
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Dispel
3 Vapor Snag
3 Ceremonious Rejection
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Hour of Devastation
Favorable matchups are generally decks with greedy mana bases. Almost everything else is 50/50 or worse.
That's how most Blood Moon decks work.
Our Death's Shadow match up is bad, even with sideboard. I wouldn't feel comfortable playing a deck that is very unfavored against the current best deck in an SCG Open.
I'm also not impressed with Platinum Emperion right now. A ton of Path to Exile decks are being played.
Your sideboard looks ok. Inferno Titan & HoD don't seem like they earn a slot. Definitely find room for 1-2 copies of Negate. I recommend some number of Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Relic of Progenitus, Jace Architect of Thought (vs control/Lingering souls) and Vandalblast. You can safely cut a copy of Anger and Vapor Snag.
I've been trying to make the deck work in this meta for months now with some success. It is a good deck, and you will win games. UR control is just not well positioned compared to the top tier meta.
BGX Midrange
URX Control
BGX Midrange
URX Control
That gives access to strong removal. Of blue you could keep serum visions and snappy, while getting rid of the cryptic commands.
4 Serum Visions
2 Spell Snare
4 lightning Bolt
4 Remand
1 Echoing Truth
1 Roast
4 Blood Moon
3 Electrolyze
3 Cryptic Command
Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
1 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Torrential Gearhulk
2 Keranos, God of Storms
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Desolate Lighthouse
6 Island
2 Mountain
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
3 Thing in the Ice
2 Dispel
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Vandalblast
1 Vedalken Shackles
2 Dragon's Claw
Been playing this for a few months now and this is the list that I have (Mostly) Settled on. This is much different than most blue moon decks that try to control the game until your opponent runs out of gas. This deck is more tempo oriented and is better fitted to outpace Grixis DS that this deck tends to have problems with. Hazoret may become an EE and one of the sulfur falls or the mountains will become an academy ruins. I am probably going to test that out tomorrow.
When do we side it out? when do we keep it in? does being on the play or draw influence this?
I'd still like to hear more about matchups, game plans, and overall more theory about the deck. Is there anyone here who could rewrite the primer?
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
7 Island
1 Mountain
3 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur falls
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Cryptic Serpent
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Blood Moon
4 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Thought Scour
2 Spell Snare
3 Censor
3 Mana Leak
1 Dismember
2 Electrolyze
3 Hieroglyphic Illumination
2 Anger of the gods
2 Dispel
1 Spell Pierce
2 Abrade
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Thing in the Ice
1 Pithing Needle
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Shadow of doubt
1 Dismember
I've been playing Blue Moon for a couple months now running a list based off what a mate of mine has been running for a while with a bit of success, I've been tweaking the list for awhile to suit how I think the meta is shaping up. However the store I play at casually has a very mixed meta, and a very slow one, I think the most represented archetype is either Mono Blue Tron or BW Tokens, but most people have a second deck or so and switch it up. My local store ran a larger tournament on a weekend recently and I managed to take it down with the following list.
// 1 Artifact
1 Batterskull
// 7 Creature
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
// 4 Enchantment
4 Blood Moon
// 19 Instant
2 Spell Snare
2 Cryptic Command
3 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Remand
3 Burst Lightning
1 Logic Knot
8 Island
1 Mountain
3 Steam Vents
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Sulfur Falls
3 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
// 7 Sorcery
4 Serum Visions
3 Ancestral Vision
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2 Spreading Seas
2 Negate
2 Dispel
1 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Roast
The deck preformed really well and I got a lot of lucky top decks throughout the tournament. Here is the decks I played
UW Control (2-1)
-3 Burst lightning
-2 Blood Moon
-1 Electrolzye
+1 Vendillion Clique
+2 Negate
+2 Dispel
+1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
8 Whack (2-0)
-4 Blood Moon
-2 Remand
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+2 Anger of the Gods
+2 Roast
Cheerios (2-0)
-3 Blood Moon
-2 Remand
+1 Vendilion Clique
+1 Anger of the Gods
+1 Engineered Explosives
+2 Dispel
Affinity (2-0)
- 2 Blood Moon
- 3 Remand
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+2 Anger of the Gods
+1 Ceremonious Rejection
+1 Engineered Explosives
Then cut to top 4
UB Mill -(2-1)
(Note this deck is more real than ever, Freying Sanity did work throughout this match up, Also I boarded incorrectly in this match up in hind sight and should of kept in more blood moons because there big 8 mill spells are UB and it's hard for them to get all those colours so even just remanding to stall for time worked out incredibly)
-3 Burst Lightning
-1 Ancestral
-3 Blood Moon
+1 Vendilion Clique
+2 Dispel
+2 Negate
+2 Spreading Seas
Affinity (2-1)
- 2 Blood Moon
- 3 Remand
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+2 Anger of the Gods
+1 Ceremonious Rejection
+1 Engineered Explosives
Sorry I can't give more analysis on the mach ups but my memory isn't great, the main take away is that Blood Moon is an incredible card to hide behind and I will continue to do so throughout the PPTQ Season, I'll try post any results I get. Also Mill is very scary if we can't get a clock down quick enough or don't draw counters we can just straight up lose.
I do like your take on the deck, as actually winning the game quickly has always felt like this deck's biggest challenge.
Thanks for the response. I tried Enigma Drake, in fact I was so hyped I bought a couple of foil ones haha, but I ended cutting them down and just putting delvers. The problem with the drake is that it plays constantly with the graveyard, and if opponents realize that you're that graveyard dependant they will shut you down easily. A single copy may work, but the serpent just enters the game and you forget about it, also casting for 2 mana instead of 3 sometimens make a big difference.
You will rarely cast the serpent on turn 2. I'm not even sure its possible, but its certainly rare.
Its possible you won't be able to cast it until t4-t5, especially if you don't find a thought scour.
Enigma drake, at the least, is always castable on t3, even if you slap it down as a 2/4 or something. It still flies, it still blocks, and it can still grow.
While cryptic serpent is theoretically better against graveyard hate, in practice they both get hit pretty hard, and really, how often do you expect people to board in graveyard hate against blue moon? They typically board in several pieces of hate for moon itself, and probably can't keep bringing more things in without watering down their deck.
This looks like it would work well with Young Pyromancer. Also you definitely want the 4th Snap, could go down a Cryptic Serpent.
BGX Midrange
URX Control
I've thought of Young Pyromancer but the mana curve is odd, you usually want to be untapped turn 2 to counter or remove something then cast Moon turn 3. Also YP turn 2 into Moon turn 3 feels odd too. However, I've been thinking of a token producer engine or a bomb, and maybe The Locust God can be both. I'm not sure if you have discussed the card before, but it seems interesting as a one-off finisher, the flying haste tokens are nice and it only really dies to path.
PD: I don't own a fourth Snap right now but maybe soon