I Keep Getting Fooled By Mono-Blue Commanders

[@Amascut]

Blue is so good at putting awesome effects on Legendary creatures that *have* to be played in the 99 and are absolutely awful in the Command Zone. It’s really fascinating.

[@shade0mirth]

Outside of cedh, I think blue is probably the weakest mono-color.

[@rudyh721]

Especially with all of that white support lately

[@Akoustikus]

​@@shade0mirthno way dude, playing blue is like being a superhero compared to mono white, or red. Green and black are both good and much closer in power, but Blue doesnt touch the bottom by head and shoulders.

[@jefferymuter4659]

The rate of creatively designed commanders widely outpaced creatively designed spells at some point.

[@stigmaoftherose]

​@Akoustikus mono red can be such a fast burn deck that people just don't want to play against it. Mono white can go insane in so many ways with stax, soul sisters combos, and some op enchantments. All monoblue has is counterspells, rhysric study, and cantrips. Some cantrip token decks can work, but it becomes to reliant on holding up mana to counterspell boardwhipes, or it has the issue of being slower than both white and/or green token decks.

[@brendylove4285]

I would love if you brought the gameplay series back. I love seeing your decks in action

[@mr.mammuthusafricanavus8299]

Funny I find Mono Black commanders the hardest to build around. Blue can deal/procrastinate with most things but you are typically a turn behind because your saving mana for your ''reaction'' spells. My favorite Blue commander is still FBLTHP the Lost since the deck doesn't exactly need the commander to win; I can still draw out my deck or get infinite mana loops to Capsize my opponents. I am trying out a Unctus Grand Metatect deck as they seem like a fun commander. I like the idea that I could make a aggro Blue evasive deck: whenever you tap a Blue creature you control, Loot (Draw a card, discard a card), depending on the creatures you use can go infinite and draw out your deck or use the pay life mechanic on Unctus and use Soul Conduit to reduce someones life to basically nothing at instant speed before combat damage is declared :P

[@samclark379]

I was recently challenged to build a Merfolk deck. I chose Svyelun of Sea and Sky as my Commander, and it does pretty well. Lots of Islandwalkers to attack, and use Svyelun as an indestructible blocker.

[@BrianShaw06]

If Bill was Blue/White he would be much more viable. In fact, I'm thinking of doing a "Rule Zero" commander deck where I pair him with "Keleth, Sunmane Familiar." Keleth already has partner, so it's not a huge stretch, and synergizes with being a horse, and wanting to attack with Bill.

[@Tvboy777]

Inga is great in Brudiclad. If you can get +3 copies out at once, they all die to the legend rule and all trigger their draw 3 ability.

[@wildman274]

i was legit thinking rite of replication. 9 mana to draw 15 cards and then scry 3 five times. id pay that lol

[@riccardogalizzi3047]

He' s good but with the same amount of mana you can cast curiosity crafter , that allows you to draw even more cards without sacrificing your tokens

[@sirquixano5985]

With Lord of the Rings, I wonder if Inga's first ability to scry should be your build around. Use scry payoffs and top of library matters cards like miracles, polymorphs, manifests, or anything that lets you play the top card of your library. Throw in some flicker, extra scry, lantern effects, big creatures/spells, and combos.

[@Wojtek36762]

If you’re building around the scry, why not use the mono blue Elrond who scries 1 on every creature ETB including his own, and tempts if it triggers twice in a turn? He costs 1 less, you can use Inga in the 99. I’d much rather a commander that does things repeatedly than a 4 drop that does the thing once. Even with flicker shenanigans, I prefer Elrond.

[@sirquixano5985]

Fair enough, Elrond did just come out and Inga can did deeper to get what you want on top, but yeah, Elrond is probably better now

[@launchpadmcquack24]

I'm a big fan of mono blue, but I think I really like aggressive blue decks. I currently have Octavia and am considering Tetsuko Umezawa. They do neat things in neat ways

[@casketbase7750]

Errant + Eternal Dominon is a tragic commander who just doesn't have enough synergy cards. Moritte Of The Frost is another. Incredible when paired with a Persist creature, but only 8 of those are available in her colors.

[@d.g4466]

Honestly morrite isn’t really effected by having to few persist creatures I ended up cutting most of ‘em from my deck cuz the 3-4 best are just gas every time.

[@Syncopiia]

If you play Blinding Powder, you are legally required to yell "POCKET SAND!!"

[@felipepennacchi9716]

I've Built a Bill Ferny Commander and I just love the deck, i've used a lot of theft shenanigans in my decklist and it's just so fun and generates lots of value, such a fun deck

[@rolindahlquist3124]

With Bill you can just make it indestructible too. Tons of cards to do that.

[@worryjspverybadatd2125]

Shame you didn’t enjoy it. I just finished my Bill Ferny deck yesterday and I’m waiting to try it out

[@hanschristopherson8056]

Errant is great when your commander copies spells, like Ivy or Anhelo

[@TwintailNami]

Dolmen gate is an awesome card

[@Wojtek36762]

I’m always surprised when you get really excited about these commanders with these minor abilities, especially when the things you’d need to build around aren’t in the color. Bill Ferny especially just seemed bad for exactly the reason you mention here, that even if you get the payoff it’s only three treasures. I built a Mari, the Killing Quill deck that has a similar issue: I jump through multiple hoops, at best eventually get myself two treasures and a card. It wouldn’t be so bad if the specific hoop didn’t make my opponents angry and make my field of wimpy rogues and mercenaries a target. That said, you often pick up commanders that don’t look strong enough to me and do great things with them, and I assume the same impulse that leads you to try Bill Ferny has gotten you some great decks. I have a bad habit of almost exclusively building commanders with high value triggered abilities of some kind, and I love seeing the stuff you come up with.

[@RD-cc9nk]

I just put together a reality chip deck that’s artifact and instant/flash heavy. I really enjoy it. To me, this and other similar mono blue decks can play similar to trixy Dimir decks (like Alela Cunning Conquerer) which I’m a fan of. Lots of draw, lots of laying low and building value/drawing until you slowly take over

[@nathanwilliams9158]

The problem with mono blue commanders with unique effects is they are mono blue with unique effects. The uniqueness means it’s hard to find support, and the mono color also means it’s hard to find support.

[@jwall1646]

I’ve been so enamored with the new Rasputin but I have no clue what to do with it. Maybe a goblin hating goad deck in Blue/White. I DONT KNOW!

[@storage_unit79f]

I recently built a Rasputin deck where I change the color of all permanents to red. I gives my creature base protection from most things my opponents could do and there's fun anti-red shenanigans. It's surprisingly effective! The rest is just proliferating dream counters or blinking my commander to keep pumping out those knight tokens.

[@SwedeRacerDC]

You should know to never trust blue. They're always holding up a counterspell or pretending to be something they're not. Bill Feeny actually seems like you could build an interesting jank deck. Maskwood Nexus and Xenomorph seem like they would be necessary, as well as Ameoboid Changeling that you mentioned as well. This what's you're always using horses. I would probably throw Clan Crafter into Bill Feeny, because you're always having mana and artifacts to sacrifice. Also Academy Manufactor will increase the utility of Bill's horse trading ability. Speaking of Clan Crafter and mono blue, I just built a deck with it and Vhal, Candlekeep Researcher and it's been very fun. Sting, the Glinting Dagger from Tales of Middle Earth has been busted in that deck. She has had some hoops to jump through, but it's working out

[@danielmugg4726]

Blue is just one of those colors that almost needs another color to work out. Without another color you lack removal, good (early/midgame) creatures, and mana ramp. All blue can manage to do on its own is draw cards which isn't terribly unique anymore, and deal with artifacts like Urza.

[@Candyapplebone]

But… artifacts

[@Amascut]

Blue has amazing removal - you’ve got a decent suite of 1-3 mana removal effects that leave behind a token, you’ve got counterspells, which are insane, you have a few small pieces of ramp with rocks and a few other effects, and there’s a decent set of blue mana dorks that have been coming out, not to mention untap effects for your artifact ramp. Blue has fantastic early defenders and card draw, leading you to huge payoffs in the late game. Admittedly, I run two mono blue decks that do two completely different things, making for very unique decks, but I’ve really not found there to be many issues with removal, creatures, or ramping effects overall.

[@Morrodin182]

I disagree with your assessment: Removal: Yes blue lacks true removal but: - control magic kind of spells. Not only do you remove a creature, you also gain it at your end and it isn't limited to stealing creatures only. - Enchantments like Ichthyomorphosis, frogify or witness protection. (also Pongify, which isn't an enchantment ofc but is kind of similar, and the only true blue removal spell) - Every counter is a sort of on the spot removal - It can bounce permanents for ages, which isn't hard removal BUT it can stall an opponent or remove a critical part of a combo right at the moment an opponent would trigger it. Creatures: - Blue creatures do lack a certain oomph when compared to green but on the other hand, compare it to white, black or red and it isn't that dissimilar. - From all colors blue has the widest access to flying or even outright unblockable creatures and even at low mana values. Mana ramp: - The only color that is really good at mana ramp is green. Yet blue has some mana dorks and is arguably the color best at handling artifacts and thus can make good use of mana rocks. Blue is much more than 'I can draw cards well.' It is THE colour to counter stuff. It is great at playing the tempo game by bouncing permanents. It can steal stuff from other players, not only creatures but also other permanents. Yes, mono-blue is almost always going to play a control type of game but a decently built mono-blue deck can hold it's ground versus other decks. Finally: Any deck will be stronger if you can build it with 2 or 3 colors as it does help to mitigate the things that that colour is not good at. Anyway just my few cents :)

[@mr.mammuthusafricanavus8299]

@@Morrodin182 I concur Blue is Tempo at heart, you will typically hold up mana becoming a turn or two behind but you can quickly pick up speed with Instant card draw effects. Every extra card drawn can be considered getting a turn ahead. The longer the game the better chance Blue will win. Ironically though I find with all the extra card draw, a fair amount of the time, I am just making sure I get my land drop on my turn because no matter how good your deck you need some mana LOL :P

[@F4xP4s]

@@Amascutwhat are you monU decks?

[@cozee4499]

I'm pretty sure with Inga you build it spellslinger with token creators like Talrand and Nadir Kraken qnd then clone Inga to get the dies trigger

[@themantheycallmike3951]

Another great video! Errant is an all-star in my Verazol Kicker Tribal deck, but sadly I have to disagree about Eternal Dominion being a good route to go. You'd need to stack up protection on Errant to make sure it isn't removed (as you can't cast it again after Eternal Dominion is cast) and you're either losing the game due to not being able to keep up with the amount of actions other players are able to take, or you're tutoring up a win con that will win you the game regardless of Errant being on the field. Watcher in the Water looks like it could be a really fun build...

[@alecolson8360]

I felt this way about goldberry… tried to build her and it turns out you really don’t have that many counters in blue

[@TarotNathers]

She is really supposed to pair with Tom Bombadil

[@einlan2506]

What works is you have to put inga rune eyes in a deck with all clone effects. This allows you you use the legend rule to scry3 and draw 3 way easier.

[@ItsNatt09]

I ran into this problem with Ludevic, Necrogenius. He looked so interesting to me at release and I even pulled the showcase art from a pack. Still a really fun deck to play but a little more underwhelming than I thought

[@patricksaville8672]

I love mono blue. I also have an Aboshan deck but also Octavia, Alrund, Svyelun, and Kami. I love what blue does and no it’s not all counterspells lol.

[@paulsriscool]

Your video about Bill inspired me to build a deck around him. It’s a very convoluted pile of jank. I’m excited to order the cards and donate “horses” to my playgroup.

[@HavocTheWendigo]

I feel like mono blue is still paying for orvar lol

[@henriqueprata2576]

My favorite mono-blue commander is Tetsuko Umezawa

[@jacquesdespadas]

“Horse trading”! 😂 For forced blocks strategies, Kusari-Gama is a great equipment.

[@g0dtech69]

If I'm not mistaken, Bill Ferny doesn't need to survive the block. Cause the second option says that whenever it's blocked "remove Bill Ferny from combat". If a creature is removed from combat, then it skips any combat damage step and doesn't take or do damage to the creature blocking it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[@EMMYMXNC]

What if with Inga, Rune Eyes you go for clone spells and blue instant/sorcery recursion or copy spells. Copy the graveyard recursion of the copy spells. Legendary rule happens instantly on a 3 mana fated infatuation, and you get both triggers of the ETB and her death trigger. Add in a saheelis artistry, rite of replication, replication technique etc.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

interesting. i like it

[@barrysetser3909]

Funny world, was just talking about whether a scry commander deck would even work. Totally neglected the addition of all the scry stuff in LOTR. May have to sketch it all out. Oddly enough Demo, Blue is about my favorite mono commander color. Got many wonderful designs in my bag of goodies including your Rayne deck. Love that deck BTW

[@dizzynarutofan100]

Look up Elminster if you're going for scry and aren't married to mono blue.

[@unforgivable6164]

Have two mono blue decks with Orvar and Urza and both decks have had a lot of success.

[@edhdeckbuilding]

you're playing the 2 most powerful mono-blue commanders, so that's to be expected.

[@unforgivable6164]

@@edhdeckbuilding if you’re gonna build a mono colored deck, your commander needs to be a banger. At least for me to build one.

[@dizzynarutofan100]

Errant is amazing 99 for Ivy or Tawnos.

[@ryanburns8111]

For Errant street artist have you thought about ninjas? Because the ninjitsu ability doesn’t cast them. Just a thought

[@wowomah6194]

Errant and Giada, however, is another story ;) though of course, that one exists in the Superior, God-Tier colors of Azorius- the only colors to ever matter >:)

[@AaronCastillo]

Hey, aren't the battles cast without casting them? Could be a new thing to look into? Maybe I'm forgetting something?

[@rolindahlquist3124]

With Errant what you want to do is copy creature spells. There's tons of ways to get creatures onto the battlefield without casting them.

[@alexandergartner8877]

If you "put a creature on the battlefield" without casting it (Elvish Piper, Sneak Attack, Reanimate) it's most likely an effect and not a spell, so Errant won't copy it. Sorry.

[@jcstaff1007]

All that (effort) for a drop of blood (3 treasures) -thanos.

[@jacksonletts3724]

What do you think of your old Cosima God of the Voyage deck? After watching your video I built a version in real life, and it's pretty fun. I'm just having trouble with varied and interesting wincons.

[@danielzietz5877]

What if you build Inga rune eyes around making nonlegendary copies of her? Get the etb+dies repeatedly?

[@scottmcallister6583]

Did you play around with clones much in the Inga build? Could be a viable way to get value from her death trigger without having to send her back to CZ every time. You might be right though; seems like a lot of hoops to jump through for a few extra cards in hand

[@atlasrises4]

Inga aristocrats seems kind of neat tho 🤔 lots of dies triggers that just draw you a card, sac them for like 4-8 mana and 6 cards? Cards like Minn and other token payoffs

[@g4greed502]

I'm thinking eldrazi spawn bc you can sac them for one colorless

[@atlasrises4]

@@g4greed502 oh yeah there are a couple scion and spawn creators you can throw in

[@uphillwalrus5164]

There's a handful of blue commanders that break artifacts but otherwise blue is just a support color. Even mono white is more consistent

[@SSolemn]

I am trying to think about a Goldberry mono blue deck with the shifting counters, maybe that would be another impossible mono blue comma nder xD

[@ajbackfromthedead]

Is there an update to the Rayne deck?

[@brianrobinson4710]

I want to either build Ioreth of the Healing house or Muzzio.

[@F4xP4s]

Counter spells do the same thing as removal spells yet seem to make people more salty… some strange psychology here…

[@thisisthewayinperth]

errant works well in chun li deck as chun li copies kicked spells when she attacks.

[@TheRealSpellstar]

Every time I've tried building mono-blue, I can never figure out how to win games that doesn't involve slowing games down to a crawl

[@Akoustikus]

Some of my favorite mono blue finishes without an infinite combo include psychosis crawler, chasm skulker, Talrand Sky Summoner, Metallurgic Summonings. Combos I like best usually involve high tide, peregrine drake, and freed from the real.

[@kl3r1k3r-7]

I like my Octavia. Yes it is durdle and not super strong, but it is fun and not what the most mono blue commanders do.

[@GingerObiWan]

I put Errant in my super janky Kalamax deck, seems like a good spot for her

[@TheAwesomejake2000]

Made a fun Bill deck where I steal another player’s commander, and then “sell” it to them or to another player. Not the best for winning a game, but adds a cool political aspect to games. Wish Bill was Dimir to have some better wincons

[@jimisax1]

Errant could be pretty cool with ninjutsu, possibly

[@matthewgallaway3675]

My favorite commander deck is my kami of the crescent moon deck

[@MF_SANTI]

For inga you can do the clone copy meta.

[@reclinedpartygaming3774]

isnt getting tricked or bamboozled or befuddled in blue's color pie? Very on flavor if you ask me

[@juice17776]

Its hard to walk the line of playing something "not good" and just plain bad. Casual commander is about playing bad cards, but some cards aren't worth the trouble. But if a card is too easy to build around, its boring.

[@barrysetser3909]

Wait a minute... so Image Crafter and the Ambient Changeling can change a critter type? Why not give your opponent bad critters LOL - gotta be bad blue or artifact ones though

[@craigcox813]

Click bait title for a video that's just you warning players of difficult commanders. Smooth.

[@lukazmmaster986]

I use empress galina and I appologize to my poor opponents

[@HarmonicResonanceScale]

The problem with mono blue is that interesting and powerful are on opposite sides of the spectrum in that color. The stronger the card, the more boring most of the time.

[@PraiseChika]

Isn't this more of a card evaluation issue? Obviously Bill Ferney is just a bad card and the best anyone is going to get out of him is very limited. His stuff is so narrow that any Bill Ferney deck is going to look the same as any another, you are basically just banking on never playing against anyone else running him. This is a fair bet, but what an unfortunate thing to rely on. For example, what if you pick another uncommon mono U commander from the same exact same set? Gandalf, Friend of the Shire for example lets you hold up mana all all all sorts of things. What works better is to make a broad commander your own. You could use your opponent's literal entire turn to build extra storm count and go off for an entire mind's desire combo at the end of their turn. You could play full control, with the better draw spells, bounce and mind control effects that usually aren't instant. It also turns out taking extra turns or playing wheel effects at unexpected times is quite powerful. And that's completely ignoring his more niche text of the ring tempting you. One can even build around that too. Again, there's no self-expression in narrow commanders like Bill Ferney. One either builds the deck right, or they built it wrong. Making this kind of deck just to prove a point is basically like making a webcomic, people will see it once, and then the novelty is gone. Being stuck as the person that actually has the deck is worse.

[@iansperling4363]

My mono blue toothy is probably the most fun deck i have

[@granite_4576]

You might say you've been swindled

[@bretmcdowall2224]

I have one mono blue deck and its Misform Ultimus every-tribal. I basically use all the lords I can and make an army of giant unblockable monsters. Or I use stuff like Peer Pressure to steal all my opponents monsters. Its a fun take on mono blue aggro thats not just drawing and counterspells but I agree its definitely a difficult color to make interesting.

[@dreddbolt]

Clone Inga Rune-Eyes.

[@alwaysabiggafish3305]

I brewed the uncommon saruman and demolished someone playing the mythic. But then I'm a blue player at heart and you're not so you're probably doing something wrong lol

[@ericklewis1530]

Mono blue is in my opinion the weakest mono color in casual commander. Blue excels in cEDH primarily because of free counterspells, infinite combos everywhere and busted cards like rhystic study and once you take those things, it’s a weak color in casual commander

[@punkypinko2965]

But you thought Tom Bombadil looked boring?

[@Candyapplebone]

Hey demo, been subscribed for a year I don’t know. You’re still making great content! Better than before even. Anyways, I’ve got a question. Totally unrelated video. I’m playing in a casual commander group. I like to make decks that use proxies a.k.a. fake printed cards. So real rules, but like $.20 a card. so I can have the power nine, my deck could be hypothetically worth $20,000 etc. I have designed a lot of decks to play with casual play groups in this way. The struggle for me is self-limiting the power levels of the decks and nerfing myself so that I don’t always win. I also don’t allow myself to use infinite combos because otherwise, I could just fill my deck full of tutors and get a victory immediately. So anyways, I was just wondering about how you would try to have fun in a format like that? I don’t try to build meta-commanders and I don’t try to build meta-decks. I try to make my decks do something extra and fun. Basically, I try to impose extra rules on my self. Like playing in a non-optimal way, or winning by a certain condition. Basically a handicap. Do you have any opinions on this? Do you have any extra rules or strategies you would impose on yourself or handicaps you would put on yourself? What about deck building handicaps or strategies? Edit: right now I’m thinking about making a generic rainbow deck (child of alara but maybe hard mode would be fusion elemental lol) with a powerful mana base (Urborg, cabal coffers, etc) that can then just cast stupid big spells from every color

[@Vektor480]

If you're using proxies to elevate your power level while other peple aren't, you're just going to make everyone at the table msierable. There isn't really much of a mistery here except sticking to a budget. Even if you proxy, build decks that would adhere to the same overall budget that the other people in your playgroup do, and there shouldn't be any issue. If I was going to play a casual EDH match and sat down against a guy with the proxied power 9 I'd just get up and leave.

[@6litz585]

I only like Uzra and Orvar as commanders

[@ELFudgeOreos]

Make a bunch of copies of Inga Rune-Eyes and let the copies get legend ruled bada bing bada boom card draw

[@GallantLee]

I thought Inga - copy tribal?

[@davidmcgaha7932]

Jin Gitaxias progress tyrant lol

[@SmellyVinegaryBallzach]

DEEEEEMMMMMM0000000000000

[@mr.thomaswaffles6700]

Not gonna lie and I hate to say it but...these commanders are bad just by reading the abilities

[@codenamexelda]

Sounds like a personal problem, Play a better card game.

[@mjhenkel1984]

first

[@MisterWebb]

You’re my favorite KZbinr, so please stop saying “very unique”. Things are either unique or they’re not - just like “perfect”, one cannot assign degrees of the condition, it is binary. All Magic cards are “unique” - it’s meaningless for you to keep saying again and again in every video. Alternative expressions: Unusual, distinctive, cool, awesome, inspiring, exciting.

[@zuterwer1835]

What a weird argument to bring up. Yes, tecnically you are correct. however, you are arguing semantics and in a very literal way. Uniqueness in this way can just be something outside of the norm. if you normally deal with "Big beater" "Removal" and "Ramp" Anything that doesn't fall into that category is unique. For The swindler, it is one of the few cards that care about horses. That makes it unique. Besides, not all cards are unique. Wrenns resolve and impulse draw have the same effect. Doesn't that make them not unique? At the end of the day though, you're asking someone to change their way of speaking for you, a random person. Imagine if everyone did that. He wouldn't be allowed to be his own person anymore. Try and just not focus on it.

[@MisterWebb]

@@zuterwer1835 It’s not only for my benefit, but also for Demo’s. You have no idea how many thousands of spergs have been turned away from this channel because of the “very unique” thing.