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Theory Behind Magic - The IBC Blues

Personally, I have never been a huge fan of charity work since I find the concept of "doing something for nothing" rather disturbing. However, I have given a lot of money and DCI points 2 weeks ago in the GP Brisbane trial for nothing. Not only did I not win the 3 byes, but I have lost my automatic 2 byes to 1 bye because my ratings have dropped from the 1800s to 1700s. The sad thing is that my deck at the day wasn't bad, it is just that my opponents have much better decks with bombs like Lightning Angel, Flametongue Kavus and Questing Phelddagrif and somehow manage to draw them every game at the 5th to 6th turn.

If you have read my previous articles, you would know that I am not one of those losers who blame losing the game on luck, but with the beats I have been receiving that day, I cannot help but to feel that some greater force was working against me. Thus I intend to make a come back in IBC, to take my revenge on this greater force and to win my points back.

Ever since Apocalypse has been released, articles about the IBC have been popping out like zits on my face after a night out. I have read no less then 100 articles about the IBC format in the last 2 months and I think I will probably go mad if I read another (thus I'm going to leave the editing work for this article in the hands of Microsoft Word and my editors. :P) (err... thanks -- editor). To save our fellow MTG Paradise readers to go through the same agony, I have compiled this article, which is pretty much the essence of what I have read.

Back in MBC, most of the top decks are single coloured such as Rebels, Waters and Skies. It is rare to see players to play 2 colours and anyone who play 3 colours are seen as either insane or stupid (or both) because the mana base cannot support it. Most people can tell what deck their opponent is playing after laying the first land and boring mirror match ups happens way too often. It may be true that players will never play the same game twice as the Magic slogan claims, but they would definitely play against the same deck over and over again.

The R&D people might see this as a problem, thus in IBC they try to fill the tournaments with a large variety of decks by introducing new non-basic lands that provides 2 colours or more and powerful multi-colour spells that sometime require paring the complementary and opposing colours together. At first glance, magic seems to be what it used to be where creativity is the essence of the game and rogue decks with great ideas can be just as good as net decks. The constraints of must playing certain colours or decks have been lifted, or have it?

Most of the winning decks I saw in IBC have something similar to what a bride would need before her wedding. That is "Something new (cards from Apocalypse), something old (cards from the first 2 sets), something borrowed (the tech and decks off the net) and something blue". It is common believe that if you want to win in the IBC environment, you would have to play blue despite of the multiple colour combinations in the set.

Let's face it, no matter what format we are talking about, the most popular colour in Magic the Gathering is nearly ALWAYS blue. Personally, I suspect that the majority of the people in R&D are blue players since the colour is always loaded up with good cards. Though they tried to limit blue's power by creating cannot be countered spells and put a condition on all pure blue counter spells. Yet they gave blue tons of cantrips that allows blue players to replenish their hands. You may argue that other colours have their own cantrips as well, but how many people do you see that plays Exclude, Repulse and Fact or Fiction and how often do you see Zap being played? In a format without tutors, spells that replenish themselves are the closest thing to library manipulation and giving a player the right card at the right time is one of the greatest advantages a player can gain in magic.

Hope seems to be lost with Blue having sovereign power over artificial god draws, how can one hope to defeat an opponent who can draw twice as many cards as you do pulling cards that will always turn the game around? It seems that we have to jump on the blue gravy train and submit ourselves to stupid counter wars if we want a chance to win. However, I'm not one who easily give up on hope and like Kahana I dislike blue and refuse to play the colour because I hate playing mirror match ups and counter wars that drags the game on. New players may not know this, but there was a time in Magic where blue is only part of the game and not the game itself. I will be damned if I write an article to promote how good blue is, thus the remainder of this article would focus on how to beat your average blue players in the IBC format.

There are 2 main stream strategies in Magic and they are control and tempo. Control refers to decks that sits back countering threats you cast, wipe out what they miss with mass removal spells and cast cards that give them card advantage while you eat bits of their lives away. Most control decks are blue, yet there are exceptions like Machine Head B/R control where they gain card advantage via discard spells.

The other strategy is tempo (or commonly known as beat down) which wins by laying threats early and kill their opponent before they can gain enough card advantage for the win. Once you have board control, you can apply pressure by creature beats and draw their counters out by direct damage spells. Don't cast all your creatures at once in case of mass removal spells like Rout and cast your kill card (fat creature like Shivan Wurm or direct damage like Ghitu Fire) as soon as their lands are tapped or their counters are out. The key is to always keep them on the back foot and don't let the game drag on since they would always have answers if they manage to stabilise.

For early beats, the best creatures to use are the 2cc creatures known as the bears as they are early drops and usually have a useful ability attached to them. These are what I think as the best bears in order: Spectral Lynx, Goblin Legionnaire, Gaea's Skyfolk, Blurred Mongoose and Meddling Mage. I ranked the Lynx as the top because of its regeneration ability and it works well against other beat down decks. Pyre Zombie is also a good creature against counter decks, but I find it too slow and by the time you have the manner to work its ability, you're not far from dying.

On the direct damage side, not many people would argue if I say that Urza's Rage is the best since it cannot be countered, can be kicked and the damage cannot be prevented if it is kicked. Ghitu Fire comes second since it can be cast as in instant with and extra 2 colourless mana. This allow you tap out or draw their counters by the end of their turn so you can cast another one in your turn or lay down some potential threats.

From the decks I saw at the GP deck list, not many people seem to main deck any enchantment removal in their decks. So if you have some powerful enchantment such as Goblin Trenches, Meteor Storm, Destructive Flow or even Dark Suspicion, your opponent will have a hard time dealing with it at the first game. Other cards such as Obliterate and Keldon Necropolis are also useful against blue control decks.

Good luck this weekend in your quest against blue players and if you are a blue player yourself, I have pretty much tipped you on what cards to watch out for. I don't hate blue players, just the fact that the game is dominated by a certain colour. By the way, my life story is up, take a look if you have the time. After seeing some photos from the GP and Worlds on Sideboard, I have postponed the idea of putting up a photo since Magic players never seem to look good online.

Always, comments are welcomed at t_memo@yahoo.com. If anyone dares to subscribe any Nsync, Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls mailing list with this email, I'll hunt you down till my last breath.:P

Minga Wong
t_memo@yahoo.com