Blue

Blue is one of the five colors of mana in Magic. It is drawn from islands and embodies the concepts of logic and technology. On the Color Pie, it is allied with white and black and is the enemy of red and green.

Flavor

Blue is the colour that looks out on the world and sees opportunity. Opportunity in everything, everywhere. For Blue, the world is a vast place with many things to learn and to do. Blue wants to become a perfect part of that machine which is the universe. To do so, it learns to value one commodity — knowledge. Knowledge gives order to the universe. Knowledge allows one to make an informed decision. Knowledge is the supreme good, at least to Blue. With all knowledge (omniscience), Blue can shape the universe into its perfect form, and mold itself to fit perfectly into that perfect universe. Recurring themes in Blue are illusion over reality (nurture over nature), thought over action (reason over passion), and the future over the past or present.

Blue is the enemy colour of Green and of Red. Green opposes Blue on the viewpoint that Blue is obligated to shape the universe. Green sees that as an affront to Nature and highly presumptuous. Blue looks on Green's resistance and sees someone stuck in the past. This appears mechanically in the game where Blue tends to construct complicated board positions and uses interesting effects from nonliving sources, while Green tries to destroy those complications and substitute more basic, primal, living creatures.

This may cause confusions in the case of cards that represent sea monsters and other water-related creatures; they exhibit green feral traits, instead of blue's attitudes.

(Please expand this if you have the info.)

Rules

The following keywords are primarily associated with the color blue:

• Morph.

The following keywords are associated with the color blue (as well as a second color):

• Flying (See also: White).

(This only currently lists recurring keyword mechanics)

Blue's mechanics primarily involve manipulating time and information. Three central mechanics that always have and always will define the color are: 1) Card drawing
2) Counterspells
3) "Return to hand" effects (informally called "bounce" effects)

Even though "draw a card" can appear on any card, Blue can draw multiple cards, unconditionally, at a cost only of mana. Contrast with Green, which has conditional card drawing; and Black, which requires some other sacrifice (usually of life). Having more cards represents information and options, those things with which Blue is primarily concerned. Since Blue can draw cards at any time regardless of its board position, this allows it to recover from any game situation if just given time (provided an answer is in the player's library), paralleling the real-world case that every problem has a solution.

Blue has the ability to counter spells, in many varied ways (see The Stack). This can be seen as the prevention of chaotic action; Blue uses its logic to deny others the ability to express ideas that aren't helpful (in Blue's opinion). Countering can also be perceived as the maintenance of the status quo, such that it can be studied more completely. Finally, it is also indicative of blue's precise understanding of magic, as it understands how spells work so thoroughly that it can interfere them as they are being cast. Note that 'counterabilities' exist - spells which counter activated or triggered abilities.

Blue can return permanents to their owners' hands. On the surface, this is mostly a delay tactic - undoing your opponent's actions to set him back, giving oneself more time to solve the problem. In a subtle way, observing whether and how one's opponent replays the card can give information about the opponent's game position. However, since these spells can be - and often are - used on one's own permanents (say, to protect them from hostile spells, or combat), the complete 'meaning' of the bounce spell has been unclear.

Other signature mechanics of Blue include "stealing" (gaining control of opponent's cards or effects) and copying (duplicating effects, mimicry, cloning). Note that even these tactics are closely related to Blue's desire to learn. By mimicking its enemies (and in multiplayer games, allies), Blue ensures that it knows at least what others know. Thieving the magic of others is educational in the same way. Note that Blue's kind of thievery has its own flavor (Red and Black also steal). Blue sees itself as the sage guardian of others, 'confiscating' those things which they use irresponsibly. (see Confiscate). On other occasions, the theft is more like domination from superior comprehension - Blue can commandeer spells and machines because it knows more about them. Living creatures can be controlled by Blue also, by persuasion, hypnosis, one of the processes above, or any other method that isn't overtly torturous (Blue likes preserving its resources for the long term).