I love blue, in fact I love black, green, white, red, artifact, gold, colorless, and lands too. But blue is sometimes a tough color to love. You see, blue has an ego problem that rubs me the wrong way. Now you can't really blame blue for thinking that it is the best. Since our game's inception the fawning syncophants in research and development having been consistently giving blue more and more to be proud of.
Yes, its true, blue has gotten more and more insufferable over the years, but we still love it because blue gives back. Those in the know use blue to bring home state, city, national, and pro tour chamionships. U to Q has been the rallying cry of many a pro tour hopeful over the years.
Until recently blue generally had a paucity of efficient creatures. Though there have been some notably exceptions, even the humble grizzly bear was often above the curve for blue. Time Spiral keyworded the ability to play creatures at instant speed as "flash." Historically "flash" was primarily (though not exclusively) a green ability. Originally this reflected the stalking/pouncing nature of green jungle creatures. Until Time Spiral block blue had only one "flash" creature (Plaxmanta.) And yea blue was sad, for blue saideth "Oh R&D in this lone area do you giveth unto me less than you giveth to my brother green. Why dost you forsake me." For such was blue's greed. None the less, R&D looked down on the magificent wealth that blue already possessed, took pity, and whispered...
"Lorwyn"
And yea blue was happy, for blue was given flash. After all, blue is "sneaky," so it can do anything right? "But wait" I hear you say "flash isn't a blue trait now, it is a faerie trait." Fair enough, how many black faeries have flash? None. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Fortunately green does continue to receive a few flash creatures, but blue has now received more flash for a block and a half.
So what is the problem? In case you have forgotten blue is (nearly) the sole proprietor of the counterspell. In order to successfully use counterspells you need to leave mana open during your own turn so that it can be used during your opponent's turn. However, now blue can wait until the end of and opponent's turn to cast its creatures, I hear this was used to good effect in decks featuring Teferi over the last year. Now blue has a whole class of creatures that can flash in without Teferi's help. I grant you, this sounds unfair. Surely wizards would not combine an efficient creature, with flash, and give blue access to yet another traditional weakness... right?
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you THE ABOMINATION:
That is right. No need to lean on black for hand disruption any longer blue mages. Rejoice! You can now cast a hand disrupting 3 power evasive creature at the end of your opponents turn, unless of course you decided to outright counter something instead.
Three mana, for 3 evasive power in blue is already frankly well above the curve, but this guy is ridiculous. Lets compare this gentlemen to two black cards in lorwyn: Thoughtseize and Oona's Prowler. Both very good cards with powerful effects and drawback. Together they cost 1BB, conveniently comparable to the 1UU that Vendilion Clique costs. Thoughtseize costs you 2 life and you 3/1 can be reduce to 1/1 (or less) should your opponent choose to discard a card. Thoughtseize forces and actually discard rather than going to the bottom of the deck, depending on the chosen card and the presence or absence of shuffle effects or tutoring in a given deck, the discard may or may not be more effective disruption. For simplicity's sake (and to help my case) I'll call the disruption even.
The Clique has no disadvantage. Your opponent can't make it smaller, and that whole "draw a card" after the disruption effect? Well that just means that your opponent stays even with you since you only have to expend one card rather than two to achieve a Thoughtseize + Prowler.
Holy cow is that alot of unfairness to squeeze onto one card. I hope you've told blue how much you love it recently. You'll definitely want big blue on your side in the coming months.
