Blue Skies

[preddi]

Hello,

since my first competitive deck was Blue Skies I still have some love for this deck. I am aware of the fact, that this deck will never be really good in legacy, but since I own many cards that would fit in this I want the deck to become as good as possible.

So for those who don't know this archetype - Blue Skies is a deck, which drops a bunch of flying creatures on the table and slows the opponent long enough with free Counters and Bounce spells to steal the game. It used to play:

A bunch of Fliers:
Rishadan Airship
Troublesome Spirit
Spiketail Hatchling

Some of Cantrips and free Spells like:
Foil
Thwart
Gush
Daze
Misdirection
Opt
Sleight of Hand

A soft lock:
Rising Waters

And a little mana denial and disruption in form of:
Rishadan Port
Rushing River

My first attempt looks like this:
2 Vendillion Clique
2 Serendib Efreet
4 Sea Drake
4 Mulldrifter
4 Fettergeist
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Preordain
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Foil
3 Winter Orb
2 Rushing Rivers
4 Wasteland
14 Island

Cards I considered so far, that haven't found a spot in the list:

Spellstutter Sprite
Kira, Great Glas-Spinner
Misthallow Griffin
Misdirection
Spell Pierce


I am looking for improvement and I know many Sourcers like their Pet decks as much as I do while knowing good cards. I would appreciate constructive feedback.

-preddi

[Poron]

ehm you might want to reconsider your creature list

Sea Drake
Illusory Angel
Serendib Efreet
Serendib Djinn

they all might be an improvement...

Unstable Mutation also is a must..

btw, Gush is quiiiiite banned

[John Cox]

Look into brainstorm and fetchlands

[preddi]

Brainstorm and Fetchlands are interesting although I don't know if Brainstorms alone are worth it right now, because Stifle is a common card.

@Poron:
Efreet and Sea Drake are already part of the list. Illusory Angel looks interesting but I think you need enablers for it (maybe cantrips are enough, but I'm not sure). Serendib Djinn is a cool card, but with just 18 lands hard to support. Gush is banned (obviously), I mentioned it because it was in the original list (was replaced with Mulldrifter).
Unstable Mutation is a good idea, what cards go out for it?

-preddi

[Jabari]

I used to play UW Tempo and Vexing Sphinx was great as a two of. Might be worth it in your list with all the lands you bounce.

[evanmartyr]

You have 4x 1cc threats and then a million 3cc threats, but no way to jump ahead in mana production like Faerie Stompy does.

Foil is significantly worse than Daze or, given the lack of 1-2cc threats, any 1 mana counterspell that can hit a reasonable number of things.

Rushing River is cool, but very expensive and very all in. If I remember my rules-lawyering correctly, it being countered is a massive tempo/resource loss.

Mulldrifter without a reasonable way to consistently slow the game down (or speed it up for you) is just a very expensive creature, or a very expensive draw spell.

I'd suggest looking up Faerie Stompy, it's pretty much what you're going for but in a much more elegant, synergistic, and powerful way. If you had your heart set on revitalizing a true "Blue Skies" type deck, then I'd suggest dropping the curve (a lot), and looking into a more consistent card drawing/filtering. The problem with Blue Skies was that it was successful in an environment with a lack of decks that interacted in more than one dimension (Fires and Rebels pretty much just attacked you), where flying was hugely relevant, and where games went a lot longer than they usually do in Legacy today. Blue just doesn't have the clock (outside of Faerie Stompy creatures, merfolk, and Delver) to make all that cheap countermagic and bounce relevant.

Oh and for God's sake, put in Brainstorm. It's better than Sleight of Hand 99% of the time, even if you don't run fetchlands or tutors and when you don't even consider people play hand disruption. Just play it.

[preddi]

Hi thanks for your feedback,
I think you are right about the Manacurve issues. But I found no other good fliers in the 1 and 2 cmc area. What would you suggest?
Faerie Stompy is a whole different deck. While both decks run fliers I don't want to play cards like Chrome Mox and the creature count is too low in a meta with swords and Snapcaster mages. Sol Lands might be good though.
Brainstorm is bad without shuffle effects (I think way worse than Sleight of Hand), because you draw effectively just one card, Ponder suffers from the same issue, but is slightly better because you can shuffle.
Rushing River is cool, but are there better options? Echoing truth maybe?
I know Foils is basically a bad card. Foils was a cool way to get rid of useless lands, but I figured Vexing Sphinx could do that way better.
So I think the mainissue lies withing the manacurve. I'm still looking for some decent fliers.

-preddi
-preddi
I replaced it with Misdirection for tests and it was better.

[mordraid]

I would go with curiosity instead of unstable mutation. Combined with Vexing sphinx and all those flyers, it's a killer they must awnser, even if the flyer is just 1/1.

[evanmartyr]

Sorry, I think I didn't explain well enough. My point is that since this is in the new and developing forum, and not the budget forum, it remaining budget shouldn't be a concern, nor should gut reactions away from cards or strategies because they're disliked. I can understand wanting to do something different, but you're pushing for a remake of a deck whose basic strategy is either done better by other decks (RUG/RU Delver, Faerie Stompy, Team America) or is just fundamentally not good enough for the current Legacy environment.

For example, Blue Skies strategy has not changed. There are no decks that are identical to its traditional opponents, however, because all the other strategies changed and the decks changed with them. Rebels got replaced with UW Stoneforge type control, Fires is...I dunno, Sneak Attack? Goblins? Blue Skies went from playing with ok blue fliers to playing with marginally better blue fliers, and from Rishadan Port to Wasteland. Your version is better, technically, but it's nowhere near good enough.

You're fighting Vietnam with WW1 cavalry charges, it just won't work. The decks that adopted the blue skies strategy to the needs of Legacy exist already, and vary from extremely effective to occasionally effective. You need to drastically readjust the thrust of the deck to see any kind of competitiveness out of it.

So, sorry to shit all over your idea, if that's what I'm doing, but I think you just update the deck without addressing the concerns of today (tempo is a massive issue, 1cc spells are a massive portion of the meta, mana acceleration is hugely important, op creatures are hugely important, etc.) I mentioned Faerie Stompy a lot because it *has* addressed those concerns. If you dislike Faerie Stompy in the current meta because of the wealth of value control decks can get out of removal, why not start with THAT deck and tweak it to run with hexproof creatures or something? I hear that hexproof/unblockable guy is some good with equipment.

And my point with Brainstorm is that in a deck that actually runs counterspells, it can enable them, it can hide them, it can hide other things, and it can find them when you need them much better than Sleight can. If the deck's mono-blue and runs a preponderance of Islands, why NOT run Fetches? Why NOT splash a color for access to higher quality 1-2 drops or removal that doesn't cost three mana? Yes, it opens you up to Wasteland and/or Stifle, but no more than nearly any deck in the field.

[Smedley]

*Sorry for the thread necro, Blue Skies search landed me here, didn't think to check the date...*

Evanmartyr hit the nail on the head on several things, especially Brainstorm. Yes, in it's most basic form Brainstorm only *nets* you one card, but the fact that it lets you dig 3-deep into your library for the best of those 3 cards and at instant speed is what really matters. If you're playing it on your main phase to try and see whether you can draw something better than what you have, you're not getting the most out of its full value. Brainstorm's best value is when you have to determine a need at the moment your opponent commits to an action and the sooner you find an answer for that action the better - it allows you to find solutions in a more dynamic manner that can be adaptive.

Many other options, while technically getting you better access to more of your deck (i.e Ponder which provides you a shuffle if your answer isn't in the top 3), still require you to commit to them on your main phase and don't let you be as reactive to your opponent (which is ostensibly one of the reasons you'd want to play blue in the first place, right?). If you drop a land and pass the turn, then I play a black source and try to hit you with Thoughtseize (which is EVERYWHERE, btw), assuming you don't have a counterspell to fall back on, you could Brainstorm in response to draw 3 cards and put your 2 most important cards back on top of your library (it's especially frustrating for the other player if you draw a bunch of land with your Brainstorm, put your best 2 back on top, then smile and show him a hand full of lands!).

The things that mono-blue decks have done throughout the years to adapt to the meta have generally been to consolidate weaknesses/drawbacks and capitalize on whatever strengths they either already had or that have been enhanced over the years. Faerie Stompy has done precisely this - it combines the 3-drop blue fliers aggro mentality with a passive suppression ability via cards like Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere, and uses equipment like Umezawa's Jitte to provide power and versatility that the deck would've otherwise lacked (i.e. the ability to buff creatures, remove relatively small creature-based threats and gain life). The fact that it can now field Vendilion Clique in addition to Spellstutter Sprite and Cloud of Faeries only make it better.

[Macky984]

Without a doubt... I would play Back to Basics.