US:CD 6

Urza's Saga: Carpe Diem Part 6 Blue

Note: If you think I'm being overly harsh, check out the Tempest commons and count how many you use in Type II. And I'm sorry about the gaps, but it's necessary.

58 Academy Researchers (Uncommon) 1UU Summon Wizards 2/2 When Academy Researchers comes into play, you may choose an enchant creature card in your hand and put that enchantment into play on Academy Researchers. B+ For this to work, you need to put on a creature enchantment that's worth putting on a normal 2/2. The only blue enchantment that might make sense is Zepheid's Embrace, which makes it a 4/4 flyer that can't be targeted, for three mana, requiring the loss of an additional card. Makes Hidden Horror look bad, doesn't it? And it's still not a total loss if you have no enchantment to play on it. Could a deck use this with more than 4 embraces, and tutors for the Researchers, to drop consistent third or fourth turn qulity fatness? More to the point, would it be consistant?

59 Annul (Common) U Interrupt Counter target artifact or enchantment spell. A- Probably a sideboard card most of the time, but one mana is cheap enough, especially with Capsize, to consider this improved Artifact Blast as the last hole in blue's arsenal: It now has a good way to deal with enchantments and artifacts. You play Disenchant without Forbid, and that's in the old creature Type II.

60 Arcane Laboratory (Uncommon) Watch List. No comment at this time.

61 Attunement (Rare) 62 Back to Basics (Rare) 63 Barrin, Master Wizard (Rare)

64 Catalog (Common) 2U Instant Draw 2 cards, then choose and discard a card. C- This is the least productive blue card drawer in a long time. Compare it to Impulse, Brainstorm, Intuition, Inspiration, Sift.

65 Cloak of Mists (Common) 1U Enchant Creature Enchant creature is unblockable. C This is as good as it gets, guys. If there is ever going to be a playable card requiring blocking, this is it. Good for sending through Serra Avatar, of course. A real good card in draft. But unblockability just isn't that big a deal.

66 Confiscate (Uncommon) 4UU Enchant Permanent You control enchanted permanent. B- I'm glad it exists. But six mana is asking too much.

67 Coral Merfolk (Common) 1U Summon Merfolk 2/1 D And it doesn't fly because? The Lord of Atlantis himself has better stats! If you want this card in your deck, you should be playing red or green anyway, not blue. For two mana blue has so many better things to do.

68 Curfew (Common) U Instant Each player chooses a creature he or she controls and returns it to owner's hand. D The idea, I guess, was to be able to unsummon untargetables, or to protect your creatures while annoying him at the same time. For example, keep doing this with a Wall of Blossoms (or Scrivner for mockers). Problem is, it's just way too situational.

69 Disruptive Student (Common) 2U Summon Wizard 1/1 Tap: Counter target spell unless its caster pays an additional 1. Play this ability as an interrupt. C- 1/1s are notoriously hard to keep around when you need them. But this card has a place in completing certain locks. It's just way too slow to work very well.

70 Douse (Uncommon) 2U Enchantment 1U: Counter target red spell. Play this ability as an interrupt. C- This is where knowing your Magic history comes in handy. Many people look at this and think it's great. But I see it as being one extra mana over Deathgrip and Lifeforce, in the color that already has this ability in abundance and against the deck where those three mana are going to be the most important. The only monored deck in Type II would much rather see this than Chill. Which leaves the paradox that this will see play only against decks with red for cards like Shard Pheonix, where Chill isn't going to get the job done. I think this is the #3 card for blue against red, after Chill and Hydroblast, at best.

71 Drifting Djinn (Rare, oh well) 4UU Summon Djinn 5/5 Flying, During your upkeep. pay 1U or sacrifice Drifting Djinn. Cycling 2. B+ This is a creature where Cycling is important, which isn't all that bad. The upkeep isn't irrelevent, but it isn't all that serious; it's probably so that decks don't cycle this card and animate it (which is still not all that bad an idea). It's not a bad kill card for creatureless decks: He doesn't get in the way until you need him, then he goes in for four turns of beatdown. The key to making Cycling work may be having other drawbacks to the card that keep the basic effect at a reasonable mana cost.

72 Enchantment Alteration (Uncommon) U Instant Move target enchantment from one creature to another or from one land to another. D- It will be a strange enviornment indeed if this becomes worth sideboarding. I'd say it does anything maybe one game in…. 10? 20?

73 Energy Field (Rare)

74 Exhaustion (Uncommon) 2U Sorcery C Creatures and lands target opponent controls do not untap during his or her next uptap phase. If you're recursing this, you could have won the game another way for much less effort. And Stasis decks probably won't have the space to use this for breathing room, nor will they need the headache of artifacts untapping. In a beatdown battle, though, this could be a huge advantage. WW could sideboard this against suicide black and sligh, for example. And there's always the power Merfolk! But in general, this is like using Mana Short as a stalling tactic: the card economy catches up with you in the long run.

75 Fog bank (Uncommon) 1U Summon Wall 0/2 (Walls cannot attack.) Flying, Fog Bank does not deal or receive combat damage. B- Yup, there IS a second potential tournament-level wall. It's the right color, it flyes. If the old trample rules were still in effect, it would be pretty good. Instead, it can't block Tramplers or Shadow. Tradewind decks can still use this one, though.

76 Gilded Drake (Rare) 77 Great Whale (Rare)

78 Hermetic Study (Common) 1U Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gains "Tap: This creature deals 1 damage to target creature or player." F Just play the Rootwater Hunter if you're that desperate.

79 Hibernation (Uncommon) 2U Instant Return all green permanents to owners' hands. B+ Great, WotC, that's what we need. Another green hoser! But this has applications besides keeping green players in Winter Orb locks. In particular, look at the green cards a Tradewind deck uses: Wall of Blossoms, Spike Feeder, Spike Weaver. They're all good things to bounce! Plus you can protect these and other green permanents. Challenge: make a deck that can main deck it. Possibly a combination with Eldamari's Vineyard: Either they don't play green and the Vineyard is good, or they do and Hibernation kicks butt. Of course, you could also build a deck around Sword of the Chosen, if you really wanted to.

80 Horseshoe Crab (Common) 2U Summon Crab 1/3 U: Untap Horseshoe Crab. B+ All around you can hear the cry: Crab tech! Infinite mana, damage, cards! Win friends and influence people! All these combination deck require Earthcraft, Fertile Ground to get going, or something similar. First, I trust WotC not to have missed anything this obvious. Second, three card infinite combos with two decent but not useful cards and one worthless one are par for the course. By all means, though, check it out.

81 Imaginary Pet (Rare)

82 Launch (Common) 1U Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gains flying. When Launch is put into a graveyard from play, return Launch to owner's hand. F Look at it this way: Would this card be broken for 0 mana? No? Then it must be bad. Creatures just don't die much in the matches where flying is that important. Another way to look at it: A 0-cost artifact with U1T: Target creature gains flying as long as Launch stays tapped.

83 Lilting Refrain (Uncommon) 1U Enchantment During your upkeep, you may put a verse counter on Lilting Refrain. Sacrifice Lilting Refrain: Counter target spell unless its caster pays an additional X, where X is the number of verse counters on Lilting Refrain. Play this ability as an interrupt. B This card is going to be utterly useless if not drawn early, but solid gold if drawn and cast quickly. Also, it gives combination decks a 0-cost counterspell the turn they go for it. But Control Magic beats Mana Leak.

84 Lingering Mirage (Uncommon) 1U Enchant Land Enchanted Land is an island. Cycling 2. F True, there is now a very good creature that needs islands to attack - a 4/4 for 3. And echo also helps this card. But that can't hide the fact that this is a bad Phantasmal Terrain.

85 Morphling (Rare)

86 Pendrell Drake (Common) 3U Summon Drake 2/3 Flying. Cycling 2. F And you'll cycle this when you're not stalled at 2 mana because? Either your game plan involves casting it or not casting it. Either way, it's not worth it.

87 Pendrell Flux (Common) 1U Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gains "During your upkeep, pay this creature's casting cost or sacrifice it." F Prisons can't afford targeted creature removal that isn't 100% effective. Paralyze is an example of a similar card, in the right color, that hoovers on the edge of playability.

88 Peregrine Drake (Uncommon) 4U Summon Drake 2/3 Flying. When Peregrine Drake comes into play, untap up to five lands. B It's a Great Whale for those who aim low or want to (gasp!) cast it, but you'll need two for the real action. Possibly a good draw-go creature, since you never want your mana to stay tapped.

89 Power Sink (Common) XU Interrupt Counter target spell unless its caster pays an additional X. If he or she does not, tap all mana-producing lands that player controls and remove all mana from his or her mana pool. B- Note that the wording is different, and hope your opponent forgets he can't tap mana during resolution. But this hasn't been good since blue has had good counterspells like Disspate or Forbid.

90 Power Taint (Common) 1U Enchant Enchantment During the upkeep of enchanted enchantment's controller, that player pays 2 or loses 2 life. Cycling 2. F If you don't know why by now you haven't been paying attention. Often does nothing, requires opponent to have creatures and no free mana.

91 Recantation (Rare)

92 Rescind (Common) 1UU Instant Return target permanent to owner's hand. Cycling 2. B This is another card that people shouldn't be mocking as much as they do. The big problem with Boomerang, aside from it not being Capsize, is that sometimes it does nothing, especially late. Rescind gives you the chance to 'burn capsize' when you need to to survive, or protect something, or throw it away if you don't need it. Some decks will just never buy back Capsize. Also, why stop at 8? Or 12?

93 Rewind (Common) 2UU Interrupt Counter target spell. Untap up to four lands. C This is going to be wonderful every now and then, but not often enough. The conditions needed are to be playing against non-blue with four mana and a backup counter or Winter Orb. Not impossible. And this is a decent counter for PropOrb decks. But with alternatives like Counterspell, Mana Leak, Forbid and Dismiss, I doubt it sees much play.

94 Sandbar Merfolk (Common) U Summon Merfolk 1/1 Cycling 2. B This creature solves the big 1/1 problem: They're good on turn 1, they're horrible after turn 3. And it's a Merfolk!

95 Sandbar Serpent (Uncommon) 4U Summon Serpent 3/4 Cycling 2. F This just isn't good enough to reanimate and too expensive to cast. Drifting Djinn is a good example of what makes Cycling worthwhile.

96 Show and Tell (Rare) 97 Somnophore (Rare) 2UU Sommon Illusion 2/2

98 Spire Owl (Common) 1U Summon Bird 1/1 Flying. When Spire Owl comes into play, look at the top four cards of your library and put them back in any order. I don't need that kind of trouble. The best card in Magic reprinted? You decide.

99 Stern Proctor (Uncommon) UU Summon Wizard 1/2 When Stern Proctor comes into play, return target artifact or enchantment to owner's hand. C- If you're actually casting this your deck has an identity crisis. If you're animating it it also has an identity crisis. Its saving grace is that Mox Diamond will be everywhere.

100 Stroke of Genius (Rare) 101 Sunder (Rare)

102 Telepathy (Uncommon) U Enchantment Each of your opponents plays with his or her hand revealed. F I looked for the words, 'draw a card,' but they were missing. Not my problem.

103 Time Spiral (Rare)

104 Tolarian Winds (Common) 1U Instant Discard your hand, then draw that many cards. D- Why would BLUE do this? And if you're going to do this, why wouldn't you want to take your opponent's hand with you? If your deck needs to do this it's a bed deck. Unless, of course, you're graveyard stacking, but there are much better ways to do that.

105 Turnabout (Uncommon) 2UU Instant Tap or untap all artifacts, creatures, or lands target player contols. A Mana Short! Early Harvest! Fog! Slices! Dices! There's something here for everyone.

106 Veil of Birds (Rare)

107 Veiled Apparition (Uncommon) 1U Enchantment When one of your opponents successfully casts a spell, if Veiled Apparition is an enchantment, Veiled Apparition becomes a 3/3 creature with flying and "During your upkeep, pay 1U or sacrifice Veiled Apparition" and that counts as an Illusion. F It's a School of Piranha that doesn't exist when it's not in play and that enters play if and when your opponent says it does, which is probably a most inconvenient time. But it flyes. So?

108 Veiled Crocodile (Rare)

109 Veiled Sentry (Uncommon) U Enchantment When one of your opponents successfully casts a spell, if Veiled Sentry is an enchantment, Veiled Sentry becomes a creature with power and toughness each equal to the total casting cost of that spell and that counts as an Illusion. F Problem is, your opponent has a LOT of control over how big this thing is. Majority of the time, it should be a 1/1 or 2/2. Why does blue seem to get this many beatdown cards?

110 Veiled Serpent (Common) 2U Enchantment When one of your opponents successfully casts a spell, if Veiled Serpent is an enchantment, Veiled Serpent becomes a 4/4 creature that cannot attack unless defending player controls an island and that counts as a Serpent. B- That's what islandhomeish creatures should be - broken if they could just attack. At a reasonable cost, you get a creature that's probably going to cost two cards to get rid of. What worries me is that when you most need it, you just might not get it. At least, your opponent gets one attack phase.

111 Windfall (Uncommon) Watch list. No comment right now.

112 Wizard Mentor (Common) 2U Summon Wizard 2/2 Tap: Return Wizard Mentor and target creature you control to owner's hand. F If you leave this card untapped, it's bad. If you attack, it's bad. So it's bad.

113 Zephid (Rare) 4UU Summon Illusion 3/4 Flying Zephid cannot be the target of spells or abilities. B+ This isn't really enough beatdown for six mana, even if it's untargetable. But if you just need a road to victory, this could be it. Blue's also glutted with expensive flyers right now.

114 Zephid's Embrace (Uncommon) 2UU Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gets +2/+2, gains flying, and cannot be the target of spells or abilities. B- Blue doesn't really have any good targets for this, since Ophidian is gone and Tradewind Rider already flyes. Arcadian Reserarchers are the only way this might be good, other than the ever-present Merfolk.

Summary of Blue:

For some reason, Blue has a lot of Merfolk. In Urza's Saga, much of blue doesn't make much sense for any other deck. Take away the rares, Windfall and Arcane Laboratory, and you don't have anything really new left worth playing. Of course, that's a third of blue. But except for weird card manipulation (and Stroke of Genius, which would have been embaressingly powerful in Arabian Knights), blue is a beatdown color. Why I'll never know.