What is the best/most consistent deck with blue (FoW) to fight the current metagame?

[Deady]

If there was only 1 blue deck to fight the current metagame and perhaps to fight the future metagame (by changing the SB), which one would you choose to play and why? Would it be a Countertop build, Next Level Threshold, Team America, UGW Tempo, Bant Aggro, High Tide or something different?

I know there isn't a perfect deck in legacy, but at least consistency is very important when it comes to a properly build, strong legacy deck.

I know of some blue players that constantly switch between decks instead of holding on to one deck. Why is that? Is it because blue lacks consistency in general? I don't know of many Goblin players that want to play something different... Goblins is just a very consistent deck that always does great in legacy and always have done great before. It's what it is. Now just tell me about a blue deck that is just as good as Goblins in terms of strategy, consistency and power level. Countertop immediately came into my mind, but even this deck doesn't seem to be the right call in todays meta, which I think is kind of a shame and a joke at the same time. Countertop to me is still one of the biggest reasons to play blue. When I think about blue, I think about Countertop and not about a tempo variant that suffers without the long term card advantage that Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top offer to the deck.

So, my personal vote goes to a Countertop build with Trinket Mage, EE, Needle involved to fight tribal, next to a red splash for Firespout, Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast, Ancient Grudge.

[Jonathan Alexander]

First off, I think this belongs in Format & Article Discussion.

Nevertheless it's an interesting topic. In my opinion tempo strategies are the strongest decks right now, preferably with access to Firespout and Lightning Bolt. These are really strong cards against all the tribal decks running around these days. The best blue tempo decks with red are BitterStalker and Next Level Thresh. NLT is stronger against tribal whereas BitterStalker is stronger against Zoo and combo.
Apart from that, UGW Tempo is another strong deck, but its sometimes a bit boring to play and therefore I wouldnt take it to large tournaments.
I'm also trying out a red-splash in New Horizons right now, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Needs more testing.

[hyc8028]

Even though tempo is really popular right now, I still think countertop is the most consistent blue deck. You can customize your deck deck to suit your meta game. CT is good against everything beside any deck that run vial. There is our usual 4 Color CB. NO CB, UWX Countertop walker.

[Jonathan Alexander]

Arent there a lot of Vial decks around right now? I think about 15-20% of the German metagame are decks that utilise the card. Therefore I wouldnt want to play a Counterbalance variant over removal-heavy tempo decks.

[Beatusnox]

Arent there a lot of Vial decks around right now? I think about 15-20% of the German metagame are decks that utilise the card. Therefore I wouldnt want to play a Counterbalance variant over removal-heavy tempo decks.

I would, the point behind the Counter Top engine is cusomization. if Vial is that popular, run destruction for it, the Counter Balance and Top allow more room in the deck for extra cards than one would believe.

Also, if your meta is only 15-20% vial, and it is the only deck you lose against incessantly, it seems like countertop would be a smart thing to play.

[troopatroop]

I think this question is more akin to, what's the most consistent blue STRATEGY to fight the meta. When I look at blue, I see two distinct strategies. Stifle based decks, and Counterbalance based decks. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but the point is that they're 2 very different strategies. I feel like Stifle is the more consistant strategy, because while many decks can adapt to Counterbalance, it's extremely hard to not play Fetchlands or Wasteland, which get hosed by the 1cc LD.

I've since paired Stifle with Wild Nacatl and Tarmogoyf, and it's paid in droves.

[mchainmail]

I think this question is more akin to, what's the most consistent blue STRATEGY to fight the meta. When I look at blue, I see two distinct strategies. Stifle based decks, and Counterbalance based decks. They both have their strengths and weaknesses, but the point is that they're 2 very different strategies. I feel like Stifle is the more consistant strategy, because while many decks can adapt to Counterbalance, it's extremely hard to not play Fetchlands or Wasteland, which get hosed by the 1cc LD.

I've since paired Stifle with Wild Nacatl and Tarmogoyf, and it's paid in droves.

There's also a seldom-played Jace + Counterspell strategy.

[AriLax]

CB-Top is not where it's at. Combo has shifted to not care about the lock any more, mostly due to Emrakul. That means the lock is only good against non-Vial beatdown, which is basically just Zoo which is fast enough to not care.

If you want to constantly adjust your deck for every event, a UW Landstill variant is viable. Otherwise you want to be a Tempo deck.

Or, if you just want to bash, play Force in combo like High Tide or Sneak and Show.

[Jonathan Alexander]

CB-Top is not where it's at. Combo has shifted to not care about the lock any more, mostly due to Emrakul. That means the lock is only good against non-Vial beatdown, which is basically just Zoo which is fast enough to not care.

If you want to constantly adjust your deck for every event, a UW Landstill variant is viable. Otherwise you want to be a Tempo deck.

Or, if you just want to bash, play Force in combo like High Tide or Sneak and Show.

Also, the newer Zoo variants don't care about Counterbalance anyway. They're either running a more diverse curve than traditional Zoo or they're running Green Sun's Zenith which can do both, fetch for Qasali Pridemage and play around Counterbalance itself. Plus Zoo's creatures are getting bigger and bigger so it doesn't really matter if they can only resolve one or two of them over the course of a game. Tarmogoyf + Knight Of The Reliquary is more than often enough to win games by turn five or six.

[jazzykat]

CB-Top is not where it's at. Combo has shifted to not care about the lock any more, mostly due to Emrakul. That means the lock is only good against non-Vial beatdown, which is basically just Zoo which is fast enough to not care.

If you want to constantly adjust your deck for every event, a UW Landstill variant is viable. Otherwise you want to be a Tempo deck.

Or, if you just want to bash, play Force in combo like High Tide or Sneak and Show.

I can't fault his logic. An excellent understanding of the format and the ability to metagame is exactly what is rewarded in spades with a UW Landstill/Speedstill build since you just have to get cards in that work for you. A lot of the other decks in the tempo and to a point the CB look like recipes and have some trouble either opening enough slots or keeping their curve right to adapt to the meta.

[Piceli89]

The best answer to a varied metagame is always to approach it into an offensive way: it's the opponent that must go after you, not the opposite. Storm Combo is the best incarnation of this philosophy, and the best Combo deck that allows you to play offensively while having the better cards to fight disruption is at the moment Spiral Tide, which is superior to Ad Nauseam and Doomsday in terms of consistency, manabase, and raw power (Time Spiral is really THAT broken). It also suits your playstyle better if you're used to play blue, acting like a tempo-ish deck while setting up the first turns.

[Frid]

I personally think that a good build of a CB-top deck with serious testing behind and a good sideboard can be by far the best deck in the format.
The bad news are that it's also the most difficult to build and optimize (regarding maindeck and of course sideboard), and one of the most difficult to play, but if you do these two things well the reward is huge.

[Octopusman]

I could have sworn I read the whole thread but didn't see anyone mention Merfolk... ?

[Mark Sun]

There's also a seldom-played Jace + Counterspell strategy.

Wtf is this? Dedicated control? Pfft.

[Rood]

Either Tempo or Counterbalance. Both are exceptional strong in diverse metas and have been putting up results.

[AriLax]

The best answer to a varied metagame is always to approach it into an offensive way: it's the opponent that must go after you, not the opposite. Storm Combo is the best incarnation of this philosophy, and the best Combo deck that allows you to play offensively while having the better cards to fight disruption is at the moment Spiral Tide, which is superior to Ad Nauseam and Doomsday in terms of consistency, manabase, and raw power (Time Spiral is really THAT broken). It also suits your playstyle better if you're used to play blue, acting like a tempo-ish deck while setting up the first turns.

While Spiral Tide is a pretty good Force deck, it's a full turn slower than Ad Naus (2.5 vs 3.5) in a pure goldfish scenario and much less consistent at having backup for the combo when going off on 3-4, which makes it distinctly worse against Tempo decks on top of the fact the card High Tide is weaker against Dazes than Dark Rituals are. You don't really gain consistency either. The real gain is just the ability to Wish against MD hate.