Post by mayandisaster on Aug 6, 2013 8:32:05 GMT -5
if you have anything to add please do so! i am sure i am missing a ton
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blue/black (UB) is by far my favourite colour combination in magic. it offers all the tools you need to disrupt your opponent's game plan and stay ahead in the game, with hand disruption, card draw, removal, and counter spells, all extremely powerful interactions in magic.
while both mono black and mono blue are valid and popular decks, UB combines the best of both, and in the process creates a different kind of deck. it is a deck that rewards good players and experience, which is what
attracts a lot of people to it.
please note, i will not be discussing dimir post, as i do not have any experience with the deck, and i feel their game plan is different to ours.
how the deck plays out
UB wins by disrupting your opponent long enough to beat them down with your disruptive value creatures. we aim to sculpt a game state in which mulldrifters and chittering rats are beating into your opponent's
empty board and empty hand. it can be long and grindy, but that's part of the fun!
the deck features a number of small creatures that have an enter the battlefield effect, usually drawing us cards or forcing the opponent to discard theirs. black offers us ways to recur these creatures from the graveyard to continue to gain value, while the board is kept clear thanks to removal.
why play UB?
UB is a meta dependent deck. it preys mostly on creature decks, usually running 10+ maindeck removal spells. it has a good chance of winning
against a lot of the creature based aggro decks in the format, including stompy, elves, slivers, izzet fiend, affinity and so on. obviously these decks can still nutdraw, but UB has the tools necessary to deal with these decks a lot of the time.
the deck is also just a lot of fun to play! there are a lot of decisions to be made and lots of neat interactions that can basically win games by themself (hello mulldrifter + undying evil). it is a control deck for a player that likes to tap out sometimes instead of holding up 20 different counter spells.
sounds good, why isn't UB more widely played?
UB is famously weak against fissure post, which is one of the main reasons it rarely sees play. while it can win out against them, it usually requires boarding in a lot of land destruction and hand disruption, and games are spent digging for it, and praying your opponent can't go off until you can disrupt them enough to win.
UB is also fairly weak to burn, as outside of duress and negate, we have no real way of interacting with them, and they are very fast, while we need a few turns to set up with our tapped lands.
like all two-colour decks in pauper, the deck can lose to itself because
of not being able to get your colours, or lands coming into play tapped. usually we need to run 4 gates, 4 aqueducts or 4 fetchlands to dig for our mana, and this can be too much of a tempo loss against some decks. this also puts certain builds of UB fairly weak to land destruction. it's very much a risk/reward kind of thing.
so what's in the deck?
the deck is mostly removal spells and card draw, with hand disruption and counter spells sometimes included. our main guys are mulldrifter and chittering rats. these are not only our win conditions, but how we stay in the game. the other creatures we run are dependent on the type of deck you want, but mostly include some variation of cuombajj witches, trinket mage, crypt rats, phyrexian rager, sea gate oracle, augur of skulls and ravenous rats.
next we have our card draw, in the way of compulsive research, probe, sign in blood and of course, mulldrifter.
the removal varies from build to build, and encyclopedias have been written about which removal spells to run, but mostly include doom blade, disfigure/tragic slip, victim of night, diabolic edict, snuff out, spinning darkness and so on. we run a variety of removal spells to handle a lot of situations.
the deck also runs ways to recur your value guys from your graveyard for extra value, by way of unearth and grim harvest. not only do they let us keep threats on the board, they give us the advantage in the long game, which is where we want to be.
as far as mana goes, typically, we run the full set of aqueducts and evolving wilds, and some number of gates, just to ensure we hit our colours.
builds
General UB -
1 Barren Moor
1 Bojuka Bog
4 Dimir Aqueduct
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Island
12 Swamp
3 Cuombajj Witches
4 Chittering Rats
2 Phyrexian Rager
2 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Mulldrifter
3 Disfigure
3 Doom Blade
2 Snuff Out
2 Victim of Night
1 Spinning Darkness
1 Grim Harvest
3 Compulsive Research
2 Probe
2 Negate
2 Diabolic Edict
Sideboard
3 Duress
4 Choking Sands
2 Rancid Earth
2 Crypt Rats
1 Negate
2 Stinkweed Imp
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
this is pretty much your stock UB list, and a decent enough place to start when playing UB. as you can see, this list runs 13 removal spells, and of varying types to ensure things die and stay dead.
how to play UB - matchups
delver - it is important to keep a hand that can interact with them early. we really only care about ninja and a flipped delver, as the rest of their guys only serve to shut us out of the game. resolving cuombajj witches is priority number one. keep the board clear of faeries as best as you can until you can start resolving mulldrifters. snuff out is an all star in this match-up, as they rarely expect it. use it to kill a ninja after they tap out, or in response to a spellstutter to ensure your spell resolves. delver however is delver, and has the capacity to just win no matter what you do.
sideboard: +3 duress, +1 negate, +2 stinkweed imp
-1 probe, -2 chittering rats, -2 diabolic edict, -1 compulsive research
it is important to note that duress might not hit, but the information gained is good enough to include it. chittering rats is fairly bad in this match-up, as they run so many cantrips and gush that the tempo loss is never really a problem for them. edict gets worse after board as they board in dispels and stormbound geist. stinkweed imp will eat counterspells and it will come back and eat more counterspells until it resolves and eats spire golems. remember to try and not mill yourself out, and that grim harvest may end up in the GY.
stompy - stompy is favourable for us. remember to hold up removal but not get too greedy with it, you won't always hit rancor and vines of vastwood can be a problem. kill their quirion rangers and remember not to flippantly block young wolf. be wary of hunger of the howlpack too, we enable it quite a lot.
sideboard: +3 duress, +1 negate, +1 lifestaff, +2 crypt rats
-2 probe, -2 phyrexian rager, -1 compulsive research, -2 snuff out
we basically board out or top end, and anything that costs us life in order to accommodate crypt rats. remember they have scattershot archers post-board, and with a quirion ranger out, they can kill mulldrifters pretty easily. duress and negate can be pretty big game too.
more to come
variations
UB Trinket - rather than clumsily explain this, i will just link you to the wealth of trinket knowledge available at MTGOStrat.com - mtgostrat.com/category/trinket-control/
UB Delver Teachings - mtgo-stats.com/decks/68442
as i've mentioned a number of times, tutoring is an incredibly powerful mechanic. tutoring both counter spells and removal whenever you need it is sort of scary. this deck wants a threat in play and to protect it, much like regular delver
UB Discard - mtgo-stats.com/decks/45139
this deck runs more discard creatures to keep your opponents hand empty
UB Nameless Inversion - mtgo-stats.com/decks/69525
this is an interesting list. the ghoulraiser/nameless inversion combo is a powerful one, however, inversion misses some important creatures including nivix cyclops, myr enforcer, carapace forger and mnemonic wall. ghoulraising ghoulraisers and looping them is pretty powerful too. i wouldn't mind seeing a jhessian zombie and possibly some raven's crimes. this list is raw but has potential.
underplayed UB cards
ostrasize - i really like ostracize in the current meta. the combo decks of the format rely on creatures. delver, while it may not feel like it, runs quite a lot of creatures. delverfiend runs few creatures and relies on one big threat to get there. this is just my opinion, and i could be wrong.
ghostly flicker - with so many good enter the battlefield effects, flicker is an interesting option. having multiple rats out with a flicker is a good way to set your opponent back a good few turns.
recoil - recoil is something i've yet to explore fully. with the rise of gates and cloudpost, on paper it should be pretty good, especially with augur of skulls and the like. against a lot of decks it's just a dead card however, something to consider for the sideboard.
summary
UB is an interesting deck with so many different cards to select from. hopefully this primer has got you interested in brewing, and we see UB rise in popularity again!
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blue/black (UB) is by far my favourite colour combination in magic. it offers all the tools you need to disrupt your opponent's game plan and stay ahead in the game, with hand disruption, card draw, removal, and counter spells, all extremely powerful interactions in magic.
while both mono black and mono blue are valid and popular decks, UB combines the best of both, and in the process creates a different kind of deck. it is a deck that rewards good players and experience, which is what
attracts a lot of people to it.
please note, i will not be discussing dimir post, as i do not have any experience with the deck, and i feel their game plan is different to ours.
how the deck plays out
UB wins by disrupting your opponent long enough to beat them down with your disruptive value creatures. we aim to sculpt a game state in which mulldrifters and chittering rats are beating into your opponent's
empty board and empty hand. it can be long and grindy, but that's part of the fun!
the deck features a number of small creatures that have an enter the battlefield effect, usually drawing us cards or forcing the opponent to discard theirs. black offers us ways to recur these creatures from the graveyard to continue to gain value, while the board is kept clear thanks to removal.
why play UB?
UB is a meta dependent deck. it preys mostly on creature decks, usually running 10+ maindeck removal spells. it has a good chance of winning
against a lot of the creature based aggro decks in the format, including stompy, elves, slivers, izzet fiend, affinity and so on. obviously these decks can still nutdraw, but UB has the tools necessary to deal with these decks a lot of the time.
the deck is also just a lot of fun to play! there are a lot of decisions to be made and lots of neat interactions that can basically win games by themself (hello mulldrifter + undying evil). it is a control deck for a player that likes to tap out sometimes instead of holding up 20 different counter spells.
sounds good, why isn't UB more widely played?
UB is famously weak against fissure post, which is one of the main reasons it rarely sees play. while it can win out against them, it usually requires boarding in a lot of land destruction and hand disruption, and games are spent digging for it, and praying your opponent can't go off until you can disrupt them enough to win.
UB is also fairly weak to burn, as outside of duress and negate, we have no real way of interacting with them, and they are very fast, while we need a few turns to set up with our tapped lands.
like all two-colour decks in pauper, the deck can lose to itself because
of not being able to get your colours, or lands coming into play tapped. usually we need to run 4 gates, 4 aqueducts or 4 fetchlands to dig for our mana, and this can be too much of a tempo loss against some decks. this also puts certain builds of UB fairly weak to land destruction. it's very much a risk/reward kind of thing.
so what's in the deck?
the deck is mostly removal spells and card draw, with hand disruption and counter spells sometimes included. our main guys are mulldrifter and chittering rats. these are not only our win conditions, but how we stay in the game. the other creatures we run are dependent on the type of deck you want, but mostly include some variation of cuombajj witches, trinket mage, crypt rats, phyrexian rager, sea gate oracle, augur of skulls and ravenous rats.
next we have our card draw, in the way of compulsive research, probe, sign in blood and of course, mulldrifter.
the removal varies from build to build, and encyclopedias have been written about which removal spells to run, but mostly include doom blade, disfigure/tragic slip, victim of night, diabolic edict, snuff out, spinning darkness and so on. we run a variety of removal spells to handle a lot of situations.
the deck also runs ways to recur your value guys from your graveyard for extra value, by way of unearth and grim harvest. not only do they let us keep threats on the board, they give us the advantage in the long game, which is where we want to be.
as far as mana goes, typically, we run the full set of aqueducts and evolving wilds, and some number of gates, just to ensure we hit our colours.
builds
General UB -
1 Barren Moor
1 Bojuka Bog
4 Dimir Aqueduct
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Island
12 Swamp
3 Cuombajj Witches
4 Chittering Rats
2 Phyrexian Rager
2 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Mulldrifter
3 Disfigure
3 Doom Blade
2 Snuff Out
2 Victim of Night
1 Spinning Darkness
1 Grim Harvest
3 Compulsive Research
2 Probe
2 Negate
2 Diabolic Edict
Sideboard
3 Duress
4 Choking Sands
2 Rancid Earth
2 Crypt Rats
1 Negate
2 Stinkweed Imp
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
this is pretty much your stock UB list, and a decent enough place to start when playing UB. as you can see, this list runs 13 removal spells, and of varying types to ensure things die and stay dead.
how to play UB - matchups
delver - it is important to keep a hand that can interact with them early. we really only care about ninja and a flipped delver, as the rest of their guys only serve to shut us out of the game. resolving cuombajj witches is priority number one. keep the board clear of faeries as best as you can until you can start resolving mulldrifters. snuff out is an all star in this match-up, as they rarely expect it. use it to kill a ninja after they tap out, or in response to a spellstutter to ensure your spell resolves. delver however is delver, and has the capacity to just win no matter what you do.
sideboard: +3 duress, +1 negate, +2 stinkweed imp
-1 probe, -2 chittering rats, -2 diabolic edict, -1 compulsive research
it is important to note that duress might not hit, but the information gained is good enough to include it. chittering rats is fairly bad in this match-up, as they run so many cantrips and gush that the tempo loss is never really a problem for them. edict gets worse after board as they board in dispels and stormbound geist. stinkweed imp will eat counterspells and it will come back and eat more counterspells until it resolves and eats spire golems. remember to try and not mill yourself out, and that grim harvest may end up in the GY.
stompy - stompy is favourable for us. remember to hold up removal but not get too greedy with it, you won't always hit rancor and vines of vastwood can be a problem. kill their quirion rangers and remember not to flippantly block young wolf. be wary of hunger of the howlpack too, we enable it quite a lot.
sideboard: +3 duress, +1 negate, +1 lifestaff, +2 crypt rats
-2 probe, -2 phyrexian rager, -1 compulsive research, -2 snuff out
we basically board out or top end, and anything that costs us life in order to accommodate crypt rats. remember they have scattershot archers post-board, and with a quirion ranger out, they can kill mulldrifters pretty easily. duress and negate can be pretty big game too.
more to come
variations
UB Trinket - rather than clumsily explain this, i will just link you to the wealth of trinket knowledge available at MTGOStrat.com - mtgostrat.com/category/trinket-control/
UB Delver Teachings - mtgo-stats.com/decks/68442
as i've mentioned a number of times, tutoring is an incredibly powerful mechanic. tutoring both counter spells and removal whenever you need it is sort of scary. this deck wants a threat in play and to protect it, much like regular delver
UB Discard - mtgo-stats.com/decks/45139
this deck runs more discard creatures to keep your opponents hand empty
UB Nameless Inversion - mtgo-stats.com/decks/69525
this is an interesting list. the ghoulraiser/nameless inversion combo is a powerful one, however, inversion misses some important creatures including nivix cyclops, myr enforcer, carapace forger and mnemonic wall. ghoulraising ghoulraisers and looping them is pretty powerful too. i wouldn't mind seeing a jhessian zombie and possibly some raven's crimes. this list is raw but has potential.
underplayed UB cards
ostrasize - i really like ostracize in the current meta. the combo decks of the format rely on creatures. delver, while it may not feel like it, runs quite a lot of creatures. delverfiend runs few creatures and relies on one big threat to get there. this is just my opinion, and i could be wrong.
ghostly flicker - with so many good enter the battlefield effects, flicker is an interesting option. having multiple rats out with a flicker is a good way to set your opponent back a good few turns.
recoil - recoil is something i've yet to explore fully. with the rise of gates and cloudpost, on paper it should be pretty good, especially with augur of skulls and the like. against a lot of decks it's just a dead card however, something to consider for the sideboard.
summary
UB is an interesting deck with so many different cards to select from. hopefully this primer has got you interested in brewing, and we see UB rise in popularity again!