Originally I was going to write an article about how to (and not to) play Once Upon a Time this week. But since Once Upon a Time is, for now at least, safe from the Standard chopping block - as well as proving an amazing contender in Modern so soon in its career - I figure such a primer will age more like wine than milk over the next few.

Instead, I decided to write about the deck that took me to Platinum (so far!) on MTG Arena this week.

The story so far...

I went out of the country for a few weeks for a family vacation in late summer. Between that long trip and a ton of work travel, I wasn't really around New York as much and basically missed one if not two set releases after War of the Spark. Amusingly, I was able to still win the odd event (FNM or so) with the same Mono-Green Superfriends deck I had been playing prior to Core Set 2020, but hadn't thickened my paper collection whatsoever in several months.

At the same time, I hadn't logged into MTG Arena for f o r e v e r. So long, in fact, I realized earlier this month that I didn't even own a computer that could log in any longer. I had a once-wonderful 2013 Alienware (top of the line six years ago) that was now a brick due to a Windows automatic update; so frustrating, I even did a podcast about it. I had old computers of my kids' which both "kind of" worked. One of them was a laptop with a battery that could no longer hold a charge so either always had to be plugged in or spirited from room to room at the pace of a fleeting deer; and the other a desktop Alienware that also died a horrible death to an automatic Windows update.

The bad battery actually burst, so I ultimately had this warped plastic case that could theoretically download Arena, but simply ended up burning my first "free" promotional game with access to all the cards while it didn't actually play any games.

Net-net, though I had been fine-fine grinding to Gold or so with Mono-Red decks last year, I was at a paucity of Wild Cards to make new ones.

I started out a week or two ago (after obtaining a workable Windows machine of course) gritting my teeth and crafting four copies of Fervent Champion. Mostly on this:

I just needed the shortest conversion of Wild Cards to a playable deck, and that one cost me only about six. That got me to the precipice of Gold... But felt a bit under-powered relative to the rest of the stuff you can do in Standard.

After Mythic Championship V decks were published, I switched allegiance to Lee Shi Tian's Cavalcade of Calamity version, despite some preliminary head-scratching.

Mono-Red Cavalcade | Eldraine Standard | Lee Shi Tian, Mythic Championship V

• Creatures (28)
• 4 Bonecrusher Giant
• 4 Fervent Champion
• 4 Rimrock Knight
• 4 Runaway Steam-Kin
• 4 Scorch Spitter
• 4 Tin Street Dodger
• 4 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Light Up the Stage

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Cavalcade of Calamity

• Lands (21)
• 18 Mountain
• 3 Castle Embereth

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Experimental Frenzy
• 4 Lava Coil
• 4 Shock
• 4 Legion Warboss

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Lee's deck is kind of an oddball if you've been playing Mono-Red for a while. Not "bad" by any means (for the color), just weirdly atypical. There are a bunch of cards like Bonecrusher Giant and Rimrock Knight that have minimal synergy with the rest of the deck. And at the same time, its lack of Chandra's Spitfire seemed like a miss given that big flyer's natural synergy with Cavalcade of Calamity.

... On the other hand, I was very happy to save rare Wild Cards on the Tibalt-over-Chandra Planeswalker pick at the three. Whew.

Li's deck took me to Gold 1... Where I stayed. For days and days. Up, down; close, back to Gold 2. Maybe end up two clicks into Gold 1, more-or-less, regardless of how I spent 2-3 hours [also bingeing On Becoming a God in Central Florida out of the corner of my eye]. Then I saw this deck from MTGO...

Mono-Blue Flash | Eldraine Standad | PanJ,5-0 Magic Online Standard League

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Brazen Borrower
• 4 Brineborn Cutthroat
• 4 Pteramander
• 4 Spectral Sailor

• Instants (19)
• 2 Essence Capture
• 2 Tale's End
• 3 Lazotep Plating
• 4 Negate
• 4 Opt
• 4 Sinister Sabotage

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Winged Words

• Lands (21)
• 19 Island
• 2 Castle Vantress

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Essence Capture
• 4 Aether Gust
• 2 Kasmina's Transmutation
• 3 Mystical Dispute
• 4 Vantress Gargoyle

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... And realized that I'd only need to craft about two Brazen Borrowers and I'd be all set. The rest of it was commons and uncommons; as essentially a Mono-Red mage in the earlier parts of my Arena career, I had plenty of all those (and almost no reason to ever craft a Mythic Rare Wild Card).

I made the slight tweak of Disdainful Stroke over Tale's End, and graduated to the middle of Platinum 4 in my first hour or so. This deck is 1) super cheap to craft, and 2) quite competitive / worth a look. I'm a little dubious about its ability to compete against the best draws played by the best players at higher tiers, but if it did nothing else, it broke me out of Gold when neither of the above two Red Decks could.

This is everything I know about Mono-Blue so far.

This Deck Absolutely, Positively, Can't Catch Up

The idea of catching up is something that I learned, ironically, from a former apprentice Steve Sadin, after he had won Grand Prix Columbus with arguably the best deck of all time. Though not in this case, I suppose, Steve said he highly favored decks that had "catch up" spells... Not necessarily powerful cards that won the game or even created huge advantages... Just stuff that let you get back to even if the opponent had established a huge lead early. The prototypical "catch up" spell might be Wrath of God.

And to be fair, this deck probably can catch up against decks that don't go too wide, too early. For instance, I won my very first match out, going second, agianst Lee Shi Tian's Mono-Red deck. I was super disheartened at his triple one-drop draw but quickly realized he wasn't going to get past a 3/2 Brineborn Cutthroat any time soon, so just chip shot him with a 1/1 flyer and made sure I had a Disdainful Stroke for his Torbran, Thane of Red Fell when he got to four.

What I mean is that if the opponent starts going off with Field of the Dead (as they still will for this week, at least), you can't really zero that out. The deck is good at flying over 2/2 Zombie tokens and racing... But not if they're too far ahead already.

How do they get too far ahead?

If the opponent goes first and has an Arboreal Grazer (and if your clock is only 1 power, and / or you have the "wrong" permission spells on turns three and four)... You're likely to fall behind. You can usually get their Circuitous Route with anything... Disdainful Stroke, Negate, and Sinister Sabotage all work. Same on Golos himself. But even just Grazer into Growth Spiral or Fertile Footsteps (both much harder to counter due to speed and absolute casting cost) can put you in a spot where you're potentially losing to mid-game Fabled Passage off the top.

If the opponent is on Fires of Invention... I haven't had much trouble with that. A lot of the time you can rope them into spending a ton of resources (and finite mana and mandated maximum spells per turn) on something they can't cast if you front-side a well-placed Brazen Borrower.

All this stuff is obviously less interesting come the end of this week, given the impending ban of Field of the Dead, but the concept is pretty much the same: The deck is actively bad at catching up when it is very far behind.

But it's a good deck!

By extension it must be very good at something else.

It is very good at getting a lead as early as turn one and never letting go.

The best draws usually start with turn one Spectral Sailor. I will often hold Opt on turn one depending on the rest of my hand. If I don't need to immediately smooth a land, for instance, I'll often just keep Opt.

Why?

Second turn Brineborn Cutthroat in this deck is an absolute killer. Sailor is nice, and if the opponent doesn't have Gilded Goose or Arboreal Grazer immediately it's probably inevitable. But Cutthroat is insane as long as they don't go super wide. Incidentally, it's also about the only card in the deck that can hold the ground; save Pteramander in a long game.

Almost every card in the deck has flash or is an instant, so almost everything is buffing the Cutthroat. Third turn second Cutthroat + Opt is a good reason to keep Opt, for instance. You run people over if you have any kind of a plausible threat and just say "go" with mana open.

Basically they play into your Negate (fine, low end) into Essence Capture (getting warmer) or Lazotep Plating (utterly humiliating). Achievement Unlocked: Mid-combat I played a Lazotep plating to block the Devil out of Tibalt, the Fiend Blooded. That ended up quite the delicious Sophie's Choice for my Red Deck opponent!

It's Bad Against God Draws

One thing I'm wary of trying to ladder with Mono-Blue is that it is actively bad against God Draws. The best draws in Standard all start with Gilded Goose or Arboreal Grazer, often set up with Once Upon a Time. Oko, Thief of Crowns is bad enough; but this deck is utterly demolished by a second turn Teferi, Time Raveler.

There are a couple of problems here. The Grazer and the Goose are bad at fighting... But great at containing 1/1 flyers. You can't even pressure their Planeswalker very well, and in the case of Teferi, they are turning off the automatic buff effects from Brineborn Cutthroat.

Worst of all, these decks can potentially steal Spectral Sailor with Oko or Agent of Treachery. Good luck winning when all their lands tap for double.

The deck is highly tactical. It will win a large number of games where it starts off ahead, even if by a small margin... But its power level is dwarfed by some of the format's top Mythic Rares.

That said, it's pretty good against average or random draws. I was impressed by the straight up ability to race Gruul Aggro, for instance. Gruul's guys are bigger for the same casting cost, on average; and often come bundled with haste. Historically that would be a problem for a small Blue creature deck. However Brazen Borrower both buys and steals time well, and you'd be shocked at how effective Lazotep Plating is against the front side of a Bonecrusher Giant. Not an easy matchup by any means, but utterly competitive, especially if you get to untap with Brineborn Cutthroat in play. Just watch out for all those abilities on Questing Beast or you won't be happy.

The most important thing to focus on in "fair" creature matches is just getting Brineborn Cutthroat to 5/4 or bigger. Big enough to fight Questing Beast. Too big to easily chomp with Wicked Wolf. Big enough to defeat a Nissa land. Basically, if you have any guys at all to attack with, all your efforts to keep even, or maintain even a slight lead, will grow the Cutthroat [that the opponent couldn't get through anyway].

"Oops"

One tip I'll give to you that I didn't know about ahead of time was based on this little guy:

I probably should have known the jig was up when the game asked me if I was sure I wanted to Adapt it.

Mid-game I was racing against Ken Yukihiro's Dino-Knights Mardu. I Essence Captured something with two 1/1 flyers in play: Spectral Sailor and Pteramader. Having won tons of FNMs with Drakes - but always with Niv-Mizzet; my Pteramanders had never even entered a sleeve - I didn't realize my mistake for several turns.

I ended up playing the perfect tempo game against larger creatures, chump blocking Rotting Regisaur and getting in for one or three several times until I followed up a false trail with a fourteen-outer. All I had to do was draw a land and I won on the following Alpha Strike.

Only my Pteramander already had a +1/+1 counter; so when I pumped for exactly his life total... He didn't quite die.

Normally I hate the Arena emotes, but in this case, "Oops" was appropriate, and deserved.

Some Play Patterns That Come Up a Lot

If you are going first and you have both Pteramander and Spectral Sailor, consider playing the Pteramander. It's probably going to live, and you might be in a position to start stockpiling spells for the big buff. You might even get Winged Words off on turn two! It's often good to save one mana instant or flash spells for Brineborn Cutthroat planning.

On the draw it's almost always right to leave mana open for Spectral Sailor, of course.

Against two open Blue and Green lands, be wary of attacking with your 1/1 flyer on turn two. I know this stinks of Growth Spiral, but in a shifting format, it's often going to be Wildborn Preserver. Even if you have the Essence Capture, you might have wanted to do something else with mana on your own turn.

The deck has to close out games. It can probably seem control-ish sitting back on Spectral Sailor with a hand full of permission, but almost everyone else is more powerful or more linear than you are. So kill them instead of milking resources if given the option. Brazen Borrower is great at that. It can screw up opposing strikes and blocks, and subtly, is two spells for Brineborn Cutthroat at 5+ mana.

Despite having a lot of permission, it doesn't always line up well. If given the option of multiple permission spells, think carefully before firing one off. Lazotep Plating is the least flexible, but has other advantages. For example: Killing Paradise Druid during combat. Disdainful Stroke should be played prior to Sinister Sabotage most of the time, unless you're planning to Winged Words into four mana, leaving up instead of . Essence Capture is sometimes narrower than Disdainful Stroke (the soon to be defunct Golos) but generally it's much better to use Disdainful Stroke if given the choice; for example, most Mono-Red decks only have four 4-mana spells main deck. If you use Essence Capture on Torbran, Thane of Red Fell you might never get another chance to Stroke and might not have the right stuff to defend against a more mundane threat.

Lifetime (and lifetime is fewer than 72 hours at this point) I've only ever chosen to use Castle Vantress over Spectral Sailor once. I really needed the Brazen Borrower, though; got it and won. Castle Vantress digs twice as hard as Spectral Sailor, but a card in the hand is worth far, far more than two in the bush library unless you need something really specific. Also it's overall a mana cheaper. You might get another Spectral Sailor or Opt out of that last mana.

All in all, I was really happy to have encountered this deck. It's been doing great for me so far, and is super refreshing given what we've been playing against and anticipating.

LOVE

MIKE