By trouble_fish
I'd like to draw attention to some of the blue cards in Fetar's excellent recent article. For those who are not story-line aware, Alexi is a she not a he as Fetar puts it, and in addition, Blind Seer is actually Urza in disguise (please tell me you know who Urza is)!
Unlike the other mono colour legend articles, I had 70s to 100s of these fools to sort through. Most were from legends and went along the lines of a 4/4 for 3WU or a 6/5 for 4UB. So I tried to pick some with variety, and that looked interesting. Unfortuantely, there were still lots. Other legends worth mentioning but not in the top 10 include Asmira, Holy Avenger, Hanna, Ship's Navigator, Vhati il-Dal, the other Invasion dragon legends.#10. Halfdane
This is a pretty good card. Surprising, therefore, that it gets #10. Basically, this card has p/t equal to the biggest creature on the board. That's ok if it's your opponent's creature, so you can block and kill it, but then Halfdane will die too. However, if the biggest creature is yours, you're basically doubling that creature's effectiveness. Unfortunately with white, blue or black, you're not likely to have a big creature, but there's a small chance.
#9. Sliver Overlord
Sliver Overlord is pretty vanilla for a legend. It's not often you find a 7/7 for 5 mana, but one of each colour is hard to get. Therefore, it makes sense. Vanilla sense. The gain control ability is pretty useless. The search your library abilty is good, but all you really need is a Shifting Sliver, and then the 7/7 should win the game on it's own. Heck, any 7/7 for 5 should
win the game on its own. A great tool for sliver decks is Dragon Arch, it helps get out your Sliver Queen (see below) and this guy.
#8. Sol'Kanar the Swamp King
Firstly Sol'Kanar is decent at 5/5 for 5. Secondly, swampwalk is useful, especially with things like Zombie Trailblazer. Thirdly, lifegain is great for black. Black tends to sacrifice their life for advantages. Typically you'll play lots of spells in any black deck. Therefore you can easilly maintain your life total, while keeping advantages that cards like Dawn of the Dead.
#7. Lord of Tresserhorn
Look at the card first. Reread the power. THIS GUY IS A 10/4 for 4 mana. HOLY CRAP! The other thing are those other disadvantages. Basically play some little creatures to stall, and just protect the guy once he's out. He can regenerate, so burn's not a problem. Mage's Guile or Mana Leak can help protect him against non-damage threats. Just give him fear and start the slaughter.
#6. Rasputin, Dreamweaver
This guy is wierd. The damage ability can help save himself. But the mana ability is the most
useful. Basically as I see it you double your mana the turn after he comes into play. For a white blue deck, its very convenient to have mana, and this card helps you fuel those expensive storm cards like Mind's Desire much better. Heck, wouldn't you like to double your mana?
#5. Dromar the Banisher
Finally, some dragons. Dromar is a nice size; 6/6 for 6. The ability is the best though. Think a reusable Wash Out. A reusable version of a card that wins the game nearly every time you play it. Wins the game. Dromar is the best at finding those gaps to put your army through. The only catch is, he returns himself 60% of the time. But you won't need him once all those creatures have disappeared.
#4. Bladewing the Risen
This guy is good. Well, if you look at just stats he's decent. 4/4 for lots. But then you get to pull your choice of dragon from your graveyard. For example, Nicol Bolas, Rith, Dragon Tyrant, or anything else that might have died or been discarded to that Chain of Pain (as my brother so affectionately calls it). Plus, you get to pump both your dragons. That's basically a minimum of +2/+2 to your attack each time you play the ability. That's almost an instant kill. Using that Anger you discarded to Chain of Plasma to make it an instant kill is a very good
idea. #3. Rith the Awakener
Rith is another solid dragon. The colours, with green at the center, are manageable. The ability is phenominal. Firstly, you will deal damage each attack. Secondly, with green as a center colour you will have lots of green creatures. Lastly, the second time you play the ability, you are guaranteed to have lots of green 1/1s already, so you the tokens you make are exponential. Overrun is a good option if you're having difficulty, but with a dragon and hordes of 1/1s it's not necessary.
#2. Sliver Queen
Another 7/7 for 5 mana. Like a slightly worse Shivan Wurm. But, the token generation is worth it. Especially a sliver deck. Hordes of unblockable pumped slivers with haste are hard for anyone to stop. In addition, you can make the ability infinite with a Heartstone and Ashnod's Altar. So like I said above, only add infinite and a link to Heartstone to the adjective list. That's pretty nasty.
#1. Nicol Bolas
Several things are very good about this guy. He is huge. Very huge. He also eats the enemy's
hand when he hits them. That makes him impossible to remove once he's hit them. He's great with haste and even better with Sneak Attack. In fact, he's the mainstay of Sneak Attack decks. Anything that helps put creatures into play for less than their costs is great. Also good with a pinging enchantment (it says damage not combat damage). Just for the discard the hand ability, this guy deserves #1.
Check out the other legend articles:
White
Blue
Black
Red
Green
Multicolour