Tired of having your opponents counter your spells at the Commander table? Playing against blue can be annoying in any MTG format. Commonly considered the best color in all of Magic thanks to the annoying combination of card advantage and countermagic, blue can stop all of your plans while keeping their hand full of answers.
If one player in your Commander pod can’t resist bringing counterspells to the table every game, there are some cards that can make their lives a nightmare. Normally, these MTG cards may be too case-dependent to consistently be good, but if you know your opponents are playing blue, they become some of the best cards in your entire deck!
MTG Seedtime
There’s nothing better than beating blue by letting them have a taste of their own medicine. MTG Seedtime, to some extent, emulates MTG Time Walk. The card is part of the Power Nine and very much banned, but for the few who are crazy enough to try no-banlist Commander, Time Walk is commonly referred to as the most powerful card in the format.
Seedtime isn’t nearly as good as Time Walk, but it is a two-mana spell that allows you to take an extra turn – provided that an opponent has played a blue spell on your turn. Should one of your spells get countered, bounced, or even if they try to draw cards on your end step, Seedtime can sneak in an extra turn that no one expected.
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MTG Summoning Trap
Do you enjoy resolving gigantic haymakers against your opponents? Are you tired of having them countered? MTG Summoning Trap was tailor-made for you!
If your deck is all about dropping gigantic creatures, chances are that Summoning Trap may be good in your deck regardless of whether an opponent is playing blue or not. For six mana, dropping an Eldrazi at instant speed is incredibly powerful.
If your blue player of choice is feeling especially cheeky and decides to counter something like a mana dork, they’re in for a nasty surprise. As long as one of your creatures was countered by an opponent, you can cast Summoning Trap for zero mana. Add in that this card isn’t even worth a dollar on the secondary market, and someone may have just found the card that their Timmy deck was missing!
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MTG Pyroblast
In the nature of giving blue players a taste of their own medicine, MTG Pyroblast offers an extremely rare break in the color pie: Red gets to counter spells, too! Sadly, Pyroblast only counters blue spells and destroys blue permanents, but for one mana, it’s hardly a bad deal. Pyroblast is so powerful that it’s commonly found in Eternal formats as well as cEDH, so you know that this tradeoff is easily worth it, as long as you know someone’s playing blue.
In a similar vein, MTG Gutteral Response is a Gruul-colored counterspell that can specifically target blue instants. If you want another copy of Pyroblast in your red decks, MTG Red Elemental Blast also does the trick.
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MTG Carpet of Flowers
The recent Doctor Who Commander deck expansion is a great way to show off what a card with a more narrow design can do in an environment where it flourishes. Seeing MTG Carpet of Flowers in a preconstructed deck is definitely a strange move. These Doctor Who decks, however, are meant to be played against each other, and every single one has blue in it. This is meant to emulate the smarts of the characters in the Doctor Who franchise, constantly trying to outwit oneanother with complex planning.
Carpet of Flowers is commonly seen in cEDH because of how popular blue is there. This card can generate a ton of mana for just a one-time payment of a single green, and as long as an opponent just has one Island, Carpet of Flowers is essentially functioning as a mana rock. Two or more, and you’ve got a great deal on your hands!
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MTG Veil of Summer
MTG Veil of Summer is a pretty safe include in your green Commander deck, even into a new pod of people. Finding a table where both blue and black are not being played is a challenge, and as long as someone shows up with one of those colors, Veil of Summer can replace itself at absolute worst.
Most of the time, Veil of Summer will end up being significantly better than a cantrip. Granting you and your creatures temporary protection from black and blue, Veil of Summer defends against any targeted removal. Your spells also become uncounterable, and Veil of Summer replaces itself!
The downside is if no one decides to show up with black or blue, Veil of Summer literally doesn’t do anything, turning into an entirely dead card. More often than not, this won’t be the case at a table with four players.
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MTG Choke, MTG Tsunami
If your hatred for blue in Magic runs unreasonably deep, you can decide to simply have them stop playing the game. MTG Choke prevents Islands from untapping, which will shut mono blue decks down from, well, doing much of anything.
One thing about Choke, however, is that if someone manages to remove it, the blue player can play Magic again. MTG Tsunami, on the other hand, gets rid of Islands permanently. If just destroying Islands is not enough for you, MTG Obliterate can’t be countered and will basically destroy everything.
For some pods, screwing with lands is a step over the line, so be careful if you decide to employ these strategies. That said, Tsunami is less than a dollar on TCGplayer, so it’s a rather affordable way to get a few curses out of that blue player at your table.
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MTG Llawan, Cephalid Empress
MTG Llawan, Cephalid Empress hates blue just as much as you do, even though it is a blue card itself. Llawan will bounce all blue creatures your opponents control back to the hand and will prevent opponents from playing any blue spells whatsoever until it dies. Combine this with MTG Painter’s Servant naming blue, and your opponents will be locked out of casting any spells whatsoever. Unless they have an answer to Llawan on board when this combo resolves, the game should end.
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Cannot be Countered
There are a ton of different MTG cards that can prevent your spells from getting countered. A lot of these are also popular in constructed formats because, well, blue is good there as well, so some of these are not the most affordable. That said, all of these cards are fantastic options if you want to make the blue player at your table suffer!
- Delighted Halfling
- Cavern of Souls
- Allosaurus Shephard
- Boseiju, Who Shelters All
- Chimil, the Inner Sun
- Domri, Anarch of Bolas
- Dragonlord Dromoka
- Gaea’s Herald
- Howlpack Piper
- Last March of the Ents
- Malevolent Hermit
- Rhythm of the Wild
- Sphinx of the Final Word
- Surrak Dragonclaw
- Taigam, Ojutai Master
- Thryx, the Sudden Storm
- Toski, Bearer of Secrets
- Vexing Shusher
