onering wrote: ↑3 years ago
Blue also has Pongify and Rapid Hyrbidization, but for commanders enchantment based removal that leaves them on the field but washes their abilities like you listed is better. Blue actually has really solid spot creature removal. 2 one Mana instant universal removal spells with minor downside and one instant speed 2 Mana exile spell with minor downside is close to what white has with path and swords, and generally better than what black brings to the table. Imprisoned in the moon is awesome. Blue is behind only white in terms of spot removal for creatures, and it's close.
I think the "destroy" aspect of
Pongify and
Rapid Hybridization is a bigger deal than it often seems. I run them in anything Mono blue, and probably most 2 color blue decks. They're great, and will almost always have a threat to remove at an awesome rate. It's just that indestructible creatures and recursion effects run pretty rampant these days. I've said it many times before, but the Theros gods really changed the way I look at spot removal (and wipes to be honest). Getting rid of one of those things can often be the difference between winning or losing, which is why for my money
Forsake the Worldly >
Disenchant,
Unravel the Aether >
Nature's Claim,
Defile > any
Doom Blade effect,
Chaos Warp > any burn,
Reality Shift >
Pongify, at least in most cases. The blue enchantments that get rid of abilities are amazing for this same reason. If you catch an opponent running a strategy overly reliant on the commander and you nail it with one of these while they don't have access to enchantment removal, you can sometimes effectively remove a player for
, which is stellar.
You're right though. The "drawback" is barely a thing on Pong/Hybrid, and they do put blue up there in terms of spot removal for creatures. I think I just tend to opt for less removal in my decks, but what I do include needs to cover a lot of bases and do it really well.