Unhinged Manchild
Active member
We all hate playing against blue, even in MTG. They're obnoxious control freaks with a play style full of denial! After over 1000+ hours of playing AotP tournaments, scenarios, customs playtests, and discussions with the AotP community, I've put together a list of tips to help you use other colors to beat blue (it's still not a pretty sight for some colors...)
This advice assumes the following:
-Standard 2-player kill'em all OR kill the Planeswalker.
-AotP scenario/map OR a reasonably fair Heroscape map.
-600 pt armies, 12 card/200 pt spells.
-Jace Beleren is generally assumed to be the enemy Planeswalker (not the hot garbage Innistrad Jace Investigator, and not Kiora because her builds/playstyles are extremely varied.)
With that aside, let's review advice that can apply almost universally:
1. If blue has Lantern Geists, don't move your Planeswalker within 5 spaces of Jace Beleren unless you have good odds to kill the walker, or it's simply your last hope to clinch the game. MIND STEALER and FLICKER make it annoying and even dangerous to charge your Planeswalker straight in.
2. Lantern Geists and Leyline Phantoms are very bulky, you generally shouldn't attempt to kill them via combat rolls until after Jace is dead. FLICKER will heal geists, and blue can use their own Unsummon card to heal their Leylines. These blue creatures hate abilities and spells that deal direct damage, debuff/ignore their toughness, or destroy them outright, though. Don't let your best "damage/destroy creature" spells be countered by Psychic Rebuttal - bait the trigger with a weaker sorcery first, if possible!
3. Kill Illusionary Projections that aren't well protected, and especially kill ones that are within 5 spaces of your own walker. You don't want the blue Planeswalker to teleport near your walker and immediately summon up to two army cards into direct engagement with your walker. It's hard to apply great pressure to the blue walker when they can teleport around the map while ignoring leaving engagement attacks.
4. If blue is sporting a hero, expect one of either Ghostly Wings or Essence Flux to put that hero in your face in a flash. You may want to keep a summon in your pocket and/or a powerful spell on the ready to pound that hero if blue sends him in. Don't leave your Planeswalker on a spot where an enemy hero can get height advantage against you with help from the above two spells.
5. Be careful while you have 3+ cards in hand; a +3 or +4 Roilmage's Trick boost can severely dent or even kill your Planeswalker! This is often used in tandem with Ghostly Wings or Essence Flux and on the Ruiner/Necro-Alchemist. You don't wanna eat an attack of 9+ dice from these guys.
6. If the blue Planeswalker has a hidden enchant on them and you fear Aetherspouts with your squads, just move them in to engage him and leash him in place (do not attack with them, though) while your hero or Planeswalker moves in later for an attack. If he moves, he takes LEAs, which can deal damage to him while not triggering Aetherspouts, since LEAs are not considered attack/combat. This tactic does not work if blue has Illusionary Projections, see point #3.
7. You can't rely on the same 1-2 key spells to help you win against blue. Each game, some of your spells will likely be manipulated by things like Jace's Erasure, Psychic Rebuttal, Scatter Arc, and Misdirection. Also, your access to certain spells could be delayed when they get shoved to the bottom of your library via Lantern Geists' EERIE OBSERVATION and Pieces of the Puzzle.
If you are white:
1. Don't stack too many enchantments on 1 squad while blue could still have Aetherspouts or Unsummon ready to go. High toughness is decent against blue's mediocre combat power, but you can't use your enchantments all at once or you will likely lose them all at once. Ideally, you lose no more than 1 enchantment each time blue sends your creatures back to reserve. Patience, young Planeswalker!
2. Somewhat in line with #1, don't use your power enhancement buffs willy nilly. When you buff power, do it with intense purpose. Blue will likely turn your super buff squads against you via Welcome to the Fold and Mind Control, steal your enchantment via Misdirection, or Unsummon your squad so the enchantments are destroyed.
3. Hookmasters + Inspired Charge is a great assassination combo and wincon once you have confirmed that Psychic Rebuttal and Aetherspouts are not on the opposing Planeswalker! If blue bounces the Hookers, you get to resummon them and use DETAIN again! If you can, try to add Divine Favor into the mix for additional power when you use Inspired Charge!
4. You have access to great secret weapons to deal with Geists and Phantoms: Instakill spells! Geists can especially be a nightmare for white to deal with in straight combat, and the Geists can heal off damage via FLICKER and be resummoned whenever the blue Planeswalker takes a turn. Hopefully you included at least one of Fell the Mighty, Sunlance, or Silverstrike in your white spell deck, as those can significantly help in this matchup. Just be sure that you don't get your instakill sorceries countered by Psychic Rebuttal; scout with a weaker sorcery first, if possible!
5. Kill projections and try to keep your Planeswalker away from Jace B unless absolutely necessary. White has basically no range and can't afford to be chasing the blue Planeswalker when blue will inevitably use Illusionary Deception to freely teleport. Also, if you spend too much of the early-mid game trying to get your walker adjacent to Jace, even a single successful MIND STEALER can cost you dearly! It's unfortunate, but you are likely playing a long game here; blue and white are the two most defensive colors in AotP!
6. Heroes - white's specialty. Kor Aeronaut Captain and/or Avacyn can put good pressure on the blue Planeswalker with their flying mobility, since blue can't use many of their best spells against your heroes. With some luck, Kor Captain can put a heavy dent into Jace. Chaplain's Blessing, Angel's Mercy, Healing Salve, Swift Justice, and Tenacity can be great cards for hero longevity; take LEAs and continuously smash Jace - PUT THE FEAR OF GOD IN HIM!
If you are black:
1. Restless Zombies are usually pretty powerful for black, but perhaps moreso in this matchup. Use them as body blockers to occupy spaces adjacent to your Planeswalker if Phantoms could move next to your Planeswalker. Attrition works in your favor - weaken blue's squads by killing some of those figures ASAP so that blue struggles to kill zombies while you keep bringing them back. Be sure to use self-destruct stuff like AT ANY PRICE, Bone Splinters, Corrupt, Painful Truths, and Altar's Reap to destroy your last zombie so that you can reap those benefits and then roll for DARKNESS ARISES to bring all 3 back!
2. Focus your powerful instakills on Geists and Phantoms; Ob's AT ANY PRICE, Lily's SNUFF OUT, and spells like Killing Wave or Bone Splinters. The faster you kill Geists, the less blue will know about your deck & hand. If blue has a hero, you almost certainly want to save Bone Splinters to harm that figure, instead. Please be careful to not give a full blue squad or blue's heroes high ground against your Planeswalker if you are sending your walker in to kill blue's stuff, though!
3. Be mindful about using Dark Harvest if you haven't confirmed where Aetherspouts and/or Unsummon is. When your squad is sent back to reserve, they lose the enchantment and your destroyed squad figure remains in the graveyard. If there are no hidden enchants on the opposing blue Planeswalker and you can attack them with your squad figures, use some combination of Dark Harvest, Duress, Corpse Lunge, and Rise of the Dark Realms to really pound them. Duress can quickly put a blue Planeswalker in a bind if they are forced to discard some of their powerful cards.
4. Force Jace to be in uncomfortable positions if he wants to attempt his MIND STEALER! It can be quite devastating for you if he succeeds that while one of your expensive squads (Reavers, Bloodchasers) are on the battlefield, since blue can use Lily's ranged attack + SNUFF OUT or Ob's AT ANY PRICE to kill your squaddies with ease.
If you are red:
1. While the opposing blue Planeswalker has no hidden enchants on them, dogpile them with your squads, but be sure to put at least 1 power buffing enchantment on your figures right before attacking. Learn to take leaving engagement attacks in order to take massive melee swings at Jace. The combo of Seize the Day + Twinflame + Firebreathing can inflict serious damage even with mediocre luck, however blue literally has Aetherspouts + Psychic Rebuttal + Scatter Arc which can counter each piece of that combo. Pay attention to and scout for hidden enchants!
2. Use Firecats to attack (via HASTE, preferably) blue's figures with hidden enchants. If the kitties get bounced to reserve by Aetherspouts or Call to Heel, you can easily resummon the cats and use HASTE again!
3. Use direct damage to finish off weakened creatures! DO NOT use spells to inflict partial damage against the Geists when FLICKER will laugh that damage off - only use spells if it would KILL a Geist. Incinerate, Dual Shot, Pyroclasm, and SUPER HEATED are your friends.
4. Same advice as mentioned for white; you should only use your power buff enchants with great purpose (near the start of the turn, before or immediately after you choose that squad for the turn,) since blue is almost inevitably going to use Mind Control and/or Welcome to the Fold to turn your figures against you, or Misdirection to steal your great power boosting enchants, or Unsummon to remove enchantments and bounce your creatures.
If you are green:
1. Use massive range and power stims to smack the enemy Planeswalker, especially Kessig Rangers + HUNT AT DAWN + Titanic Growth. Watch out for hidden enchants Aetherspouts and Psychic Rebuttal, though!
2. It's probably not worth your time to try and kill the Geists until the blue Planeswalker is dead. They can't FLICKER if there isn't a walker to resummon them. Don't blow your wincons (Overrun, Snare the Skies, Groundswell, Titanic Growth) on killing Geists or Phantoms unless you feel you absolutely have to. Use your range and power stims to hunt Jace!
3. Nissa is the queen of late game. Use her magnificent range + sprint to dictate Jace's movements. Leaf Arrow + Predatory Strike + Groundswell + Bountiful Harvest makes Nissa formidable, and can give her an edge against Jace. Save Leaf Arrow and/or Predatory Strike for a late game sweep with Nissa, preferably after Misdirection has been used. If Jace uses Misdirection on Leaf Arrow, destroy it either right before he attacks a creature, or during your own turn when he isn't attacking at all!
4. Primeval Light is HUGE against blue's hidden enchants, and green has very few of their own enchantments that they care about for themselves. If blue has at least 2 enchantments on their cards (especially on their Planeswalker) you should strongly consider trying Primeval Light. Ideally, you play a less useful spell like Skyreaping or Nissa's Expedition first, just to scout for Psychic Rebuttal. Don't let Psychic Rebuttal counter your Primeval Light if there are multiple hidden enchants on blue's cards!
Do these tips make sense to you? What suggestions do you have for defeating blue?
This advice assumes the following:
-Standard 2-player kill'em all OR kill the Planeswalker.
-AotP scenario/map OR a reasonably fair Heroscape map.
-600 pt armies, 12 card/200 pt spells.
-Jace Beleren is generally assumed to be the enemy Planeswalker (not the hot garbage Innistrad Jace Investigator, and not Kiora because her builds/playstyles are extremely varied.)
With that aside, let's review advice that can apply almost universally:
1. If blue has Lantern Geists, don't move your Planeswalker within 5 spaces of Jace Beleren unless you have good odds to kill the walker, or it's simply your last hope to clinch the game. MIND STEALER and FLICKER make it annoying and even dangerous to charge your Planeswalker straight in.
2. Lantern Geists and Leyline Phantoms are very bulky, you generally shouldn't attempt to kill them via combat rolls until after Jace is dead. FLICKER will heal geists, and blue can use their own Unsummon card to heal their Leylines. These blue creatures hate abilities and spells that deal direct damage, debuff/ignore their toughness, or destroy them outright, though. Don't let your best "damage/destroy creature" spells be countered by Psychic Rebuttal - bait the trigger with a weaker sorcery first, if possible!
3. Kill Illusionary Projections that aren't well protected, and especially kill ones that are within 5 spaces of your own walker. You don't want the blue Planeswalker to teleport near your walker and immediately summon up to two army cards into direct engagement with your walker. It's hard to apply great pressure to the blue walker when they can teleport around the map while ignoring leaving engagement attacks.
4. If blue is sporting a hero, expect one of either Ghostly Wings or Essence Flux to put that hero in your face in a flash. You may want to keep a summon in your pocket and/or a powerful spell on the ready to pound that hero if blue sends him in. Don't leave your Planeswalker on a spot where an enemy hero can get height advantage against you with help from the above two spells.
5. Be careful while you have 3+ cards in hand; a +3 or +4 Roilmage's Trick boost can severely dent or even kill your Planeswalker! This is often used in tandem with Ghostly Wings or Essence Flux and on the Ruiner/Necro-Alchemist. You don't wanna eat an attack of 9+ dice from these guys.
6. If the blue Planeswalker has a hidden enchant on them and you fear Aetherspouts with your squads, just move them in to engage him and leash him in place (do not attack with them, though) while your hero or Planeswalker moves in later for an attack. If he moves, he takes LEAs, which can deal damage to him while not triggering Aetherspouts, since LEAs are not considered attack/combat. This tactic does not work if blue has Illusionary Projections, see point #3.
7. You can't rely on the same 1-2 key spells to help you win against blue. Each game, some of your spells will likely be manipulated by things like Jace's Erasure, Psychic Rebuttal, Scatter Arc, and Misdirection. Also, your access to certain spells could be delayed when they get shoved to the bottom of your library via Lantern Geists' EERIE OBSERVATION and Pieces of the Puzzle.
If you are white:
1. Don't stack too many enchantments on 1 squad while blue could still have Aetherspouts or Unsummon ready to go. High toughness is decent against blue's mediocre combat power, but you can't use your enchantments all at once or you will likely lose them all at once. Ideally, you lose no more than 1 enchantment each time blue sends your creatures back to reserve. Patience, young Planeswalker!
2. Somewhat in line with #1, don't use your power enhancement buffs willy nilly. When you buff power, do it with intense purpose. Blue will likely turn your super buff squads against you via Welcome to the Fold and Mind Control, steal your enchantment via Misdirection, or Unsummon your squad so the enchantments are destroyed.
3. Hookmasters + Inspired Charge is a great assassination combo and wincon once you have confirmed that Psychic Rebuttal and Aetherspouts are not on the opposing Planeswalker! If blue bounces the Hookers, you get to resummon them and use DETAIN again! If you can, try to add Divine Favor into the mix for additional power when you use Inspired Charge!
4. You have access to great secret weapons to deal with Geists and Phantoms: Instakill spells! Geists can especially be a nightmare for white to deal with in straight combat, and the Geists can heal off damage via FLICKER and be resummoned whenever the blue Planeswalker takes a turn. Hopefully you included at least one of Fell the Mighty, Sunlance, or Silverstrike in your white spell deck, as those can significantly help in this matchup. Just be sure that you don't get your instakill sorceries countered by Psychic Rebuttal; scout with a weaker sorcery first, if possible!
5. Kill projections and try to keep your Planeswalker away from Jace B unless absolutely necessary. White has basically no range and can't afford to be chasing the blue Planeswalker when blue will inevitably use Illusionary Deception to freely teleport. Also, if you spend too much of the early-mid game trying to get your walker adjacent to Jace, even a single successful MIND STEALER can cost you dearly! It's unfortunate, but you are likely playing a long game here; blue and white are the two most defensive colors in AotP!
6. Heroes - white's specialty. Kor Aeronaut Captain and/or Avacyn can put good pressure on the blue Planeswalker with their flying mobility, since blue can't use many of their best spells against your heroes. With some luck, Kor Captain can put a heavy dent into Jace. Chaplain's Blessing, Angel's Mercy, Healing Salve, Swift Justice, and Tenacity can be great cards for hero longevity; take LEAs and continuously smash Jace - PUT THE FEAR OF GOD IN HIM!
If you are black:
1. Restless Zombies are usually pretty powerful for black, but perhaps moreso in this matchup. Use them as body blockers to occupy spaces adjacent to your Planeswalker if Phantoms could move next to your Planeswalker. Attrition works in your favor - weaken blue's squads by killing some of those figures ASAP so that blue struggles to kill zombies while you keep bringing them back. Be sure to use self-destruct stuff like AT ANY PRICE, Bone Splinters, Corrupt, Painful Truths, and Altar's Reap to destroy your last zombie so that you can reap those benefits and then roll for DARKNESS ARISES to bring all 3 back!
2. Focus your powerful instakills on Geists and Phantoms; Ob's AT ANY PRICE, Lily's SNUFF OUT, and spells like Killing Wave or Bone Splinters. The faster you kill Geists, the less blue will know about your deck & hand. If blue has a hero, you almost certainly want to save Bone Splinters to harm that figure, instead. Please be careful to not give a full blue squad or blue's heroes high ground against your Planeswalker if you are sending your walker in to kill blue's stuff, though!
3. Be mindful about using Dark Harvest if you haven't confirmed where Aetherspouts and/or Unsummon is. When your squad is sent back to reserve, they lose the enchantment and your destroyed squad figure remains in the graveyard. If there are no hidden enchants on the opposing blue Planeswalker and you can attack them with your squad figures, use some combination of Dark Harvest, Duress, Corpse Lunge, and Rise of the Dark Realms to really pound them. Duress can quickly put a blue Planeswalker in a bind if they are forced to discard some of their powerful cards.
4. Force Jace to be in uncomfortable positions if he wants to attempt his MIND STEALER! It can be quite devastating for you if he succeeds that while one of your expensive squads (Reavers, Bloodchasers) are on the battlefield, since blue can use Lily's ranged attack + SNUFF OUT or Ob's AT ANY PRICE to kill your squaddies with ease.
If you are red:
1. While the opposing blue Planeswalker has no hidden enchants on them, dogpile them with your squads, but be sure to put at least 1 power buffing enchantment on your figures right before attacking. Learn to take leaving engagement attacks in order to take massive melee swings at Jace. The combo of Seize the Day + Twinflame + Firebreathing can inflict serious damage even with mediocre luck, however blue literally has Aetherspouts + Psychic Rebuttal + Scatter Arc which can counter each piece of that combo. Pay attention to and scout for hidden enchants!
2. Use Firecats to attack (via HASTE, preferably) blue's figures with hidden enchants. If the kitties get bounced to reserve by Aetherspouts or Call to Heel, you can easily resummon the cats and use HASTE again!
3. Use direct damage to finish off weakened creatures! DO NOT use spells to inflict partial damage against the Geists when FLICKER will laugh that damage off - only use spells if it would KILL a Geist. Incinerate, Dual Shot, Pyroclasm, and SUPER HEATED are your friends.
4. Same advice as mentioned for white; you should only use your power buff enchants with great purpose (near the start of the turn, before or immediately after you choose that squad for the turn,) since blue is almost inevitably going to use Mind Control and/or Welcome to the Fold to turn your figures against you, or Misdirection to steal your great power boosting enchants, or Unsummon to remove enchantments and bounce your creatures.
If you are green:
1. Use massive range and power stims to smack the enemy Planeswalker, especially Kessig Rangers + HUNT AT DAWN + Titanic Growth. Watch out for hidden enchants Aetherspouts and Psychic Rebuttal, though!
2. It's probably not worth your time to try and kill the Geists until the blue Planeswalker is dead. They can't FLICKER if there isn't a walker to resummon them. Don't blow your wincons (Overrun, Snare the Skies, Groundswell, Titanic Growth) on killing Geists or Phantoms unless you feel you absolutely have to. Use your range and power stims to hunt Jace!
3. Nissa is the queen of late game. Use her magnificent range + sprint to dictate Jace's movements. Leaf Arrow + Predatory Strike + Groundswell + Bountiful Harvest makes Nissa formidable, and can give her an edge against Jace. Save Leaf Arrow and/or Predatory Strike for a late game sweep with Nissa, preferably after Misdirection has been used. If Jace uses Misdirection on Leaf Arrow, destroy it either right before he attacks a creature, or during your own turn when he isn't attacking at all!
4. Primeval Light is HUGE against blue's hidden enchants, and green has very few of their own enchantments that they care about for themselves. If blue has at least 2 enchantments on their cards (especially on their Planeswalker) you should strongly consider trying Primeval Light. Ideally, you play a less useful spell like Skyreaping or Nissa's Expedition first, just to scout for Psychic Rebuttal. Don't let Psychic Rebuttal counter your Primeval Light if there are multiple hidden enchants on blue's cards!
Do these tips make sense to you? What suggestions do you have for defeating blue?