Article: Blue, the most powerful color?

[Hunteroffire9]

Hello users of imtg! 2014 has passed and it's time for another article.

I was thinking what to write about when it hit me, when you ask the majority of players what is the most powerful color, they respond with blue. There are several reasons why this is true, but it is not always relevant in every format.

LEGACY / VINTAGE:

When specifically looking at vintage, well there are not really any non blue decks that are not combo oriented. In a format like legacy if you are not playing a disruptive color like blue or the hand disruption based but slightly less effective black you lose to combo, no if ands or buts. There is not a single fair deck besides death and taxes in legacy that is not playing blue. Legacy is dominated by blue delver based decks, and game winning combo decks like sneak and show and reanimator. In a format like legacy one needs to play denial to stop broken things from happening. A deck like delver is able to survive by playing a small threat and countering their opponents "broken cards". Combo decks themselves that do not even involve blue combos splash blue to just counter their opponents blue counter spells. Yes, in a format like legacy blue is the BEST color. Why play a game winning card? When you can play a card like {force of will}, {daze}, etc that deals with all of the broken cards.

MODERN:

In a format like modern, blue is not as essential. Combo is not as common or powerful , and is a similar speed to fast aggro decks like affinity or burn, and most of the other decks have black disruption in the form of {inquisition of kozilek}, and {thoughtseize}, or cards like {remand}. Modern is a more attrition based format were 1 for 1 counter spells are weak vs cards like {lingering souls}. As you've noticed, as you get into younger formats, blue  becomes less of a necessity and more of a playing style.

STANDARD:

This is when blue becomes at its weakest. Don't get me wrong saying that blue is a bad color in standard, but generally it is the weakest. When your opponent Is not trying to resolve ONE major threat like {delver of secrets}, {true-name nemesis}, etc, and have it stick instead they are casting multiple mediocre cards that you run out of counter spells for. It is important to understand that standard is a creature based format were white based board wipes are much more effective. Without combo decks present in most standard based formats, and most combos in standard involve creatures anyway (Jeskai ascendency) playing other colored removal like {heroes downfall}, {murderous cut}, {lightning strike}, and {banishing light} are much more effective. In a tap out format like standard when you want to be casting you threats you normally are not able to leave up mana for counter magic, when we do not have a {force of will} to lean on. Because of this most of the time we need to untap and then cast our removal to deal with threats unless you are playing a reactive deck like control.

Besides blue's relevant in formats there is a general appeal to drawing cards, which blue does perfectly.
Enter: {treasure cruise}, {dig through time}, {sphinxes revelation}, {ancestral recall}, {brainstorm}, {ponder}, etc
Sphinxes is just an honorable mention from last standard;)

In conclusion:

Blue, color who needs its counter spells to counter its own overpowered cards. They really need to counter all the cards but you get the point.

Thanks for reading.