Blue is bad in multiplayer

[TheCasualOblivion]

Sefro made mention about Blue being bad in multiplayer. I've played a few multiplayer games around my area, usually with my counterspell/Wrath of God/Lightning Angel deck. I've found the deck does just fine, but that may be because nobody really knows how to play multiplayer well, including me.

Two observations:

Me and the blue deck were the bomb in team play. I just sit back, drop 3 fliers, and sit with a hand full of control.

I've won a few 3-4 player games with the deck. The trick was being inconspicuous. I'd play only enough permanents to stay in the game, and only enough counterspell/swords to keep myself alive. Keep as many cards in hand as possible. Stay inconspicuous, set the other players on each other, and play to be one of the final two alive. At that point, I'm at 3 life, he's at 15, we both have 2 creatures out, he has one card in hand, and I have seven. You do the math.

 

[Reverend Love]

Every group is different dude. If your group let's you hold counters and isn't aggressive, good for you.

 

[jorael]

Blue can do more than card drawing and countering. I rarely play with counterspells. I usually play blue with another color. Monoblue decks can work, but you have to pack some spells to fend off any aggro player coming your way.

Blue cards that worked during multiplayer for me (which I can think of at the moment):
-floodgate (works very good vs weenies)
-withdraw (bouncing to buy some time, great when playing with creatures with 'come into play' abilities)
-man-'o-war
-willbender (fun!)
-mischievous quanar (fun too)
-crystal shard (technically an artifact)
-spire golem (technically an artifact)
-reweave (polymorph extreme)

 

[Spiderman]

Like the sentiment goes so far, it depends on your group. I've played a R/U counterspell/Steal Creature deck which varying degrees of success; I only Counterspelled or used other spells when I would have directly affected in an adverse way. Card drawing is also good; no one I played with Disenchants a Rhystic Study or always pays to keep me from getting a card. It just depends on how you use blue.

But I don't think it's worse than any other color.

 

[Killer Joe]

In my once-a-month group (MML) there are just too many players (7+ most of the time) to play a counter magic based deck, notice I didn't say 'control'. I almost always play 'control' decks in the MML.

But, in my group of friends where we often play in two to three groups of 3 or 4 (There's about 12 of us if we all show up) then I pull out counter magic decks galore! In fact, my most sucessful MP deck for 3 - 4 players is my UBR Nether-Go deck. I win MOST of the time and if it's team play or Emperor, my teamate(s) and I also win most of the time.


I think this is called "meta-gamming"?

 

[Notepad]

TCO, blue works best in duels. Good in teams. And is just about the worst color for chaos multiplayer.

The problems for blue are that a lot of its best stuff is single-shot. Compare to creatures of other colors, or wrath effects of other colors. Blue lacks the big guns. It can play support, definitely, but it isn't the hero of the day in chaos.

Metagaming in the sense Richard Garfield originally meant the term*, also makes blue really, really bad for multiplayer. Blue has hands down the best ways to deal with just about anything. Becuase of that, it will royaly tick off your group if they have a memory longer than goldfish. Your flashy awesome blue spells will build up and cause gang-ups quickly. Underneat it all, people do like to play the game, and blue really stops them from doing that. Hence, in the metagame, they will react accordingly.

*Metagame : A game that encompases all games played. Each game affects the other in some way, as if they are merely phases of a turn order in an actual game.

 

[Istanbul]

No coincidence that one of my favorite blue creatures is Fog Bank.

Look it up. Then really think about it.

 

[Killer Joe]

Card type: Creature
Creature type: Wall
Power/Toughness: 0/2
Casting cost: 1U
Oracle text: Defender (This creature can't attack.)
Flying
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by Fog Bank.
Rarity: Uncommon


But what KIND of deck do you use it in?

 

[Reverend Love]

I had success using Fog Bank in a multiplayer Tradewind Rider deck.

 

[Notepad]

Originally posted by Istanbul
No coincidence that one of my favorite blue creatures is Fog Bank.

Look it up. Then really think about it.

I knew a guy who used to plop four of those in his blue chaos deck, and then sit back with Tims and ping everything in sight. He, of course, didn't like my red direct damage deck, especially the spells that could split (Pyrotechnics, Fireball, Earthquake the Tims, etc)

 

[Ferret]

By far the most disgusting example of how bad Blue can be was seen one time many years ago at a local gaming shop (that since went under almost as many years ago):

I came in w/ some friends because we wanted to see what it would be like to play at the same store that we all met at. The owner was happy to see some active Magic players and set aside a rather large table for play (When thinking of the owner, think of "Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons). He insisted that we play teams. When there were only six of us it was fine. Three players w/ teams of every other player. We all had our fun decks and the owner had the "stock" decks they kept in the store - unfortunately, these decks had the Power Nine in them. Still, it was okay for a while...as the evening moved on more players joined in. Many didn't like their decks so they asked to borrow some of the stock decks. At one point, we had ten people at the table and six of them were playing stock Blue decks. No one could cast anything w/o a major counter-war starting.

Each game ended the same way: with a 20 point burn spell that was countered and counter-countered until the original caster got to put it in play ending (and ruining) the game. One of my friends got bored w/ it and just curled up in a corner reading a printout of the Alliances spolilers - I think he had more fun doing that...

-Ferret

"...needless to say we never came back..."

 

[Spiderman]

That must have been a very long time ago to have multiple "stock" decks that each contained the Power 9 (or parts thereof). At least that's what I understood you to say...

 

[Killer Joe]

I guess most of these decks were for dueling, huh? The two groups that I play with aren't of the blue counter magic persuasion, but I am. Although I'm hard pressed to play blue in a big MP game I have played 'control' decks mostly. . Here's a list of the decks I've played in multiplayer since June:

June:
RGW "Seinfeld Deck"

July:
UGR Elf Ball 2K4: Death to All (technically a combo deck)

August:
RG Fires (technically a beatdown deck)

Sept:
RGW Astral-Slide

Oct:
Mono-Green Control (modified "Stupid Green")

Nov:
ATS (got whooped BIG TIME!)

Dec:
BG Biorhythm Control

Jan:
GW Control

This post is my official 1800th post!!!!!!!

 

[Mikeymike]

Blue can definitely be strong in MP. Some of the things it can do (yup, another one of my lists).

- It still has access to some of the best spells ever made.
- Still has the best card draw in the game
- Has plenty of excellent utility (Capize, Propaganda, Thievery)
- Possibly the most versatile support color
- Great defensive creatures (like Fog Bank, as Isty points out)
- Counter can be effective in MP, especially if it does something more than just counter

 

[Reverend Love]

Didn't you get abducted by G-men or something?

Long time no see chowda head

 

[Spiderman]

Word. Where've you been?

 

[Mikeymike]

No place in particular, just a bunch of interfering factors.

Work, more work, the Mets off-season (lots of baseball posting), Holidays, and most importantly a Magic hiatus.

I'm like that relative who splits for 3 months and only comes home when I run out of cash

 

[Ferret]

Originally posted by Spiderman
That must have been a very long time ago to have multiple "stock" decks that each contained the Power 9 (or parts thereof). At least that's what I understood you to say...

Well, they were all proxies. I think the store only had 1-3 of each of the cards in stock - which made it even MORE annoying to realize that I was playing against cards that didn't even exist...

-Ferret

"I think that if you ever play against the owner of a store you should ban Wishes right of the bat!"

 

[Spiderman]

Mikeymike: Dude, hope you're back for while

Ferret: Ugh, that's even worse playing with proxies, even for a "friendly" game (which if you're not playing with friends is not so friendly). You should have just proxied up a deck then

 

[Ferret]

It was definitely the worst. Actually, what made it EVEN WORSE was the fact that the kids that were using those decks couldn't have been older than 14. They had little to no experience w/ the game, but when you're playing w/ a deck that has 12 counters, the Power Nine, and some beefy Blue flyers it's pretty easy to play.

-Ferret

"For what it's worth, though, I've seen some Blue decks that were pretty fun in multiplayer..."