Does the Black suite of cards like Inquisition and other discard, alongside now Fatal Push, fulfill that role in modern? Why or why not? Or are the two formats and colors too different for this kind of comparison?
Not sure there's a strong argument for that. Of the current Tier 1 decks listed here, only 3 (death's shadow jund, Abzan/junk, and grixis death's shadow) are packing those cards in meaningful quantities.
I feel like modern right now is more of a rock paper scissors between hyper aggro beating ramp, ramp beating midrange, and midrange beating hyper aggro. To be sure it's more complicated than that, since there are very playable combo, control, fringe, and meta decks out there that break the mold and have good or bad matchups that don't fit this, but I feel like the major ones are aggro/midrange/ramp.
There is no viable blue control shell in Modern period. Blue is a splash color for control, it cannot stand on its own. Black on the other hand has it all. Efficient proactive threat removal with discards. Efficient board removal with Fatal Push. Tasigur, angler, Death's Shadow for cheap finishers. Card draw in multiple flavors. Oh yeah and Liliana...
Blue's weaksauce counterspells are dumpster jank by comparison. All blue does in modern is make other strategies a bit more efficient. Cards like Serum visions and Thoughscour fills up the graveyard and dig towards the cards that actually make a real impact, which are black... Stubborn Denial is probably the best counterspell in modern under 4cc, and that is really sad. Stubborn Denial basically ASSUMES the deck it's being used in has proper non blue critters to do the actual work.
The reason behind it is pretty obvious to me. Blue counterspell draw go decks lead to boring matches. Seriously who wants to have games where no one does anything for 4-5 turns then MAYBE a 1-2cc spell gets resolved. It's bad for business to encourage those kinds of decks.
At the moment black is the strongest color in Modern for sure, shout out goes to green as well due to it's appearance in midrange as goyf or coco and ramp decks like tron and scape as well as one of the most objectively powerful cards in ancient stirrings.
Half of the top 10 spells are black as well the #1 and #3 creatures, granted #1 being wraith is really a cheat as it functions more of a spell usually but it still shows an overwhelming preference in the current meta toward black.
Don't discount blue yet though, Island is the most played basic as it makes up two of three respectable mono-color decks (folk and turns vs green devotion).
As far as the gut check, does this make sense? why? It's pretty obvious, discard is the most reliable reactive strategy in Modern as the counterspells and cantrips are at a miserable power level relative to the standard-legacy sandwich that every other card type is placed inside. Modern would gain a lot of power level balance if it had two or three functional port-overs: a more powerful path but not quite swords, a more powerful cantrip but not one we've seen (maybe scry 1, draw 1 , scry 1?), and a wrath effect similar to toxic deluge but not quite damnation (maybe 3cmc opp sac x creatures you lose x life?)
I agree that black is certainly the most powerful color in modern as of this time, but I'm not sure modern could be considered a "black format" in the way legacy is a "blue" format. My understanding is that Legacy is described as "blue" because unless you play blue cards like FOW in your deck you will likely get steamrolled by everything else right out of the gate(as they will try to kill you during the first few turns). In modern, you don't need to be playing discard and push to have game against decks playing discard and push. You can get away with playing other strategies and even not being interactive at all. I'm not sure that's the case in legacy.
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My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
In Legacy, blue is the color with the best cantrips and answer spell. In Modern, black has the best answer spell(s), but the best cantrips are in blue and green. The Death's Shadow decks in Modern are base black for DS, discard and Fatal Push, then they add either blue for Serum Visions or green for Traverse the Ulvenwald.
Modern is nowhere near as black-dominated as Legacy is blue-dominated. Hop on to mtgtop8 and you'll see that Brainstorm, Ponder and Force of Will are played in more than 50% of Legacy decks. In contrast, Fatal Push is the top Modern spell (25%), closely followed by the non-black spells Path to Exile (24%) and Lightning Bolt (22%).
I don't think anyone is saying that black is as dominating in modern as blue is in legacy. Personally I don't think about or care about Legacy at all. The point of this thread is how godawful blue is as a stand alone control color. And yeah, it's bad. White has big problems too but at least it can stand on it's own as a control shell. Meanwhile Black just keeps on getting better.
The really bizarre part is how slow people are to adapt to this. Anytime someone says control deck, they STILL immediately assume blue counterspell draw go. Sorry but that deck isn't a thing in Modern. From now on start thinking about Black Discard and removal as control in Modern. Get with the times people!
The point of this thread is how godawful blue is as a stand alone control color. And yeah, it's bad. White has big problems too but at least it can stand on it's own as a control shell. Meanwhile Black just keeps on getting better.
The really bizarre part is how slow people are to adapt to this. Anytime someone says control deck, they STILL immediately assume blue counterspell draw go. Sorry but that deck isn't a thing in Modern. From now on start thinking about Black Discard and removal as control in Modern. Get with the times people!
it's ironic you say this...
blue has competitive mono-color decks: folk and taking turns
black has 1 in the rack, I'll let you be the judge on how competitive these 3 decks are relative to one another
I think you're referring to yourself when you say "it's bizarre how people think control refers to mono blue." Control isn't really a thing in modern by design, players love modern because there is no control deck, there is no successful reactive strategy because that is miserable to play against.
The point of this thread is how godawful blue is as a stand alone control color. And yeah, it's bad. White has big problems too but at least it can stand on it's own as a control shell. Meanwhile Black just keeps on getting better.
The really bizarre part is how slow people are to adapt to this. Anytime someone says control deck, they STILL immediately assume blue counterspell draw go. Sorry but that deck isn't a thing in Modern. From now on start thinking about Black Discard and removal as control in Modern. Get with the times people!
it's ironic you say this...
blue has competitive mono-color decks: folk and taking turns
black has 1 in the rack, I'll let you be the judge on how competitive these 3 decks are relative to one another
I think you're referring to yourself when you say "it's bizarre how people think control refers to mono blue." Control isn't really a thing in modern by design, players love modern because there is no control deck, there is no successful reactive strategy because that is miserable to play against.
You're way off on almost the entire post. First off you list Turns and Merfolk as your examples of mono blue decks. But I never said there weren't any competitive mono blue decks. I said that there aren't any mono blue CONTROL DECKS. Because blue control cannot stand on its own. It's a pretty big difference and you use this false premise to flail about in the rest of your post. Why would I compare the power of 8Rack to Turns or Folk? They have nothing to do with each other and comparing how "competitive" (whatever the hell that means) they are is nonsense.
Furthermore, there ARE control decks in modern. You suffer from the exact mentality I was warning people about earlier. You cannot distinguish control decks from reactive control decks. You are correct when you say there aren't any successful reactive control decks but talking about how bad reactive blue is was the whole point of this thread!! My God man open your eyes.
First off you list Turns and Merfolk as your examples of mono blue decks. But I never said there weren't any competitive mono blue decks. I said that there aren't any mono blue CONTROL DECKS. Because blue control cannot stand on its own.
It's a pretty big difference and you use this false premise to flail about in the rest of your post. Why would I compare the power of 8Rack to Turns or Folk? They have nothing to do with each other and comparing how "competitive" (whatever the hell that means) they are is nonsense.
I'll refer to the thread title for why I brought up a comparison
Furthermore, there ARE control decks in modern. You suffer from the exact mentality I was warning people about earlier. You cannot distinguish control decks from reactive control decks. You are correct when you say there aren't any successful reactive control decks but talking about how bad reactive blue is was the whole point of this thread!! My God man open your eyes.
you: blue reactive control is bad
me: all reactive control is bad
you: yeah, but BLUE reactive control is bad
blue has competitive mono-color decks: folk and taking turns
black has 1 in the rack, I'll let you be the judge on how competitive these 3 decks are relative to one another
I think you're referring to yourself when you say "it's bizarre how people think control refers to mono blue." Control isn't really a thing in modern by design, players love modern because there is no control deck, there is no successful reactive strategy because that is miserable to play against.
...okay, I just wanna say: I would love Modern if there were a control deck I could play, or even a mutt like Twin. I'd call losing before I can play anything precisely as miserable as losing without being allowed to play anything. And my impression was that people were complaining that Modern lately has been mostly T4 aggro decks.
Anyway, I'm no true expert on Modern. I just wanted to pop in to mention something: Y'all forgot about Lantern Control. Yeah, it's at 1% of the meta, and yeah it's mostly B/g, but still -- just wanted to point it out that it was a thing.
Also, MTGgoldfish lists U/W and Jeskai control as 2.1 of the meta respectively, comparable to 2.2% for Living End, 2.4% for COmpany, 2.8% for Abzan and 2.9 for 5C Death's Shadow. Compare 11.7% for Grixis DS, and a few others -- Eldrazi Tron at 8% and Affinity at 6%.
Together, it seems to me that, while Control is doing pretty bad relative to the meta (depending on whether you call Grixis Shadow a control deck, or not -- I'd say it's disruptive aggro), it's not doing terrible, and within the control archetypes the reliance is on blue. Remember, even in Legacy, pure mono-blue isn't a thing -- it was (almost) always U/W for Miracles, and probably will stay that way now with Topless Miracles.
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UW is a successful reactive control deck in the format and has significant meta share. It's completely off-base to claim the format has no successful blue reliant, reactive control deck.
UW is a successful reactive control deck in the format and has significant meta share. It's completely off-base to claim the format has no successful blue reliant, reactive control deck.
That's because it has a control base that can stand on its own: white. UW control leans heavily on white for answers, sweepers and threats. It's is more board control than counterspells. Blue control cannot stand on its own, I stand by that statement. It lacks finishers and efficient answers. White and Black, the other two control bases, both can stand on their own. Control decks with blue in them need one of the other control bases.
So yes you can have UW control, but you cannot have say UG control. You can have BG control though (obviously). If you try and do UR you get a tempo deck, and tempo is something that Blue does well in Modern. Now you may have success with tempo, but that doesn't give control players the right "feel" they are looking for. There are no draw go UR, late game decks because UR lacks a control base that can stand on its own.
If you think Turns is a control deck then I don't think we can have any meaningful discussions about control decks. Gl.
turns is a tempo/control deck that closes games with a 16 cards combo
Its tempo combo sure. There's little to no control in there at all. Why? because blue lacks efficient answers, and it takes a 16 card combo to be a reliable blue finisher.
If you think Turns is a control deck then I don't think we can have any meaningful discussions about control decks. Gl.
turns is a tempo/control deck that closes games with a 16 cards combo
Its tempo combo sure. There's little to no control in there at all. Why? because blue lacks efficient answers, and it takes a 16 card combo to be a reliable blue finisher.
resource denial is both a tempo and control thing tho.. in this way it is a control deck.
If you think Turns is a control deck then I don't think we can have any meaningful discussions about control decks. Gl.
turns is a tempo/control deck that closes games with a 16 cards combo
Its tempo combo sure. There's little to no control in there at all. Why? because blue lacks efficient answers, and it takes a 16 card combo to be a reliable blue finisher.
resource denial is both a tempo and control thing tho.. in this way it is a control deck.
I assume you mean gigadrowse and exhaustion when you say resource denial, but if you stop to think about it those are their actually their tempo heavy hitters. They don't destroy or counter anything, they just stall the game into the turns where the combo goes off. It's an easy mistake to make, but there is no way you can consider turns to be much control at all. Remand isn't a hard counter, and it's rare to see a list with anything other than Remand. Occasionally you see a copy or two of Cryptic, but that hardly makes it a control deck.
As someone who has played Legacy, blue is really a good color there. And for Modern... not so sure if it can be compared to the blue power in legacy, black is good but maybe it's because discard is being heavily used by many Death Shadow decks right now...
If you think Turns is a control deck then I don't think we can have any meaningful discussions about control decks. Gl.
turns is a tempo/control deck that closes games with a 16 cards combo
Its tempo combo sure. There's little to no control in there at all. Why? because blue lacks efficient answers, and it takes a 16 card combo to be a reliable blue finisher.
resource denial is both a tempo and control thing tho.. in this way it is a control deck.
I assume you mean gigadrowse and exhaustion when you say resource denial, but if you stop to think about it those are their actually their tempo heavy hitters. They don't destroy or counter anything, they just stall the game into the turns where the combo goes off. It's an easy mistake to make, but there is no way you can consider turns to be much control at all. Remand isn't a hard counter, and it's rare to see a list with anything other than Remand. Occasionally you see a copy or two of Cryptic, but that hardly makes it a control deck.
Control doesnt mean only permission in form of Counters tho.
turns is a tempo/control deck that closes games with a 16 cards combo
Its tempo combo sure. There's little to no control in there at all. Why? because blue lacks efficient answers, and it takes a 16 card combo to be a reliable blue finisher.
resource denial is both a tempo and control thing tho.. in this way it is a control deck.
I assume you mean gigadrowse and exhaustion when you say resource denial, but if you stop to think about it those are their actually their tempo heavy hitters. They don't destroy or counter anything, they just stall the game into the turns where the combo goes off. It's an easy mistake to make, but there is no way you can consider turns to be much control at all. Remand isn't a hard counter, and it's rare to see a list with anything other than Remand. Occasionally you see a copy or two of Cryptic, but that hardly makes it a control deck.
Control doesnt mean only permission in form of Counters tho.
Uh I know that, but what blue is doing in Turns isn't control either, are you arguing that Turns has control elements that are not counterspells? If so what elements?
discard, permission(counterspells), prison strategies, land destruction and mana denial
depending on the meta and the build turns has used all of these different ways to control the board while assembling the combo.
the ur with 4 bolts and 4 snapcaster is more focused on tempo. a ur version with 4 ssg and 4 cotv main is more a prisonish build.
the ub turns at gp vegas was more about discard and permission. in some metas turns plays a lot of spreading seas and ghost quarters in addition to gigadrowses and exhaustions and boomerangs to hit lands
i think we can agree that turn isn't a pure control deck but we should also agree that everything that is not a land or a combo piece is here to provide control elements, be it discard, prison, mana denial, tempo or whatever one prefers to play.
i don't know f that's enough to call turns a control deck but calling it a combo deck is wrong as well... the right definition is that turns decks have all these characteristics
discard, permission(counterspells), prison strategies, land destruction and mana denial
depending on the meta and the build turns has used all of these different ways to control the board while assembling the combo.
the ur with 4 bolts and 4 snapcaster is more focused on tempo. a ur version with 4 ssg and 4 cotv main is more a prisonish build.
the ub turns at gp vegas was more about discard and permission. in some metas turns plays a lot of spreading seas and ghost quarters in addition to gigadrowses and exhaustions and boomerangs to hit lands
i think we can agree that turn isn't a pure control deck but we should also agree that everything that is not a land or a combo piece is here to provide control elements, be it discard, prison, mana denial, tempo or whatever one prefers to play.
i don't know f that's enough to call turns a control deck but calling it a combo deck is wrong as well... the right definition is that turns decks have all these characteristics
See, you didn't read the whole thread. I was literally calling people out for assuming all control strategies are counterspells while ignoring black and white control decks. Sigh. Turns isn't control. Its tempo / combo. We have no mono blue control decks because blue control cannot stand on its own. I have been very clear about white and black being full fledged control bases. The whole point of this thread is to:
1. Agree that blue control is garbage in modern
2. Figure out why people can't see black as the control color of modern
3. Stop saying modern has no control decks just because blue is trash. We have control just not counterspell control.
While I concede the point that U is weak in Modern, it does fill a crucial role in non-prison control decks that are viable. No, we don't have a mono U control deck, but that's not the sole metric by which we should measure U's contribution to control, as it still fills an essential role. Permission control is an essential facet of UW control, the best control deck in the format, and without it, the deck couldn't exist.
I know you've said it relies heavily on W, but I'd argue that it's more about W shoring up U's innate weaknesses. U stops additional threats from resolving whereas W answers threats that have already resolved, giving it a greater spectrum of control. Even if U were strong by its own merits, we would still want the W splash. Conversely, W has poor options for dealing with non-creature threats, a weakness that U handles exceptionally well.
My point is that the color pair synergizes extremely well and would exist whether U is weak or not. Again, I do agree that U needs more support than it receives, but I don't want people to confound that with control being unplayable in Modern, which the whole "Blue can't stand on its own" suggests. It lends itself towards being a support color, strong or not. I believe a better argument is that U doesn't pull enough of its own weight in control decks, despite the fact that U's inclusion is still necessary for the decks to function.
Does the Black suite of cards like Inquisition and other discard, alongside now Fatal Push, fulfill that role in modern? Why or why not? Or are the two formats and colors too different for this kind of comparison?
CerberusJund (Modern)GRB
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant Morphentress (Commander) GUB
I also play YGO (DragunFusion) and Hearthstone (Dragon Control Warrior)
I feel like modern right now is more of a rock paper scissors between hyper aggro beating ramp, ramp beating midrange, and midrange beating hyper aggro. To be sure it's more complicated than that, since there are very playable combo, control, fringe, and meta decks out there that break the mold and have good or bad matchups that don't fit this, but I feel like the major ones are aggro/midrange/ramp.
Blue's weaksauce counterspells are dumpster jank by comparison. All blue does in modern is make other strategies a bit more efficient. Cards like Serum visions and Thoughscour fills up the graveyard and dig towards the cards that actually make a real impact, which are black... Stubborn Denial is probably the best counterspell in modern under 4cc, and that is really sad. Stubborn Denial basically ASSUMES the deck it's being used in has proper non blue critters to do the actual work.
The reason behind it is pretty obvious to me. Blue counterspell draw go decks lead to boring matches. Seriously who wants to have games where no one does anything for 4-5 turns then MAYBE a 1-2cc spell gets resolved. It's bad for business to encourage those kinds of decks.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/modern
Half of the top 10 spells are black as well the #1 and #3 creatures, granted #1 being wraith is really a cheat as it functions more of a spell usually but it still shows an overwhelming preference in the current meta toward black.
Don't discount blue yet though, Island is the most played basic as it makes up two of three respectable mono-color decks (folk and turns vs green devotion).
As far as the gut check, does this make sense? why? It's pretty obvious, discard is the most reliable reactive strategy in Modern as the counterspells and cantrips are at a miserable power level relative to the standard-legacy sandwich that every other card type is placed inside. Modern would gain a lot of power level balance if it had two or three functional port-overs: a more powerful path but not quite swords, a more powerful cantrip but not one we've seen (maybe scry 1, draw 1 , scry 1?), and a wrath effect similar to toxic deluge but not quite damnation (maybe 3cmc opp sac x creatures you lose x life?)
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
Modern is nowhere near as black-dominated as Legacy is blue-dominated. Hop on to mtgtop8 and you'll see that Brainstorm, Ponder and Force of Will are played in more than 50% of Legacy decks. In contrast, Fatal Push is the top Modern spell (25%), closely followed by the non-black spells Path to Exile (24%) and Lightning Bolt (22%).
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The really bizarre part is how slow people are to adapt to this. Anytime someone says control deck, they STILL immediately assume blue counterspell draw go. Sorry but that deck isn't a thing in Modern. From now on start thinking about Black Discard and removal as control in Modern. Get with the times people!
it's ironic you say this...
blue has competitive mono-color decks: folk and taking turns
black has 1 in the rack, I'll let you be the judge on how competitive these 3 decks are relative to one another
I think you're referring to yourself when you say "it's bizarre how people think control refers to mono blue." Control isn't really a thing in modern by design, players love modern because there is no control deck, there is no successful reactive strategy because that is miserable to play against.
Furthermore, there ARE control decks in modern. You suffer from the exact mentality I was warning people about earlier. You cannot distinguish control decks from reactive control decks. You are correct when you say there aren't any successful reactive control decks but talking about how bad reactive blue is was the whole point of this thread!! My God man open your eyes.
Taking turns meats the conventional definition for control found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_deck
I'll refer to the thread title for why I brought up a comparison
you: blue reactive control is bad
me: all reactive control is bad
you: yeah, but BLUE reactive control is bad
I don't understand what your point is?
If you think Turns is a control deck then I don't think we can have any meaningful discussions about control decks. Gl.
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...okay, I just wanna say: I would love Modern if there were a control deck I could play, or even a mutt like Twin. I'd call losing before I can play anything precisely as miserable as losing without being allowed to play anything. And my impression was that people were complaining that Modern lately has been mostly T4 aggro decks.
Anyway, I'm no true expert on Modern. I just wanted to pop in to mention something: Y'all forgot about Lantern Control. Yeah, it's at 1% of the meta, and yeah it's mostly B/g, but still -- just wanted to point it out that it was a thing.
Also, MTGgoldfish lists U/W and Jeskai control as 2.1 of the meta respectively, comparable to 2.2% for Living End, 2.4% for COmpany, 2.8% for Abzan and 2.9 for 5C Death's Shadow. Compare 11.7% for Grixis DS, and a few others -- Eldrazi Tron at 8% and Affinity at 6%.
Together, it seems to me that, while Control is doing pretty bad relative to the meta (depending on whether you call Grixis Shadow a control deck, or not -- I'd say it's disruptive aggro), it's not doing terrible, and within the control archetypes the reliance is on blue. Remember, even in Legacy, pure mono-blue isn't a thing -- it was (almost) always U/W for Miracles, and probably will stay that way now with Topless Miracles.
--Buck v Bell, 1927. This case, regarding the compulsory sterilization of inmates at mental institutions, has -- somehow -- never been overturned. Just a wee PSA for ya.
So yes you can have UW control, but you cannot have say UG control. You can have BG control though (obviously). If you try and do UR you get a tempo deck, and tempo is something that Blue does well in Modern. Now you may have success with tempo, but that doesn't give control players the right "feel" they are looking for. There are no draw go UR, late game decks because UR lacks a control base that can stand on its own.
turns is a tempo/control deck that closes games with a 16 cards combo
URW PillowFort Stasis (costruction)
modern:
U Taking Turns combo
pauper:
UB Servitor Control
xenob8 : you know you are going to have a bad time when opponent starts with snow covered island
resource denial is both a tempo and control thing tho.. in this way it is a control deck.
URW PillowFort Stasis (costruction)
modern:
U Taking Turns combo
pauper:
UB Servitor Control
xenob8 : you know you are going to have a bad time when opponent starts with snow covered island
As someone who has played Legacy, blue is really a good color there. And for Modern... not so sure if it can be compared to the blue power in legacy, black is good but maybe it's because discard is being heavily used by many Death Shadow decks right now...
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Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
Control doesnt mean only permission in form of Counters tho.
URW PillowFort Stasis (costruction)
modern:
U Taking Turns combo
pauper:
UB Servitor Control
xenob8 : you know you are going to have a bad time when opponent starts with snow covered island
discard, permission(counterspells), prison strategies, land destruction and mana denial
depending on the meta and the build turns has used all of these different ways to control the board while assembling the combo.
the ur with 4 bolts and 4 snapcaster is more focused on tempo. a ur version with 4 ssg and 4 cotv main is more a prisonish build.
the ub turns at gp vegas was more about discard and permission. in some metas turns plays a lot of spreading seas and ghost quarters in addition to gigadrowses and exhaustions and boomerangs to hit lands
i think we can agree that turn isn't a pure control deck but we should also agree that everything that is not a land or a combo piece is here to provide control elements, be it discard, prison, mana denial, tempo or whatever one prefers to play.
i don't know f that's enough to call turns a control deck but calling it a combo deck is wrong as well... the right definition is that turns decks have all these characteristics
URW PillowFort Stasis (costruction)
modern:
U Taking Turns combo
pauper:
UB Servitor Control
xenob8 : you know you are going to have a bad time when opponent starts with snow covered island
1. Agree that blue control is garbage in modern
2. Figure out why people can't see black as the control color of modern
3. Stop saying modern has no control decks just because blue is trash. We have control just not counterspell control.
I know you've said it relies heavily on W, but I'd argue that it's more about W shoring up U's innate weaknesses. U stops additional threats from resolving whereas W answers threats that have already resolved, giving it a greater spectrum of control. Even if U were strong by its own merits, we would still want the W splash. Conversely, W has poor options for dealing with non-creature threats, a weakness that U handles exceptionally well.
My point is that the color pair synergizes extremely well and would exist whether U is weak or not. Again, I do agree that U needs more support than it receives, but I don't want people to confound that with control being unplayable in Modern, which the whole "Blue can't stand on its own" suggests. It lends itself towards being a support color, strong or not. I believe a better argument is that U doesn't pull enough of its own weight in control decks, despite the fact that U's inclusion is still necessary for the decks to function.