Countdown to Regionals: Accelerated Blue
**Accelerated Blue is based upon 'Patj.dec,' which was designed by Patrick Johnson. Since then, I've updated the deck, primarily by changing the land base and redoing the sideboard. He spelled out the basic concepts of the deck, all that had to be done was to take it a step further. In its current version, the deck is a great example of adjusting your strategy to use 'good cards' over 'bad cards,' and using as many mana sources as you can get away with.
This is the decklist I would run if I had to pick one for an unknown metagame:
Right now, blue has only one good real counterspell, Counterspell itself, and one good other counter, Miscalculation . Accelerated Blue uses four of both. After that, you have to use bad counters: Power Sink , Rewind , Thwart . There are some situations where picking up three Islands isn't a disaster, but with 28 lands in the deck they don't come often. Other versions of blue can use it better, but it's still not suited well to this type of deck. Rewind is the next logical counter, because you can use it with Grim Monolith , and then untap the Monolith with the four lands or cast a Stroke of Genius . Regardless, it's still a bad card. There's one in the deck because having only four solid counters isn't quite enough. Having such a small counter base still scares a lot of people, but it's not really a problem that often. Instead, the deck loads up on blue's strength, which is the high cost spells: Stroke of Genius, Morphling , Palinchron and Treachery . Stroke of Genius is better than Opportunity because you will often draw far more than four cards because of Monolith, and because you sometimes need to use it for one or two. It is annoying to Stroke for three, and you often do, but the flexibility is worth it.
The second principle is to use as much mana as possible. Battles between control decks often come down to who has more mana, and playing more mana obviously helps there. It also makes it very unlikely you will have to mulligan. You can keep almost every draw with between two and five lands if you're playing an unknown opponent. If you're low on land you can count on drawing more. You often beat land destruction strategies and win Dust Bowl wars just by having more land than they do. The key is to make sure that you don't lose games to not having anything to do. The lands themselves help a lot there: Blasted Landscape can cycle, Dust Bowl allows you to trade off your extra lands, Rishadan Port stops threatening lands or if needed also allows you to trade lands. It also lets you stall the situation until you can draw more cards or play more lands. Faerie Conclave can fight. In short, only the fifteen basic Islands normally contribute to true mana flooding, sometimes the Dust Bowls as well, as do the Grim Monoliths. That's still just twenty-three. With the high quality of your spells, you still can claim 'Your Deck Is Better.'
That claim is also key to the deck's success. By saying My Deck Is Better, I'm saying 'if we both get to use all our cards, my cards will win.' Your opponent is going to lose the long game unless he cripples your deck or kills you. He must become 'the beatdown,' and you play the early game with draw odds. Between Morphling , Masticore , Palinchron , Counterspell and Stroke of Genius , your deck is better than almost anything but another blue deck, if you can line up the cards in the right way. Without that many counters in the deck, you also don't have to worry much about their spells getting in under your radar, unless they generate card economy. On a more practical note, it makes playing the deck very relaxing. You go in knowing you're going to win unless you lose. :)
Many players don't play enough to this strength. For example, often I will play a Rishadan Port on turn two and use it, even if I could have left open mana for Counterspell or Miscalculation . Often other players would rather bluff a Counterspell than tap the land. Instead, I think of it this way: All I have to do is stall the game long enough to draw a good mix of my spells and play my lands. What can he do next turn if I tap one of his lands? Then next turn, I can leave that Counter for a more serious threat. A good example would be: You play first turn Conclave, your opponent plays Forest and Wild Dogs . If I have a Rishadan Port and don't have Keg or Monolith, I'm probably going to use it. Sure, he might walk into my one counter with a Rancor , but if he instead plays creatures I'd have to counter them too. There's a good chance your opponent will have a Treetop Village as his second land and can't cast anything, or doesn't have another one drop, or it has to be something mediocre. Next turn you can leave up the counter mana and stop the Albino Troll you would have had to counter last turn if he didn't have two one drops to torture you with. And the second Troll, or the River Boa, is still sitting in his hand. Meanwhile, you're one turn closer to getting five mana and playing Treachery and Morphling . In general, Standard doesn't currently have that many serious threats in it, so when in doubt use your Ports.
The sideboard suffers, like many sideboards, from really wanting to have twenty cards in it. You need four Annuls and the fourth Masticore . At least two Glasses belong. So do at least three Unsummon , which I think is better than Seal of Removal in this deck. After that you need to choose your priorities carefully, as each helps against different decks. I'll cover them as I cover the decks.
Stompy: The first game is often all about your second turn artifact living. If you put out a Powder Keg or Grim Monolith and it lives, you should have the advantage with a normal draw. They need to come out strong early or Masticore and Morphling will wreck them. In general, don't be afraid to tap out to tap their lands (as I mentioned above), and don't be afraid to counter a spell because it's 'not important enough' or worry about burning a Stroke of Genius for one or two if you have to. All you need is time. If you don't have an artifact turn two or it dies, all is not lost. A fourth turn Masticore is also often good enough, and another strategy is to use a counter to get to the crucial five mana level, where you get Morphling and Treachery . Tap out for all this stuff without worrying about it. Also don't worry about protecting Morphling , they have no direct removal. And if it dies to Giant Growth , it happens. When sideboarding, Rewind and Stroke of Genius come out. The last card out can be a land if they don't have Ports, or a Palinchron if they do. As usual, almost every card is pretty good so anything you take out hurts. In go Masticore , Submerge and Unsummon . Submerge is really strong here, but Unsummon is needed more in other matchups. The more Stompy there is, the more Submerge you should have.
Bargain : People talk about Accelerated Blue as if it were the deck that beats Bargain , but that's just not true. Versions that play Thwart and more Rewinds are a lot better off here, although not in many other places. Game one you should try to attack their mana as much as possible to buy time, and try to counter their Bargain or Rector. If you can Dust Bowl lock them or Stroke into a lot of counters or can use Palinchron as your threat so you don't tap out, that's great, but if you can't, bite the bullet, cast a threat (or even attack with Conclave if they would still go for it) and prey they don't win. Masticore isn't bad if you can keep mana up, because you can kill the first Skirge with it, but don't have illusions that you'll win that often with such ideas. You sideboard in Arcane Laboratory , Annul and Unsummon . Take out Stroke (it's too slow), Powder Keg and I maybe Morphling (although I haven't tested this matchup as much as I'd like). Unsummon is there to buy you time and because it's better than the alternatives. Annul and Arcane Laboratory are both excellent, though. The more Bargain you expect, the more Labs you should run. At two you're treating it as one of many decks, three says you expect a lot and four says you expect a ton. Lab doesn't really come in against much else, so going below two isn't insane.
Other Blue Decks: There will be those who think they've won the match before it starts because they have Thwarts and Rewinds and you don't. Ignore them, they're totally wrong. :) First, you have more land than them, or at least equality. Second, you have Rishadan Port , and often they don't so they can use Thwart . The key thing to remember is: Tap out. It doesn't matter. Don't do it with a Morphling out of course, but otherwise there's nothing they can do to you unless you have no hand. They can cast their own Morphling , but that taps them down so you get your spell in too. Masticore isn't a threat until very late in the game, and forces them to trade for your Treacheries. Palinchron is something they probably don't have. Instead, you should use your Ports to get an edge in the Dust Bowl wars, and try to ride Faerie Conclave to victory, trading off your Kegs for theirs. If that isn't going to work or you see an opening, you can start casting spells and win the game outright. After sideboarding, you're even more dangerous because you have Scrying Glass and Temporal Adept ; generally, they don't have anything similar. Adept is mostly for this kind of matchup, so if you don't expect them cut it from the deck. On the other hand, if you expect a lot of blue you can run two or three. You also put in Annul . There's plenty to take out: Palinchron , Treachery and Masticore . In general, you should try to force them into an early situation where you get through a Glass or Adept for the win. If that won't work, sit them out and try to ride your lands to victory again. If that doesn't work you'll have to start test spelling him and hope for the best. Still, I've yet to see a version with an edge on you. In the pure mirror it's similar to many such matchups: The key is knowing when to go beatdown and when to play control. Treat them having a lot of land as both a long term edge and a short term liability for them.
Red Creatures: They have the edge in the early game, so just try and limit the damage before you stabilize the table; you should do that when you reach five mana. Tapping out for creatures is better than losing time. A lot of this is very similar to Stompy. The key difference is that you have to finish them off quickly if you're low on life. Your creatures are good at that. You'll sideboard in Unsummon to buy time, along with the fourth Masticore . Same strategy as Stompy. Again, Stroke and Rewind come out. Annul is a consideration if they have Scald ; I used to assume red decks had four but often they don't anymore. You have enough nonbasics that it's not that horrible, but countering it is still better.
Red Land Control: Let your land count win the match for you. Use your counters to help you keep mana on the table. Your creatures will be better than theirs after Treachery steals the best ones, and you should be faster than Hammer. Sideboard out Powder Keg unless there's something in their version that worries you. That gets you Scrying Glass . Then take out Masticores for Annuls, again unless you think they're going to be tricky. Trade your counters and lands for their removal, and then ride Stroke and Scrying Glass to victory.
Rebels: Your hope is to stop the engine, but generally that's just hope. Sooner or later, a searcher will get through. You can hope realistically to control Lin Sivvi, however. Also try to stop their Anthems or Crusades, and hopefully blow up Gaea's Cradle . Then either get out Masticore and clear the board or just race him with Palinchron and Morphling , both of which are hard to permanently deal with outside of Mother of Runes . You need either their version to be poor against you or something to go wrong for them. Your sideboard has a fourth Masticore and Annuls for the Anthems, while they probably get just more disenchants and maybe Wrath of God.
Tinker : If they go crazy before you can do anything, good for them. Otherwise they're facing a nightmare. Try to fight their mana, since there's no really scary artifact, except maybe Colossus if they have a Key. Getting down Morphling (or Palinchron or Masticore ) is often a very good idea. Game two you put in Annul and things are a lot less scary.
Control Black: As usual, a real control deck can walk all over one that uses removal as control. Stroke of Genius and Morphling both devastate them, just watch out for Persecute or a fast Phyrexian Negator . After sideboarding you have to bring in Unsummon to stop the first or second turn Phyrexian Negator , but other than that you're golden. The Scrying Glasses make you more so, since that gives you yet another way to easily win the game.
Suicide Black: Again, Dark Ritual is your big problem. If they don't have one, you should have plenty of time to play your cards, and they'll win the game for you. If they do, the first game can end pretty quickly, although Monolith can still save you from Negator. After sideboarding you have Unsummon to get you past the scary first few turns.
That should make it clear how things work; other matchups can be viewed as variants on these. I may go into more detail later (or answer some commonly asked questions) but this should get you off to an excellent start.
-Zvi Mowshowitz
All questions, comments, and responses welcomed at
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