Blue. The color of intelligence, wit, cunning plays, and endless amounts of nerd rage.
Let's be real, Blue is the color of shenanigans. In this article, we're going go over blue player’s favorite tricks and spells in Arena.
Here are the top 25 Blue cards in MTG: Arena.
25. Spark Double
This card has been making appearances in the recent Seven Dwarves decks where it’s usually used to get another Dwarf onto the board. But even in other decks, Spark Double can generate a ridiculous amount of value. Imagine having two of Nissa or Niv-Mizzet on the board. This card can help you go from a strong advantage to a secured win in no time.
24. Merfolk Secretkeeper
This card is fun when it comes up in Draft, but in standard play, this card is good enough to be the star in Blue Mill. You can mill off the top 4 cards of your opponent, then play a chunky 0/4 wall to keep any attackers at bay.
23. Selective Snare
This card is here just cause it helps keep tokens and tribal decks from getting too crazy. You can bounce tokens that have been turned into creatures, or more commonly, you can bounce huge chunks of zombies at a time against Golos decks.
Another great usage of Selective Snare is to stall out fast, tribal decks like Knights or Wolves.
22. Unsummon
It’s one mana, it’s flexible, and you start with it in Magic Arena.
Unsummon is a flexible spell that can bounce an opponent’s creature to delay their plans or you can use it to bounce your own creature to save it against removal/get more value out of it. For one mana, this card has a ridiculous amount of flexibility to it.
21. Murmuring Mystic
This card is a bit of a clunky Turn 4 play. But if you get to untap after it hits the board, you can easily drown your opponent in 1/1 birds. The Mystic himself is also a 1/5 which means he can block a decenter number of smaller creatures with little fear to himself.
20. Radical Idea
Radical Idea has made it into several blue decks just because of the repeatable value it can generate. Drawing a card at instant speed means you can keep up mana for a counterspell and then, if your opponent doesn’t do anything dangerous, you can draw on their end step.
Once Radical Idea is in your graveyard, all of your dead cards now practically read “pay 2 mana, cycle.” This is a powerful effect if your deck can also take advantage of cards you discard.
19. Into the Story
With all the mill cards from the recent sets. Into the Story can easily give you 4 cards for just 4 mana at instant speeds.
Casting this on Turn 4 when you’ve potentially gone through most of your hand is amazing. This card works best as a useful tool in a mill strategy.
18. Faerie Vandal
This card stands out in both draft and regular ladder since it can grow as you draw and is an evasive threat. It’s arguably also one of the few reasons why budget double draw decks can have any teeth at all. With all of the new draw cards printed in Eldraine, this card can be a threat that demands answers.
17. Narset, Parter of Veils
Narset is great if you know you’re up against a deck that wants to draw as much as possible. Stopping your opponent from drawing means they’re stuck with just 1 card at a time while you can draw at the beginning of your turn and use Narset in order to get another card you could need.
The value Narset gives you becomes more insurmountable the longer Narset is on the board.
16. Contentious Plan
With all of the planeswalkers and creatures that rely on +1/+1 counters in standard right now, Contentious Plan to me is seriously underlooked. It can make your side of the board bigger, and potentially buff your planeswalkers above damage that would have killed them.
Then, once all those effects have resolved, you get to draw a card so it replaces itself. The potential for value with this card is solid.
15. Hypnotic Sprite
This card is great since it’s both a creature and a counterspell. Usually, the weakness of counterspells is that you and your opponent are both going down 1 card, and counterspells just keep the board state the same.
Hypnotic Sprite practically reads “counter target spell, draw a creature” which gives you much more value than many other cards. This card is also handy since the number one threat in the meta right now, Oko, is 3 mana.
14. Mystical Dispute
What does a blue player hate more than letting an opponent’s spells resolve? Other blue players.
At worst, Mystical Dispute is a slightly over-costed counterspell. While at its best, Mystical Dispute is a one mana counterspell, which means you can spend the rest of your mana on other spells you may need. With Simic and Bant more powerful than ever, Mystical Dispute looks like a better mainboard card every day.
13. God-Eternal Kefnet
Kefnet is a wonderful Brawl commander and easily one of mono-blue’s best tools right now. For 4 mana you get a 4/5 flier that can create a bonus copy of any instant or sorcery card you draw. Plus, blue control players get to experience the joy of responding to an opponent’s spell with a draw and then revealing a counterspell off the top. This undead bird-god smiles a little bit more every time that happens.
12. Aether Gust
Right now in both Arena and Standard, green decks are a massive threat - Questing Beast, Oko, Nissa, and Wicked wolf to name a few. Aether Gust offers a great way to stall these decks long enough for blue players to get their own game plans online. Remember, Aether Gust can also hit spells, which means this card acts like a soft counterspell that can also choke a draw from your opponent.
11. Cavalier of Gales
Cavalier of Gales is currently one of the necessary cards to Jeskai Fires and for good reason. A 5 mana 5/5 flying brainstorm is already amazing. The fact that it also shuffles itself back into your deck when it dies and allows you to scry 2 is what makes this card spectacular.
10. Fae of Wishes
Fae of Wishes can conjure up any card you want out of your sideboard, and once it’s done that, it can be played as an evasive 1 / 4 flier.
It’s currently one of the best cards in Jeskai Fires Superfriends, since it can wish a planeswalker into your hand and then you can play the walker for free with Fires of Invention.
9. Agent of Treachery
If you’ve played against any ramp decks recently then you know this smug, 7 mana jerk.
He can swing a game back in your favor by stealing the best thing on the board, refresh your hand if you’ve been stealing permanents, and makes a wonderful target to make copies of.
8. Spectral Sailor
A flashable flying 1/1 with a fire breathing draw is exactly what a control deck needs. In the early game, Sailor becomes an easy way to hit for some damage. But in the late-game, Sailor’s draw allows you to find the answers you need to keep the game in your favor.
7. Brineborn Cutthroat
Simic Flash’s favorite tool. Brineborn Cutthroat gets larger as you cast more spells on your opponent’s turn.
This particular merfolk has flash built-in, which makes this card even better. You can flash him in when your opponent is tapped out to keep him safe, and if you draw another one, you can flash that one in to buff the previous Cutthroat.
6. Drawn from Dreams
You know that rush you get when you top deck exactly what you want? If you’re late into a game, top-decking Drawn from Dreams will always give you that feeling since you can look at the top 7 cards in your deck to find exactly what you need.
It’s usually used in decks with Fires of Invention since you can play Fires and then immediately play Drawn from Dreams for free.
5. Mass Manipulation
If a ramp deck isn’t running Agent of Treachery as their pay off, then they are most likely running Mass Manipulation.
The big difference here is that mass manipulation can steal more of your opponent’s toys than the Agent can - making it a stronger endgame play. Mass Manipulation is also more flexible than Agent of Treachery since you can cast Mass Manipulation for 6 mana in case you desperately need to steal a single creature/planeswalker.
4. Negate
Negate is one of the best mono Blue staples in Arena. It can stop Planeswalkers, protect your board, and delete win cons on the stack. It’s also not too hard to keep 2 mana open in case your opponents want to cast a game-changing spell on your watch.
Negate may become more important as time goes on just because Oko and Teferi are currently terrorizing the world of Magic and Negate can help check both of them.
3. Opt
Opt is instant-gratification in a card. Pay 1 mana, scry the top card, if you like it then draw it, if not then you put it to the bottom. Its 1 mana cost means it can help dig you out of a mana screw/flood, and playing Opt at instant speeds can be the cheapest way to trigger creature effects like God-Eternal Kefnet or Faerie Vandal.
2. Disdainful Stroke
If you ever need a version of Negate that can hit creatures, then Disdainful Stroke has your back. It’s currently a great sideboard piece in a few blue standard decks since it can hit targets like Nissa, Questing Beast, the body of Hydroid Krasis, Agent of Treachery, Fires of Invention and all of the Cavaliers.
1. Brazen Borrower
Brazen Borrower flies into first place since it can act as a temporary removal and a flashable creature. In Standard right now, temporary removal of a permanent can be the difference between eating a full salvo of Cavalcade triggers or eating none. Since it can target Planeswalkers, Borrower can also help send back any walkers that are growing too big for you to reasonably control.
Then, once you’ve cast it for its adventure, it can be flashed in as a 3/1 flier so it can help add damage to your board state.
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