What can you Do with Black/Blue

X

xelha

Guest
I am looking to make a Black Blue deck, and I have several good cards from each color to use, however I find that my deck does nothing. There are a bunch of good cards, but it lacks no theme and is very uninspired and boring to play. I have themes for all of my other decks, but just cant seem to put one together for this one. Can anyone suggest a theme or combo for black blue?
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
How about Warped Devotion/Waterspout Elemental? First you get out a Warped Devotion, preferably while their hand is empty, then kick a Waterspout Elemental and put all of their creatures back into their hands, forcing them to discard a card for each creature returned. If their hand was empty at the time, they have to discard all of their creatures. You can either use Megrim for the kill or just attack with the Elemental. Here's a decklist:

4 Waterspout Elemental
4 Wall of Tears
4 Nightscape Battlemage
4 Warped Devotion
4 Megrim
4 Rushing River
4 Counterspell
4 Undermine
4 Boomerang
4 Salt Marsh/Underground River/Underground Sea
basic lands


Or how about Thalakos Deceiver/Corpse Dance? First you get out a Thalakos Deceiver and enough mana to buyback a Corpse Dance. Then you can Dance the Deceiver back each turn and sack it to steal a creature each time. Combine it with other defensive cards and beat them down with their own creatures. Here's my decklist (Tempest block):

4 Thalakos Deceiver
3 Bottle Gnomes
4 Dauthi Mindripper
4 Wall of Souls
4 Corpse Dance
4 Counterspell
3 Dismiss
4 Mana Leak
3 Propaganda
3 Whispers of the Muse
4 Rootwater Depths
20 basic lands

(- Steve -)
 
X

xelha

Guest
I like the Warped Devotion Idea. Never heard of that card before now. There are so many ways to send stuff back to a hand with blue, right from Unsummon, Jilt, Barren's Spite, I could even throw some Hymn To Tourach's in there and make a nasty discard deck.
 
W

woosie

Guest
Dont forget recoil too!

1UB Instant Invasion Common
"Return target permanent to its owner's hand. Then that player discards a card from his or her hand. "
 
X

xelha

Guest
So .... would the effect of the Recoil and the Warped Devotion stack? Return 1 card from play ... discard 2 from your hand? (1 from the recoil, 1 from warped?)
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
Yep. They'd have to discard two cards, one from the Recoil and one from the Warped Devotion.

(- Steve -)
 
B

BigBlue

Guest
The caveat on Warped Devotion is it affects everyone (including you)... so don't play things which would force your own bounce (Cavern Harpy, Lairs, ...)

Also, Wash out, and the UWB dragon from invasion... Wash out lets you name a color and return all permanents of that color to owners hands (great in MP if you are facing a couple green decks... :) )

Recoil is a new favorite card.

U/B is mostly about control. You get Creature Kill or discard with Black and Bounce, steal, card draw, and counter with blUe.
 
T

train

Guest
I think it may be best to know which cards you have...

We could throw out ideas, but if you don't have the cards - you'd have to attain them...;)
 

Killer Joe

New member
Well I'm sure they have Swamps and Islands (The very best card in Magic). And who wouldn't have an assortment of common counter magic i.e. Counterpell, Mana Leak, Prohibit, Rewind, Exclude, etc...

Add a little cheap common removal like Terror, Diabolic Edict, Expunge, Dark Banishing, etc...

Put in just about any common creature with some kind of evasion such as Thalakos Scout (Shadow and an untargetting effect for 1 discard), Foul Imp (Flying), or Rishadan Airship (a 3/1 Flyer).

To spice it up add some more annoying commons: Recoil, Repulse, Rushing River, Boomerang, Duress, Mind Rot, PROBE (This card is Some Good).

Want lots of card advantage from common gems? Deep Analysis, Accumulated Knowledge, Brainstorm, Gush, Inspiration, etc...

Boring? Yes. But heck, it's Blue/Black! Don't think of it as boring, just shift your paradigm and think of it as; "How can I make my opponent any more annoyed than he/she is right now?"

My Motto:
"I don't play to Win, I play to Not To Lose."
 
X

xelha

Guest
Well, I threw in some (varying numbers of each) :

Warped Devotions
Undo
Recoil
Clones
Doppleganers
Sengir Vampires
Blazing Spectres
Alexei, Zephir Mage
Barrin's Spite
Demonic Tutor
Paralax Nexus
Lobotomy
Hymn To Tourach
Undermine
Sol Ring

And ... it is 3-0 in single player duels so far. It seems to stall around midgame though, and needs some fine tuning. But that will come as I tour my local card shops adding and taking out cards. Works best against critter decks, the more critters i can remove from play, the more cards in hand I can force an opponent to chuck. Thanks for the ideas !!
 
N

Nightstalkers

Guest
Wait a danged friggin minute now! we just noticed this post and intend to steer you clear hippy. U/B is a great color to play with, you've got your blue counter and your black creature distruction. what takes the cake is that you can throw in megrims and Mr. Nebachanezzar to make the combo really work. What we suggest is that you play around with the almost infinite combo's that usually boggle your opponents mind instead of coming here to be confused yourself.

just try to make us proud that you chose this combination instead of making a crappy weeny deck. And if you come back and whine, we'll shoot'cha in the nee's for the aggrivation! Just kidding about the shooting, not the nee's though buddy. Try to play with the combo to get an understanding of the concepts of it. and remember, R/G has Firball and handle so U/B has to have something as well.
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
Sorry, Nightstalkers, but Nebuchadnezzar is pretty much total crap. Not only does his ability suck, but it requires a tap and can't even be used when he comes out. I've used some bad cards in my day, but I wouldn't even touch that crap Legend.

(- Steve -)
 
B

bryson430

Guest
That's fightin' talk!

I like Nebuchadnezzar....I think he's pretty cost effective. You'll be saying the Elder Dragons suck next, and then I will have to kill you...:) (Except for of course, Chromium..)
 
T

train

Guest
I'll say this - Nicol Bolas on second turn from a shallow grave is pretty nasty...:eek: :cool:
 
B

bryson430

Guest
I have a deck made to do this:

Go 1:
Mountain. Orcish Lumberjack

Go 2:
Forest: Timber Wall

Go 3:
Swamp. Dark Ritual for BBB. Tap and Sac Forest for GGRR. Tap mountain for R. Vaevictis Asmadi.


(Giant Growth, Beserk, Fork!)


It's great fun.
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
Nebuchadnezzar is complete and utter crap. The Elder Dragons are okay because, hey, fat is fat. And by today's standards, 5 mana for a 3/3 with a marginal ability is pretty crappy. You could pay 5 mana and get a Morphling. You could pay 4 mana and get Blastoderm. See where this is going?

(- Steve -)
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
No one ever said he was on par with tourney worthy cards like Blastoderm or Morphling. But if you want him to combo with those Advocate guys that make you bring back cards to your opponent's hand or whatever, then he's okay.

He's more a casual card anyway.
 
J

Jigglypuff

Guest
Even as a casual card, he's not that good. And returning cards to your opponent's hand from his graveyard so you can use this guy to knock them back there again isn't that great. To make a long story short, Nebuchadnezzar is crap and I am right because I'm the cute one. So :p :p to you un-cute ones.

(- Steve -)
 
B

BigBlue

Guest
What About the RagMan..... :) for use with the advocates..... :)

He's most definately not cute... on par with Royal Assassin Ugly. (now there's a card I'd love to see again in Black Border...)
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I'm not saying to use him solely for knocking out cards that you bring back to your opponent's hand; I'm saying if you ARE using the Advocates, then Nebuchadnezzer simply combos with that. I'd look at using the Advocates first and seeing if he fits in that strategy.
 
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