Do you often think to yourself, "I wish I had fewer friends"? Well, then chances are you are a true Blue player at heart. Blue is great at drawing cards, counterspells, and other things probably, but sadly, most Blue decks often lean into the same old tried and true spells we have been playing since time immemorial. We previously covered some of the best new Green cards you should be playing and today we are taking a look at some underappreciated Blue gems from recent Magic releases.

Honorable Mention

It takes a lot to make a three-mana value mana rock enticing these days. Just producing mana simply isn't enough value in this economy. That's where Misleading Signpost comes in. A artifact with flash that taps for Blue mana and has a tricky ETB that allows it to change the attack target of a creature. Mana rocks are some of the least useful cards to draw late into a Commander game but Misleading Signpost can still function as a nifty combat trick, potentially letting you redirect a key attack to someone else (or their Planeswalker). Having flash gives this card a lot of flexibility too since it allows you to leave up mana for potential counterspells or removal with the option to just flash it in before your turn starts if other actions aren't needed. Even if Misleading Signpost is unlikely to win a game by itself, it can provide such much-needed versatility to many a deck's ramp package.

Number Five

This paragliding pirate has easily become one of my favorite soft removal cards in recent memory. Kitesail Larcenist is a 2/3 with flying and ward that, on ETB, allows you to turn one artifact or creature into a treasure for each opponent. There is something uniquely powerful about removing the ability from cards, easily neutering problematic creatures while also handling Commanders without letting them return to the Command Zone. Similar to cards like Bronzebeak Forager and Grasp Of Fate, Kitesail Larcenist can help neutralize every opponent's board a bit, while its ward makes it slightly more difficult to interact with. Turning the targets into treasures is certainly a drawback since it gives players the option to turn their useless card into mana, but ironically players will often crack their treasure and lose the opportunity to get their card back when Kitesail Larcenist leaves the battlefield.

Number Four

Who doesn't love a good storm card? Lock And Load lets you draw a card plus an additional card for each instant and sorcery you have cast that same turn. It's also packing a relatively new keyword, Plot, allowing you to exile the spell and cast it in a future turn without paying its mana cost. Storm strategies often take a few turns to set up and plotting a Lock And Load early will help make your big combo turn even bigger. One of the biggest hurdles for Storm and Spellslinger decks is being able to refuel on cards once the ball starts rolling and, with some careful planning, Lock And Load can be the perfect tool to keep your turn going as obnoxiously long as possible. Even without plotting, this card can still easily draw cards on rate with other three-mana draw spells. If you play big combo spellslinger, you should keep an eye on this one.

Number Three

Blue is known for many things but great removal is not exactly one of them. Rapid Hybridization and Pongify have long stood as the upper end of Mono-Blue creature removal with cards like Reality Shift and Resculpt also providing decent interaction with some drawbacks. Here is where Cyber Conversion comes in. As a instant, Cyber Conversion "removes" a creature by flipping it facedown and turning it into a 2/2 Cyberman artifact creature. What makes this card so special is the fact that it turns creatures face down instead of destroying or exiling them, removing any problematic abilities from creatures as well as stranding an opposing Commander on the battlefield as a 2/2. That last part is especially brutal since it forces the opponent to jump through hoops just to get their Commander back in the command zone. Cyber Conversion was widely ignored when it was printed in Universes Beyond: Doctor Who and in my opinion it has gone grossly unappreciated.

Number Two

A sneaky little instant from Bloomburrow, Into The Flood Maw provides some cheap and flexible removal with little drawback. For you can return a creature an opponent controls to the hand and, if you promise a tapped fish as a gift, you can instead bounce any nonland permanent. Gift is an interesting new mechanic, allowing you to give your opponent a resource in exchange for a more powerful effect. Luckily, gifting a tapped fish is by far the easiest gift to stomach (Far better than gifting a card or God forbid an extra turn) meaning we can often use Into the Flood Maw as an amphibian-themed budget Chain of Vapors. The notable downside here is that you cannot target your own permanents which unfortunately means no abusing ETB effects or protecting your own cards but even without that, Into the Flood Maw still seems like a powerful uncommon that can easily work its way into the 99.

Number One

Struggle for Project Purity is an absolute unit of a card. Similar to the Siege cycle from Khans block, You choose between two modes when Struggle for Project Purity enters, Brotherhood or Enclave. Let's get Enclave out of the way first. When a player attacks you with one or more creatures, they get twice that many Rad counters. A reasonable effect if you are playing a Rad counter deck like The Wise Mothman or even a mill deck like Phenax, God of Deception. But, just like any Full Metal Alchemist fan knows, Brotherhood is just better. At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent draws a card and you draw that many. As much as letting opponents draw hurts my soul, this card functionally lets you draw an extra three cards every turn, easily outpacing the advantage the rest of the table gets from it. Consider that Cut a Deal is one of White's best draw spells; this essentially lets you play Cut a Deal every single turn. There are also lots of ways to widen the gap even further by using cards like Consecrated Sphinx to draw even more whenever an opponent draws, Teferi's Ageless Insight to turn a draw three into a draw six or even using something like Orcish Bowmasters or Psychosis Crawler to punish those opposing draws.

That's the list! Hopefully, this list provided some interesting options to upgrade your Blue decks to make them even more miserable oppressive insufferable fun! Thanks for reading and stay posted for the next article where we cover the best Black spells that you aren't playing.

"Be you, Be Free, Live Happily!"

@MulldrifterStan