It seems to me that the only way to interact with blue, is to be blue or one of its sister colours. Whenever i play against a blue deck, i have little options to interact with them, i have to power on through them. I feel as though i am playing a game of tag. In this game if i touch player A i win. Meanwhile player C tries to slow me down by calling me names or throwing socks. Yet i can't fight back against C i just have to keep on running.
Example
Innistrad Spoiler !!
Invisible Stalker 1u
hexproof
unblockable
1/1
The only way to defeat this blue creature is mass removal(readily found in white and black) or countermagic(readily found in blue).
I don't understand why red and green(the rival colours of blue) can not
'counter' blue as effectively as blue counters them. Mechanics Blue can use in defense against red. Counter, Target removal, Redirect, hexproof (stops all red burn). Mechanics Red can use against blue...haste? Reds boardwipes are null since blue rarely swarms with multiple creatures. As a Red/Green player i wish there was more interactivity i could use against blue. I don't want red/green to become 'control' archetypes i just wish i could fight back in the game of tag.
It seems to me that the only way to interact with blue, is to be blue or one of its sister colours. Whenever i play against a blue deck, i have little options to interact with them, i have to power on through them. I feel as though i am playing a game of tag. In this game if i touch player A i win. Meanwhile player C tries to slow me down by calling me names or throwing socks. Yet i can't fight back against C i just have to keep on running.
Example
Innistrad Spoiler !!
Invisible Stalker 1u
hexproof
unblockable
1/1
The only way to defeat this blue creature is mass removal(readily found in white and black) or countermagic(readily found in blue).
I don't understand why red and green(the rival colours of blue) can not
'counter' blue as effectively as blue counters them. Mechanics Blue can use in defense against red. Counter, Target removal, Redirect, hexproof (stops all red burn). Mechanics Red can use against blue...haste? Reds boardwipes are null since blue rarely swarms with multiple creatures. As a Red/Green player i wish there was more interactivity i could use against blue. I don't want red/green to become 'control' archetypes i just wish i could fight back in the game of tag.
Red and Green interact with blue by just beating it down. The way to beat blue-based decks is to play smart by avoiding and baiting their counterspells, and then either moving fast enough so that they can't deal with you (red), or having more powerful threats then they can deal with, coming out earlier than usual (green). The invisible stalker is very difficult for Red or Green to kill, yes, but they will just beat it by having BETTER creatures/burn spells/etc.
If that isn't the way you like to play red/green, then you probably shouldn't be in those colors, since that is how they interact with other colors in the first place.
It seems to me that the only way to interact with blue, is to be blue or one of its sister colours. Whenever i play against a blue deck, i have little options to interact with them, i have to power on through them. I feel as though i am playing a game of tag. In this game if i touch player A i win. Meanwhile player C tries to slow me down by calling me names or throwing socks. Yet i can't fight back against C i just have to keep on running.
Example
Innistrad Spoiler !!
Invisible Stalker 1u
hexproof
unblockable
1/1
The only way to defeat this blue creature is mass removal(readily found in white and black) or countermagic(readily found in blue).
I don't understand why red and green(the rival colours of blue) can not
'counter' blue as effectively as blue counters them. Mechanics Blue can use in defense against red. Counter, Target removal, Redirect, hexproof (stops all red burn). Mechanics Red can use against blue...haste? Reds boardwipes are null since blue rarely swarms with multiple creatures. As a Red/Green player i wish there was more interactivity i could use against blue. I don't want red/green to become 'control' archetypes i just wish i could fight back in the game of tag.
Why do you have to worry about a 1/1 unblockable hexproof blue creature? Blue tends to be controlling and doesn't have pump effects. Auras or equipment placed on this creature can be eliminated via Naturalize or similar effects (green has MANY of these effects).
Blue is controlling and tends to have a good end game. The key to beating blue is to not let it get to the end game. There are ways to go about this:
1) Play aggressively. Blue decks have trouble against burn, goblin and elf decks (when paired with white, it is harder since they have cards like Day of Judgment and Timely Reinforcements. The strategy of a deck like this is to beat the blue deck before it can stabilize.
2) Play cards that blue have a hard time dealing with. 1/1 unblockable shroud? Try Thrun, the Last Troll. He was my favorite card during the days of caw-blade dominance. Troublesome blue creature? Try Combust. Thrun + Sword of War and Peace is generally scoop for a blue deck (since they tend to have more cards in their hands than other players).
3) If they play the waiting game, you can play it too. They do have to WIN somehow, by the way. You can either wait for them to tap out for something, or try to get them to tap out by playing moderate threats to 'bait' their counterspells so you can play your big threats. Being in red, you can wait for them to tap out for some creature in the mid-game, and then remove it at the end of turn with direct damage, then play something big on your turn.
This is all coming from someone who has piloted several different red-green brews throughout the last few months in standard and faced a LOT of blue decks (albeit they were UW or UB - nobody ever plays straight blue these days). Flashfreeze is quite annoying but still beatable. I would highly recommend using Thrun - they always groan in response to that card.
Pyroclasm, Whipflare, Geth's Verdict (and Liliana of the Veil)... all reasonable ways to deal with Invisible Stalker. Thrun is also unstoppable vs blue.
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Standard Cheapskate Extraordinaire!
In Progress:
Nothing - Sold it all!
Planning to Return to Ravnica.
Red and Green can beat Blue, sure. How to beat Blue.
Step 1- Stop freakin out
Step 2- Go get better
Step 3- Build a new deck
Step 4- Beat a Blue mage
All the colors have potential to beat the hell out of each other~ Blue mages have to be careful what they counter, so YOU have to be careful what you show them. Make them think you're going for a landfall strategy, have them control that, then, if/when you see them tapped out, or no cards in hand, drop that carefully planned Wolfbriar, or Howl of the Night Pack. When 20 2/2 wolves come into play, they're going to lose most likely (Unless, for some ungodly reason, they're running 4x Turn the Tide. Then they might still pound your face...)
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as someone who cant play without blue and its deck manipulation abilities, along with counterspells. ill tell u how to beat me. im also hoping u are talking about U/x and not mono blue
play cards with haste
play cards that arent being casted(ie. Pod decks)
play ramp, get past our situational counters(dont worry about hard-counters)
build a deck that doesnt lose to a 1/1 hexproof
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MTG is a hobby, cant afford it? GTFO! Don't complain about prices.
The whole "Build a deck that doesn't lose to a 1/1 with hexproof" thing is kinda moot. IT will NEVER be a 1/1 hexproof for more than a second. IT will ALWAYS have a piece of equipment or an enchantment on it...
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U/x control dominated Zen/Scars and it will dominate Scars/Inn. Not much you can do about it.
If you're good enough, or rich enough, you can power through. Otherwise, just accept it as fate. If you can't beat 'em, splash blue for mana leak/negate
People don't like blue. It's basically got more removal than black. People don't like blue because it's... well it's the no color. Some of the most infamous cards in blue are the best no cards in all of Magic. No screws up your meta. Gixtaxian Probe lets them see your meta, then screw it up. And that's not even good cards. Bribery would completely destroy a huge portion of decks.
Blue is the color that interacts with its opponent the most. White and Black come second. Red next, then Green. Green would rather just be left on to its own vices. Red can remove stuff but tends to just burn the opponent with its removal. White and black both remove, but only once it hits the field. Blue is the color that doesn't let things hit the field before saying something. It's the only color that stops a raging Progenitus before things get bad.
So you play around blue. You bait the counters with things they THINK are scary, like a Mirran Crusader so you can spend one of their counters and then stomp face with your Birthing Pod. Or a Quicksilver Amulet, because once that's out they can't get around it aside from returning things to the hand.
Yes, as Sopchich04 said, don't worry about hard counters. Typically, in standard, they're hard to cast for the blue player and tie down WAY too much mana. In casual or EDH, there aren't too many of them to worry about. In Legacy... well 42 lands isn't a BAD deck.
You can't run into a fight with blue and not expect to have to interact back with them. It's give or take or go home. What you can do to REALLY stop blue is just sideboard blue hate if you really need to. Autumn's Viel ties down a measly green mana to let you do whatever you want. If they counter it? Bait that counter, now they're down on and can't do other things they may have wanted to do. In red, just outrun them. In Black or White, outlast them. With blue, have fun with it.
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Reparations ---> The best flavor text in Magic ever and forever, courtesy of Mark Rosewater.
Green decks are frustrating to play against. All they do is play creatures and attack with them. They don't interact with at all with my blue decks, and I hate them.
Seriously, everything you said about blue can be said about any color. What makes Magic great is that everybody brings a different strategy and those strategies can counter one another. Granted, maybe your deck sucks against control, however, you might be able to do really well against the decks that crush control, it's a cycle.
If you really want to crush control, look at things like Quicksilver Amulet, Dragon Arch, Birthing Pod, etc. Or, even, look at Glistener Elf+Groundswell+Assault Strobe. Grats, you just beat anyone who couldn't stop you on your second turn. Oh, and that's a red/green combo. HUH
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If you really want to crush control, look at things like Quicksilver Amulet, Dragon Arch, Birthing Pod, etc. Or, even, look at Glistener Elf+Groundswell+Assault Strobe. Grats, you just beat anyone who couldn't stop you on your second turn. Oh, and that's a red/green combo. HUH
If you really want to crush control look at things like a 4mana sorcery speed card, a 5mana sorcery speed card, a 3mana sorcery speed card, ect. Or, even, look at easily removed creature+conditional pump spell+sorcery. Grats, you just beat anybody that didn't have up counter mana, or a bounce spell, or a blocker, or removal, or many other commonly played cheap answers on your second turn. Oh, and that's a 3 card combo that requires you to hit 2 land drops in 2 turns in colors with horrible card selection. HUH
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I write about cube and run cube drafts on magic online.
That's a turn-2 wincon I just posted. If they get an answer for it in their first or second turn, yep, you don't win. Then again, if it gets anything like that going consistently that fast, you weren't going to win either.
Right, I have seen the light. Everyone, drop everything that costs more than 3, or is not instant speed, and if it isn't blue, throw it in the garbage, worthless cards. I forgot that mana ramp and cheating things into play doesn't exist, and that every opponent has Counterspell and Mana Leak in hand, at al times.
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That's a turn-2 wincon I just posted. If they get an answer for it in their first or second turn, yep, you don't win. Then again, if it gets anything like that going consistently that fast, you weren't going to win either.
Right, I have seen the light. Everyone, drop everything that costs more than 3, or is not instant speed, and if it isn't blue, throw it in the garbage, worthless cards. I forgot that mana ramp and cheating things into play doesn't exist, and that every opponent has Counterspell and Mana Leak in hand, at al times.
I can post turn 1 win decks if the opponent has nothing. But if they DO have basically anything you just can't win. Belcher is a deck but it doesn't really win tournaments. And in tournaments not every opponent is going to have it but enough of them will have it enough of the time that you will basically never top8/win. Also if your combo is fragile then sideboarded games can be near impossible to win.
Trying to cast sorcery speed spells that cost 3+ mana and don't do anything on their own is kinda bad. Instants are better than sorceries. Cheating things into play still relies on you having CAST the thing doing the cheating.
I know you are trying to be snarky and sarcastic about the, ''I have the seen the light...,'' thing. Honestly though if your decks starting playing cheap instants, cantrips/card selection, protection spells like discard/bounce/counters, and only expensive cards that are good by themselves you'd do better than you do now. I'm sure of it. CrawWurm.dek loses to GrizzlyBear.dek for a reason.
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I write about cube and run cube drafts on magic online.
You're implying that Pod is a bad card? =/ Obviously, you play cards that net you advantage, and ramp. I was giving singular cards that work, not entire decks, and not cards that would even go into the same deck(Besides the R/G infect thing, as those had nifty little + signs)
But saying things are bad because they aren't instants or cantrips kinda defeats the entire purpose of the game. By your examples, my snarky(albeit poorly done) comments are absolutely true then. IF it isn't blue, instant speed, and only CA/counters, it obvi isn't worth owning...
For the record, I am completely open to the idea that I'm simply misunderstanding you
You're implying that Pod is a bad card? =/ Obviously, you play cards that net you advantage, and ramp. I was giving singular cards that work, not entire decks, and not cards that would even go into the same deck(Besides the R/G infect thing, as those had nifty little + signs)
But saying things are bad because they aren't instants or cantrips kinda defeats the entire purpose of the game. By your examples, my snarky(albeit poorly done) comments are absolutely true then. IF it isn't blue, instant speed, and only CA/counters, it obvi isn't worth owning...
For the record, I am completely open to the idea that I'm simply misunderstanding you
Pod is fine. I like the card a lot actually. Saying that the way to beat blue is relatively expensive sorceries is wrong though. And I agree that if you are trying to beat counters that cards LIKE amulet are good, but not amulet, more like vial (ehh kinda) and thrun.
I'm not saying that only 1-2 mana instants and cantrips are the only cards worth playing/owning just that a deck filled with them generally beats decks with sorcery speed cast permanents that cost 4ish mana and require other cards to do anything (a creature on board/in hand, for example).
Also 3 card combos that lose to anything (counters, removal, bounce, ect.) in decks with bad (or no) protection and filtering are awful. Creature+Groundswell(with land)+Assault Strobe in a RG deck seems blah. Now mono-blue infect in modern is sweet, it did top8 and all. The deck is basically just 4 cards:Cards that kill them, cards that find cards that kill them, cards that stop them from stopping you, lands. Also a lot of cards fall into multiple categories due to sick card interactions and transmute. The combo is still a 3 card combo of Creature+Shoal+9-10cmc card but it can reliably assemble and protect it. A RG deck would be hard pressed to do that.
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I write about cube and run cube drafts on magic online.
My favorite Modern infect deck is Blue :xd: Although, not sure if it counts. It uses two red spells, with blue used to make those red spells better, and workable o.o I assume we're both talking about Sam's fun AND good deck? (Anyone who says blue isn't fun is just mad that they lose to decks that run it << We're all a lot more spike than we like to think...)
And...oh yes, I agree, cantrips and draw and the like is the way to go. If your deck is just a bunch of creatures and sorceries that don't so some REALLY amazing combo...you're going to lose 2/3 of the time(everyone wins 1/3 of the time, from my experience, on sheer dumb luck alone)
Red green has its own way of doing things, and isn't the best thing in Standard, or Modern, or anything really, right now, but I like to think it has a good chance, if people work at it. I dominate my casual meta with my R/G decks, and I do ok at FNM. If more Red/Green players would accept Infect, I think it could be a lot better, but...wht are ya gonna do, right?
Instant speed and cantrips are win right now, and always will be, I'm not even going to attempt to argue otherwise, that wouldn't make any sense. But, I will say, other things(and colors) definitely have their merits. My mono-white control, mono-blue mill, and Red/Green Beats(Yes, Beats, not Beasts) are all decks that have inspired some of the best decks in my meta. A guy running the Better version of my Red/Green beats won FNM this Friday. I was behind him with my budget blue-mill. (granted, the two guys that usually dominate weren't there <<)
Sorcery speed isn't dead. Yes, your Quicksilver Amulet will get countered/bounced if you aren't careful, BUT, if it's not? It's a good card. (I stand by that Pod is better though, and wish I owned 4 copies. Or any lol) Creatures are not necessarily the best thing to be focusing on right now, besides the insane Titan Cycle, but still doable. Reg Beats is my favorite and best standard deck right now, and has VERY few instants, but...nonetheless, does fairly well.
A good 85%, at least, of my meta is blue. At least half of those players are Caw-Blade, which is annoying(not because of "OMJ NETDECK D8" but because it's the same deck variant, over and over), but hard to beat. I've worked on trying to beat Blue, and have learned to beat Blue, you gotta learn Blue. You don't want your Moltensteel Dragon countered? Then don't be stupid. If they have 2 mana sources untapped, and even one card in hand? Play something else scary. Play a Dismember on one of their creatures or something, get it countered. Now, bite the bullet and pay 4 life for your dragon, and you have a dragon. Next turn, they might bounce it, but...risks are to be taken, it's really what I feel Red is about, it's a gamble.
But....I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here. o.o Is that the proper phrase for it? Feeling like you're rehashing a used up topic, that really doesn't need arguind? :xd:
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As a Red/Green player i wish there was more interactivity i could use against blue. I don't want red/green to become 'control' archetypes i just wish i could fight back in the game of tag.
I personally feel that you've hit upon one of the largest ongoing design flaws in the entire game. As a whole, none of the four colors can INTERact with blue in the same way that blue can interact with every other color. To be fair, R&D have managed to balance the power levels of the colors a little more. But blue still uses the same unfun strategies it always had, and R&D has not done enough to improve that part of the color, in my opinion.
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Example
Innistrad Spoiler !!
hexproof
unblockable
1/1
The only way to defeat this blue creature is mass removal(readily found in white and black) or countermagic(readily found in blue).
I don't understand why red and green(the rival colours of blue) can not
'counter' blue as effectively as blue counters them. Mechanics Blue can use in defense against red. Counter, Target removal, Redirect, hexproof (stops all red burn). Mechanics Red can use against blue...haste? Reds boardwipes are null since blue rarely swarms with multiple creatures. As a Red/Green player i wish there was more interactivity i could use against blue. I don't want red/green to become 'control' archetypes i just wish i could fight back in the game of tag.
Red and Green interact with blue by just beating it down. The way to beat blue-based decks is to play smart by avoiding and baiting their counterspells, and then either moving fast enough so that they can't deal with you (red), or having more powerful threats then they can deal with, coming out earlier than usual (green). The invisible stalker is very difficult for Red or Green to kill, yes, but they will just beat it by having BETTER creatures/burn spells/etc.
If that isn't the way you like to play red/green, then you probably shouldn't be in those colors, since that is how they interact with other colors in the first place.
Why do you have to worry about a 1/1 unblockable hexproof blue creature? Blue tends to be controlling and doesn't have pump effects. Auras or equipment placed on this creature can be eliminated via Naturalize or similar effects (green has MANY of these effects).
Blue is controlling and tends to have a good end game. The key to beating blue is to not let it get to the end game. There are ways to go about this:
1) Play aggressively. Blue decks have trouble against burn, goblin and elf decks (when paired with white, it is harder since they have cards like Day of Judgment and Timely Reinforcements. The strategy of a deck like this is to beat the blue deck before it can stabilize.
2) Play cards that blue have a hard time dealing with. 1/1 unblockable shroud? Try Thrun, the Last Troll. He was my favorite card during the days of caw-blade dominance. Troublesome blue creature? Try Combust. Thrun + Sword of War and Peace is generally scoop for a blue deck (since they tend to have more cards in their hands than other players).
3) If they play the waiting game, you can play it too. They do have to WIN somehow, by the way. You can either wait for them to tap out for something, or try to get them to tap out by playing moderate threats to 'bait' their counterspells so you can play your big threats. Being in red, you can wait for them to tap out for some creature in the mid-game, and then remove it at the end of turn with direct damage, then play something big on your turn.
This is all coming from someone who has piloted several different red-green brews throughout the last few months in standard and faced a LOT of blue decks (albeit they were UW or UB - nobody ever plays straight blue these days). Flashfreeze is quite annoying but still beatable. I would highly recommend using Thrun - they always groan in response to that card.
Standard Cheapskate Extraordinaire!
In Progress:
Nothing - Sold it all!
Planning to Return to Ravnica.
Step 1- Stop freakin out
Step 2- Go get better
Step 3- Build a new deck
Step 4- Beat a Blue mage
All the colors have potential to beat the hell out of each other~ Blue mages have to be careful what they counter, so YOU have to be careful what you show them. Make them think you're going for a landfall strategy, have them control that, then, if/when you see them tapped out, or no cards in hand, drop that carefully planned Wolfbriar, or Howl of the Night Pack. When 20 2/2 wolves come into play, they're going to lose most likely (Unless, for some ungodly reason, they're running 4x Turn the Tide. Then they might still pound your face...)
Done by Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery signatures!
play cards with haste
play cards that arent being casted(ie. Pod decks)
play ramp, get past our situational counters(dont worry about hard-counters)
build a deck that doesnt lose to a 1/1 hexproof
Done by Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery signatures!
If you're good enough, or rich enough, you can power through. Otherwise, just accept it as fate. If you can't beat 'em, splash blue for mana leak/negate
Nah, just Phantasmal Image it or block with something wearing a Sword of Feast and Famine
Blue is the color that interacts with its opponent the most. White and Black come second. Red next, then Green. Green would rather just be left on to its own vices. Red can remove stuff but tends to just burn the opponent with its removal. White and black both remove, but only once it hits the field. Blue is the color that doesn't let things hit the field before saying something. It's the only color that stops a raging Progenitus before things get bad.
So you play around blue. You bait the counters with things they THINK are scary, like a Mirran Crusader so you can spend one of their counters and then stomp face with your Birthing Pod. Or a Quicksilver Amulet, because once that's out they can't get around it aside from returning things to the hand.
Yes, as Sopchich04 said, don't worry about hard counters. Typically, in standard, they're hard to cast for the blue player and tie down WAY too much mana. In casual or EDH, there aren't too many of them to worry about. In Legacy... well 42 lands isn't a BAD deck.
You can't run into a fight with blue and not expect to have to interact back with them. It's give or take or go home. What you can do to REALLY stop blue is just sideboard blue hate if you really need to. Autumn's Viel ties down a measly green mana to let you do whatever you want. If they counter it? Bait that counter, now they're down on and can't do other things they may have wanted to do. In red, just outrun them. In Black or White, outlast them. With blue, have fun with it.
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Seriously, everything you said about blue can be said about any color. What makes Magic great is that everybody brings a different strategy and those strategies can counter one another. Granted, maybe your deck sucks against control, however, you might be able to do really well against the decks that crush control, it's a cycle.
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If you really want to crush control look at things like a 4mana sorcery speed card, a 5mana sorcery speed card, a 3mana sorcery speed card, ect. Or, even, look at easily removed creature+conditional pump spell+sorcery. Grats, you just beat anybody that didn't have up counter mana, or a bounce spell, or a blocker, or removal, or many other commonly played cheap answers on your second turn. Oh, and that's a 3 card combo that requires you to hit 2 land drops in 2 turns in colors with horrible card selection. HUH
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Right, I have seen the light. Everyone, drop everything that costs more than 3, or is not instant speed, and if it isn't blue, throw it in the garbage, worthless cards. I forgot that mana ramp and cheating things into play doesn't exist, and that every opponent has Counterspell and Mana Leak in hand, at al times.
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I can post turn 1 win decks if the opponent has nothing. But if they DO have basically anything you just can't win. Belcher is a deck but it doesn't really win tournaments. And in tournaments not every opponent is going to have it but enough of them will have it enough of the time that you will basically never top8/win. Also if your combo is fragile then sideboarded games can be near impossible to win.
Trying to cast sorcery speed spells that cost 3+ mana and don't do anything on their own is kinda bad. Instants are better than sorceries. Cheating things into play still relies on you having CAST the thing doing the cheating.
I know you are trying to be snarky and sarcastic about the, ''I have the seen the light...,'' thing. Honestly though if your decks starting playing cheap instants, cantrips/card selection, protection spells like discard/bounce/counters, and only expensive cards that are good by themselves you'd do better than you do now. I'm sure of it. CrawWurm.dek loses to GrizzlyBear.dek for a reason.
peasantcube.blogspot.com
But saying things are bad because they aren't instants or cantrips kinda defeats the entire purpose of the game. By your examples, my snarky(albeit poorly done) comments are absolutely true then. IF it isn't blue, instant speed, and only CA/counters, it obvi isn't worth owning...
For the record, I am completely open to the idea that I'm simply misunderstanding you
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Pod is fine. I like the card a lot actually. Saying that the way to beat blue is relatively expensive sorceries is wrong though. And I agree that if you are trying to beat counters that cards LIKE amulet are good, but not amulet, more like vial (ehh kinda) and thrun.
I'm not saying that only 1-2 mana instants and cantrips are the only cards worth playing/owning just that a deck filled with them generally beats decks with sorcery speed cast permanents that cost 4ish mana and require other cards to do anything (a creature on board/in hand, for example).
Also 3 card combos that lose to anything (counters, removal, bounce, ect.) in decks with bad (or no) protection and filtering are awful. Creature+Groundswell(with land)+Assault Strobe in a RG deck seems blah. Now mono-blue infect in modern is sweet, it did top8 and all. The deck is basically just 4 cards:Cards that kill them, cards that find cards that kill them, cards that stop them from stopping you, lands. Also a lot of cards fall into multiple categories due to sick card interactions and transmute. The combo is still a 3 card combo of Creature+Shoal+9-10cmc card but it can reliably assemble and protect it. A RG deck would be hard pressed to do that.
peasantcube.blogspot.com
And...oh yes, I agree, cantrips and draw and the like is the way to go. If your deck is just a bunch of creatures and sorceries that don't so some REALLY amazing combo...you're going to lose 2/3 of the time(everyone wins 1/3 of the time, from my experience, on sheer dumb luck alone)
Red green has its own way of doing things, and isn't the best thing in Standard, or Modern, or anything really, right now, but I like to think it has a good chance, if people work at it. I dominate my casual meta with my R/G decks, and I do ok at FNM. If more Red/Green players would accept Infect, I think it could be a lot better, but...wht are ya gonna do, right?
Instant speed and cantrips are win right now, and always will be, I'm not even going to attempt to argue otherwise, that wouldn't make any sense. But, I will say, other things(and colors) definitely have their merits. My mono-white control, mono-blue mill, and Red/Green Beats(Yes, Beats, not Beasts) are all decks that have inspired some of the best decks in my meta. A guy running the Better version of my Red/Green beats won FNM this Friday. I was behind him with my budget blue-mill. (granted, the two guys that usually dominate weren't there <<)
Sorcery speed isn't dead. Yes, your Quicksilver Amulet will get countered/bounced if you aren't careful, BUT, if it's not? It's a good card. (I stand by that Pod is better though, and wish I owned 4 copies. Or any lol) Creatures are not necessarily the best thing to be focusing on right now, besides the insane Titan Cycle, but still doable. Reg Beats is my favorite and best standard deck right now, and has VERY few instants, but...nonetheless, does fairly well.
A good 85%, at least, of my meta is blue. At least half of those players are Caw-Blade, which is annoying(not because of "OMJ NETDECK D8" but because it's the same deck variant, over and over), but hard to beat. I've worked on trying to beat Blue, and have learned to beat Blue, you gotta learn Blue. You don't want your Moltensteel Dragon countered? Then don't be stupid. If they have 2 mana sources untapped, and even one card in hand? Play something else scary. Play a Dismember on one of their creatures or something, get it countered. Now, bite the bullet and pay 4 life for your dragon, and you have a dragon. Next turn, they might bounce it, but...risks are to be taken, it's really what I feel Red is about, it's a gamble.
But....I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here. o.o Is that the proper phrase for it? Feeling like you're rehashing a used up topic, that really doesn't need arguind? :xd:
Done by Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery signatures!
I personally feel that you've hit upon one of the largest ongoing design flaws in the entire game. As a whole, none of the four colors can INTERact with blue in the same way that blue can interact with every other color. To be fair, R&D have managed to balance the power levels of the colors a little more. But blue still uses the same unfun strategies it always had, and R&D has not done enough to improve that part of the color, in my opinion.