Counterspell is ok because Twin is banned? I agree that counterspell is fine, but it would not have benefited Twin in the least if it was legal 6 months ago. Ari Lax said the same thing about Vision even though I’m fairly convinced Twin would only have used it in the SB if at all. It just seems silly to assume that every good blue card goes into every blue deck.

Yes Twin might run a copy or two of counterspell, most like they’d have them in the SB instead of Negate etc. But every card that makes UWr, Esper or Grixis more viable in Modern would’ve directly worsened Twins position in the meta game.

If you want to talk card selection and cards like SFM and how they night be ok because Twin is gone that seems reasonable though.

This is of course a useless discussion to be having since Twin is dead and gone, but I’m still aching from the loss 🙁

I find this part rather amusing.
At the same time you say that blue is barely able to keep up but receiving a powerful tool would push it over the top.
What kind of changes you make in blue’s modern pool to make it strong as (if not more) the other colors but without “pushing it over the top”?

I, for one, believe that blue has rather similar role as white in modern. Support and ” glue” the important powerhouses found in other colors.
The sole exception of this would be merfolk but the strength of that deck lies in the tribe itself which happen to be blue. Likewise I wouldn’t say green or black are stronger of weaker because scapeshift or ad nauseum.

I think we’re getting closer to making another point. Trevor spoke at length and very thoroughly about the things Blue control decks do to put themselves in position to win games, which are to disrupt gameplans and dig for whatever tool they may need at the time. However, Blue’s disruption and digging tools can be used for other purposes. Delver typically sticks an early threat, then holds up disruption and digging tools in order to protect it or replace it. The goal is to keep pressuring the opponent while holding down whatever it is they want to do. Infect also typically uses its disruption to protect early threats, but it usually doesn’t care much about the opposing gameplan otherwise – its card advantage and digging tools are used to find the pieces it needs to end the game as soon as possible (which is diametrically opposed to the “drown you in card advantage” approach a control deck takes). Merfolk is basically a snowball-style aggro strategy that uses its disruptive elements and digging to make sure the rush gets there, which kind of puts its approach somewhere between Delver and Infect in terms of aggressiveness. The pump is not fundamentally blue, but the disruption + digging utility creatures that have made it the most successful of the tribal strategies (think Cursecatcher, Harbinger, Kira, Silvergill, and Tidebinder) certainly are.

Counterspell was mentioned in my article, although it was originally suggested by readers in the comments section. I think it would be pretty fair overall—aggressive decks probably couldn’t care less and it’s not that different than Mana Leak unless the game goes long. The issue I see is Forsythe made it clear that Standard printings are the only way to bring cards to Modern, and Counterspell is a terrifying card to print in Standard. They recently made Silumgar’s Scorn with an enormous drawback and it saw lots of play.

I believe that the color identity is right on the money. Yall spoke of missing out on some elements of the color in tempo and tribal synergies.

Tempo speaks of timing, and is an archetype/strategy of deploying correctly timed counter spells, and using card advantage to pull further ahead. I thought(I’ll probably have to reread right after I send this) the article spoke of the generalities pretty well. Not as in depth as white, but I thought what was said about Blue was fair.

Merfolk is absolutely a strong deck, and I’ve lost to it many times! But the Merfolk’s strength is not quite within the color identity as it is with the creature’s boosting each other stats and growing in numbers.

If I’m not too far off the mark, I believe faries fall more in line with the blue color identity in being disruptive and pesky.

Am I missing the point here, or are we getting closer to making another point? Help educate, please.

I came for the comments after someone told me this article dismissed Delver, but I don’t think Trevor did a bad job. Every writer focuses on his interests. Trevor happens to be interested in card advantage and library sculpting. Still, I think it’s probably best to consider a color’s other applications in a series like this. Personally, I think blue is one of the most aggressive colors in the format.

I did stumble across this comment, though.

Re: Counterspell: Was I the writer who asked for this card? I think Counterspell would be fine in Modern. It would definitely become a staple, but with Twin out of the picture, this is exactly the kind of powerful space that’s been opened for Wizards. It’s just a matter of getting the card through Standard, which I expect will prove quite difficult.

Re: Esper Control: Neither Esper nor Jeskai are my kind of deck. They waste way too many attack steps. I really like turning guys sideways. But I have some control-loving buddies and one of them swears by Esper. I’ve worked with him a good deal on the list, and agree that Lingering Souls, Path to Exile, and Snapcaster Mage are great together. The problem with Esper is it’s not proactive enough and it doesn’t interact efficiently with small aggro strategies. I also think Esper Charm is way overrated. The strategy has some stuff going for it, but you’re right, it needs another printing. That’s why we’re not seeing it put up any results. If Innocent Blood comes to Modern, I’ll reconsider my position!

I alsowrote an article with some personal theory on interactive decks in Modern last year. Check it out here:
quietspeculation.com/eat-my-dust-blowing-smoke-with-bug-faeries/

Basically, I argue that Modern’s interactive decks either need Bolt or Goyf to work. We’ve seen that to no longer be the case recently, with UW Control having some success. I think UW has Modern potential because it gets around Blood Moon better than other Uxx options, doesn’t mind playing the best hate cards, and wins with a huge variety of haymakers (Shackles, Sun Titan, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, etc.). That said, UW Control is far from a Tier 1 deck, and I think part of the reason is that it lacks Bolt or Goyf.

Lastly, I appreciate the comment! But you’re lucky I saw this one. Usually I only read my own. If you want to discuss something, drop a line on one of my articles for a better chance at a response.

Thanks for being a good sport about the criticism (I was on the fence on whether I came off as too harsh or not), and I look forward to seeing what you have to say about Black! I think this series has still been productive overall, and to be honest I wouldn’t even mind a Part 2 for Blue so that you cover the things you didn’t get to this time around (no pro-Blue bias here, no sir).

However, I would like to address your opinion in the closing paragraph of this article where you claim that counterspell is too good for modern. When Sheridan ran his first set of testing on Stoneforge Mystic to experiment with how impacting it would be on the format, I was overjoyed, certain that counterspell would surely be next in line and I have been holding my breath ever since. I greatly appreciate his testing efforts and fastidious data collection, realizing that it is all very time consuming, and would love to participate myself, but as it is, I can barely make it to one FNM a month or squeeze in a single MODO game when the opportunity presents itself.

There has been nothing but theorycrafting on both side of the debate surrounding that card as far as I can tell, and one of your writers even addressed it as a possible healthy inclusion in modern as a police card a few weeks ago if I am not mistaken. Now that twin is gone, I think it is appropriate that this card is given a fair shake and at least examined in this new context instead of dismissing it based on no real data (that I am aware of).

Either way, keep up the good work, everyone’s articles are always a pleasure to read and I look forward to them each week. I hope that when you get to green in your color analysis you might touch on some of the ways that it has been infringing on the blue slice of the pie recently, seeming to offer superior, albeit sometimes restrictive, selection and card draw in some instances.

Lastly, @Jordan, as a lover of brews and other unrepresented decks, I suggest you try out esper control sometime before comparing it to the “vastly superior” jeskai, you may be surprised. I believe that esper control is one printing away from being a real contender in the modern meta game. I join Sheridan in his petition for innocent blood.

Roland,

You make good points, and in retrospect I definitely should have spent more time discussing the tempo and disruptive elements Blue can provide in a similar manner to how I approached the card advantage section. I agree completely with you that Merfolk and Infect are too strong to not be discussed more in-depth, and that would have made for a more complete discussion.

Thanks for keeping me honest, Black will be better!