Top 10 Most Broken Blue Cards in MTG

Blue is infamous amongst all of the colors of Magic for having a very complex history in terms of balance. The color was initially very overtuned, to the point that the earliest years of the game were almost entirely dominated by Blue cards and decks. While this has since been corrected, in eternal formats, Blue still has access to some of the strongest cards the game has ever seen. Today, we’re going to go over not only some of Blue’s best cards, but some of the most broken pieces of cardboard Wizards has ever released.

Script by Pumkinswift
Editing by SL
├ The List
Intro: (0:00)
10: Timetwister: (0:27)
9: Force of Will: (2:00)
8: Daze: (4:00)
7: Mystical Tutor: (5:45)
6: Mental Misstep: (7:20)
5: Brainstorm: (9:12)
4: Gush: (10:28)
3: Tinker: (11:58)
2: Time Walk: (13:33)
1: Ancestral Recall: (15:15)

#mtg #tcg #magicthegathering

(Just a note, we have people who actually know the game very well making the scripts for this channel. As the owner of the channel (Theduellogs/hirumaredx) is a total newbie to the game.)

[jameshonaker]

Concerning Ancestral Recall back in Alpha, it was the only member of the "boon cycle" that was printed at rare (the other four were at common); they knew it was powerful, so they wanted to keep its prevalence lower, but they also never envisioned Magic becoming what it became and so having those rare, high-impact cards was something they were fine with.

[Xineombine]

For Gush, you could it's bounce effect on Mystic Sanctuary, a non-basic Island that enters tapped unless you control 3 other islands, but if it enters untapped, you return an instant or sorcery from your graveyard to the top of your deck. This would allow you to infinitely recur gush so long as you never dip below 3 islands on board, and if you bounced other sanctuaries, well, you get the Idea...

[metalthrashingnerdpodcast]

One of the best upsides of time walk is also that it doesn't exile itself. Most extra turn cards exile themselves. This can lead to recurring or copying the spell from the graveyard.

[radlee]

Yeah Ancestral Recall's pretty good but it's no pay 1 white for 3 whole life

[UnuUO]

I feel like FoW should’ve been in the top 5 at least. It literally holds formats together, and the only reason it isn’t banned is BECAUSE it holds formats together.

[TheIndustrialRetrospective]

been playing for nearly 30 years and ive never thought to hide cards on topdeck with brainstorm, good idea!!!!

[EastCoastMikeP]

I personally consider Ancestral Recall to be the best card ever printed for one reason: There is never a time in the game where it isn't useful. Drawing three cards for one mana is obscenely powerful, and it's one of those spells where as soon as you draw it, you play it because the value you get is impossible for any other card to replicate.

And before anyone says, "It wouldn't be useful if casting it will deck you out", be honest: How often will that happen? So infrequently that it might as well be an instance where it'll never happen.

[Darkorinth]

It says something that I knew 1 and 2 before clicking the video. It also says something that all of them are instants or sorceries,

[angst_]

I noticed a lot of these cards are banned or not legal in certain formats. I'd love to see versions of this video like: "top ten blue cards LEGAL in legacy/modern etc." which take into account bans and legality. It seems like it would be a completely different list at this point!

[Metallicity]

This channel will never recover from that time Yugioh twitter discovered the Gush book some guy wrote back in 2010 for a format that basically doesn't exist anymore. Gush is a strong card. It should not be unbanned in Legacy, and unrestricting in Vintage is also somewhat questionable. But there are a *lot* of restricted blue cards in Vintage, plus plenty of unrestricted blue cards that see way more play than Gush (Mindbreak Trap, Flusterstorm, and most recently Lorien Revealed, are all top 20 Vintage spells that get zero mention here, while Gush doesn't break the top 50).

It's hard to argue that Gush is one of the strongest draw spells in the game when basically every Vintage deck will choose to run Ancestral/Dig Through Time/Treasure Cruise/Narset/various tutors and cantrips instead, leaving Gush as just a glorified 2nd copy of Gitaxian Probe/5th copy of Street Wraith in Doomsday alone (except those other cards can actually win the game for Doomsday on turn 1).

[brandont]

This is a great list. My only quibble is a card like Mystical Tutor prob shouldn't make the list, even for nostalgia reasons. This could make room for a card like Treasure Cruise/Dig Through Time, that was broken in all formats (well it was just okay in Standard but absurd in Modern and still broken on the B&R List, or something like Counterbalance that was broken in Modern/Legacy

[catcryt]

yay, new video! i love your top 10 stuff, dude!

[Nova-cu]

TBH, I'd argue Counterspell (yes, the UU one) should've gotten a mention here, even as a simple honorable mention. If you consider it as removal, look at what it's up against from other colors: Black can kill a creature for the same price, but those cards usually have a downside (for instance, Doom Blade (1B) only hits non-black creatures), or for less with a significant drawback (You Are Already Dead (B) requires the creature to already be damaged). White can exile a creature for less, but its controller gains something in return (Path to Exile, it's literally free ramp. I've won because opponents have path'd me before). Green can remove specifically an artifact or enchantment at that price (Naturalize, (1G)). For that same price, Blue can remove... *Literally any card type with no downside to speak of*. That's insane. Before anyone says "but muh timing restrictions", you want to interact at instant speed anyway, never at sorcery speed if you can avoid it, so Counterspell is literally just removal that also reads "this card's ETB effects are cancelled. because FUCK YOU.".

[cerealamog]

blue has the best philosophy...they bought 60(100) cards. We better be allowed to use all of them. but only us...not the other players...ill force of will their life

[marcoottina]

Idea for next video: more effects or mechanics in white that could be enhanced or developed. Like:

-) finding auras and equips

-) lifegain payoff: "gain X -> put X charge counters ; remove 5 counters: draw" ; "power up creatures upon gaining life" ; "fetch plains" ; "resurrect creatures" ; "add W to the mana pool" ; "untap creatures "

-) resurrect creatures, especially upon gaining lots of life in batch or tandem

-) tap clerics to gain life, distribute +1/+1 counters or fetching plains

[awsbarbatos]

So I think chain of vapor is a seriously underrated counter spell with fun interaction

[noahjwhitney]

I always forget how many absurdly busted cards there are in Magic.

Honorable mentions to:
- Ponder
- Gitaxian Probe
- Intuition
- Thassa's Oracle
- Hullbreacher
and probably more I'm forgetting

[fortnitekiddy]

I think Show and Tell should be in this list

[macadoo]

You know it's gonna be a rough list when Timetwister is #10

[Psyman]

Gush is a fascinating card in that someone wrote a 350-page book about strategies and ideas around it.

Imagine having that level of dedication for anything.