by Beltan

Created on: October 07, 2010

*link to MTG search added* Blue and White together have the potential to be QUITE formidable in Magic: The Gathering. Together these two colors create the hardiest defenses in the game and can quickly lock down an opponent. They have an abundance of game-winning conditions to employ for those who prefer alternative routes to victory, but dealing with the attackers of a Blue and White deck isn't easy, either.

The general tactic of control is a common theme in many Magic decks and having both blue AND white will give you lots of choices, but the number one thing to remember each time you build a deck is to start by setting up the number of lands you will have and laying out some utility cards that will help you to get to what you need and assure that you have the mana to cast them when you need to. In general, keeping decks as small as possible is almost always the best plan so that you have the best chance to get the cards you'll be relying on. Since you can have up to four copies of a card in your deck, it's the reverse for how many copies to put in; you'll want to take advantage of having a full set of each of the cards you will be aiming to get. For utilities you want low-cost cards that allow you to draw, rearrange the top cards of your deck, or search your library for part of your combination.

In a deck utilizing control of the board, it's extremely important that you choose cards you are able to pay the mana cost for early. The good part about control is that you will have additional chances to remove threats that appear on the board most of the time, so try to conserve any counterspells to stop instants or sorceries as- unlike permanents- you will not get a second chance to stop the one-shot spells.

In a control deck, white tends to see more use for it's well-known (and rightly feared) mass destruction spells (or as the rulebook calls them, 'blanketing' effects) which are some of the most useful and powerful control spells in Magic. What makes mass-effect spells so powerful is the fact that they ignore both shroud (cannot be targeted by spells or abilities) and protections. The only way to stop a blanketing effect is to counter the spell (or ability) that causes it. Blanketing effects punish players who have more permanents in play, so this makes any such effect highly valuable in a control deck where such a spell can remove or incapacitate several of your opponents cards or permanents.

Most decks rely on creatures to do their dirty work, both white and

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