General Black/Blue

[FlowerSunRain]

What makes you want to go into B/U?

Usually, the only time people in my cube go into B/U is when they are making a control deck, nabbing counters, finishers and removal. They also usually go into a third color (any of them), keep the curve a little high and value through. B/U heroic has gotten to the point of being very playable, but it seems like an inferior version of W/U heroic. Other cubes might support combo reanimator, but I think you'd pretty much need the nut draft to do it in mine. Graveyard value decks work better in R/U and B/G depending on the approach.

Enough about my cube, though, here are my questions!

1) What does Black/Blue do for you?
2) What Black/Blue gold cards make you want to play that pair, rather then just randomly fill in a 3 color control shell?
3) Any Black/Blue themes that are awesome (mill doesn't count)?
4) If you wanted to really play up on the disruptive part of black's color pie, where would you pull back?
5) Is Sinkhole awesome or miserable? I keep changing my mind on that one.

 

[Scott I.]

Black/Blue has a fair bit of aggressive evasive creatures that could make a decent theme. Pairing cards like Inkfathom Infiltrator with things like, ninjutsu, soulbond, cipher(...?), equipment, and tempo creatures makes for interesting aggro-control decks.

I actually think that UB can have a pretty strong graveyard theme. Blue can fill up the graveyard really fast with looters and cards like Forbidden Alchemy and Black has some of the more powerful 'graveyard matters' creatures like Nighthowler and Sewer Nemesis.

 

[Dom Harvey]

Since I emphatically support devotion, and black and blue are two of the best devotion colours, Nightveil Specter is a card I really like picking early - it both offers a clear direction and lets you stay open, as you can happily play it in a heavy blue or heavy black deck (e.g. recently I had a controllish 'mono'-blue deck that splashed for Kiora and Bonfire). I love taking the Phenax Challenge as well.

For a more traditional UB section, Tezzeret AoB is a great incentive to be in those colours. An artifact theme
might be the way to go if UB lacks an identity in your Cube - blue does most of the work, but black has a few nice cards too.

 

[Scott I.]

I think Sygg is sweet. He supports aggression in colors that don't have a lot of help. It's also good for devotion.

 

[CML]

+1 on sygg

there's a 3-0 control deck somewhere in that thread but ummmm yeah. i've been thinking about this one pretty heavily since my cube is skewed towards threats, like everyone else's, and who wants to play ub in Modern. i guess every so often a straight control deck with ruins or stronghold will come together (damnation, grave titan etc) but usually it will be esper with some removal and counters and fatties

 

[anotak]

im a big fan of sygg, underrated card

 

[Jason Waddell]

I think Sygg is sweet. He supports aggression in colors that don't have a lot of help. It's also good for devotion.

I wish there were a way to cast Sygg on Turn 2 after hitting with a 3-power Wild Nacatl. I guess in theory you can get the action going with a Rift Bolt?

 

[Jason Waddell]

Oh wait, I got it people!

 

[anotak]

you joke but someone actually drafted a deck capable of doing that in my custom cube

 

[silasw]

I just Grid Drafted a U/B Mimic Vat deck the other day:

 

[FlowerSunRain]

Unfortunately, Mimic Vat (and artifacts in general) doesn't work for me. Too much of my design space is devoted to enchantments, the artifacts I'm running are basically just "glue" for various things.

I'm going in on the Sygg suggestion.

I like devotion too, but is Phenax really an interesting direction?

What would you change the pro-red on Master of Waves to say to make him less lame?

 

[anotak]

What would you change the pro-red on Master of Waves to say to make him less lame?

 

[FlowerSunRain]

While an excellent answer (not being sarcastic, why is that card blue?), it doesn't really help support blue devotion.

I think I've hit the point where I've accepted that blue devotion just isn't going to happen and have channeled it all init B/G/W.

(edit: Do I even read this shit before I hit post?)

 

[Lucre]

I loooove these threads!

 

[Lucre]

Omg who made this?

 

[anotak]

Omg who made this?

i put it in the card file, i think the first line of text came from someone here. Dom maybe? My judge friend who helped build the custom-ish cube tweaked it a little and gave it that frame