Blue Control's Future
Standard forum
Posted on Aug. 21, 2014, 12:12 p.m. by S4breK4t
So, on rotation, return to ravnica rotates out and u/w control loses nearly all of its core and good cards. This isnt meant to be speculation on what blue will look like in the meta postrotation, but rather to try and look at what blue (and only blue, not includes black/white/red cards or whatever) as left available to it, after losing many of its central cards such as Syncopate .
Firstly, planeswalkers. As of now, blue has:
Jace, the Living Guildpact , Kiora, the Crashing Wave , Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver ,
A notable loss is Jace, Architect of Thought , who was previously seen played in any blue deck with a hint of control. Will the living Guildpact take his place? Kiora is still a very decent planeswalker, but is more suited to the green style of play, such as simic midrange or control. Ashiok is less splashable and works better in a more dedicated build, not along the lines of conventional blue control. So it seems that only Guildpact is really very suited to blue control, and that is still very arguable, as many players believe to be far inferior to AoT. Of course, control wouldnt be control without its counterspells. What decent 'counterspells'does blue still have to play with?
Annul , Dissolve , Gainsay (For siding agaist blue), Swan Song , Voyage's End , Nullify , Thassa's Rebuff (Only in devotion), Countermand , Hour of Need , Kiora's Dismissal , Cancel , Dissipate , Negate ,
And traditional draw power?
The answer: not many. You'll see that I included many cards in that list that you would bot call 'decent'. That's because blue really does not have much in the way of GOOD counters left. Dissolve/Dissipate/Negate seem to be the only recognizable cards in that list. So what does blue do other than turn to black or red for controlc options? Well, thats what Im looking to find out, as well as provide a list of useful cards blue still has. What do you think? Any cards I have missed? Hopefully Khans of Tarkir gives back blue's toys.
Thanks for that, quite a few cards I missed by the looks of it haha :P Also, interesting synergy between JtLG and Kiora, I never thought of that before. Especially strange since I absolutely love Kiora xD
August 21, 2014 12:37 p.m.
RussischerZar says... #4
@ GoldGhost012: I think you meant AEtherspouts , not AEtherize .
GoldGhost012 says... #2
I did not play Jace, Architect of Thought . Though I wouldn't exactly consider what I was playing normal mono-blue control.
A lot of people are going to be turned off by the fact that JtLG is unconventional. His +1 is okay, "but would be much better if it drew the card." His -3 is good, but "why pay 4 for a Void Snare when I can play Void Snare ?" Lastly, his -8 is very good, but he has to survive when his only protection is an expensive bounce.
I personally think Guildpact and Kiora mesh together very well. Psuedo-scry with Jace plus draw with Kiora seems pretty good. It makes seeing 2 lands okay.
Dissipate , Swan Song , Annul , and Nullify are good also pretty good counterspells, either in the main or in the side. Cancel 's not worthless either. I personally love Countermand , but it's only good where I run it.
Dictate of Kruphix and Jace's Ingenuity are better than Divination , pretty much hands down.
For what else we have: AEtherize isn't a terrible way to reset the board and buy some time. Neither is Whelming Wave or Perilous Vault .
But I agree, Khans needs to give blue some good stuff to give what I'm planning a much better chance.
August 21, 2014 12:26 p.m.