Recently, there's been quite a lot of talk and hubbub over a very controversial color and its power level: Blue. What I want to discuss and explore here is what makes people react to blue in the ways that they do. In general, blue is associated with control, and in particular, countering and milling. And, as most of us know, it is very "un-fun" to be countered or milled.

The reason why people have this overarching distaste for these blue mechanics is is exactly the same reason why other people love blue; it keeps people from doing stuff. Tom LaPille recently recognized this "griefer"-induced conundrum in a recent article of his, as well as on a number of other occasions, especially when addressing the development of the M10 spell Silence (while yes, the spell is white, it certainly has a distinctive "Permission" flavor to it. However, the things that blue does, specifically countering and milling, though while they make certain players unhappy, would take away a degree of intrigue and complexity that the game possesses were they removed. So, while many a spell-slinger curses the Counterspell, without them, the game would be considerably more bland, and R&D can't simply not print them, especially when there would be a significant outcry from "the rest of us" (those of us who like blue, and enjoy countering and milling). There are, however, some very specific reasons why people don't like to have their spells countered and their cards ripped bodily from the tops of their decks and thrown with emotionless harshness into the abyss of their graveyards. The reasons are almost surprisingly similar.

Countering

Let me use an analogy here: Imagine that you are running a race. Would you rather finish the race, placing well or even winning only to be disqualified by some scurrilous claim that you cheated, or be interrupted in the middle of the race by a malicious individual tackling you in mid-stride completely out the blue? You would probably rather win the race just to be given a corrupt DQ. That's why people don't like their spells to get countered; it doesn't give them a chance to resolve. If a creature or permanent is destroyed after resolution (and that is one of the bonuses associated with kill spells-their flexibility, because you only have one chance to counter), then the owner of that spell, while down-hearted knows that he or she at least got to play the darned thing.

However, and this is very important, just as if you were running that race, and if you were attacked, you would probably—especially if you felt that you could have won—you would probably have said that you would have won the race if not for that nut-job who jumped out in the middle of it and hit you over the head with a sign, much as it happened to Isidor Lima in the 2004 Athens Olympics Men's Marathon event. Many Magic players do the same thing: they absolve themselves from guilt for their loss, because their gosh darned spells never got off of the stack. But of course, this is nonsense.

Milling

While, and this has been said many times, milling does not effect your chances of drawing certain cards in reality, it does have a certain disheartening flavor to it. Even with level-headed reasoning on my side, I had a hard time not being a little bit crestfallen when, at a booster draft three weeks ago, I lost all three of my rares (Celestial Mantle, Armament Master and Luminarch Ascension) to a Hedron Crab in my mono-white Kor Soldier/Equipment deck. However, as far as milling in today's Standard goes, Mike Flores brought up a very interesting, and in my opinion brilliant point concerning how lobotomizing milling can be to certain decks. He used as an example deck that ran four Arid Mesas with I think either one Mountain or one Plains in a deck that ran four or so of the other basic land, and this Mountain/Plains was the only red/white source off of which this deck could cast Ajani Vengeant. If that Mountain is put into the graveyard, those Arid Mesas lose a critical part of their functionality, and become in a sense, dead cards for the player concerned. So, milling does after all have an effect on how likely you are to get certain cards. But this is only if you have tutors and fetch-lands, which unsurprisingly enough, most decks in today's standard DO have. Or, at least, any deck that isn't constrained by budgetary issues.

And here, the same thing applies. Milling precludes you from casting certain spells and playing certain cards. That's it. If you have a singleton in your deck with forty cards left, and an Archive Trap swiftly slices off a third of your remaining precious cake and throws it in the trash bin, and your beloved Sphinx of the Steel Wind was in there, well, unless you've got a Sharuum to search for with your Sphinx Summoner, your chances of getting that puppy into play have gone to zero.

I felt that it would be valuable to express to the magic community that Blue (because of its recently lamented lackluster power level) is still a force to be reckoned with, and I know that when fighting that argument, people usually cite examples where blue is used as an auxiliary color in a deck such as Grixis Control, but I want to explore in the wide world of deck-building just how formidable Jace and friends are.

Some Applications of Countering and Milling in Today's Standard Metagame:

(Well, especially Milling, because Countering finds a niche in lots of places.)

Just to uphold my promise:

[cardlist]4 Negate

4 Into the Roil

4 Essence Scatter

4 Unsummon

4 Cancel

4 Summoner's Bane

4 Spell Pierce

4 Lullmage Mentor

2 Djinn of Wishes

2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

20 Island

4 Halimar Depths[/cardlist]

You know what's almost sad? This just might work. Of course, there would have to be a sideboard to deal with the "only countering certain types of spells" problem.

I like the combo between Djinn of Wishes and Sphinx of Jwar Isle, giving you the ability to play a counter off the top (albeit, for four mana.) But to be honest, I would rather have four Sphinxes than a Djinn that makes me pay more mana than most of my spells are worth. The interaction was mostly included for kicks, and should be booted out with all speed by more serious players, even though it does allow you to dig another card deeper.

If you want to move into the land of Mythic Raredom, Lorthos, the Tidemaker can be a nice finisher, as well as Sphinx Ambassador, though Sphinx of Jwar Isle does have the all-important shroud (but then again, there are 20 counterspells in the deck). I would include Jace, the Mind Sculptor in lieu of Unsummon because of his tremendous versatility (as well as having an Unsummon ability for -1, albeit at sorcery speed).

The deck could even be expanded to W/U/B and use Countersquall, Offering to Asha, Punish Ignorance and Soul Manipulation. In fact, let's try it.

[cardlist]4 Celestial Colonade

2 Plains

4 Creeping Tar Pit

4 Island

4 Marsh Flats

2 Swamp

4 Arcane Sanctum

4 Lullmage Mentor

4 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

4 Punish Ignorance

4 Countersquall

4 Offering to Asha

4 Cancel

4 Negate

2 Essence Scatter

2 Soul Manipulation

4 Into the Roil[/cardlist]

This deck offers many more cards that allow us to counter any kind of spell, and that is a tremendous boon. The expansion into many colors makes the deck quite a bit more expensive (in mana-cost and cash), especially on the side of the mana-base (the M10 lands may also be included), but I feel that the tradeoff where card quality is concerned can be descried as considerable. I believe that I may even make this deck and run it at an FNM.

One of its major weaknesses is that spells may only be countered once, and that once is when they're cast, so you've got to have the mana, or you may just end up getting beaten by the one card that you didn't counter if you can't dig for your Sphinx fast enough, (though the Into the Roils do provide a countermeasure to this).

To move more away from the ridiculous and farther towards the sane:

Mono-Blue Standard Milling: (I'll get to multicolored ones in a minute.)

(For budgetary reasons, I feel disinclined to add 8 fetch-lands, though you may if you wish, but beware the mirror…)

[cardlist]24 Island

4 Howling Mine

4 Font of Mythos

4 Archive Trap

4 Traumatize

4 Twincast

4 Telemin Performance

4 Hedron Crab

4 Memory Erosion

4 Jace Beleren[/cardlist]

If only Halimar Depths had been left as it was, eh? (In development for a long time, it milled a player for three.) I think I would rather have this deck come out of the gates with all possible speed, so I’m not risking lands that come into play tapped.

Also you can replace Jace Beleren with Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Well, while it certainly lacks in defensive strategies, the deck definitely concerts itself to getting the job done. The list should definitely see testing, though I like the way it curves:

Turn 1: Hedron Crab (Archive Traps cast throughout)

Turn 2: Howling Mine (mill 3 cards)

Turn 3: Memory Erosion or Jace (mill 3: 6 milled (plus Howling Mine Draws))

Turn 4: Font of Mythos (mill 3: 9 milled (plus Jace draws or M.E. mills)

Turn 5: Proceed to cast and Twincast five-cost milling spells.

It seems like it just might be fast enough (of course those plays outlined above were of the optimal sort) that it may not need any Kraken Hatchlings, Isleback Spawns, counterspells or the like to help it get there, though you may never end up playing Jace's Ultimate because he'll probably take a lot of beats, but hey, that's almost the same as gaining life, and anyhow, once he's dead, you could very well have drawn into another one, so that works out too. But, this all being said, a sideboard should be able to deal with these issues.

Sideboard:

[cardlist]4 Wall of Frost

4 Cancel

4 Into the Roil

3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle[/cardlist]

I think that Wall of Frost conflicts too heavily with Jace and Memory Erosion to make it worthwhile though, and its inability to block certain flying creatures like Baneslayer Angels and Broodmate Dragons is a severe drawback, so perhaps more counterspells should take its place.

I am interested enough in the archetype that I will make several of the milling decks that I have created here, and report back after testing in arenas like Friday Night Magic, or simply casual games (Standard and otherwise) that I can pick up here and there.

Now, while money is an object to consider, Jace Beleren is a fine addition to the deck, even though, while not netting you a card for your own self every turn, the other Jace fits the milling theme well, but as I have just realized, the other Jace should be used more as an only card in a deck that is designed to offer milling as an alternate win condition and not its main (or in this case, only) one. For a dedicated mill deck, I believe it's better to draw a card, and you may end up leaving the top card on the top anyways if it's a fetch-land and you have an Archive Trap.

Onto the multi-colored mill decks: (I will leave out the ones that include Pyromancer's Ascension for a later article.)

White-Blue Standard Mill:

While most of you were probably expecting to see a Blue/Black list, I'm going to favor the color wheel's order in this situation, whilst addressing the defensive strategy question raised in the previous list:

[cardlist]4 Wall of Denial

4 Hedron Crab

4 Memory Erosion

4 Archive Trap

4 Path to Exile

4 Traumatize

4 Jace Beleren

4 Howling Mine

4 Font of Mythos

4 Celestial Colonnade

4 Cascade Bluffs

12 Island

4 Plains

Sideboard

4 Telemin Performance

3 Offering to Asha

2 Kiss of the Amesha

3 Hindering Light

3 Cancel[/cardlist]

Telemin Performance: Hopefully, the quality of creatures that you're playing against can make this card worth your mana in most decks that will see very few cards hit the graveyard from this when it isn't used against a deck that only sports a pair of Sphinxes.

Kiss of Amesha: to buy time in more unfavorable match-ups

Hindering Light: This slot was initially occupied by Twincast.

All in all, it seems that the deck doesn't gain much at all from white, so, black seems a bit more likely to be better.

Blue-Black Standard Mill

[cardlist]4 Creeping Tar Pit

15 Island

5 Swamp

4 Nemesis of Reason

4 Hedron Crab

4 Font of Mythos

4 Howling Mine

4 Jace Beleren

4 Archive Trap

4 Mind Funeral

4 Twincast

4 Memory Erosion

Sideboard

4 Telemin Performance

3 Negate

3 Essence Scatter

3 Countersquall[/cardlist]

I cut Traumatize, because after giving each of the cards in the deck a value check (my criterion was determining if the card was reliably worth ten cards from my opponent's deck, I determined that Traumatize was not good enough…enough of the time.

Bonus: Extended

Well, an idea that popped into my mind not too long ago was the combination of Glimpse the Unthinkable with Twincast. (If only Isochron Scepter could target sorceries…) I mean, a Blue/Black/Red strategy could even be pursued with Pyromancer's Ascension and Thought Hemorrhage (don't forget Blightning) leading the way in the third color. (Copying Glimpse the Unthinkable or Blightning for the cost of two mana is incredible.) Of course Archive Trap would be an obvious inclusion, since fetch-lands are such a staple in Extended. Nemesis of Reason is a good relatively late-game creature with a very wide rear-end. Counterspells are an obvious inclusion, because protecting your very naked five-mana creature is a must. Spell snare can be put in the sideboard to pacify the two-mana counterspell threats of Remove Soul and Negate (or even Muddle the Mixture, though that is more often transmuted) when you find yourself on the wrong end of your own color. Mind Funeral is especially effective in Extended with fetch-lands thinning the number of lands in most decks, and some decks simply playing 20 or less land.

As a sideboard measure against creature-less decks, of which there are enough to be relevant in Extended, Telemin Performance should work as a very valuable tool.

Due to a lack of comprehensive knowledge of the Extended format on my part, there may well be some better cards to put into this deck, so please feel free to modify heavily.

Blue/Black Extended Mill

[cardlist]4 Archive Trap

4 Glimpse the Unthinkable

2 Gifts Ungiven

2 Mind Funeral

4 Muddle the Mixture

3 Treasure Hunt

4 Twincast

3 Jace Beleren

3 Howling Mine

3 Nemesis of Reason

4 Hedron Crab

4 Creeping Tar Pit

15 Island

5 Swamp

Sideboard:

3 Spell Snare

3 Telemin Performance

3 Negate

2 Tormod's Crypt

4 Damnation[/cardlist]

Creeping Tar Pit – this is one of my favorite Worldwake man-lands, and a great addition to this deck when it doesn't have anything to spend its mama on, and of course, an alternate win condition. Funny referring to damage as an alternate win condition, isn't it?

Maybe some Ghost Quarters main deck or sideboard, and you're probably going to want some more mana-fixing. Also, fetch-lands would make our Hedron Crabs far more effective.

It's debatable, which Jace is more effective here, though I think that the one that Ponders for free, manipulates the opponent's deck, and eventually completely lobotomizes the opposition wins out. (For those unfamiliar with the two cards, that would be Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

As it has been pointed out before, Treasure Hunt combos very nicely with Jace, the Mind Sculptor in order to manipulate the potent two-mana card-draw spell.

I bit my nails a bit over the inclusion of Howling Mine and Font of Mythos, wondering if they would slow the deck down too much. I axed out Font of Mythos because you can always transmute for Howling Mine.

Note: At one point in the deck's modification in this article, I considered Muddle the Mixture to be too color costly and too inefficient as a tutor. Well, due to various modifications, my opinion of the card for this list has changed, but if you find it not good enough, I would use Negate.

The late add Gifts Ungiven can put your opponent between a rock and a very hard place, especially if he/she has twenty or fewer cards left in the library. Speaking of twenty or fewer cards in the library, is Isleback Spawn a bit too slow for this deck. Either way, 8/16's are sick as anything.

The Blue/Black/Red deck proved to try to move in too many directions at once, but I have created a great many Standard Pyromancer's Ascension decklists.

It should be duly noted that these decks are based more upon speculation than anything else, for extensive playtesing is beyond my means. I do feel though they may be viable Standard and Extended options, but because of the extraordinary power-level of Extended right now, I think that perhaps there will be too many unfavorable match-ups, especially the modified Elfball, numerous artifact combo decks, and maybe Zoo, but if the deck can be modified to a state where it is a tenable Extended option, that's terrific in my opinion!

Wrap Up:

Back to the topic that we originally set out to discuss (though it is something of an awkward segue, after 2,500 words of intermission) of course it's not entirely fair to say that everybody hates blue, or even that most people who simply dislike it have a full-blown enmity that shines with so much dark malice, you could illuminate Urbog, Tomb of Yawngmoth with it. It's really just a pervading issue in the Magic community right now, online and otherwise.

So, we can reliably glean from all of this information that blue does some things that people don't like it to do, and yes, R&D is stuck between a rock and a hard place where it is concerned if they are trying to please all kinds of players all of the time. But without the decking alternate win condition being made a possibility, the game would be a lot less fun for those of us who have pulled it off, and blue would suffer tremendously if counterspells were not printed, because without them, there is little protection for blue. All of the colors have to have their way out of a situation. Black has removal, red has burn and artifact hate, green and white have combat tricks, artifact and enchantment destruction and blue, well... Blue has flying creatures, counterspells, and things that dump parts of your precious mind into the garbage pail.

The Worldwake Situation and a Short Disclaimer:

As many have said already and it is true, Worldwake has offered up a fantastic array of blue playables, which does give it a considerable boost, but whether it is still the weakest color in most peoples' minds is as always, debatable. Construction on this article did begin before Worldwake, and was in fact intended to be run before Worldwake so that the contrast between the two Standard metagames could be addressed, so some passages may seem a bit anachronistic.

Fun Fact and its Explanation:

My favorite play in today's Standard (it's better on the play) is casting four Archive Traps for zero mana on turn one against an opponent who just popped a fetch-land, milling all but one of the cards (if he's on the play) or the remaining fifty-two cards (if he's on the draw) from his or her deck, and he or she loses on his or her next draw step. Even though the probability of pulling this off is one in thirteen-thousand, nine-hundred thirty-two assuming that you have a deck of sixty cards, and your opponent cracks a fetch-land on turn one 100% of the time, it's still an amazing way to win, and it at least sheds some light on why Archive Trap mills thirteen cards. It seems the makers of Magic had this play in mind while creating the card.

Another Disclaimer: All decks are my original work unless I specify otherwise, but it's inevitable that others have come up with similar or identical decks to mine, like the Standard Mono-Blue Milling one.