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by JdB
Blue: The reigning elements of Magic's most surprising color
Blue is, in my opinion, the best color in Type 2. Blue
uses a vast array of counterspells, such as the classic Counterspell, the
new Abjure from Weatherlight, and the virtually unusable Memory
Lapse. It also has the best and most flying creatures in the game,
including Breezekeeper, Mist Dragon, and Sage Owl (Yes, I did say Sage
Owl). It is the resident king of library manipulation, using rearranging
elements like Ancestral Knowledge and Sage Owl as well as 'leafers' like
Dream Cache and Impulse (Visions' sleeper card). And do I need to
mention Abduction and Binding Grasp?
The best strategy for straight blue is to do three things: get lots of
flyers out while countering all Hurricanes and Wind Shears, get a Vanishing
Floodgate out to rearrange the faces of opponents' creatures, and lastly,
use Impulse, Teferi's Puzzle Box, and Prosperity to find any and all cards
you want while replenishing counters. One thing I do in my deck is hold
Prosperity until I can get all my cards out without discarding, then
playing Paradigm Shift (How do you pronounce 'Paradigm'?). Once I draw
Prosperity again, I cast it, usually causing my opponent to lose.
- Tips for blue decks:
- 1) Save Counterspells. Once I saw a person counter a Bolt aimed at a Phantom
Monster, only to be Geysered and Fireblasted to death.
-
- 2) Don't cast a spell unless you can save two blue mana. Once, I held a
Mist Dragon
for five turns so my opponent was spooked that I had a counter. After I
finally cast
the Dragon, he instantly tried to Drain Life me, only to be hit with a
Disrupt.
-
- 3) The most important game if you're playing blue is the mental one.
Ancestral
Knowledge is almost as scary as Disrupting a Fireball. If you convince
your
opponent that he's doomed, say, with enough Impulses to choke a Camel,
his
balance will be off. It's fairly easy to do this with blue. Two
untapped islands do
the trick.
-
- 4) Fog Elementals are OK. Using cheap flyers with phasing or another
drawback
(Ertai's Familiar comes to mind) is sometimes better. I vastly prefer Fog
Elementals and Breezekeepers to Phantom Monsters.
-
- 5) Wider is better. Don't go straight permission or straight flying, you'll
get burned by
Hurricanes and Cities of Solitude (I think that's is Switzerland; those
Swiss have
always been kinda solitary). A nice mix of both will deal with green
nicely (of
course, so would a forest fire).
-
- 6) Keep your opponent in check constantly. I find that Shimmer,
Counterspell, and
Vanishing work well for this. If his creatures, lands, and spells
malfunction, he
can't hurt you (unless he plays as the source of all evil, the
Millstone deck!).
-
- 7) Phasing. No, really! It works! It cheapens your creatures, and makes his
go away.
But don't use Teferi's Curse. Vanishing is better. Reality Ripple works
okay, too,
using the element of surprise (I wonder if R&D at WotC has thought of a
Surprise
Elemental? Maybe one of 'em will read this.).
-
- 8) Don't underestimate the power of unsummoning. Nothing is better than
having an
opponent have an Archangel and a Fallen Angel, then play a Teferi's
Puzzle Box
and Undo, saying, "You didn't need those in the next ten turns, did you?"
-
- 9) Just Say No. Counterspells are needed in a blue deck. Even in sealed deck
does
Memory Lapse find a place. There is a reason so many are made
(Counterspell,
Remove Soul, Force Spike, Disrupt, Abjure, Power Sink, Spell Blast...).
WotC
ENCOURAGES their use! Use 'em!
-
- 10) Practice. Nothing makes a blue deck better. My first flying blue deck used
Teferi's Drakes (3) and Curses (2), as well as Mind Harness in the
non-sideboard
deck. I've learned a lot since then. Only through actually playing
other people was
the long-feared Necrodeck made good.
Right now, blue is the best overall Type 2 color. It didn't lose much in
5th, and a lot of what it did lose, we were glad to see go (Hasta la vista,
Erosion!). Weatherlight added yet another Ancestral card, and Paradigm
Shift? Whenever I cast that, I'm glad to remove my empty or near-empty
library from the game. And hey, know what? Set based on adventures of
flying ship + the color of flying creatures = lots of new blue flyers! And
if you face any decks with lots of Weatherlight cards, and you use
the Shift, DON'T LET THEM TOUCH YOUR GRAVEYARD!!! Type 1 is the last place
you want this new blue Weatherlight stuff with that Tormod's Crypt,
so stick around the Type 2 environment for a while with that stuff.
JdB is very pleased with his first few Weatherlight packs. All his
rares were blue cards that he instantly put in his deck. Paradigm Shift
forever!
[ Back to August 1997 Table of Contents ] [ Back to Beyond Dominia ]
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