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Editor: Staff. Saturday 27th August 2005.
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Bring Back Counterspell 'Bring back Counterspell, bring back counterspell, bring back counterspell!' What was one of the first things echoed across the Magic forums in the world after the full spoiler for 9th edition was released? 'Where's Counterspell? Blue is crap without it! They took away Bribery its the least they could have done.' ...Or was it? Lets take a look at the top 8 standings from the Australian Nationals this year and how they finished after playing it out - 1 - Chris Allen (Blue Urzatron) 2 - David Zhao (White Weenie) 3 - Richard Johnston (Black Rats splashing Green) 4 - Jason Whitby (Mono-Blue Control) 5 - John-Paul Kelly (Blue Urzatron) 6 - Will Copeman (Mono-Blue Control) 7 - James Pirie (Mono-Blue Control) 8 - Justin Cheung (White Weenie) Five! Count them - five! Five decks running Mono-Blue in the top 8 of the Australian Nationals. All of them making it without Counterspell in an environment where Boseiju who Shelters All is available to hose blue. Where did blue get all that power to win from? Blue Urzatron and Mono-Blue Control are very different decks. Lets look at what blue cards the blue decks ran that the others did - Main decks: Annul - 4 Sideboards: Annex - 2 We could look at artifacts too, but the point is looking at blue spells so there is no need. The big standouts are Mana Leak and Thirst for Knowledge being played in every deck. Annul and Echoing Truth are also heavily represented in maindecks and sideboards. I see an underlying theme here for all of the blue decks. All of them ran an element of countermagic, bounce spells and draw cards heavily based on instants. This is the basis of almost every successful mono-blue deck of all time. The kill cards are secondary to the decks' ability to slow the game to its speed and win through careful board control, well placed counters and well protected kill cards. Blue is described as being in the worst shape than it has been in years yet its still strong enough to dominate the top 8 of the biggest tournament in Australia. These decks aren't new - an archetype for Mono-Blue Control has been around for a while and decklists for Blue Urzatron have been circulating over the net for the last couple of months. Blue even lost one of its most powerful cards when 8th edition rotated out (Bribery) and didn't gain anything to replace it. Blue didn't gain anything new from 9th Edition, yet it still performs so well in the hands of experienced players. I'll admit blue does rely on some artifacts to perform well but in many cases there are spells or colour splashes that can provide the same effect. Oblivion Stone can be switched for Wrath of God and/or Tempest of Light. Triskelion can be replaced with burn. Mindslaver is unique, as is Vedalken Shackles, but you wouldn't usually run both (The closest spells blue has to these are Confiscate, Threads of Disloyalty and Timestop). With Ravnica coming into effect soon and many of the Mirrodin block artifacts leaving I can see big potential for blue in the future as Ravnica is shaping up to be a pretty awesome set all round. You may cry until you are blue in the face (pun intended) to get back Counterspell because blue apparently needs it but I think the results speak for themselves. Blue can be one of the most powerful decks available in just about every slow format (eg - No ravager affinity or goblins) if people are smart enough to play it well, learn the metagame and make best use of the cards available. To hell with Counterspell - blue doesn't need it! Joe Tobin (Aytakk2)
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