Why is blue the best color?
General forum
Posted on June 30, 2014, 6:09 p.m. by DX5
And why is Red the worst color?
And why is Black the most popular color?
These are things I never understood.
miracleHat says... #3
About red, it all depends how you build it. In a twenty life format; red is a great color. Burn decks that kill you on turn 3 are just as quick as other combo decks that you will find. If you pair red with say, blue; you get a ridiculous storm deck that wins on turn 3 as well.
The cons of red is that it doesn't interact with enchantments (like white), all spells whenever (like blue), insta creature kill (like black)
@ChiefBell, red doesn't need to have removal for Desecration Demon /Abyssal Persecutor /Teneb, the Harvester or what have you, because red is dealing twenty damage before those creatures are attacking for 12 damage.
That being said, red is terrible in edh because having to kill somebody in a 40 life format is very difficult.
June 30, 2014 6:20 p.m.
Of course but thats meta and deck dependent. I was giving a brief overview.
June 30, 2014 6:26 p.m.
miracleHat says... #5
Also, i have trouble saying that red is the worst color in magic. All of the colors are good, it is just that some are better than others.
June 30, 2014 6:28 p.m.
Red is certainly the most linear colour. It has little variety and excels at doing only really one thing. All of the other colours have a bit more variety.
June 30, 2014 6:31 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #7
Red is the weakest? I usually hear Green is because it is completely dependent on creatures and board presence. Red is the most limited in what it can do within the parameters of the color pie but does those things very well. As far as I know Red is the only color you can play by itself and be competitive in Legacy, Modern, and Standard at all times essentially.
Blue has the most broken and overpowered cards but on a whole most of it's cards are trash and inefficient compared to the other colors. Card advantage is it's calling card.
Black can do anything as long as your willing to sacrifice something else to do it. There's also the flavor. Who doesn't like being the bad guy from time to time?
June 30, 2014 6:33 p.m.
miracleHat says... #8
What about green? Ramp with elves into big creatures that stomp face. Also, destroy everything that your opponent has that isn't nature. Or am i forgetting something...
June 30, 2014 6:34 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 - whilst mono red strategies are often strong, they're usually not like tier 1. Red is such a bizzarre colour where it's like verging on overpowered but is just ever so slightly too weak, in my opinion, to be truly powerful. There are odd examples like Lightning Bolt that are really good, but the rest is a sort 'close but not quite' scenario.
June 30, 2014 6:37 p.m.
miracleHat says... #10
@Rasta_Viking29 (is that your name?), green isn't the weakest color. it has some of the most busted cards; but that being said. The best cards in green don't fit with the color (Sylvan Library /Survival of the Fittest ).
Honestly though, we are missing the point. We should be discussing colorless (Black Lotus , every mox, Library of Alexandria , Sol Ring )...
June 30, 2014 6:37 p.m.
COlourless doesn't have as much of a focus or flavour though. It just does a bit of everything. We should also probably disregard cards that were printed like one time and then never again. Wizard made mistakes, but have now moved on.
June 30, 2014 6:38 p.m.
miracleHat says... #12
@ChiefBell, there is 1 time where red is consistently strong: whenever a new set comes out. It seems that when each new set comes out, the first thing that people do is go to red, then branch out to the good color combos like mbd and mud.
June 30, 2014 6:39 p.m.
miracleHat says... #13
Also, red does do something the best: goblins/dragons. I feel as though Goblin Lackey is one of the best one drop creatures that has ever been printed (that being said, good creature + urza set = no point).
June 30, 2014 6:44 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #14
I guess my view of the colors is also skewed by the past. Up until Tarmogoyf and a few other cards that were printed in the past half decade Green was complete shit in terms of competitiveness for eternal. White was always considered bad too as it got soo many terrible lifgain cards, lacked evasion, and had no way to get card advantage.
June 30, 2014 6:58 p.m.
But that's changed. The best removal in modern is probably now Dismember , Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse . It's a strong colour.
Melira-pod is heavy on green. As is rock. Green also does well in standard.
June 30, 2014 7:02 p.m.
Nigeltastic says... #16
Blue is the only color that requires you to be playing it to defeat it. Counterspells are almost exclusively blue and the only way to beat them (in a general sense) is with other Counterspells.
June 30, 2014 7:09 p.m.
miracleHat says... #17
@Nigeltastic, that isn't true. It takes skill to beat blue. If you have 2 cards in your hand and you know that your opponent has a Force of Will , then there is a way to get around it. Play the weaker spell, though acting as though it is a really strong spell and make it countered. Now that your opponent doesn't have the Counterspell , you can play your Goblin Piledriver and hope that you don't run into a Daze .
June 30, 2014 7:11 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #18
Those decks splash green. When evaluating the 5 colors I do it mono-colored and ignore the "well if you add blue to white" stuff. Splashing shores up their individual weaknesses and makes it impossible to get a proper read.
Now if you wanted to make the case G/B is stronger than mono-red I'll agree but mono-red > mono-green.
June 30, 2014 7:13 p.m.
miracleHat says... #19
@Rasta_Viking29, you might be correct: however. The ultimate mono red burn deck vs. the ultimate mono green elf deck. I would actually like to see this battle... (elf deck with Survival of the Fittest seems entertaining at any rate).
June 30, 2014 7:18 p.m.
Yeh I think I agree that mono red is better than mono green. I can see that.
June 30, 2014 7:19 p.m.
The burn deck would probably win. Unless the elf deck had like 4x Essence Warden
June 30, 2014 7:20 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #22
So, let's break it down.... in a vacuum. Or try to.
White:
Land Tax , Wrath of God , Swords to Plowshares , Path to Exile , Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite , Mother of Runes , Balance , Elspeth, Knight-Errant .
Blue:
Force of Will , Jace, the Mind Sculptor , Stifle , Mental Misstep , Mana Drain , Time Walk , Ancestral Recall , Vendilion Clique , Snapcaster Mage , Brainstorm , Gush , Back to Basics , Mystical Tutor , Daze , True-Name Nemesis .
Red:
Lightning Bolt , Goblin Lackey , Goblin Guide , Goblin Piledriver , Chain Lightning , Price of Progress , Imperial Recruiter , Fireball , Blood Moon .
Black:
Contract from Below , Yawgmoth's Will , Demonic Tutor , Vampiric Tutor , Necropotence , Demonic Consultation , Dark Ritual , Dark Confidant , Thoughtseize , Yawgmoth's Bargain , Hymn to Tourach , Liliana of the Veil , Entomb , Sinkhole , Diabolic Edict , Imperial Seal , Cabal Therapy , Animate Dead , Reanimate , Exhume .
Green:
Channel , Green Sun's Zenith , Birds of Paradise , Berserk , Fastbond , Tarmogoyf , Sylvan Library , Regrowth , Noble Hierarch , Life from the Loam , Primeval Titan , Birthing Pod , Chord of Calling
I tried to keep it in a vacuum as best I could, which is why you find Tinker
and Stoneforge Mystic
mia.
Suffice it to say that Black and Blue are busted as all hell.
June 30, 2014 7:31 p.m.
What's that a measure of though? No-one uses ante cards anymore, and Liliana is arguably not busted. That's a list of really, really good cards but it still doesn't prove much.
June 30, 2014 7:33 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #24
That's still ridiculously stupid for a cmc of 1, even if no one uses ante.
June 30, 2014 7:36 p.m.
miracleHat says... #25
@fluffybunnypants, i feel as though Armageddon and Ravages of War deserve a spot.
June 30, 2014 7:37 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #26
Really, blue's good because it has access to everything. Divination effects draw cards, Cyclonic Rift s of the world bounce and / or wipe boards, Counterspell does what it does, Delver of Secrets Flip fills in for red's little creatures, and Stormtide Leviathan suits green's big creature needs. It just does everything that people want to do. None of the other colors have the overall reach that blue has in broad formats. Green is definitely getting there, though, as they print more Harmonize s in things like Garruk, Caller of Beasts and Eidolon of Blossoms .
But as the others have said, all of the colors are relatively close in powerlevel. On a 1-10 scale, I'd say Blue's about an 8, red and green both come in at about 7, and black and white come in about 6.
June 30, 2014 7:42 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #27
miracleHat: I agree with that. It was a quick list, I did the best I could off the top of my head.
June 30, 2014 7:43 p.m.
Nigeltastic says... #28
miracleHat not only is your situation a very odd one, in which you know their hand and you're playing goblins and they don't wait out your big spells, it also illustrates my point. If red burns you or your creature, every other color can deal with that, and consistently. If black kills your creature, you can give hexproof, regenerate, give it protection. If white gains life or tries to exile your dudes, there are ways in other colors to play against that. If green ramps into a fatty, there are spells to kill it. If blue has a counter, your options are have one of few uncounterable spells in magic history, to be playing blue and counter back, or to try to get them to hit the wrong target..... That doesn't quite line up.
June 30, 2014 8:21 p.m.
Did somebody actually say Red is the only color that works by itself in Legacy?
June 30, 2014 8:32 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #30
Nigeltastic counters are only effective at answering something as they are cast, very timing sensitive. You can't draw into a counter to answer a fatty on the board. That's what balances it.
June 30, 2014 8:32 p.m.
Completely forgetting fish.
Nigeltastic - so your point is that the only way to counter a counterspell is a counterspell. That's not a great point. You can play around counts pills because they can only have one opportunity to be effective. Therefore blue cam be beaten by any other colour with clever play. If you compare that to something like black where a killspells can come at you every turn and be equally effective, you see how blue presents a strong but transient threat, whereas others can maintain pressure. This means that blue can be beaten by the others.
June 30, 2014 8:35 p.m.
My phone makes stupid autocorrect mistakes. Counterspells. Counts pills. Seems legit.
June 30, 2014 8:37 p.m.
miracleHat says... #34
@Nigeltastic, the point of the example wasn't supposed to be about the goblin deck (though i have seen lists with Gitaxian Probe /Mental Misstep before it was banned...) and it's oddities. Also, it is easy to tell when a blue player is hiding a counterspell if you are really good at watching facial/body expressions.
"If blue has a counter, your options are have one of few uncounterable spells in magic history, to be playing blue and counter back, or to try to get them to hit the wrong target"
It is normally easier to bluff and play a spell that is meant to get countered and then play your real spell after spell 1 got countered.
Going back to the goblins, let's say god forbid you get into the long game. You assume (aka, your opponent hinted by leaving two mana open) that they have Counterspell in their hand. In your hand is a Siege-Gang Commander and a Goblin Piledriver . In most situations (and for the arguments sake) the piledriver will be better if it got through, so you cast a Siege-Gang Commander . 80% of the time, they will counter the Siege-Gang Commander because getting a ton of goblins to deal with isn't that fun. So they counter it. After that resolves, you get yourself a Goblin Piledriver oh and lets say that it has haste via Goblin Warchief and you win because pro blue means that it can't block.
That is what i meant when i said, "It takes skill to beat blue".
June 30, 2014 8:37 p.m.
Nigeltastic says... #35
Rasta_Viking29 that is absolutely true, and I wouldn't say counterspells are OP or anything, but the fact that (when the time is correct) they are only beatable by their own ilk combined with the fact that blue is the color of card advantage and extra turns is probably why it is often considered the "best".
June 30, 2014 8:38 p.m.
o rly
So then nobody said this?
"As far as I know Red is the only color you can play by itself and be competitive in Legacy."
June 30, 2014 8:40 p.m.
Nigeltastic says... #37
I by no means think blue is overpowered or unbalanced or anything of the sort, I've passed that point in my understanding of magic, my point was mostly that part of the reason that blue is considered the best, I would think, is because you cannot play a card to beat their "thing" other than their own cards. That is a simplified look at the question, but I think "which color is the best" has to be looked at overly simplistically because it's a question that is rarely relevant, as dual or tri colored decks are the norm in most metas of most formats.
June 30, 2014 8:42 p.m.
Nigeltastic counterspells are the perfect reactive tools but have a fatal flaw in their limited window of use. Whilst the tools that blue has are the best tools, they are also the hardest to apply. In many cases I actually favour black removal over blue. Simply because if a mistake is made it usually doesn't cost you a game. With blue, mistakes do cost fames.
June 30, 2014 8:43 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #41
"As far as I know Red is the only color you can play by itself and be competitive in Legacy, Modern, and Standard at all times essentially."
zandl you are a fool...
June 30, 2014 8:44 p.m.
miracleHat says... #42
@ChiefBell, time to get a new phone (if you have the money, that seems to be an issue around here).
reference:
With blue, mistakes do cost fames
Again, it depends on the mistake. Another one of the things that makes blue so powerful is the ability to react to the situation at hand. Even a budget deck could Disperse a Splinter Twin + Pestermite activation (isn't Chain of Vapor used?). Also, you can dig for your answers (Brainstorm ) and proactively get rid of not-so-good-cards with the above mentioned.
June 30, 2014 8:48 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #44
Say what you will, but Mono Red is usually always a pretty solid pick regardless of format. I ran mono red aggro in Standard, mono red burn in Modern and Mono red burn in Legacy for a bit, my results were pretty good. Blood Moon does work, son.
All Mono U needs is a decent standard deck, then they have Fish in Legacy and Modern. There are other decks as well, but I don't really want to go down that road.
Mono Black has had some nice runs in Standard (Necrodecks, Mono B Control (odyssey/onslaught) and Mono B Devotion), but I'm not sure I've seen Mono B do well in Modern or even in Legacy for that matter (but there are certainly Mono B decks).
Mono Green kind of seems doable... sort of. I mean, it's not ALWAYS going to be great in Standard or Legacy, but at least Modern has G-Wave now.
Mono White is always a deck, ALWAYS a deck. Always. Go ask what's his face. The Pro Tour dude. That one. White Weenie decks are usually always available in Standard, I've seen Mono W Hatebears in Modern do fairly well (though G/W makes it very much more stable) and Death and Taxes will always be competitive in Legacy.
June 30, 2014 9:05 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #45
zandl w/e... I'd love the opportunity to play you. Your sorry attempt to belittle me was probably quite amusing to the community. Wouldn't hurt to be correct in what your saying when calling someone out either.
Those are good points fluffybunnypants. White has changed the most since my return to the game.
June 30, 2014 9:24 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #47
@zandl Rasta_Viking29 Simmer down, gentlemen/ladies.
It is my opinion that the five colors are balanced in the formats where they care to balance them. In Vintage, it's very fair to say that blue and black are by far the best colors, with green somewhat behind and red and white seriously lacking.
However, in every other format decks of every color (and colorless, to some extent) are very potent.
In Legacy, we see the cards Stoneforge Mystic , Force of Will , Thoughtseize , Lightning Bolt and Tarmogoyf played all the time, not because of power disparities but because of the low mana cost required out of threats in the format. Every color has access to very cheap and powerful effects, making them very well balanced. The greater presence of blue in the format is (in my opinion) due to the fact that Force of Will is the only card that beats combo decks outside of discard.
Modern is also pretty balanced among the five colors. Path to Exile , Snapcaster Mage , Thoughtseize , Lightning Bolt and Tarmogoyf are all highly-played cards. The difference is that the format is a lot slower, with disruption being much more valued and midrange/tempo being very powerful. This shifts some of the power over to green card-advantage and value based decks.
Standard is likewise a rainbow. I'm not going to say more, because I don't know much of the format, but all sorts of colors see all sorts of play.
I think that the so-called "best" color in Magic is determined by the environment. If you ban Ancestral Recall and Time Walk , blue won't be as good as it would be if they were allowed, but nevertheless powerful (Legacy). If you take out Dark Ritual and Tendrils of Agony as well as Force of Will , suddenly midrange green-black decks are very good (see Modern). Once you take out the super-efficient removal, aggressive red-white decks become good (Standard). Obviously there's a lot of overlap, and these rules aren't strict, but hopefully you can see where I'm going.
June 30, 2014 10:22 p.m.
I don't think any colour is extremely overpowered. Now, when i make statements, I am making them generally. There are exceptions to these rules, but these are generalisations. e.g. blue has hopeless small creatures. (Yes I'm thinking of the same 2 corner cases: Phantasmal Bear
and Delver of Secrets
Flip
) but as a general rule, for example: blue is bad in the early game for laying down early creatures. One of the reasons that lots of cards are considered so powerful is that they break these rules that have been dictated by the colour pie. Normally, blue doesn't do 1-drops with 2 or more power, which is why when they happen, and don't have major downsides (i'm looking at you Faerie Impostor
) they are considered very very strong cards. Now: I'm going to half-ignore cards that have come before 8th edition, as in the earlier days the game was in a more experimental stage. Sure: the colour pie was established much before this, but the line is quite blurred, and i thought 8th edition would be good as i'm familiar with modern, and a lot of the cards that have defined colours are cards that probably wouldn't be printed at a later stage as they are so broken (and also break the colour pie). So: back to what I was saying. Let's go through the colours 1 by 1.
Blue: Blue is the colour that is commonly seen as the best due to all of its older cards printed. These cards were made in the early stages of the game, when Richard Garfield didn't realise that Ancestral Recall
was better than Healing Salve
. Long ago blue was given many beauties such as Force of Will
, Ancestral Recall
and Counterspell
. Since I'm talking about post-8th edition none of these "mistakes" are relevant, as they're obscenely broken and/or move away from blue's section of the colour pie. So: In modern, blue is the colour that has the most answers for just about anything: for example: Cancel
stops just about anything. However: The downside of blue is that if it lets anything slip through, then it has trouble dealing with it. Now: Cancel
comes out turn 3, and other cheaper counter spells have restrictions placed on them. (Force of Will
, Counterspell
, Force Spike
and Daze
all break this rule). This means blue has to wait 3 turns for its most consistent answers to come online. This could be a turn 1 Rakdos Cackler
and then a turn 2 Gore-House Chainwalker
to use a standard example. In order to deal with these, blue has to resort to bounce, which loses card advantage, and only prolongs their fate, or has to play creatures to block. Blue has small creatures. Including delver, there are only 6 creatures with power 2 or more at a 1-drop slot. 1 of them is a 2/2, delver becomes a 3/2, and the rest are 2/1 (2 require upkeep costs, 1 is the impostor and 1 is a defender.) There are also a handful of 0/2s and 1/2s, and a lone 0/4 in Kraken Hatchling
. These are the only good 1-drops that the blue deck has for trying to block an early offense. There are very few ways to actually get on the attack either, so the first few turns for blue are more likely defensive or non-interactive plays. Blue has a grand total of 1 1-drop counter spells that can hit creatures in modern. (Mental Misstep
is banned). This is Spell Snare
, and it can't even hit a 1-drop. It's seen as very good as it's an exception to the normal slow-start of blue. Once they're past this stage into turn 3-ish, they still struggle to counter all of the spells that are deployed for a few reasons. a.) They may not have enough counter spells. (their hand isn't infinite, and often if you just dish out lots of stuff they'll just run out. From my experience playing control, often people think i have a counter, and play far too conservatively, so I draw into one :) Just play out some stuff, in order of least to most important as a general rule, and they'll just run out, or have to let heaps of dudes resolve, which as I established earlier, is difficult to deal with) b.) they may not have the right counterspell. If they're trying to be smart and play cheaper variants of counterspell, they lose flexibility. This means they can be stuck with the wrong one. That Spell Pierce
is great on turn 2 to counter a Lightning Bolt
on my chump blocker, but the Lightning Bolt
to the face from a turn 9 top deck mode isn't going to be countered so easily. 3.) You can cast more spells than they have enough mana to counter. I play out my second Gore-House Chainwalker
turn 3, and they either let it resolve (got a creature down) or they counter it. So i follow up with yet another Rakdos Cackler
. Sure: IF they get past the early assault of creatures, and find a way to stabilise, then they just go: "Insert blue draw spell here", "insert blue win con/threat here" and hold up mana to counter everything on subsequent turns, then yes, they will win. But the idea is to not let them get to that stage. Aggro can do this through heaps of little critters, and midrange does it though efficient ramping in the early-game. So: bottom line is that blue's small critters are hopeless, and they can't counter early plays. After they get to turn 3 they can still struggle to kill your stuff as they have no solid removal. However, if they survive through all of this, they're set and you've almost definitely lost. Many cards in legacy break these rules, or are just stupidly efficient, but these have been fixed for this reason, so currently blue is balanced. Lots of stuff to say there.
Black: Black is pretty good at most things, and in particular discard and creature removal. However, black has always (until very recently) struggled to get a clean reliable one-size fits all kill-spell. This will probably no longer be too relevant, but most of black's removal spells have restrictions or are clunky. Hero's Downfall
is a very good card, but 3 mana is still quite expensive to kill a creature. (The planeswalker side is pretty efficient though), and effects like Doom Blade
, Go for the Throat
, and Ultimate Price
have some sort of restriction on them. This means that they will face similar problems to blue's counterspells, except that they can kill something after it resolves, which is a huge upside. Black also has no way of touching artefacts or enchantments. Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but there are no black cards that can kill noncreature artefacts or noncreature enchantments in modern without borrowing from another colour in the pie. This means as an individual colour black already has 2 card types that they can't deal with at all. Aside from this, black is pretty good at everything else. It gets card-draw, big creatures at each stage of the game, and discard and removal options. If black wants do deal with an artefact or enchantment, it must discard it before it's played, which is quite unreliable. Black is also good at doing stuff other colours are known for, but for a price. It has card draw, Dark Confidant
, Altar's Reap
, Sign in Blood
etc. but it costs life or creatures to do so. Whilst this isn't a huge issue in most competitive player's minds. Cracking a fetchland into a shockland into a Thoughtseize
to find out you're playing against red-deck wins game 1 is not a fun thing to be doing, and the more life-paying you add, the worse it gets. It also has big creatures, but the same life-tax generally applies, or a different tax in the form of sacrificing creatures, or inability to block. Demon of Death's Gate
, Vampire Lacerator
, and Diregraf Ghoul
are examples of this. So: Black can do creatures and card draw as well as other colours, but they have downsides involved to make up for this.
Bottom line: Black can't hit artefacts or enchantments (barring discard which is unreliable), but it's pretty good at everything else. However, most other stuff comes at a price, be it life, sacrificing creatures, or inability to block.
Red: Red doesn't do many things. But what it does do, it does REALLY well. It struggles with enchantments, and it struggles with really big creatures. It also struggles with early fliers. However, it's got the best burn (and the vast majority of it) and the best aggressive small creatures (maybe about the same as white). With Jackal Pup
s, Firedrinker Satyr
s, Rakdos Cackler
s, Mogg Flunkies
, Gore-House Chainwalker
s, Goblin Guide
s and about 1000 other good early-drop options, the colour dominates early on. Its removal spells are extremely efficient in the early game (Lightning Bolt
, and co.) and can go to the face near the end of the game to push through the last points of damage. They can also deal with artefacts pretty nicely. However, the lategame of red is really bad. Sure: they have dragons and giants, but their early options push towards an aggressive style of play, and as such, many of these cards don't fit in a red deck anyway. The aim of red is to win before the opponent can stabilise, and then after stabilisation, you'd better hope you top-deck some burn.
Bottom line: Red is good at killing artefacts, and dominates the early game, but peters out very quickly in the late-game.
Green: Green is creatures. It's as simple as that. They don't like artefacts and enchantments, so they're gonna die. They like creatures. If they want to kill something, they kill it with a creature (Pit Fight
, Prey Upon
, Hunt the Hunter
. And their creatures are big. They also don't like flying, so they Plummet
stuff in the air, and have spiders to deal with fliers. Their creatures outclass any other colour into the mid and late game (Except eldrazi. Is eldrazi a colour?) Kalonian Tusker
, Leatherback Baloth
, Polukranos, World Eater
, Arbor Colossus
, Terra Stomper
, Kalonian Behemoth
, Ghoultree
(skip a few CMC's) Worldspine Wurm
. None of these cards have drawbacks, and they're HUGE. Green tries to spend the early game ramping Elvish Mystic
, Rampant Growth
etc. into these big-guns, or can just start rolling them out early. The problem is, that they have a hard time interacting with instants and creatures apart from combat. This means they're horrible against combo, and can't do disrupt the opponent (aside from presenting lethal).
Bottom line: Best creatures in the mid-to-late-game, with nice early-game ways to ramp into these threats. Very good at dealing with artefacts, enchantments and flying, but difficult to interact with what the opponent is doing, due to lack of efficient, hard creature removal and/or counterspells.
White: White is very good at dealing with anything, and very good at gaining life. Its small creatures are amongst the best as well. White is also the only colour with reliable boardwipes. With answers like Oblivion Ring
and Saltblast
, white is flexible in removal options. Wrath of God
, Day of Judgment
and Mass Calcify
amongst others gives the colour powerful mass-removal options. White is very good at dealing with enchantments, with Erase
, Demystify
, Wear
, and Keening Apparition
and also has strong weenie creatures in War Falcon
, Elite Vanguard
, Savannah Lions
, Soldier of the Pantheon
, Isamaru, Hound of Konda
, Dryad Militant
, Loyal Pegasus
and Goldmeadow Stalwart
all in the 1-drop slot, and plenty more like Spirit of the Labyrinth
in the 2 and 3 drop slots. White is the most reliable colour for having the right answers, with very diverse cards, but they often lack the efficiency of more targeted spells like Doom Blade
or Smelt
. This means that white can often be just too slow to deal with your strategy, however will consistently have a way of dealing with anyone's strategy. White also has lots of the best hate-cards. I've done enough linking, just look up modern hatebears if you don't believe me.
Bottom line: White is very flexible, handling any job, but lacks the efficiency of other colours in doing their respective jobs.
tl;dr:
This is regarding the modern format, as older cards were made when the game was still new, and when wotc didn't know how broken different stuff was (Ancestral Recall
and Healing Salve
were in the same 5-card cycle)
Blue: + Best raw card advantage options
+ Best counterspells (kinda the only counterspells)
+ Evasive finishers, which are difficult to deal with
+ If they survive to the late-game, their odds of winning drastically increase- Horrific early-game
- Counterspells are unreliable (2 reasons)
1.) They're too slow (Cancel
comes down turn 3)
2.) The faster ones are narrow, and you may not get the right one (Dispel
doesn't stop a creature, likewise, Essence Scatter
doesn't stop an instant, and Mana Leak
doesn't stop a turn 8 top decked Lightning Bolt
.
Black: + Best creature removal
+ Best discard effects and disruption
+ Digs into other areas of the colour pie, and does it almost as well as them
- Most of black's most powerful effects come at a cost: life, a creature or the ability to block
- Black is hopeless at playing against artefacts and enchantments
Red: + Very good early-game creatures
+ Very efficient burn-spells
+ Best artefact hate
+ Very good at what it can do
- Can't deal with enchantments
- Fails in the late-game
- Has a hard time killing big creatures and flying creatures
Green: + Largest creatures
+ Best at dealing with enchantments, artefacts and fliers
+ Powerful mana-accelerants
- Creature removal is unreliable
- Difficult to interact with what the opponent is doing
White: + Strong early-game creatures
+ Best board-wipes
+ Flexible answers to a variety of permanent types
+ Best hate cards
- Often removal is inefficient due to increased flexibility
- Doesn't excel at anything as much as other colours
Often something that will set a colour above another is its ability to do something that the colour is not supposed to do, or do something that it IS supposed to do, but really really well. Ancestral Recall does drawing. But at an absurdly low cost. Force of Will ] does countering, but far earlier than blue should be able to do it. Tarmogoyf and Delver of Secrets Flip are really huge creatures, something blue doesn't get very often (see what I did there?). Path to Exile is low-costed white removal. If it were green, the card would be even better, as green doesn't get that effect. No colour is any better than any other NOW. Blue just happened to get more broken cards earlier in the game by accident, however this issue has been mostly fixed, which is why modern sees so many more colours seeing play.
July 2, 2014 4:47 a.m.
I think the tl;dr section was too long, but i couldn't find a way to shorten it.
July 2, 2014 4:48 a.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #50
I'd also like to point out that Force of Will is not a very good card in a void. Two-for-oneing yourself or paying five mana for a counterspell are both pretty bad options in an unknown environment. It's because Legacy mandates most blue decks to have a free counterspell, Force of Will and Daze are played, not because they are particularly good cards.
ChiefBell says... #2
Blue is among the best colours because a counter-spell such as Counterspell can deal with any threat for just 2 mana. All the other colours either cannot deal with large threats at all or do it for more mana. Blue is by far the best colour for reacting to what the opponent does.
Black is probably the most popular colour because it gives players large creatures like Phyrexian Obliterator and ways to remove opposing creatures like Go for the Throat . In standard black is the most popular due to the combo of Desecration Demon , Pack Rat , Nightveil Specter , Gray Merchant of Asphodel .
Red is the weakest colour because its removal is conditional (ie does damage instead of simply saying 'destroy' - see Lightning Bolt ) and therefore this means it cannot kill creatures with a high toughness such as Desecration Demon as an example.
June 30, 2014 6:12 p.m.