Budget Magic: $95 (30 tix) Modern Mono-Blue Colossus

Tweet by SaffronOlive // Jan 16, 2017

video budget magic modern

Howdy, Budget Magic lovers! It's that time once again. We are currently in the countdown to Aether Revolt releasing on Magic Online (with this episode and one more to go), so this week, we are heading to Modern to make use of a Standard staple. Metalwork Colossus has the potential to be a powerful card, but in Standard, it takes a lot of work to make the 10/10 good because there are only so many playable non-creature artifacts. In Modern, however, we have a ton of good artifact ramp, not to mention Akroma's Memorial, which is essentially an instant-win combo with our Metalwork Colossuses, not only reducing their cost by seven (which often makes them free with our other artifacts) but also making them all into hasty, trampling fliers with protection from most of the artifact removal (and even some of the creature removal) in the format! Can we break Modern with a Standard card? Let's find out!

We'll talk more about Modern Mono-Blue Colossus after the videos, but first a quick reminder: if you enjoy the Budget Magic series and the other video content on MTGGoldfish, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish YouTube Channel to keep up on all of the latest and greatest.

Modern Mono-Blue Colossus: Deck Tech

Mono-Blue Colossus vs. Mardu Eldrazi

Mono-Blue Colossus vs. Mono-Green Stompy

Mono-Blue Colossus vs. Merfolk

Mono-Blue Colossus vs. Mono-Black

Mono-Blue Colossus vs. Omniscient Devotion

The Deck

The basic idea of Modern Mono-U Colossus is pretty simple and actually similar to the Standard Colossus decks. We look to flood the board with artifacts to make our Metalwork Colossuses free and then hopefully play three or four of them in the same turn by tutoring up additional copies. The good news is that, even though the plan is similar to Standard, the Modern build of Metalwork Colossus is not only faster than the Standard build but more explosive and with a combo finish!

The Combo

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Metalwork Colossus is the most important card in our deck, and the rest of our deck is built to support its power. While it looks like it costs a ton of mana, the main goal of our deck is to get enough non-creature artifacts on the battlefield that we can cast our Metalwork Colossuses for free (or close to it). This is actually fairly easy because there are a bunch of powerful mana rocks in Modern, and these cards do a great job of reducing the cost of our Metalwork Colossuses. Not only do they cut down the cost by being non-creature artifacts but they also tap for mana, which essentially doubles the benefit when it comes to casting our Metalwork Colossuses. For example, Hedron Archive costs four mana and also taps for two mana, so all by itself, it makes our Metalwork Colossus only cost five mana!

Sanctum of Ugin and Treasure Mage make sure we always have a copy of Metalwork Colossus in our hand when we need one, and since we need two copies of Metalwork Colossus to win the game with Akroma's Memorial, they are never really dead cards. Treasure Mage specifically is really good in our deck, because beyond Metalwork Colossus itself, it can search up the other half of the combo (in Akroma's Memorial), our backup win condition (Mindslaver), or our biggest mana rock (Dreamstone Hedron).

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Akroma's Memorial is only a one-of (since we have a bunch of ways to tutor it up), but it's the card that makes the Modern version of Mono-Blue Colossus so scary. For one thing, it makes all of our Metalwork Colossuses cost seven less, which means a single copy of Hedron Archive or two of our two-mana mana rocks makes all our Metalwork Colossuses free, but more importantly, it makes it so our Metalwork Colossuses can just win the game on the spot by giving them not only haste but trample, vigilance, first strike, and protection from two common removal colors as well!

With an Akroma's Memorial on the battlefield, all we need is two copies of Metalwork Colossus (or one and a Sanctum of Ugin or Treasure Mage) and we can 20 our opponent in the air out of nowhere!

Mana Rocks

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In our deck, the mana rocks do double duty. While their main purpose is to reduce the cost on our [[Metalwork Colossus]es, they all do more than just add mana. Guardian Idol can turn into a chump blocker if we are looking to buy an extra turn or two to finish the game with our combo. Meanwhile, all the rest of our mana rocks can be sacrificed to draw us cards, which means once we have enough mana that our Metalwork Colossuses are free, we can sacrifice any additional mana rocks to cycle through our deck and find finishers, removal, and protection for our combo. They are also all artifacts, which helps power up some of the other cards in our deck.

Protection

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While our deck doesn't play that many creatures, we do have a couple more. Lodestone Golem takes advantage of the fact that most of the cards in our deck are artifacts, making it a sort of one-sided Sphere of Resistance. While it's fine just forcing our opponent to play off curve (especially coming down on Turn 3 with the help of a Mind Stone or Guardian Idol), in some matchups, it's amazing, for example against UR Prowess, Infect, or any other deck that's looking to win by casting multiple cheap spells in a turn. While dying to Lightning Bolt is an issue, having five power means it doesn't take that long for Lodestone Golem to close out the game when we can't find a Metalwork Colossus. Meanwhile, Padeem, Consul of Innovation is just a one-of, but it does a good job of protecting all of our mana rocks, our Lodestone Golem, and our Metalwork Colossuses from removal by giving them hexproof while also giving us a bit of card advantage because we should always have the most expensive artifact on the battlefield.

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We also have a handful of counterspells, which help us stay alive in the early game and can also protect our combo in the late game (while also answering Stony Silence, which is important in post-sideboard games). Condescend takes advantage of the fact that our deck makes a ton of mana, and when it's a hard counter that also scrys (which it will usually be in our deck), it's very powerful. Stoic Rebuttal is basically Counterspell in our deck, since after the first two or three turns of the game, we should always have metalcraft to reduce its cost.

Removal

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While most of our removal is in the sideboard, we do have a bit in the main deck as well. Spatial Contortion lets us kill a creature on Turn 2, and since we have a ton of colorless mana from both our lands and artifacts, it is probably better than Dismember because it doesn't cost us life. All is Dust is another one-of, but it is pretty close to a one-sided wrath that also hits planeswalkers and Blood Moon. Plus, since it is a seven-mana colorless spell, it can also trigger Sanctum of Ugin and allow us to tutor up a Metalwork Colossus.

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Thirst for Knowledge helps tie everything together, being one of the best card-draw spells in Modern in decks that are playing a bunch of artifacts. Being an instant means we can leave up our countermagic and, if we don't need to counter anything, cast it at the end of our opponent's turn to find whatever we happen to be missing. It's important to remember that Metalwork Colossus can get itself back from the graveyard by sacrificing a couple of artifacts, so in the early game, we can discard a copy to Thirst for Knowledge and then, when it comes time to win the game, get it back to go on the beatdown.

The Backup Plan

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Since we are making a ton of mana, our deck gets one of my favorite win conditions in all of Modern: the Mindslaver lock. With the help of Academy Ruins (and at least 13 mana), we can cast Mindslaver, activate it to control our opponent's next turn ,and then put Mindslaver back on the top of our library so we can do it all over again the next turn. While it will take a while on Magic Online, the end result is we either kill our opponent with their own cards or simply win by decking, by forcing our opponent to play through their entire library. Otherwise, even if we aren't planning on going infinite with Mindslaver, even just controlling our opponent for one turn can be enough to swing the game in our favor. Plus, it's helpful to have a plan for winning if our opponent can use Surgical Extraction on our Metalwork Colossus or has an Ensnaring Bridge.

The ultra-budget build is actually super similar to the one in the videos, except it loses the backup plan of Mindslaver and Academy Ruins (mostly because Academy Ruins, even as a one-of, it way too expensive for an ultra-budget deck) and downgrades Thirst for Knowledge (which is $7 a playset, even though it was reprinted in Modern Masters) for Artificer's Epiphany. These changes do hurt the deck a bit, but it should play pretty much the same.

The non-budget build offers a ton of sweet new options. Instead of Lodestone Golem, we get Batterskull, which not only helps a ton against aggro thanks to the lifelink but also reduces the cost on our Metalwork Colossuses, since it's a non-creature artifact. Chalice of the Void can beat some decks on its own, and Vedalken Shackles gives us another repeatable way to deal with opposing creatures. As a result, the non-budget build is better equipped to deal with a wide range of decks. While it will play similarly to the budget build, it has a much better matchup against aggressive decks, thanks to Batterskull, and combo, thanks to Chalice of the Void.

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. We ended up going 4-1 with the deck, but this was partly aided by the fact that we ran into a lot of lower-tier matchups (although we did manage to beat Eldrazi as well). Maybe more surprisingly, we even managed to beat Stony Silence, which is one of the best sideboard cards against our deck. If you're looking for another way to make use of your Standard cards and something new to play while you're waiting for Aether Revolt, give it a shot! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.