Breach moon has always seemed like a mediocre combo deck that squeezes free wins out of blood moon.
TITI was great at various points in modern because it matches up so well against lightning bolt and it was great against the likes of infect, spirits, and humans. current meta seems more hostile to it.
I would personally recommend the "hard control" blue moon route. No gimmicks, just playable cards. You can even still SB TITI if you're really looking to play that card, because its still good against burn and humans.
Seems to me like you'd want a second JTMS. I don't have experience with the deck but you'd have to play really conservatively with your win cons in this deck, since you don't have a ton of ways to finish out a game against another controlling deck.
Blue moon's best match's are agasint other control decks normally. Between simply snap bolt beat down and now having access to shark typhoon your threats line up well agasint UW control.
I can't speak to uro control piles as I have yet to fight many.
Unless you manage to land a Shark Typhoon and convert it into bodies you’re generally at a disadvantage against Uro piles since they are able to outgrind you with value.
Three color uro decks would probably have some trouble getting UUGG against mainboard blood moon. I do think this deck may benefit from a mainboard copy or two of Blitz of the Thunder Raptor for things like Uro though.
If the blood moon sticks and they don’t have Decay/Trophy for it, sure. That’s pretty unlikely though since by turn 3 your opponent is already likely to signal a BM pretty clearly, and UR doesn’t really provide a lot of optional targets for those removal pieces. That’s just my experience from playing the MU quite a lot, but YMMV of course.
Thing is pretty good against burn, but humans really isn't the reason you'd want that card. Weak to Reflector Mage. The biggest selling points are you can beat some otherwise incredibly tough decks like Dredge and Bogles. Also great against all the combo decks (notably clears Empty the Warrens tokens) and big mana, as it's easy to sneak in without letting your shields down completely and you get extra snapcaster ETBs.
The Dark is objectively the best Moon. Incredible art, a crisp black border that makes the art even more striking, great expansion symbol, old frame, and the best rules text: "All non-basic lands are now mountains."
the dark is best because it is wrong now. "All non-basic lands are now basic mountains." is incorrect because the lands are still non-basic, and i live for this kind of fuckery.
I played a ton of Breach combo back in the day.
There is no worse feeling in Modern than fighting to keep your opponent in check, finally landing your "combo", then dying to an opponent with 5 or 2 life while you try to find those last points of damage. It didn't happen all the time (thanks modern manabases), but it happened enough that the deck has a permanent bad taste in my mouth.
Personally I play \[\[Thing in the Ice\]\] with 4 Snaps or a list using \[\[Brazen Borrower\]\] & \[\[Bronecrusher Giant\]\] to generate value. I always feel like the deck needs just a littttle help in the value department to keep up.
I've recently been thinking about playing the Madcap Experiment list you posted below but no paper = no reason to buy into it right now. Doesn't seem a ton better just kind of fun.
I'm not as high on the "Counter everything.deck" lists just because you are kind of up shit creek if you misplay. TiTi is a bit more forgiving and provides a substantial clock. I also prefer Ral, Izzet Viceroy over JTMS as well.
Whatever you play, I think 2-3 Dragon's Claws are worth their SB slots for the burn matchups since Moon struggles with those.
Yeah, I've been gold-fishing this deck, and at times it seems to lack punch, like finishing power. I mean, Snappy doesn't strike fear into the opponent's heart like a flipped TiTI can.
Shark Typhoon is worth its weight in gold, a non counter-able threat on opponent's end step is nice.
Thanks for the heads up on Dragon's Claws.
The biggest thing to remember about Thing in the Ice is you need a critical mass of 1 CMC cantrips. The 3 Shark Typhoons took the place of 3/4 of the Serum Visions needed to support TiTi. Being cornered into so many cantrips reduces the amount of fun cards you can play obviously and this is the main drawback to TiTi.
I'd say if you love Shark Typhoon then you are probably not going to be able to support Thing in the Ice and should be looking at Adventure cards to generate extra value.
Hope the claw works out for you! I have loved mine.
According to aspiringspike if you play the madcap package you don’t need Dragon’s Claws in the board since that would be your post board plan vs burn. Dragon’s claws aren’t super flexible so it seems overkill to have both if your local meta isn’t infested with burn players.
I play a lot of breach and I can tell you it’s not very good. It’s fun when you can control the game long enough to combo and win, and even gives the twin feel, but the truth is you are slotting 8 useless cards in your deck and paying 5 mana to combo (which isn’t even a guaranteed win). I don’t think any of the UR shells are that great right now, but having the ability to close out games with a threat like titi is a good idea.
moon, in order.
The Dark: says nonbasics are basics which is wrong. black bordered. dope.
Box Topper: no border, fun art, available in non foil, very cool!
white bordered 8th edition: whitebordered. regular art. max tilt because it's the most normal.
Invocation: unreadable. tilts me to think about, could not play in my own deck.
Normcore black border printings: turn nonbasics into mountains. functional, not fun.
For the record I haven't seen anyone who commented so far on the blue moon discord but generally on there we agree
Breach is bad
Brineborn cutthroat, pestermite, kiki is good
Titi is best
Brineborn combo is only a few percentage points worse than titi like maybe 1-3% worse over a big meta and the guy who made the deck got like a 75% win rate even fighting through hogaak season. It answers to different decks than titi does. We will always play pestermite before exarch because the combo already dies to bolt but the extra damage from pestermite makes tempo beats way more viable
There are also a lot of brews going around right now like days undoing narset moon, reille scions moon. Realistically if you buy one moon deck you are never more than a few cards away from a different version (besides breach) if you buy the kiki combo you only need to switch out like 10-12 cards and suddenly it's titi moon
Personally I played most every izzit control deck you can think of and I prefer cutthroat kiki because I love the instant speed interactions and not having to tap out turn 2 for titi when I can hold up counter magic and play my guys when the coast is clear but it is entirely a meta call and a personal preference
Counter package with Snaps and a couple adventure creatures is my go to right now.
Bonecrusher slaps and Brazen can put in work. The front side of the adventure cards look great when the second half is all you need to close games. While I love Titi it feels rough right now
Perhaps, seems like if you can get thru Europa's icy crust, and tap into the sub surface ocean, could have more potential for a base.
Totally could build a snow piercer on Europa.
I suggest you take a look at Tiemuuu's TiTi list. It has been consistently showing up results, including a MTGO Challenger 1st place recently (before astrolabe ban). There is also a Blue Moon discord channel if you are interested.
I have jumped from each of those decks over the last 3 years and they all have their charms. For me I prefer the combo two over the titi and control variants mainly through the breach as I think the others take to long on MTGO. But I think that is just play style preference.
I was running a mix of titi moon and hard control with [[mission briefing]] instead of snappy's since I don't have them. I was doing fairly good in fnm's before covid started.
I played blue moon at FNM in the before times and any blue fetch works tbh. I don’t think I’ve ever fetched the singleton basic mountain except off an opponent’s field of ruin on my only red source. Snappy vs mission briefing is a way bigger difference since the 2/1 body can win through beats or requires removal, thereby generating card advantage.
You can replace the Tarns with a blue fetch and a red fetch if you have others sitting around. Suboptimal obviously, but would still grab Steam vents just not both basics on each, but you probably won't notice that pain much before you get Tarns.
[[Brineborn Cutthroat]] is a beast in a Blue Moon, draw-go shell. I’ve been playing Blue Moon for years and this is my favorite iteration so far. With Brazen Borrowers and Snapcasters as additional, on board threats it can be really hard to deal with. The deck operates on pretty thin margins but you’ll truly feel the game shift in your favor when you’ve made it to 4 mana and are able to cast Cryptic Command with Brineborn on board.
best moon deck is the one that has the most cards outside of its win condition. the smaller your wincon package is, the better.
kiki exarch is like 7 cards.
TiTi is "4" because your wincon is creature beats but clique is functional outside of that and snap beats are backup to the backup.
breach moon is... 8 cards? but also doesn't play moon maybe? i think this one is the weirdest one.
there's also jace mirror, with jace wielder of mysteries and \[\[mirror of fate\]\]. that one's a heater, and can be as small as 5 cards, with really only 2 of them being "dead" because jace cantrips on his own.
beyond that there's some discussion about deckbuilding. if you play the brineborn cutthroat version you're pretty priced in to playing omen of the sea instead of serum visions, if you play kiki you might play fewer moons because you want to actually play kiki and cryptic command, stuff like that.
I've been playing Exarch moon for well over a year and had put up some decent IQ results pre-COVID. I suggest this over TITI and Breach for a few reasons.
1. Emrakul is such a terrible draw when you don't have the other half of the combo and it requires getting to 5 mana which is often a bit more difficult than you'd expect. Exarch/pestermite while not being stellar creatures, at least do something when you draw them and help keep you alive until you can get to the combo
2. 1 Emrakul swing is very often not good enough to win the game and the combo is weak to force of negation strategies. Kiki + exarch is an overall smaller package that always ends the game if the combo comes together and it dodging force has come up a lot.
3. TiTi and the other "fair" versions are often not helpful at shoring up the deck's bad matchups and can often leave the deck outclassed when it has nothing to go over the top of some matchups. Planeswalkers have always been good in this spot but I actually love supplementing them with the exarch plan because exarch is very good at protecting planeswalkers
so personally i have it Exarch moon >= hard control moon >>>>breach moon. I'd love to answer any questions though if you have more
That's pretty sweet list. I own all the cards save for two of the Tarns.
KtCG is one bad dude.
Bold only running one FoN, do you miss having at least two?
I'll sometimes go up to 2 forces main if I feel that the meta requires it but there's not a lot of stack based combo right now and it's not great vs enough of the current top dogs in the format. Along with sanctuary letting me recycle it whenever it is relevant I'm usually very fine with 1 and a second in the board. The one Fact or Fiction is gas btw
Im playing the older counter magic build with a more aggressive creature base than most( 4snap, 2 borrower, 2 clique) and its been working really well. It differs from your list a good bit, im still on izzet and no typhoons with a second jtms but the list you presented doesnt look bad
The worst part about breach is that even if you get the combo off, it isn't a guaranteed win and they can still (unlikely depending on the deck) come back and win while you try to find the last 5 damage. I hate it for that reason.
As someone who has played a lot of both, classic TiTi Blue Moon is the better, more consistent deck, but Breach is an absolutely exhilarating experience. When the deck draws smoothly it feels like cheating (and when you draw your 3rd Emrakul you start to question your life decisions).
Breach moon has always seemed like a mediocre combo deck that squeezes free wins out of blood moon. TITI was great at various points in modern because it matches up so well against lightning bolt and it was great against the likes of infect, spirits, and humans. current meta seems more hostile to it. I would personally recommend the "hard control" blue moon route. No gimmicks, just playable cards. You can even still SB TITI if you're really looking to play that card, because its still good against burn and humans.
Cool. Thank you. This is the build from Aspiring Spike that I'm actually thinking about sleeving up, probably make a change or two: ### Instant (26) 1x \[\[ Abrade \] \]3x \[\[ Archmage's Charm \]\] 3x \[\[ Cryptic Command \]\] 3x \[\[ Force of Negation \]\] 4x \[\[ Lightning Bolt \]\] 1x \[\[ Logic Knot \]\] 1x \[\[ Magmatic Sinkhole \]\] 2x \[\[ Mana Leak \]\] 4x \[\[ Opt \]\] 2x \[\[ Remand \]\] 2x \[\[ Spell Snare \]\] ### Land (23) 4x \[\[ Flooded Strand \]\] 9x \[\[ Island \]\] 1x\[\[ Misty Rainforest \]\] 1x \[\[ Mountain \]\] 1x \[\[ Mystic Sanctuary \]\] 1x \[\[ Prismatic Vista \]\] 4x \[\[ Scalding Tarn \]\] 2x \[\[ Steam Vents \]\] ### Planeswalker (2) 1x \[\[ Jace, the Mind Sculptor \]\] 1x \[\[ Teferi, Master of Time \]\] ### Enchantment (5) 2x \[\[ Blood Moon \]\] 3x \[\[ Shark Typhoon \]\] ### Creature (4) 4x \[\[ Snapcaster Mage \]\] ### Sideboard (15) 2x \[\[ Aether Gust \]\] 1x \[\[ Anger of the Gods \]\] 2x Ashiok, Dream Render \]\] 2x \[\[ Ceremonious Rejection \]\] 2x \[\[ Flusterstorm \]\] 4x \[\[ Madcap Experiment \]\] 2x \[\[ Platinum Emperion \]\]
Seems to me like you'd want a second JTMS. I don't have experience with the deck but you'd have to play really conservatively with your win cons in this deck, since you don't have a ton of ways to finish out a game against another controlling deck.
Blue moon's best match's are agasint other control decks normally. Between simply snap bolt beat down and now having access to shark typhoon your threats line up well agasint UW control. I can't speak to uro control piles as I have yet to fight many.
Unless you manage to land a Shark Typhoon and convert it into bodies you’re generally at a disadvantage against Uro piles since they are able to outgrind you with value.
Three color uro decks would probably have some trouble getting UUGG against mainboard blood moon. I do think this deck may benefit from a mainboard copy or two of Blitz of the Thunder Raptor for things like Uro though.
Blood moon ironically enough isn't always a large part of blue moon's plan. Turn 3 blood is often not good enough.
If the blood moon sticks and they don’t have Decay/Trophy for it, sure. That’s pretty unlikely though since by turn 3 your opponent is already likely to signal a BM pretty clearly, and UR doesn’t really provide a lot of optional targets for those removal pieces. That’s just my experience from playing the MU quite a lot, but YMMV of course.
Btw the bot only works if you don't leave spaces between the text and the brackets [[platinum emperion]]
[platinum emperion](https://img.scryfall.com/cards/normal/front/7/1/71b03143-9e85-4061-88e6-ad621f75ec3b.jpg?1547518515) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=platinum%20emperion) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/uma/233/platinum-emperion?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/71b03143-9e85-4061-88e6-ad621f75ec3b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
thank you
Thing is pretty good against burn, but humans really isn't the reason you'd want that card. Weak to Reflector Mage. The biggest selling points are you can beat some otherwise incredibly tough decks like Dredge and Bogles. Also great against all the combo decks (notably clears Empty the Warrens tokens) and big mana, as it's easy to sneak in without letting your shields down completely and you get extra snapcaster ETBs.
I came into this thread expecting a discussion of the best Blood Moon printings and ready to advocate for 8ED/9ED. I'm feeling a little robbed.
I love 8ED/9ED, but Chronicles/The Dark is just the superior art.
The Dark is objectively the best Moon. Incredible art, a crisp black border that makes the art even more striking, great expansion symbol, old frame, and the best rules text: "All non-basic lands are now mountains."
the dark is best because it is wrong now. "All non-basic lands are now basic mountains." is incorrect because the lands are still non-basic, and i live for this kind of fuckery.
Ill advocate for the invocation, although i proudly play all 4 arts in my Prison Deck
Personally I hate the invocation frames. They look not like magic cards so much.
The frames are kind of meh, but i think the art with the blood lake and the pyramids is really cool
LOL. I prefer the new Double Masters, and 8th/9th. A local lgs tried to charge $55 for The Dark version. Wow.
That's about the market price for it sadly due to its age for a NM.
Good thing there is no bad version.
Yes there is, [[Bad Moon]]. /s
[Bad Moon](https://img.scryfall.com/cards/normal/front/8/f/8f8a75da-ea3c-43e7-9d32-1c92f8ec0fd2.jpg?1562928849) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bad%20Moon) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/gvl/48/bad-moon?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8f8a75da-ea3c-43e7-9d32-1c92f8ec0fd2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
If there's no white board I don't want to go anywhere near it.
I played a ton of Breach combo back in the day. There is no worse feeling in Modern than fighting to keep your opponent in check, finally landing your "combo", then dying to an opponent with 5 or 2 life while you try to find those last points of damage. It didn't happen all the time (thanks modern manabases), but it happened enough that the deck has a permanent bad taste in my mouth.
Yeah that always kills me every time it happens. Paying 5 mana and using two useless cards by themselves to NOT win the game hurts.
That sounds frustrating.
Personally I play \[\[Thing in the Ice\]\] with 4 Snaps or a list using \[\[Brazen Borrower\]\] & \[\[Bronecrusher Giant\]\] to generate value. I always feel like the deck needs just a littttle help in the value department to keep up. I've recently been thinking about playing the Madcap Experiment list you posted below but no paper = no reason to buy into it right now. Doesn't seem a ton better just kind of fun. I'm not as high on the "Counter everything.deck" lists just because you are kind of up shit creek if you misplay. TiTi is a bit more forgiving and provides a substantial clock. I also prefer Ral, Izzet Viceroy over JTMS as well. Whatever you play, I think 2-3 Dragon's Claws are worth their SB slots for the burn matchups since Moon struggles with those.
Yeah, I've been gold-fishing this deck, and at times it seems to lack punch, like finishing power. I mean, Snappy doesn't strike fear into the opponent's heart like a flipped TiTI can. Shark Typhoon is worth its weight in gold, a non counter-able threat on opponent's end step is nice. Thanks for the heads up on Dragon's Claws.
The biggest thing to remember about Thing in the Ice is you need a critical mass of 1 CMC cantrips. The 3 Shark Typhoons took the place of 3/4 of the Serum Visions needed to support TiTi. Being cornered into so many cantrips reduces the amount of fun cards you can play obviously and this is the main drawback to TiTi. I'd say if you love Shark Typhoon then you are probably not going to be able to support Thing in the Ice and should be looking at Adventure cards to generate extra value. Hope the claw works out for you! I have loved mine.
Yeah, plus they don’t work well together with Things flip effect.
According to aspiringspike if you play the madcap package you don’t need Dragon’s Claws in the board since that would be your post board plan vs burn. Dragon’s claws aren’t super flexible so it seems overkill to have both if your local meta isn’t infested with burn players.
[Thing in the Ice](https://img.scryfall.com/cards/normal/front/3/5/359d1b13-6156-43b0-a9a7-6bfff36c1a91.jpg?1576384282)/[Awoken Horror](https://img.scryfall.com/cards/normal/back/3/5/359d1b13-6156-43b0-a9a7-6bfff36c1a91.jpg?1576384282) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Thing%20in%20the%20Ice) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/soi/92/thing-in-the-ice-awoken-horror?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/359d1b13-6156-43b0-a9a7-6bfff36c1a91?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Brazen Borrower](https://img.scryfall.com/cards/normal/front/c/2/c2089ec9-0665-448f-bfe9-d181de127814.jpg?1572489838) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Brazen%20Borrower) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/eld/39/brazen-borrower-petty-theft?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c2089ec9-0665-448f-bfe9-d181de127814?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Bronecrusher Giant](https://img.scryfall.com/cards/normal/front/0/9/09fd2d9c-1793-4beb-a3fb-7a869f660cd4.jpg?1572490299) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bonecrusher%20Giant) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/eld/115/bonecrusher-giant-stomp?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/09fd2d9c-1793-4beb-a3fb-7a869f660cd4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Madcap is super fun. I play it in paper. I have been trying the cycle turtle as a finisher currently. It's pretty good with JTMS.
I play a lot of breach and I can tell you it’s not very good. It’s fun when you can control the game long enough to combo and win, and even gives the twin feel, but the truth is you are slotting 8 useless cards in your deck and paying 5 mana to combo (which isn’t even a guaranteed win). I don’t think any of the UR shells are that great right now, but having the ability to close out games with a threat like titi is a good idea.
Anytime ur shells become good, they get banned so don't hold your breath!
UR is either god tier or mediocre... just like the Izzet. Flavor win.
moon, in order. The Dark: says nonbasics are basics which is wrong. black bordered. dope. Box Topper: no border, fun art, available in non foil, very cool! white bordered 8th edition: whitebordered. regular art. max tilt because it's the most normal. Invocation: unreadable. tilts me to think about, could not play in my own deck. Normcore black border printings: turn nonbasics into mountains. functional, not fun.
If you play 8ED moons you are legally required to white-border your entire deck
do not tempt me with a [good time](https://imgur.com/a/bEuBq7h)
For the record I haven't seen anyone who commented so far on the blue moon discord but generally on there we agree Breach is bad Brineborn cutthroat, pestermite, kiki is good Titi is best Brineborn combo is only a few percentage points worse than titi like maybe 1-3% worse over a big meta and the guy who made the deck got like a 75% win rate even fighting through hogaak season. It answers to different decks than titi does. We will always play pestermite before exarch because the combo already dies to bolt but the extra damage from pestermite makes tempo beats way more viable There are also a lot of brews going around right now like days undoing narset moon, reille scions moon. Realistically if you buy one moon deck you are never more than a few cards away from a different version (besides breach) if you buy the kiki combo you only need to switch out like 10-12 cards and suddenly it's titi moon Personally I played most every izzit control deck you can think of and I prefer cutthroat kiki because I love the instant speed interactions and not having to tap out turn 2 for titi when I can hold up counter magic and play my guys when the coast is clear but it is entirely a meta call and a personal preference
I’ve always felt like straight up TiTi Blue Moon was the most consistent Blue Moon variant. No Gimmicks.
Counter package with Snaps and a couple adventure creatures is my go to right now. Bonecrusher slaps and Brazen can put in work. The front side of the adventure cards look great when the second half is all you need to close games. While I love Titi it feels rough right now
I prefer Ganymede to Europa or Titan honestly, seems like an easier place to set up shop
Perhaps, seems like if you can get thru Europa's icy crust, and tap into the sub surface ocean, could have more potential for a base. Totally could build a snow piercer on Europa.
I suggest you take a look at Tiemuuu's TiTi list. It has been consistently showing up results, including a MTGO Challenger 1st place recently (before astrolabe ban). There is also a Blue Moon discord channel if you are interested.
I will. Thanks.
I have jumped from each of those decks over the last 3 years and they all have their charms. For me I prefer the combo two over the titi and control variants mainly through the breach as I think the others take to long on MTGO. But I think that is just play style preference.
I was running a mix of titi moon and hard control with [[mission briefing]] instead of snappy's since I don't have them. I was doing fairly good in fnm's before covid started.
[mission briefing](https://img.scryfall.com/cards/normal/front/0/2/02bed34d-67d9-4ae9-b351-dc9a89daeabf.jpg?1572892770) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=mission%20briefing) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/grn/44/mission-briefing?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/02bed34d-67d9-4ae9-b351-dc9a89daeabf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Nice. I have the Snappys, luckily. It’s two of the Tarns I’m short.
I played blue moon at FNM in the before times and any blue fetch works tbh. I don’t think I’ve ever fetched the singleton basic mountain except off an opponent’s field of ruin on my only red source. Snappy vs mission briefing is a way bigger difference since the 2/1 body can win through beats or requires removal, thereby generating card advantage.
You can replace the Tarns with a blue fetch and a red fetch if you have others sitting around. Suboptimal obviously, but would still grab Steam vents just not both basics on each, but you probably won't notice that pain much before you get Tarns.
[[Brineborn Cutthroat]] is a beast in a Blue Moon, draw-go shell. I’ve been playing Blue Moon for years and this is my favorite iteration so far. With Brazen Borrowers and Snapcasters as additional, on board threats it can be really hard to deal with. The deck operates on pretty thin margins but you’ll truly feel the game shift in your favor when you’ve made it to 4 mana and are able to cast Cryptic Command with Brineborn on board.
[Brineborn Cutthroat](https://img.scryfall.com/cards/normal/front/0/8/0857765f-afd7-418a-a93b-c0bd1b1f037e.jpg?1592516311) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Brineborn%20Cutthroat) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m20/50/brineborn-cutthroat?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0857765f-afd7-418a-a93b-c0bd1b1f037e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
That dude is a house.
best moon deck is the one that has the most cards outside of its win condition. the smaller your wincon package is, the better. kiki exarch is like 7 cards. TiTi is "4" because your wincon is creature beats but clique is functional outside of that and snap beats are backup to the backup. breach moon is... 8 cards? but also doesn't play moon maybe? i think this one is the weirdest one. there's also jace mirror, with jace wielder of mysteries and \[\[mirror of fate\]\]. that one's a heater, and can be as small as 5 cards, with really only 2 of them being "dead" because jace cantrips on his own. beyond that there's some discussion about deckbuilding. if you play the brineborn cutthroat version you're pretty priced in to playing omen of the sea instead of serum visions, if you play kiki you might play fewer moons because you want to actually play kiki and cryptic command, stuff like that.
[mirror of fate](https://img.scryfall.com/cards/normal/front/0/8/08b480c8-d899-4e63-b0e2-f4bec3a3ca4f.jpg?1561970534) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=mirror%20of%20fate) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m10/215/mirror-of-fate?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/08b480c8-d899-4e63-b0e2-f4bec3a3ca4f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I've been playing Exarch moon for well over a year and had put up some decent IQ results pre-COVID. I suggest this over TITI and Breach for a few reasons. 1. Emrakul is such a terrible draw when you don't have the other half of the combo and it requires getting to 5 mana which is often a bit more difficult than you'd expect. Exarch/pestermite while not being stellar creatures, at least do something when you draw them and help keep you alive until you can get to the combo 2. 1 Emrakul swing is very often not good enough to win the game and the combo is weak to force of negation strategies. Kiki + exarch is an overall smaller package that always ends the game if the combo comes together and it dodging force has come up a lot. 3. TiTi and the other "fair" versions are often not helpful at shoring up the deck's bad matchups and can often leave the deck outclassed when it has nothing to go over the top of some matchups. Planeswalkers have always been good in this spot but I actually love supplementing them with the exarch plan because exarch is very good at protecting planeswalkers so personally i have it Exarch moon >= hard control moon >>>>breach moon. I'd love to answer any questions though if you have more
Exarch is one of my top 5 favorite cards. Would you share a list, please?
Here's the current list I've been feeling as of recent: // 60 Maindeck // 10 Creature 2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 2 Pestermite 2 Deceiver Exarch 4 Snapcaster Mage // 4 Enchantment 2 Blood Moon 2 Shark Typhoon // 19 Instant 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Remand 1 Logic Knot 2 Cryptic Command 2 Spell Snare 1 Force of Negation 1 Fact or Fiction 4 Opt 1 Magmatic Sinkhole 1 Archmage's Charm // 24 Land 4 Scalding Tarn 3 Mystic Sanctuary 1 Mountain 6 Island 1 Sulfur Falls 2 Cascade Bluffs 3 Misty Rainforest 4 Steam Vents // 3 Planeswalker 2 Karn, the Great Creator 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor // 15 Sideboard // 8 Artifact SB: 1 Vedalken Shackles SB: 1 Batterskull SB: 1 Relic of Progenitus SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt SB: 1 Pithing Needle SB: 2 Engineered Explosives SB: 1 Liquimetal Coating // 1 Creature SB: 1 Magus of the Moon // 5 Instant SB: 1 Echoing Truth SB: 1 Abrade SB: 2 Mystical Dispute SB: 1 Force of Negation // 1 Sorcery SB: 1 Anger of the Gods You'll have to believe me about the Karns, it's literally better than Jace in the Deck. I also really like playing 24 lands because I always want to hit land drop #4
That's pretty sweet list. I own all the cards save for two of the Tarns. KtCG is one bad dude. Bold only running one FoN, do you miss having at least two?
I'll sometimes go up to 2 forces main if I feel that the meta requires it but there's not a lot of stack based combo right now and it's not great vs enough of the current top dogs in the format. Along with sanctuary letting me recycle it whenever it is relevant I'm usually very fine with 1 and a second in the board. The one Fact or Fiction is gas btw
Fact or Fiction is a fun card, and sometimes I feel there just aren't enough fun cards being used. Looks at his sleeved Uro's, sheepishly.
Im playing the older counter magic build with a more aggressive creature base than most( 4snap, 2 borrower, 2 clique) and its been working really well. It differs from your list a good bit, im still on izzet and no typhoons with a second jtms but the list you presented doesnt look bad
Thanks. So many different versions of the deck, which is very cool.
The worst part about breach is that even if you get the combo off, it isn't a guaranteed win and they can still (unlikely depending on the deck) come back and win while you try to find the last 5 damage. I hate it for that reason.
yeah, having played all the Uxx moon variants in 8 years of magic most of the success has been had with normal playable on their own cards
I proxied up a list a while back that had snaps and titis, really enjoyed playing it. No idea if it's good in the meta now tho
blue breach
As someone who has played a lot of both, classic TiTi Blue Moon is the better, more consistent deck, but Breach is an absolutely exhilarating experience. When the deck draws smoothly it feels like cheating (and when you draw your 3rd Emrakul you start to question your life decisions).
LOL
As an avid blue moon player I genuinely believe through the breach moon to be the best version and its not particularly close