Since the inception of Modern, big mana decks have been a dominant force in the metagame. Cloudpost decks became U/W Tron decks after the banning of the Locus engine. U/W Tron became R/G Tron. Amulet Bloom burst onto the scene. However, there’s been a fringe player on the edges waiting for a chance to break out, and Thomas Pendergast may have found the winning combination. Check out his take on Mono-Blue Tron:

Mono-Blue Tron ? Modern | Thomas Pendergast, StarCityGames Open

• Creatures (7)
• 1 Platinum Angel
• 1 Sundering Titan
• 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 2 Spellskite
• 2 Wurmcoil Engine

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

• Spells (26)
• 2 Repeal
• 3 Dismember
• 3 Mana Leak
• 4 Condescend
• 4 Thirst for Knowledge
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 3 Chalice of the Void
• 4 Expedition Map
• 1 Mindslaver

• Lands (26)
• 8 Island
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Eye of Ugin
• 1 Gemstone Caverns
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 4 Urza's Mine
• 4 Urza's Power Plant
• 4 Urza's Tower

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Squelch
• 1 Hibernation
• 3 Spell Snare
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 4 Ratchet Bomb
• 2 Hurkyll's Recall
• 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Buy This Deck

There have been many Blue Tron decks over the years, featuring all manner of unusual cards like Treasure Mage, Steel Hellkite, Spreading Seas, and more. The problem with these decks is they try to hedge between being a control deck and a big mana deck. Do you really want your Condescend deck tapping out for Solemn Simulacrum on turn four?

Instead, Thomas’s deck overloads on instant-speed interaction. Between Repeal and Dismember, you have reasonable ways to interact with cheap creatures. Mana Leak and Condescend let you fight over key spells and gain tempo. If your opponent opts not to cast spells into your open mana, you get to pull ahead by cracking Expedition Map or casting a Thirst for Knowledge. This core allows you to play a very reasonable, on-curve, and interactive game until you assemble Tron. That’s when things change.

Once you have Tron online, it’s reasonable for this deck to cast a giant spell while leaving up some amount of cheap interaction. It’s not hard to cast a Wurmcoil Engine or Platinum Angel with two lands left to cast Condescend. Even so, some of your cards are so powerful you don’t mind tapping out for them. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Cyclonic Rift, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger; even Sundering Titan is absurd given the right board state. However, the most impressive win condition of all is Mindslaver. Mindslaver is one of the few cards allowing this deck to keep up with the other combo-control decks, but is also powerful enough against other control and midrange decks to be a reasonable main deck inclusion. On top of that, you have the inevitability of assembling Academy Ruins and Mindslaver to lock your opponent out of the game.