Counterspell

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Mortlocke on A Pulverizer? Perrie the Pulverizer?!

1 week ago

Hi Baron777,

Just responding to your post here. I hope you don't mind. Just for my own understanding, I think you need to clarify what kind of decks you want to play against. When you say "This is designed as a fun 6-7 level deck that..." This tells me nothing. When discussing your deck I suggest following this prompt:

1. My deck has a budget of...
2. My manabase has the most efficient lands available/most cheap and slow utility tapped lands and tapped fetches/a mix between the two
3. My deck threatens to kill an opponent between turns x and y/The most important turns for my deck are between x and y when my deck can pop off when doing z.

Based off of the previously mentioned cards in your post - namely Solemnity and Torpor Orb it sounds like your meta has a lot of particularly nasty control magic that can absolutely one card you out of a game. Therefore I suggest adding both more ramp and more interaction - you're in the colors for it:

• More ramp: Staples such as Nature's Lore, Rampant Growth, Kodama's Reach/Cultivate are missing

• More tutors such as: Worldly Tutor, Sylvan Tutor and Enlightened Tutor

• Try experimenting with proliferation: options as well Karn's Bastion, Inexorable Tide, or even Sword of Truth and Justice can keep Shield counters on your creatures making them continuously difficult to deal with

• More removal: Adding spells like Naturalize, Voidslime, Farewell, Counterspell, Beast Within, Generous Gift, Mana Drain, Force of Will, Plasm Capture, Arcane Denial, Dovin's Veto

In summary, I think your deck doesn't match what it's playing against. You need to have more consistency if you are going up against opponents who are going to completely lock you out of a game. To get that, you need to make sure you can target problem permanents as often as possible.

DungeonCrawler64 on Lurker of the Automation

2 weeks ago

I test-played a bit and I think I got the lands to work well!Hallowed Fountain seems to be a good land fix and much to my despair I think I have to remove The Ozolith to add one land in its place because the lands just were not consistent enough. (especially trying to get for a Counterspell, Sink into Stupor  ^Flip, or if I wanted to cast two cost cards. (this is part of the reason why I chose Metallic Rebuke over Counterspell before I updated my deck because getting double blue seemed tougher. but I think seventeen lands plus the Mox Opal and Springleaf Drum are good and the manapool seems much more efficient. I decided to keep the Darksteel Citadel because for artifacts entering and on the board for affinity I seemed to notice a considerable difference if they were not artifact lands. the Steel Overseer seems to be pretty strong especially if I have a bunch of Ornithopter or Memnite then I can buff them and make them more of a threat. I also had the crazy idea of adding another copy of Shadowspear because of the +1+1, trample, and especially the lifelink if the game is longer and I needed it. however, I am not quite sold on the idea. I would love to have one copy of The Ozolith, but I am unsure what to remove. I am considering removing one of the three Kapa Cannoneers Or one of the two Emry, Lurker of the Loch. but I am just not confident about removing those cards that seem essential for this deck. ); would love to hear from you and thanks so much for helping kamarupa! without you, I got no clue what I would have done!

kamarupa on Lurker of the Automation

2 weeks ago

Well, since it seems you want to splash white for Dispatch, I'd recommend playtesting the heck out it and keep adjusting the lands until it seems like it can't get anymore consistent. Razortide Bridge def seems like a great fit, but I also think any land that enters tapped is usually a disturbingly big drain on a deck's speed. Again, I recommend playtesting it a ton with the Bridge and then try swapping that out for the path land Hengegate Pathway  ^Flip. I'd actually recommend trying it without Darksteel Citadel, too. From what I saw looking at a few other Cheerios decks, none of them tried taking advantage of the extra artifact trigger with artifacts lands and instead all went with the popular expensive lands. I'm not sure how competitive you want this deck to be, but even without dropping the big bucks, we can still get some decent lands these days. Bottom line, if you can't cast spells because you don't have the right color mana, the extra triggers from artifact lands essentially mean nothing.

When it comes to Blood Moon, ug. Man f those players, lol. OK, jk. Mostly. That's def where your Counterspell and a lot of your sideboard comes in huge. I firmly believe that a 1v1 race to 2 wins is the only way to play 'fair' magic, so if you do lose a game to Blood Moon, you have some answers that can shut that down and then it just comes down to luck of the draw.

The Ozolith is a great spell, and I love casting it when I get the chance but it does have 2 issues that compound each other. For starters, it's rare anyone in my little playgroup lets me keep it - they always destroy it first change they get. And then, it being Legendary can turn extra copies into dead cards. So I usually only include one and think of it more as a diversion target for opponents than something I need on the field to win. All that said, I'm a sucker for +1/+1 counters; so I wouldn't say you need Steel Overseer to make The Ozolith worth it, but the Overseer isn't hurting the deck by being here either.

kamarupa on Lurker of the Automation

3 weeks ago

I don't think it's worth splashing white for it, but Dispatch is absolutely stellar in Affinity decks. Off the top of my head, Turn to Frog, Reality Shift, Pongify, Rapid Hybridization are all viable mono-blue removal spells.

For what it's worth, I'd run Counterspell over Metallic Rebuke. Counterspell just doesn't have the MV loophole and it's only 1 more to cast at most.

Xica on Reclamation of Fate

1 month ago

Hmm this is one of the few decks where Remand is better than Counterspell.

Remand can act as a cantripping fog effect on your opponent's turn 2, or be played on back of growth spiral's extra land on t3.

And well the deck's goal is to shrink your library to only Nexus of Fate *list* then win in combat. Which is made possible by tha absurd ramp created with Wilderness Reclamation - with such mana advantage, arguably remand is better.

BUT
In the current meta with over 35% of decks being RWx energy, you need some sort of way to hate on those decks, as they are naturally favoured against this type of deck.
I would recommend playing Sulfur Elemental in that role (for hating on white x/1 tribal), as it not only clears the board:
- it also keeps the board clean
- it doesnt harm your own Ice-Fang Coatls

Yes, i am aware, that you get caught in the flak with Orcish Bowmasters seeing common play thanks to the one ring - so concessions need to be made for that.

xraider on Planeswalker Rulez

1 month ago

I’m not sure why I’m helping you with this nasty deck. I would suggest adding more board wipes and counterspells to better protect your planeswalkers, especially in our creature-heavy meta. Cards like Blasphemous Act, Farewell, Supreme Verdict, Counterspell, Mana Drain, Reject Imperfection, and Desynchronization could be great additions.

Here are a few more cards to consider for your deck: Teferi's Talent, All Will Be One, Rowan's Talent, Deification, Sphere of Safety, Take the Bait, and Djeru, With Eyes Open.

Good luck

TheForsakenOne on Nicol Bolas Supervillians

1 month ago

6 Mana Teferi is a trap, as tempting as that ultimate is you're just never going to get it unless you're already in a winning position and the abilities are just not worth it. It's too much of a win-more card, if you want that ultimate so badly just replace it with Teferi's Talent. I'd recommend replacing it with Chandra, Legacy of Fire for its Planeswalker synergies. Similarly Ob Nixilis Reignited just draws you a card every turn with a basic kill ability and a meh ultimate, you can do better than that.

I'd say you want more Planeswalkers that protect themselves and your other walkers, It seems too easy right now for you to just crumble when you become the archenemy. Vronos, Masked Inquisitor, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer, Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast can all make chump blockers or protect your walkers in other ways. Lolth, Spider Queen likes the ammount of stuff that will be dying as you chump block and can make 2 blockers.

I'd cut Don't Make a Sound and Get Out for better counterspells. Counterspell is like a dollar, and Drown in the Loch can double as a kill spell if needed. Alternatively Ripples of Potential can block much more than a single spell threatening your walkers.

Leyline of the Void is unneeded unless you are really facing a lot of reanimator, It'll sit dead in your hand too often and it's unlikely to make you archenemy (More often you'll just piss off one player while the other two are neutral) like you want.

I'm surprised that you don't have any of the Oath cards in here. Oath of Liliana and Oath of Jace seem like they'd be great.

For creatures Jaya's Phoenix seems like a slam dunk. Saruman, the White Hand makes a pretty big creature when you cast planeswalkers, letting you trade with bigger things and immediately replace it.

Xica on How to deal with [[The One Ring]]

1 month ago

Frankly Consign to Memory is just a newer version of Ceremonious Rejection, if you ask me its good, but its overvalued. Both are extreme narrow spells.
I was always of the opinion that having a lot of catch all answers, is superior. Even if they are weaker in a specific use case, than silver bullets. As a silver bullet hiding somewhere in your 53, is gonna affect the game way less, than the "meh" but relevant cards in hand.
Hence why i say Counterspell, Force of Negation and the likes are superior.
Aside from "on cast" triggers of eldrazi, in an eldrazi heavy meta, i would say consign to memory is a deckbuilding trap. If you need a counterspell, in most matchups it only works against the ring. And as a "counter ability" card its one of the worst, as the alternatives like Tishana's Tidebinder are superior.

Bonecrusher Giant is fine, but again, its just one of the million "stop lifegain & damage prevention" effects of red.
All of which are useful only in a very narrow range of situations.
They are relevant in matchups where you are racing the one ring, and that single fog turn makes or breaks the game. Even for burn, letting the ring player untap, and burning them out on upkeep (after protection from everything worn off) is still an option. The cards i listed are applicable in way more situations than helping in not slowing down with the laft 5 lifepoints.