Almindhra:
Blue wasn't #1, but it was a close second, perhaps because (or despite) this thread. Actually, I think white was one of the lowest colors, which also surprised me because white was always (I thought) the color beginners gravitate towards because it's like playing the "good guys" (or black if you're one of those twisted antisocial types
). One of the first real constructed decks I made was a mono-white Sacred Mesa deck, and it took me weeks to find four Crusades to fill it out. I've always liked white, since I'm a "good guy" kind of person, but apparently that sentiment isn't shared by the people who voted.
Green was #1, by a slim margin, because stompy is easy to play and big creatures are fun to play with. Plus, people who came into Magic during, say, Ice Age or so probably took pity on green, which at that time really was at its weakest point, and the "green got screwed" complaints are still a part of Magic even today, when there are so many powerful green cards out there.
Cateran Overlord:
I've posted in another thread about a tournament caliber player where I live who bragged about his Turbo-Bargain deck that consistently wins on turn 3. I've figured out most of the decklist and I think it is pretty darn fast, but he still lost a match to (guess what?) a Stompy player. The Stompy player did 13 damage by turn 3, and even though the Bargain player could lay all the cards in the combo, he couldn't fulfill the "going off" portion because he was only at 7 life and could only draw 6 cards, a far cry from the 19 he could normally draw. Stompy, played correctly, can deal a lot of damage quickly, and against Bargain, where a player needs to keep a high life total to draw cards, dealing early damage can stop the combo cold.
Gizmo:
Your portrayal of tournament-level Magic once again reaffirms my suspicions that the top level of competition is far too brutal for me.
All:
So why do you people like blue so much? I'm still baffled. Is it the power? Complexity? The satisfaction of knowing you're playing a deck the average stompy-playing newbie wouldn't be able to make heads nor tails of? The sadistic pleasure of watching an opponent play spell after spell only to find you saying, "Counter that. Bounce that. Counter that. Counter that. Bounce that. Morphling."? Enlighten me, because I personally still don't have a clue.
Actually, why doesn't everyone just explain why they voted the way they did? I'd be interested in seeing why people like certain colors over another. And just for fun (emphasis on FUN), why don't we all tell everyone our least favorite color, and why we feel that way, too?
I voted for green because I'm still a newbie at heart, and I'm a sucker for all those green mana producers, even if I have nothing to cast with that mana. Back in the days (of Mirage block) I liked Rogue Elephants and Mtenda Lions, and before that, Elvish Rangers and Fyndhorn Elves. The article in the Duelist about tournament-caliber Stompy was my official conversion from white to green, and I've been a fan of green ever since.
My least favorite color used to be blue for a long time. I'm still bitter over a 5CG deck I lost to that contained several Tradewind Riders. I remember that another person was watching the game, and when the Riders hit the table, he told me, "You might as well concede already." I didn't, of course, and I watched as his Riders began to bounce all my creatures back to my hand, and I was eventually beaten by a pair of Spike Feeders.
Now, however, I think red has to be my least favorite color. Red has just lost so much of the energy it had during the Tempest and Mirage days, and all the decks involving red these days seem to be LD decks, and I don't particularly care for LD. Actually, I don't think I care much for control decks in general, but right now, I'd say red is my least favorite.