After a longer break from Magic Arena, I have started to play again with a very nice budget deck which is Mono Blue Tempo around Haughty Djinn and Tolarian Terror. Since I barely had any wildcards left, I was looking for a deck that is fun to play and of course competitive in the current metagame. Thankfully, I decided to get back into Magic Arena play with this awesome deck!

Delver or no Delver of Secrets?

In the beginning, I was testing with Delver of Secrets in the main board but after watching all available Youtube Videos about several variants, I decided to put them back into the sideboard. I still don’t know much about a proper sideboard strategy for Mono Blue Tempo as of now, since I was mainly playing „Best of 1“ in the past week. However, as soon as I am close to Mythic, I will most likely play more „Best of 3“. Anyway, this is my current list (please disregard the sideboard for now):

Mono Blue Temp in Magic Arena Standard before Phyrexia: All Will Be One

Game Plane for Mono Blue Tempo

The game plan is pretty straightforward: get as many instants and sorceries (mostly instants, since the only sorcery in this deck would be Invoke the Winds at this point) as fast as possible into your graveyard, then cast a massive Haughty Djinn and / or a Tolarian Terror (often times for one blue mana only)!.

Clearly the MVP in this deck: Haughty Djinn out of the Dominaria Unlimited Edition.

In most games, it is correct to play the Djinn on turn 4 with counter back-up to protect it. Even against mone red decks, the Djinn can be a very fast closer and race them – so far I have a very good record against red deck.

When you can even cast a couple of Haughty Djinns, then you can easily kill in one turn like in this case with 30 damage in one turn!

Sideboard Strategy for Mono Blue Tempo in MtG Standard

I will updated this strategy along the way, also for my own reference. Please let me know, in case you have any good suggestions!

vs Mono Red

+ 2 Surge Engine
– 1 Slip out the Back
– 1 Syncopate

vs Azorious Soldiers

For now, I have a very good record against this deck in first game with 75 winning percentage. Most likely, I would board in 2 Slip out the Back against 2 Thirst for Discovery or so, since Brutal Cathar is usually one of their only ways to handle the Djinn. However, after boarding they might have Destroy Evil that you might want to keep in mind.

vs Grixis Midrange

On the draw:

+ 2 Reckoner Bankbuster
+ 2 Negate
+ 1 Flow of Knowledge
+ 1 Invoke the Winds
– 2 Tolarian Terror
– 2 Make Disappear
– 2 Fading Hope

On the play:

On the play, I would probably go more aggressive and board in 4 Delver of Secrets and 2 Slip out the Back, boarding out 2 Fading Hope, 2 Tolarian Terror and maybe a couple of instants. A very different approach to playing on the draw. I found that Flow of Knowledge would often „seal the deal“ like in all other control matchups. Fable of the Mirror Breaker and / or Bloodtithe Harvester should be countered, if possible. This engine could wreck you, esp. with a couple of Blood tokens on board.

My favourite target for Invoke the Winds is Sheoldred🙂

Anyway, I will update particulary this point, since Grixis Midrange seems to be the most famous standard deck at the moment (at least in Bo3 from Bronze to Mythic according to Untapped). My record is 1-2 as of now, so please take this with a grain of salt;)

I seem to have a rather tough match-up against Grixis Midrange – here a „last minute“ win with a 11/4 Haughty Djinn before getting knocked out.

vs Mono White

Similar to Mono Red.