Skullclamp

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Rooser

Guest
To be fair, train, Spidey's right. Blue's not evil anymore. Rather than shun blue. why don't you subvert it. Build a blue deck with no counters or card drawing and see what can be done!
 
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Mikeymike

Guest
Originally posted by Rooser
To be fair, train, Spidey's right. Blue's not evil anymore. Rather than shun blue. why don't you subvert it. Build a blue deck with no counters or card drawing and see what can be done!
I love doing this! People want to complain when it works, but can't because you're not playing counter-cheese. I've currently got 3 blue decks right now w/o a single counterspell (but card-draw is a different story, that I can't give up....like pasta).
 
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Reverend Love

Guest
While I can't make any claims at loving counter whores, I was both impressed and amused the time a buddy of mine replenished two Decree's of Silence, Opalescence and a few other enchantments to go with it. Receiving a thorough stomping by an 8/8 Counter your next three spells creature is in a weird sorta way green and blue combined. It's huge AND it's going to counter your stuff, say hello to Mongo.
 
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NorrYtt

Guest
Yes, I too enjoy drawing lots of cards, and blue is the easiest way to do just that. That makes blue my 2nd favorite color behind green.

If you look at The New Blue, R&D has shifted its role to be an excellent support color.

Remember, monoblue control used to a Tier 1 strategy with decklists reading off like Mana Leak, Counterspell, Forbid, Dissipate, Dismiss, Force of Will, Whispers, Capsize, Disk, Ophidian.

Now, as evidenced by 8th edition, blue retains lots of it's tricks but nothing that can really finish the game besides Mahamoti Djinn. There are some superb splash spells to augment other decks, like Mana Leak, Curiosity, Mind Bend, and others I can't think of right now.

Even during Odyssey Block, U/G madness kills with green's efficient weenies and uses blue for card drawing and counters.

Onslaught Block Constructed with just Onslaught and Legions saw lots of variations where blue was clearly a weak color, but stilll a decent splash for Complicate and Rush of Knowledge. Even blue's Pit Fighter - Arcanis - is a means to an end.

So there is blue's new support color role. I like it. While it may seem unfair that every other color can go monocolor beatdown or monocolor control (even green) besides blue, it's in blue's flavor. Blue doesn't have the finishers, but it can get you into the winning position for another color to finish.

I also like that the milling mechanic has been shifted to artifacts. Blue, however, retains the Extract mechanic seen in Scapelexis, Raven Guild Master, and Supreme Inquisitor.

By the way, trade me your Skullclamps. My Darksteel box contained 5 Demon Horns (1 FOIL) and 1 Skullclamp, so I need yours.
 
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Al0ysiusHWWW

Guest
Yeah blue has had a lot of good decks that support it, but I am not too sure it is the best color. One of the most constant well performing decks is sligh. First place decks bump around, but usually some version of sligh or burn is right up there. Counters are good and everything, but they aren't super powered disruption. Their biggest problem is dealing with the fact that pretty much all of them require more than one blue mana to play. Sure there is Force of will, misdirection (I know it isn't a counter but it is fun and almost works as one), foil, thwart, etc. but there are a lot of good free spells for other colors too, just not as many since disruption in the other colors doesn't cost that much. I deck that saddens me that they didn't keep coming out with good cards for it as constantly as sligh or burn is discard. Sure once and awhile you get really good discard, but they are few and far between. At least they keep reprinting duress, but poor hymn and Unmask. Mind Twist is a great card too. Megrim is crippling to some decks, espeically blue draw that has to discard as part of the ability or has too many cards in its hand. Necro is an awesome and according to some broken card. There is a reason that the tutors are restricted and banned, because they are really good. Bargain also was awesome despite its huge mana cost. Dark ritual was so amazing I am surprized they didn't stop it sooner. But enough about black, let's talk about white. BALANCE ANYONE?! How about Academy rector? You know that one card people wanted banned or restricted which I think makes it the first creature banned or restricted. Orim's chant and Abeyance are incredible disrutpion. "Protection from" spells are just great in so many situations. A particular example, story circle, comes to mind. Worship is great. And talk about awesome creatures, Serra Avatar is a particular favorite of mine, mostly because of another white card called spirit link. Let's move on to Green. Deranged Hermit has been used for how long? And used in how many decks. Yes most of those decks where blue, but not all of them. Regrowth is another awesome card. Oath of druids, survival of the fittest, there are more but this post is already pretty long. So my point is that even though blue has dominated tournament play, it isn't just because it is a better color, it is because they make mistakes and then try really hard to overcompensate for it. They do it with blue too. Just they keep coming out with great cards, and blue seems to be favored. Artifacts also play a big role in many decks especially blue to provide that much needed mana boost for all the spells they draw, which I notice are usually artifacts. Go figure.
But anyways, Skullclamp. Awesome card, but it has a flaw. Just like almost everything else it is only as good as what you abuse it with. With the new sets everybody screams artifacts. This is a problem. Depending so heavily on one type of card gives you a very big disadvantage to disriminante spells. Kill switch, Hurkyl's Recall, Rebuild, etc heavily hurt it. You could use green to manipulate it too since those stupid little elves have this way of massively producing mana and lands, then dropping something like Multani or maro or something. White, Empyrial Armor heavily makes use of an abnormal hand size. Whatever I am going to stop now since I wrote so much. In summary, good card, lots of potential for advantages and disadvantages.
 
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DeathMaster666

Guest
Draw-Go won a lot of tourneys in Tempest Block T2 (Tempest/Mirage). That and ProsBloom were the dominant decks, even though ProsBloom was pretty janky. Sligh with the intro of Jackal Pup as well.
 
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