Over other slots, of course. I would never cut remand in this deck. Mana leak would be to supplement the counterspells. It would be trimming down a little bit of the later/mid game stuff for things that you can play earlier, especially against faster decks.
What's wrong with mana leak in this deck? It seems to me it should help during the turns which this deck is most vulnerable. Indeed it becomes dead later, but I think I feel confident enough in this deck's late game to make up for this. Additionally, you can always just pitch it to thirst after it's outlived its usefulness. Fitting it into the main might be tricky simply because of slots, but it certainly seems like a very solid sideboard card, as it's definitely useful against fast aggro and combo alike.
(I also like Rune Snag a lot, although I know it's just a worse mana leak)
Temple of Enlightenment is also an interesting land which might help consistency in finding cards in the deck, although can be awkward at times. The real question is how much less stable does the manabase become (I think in UW blood moon is a much bigger problem), how many cards would we potentially want, and is this enough to justify it? Off the top of my head the white cards which I'd really want:
Wrath of God (But I hate double colored spells) Path to Exile (MB for sure, probably all 4) Porphyry Nodes (This is a nice SB option which buys some serious time, assuming the opponent doesn't have removal for it) Timely Reinforcements (This is also a great roadblock for the aggressive decks) Martial Coup (Very interesting wrath effect once tron mana is online)
Otherwise I'm not super impressed by other options in general. Honestly path and timely reinforcements is almost enough for me to just make the switch.
So, here's a crazy idea to help with fast aggro, but what about Oona's Gatewarden? 2 power is probably not enough, even with wither, but I was just trying to browse options in mono-blue and this caught my eye. Could there be any use for this card or is it just awful always? I know dismember is another 1 mana option, but the 4 life in my experience has just been too much to make it worthwhile against most aggressive creature decks. Aetherize is probably still (sadly) the best option. I think I'll just have to live with this.
Spellskite is basically one of the best board cards in my opinion. Facing fast guys? Spellskite. Facing twin? Spellskite. Want to protect your resolved wurmcoil/titan? Spellskite. Facing burn? Spellskite. Facing Bogles? Spellskite. The real question is, what doesn't this card do? I honestly am baffled that the stock lists aren't playing this card very much (usually not even at all).
Also, I don't believe the one mana makes spell pierce worth it over negate. When I want to answer non-creature spells, I want them to just be answered. Decks are just not fast enough in modern for spell pierce to be relevant enough in my opinion. Games naturally are going to go longer. Having to pay 2 extra for a spell is not a big deal a lot of the time against this deck.
Also, you've hit the nail on the head with angel. I don't really believe it actually wins that many games to justify the slot because when it's removed you just lose still since it applies little pressure on its own. Sure, one can argue that game one decks don't have a ton of answers to it. That's fair, but I don't think relying on this 7 mana artifact creature should be the go to strategy for attempting to deal with these decks.
How do people feel about platinum angel? I've been playing this card for a long time, but have not once needed to tutor for it. When I draw it naturally it's only "okay" too. Usually I'd just prefer a wurmcoil engine. Somebody convince me to run this card more than just a "sometimes you need it," because honestly the amount of "sometimes" for me is basically never.
90% of creatures die to bolt. But only 1 that makes bolt cost 2. If I can't have real LD I think a tax idea will help.
This is completely the wrong way to approach the card. Having creatures which die to bolt is fine in the right deck. Spending 4 mana, in this deck, for a creature which dies to a bolt without doing anything (a 2 mana bolt will not matter) is not a good place to be in, for this deck.
I think you must be a little confused. There is no slaver "package." It's just mindslaver. The only card you need to combo with it is academy ruins, but that is a card you will be running regardless if you have slaver or not. Personally, I only run 1 mindslaver which I think is fine. I also have 4 fabricates, and you really want slaver as a target (in this case). Being able to just win the game on 13 mana, including ruins, is very powerful.
Lodestone golem is cute, but not very good. The main reason is that it just dies to lightning bolt. If it was a 5/4 I would consider it much more strongly honestly. The real question is: what do you want the taxing effect for? Certainly a 5/3 body is not the main draw to this card.
Since you're controlling both turns, it's pretty easy to setup shortcuts here. You'll need to manually do this a a couple times first, just so that it's clear what the shortcut is. But you can shortcut that every upkeep you'll just tap all the opponent's lands. Then basically just draw/discard for them. Just make sure you don't discard something stupid like Emrakul and that their seven card hand doesn't have something dumb like pact of negation and you can clear through the opponent's deck very quickly. From my understanding of the post above, you need not physically tap and untap everything either, so this should save a lot of time. You should definitely practice by yourself with an opponent's deck across the table, and just draw/discard it a couple times to get the feel for it. Have your opponent's hand just sit down open-faced on the table.
So how do you handle UWR Midrange/ fast Aggro decks with this list?
Trying to assemble Tron ASAP while blowing things up with O Stone left and right?
If you manage to handle them, congrats.
Wouldn't Chalice/ Engineered be something to consider since you run 3 Tolaria Wests?
Realistically, there really aren't many ways to deal with "really" fast aggro draws in mono blue. I've tried for awhile to come up with good things to do this, but there just aren't really many good ways (in my opinion). I think going heavy on the Ostone plan though is probably the best way to try and approach these matchups, because you will more reliably have access to a sweeper. Indeed, Oblivion Stone is not a faster sweeper by any means, but completely destroying the board on turn 5 will probably do more for you than gaining a few life with a 2/2. Sure, they might kill you by turn 5, but your 2/2 blocker is probably not going to be enough to save those games anyway.
I really think you have to pick your battles, and dealing with really fast aggro draws is just not something very feasible in mono blue. Even with an Ostone you still have two turns to cast a repeal, remand, or condescend, and I think oblivion stone combined with these spells will let you survive the early game. Note also that I play 4 spellskites in the board. I think this card is very important, because it helps you with a lot of problematic things, including aggro. A 0/4 wall which can absorb lightning bolts really does a lot of work if you're under a lot of pressure. This is on top of just crushing decks like twin, boggles, and (often) burn/sligh. I think this card should see a lot more play in Mono U tron lists, and frankly it surprises me that I'm just not seeing very much of it.
The last measure the list has for faster aggro is the high consistency of getting a turn 5 batterskull in play, simply because of the 4 fabricates. They might have removal, yes, but a lot of times if you can land a batterskull this can buy you plenty of needed time. Wurm often does more work, but when you need stuff to interact with the board sooner, I like to have the option between the two.
I've also considered trying out Silent Arbiter, but I'm not sure that he's good enough.
As for engineered explosives and/or chalice, I've thought about it a lot. Engineered explosives is just too weak with only one color, which is why I don't run that. Chalice on paper seems pretty nice, but at best it's a turn 4 play (since 99% of time I will need to tutor for it) and I'm just not convinced that a turn 4 chalice is worthwhile. It's perhaps nice to have access to because of the Tolarias, but it's a card I still can't get a handle on in terms of usefulness. A lot of people here claim it to be incredibly powerful, so I may have to give it another look.
The culling scales in the board is certainly a strange card to see. The main reason I chose this card was to be able to answer pithing needle (on Ostone) and stony silence. Additionally, it certainly does do work against decks with small creatures, being active by turn 4. (Notice a theme? Answer creatures is never great in mono blue, but there are a lot of awkward bandaids we can use to help this area out.)
I've been playing this deck on Cockatrice for awhile now, but finally got to test at my local FNM. Deck played great and I'm pretty happy with my list now, even though it's moved a fair bit away from the "standard" lists. The original post with my mini 4-round report is on the Source, which I can't quite post yet because I haven't used the forums here yet. So, I'll just repost here:
I'm pretty happy with the list right now. The only change I'm going to make is -1 Telling Time for 1 negate. I'm also considering if I should change the ruins out for a different land, and possibly the platinum angel for something else since I never seem to go for it. Otherwise it's performing very consistently, I have plenty of countermagic, and plenty of options as the game goes on. As such I'm very happy with the list. I got on the fabricate plan because I wanted more access to Oblivion Stone. I quickly found myself wanting even more stones, so I ended up just playing the full set of both stones and fabricates. I really like this setup because I have a lot of board control now and am able to find bullets when I need them. Quick overview of rounds:
R1: vs. UWR Control (2-1)
G1: I had to mull to 5 to find a single blue source. I could have won, but he drew 3x Tec edge, so no hope of beating that on mull to 5.
G2: We play draw go again, I go for a fabricate, it gets countered. I go for a mindslaver. It gets to his turn, and he can't answer it, and ends up scooping. I didn't quite have the tron mana yet, but would have been able to set it up with a double turn anyway so it didn't matter. Go go confusing tron lands!
G3: We play draw go for awhile, I get to cast some thirsts. I feel like I'm in a decent position, so I go for a fabricate. He negates, I negate back. He negates again, so I remand my fabricate, but he counterfluxes that. We're both in topdeck mode, and he's beating me down with colonnade, but I'm able to stick a wurmcoil and stabilize thanks to my spell burst handling his lightning bolt and then snapcaster next turn.
R2: vs. Splinter Twin (2-0)
G1: We play draw go, he tries to go for a combo, I repeal his guy. I play very safe, but he can never stick a combo or pressure me until I get slaver-lock online. He makes me play it out, but has Spellskite so I just wait until he gets a bolt and then kill himself with his skite.
G2: I open with 2x Spellskite + Torpor Orb, so he can't really get any early combos. He plays a turn 3 blood moon, but only off one island, and I had an island too. I end up drawing even more islands, but he's just stuck on the one. He plays a snapcaster and pestermite and goes for the beatdown plan. He almost gets there, but 2x repeal buys me time for a wurmcoil and then I go on the beatdown. THe moon really screwed him over that game since he was stuck on one blue source and couldn't play effectively because of it.
R3: vs. Burn (2-0)
G1: He gets a land heavy hand and despite getting me to 4, I stabilize with a wurmcoil on turn 6.
G2: He has a good hand, with a goblin guide turn one, but I drew 2x Condescend and 2x Negate to stabilize at 4 and eventually get a spellskite + batterskull into play.
R4: vs. Obliterator Rock (2-0)
G1: He can't pressure me early, I tempo him with remands, repeal, and condescends, get tron online, slaver him, make him slaughter pact his own goyf, then sundering titan his lands so he can't pay next turn.
G2: Basically same thing as G1, but no slaver lock. I just outtempo him and get a wurmcoil into play, which he can't handle.
Gonna keep testing, but was real happy with the deck for my first in-person tournament. Will probably take this list to the Modern GP in Minneapolis in a couple weeks.
(I also like Rune Snag a lot, although I know it's just a worse mana leak)
Wrath of God (But I hate double colored spells)
Path to Exile (MB for sure, probably all 4)
Porphyry Nodes (This is a nice SB option which buys some serious time, assuming the opponent doesn't have removal for it)
Timely Reinforcements (This is also a great roadblock for the aggressive decks)
Martial Coup (Very interesting wrath effect once tron mana is online)
Otherwise I'm not super impressed by other options in general. Honestly path and timely reinforcements is almost enough for me to just make the switch.
Also, I don't believe the one mana makes spell pierce worth it over negate. When I want to answer non-creature spells, I want them to just be answered. Decks are just not fast enough in modern for spell pierce to be relevant enough in my opinion. Games naturally are going to go longer. Having to pay 2 extra for a spell is not a big deal a lot of the time against this deck.
Also, you've hit the nail on the head with angel. I don't really believe it actually wins that many games to justify the slot because when it's removed you just lose still since it applies little pressure on its own. Sure, one can argue that game one decks don't have a ton of answers to it. That's fair, but I don't think relying on this 7 mana artifact creature should be the go to strategy for attempting to deal with these decks.
After that, you can start adding chalices to further improve these MUs.
This is completely the wrong way to approach the card. Having creatures which die to bolt is fine in the right deck. Spending 4 mana, in this deck, for a creature which dies to a bolt without doing anything (a 2 mana bolt will not matter) is not a good place to be in, for this deck.
Lodestone golem is cute, but not very good. The main reason is that it just dies to lightning bolt. If it was a 5/4 I would consider it much more strongly honestly. The real question is: what do you want the taxing effect for? Certainly a 5/3 body is not the main draw to this card.
Since you're controlling both turns, it's pretty easy to setup shortcuts here. You'll need to manually do this a a couple times first, just so that it's clear what the shortcut is. But you can shortcut that every upkeep you'll just tap all the opponent's lands. Then basically just draw/discard for them. Just make sure you don't discard something stupid like Emrakul and that their seven card hand doesn't have something dumb like pact of negation and you can clear through the opponent's deck very quickly. From my understanding of the post above, you need not physically tap and untap everything either, so this should save a lot of time. You should definitely practice by yourself with an opponent's deck across the table, and just draw/discard it a couple times to get the feel for it. Have your opponent's hand just sit down open-faced on the table.
Realistically, there really aren't many ways to deal with "really" fast aggro draws in mono blue. I've tried for awhile to come up with good things to do this, but there just aren't really many good ways (in my opinion). I think going heavy on the Ostone plan though is probably the best way to try and approach these matchups, because you will more reliably have access to a sweeper. Indeed, Oblivion Stone is not a faster sweeper by any means, but completely destroying the board on turn 5 will probably do more for you than gaining a few life with a 2/2. Sure, they might kill you by turn 5, but your 2/2 blocker is probably not going to be enough to save those games anyway.
I really think you have to pick your battles, and dealing with really fast aggro draws is just not something very feasible in mono blue. Even with an Ostone you still have two turns to cast a repeal, remand, or condescend, and I think oblivion stone combined with these spells will let you survive the early game. Note also that I play 4 spellskites in the board. I think this card is very important, because it helps you with a lot of problematic things, including aggro. A 0/4 wall which can absorb lightning bolts really does a lot of work if you're under a lot of pressure. This is on top of just crushing decks like twin, boggles, and (often) burn/sligh. I think this card should see a lot more play in Mono U tron lists, and frankly it surprises me that I'm just not seeing very much of it.
The last measure the list has for faster aggro is the high consistency of getting a turn 5 batterskull in play, simply because of the 4 fabricates. They might have removal, yes, but a lot of times if you can land a batterskull this can buy you plenty of needed time. Wurm often does more work, but when you need stuff to interact with the board sooner, I like to have the option between the two.
I've also considered trying out Silent Arbiter, but I'm not sure that he's good enough.
As for engineered explosives and/or chalice, I've thought about it a lot. Engineered explosives is just too weak with only one color, which is why I don't run that. Chalice on paper seems pretty nice, but at best it's a turn 4 play (since 99% of time I will need to tutor for it) and I'm just not convinced that a turn 4 chalice is worthwhile. It's perhaps nice to have access to because of the Tolarias, but it's a card I still can't get a handle on in terms of usefulness. A lot of people here claim it to be incredibly powerful, so I may have to give it another look.
The culling scales in the board is certainly a strange card to see. The main reason I chose this card was to be able to answer pithing needle (on Ostone) and stony silence. Additionally, it certainly does do work against decks with small creatures, being active by turn 4. (Notice a theme? Answer creatures is never great in mono blue, but there are a lot of awkward bandaids we can use to help this area out.)
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
2 Academy Ruins
3 Tolaria West
4 Expedition Map
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Telling Time
4 Remand
1 Spell Burst
4 Condescend
4 Repeal
4 Fabricate
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Mindslaver
1 Batterskull
1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel
4 Spellskite
3 Negate
2 Torpor Orb
3 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Culling Scales
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
I'm pretty happy with the list right now. The only change I'm going to make is -1 Telling Time for 1 negate. I'm also considering if I should change the ruins out for a different land, and possibly the platinum angel for something else since I never seem to go for it. Otherwise it's performing very consistently, I have plenty of countermagic, and plenty of options as the game goes on. As such I'm very happy with the list. I got on the fabricate plan because I wanted more access to Oblivion Stone. I quickly found myself wanting even more stones, so I ended up just playing the full set of both stones and fabricates. I really like this setup because I have a lot of board control now and am able to find bullets when I need them. Quick overview of rounds:
R1: vs. UWR Control (2-1)
G1: I had to mull to 5 to find a single blue source. I could have won, but he drew 3x Tec edge, so no hope of beating that on mull to 5.
G2: We play draw go again, I go for a fabricate, it gets countered. I go for a mindslaver. It gets to his turn, and he can't answer it, and ends up scooping. I didn't quite have the tron mana yet, but would have been able to set it up with a double turn anyway so it didn't matter. Go go confusing tron lands!
G3: We play draw go for awhile, I get to cast some thirsts. I feel like I'm in a decent position, so I go for a fabricate. He negates, I negate back. He negates again, so I remand my fabricate, but he counterfluxes that. We're both in topdeck mode, and he's beating me down with colonnade, but I'm able to stick a wurmcoil and stabilize thanks to my spell burst handling his lightning bolt and then snapcaster next turn.
R2: vs. Splinter Twin (2-0)
G1: We play draw go, he tries to go for a combo, I repeal his guy. I play very safe, but he can never stick a combo or pressure me until I get slaver-lock online. He makes me play it out, but has Spellskite so I just wait until he gets a bolt and then kill himself with his skite.
G2: I open with 2x Spellskite + Torpor Orb, so he can't really get any early combos. He plays a turn 3 blood moon, but only off one island, and I had an island too. I end up drawing even more islands, but he's just stuck on the one. He plays a snapcaster and pestermite and goes for the beatdown plan. He almost gets there, but 2x repeal buys me time for a wurmcoil and then I go on the beatdown. THe moon really screwed him over that game since he was stuck on one blue source and couldn't play effectively because of it.
R3: vs. Burn (2-0)
G1: He gets a land heavy hand and despite getting me to 4, I stabilize with a wurmcoil on turn 6.
G2: He has a good hand, with a goblin guide turn one, but I drew 2x Condescend and 2x Negate to stabilize at 4 and eventually get a spellskite + batterskull into play.
R4: vs. Obliterator Rock (2-0)
G1: He can't pressure me early, I tempo him with remands, repeal, and condescends, get tron online, slaver him, make him slaughter pact his own goyf, then sundering titan his lands so he can't pay next turn.
G2: Basically same thing as G1, but no slaver lock. I just outtempo him and get a wurmcoil into play, which he can't handle.
Gonna keep testing, but was real happy with the deck for my first in-person tournament. Will probably take this list to the Modern GP in Minneapolis in a couple weeks.