Build a good deck, wanna know why? Because it is going to save you a lot of trouble of building a gazillion decks, disliking most of them, rip them apart, rebuild, spend more money etc routine.
mental misstep is awesome, like seriously awesome:) Stopping sol rings, mana vaults, swords to plowshares/path to exile/Exploration/Nature's claim etc (and that are just a few). And that's in multiplayer, 1v1 it is even more valuable.
Perhaps Kess, Dissident Mage or Oloro, Ageless Ascetic. They are both in color combinations well suited for a control strategy. Oloro gives you white as opposed to red like Kess, but Kess can re-use instants and sorceries. Oloro gains you 2 life for free and if he is in play you can pay mana/life to draw cards.
Indeed, you are correct. My point was I don't really care about Blue "hate", and honestly if you are singling me out, ok so be it, I have plenty of ways around those things. It's a part of the game. I just don't see the point to play to hate someone out or someone who plays a color you despise. It just makes things unpleasant in general.
No offense but uncounterbale spells and creatures won't stop Blue anymore. There are many exiling effects in color to stop uncounterable things so honestly as a blue player I wouldn't care lol. I just say play good magic and have fun.
Who cares, just be a Gentlemen/Lady. Play what you want, but be courteous and ask a group if they want your archtype to join in their game. I think so much ill will and utterly vengeful plays can be avoided in this manner.
I have faced Blue hate, it's fine. Chokes, Dosan the Falling Leaf, City of Solitude, Dragonlord Dromoka, Grand Abolisher, enemy Teferi's, lots of library exiling etc. So what, I play the game and the color I love.
All star mentions go to reins of power and misdirection. Although stifling a planeswalker ulty is especially satisfying as is Misdirecting discard or a counterspell back to itself.
I used to play Legacy exclusively for years, ever since it was Type 1.5 and Angry Tradewind Survival was the best deck lol. I had a collection worth a small fortune, and about 4 yrs ago I sold it all. Honestly I regret that decision but meh. Ever since then I only play EDH since the format offers the most memorable cards I am so fond of. Modern could tickle my fancy, but the only cards I actually like are Thoughtseize, Liliana of the Veil and Snapcaster mage. Maybe in the future, dunno but for now I love Commander.
Give Brago, King Eternal a spin. I have played almost every iteration imaginable with Brago from Staxx, energy counters, manifest cards, just plain value and he is freaking awesome. He is highly interactive and the options how to build Brago are nigh limitless potential.
Sydri, Galvanic Genius is my other favorite General. Esper has tons of removal options. Sydri's abilities are really fun and can be quite sneaky and toolboxy. You also get some recursion, there are just tons of options with Sydri, I highly recommend her.
I prefer Brago Stax featuring hatebears to supplement the Stax engine. Linvala, keeper of Silence, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Thalia, Heretic Cathar alongside the traditional Stax pieces. I find the redundancy quite effective, plus you can attack with the creatures as well. I can see why a combo finish is good like RIP+Helm or Strionic Resonator going infinite just to ends game quickly when you have the board locked up. There's tons of ways to build Stax, just throwing in my 3 cents.
Combos are fine by me. I just am the kind of player that likes disruption/removal, so no matter what I choose to play, I choose to have disruption in my deck. Honestly, I only see this as the alleged dilemma versus combo decks. For whatever reason many edh players in my experience just don't play a lot of removal/countermagic etc and wonder why they lose. Or they waste disruption on something silly. I know, a lot of players just wanna jam what they want and win without considering the opposition, and in edh that's just not gonna work well UNLESS your specific playgroup doesn't play combos, maybe. Just tailor your playgroup to what everyone wants collectively, it makes life much easier and enjoyable.
Lighthouse Chronologist is an amazing little card. I played it in Azami forever. I have always played him and levelled him all the way up the turn I play him with countermagic backup, or an voidmage/Glen Elandra out first. Ah the glory!
I have faced Blue hate, it's fine. Chokes, Dosan the Falling Leaf, City of Solitude, Dragonlord Dromoka, Grand Abolisher, enemy Teferi's, lots of library exiling etc. So what, I play the game and the color I love.
stifle
abolish
daze
reins of power
All star mentions go to reins of power and misdirection. Although stifling a planeswalker ulty is especially satisfying as is Misdirecting discard or a counterspell back to itself.
Sydri, Galvanic Genius is my other favorite General. Esper has tons of removal options. Sydri's abilities are really fun and can be quite sneaky and toolboxy. You also get some recursion, there are just tons of options with Sydri, I highly recommend her.