Mono U Tempo (Pioneer)

An adapted MonoU tempo. Works well against fair decks, doesn't completely fold to T3feri, and is great against combo.

Win with flyers or by flipping Thing.

Card Choices - Creatures:

• Thing In The Ice

  Thing is an effective blocker than can be dropped on T3 with Spell Pierce or Dive Down backup. Since removal is bad in this format, we don't mind letting it sit for a couple of turns. This is a card that can be used as a ticking time-bomb that bounces an entire MonoR board for midrange board (on their turn even!) clearing the way for a large swing or to remove a lot of tokens. Do not under-estimate the quality of this threat. Note that it also bounces Brazen Borrowers back to your hand for extra bounces.

• Nightveil Specter

  This is a strange card. It's like a worse version of Theif of Sanity. That said, it still rips the top card of the opponent's library, lets you play their lands, and doesn't die to shock. I'd like to find a better threat than this, though I'm not sure what would replace it.

• Brazen Borrower

  A bounce staples to an evasive beater. Not useful for blocking, but great for taking out opposing planeswalkers or chipping down life.

• Merfolk Trickster

  Removes an attacker/blocker temporarily and turns on Wizard's Retort. It can be used as a Curious Obsession carrier in a pinch.

• Siren Stormtamer

  Protects your threats, can carry obsession for evasive beatings.

• Nimble Obstructionist

  Another flash 3-power flier. It also lets us counter abilities, which is a nice way of dealing with PW ults or certain elk-based removal. As a bonus, this allows us to deal with Goblin Chainwhirler's ETB too.

Card Choices - Counterspells:

These are flexible. We generally don't play Censor, as we don't benefit from the graveyard. In general, I wouldn't drop below 9 counterspells.

• Wizard's Retort:

  The most flexible and powerful counterspell. It requires some board-presence but ultimately is worth the drawback since we want to be aggressive anyways.

• Spell Pierce

  Most linear decks relly on some non-creature spell that they want to cast on-curve. Spell Pierce is your best way to deal with them. It's very powerful, especially against T3f and Oko decks.

• Essence Capture

  Slows down creature decks and lets you often build a 3/3 blocker or make a bigger flyer to beat face with.

Notable exclusions:

• Tempest Djinn

This is a hard threat to protect. While it won't often be getting Lava Coil-ed, it still has a massive bounty on its head. It also requires that you tap out to play it pretty often, and it doesn't scale too well in a 20 land deck.

• Smuggler's Copter

This is a card I was strongly considering, but I ultimately excluded I didn't want to buy it. And even if I did, it fights for a spot with Thing In The Ice, which is not a good place to be. In this deck, we want real card advantage, not pseudo card advantage. This is achieved through Nightviel Specter, Curious Obsession, and Brazen Borrower.