Hey,

I'm trying something new.  Whenever I post about an exclusive format, I'll put the format in the title in brackets ( [ ] ) so that it's easy to identify.

Now to the post.

My obsession with playing wizards in Legacy started when I realized how well these cards worked together...



The centerpiece of synergy is Puresight Merrow.  Opposition and Patron Wizard reward you for tapping a creature you control, tapping an artifact, creature, or land or taxing an opponent 1 mana respectively.

Being able to untap Merrow to reuse these abilities is powerful.  With more mana than your opponent, you can tap down your opponents lands, preventing them from casting non-instant spells.  If your opponent tries to cast an instant, you can use Patron Wizard to tax them.

This combination gave me a start for a deck:

4 x Puresight Merrow
4 x Patron Wizard
3 x Opposition

My first attempt when I first came up with the idea relied on taxing the opponent heavily while denying their mana.  Initial builds rushed out Trinisphere to slow play and denied mana through Wasteland and Rishadan Port.

While the 8-land package works for goblins, it does not work for wizards.  Besides Aether Vial, wizards have no card like Goblin Lackey that can sneak out creatures.  The cost-reducing equivalent of Goblin Warchief,  Stonybrook Banneret, isn't as good here due to the lack of colorless mana costs in some cards.

Trinisphere is also a no-go here.  Besides failing with Force of Will, it also needs too many other slots for support through mana acceleration to succeed.

The solution?  Rather than try to force denial at one time, I decided to do gradual denial.  The deck already packs Opposition, so Winter Orb can be used to deny lands.  At the end of an opponent's turn, just tap the orb through Opposition to free up resources.

All that's left is creatures.  Since I want to pack a ton of wizards for their bodies, I settle on Trinket Mage (who is also a Wizard) and Sensei's Divining Top for card selection.  Fetchlands and duplicate Trinket Mages can provide shuffle to see a new three through the top.

Another blue wizard that fits into the deck easily is Voidmage Prodigy.  Each wizard you play turns into a body for a counterspell.  While Patron Wizard can use bodies for taxing the opponent, it doesn't excel until Winter Orb or Puresight Merrow comes down.  Its close cousin Glen Elendra Archmage could fit into the deck; however, its high casting cost prevents it from getting sneaked in with Aether Vial.

The final wizard I decide to fit in is what I consider an unorthodox choice.  While the deck has plenty of ways to deal with incoming spells, it lacks a way to deal with permanents that resolve.  Venser, Shaper Savant works, but I decide to get experimental.

Meet Rimewind Taskmage:


Rimewind Taskmage provides tapping redundancy while providing the body of a wizard.  If Opposition is not usable, Taskmage provides a way to tap any permanents.

The final product?

Legacy Mono U Wizards
Lands		Creatures		Spells
4	Flooded Strand	4	Puresight Merrow	4	Æther Vial
3	Scalding Tarn	3	Trinket Mage	3	Sensei's Divining Top
16	Snow-Covered Island	4	Rimewind Taskmage	4	Winter Orb
		4	Patron Wizard	4	Force of Will
		4	Voidmage Prodigy	3	Opposition
23	Cards	19	Cards	18	Cards
Display Deck Statistics

Download this file for Magic Workstation: RIGHT CLICK ME AND SAVE AS

That covers the main deck.  Sideboard really depends on testing, so I'm using some cards I hijacked from a Merfolk deck.  For now, here's the plan:

3 Back to Basics - For troublesome nonbasics.
3 Venser, Shaper Savant - For troublesome permanents.
4 Chill - For red decks.
3 Mana Maze - Makes your spells uncounterable by blue spells.  Only hurts FoW for you.
2 Pithing Needle/Engineered Explosives - Planeswalkers/Tokens

And now it's your turn.  I'd like your feedback on this deck.
Here are some questions that I have that could get your thought process running:

• Would you fit in Counterbalance here?  My concern is that I won't have enough wizards to play which are necessary for use with Opposition and Patron Wizard.  I don't want to over-rely on Puresight Merrow here.
• Equipment or no equipment?  Does the usual equipment like Umezawa's Jitte and Sword of Fire and Ice have a place?  Right now, I'm saying no.
• Scrying Sheets or no?  First off -- it turns on Wasteland for your opponent.  Second, it doesn't produce blue mana.  On the flip side, it works with Top to put snow on top.  

Happy Thanksgiving!
@shadowsketched