General Blue creatures

[CML]

This is a very weird thread. Here are my thoughts:

-- True "draw-go" is one of those archetypes that requires such a concentration of counters and is so light on win-cons that it never comes together in Cube, or does so very rarely. Hence Teferi being a worse card than Mulldrifter or Meloku, for example.

-- Blue is inherently problematic to design for in Cube because balancing it for Constructed demands a fiddling with power levels that make it hard to balance its various roles. In other words, Cube decks have creatures, and Blue creatures are kind of bad, with a few obvious exceptions from Innistrad.

-- Drafting Blue is actually pretty fun and I would even argue there isn't a problem.

-- The best way I've come up with to make Blue more decision-intensive is by adding a lot of Brainstorms.

I've been inspired to give Cloudfin another look, at least.

 

[Suicufnoc]

I also haven't noticed any real problems with blue. It may be slightly less interesting to draft than other colors, but it's a blast to play

 

[Diakonov]

I think that, at least for me, the issue is being overstated. I certainly do not want people to be drafting mono-blue aggro. The issue is that drafting U/X aggro is made more awkward by the fact that a certain density of aggressive creatures needs to be reached by pulling almost entirely from one other color. With any other color pair you can reliably get enough good aggro creatures since you're pulling from two colors. If you go UW aggro and there end up being a GW aggro and RW aggro at the table with you, you can sure your deck will suffer the most for it.

When I say that blue could use a couple more reasonable aggro creatures, I literally mean two creatures. That's all. Just two semi-aggressive 2-drops that aren't embarassing. I have high hopes for Frost Walker.

 

[GenericZero]

How do people feel about this guy in a slightly lower powered environment?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Yeah, I made a note for that guy. I think he's replacing Wonder in my cube.

 

[Chris Taylor]

I love it! Had him in as a U1 2/2 and he was super excellent.
In a lower power enviornment, U3 4/4 flying(ish) will be solid

 

[GenericZero]

Good to know. Gonna try running him. Also recently been wondering: what is a good handful of cubeable creatures with reach? It's am ugly defensive mechanic but it feels a little necessary to have in at least an extremely small amount. Maybe like 2 or 3 slots.

 

[Peter LaCara]

Good to know. Gonna try running him. Also recently been wondering: what is a good handful of cubeable creatures with reach? It's am ugly defensive mechanic but it feels a little necessary to have in at least an extremely small amount. Maybe like 2 or 3 slots.

I've come very, very close to running more than once. I mean, his nickname is "green doom blade." He either always kills something relevant or draws a removal spell. Either way, you're happy for 2 mana.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Depending on the power level, I kinda liked serra spider from whatever core set that was
Silklash spider? Cloudthresher?

On a different note, Sandsteppe mastadon from FRF has reach for some reason

 

[Eric Chan]

i've considered both of these guys multiples times, but they're a hair too low on power for my environment



not sure if these guys count, cause they're also finishers

 

[GenericZero]

I might try Sandsteppe Mastodon. I like the synergy with blink and little guys. Though he isn't quite on par with Hydra Broodmaster, now is he?

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Silklash Spider is in my cube, he's great friends with Doran

 

[Lucre]

I like when green creatures expand green's gameplay. Reach is an interesting take on that, as is grave triggers, but at the end of the day it's really just playing any old moderately efficient dude on curve and hoping to god you don't draw another Go'ramn elf next turn. Like if youre on the rampant growths and elves line for your green section and your have your player drawing spiders after their 8th elf or land equivalent or so and they're running out of gas, they are gonna be annoyed that they put it in their deck (probz). Now a number of things can lessen that malaise, like having cast a harmonize lol.

Arbor colossus is a really cool card it makes me super sad it has GGG.
Arashi the sky asunder used to be pretty sweet but now....?
Sylvan Primordial seems super good if you are into crappy removal in the form of infinite faiths fetters type stuff. It's also totally not an 8 drop, but it gets blocked forever I guess.

 

[GenericZero]

I wish sentinel spider was more exciting than it is. Maybe I'll just run Soul of Zendikar.

 

[James Stevenson]

Looks like I only run one:

 

[CML]

Arbor Colossus is completely magnificent

 

[Chris Taylor]

Back on track: Frost walker is frustrating, he's one of the only creatures in the game you can't protect with mana leak, even if you want to.
so in that respect, he's probably a fine creature, but he doesn't really play into what blue wants to do

 

[sigh]

Bringing this back! The Draft Exchange thread is already turning out to be a raging success, certainly from my end at least. It's been brought to my attention that my blue finishers might need a little sprucing up. What do we feel about this little beauty? The card advantage seems really awesome and that's why I've been running it, but do we need CA at this point in the game?:

Might a more straightforward finisher be more appropriate? Evasive, hard to remove, etc? I've seen quite a few people run these. How do we feel about them? Have they been working out for people?

 

[vennythekid]

I think generally the consensus about blue in cube is that a good blue cube deck could close the game with a ham sandwich if it needed to. That being said, any reasonably-sized creature with some evasion backed up by protection will do the trick. It's basically up to you to decide what sort of play you want out of your finishers, and what you want your finishers to be able to beat/not be able to beat.

There was a thread quite a while back about finishers, and here's what I wrote then for the blue section:

Here's a start. Stuff I have in my cube or have played in other cubes...

Blue:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor: "My Life Would Suck Without You"
Frost Titan: a tap out style where the body is relevant and the tapping ability helps push attacker through
Aetherling: a threat light kill-everything style where playing at instant speed might be important. Likely your only threat.
Consecrated Sphinx: 1-for-1 style deck where you plan to win on late game card advantage.
Sphinx of Jwar Isle: a slower but less mana hungry Aetherling
...
I know this isn't an exhaustive list, but its a start...

 

[ColonelSanders]

I think generally the consensus about blue in cube is that a good blue cube deck could close the game with a ham sandwich if it needed to.

I think this is generally true. When I go into a cube blind and draft blue control, all I want to see is card draw, counterspells, and bounce. Normally, I expect my finishing tools to come from the other color(s) I draft. That being said, it's not how blue has to be. Those are just expectations that generic cubes have implanted in my head. I would say that the esper dragons deck from standard deck is a good example of how blue control can be more proactive. Sure, it's a control deck, but Dragonlord Ojutai allows it to kill people without having to reach the "abandon all hope" level of board control.

As for which blue finisher is right for you, I tend to lean towards the card advantages ones (as opposed to the hexproof ones) because I like that they give the opponent a little hope. That being said, I've pretty much cut blue control finishers complete from my cube in general. I have Jace, the Mindsculptor and this thing which only sorta counts

Spoiler

 

[blacksmithy]

Blue finishers... I like Aetherling, BUT if you're not into "The Untouchable..."

 

[psly4mne]

I wouldn't consider Thassa, Master of Waves, or Skaab Ruinator control finishers. They are more for aggro to midrange builds. I think vennythekid hit most of the important ones, but Meloku the Clouded Mirror is a great finisher as well.

 

[Aoret]

Aetherling is where it's at. Every now and then it's relevant that you technically have the chance to play greedy and lose. Even if the hoop you have to jump through is "don't be a greedy idiot" I still prefer having that hoop present as opposed to, say, Sphinx of Jwar Isle.

I'm also a huuuuge Meloku the Clouded Mirror fan because, again, it's a control finisher that makes me make choices and feels like a little mini game. I like having the little mini game present as a reward for surviving with my control deck. This feels a lot better to me as an opponent too than, say, Consecrated Sphinx which is just pure raw power.

 

[genericco]

I just ordered one of these to test out. Seems legit

 

[Meltyman]

I find Aetherling too oppressive.. unkillable, wins every time, bleh.

Meloku is my go-to blue finisher, really powerful effect but isn't just autowin every time and the mini game aspect is really nice with it.

Spinx of Lost Truths and Keiga, the Tide Star are the two top end beaters for control in my cube, where Spinx propably won't do the job in its own, but drawing 3 should do the trick
I hope they release some other blue finisher to replace Keiga since it's not that exciting really, but it should do the trick in winning you the game eventually.

Oh yeah, i found it