The best color(s) in standard
Standard forum
Posted on Jan. 3, 2014, 10:07 p.m. by hiddengibbons
I've noticed that in each set or cycle, the power balance tends to swing in favor of one color or a certain combination of colors. Am I just imagining this? Right now it seems like the format favors decks that use black. Does a power imbalance represent a fundamental flaw in R & D? Anyone care to weigh in on this?
TheAmazingSalsa says... #3
I'm going to disagree on @Ultimaodin, and say that Nylea, God of the Hunt is pretty amazing in an aggressive ultra hardcore aggro (just how green should be), Bow of Nylea is just silly compared to the other Enchantment/Artifacts in the set... About card advantage, Commune with the Gods and Warriors' Lesson are more than enough, that is if you're willing to take the risk with Commune... But the strongest color to date is black IMO, Erebos, God of the Dead 's ability is just silly, not being able to gain life is just gamebreaking, and Whip of Erebos can just re-use creature's abilities and/or deal massive damage even after killed... I cannot tell you how many times the whip saved me when I reanimated my Abhorrent Overlord , getting 6 ~ 8 1/1 Harpies... plus, the control Black gives you in this set is just amazing...Agent of the Fates , Hero's Downfall , Viper's Kiss , March of the Returned ...
The second strongest color ATM is Red, by far... Purphoros, God of the Forge Is just every burn deck's wettest dream.
January 3, 2014 11:01 p.m.
Ultimaodin says... #4
Nylea is good, but compare her to Thassa. Thassa scry's each turn and unblockableis straight out better than trample most times. Bow of Nylea is bloody amazing with Legion Loyalist which is one of many reasons I pointed out the strength of Gruul.First strike, deathtouch, trample is pretty much game. The issue with Green's card draw is they are very situational and need the correct build. Commune with the Gods is a powerhouse in Golgari, Warriors' Lesson is superb in Gruul and when you have Nylea. The issue is Green is 80% of the time top decking. I simply consider green the weakest of the 5 colours, and that's while it's playing well - that's why I'm pointing out that the set is actually really well balanced.
While Black is powerful I still have to argue blue is better. A counter spell will always outmatch a kill spell. Blue can stabalize with Thassa (which black can't really remove) and card draw. With Aggro blue black can't remove Bident of Thassa . Cyclonic Rift can also screw over most black decks.
January 3, 2014 11:43 p.m.
TheAmazingSalsa says... #5
Well, Gruul is pretty much what you want/need to do if you're planning on going aggro, in this new meta there's no other way.Although I think Mogis's Marauder is way better than Thassa's active ability, since you can just drop it on the field and deal massive damage at once, and appart from Shipbreaker Kraken , blue lacks in offense, and even the kraken is really subjected to a Viper's Kiss , for example...The really offense coming from blue in this new meta comes from 3 cards: Shipbreaker Kraken , Thassa, God of the Sea and Colossal Whale , and even those cards are really expensive for a blue control deck with no mana ramp (apart from Thassa, of course)...
And Green always has a huge mana ramp, specially with Elvish Mystic , so you can drop a 5/5 Mistcutter Hydra on the 3 turn if the game plays really well... In my opinion, blue is really strong on the control department (as always), but its offense is close to mediocre... Thassa is amazing in a offensive Izzet deck, or even in a control/aggro Esper deck... but as a mono-colored deck, I think it'll be far less impressive than other colors.
January 4, 2014 12:02 a.m.
Short of straight homogenizing, there's always going to be a some number of dominate mechanics, colors or archetypes.
That said, I think it's short sighted to say that black is imbalanced right now when mono-black and mono-blue make up the most winning decks, UW has largely taken over as the control list and white weenie splashing red or black are arguably the best aggro lists. The only colors that are currently being under represented in the meta standings is red and green, and even that's arguably if you tally up a bunch of the similar red lists between red devotion, red deck wins and such, and do likewise for a bunch of the green lists.
It's also worth keeping in mind where we are currently. Previous block, plus core set, plus first set of next block is actually the smallest pool standard will be. We are that the low point for diversity.
January 4, 2014 12:31 a.m.
It seems that Blue is the "strongest" with Black is a close second. However, I know that Red is extremely viable. Right now it seems that Green and White are furthest behind, however, when paired with another "powerhouse" color they seem to be viable.
January 4, 2014 12:38 a.m.
TheAmazingSalsa says... #8
@Trublood White weenie is not even fair anymore... Spear of Heliod just mows down through the opponent's offense and +1/+1 to all creatures goes well with Ajani, Caller of the Pride , and although Heliod, God of the Sun 's active is nothing more than mediocre, vigilance to all creatures can be a bit game-breaking....plus, Gift of Immortality is one amazing card.
January 4, 2014 1:15 a.m.
Ultimaodin says... #9
TheAmazingSalsa - Ah, master of Waves is offensive - it makes a tone of 2/1s. Splash green for Master Biomancer and you have a pretty much unstopable army. Blue still has AEtherling remember.
Also Mistcutter Hydra will wreck any mono-blue deck. There is good reason I have him in every deck running green's sideboard. (plus it's good at going against control since control hates haste) Green needed that counter to blue though, there was actually Daily MTG on the design of Mistcutter for what Wizards thought was going to happen with Blue.
Also how can you consider it mediocre when aggro blue has been in pretty much every PTQ top 8?
Also, Heliods ability can actually be really good when running cards like Ethereal Armor and Sphere of Safety as they are Enchantment Creatures. In Selesnya Heliod is a boss.
As I initially said though I think all the colours are actually really well balanced right now.
January 4, 2014 1:20 a.m.
TheAmazingSalsa says... #10
Ultimaodin I kind of forgot Master of Waves , and in my opinion aggro blue has been top 8 because the other colors are lacking on control.. New meta's a mess imo, 'cause standard forces you to go aggro while Theros forces you to go mono-colored decks... and blue really gets advantage on that because you can run aggro/control mono-blue decks with not problems whatsoever... I'm with Slycne on that one, where we won't see that much variety since, even though I don't think blue is that much of a strong color in standard, it has this advantage.
But yes, all in all, the colors are relatively well balanced... I've never been that much of a Green fan, mainly because I thought it fell flat against colors like green, blue and black.... but I'm managing to do OK against Green and Blue (Not black, tho... I hate black's removal)
January 4, 2014 1:32 a.m.
No color is under matched or rated. Some colors just do better or combine better with certain ones. For example green and red have always worked well together same as white and black. Certain colors are ment to be beaten by others, this keeps the cycle going. Thus making an unending deck change, which inturn makes Wizards more money. If there was one color that stood above all else everyone would choose that color, which would leave a flaw and we can't have that. Hence why they keep making new sets. So to end this choose a color or colors you like, your bound to win some and lose some.
January 4, 2014 2:10 a.m.
hiddengibbons says... #12
With cards like Thoughtseize , Hero's Downfall , and Blood Baron of Vizkopa , Black or decks containing black are consistently near the top of lists. The metagame is pretty much established until the next installment of Theros, so control decks (Either Esper or Azorius) are certainly viable. One of the reasons black devotion is strong is because of the card advantage of Underworld Connections , whereas blue devotion has Thasa, which allows for consistent scrying and deck filtering. The power balance may shift when the next set, titled "God Squad" is released. That is a fake title of course.
January 4, 2014 11:47 a.m.
TheAmazingSalsa says... #13
Getting tired of Esper/Azorius, tbh... they're fun as heck to play, but I'm getting really tired of them. Cards like Medomai the Ageless , Lyev Skyknight and Ascended Lawmage just make for ez-win...
Ultimaodin says... #2
I honestly think Theros is pretty balanced all round. I play Simic, a guild most people consider to be the weakest, and beat mono-black all the time. If we were going to go strongest colour I'd have to say blue. While Blue doesn't have as many power cards it's the most stable with the amount of scry it has access to. Thassa as a constant scry means you almost never get something you don't need. Blue also has card draw that supports both control play styles and aggro play styles. Black has some powerhouse cards with Thoughtseize and Hero's Downfall. Hero's Downfall is just another black kill spell to me, easily to avoid or out-pace. Thoughtseize on the other hand is a pain. What I don't like about it is against a lot of decks it's a dead draw late game.
I'd say mono-red has taken a drop but in reality it's just changed from mega aggro to a strange burn set up with Young Pyromancer, Guttersnipe and Porphorus. Mono-green is probably one of the weakest right now, or maybe I should say the most inconsistent, green lacks scry and only really has Warrior's Lesson as card advantage. At the same time green go destructive galore with the right hand. Green has become a lot stronger to combine with other colours. Gruul Devotion is a definite example of destructive power that is a lot more consistent. Even Simic has made PTQ's with the flash decks and Master Biomancer builds. Selesnya is looking a little sad but still has some power plays and I honestly think it's going to get stronger with the next couple sets.
Honestly, I'd have to say this set is pretty well balanced.
January 3, 2014 10:47 p.m.