Counterspells are one of the few types of cards I'd say mana efficiency is king just because it changes how much mana it takes for you to make your bomb play and also protect it.
I find stifle effects are becoming more important in commander. Defabricate is one of my favorites. I will give Disallow a trial run and see what I think at 3 mana.
Both of the aforementioned are amazing; also, for three mana you can get a FIELD of counter & remove options. That removal is killer; the best kind of grave hate is pre-emptive grave hate.
Render silent has become one of my favorite counterspells. You are correct that most of the time it is just cancel, but the looks I've seen on my opponent's faces when I basically just end their turn is hilarious every time. Glorious End is 3 mana and causes you to lose the game after your next turn. The classic time stop is 6 mana. Render silent does a very good impression of this powerful effect.
Aven interrupter is incredible. It triggers most of white's creature based draw effects, it gets around uncounterable, and its also a flying blocker. Also mages contest is hysterical.
Bought a copy of mages contest on a lark back when I was first getting into commander and just realized I'd kind of stumbled into building a deck recently it might actually be half decently playable in, was super stoked to finally add it to something
There are counter spells with value 1 that are specific to sorcery and cost less than a dollar. In casual, board wipe spells are sorcery, so they protect your table.
Yes! Spell pierce normally stops someone who has tapped out for an instant or sorcery, and! It screws over turn 1 sol rings. Also there’s “envelop.” Which only hits sorceries. Finally, arguably one of the best is “Swan song” and “an offer you can’t refuse”
What do you think of it to play? Have thought of making a Vadrik deck built around running basically as many over-costed one blue pip counterspells as possible for a while now but have never encountered one in the wild
I've been testing stifle effects in my reanimator deck. Usually players only have 1 or 2 graveyard hate pieces if any at all and being able to stop someone who attempts to ruin my whole game with a single bojuka bog is very useful.
I think a very underrated 3 cmc counterspell that is forgotten due to being relatively new due to being printed in foundations is Refute, the effect of drawing then discarding a card is really good even without discard synergies
I love giant-ass counterspells in a deck with lots of flash or cost reduction. I’m building new Melek right now and the big counterspell section is called “Ya know I had to do it to ‘em.” And yes it has a Spell Swindle
When building $50 budget decks for my roommates I put Urza's Rebuff into a Felix Five Boots deck to make it easier to get unblocked damage, for a Jenny Flint/Madame Vastra deck I chose Ice Out because they'll usually have a surplus of clues and foods, making it as cheap as a counterspell while triggering the various sacrifice triggers.
My all time favorite counter spell that not much people talk about (at least I never see anyone did) is "Thwart". Yes it's 4 mana counter spell but this card save my ass so many time during late game. Returning 3 tapped islands instead of paying the cost, really got my opponent off guard with hard counter, and with my simic landfalls deck, it's just help me drop more land fall lol.
I recently made a mono blue Watcher in the Water EDH deck and it has been some of the most fun I've had in mtg. Part of the fun is that I play a bunch of 3 mana counterspells that while not great on paper, allow me to subvert mono blue's otherwise middling removal suite. It's also great because the whole point of The Watcher in the Water is to draw cards at instant speed so I can threaten counterspells with the mana I'm holding up and otherwise draw on the last player's end step in order to make a bunch of tokens. It's not something I've tried before this but it is a lot of fun and a really different way of playing in that you always have something to do and need to be paying attention to everything people cast.
I love the Dr. Who counterspell Reverse the Polarity. It is a 3 mana modal counterspell thats main counter mode is a counter to all spells on the stack, its 3rd mode gives Unblockable to everyone until end of turn, and while it's 2nd mode isn't very useful (switching everyone's power and toughness) I have used it twice to hilarious effect (Unexpected toughness alpha strike and dodging a Massacre Wurm). If you are ok with Universes Beyond it is an amazing pickup.
Two counter spells I love that do essentially the same thing is Rewind and Unwind, they're a 4 mana Counterspell and 3 mana Negate respectively but untap lands up to their mana values. I love playing spellslinger decks so being able to counter something and then still have mana up for something else is very handy.
For any that are applicable, some of these (especially render silent I find) are very good in a sun forger deck. (yes I'm evil, yes my playgroup hates me)
Fun call-out for a lot of budget counterspells -- if you're in at least jeskai, keep a careful eye towards 2 color or greater counter spells. Using sunforger as a tutor for utility counter spells is a GREAT way to hit your table with a big gotcha moment
I want to play cost reducers. A lot of spells I'm playing are so low cost, the mana reduction is negligible if any. Now I'm researching for cards that have mana costs ripe for reduction, that offer a lot more value than the cheapest "best" spells commonly used.
Since I'm building a Kellan the Kid deck, I'm in search for unique cards. One of my favorites for the deck is.... Gale's Redirection! a 5 mana "counterspell" since you exile the spell (so you can basically counter those uncounterable stuff), roll a d20 and add the spell's MV to the dice roll to get your result: 1~14 you may cast it paying it's mana cost but you can use mana as though it were mana of any color to cast that spell. But if you get a 15 or higher, you cast it for free! Snatching an uncounterable spell from your opponent is so gooooood!
I have been playing more disallow and voidslime and modal counterspells recently, with the former two, I found it rather useful to counter activated or triggered abilties that would either cause me to lose, cause someone else to win, or prevent a snowball from happening, it surprisingly comes up more often then I thought and its useful to have.
I have used Sunforger to get Counterflux more than any other spell. It cant be overloaded from the library, but its great to see the reaction when they thought they had a counter of their own. Reinterpret is great too for dropping a free threat off-turn
I liked to play Fear of Impostors and Perplexing Chimera in my Enchantress deck recently as a means of countering spells. They might not be ideal, but kinda on-theme. And it is actually funny having Chimera just sitting on the board giving my opponent(s) a sweat, haha.
I just wanna say that i absolutely like, that you put so much thoughts in your content instead of filling it with that shitty "top 10 commanders from set xy" content. Keep up the good work!
I really like Confounding Riddle for the card selection option, especially because it puts cards in the graveyard. Also Mental Misstep will never not be funny.
YESSS I love invert polarity sm in any izzet deck I play, another really nice tempo swing in these colours is reinterpret, and it's put in some work in the games I draw it
I already have most of these in my Eluge deck. Six mana is peanuts in that deck. I love the deck just because I get to cast the big counterspells you'll basically never see anywhere else.
I had Spelljack as one of the few counterspells in my Kalamax deck as a mild lock piece. If for some reason I was allowed to have Kalamax tapped and any other permanent spell copy effect, I could cast spelljack on one of my opponents' useful spells each turn, copy the spelljack twice, use a copy to counter the real spelljack and a copy to counter the actual spell, rinse and repeat once a turn. The first time I assembled it, all of my opponents conceded after the first demonstration and I took spelljack out of the deck. I still haven't found another deck where it fits yet, but it's pretty awesome to see it mentioned
I also really love Time Stop! Can interrupt virtually any win attempt, be it Craterhoof, a Vultron attack or a combo finish. Only falls flat against decks that can combo off based on what's on the board - which will then kill you in your upkeep or on the stack (which probably just means you should have Time Stop-ed earlier, when they assembled that combo board state)
The only one I can think of I’m surprised wasn’t mentioned was unwind. I have it in a bauble storm deck and it’s helped a lot. TLDR 2 and a blue counter non creature, untap three lands.
As someone that generally doesn´t play counterspells, i tend to go for creatures with inuild counterspells instead. While you loose the suprise factor that way, it makes people play more cautious.
Great vid as usual. I am a control player through and through. I've played about half the cards on your list and enjoy the hell out of them. These are all really good picks, and a few I hadn't considered but might need to. I love the Summary Dismissal gotcha of countering the uncounterable. Also, I have occasionally used it when I made a deal to not counter someone's spell, then the spell turned out bad and I exiled it instead. As for my addition, I love Rewind. If you have four mana available, it's basically free. And sometimes you can actually gain mana out of it with the land untap shenanigans. I'd also like to say, I think Counterspell is a card that warps player perception unfairly. They look at UU for a counter any spell with no restrictions and use that as the standard for counterspells, when in reality it is an outlier. I'd argue that the real standard is for counterspells is three mana with slight upside.
I've liked Traumatic Visions quite a bit lately. It fills a similar niche to Lorien Revealed in that you can keep greedy hands without risking bad draws leading to a screw, but the cooler part is how it manipulates what the group thinks you have. "Oh, X just discarded a counterspell to get more lands, he must be mana-screwed and not a threat." It's great for filling your grave with instants/sorceries for commanders like Octavia and if you're in a very-low-power pod where players will end up hellbent with some regularity, it's still just a (very bad) Cancel.
Not really a counterspell, but one of my favorite overcosted blue instants is Gather Specimens. Hands down the funniest answer to mass reanimation or an Eerie Interlude.
I really like lining up the mana costs of my counterspells, removal spells, and activated abilities from creatures or utility lands. It makes holding up mana feel so much easier because you always have a backup to dump that mana into. Holding up 4 mana for a cryptic command isn't the worst when you can have lands like Talon Gates, Horizon of Progress, or War Room to back it up.
I run a Jin-Gitaxias/Great Synthesis commander deck that runs exclusively mana value 3+ counterspells, excepting offer you cant refuse cuz i like the art. Those 3 mana counterspells feel real good when they are card neutral
Forbid is slept on. A 1UU counter with a buyback of discarding 2 cards. Minimum it is a Cancel, but the first time in each game that you buy it back the whole game warps around you. No one wants to cast spells into it. Of course you pay the buyback when you put the spell on the stack, so if it gets countered, you’re down 3 cards, but if you were about to Forbid stall til victory, or spite Forbid a player who had wronged you, you kinda deserve it.
I feel like unwind and rewind are good ones you could put up there. I run them as I still then have mana to threaten counters or endstep shenanigans, but they can also be mana positive with bounce lands or cost reduction, as well as being color filtering garunteed
While we're on your honorable mentions, I wanna give a shoutout to my gal, Smirking Spelljacker! (Basically) a spelljack on a creature for one less mana and also only one blue pip (instead of Spelljack's three)
I have a deck that runs Keruga the Macrosage as a companion, which means it cannot run any of the efficient counterspells. Instead I have opted to run the most expensive counterspells with the greatest upsides possible. So I'm quite surprised that neither Spell Swindle nor Plasm Capture got mentioned, since they both essentially function as a mana drain.
Depending on how much bounce/flicker shenanigans you've got going on to synergize with Keruga maybe look at Sister of Silence from the WH40K precons? Just retooled my Roon deck to run it as Keruga companion and that's one I added
shout out Ertai's Meddling. only thing better than countering the Craterhoof is delaying it 3 turns so the entire table is forced to gang up and kill timmy for you.
I honestly prefer a counterspell to have some sort of modality to it if it's going to be more than 3 mana. My Gandalf of the Secret Fire deck is all modal counterspells, since I pretty much always cast my instants twice there. Also, I'm with you on Mana Leak. It's one of those cards that I always end up cutting because if I'm going to say "no" to a cast, it's going to be a hard "no".
It's true that the tax imposed by Mana Leak isn't necessarily enough to stop a spell, but if your opponent is holding up 3 mana they're probably planning on using it for something. Mana leak is good because you're almost guaranteed to gain mana advantage of of it, if not card advantage
Generally, my rule of thumb for "Power vs efficiency" with Counterspells sits at a spot, where when you're paying 3, I'd like it to be unconditional. At 1 mana, it's hard to expect anything more than something super-conditional or narrow in targets. At 2 mana, while counterspell itself is the standard, I'm fine with effects like Mana Leak as well. When we get to 3 mana though, it either has to be a completely unconditional "Cancel" or it needs to provide some specific, yet relevant utility. Whirlwind Denial would definitely make the cut here, because of being able to handle entire stacks. Once we hit 4 mana, it has to be doing some good shit to justify itself. I'm definitely picking up Whirlwind Denial and Summary Dismissal for my Unctus Vehicles deck. That deck in particular has a mid-game (Around, when I'm working with like 3-5 mana), where it is perfectly happy "durdling" for a little bit, whether it be amassing drakes with Drake Haven or juicing a Chasm Skulker one loot at a time while sculpting the hand for interaction. Depending on the situation, it is perfectly happy paying 3 mana for countering stuff, because it absolutely needs to stick on the board to win.
As someone who just brewed Melek, Reforged Researcher using tips from your Control in EDH videos, I’m a huge fan of Mystic Confluence, Gale’s Redirection, and Spell Swindle as big counters. Love this video format, and thank you for your help!!
Any love for Sudden Substitution? Stuck it in my Kykar list awhile back but have never drawn into it to. Seems fun in a tokens deck and can potentially even steal creatures. Also like Commit // Memory just in general
0:35 you state that, “that in most cases you do not need to counter a spell turn 2.” I played a game last week and I won the dice roll. I went first, drew for my turn, played an island and passed my turn. Player 2 draws, plays a land for turn, taps the land, and plays a turn 1 sol ring. In response I tap my island and cast Strix Serenade, countering the turn one sol ring. It shut down player 2 the rest of the game, because he only two lands in his opening hands and didn’t draw another one until turn 5. If I don’t get a sol ring, either do you 🤷♂️
I keep trying to pay 3+ mana for counterspells in Eluge, the Shoreless Sea. But for some reason they keep costing less than that... My favorite use for Cryptic Command's 3rd mode is as a better Fog. If you tap your opponent's creatures before the declare attacker step you don't have to worry about attack triggers or "Damage can't be prevented" effects.
trinket how do you feel about rewind or unwind, countering something for basically free since it will untap the lands you just used? i've been considering them in my draw go control list but i don't see them being run that often.
Surprised reverse the polarity from the doctor who set is not here, 3 mana and you choose to one, it can stop storm spells on top that regular spells, it can protect you from attacks or can make your creatures unblockable
I used to think invert polarity wasn't bad. Until I needed to counter a board wipe. That 50% chance to gain control really isn't clutching anymore. If someone casts something with only one legal target and you want to counter it, again, gaining control of it is really not good. And with that, there's too many good counter spells to run invert polarity. It's good a high ceiling but also the lowest floor I've ever seen in a counter spell.
Yeah, I don't like it either, sure, the situation that you want to counter a spell might not be that common, specially on a control deck where you usually don't care about being board wiped most of the time, that is still "most of the time" AND wipes are just the most common example of a spell you rather counter than take control...I don't like its inconsistency either
A card I think gets much less respect than it deserves is Overwhelming Denial. 2UU uncounterable counterspell, but with a Surge cost of UU. So if you cast another spell this turn you can, for only 2 more mana, counter the spell of someone trying to win, even through any defensive counterspells they have.
erm yeah i havent even watched the video yet but im only running negative 3 mana counterspells. yeah, thats right, they pay me mana to cast them. anything more expensive than that is a scam and deserves to be burnt in the draft chaff pile.
I looove using my counterspells to force through cards I'm playing Oh you're countering my spell? I bet you didn't expect a counter to your counter!! 😆🤣
Counterspells are one of the few types of cards I'd say mana efficiency is king just because it changes how much mana it takes for you to make your bomb play and also protect it.
When used defensively sure! But when used as removal there can be some extra benefit to holding up a spell that can be card draw or a counter
It's not just protecting your bombs but preventing your opponents from bombing you out too.
@@leadpaintchips9461really those are two different types of decks
5:24 you will never feel more powerful than when you exile a spell that cant be countered off the stack
I find stifle effects are becoming more important in commander. Defabricate is one of my favorites. I will give Disallow a trial run and see what I think at 3 mana.
Same reason i like tales end. Worst case you counter a kill on sight commander.
Disallow is a consistent performer in my decks
Both of the aforementioned are amazing; also, for three mana you can get a FIELD of counter & remove options. That removal is killer; the best kind of grave hate is pre-emptive grave hate.
Render silent has become one of my favorite counterspells. You are correct that most of the time it is just cancel, but the looks I've seen on my opponent's faces when I basically just end their turn is hilarious every time. Glorious End is 3 mana and causes you to lose the game after your next turn. The classic time stop is 6 mana. Render silent does a very good impression of this powerful effect.
Counterflux has been a favorite of mine. At minimum, it’s a more flexible Dovin’s Veto, and it serves as a silver bullet against Storm.
Aven interrupter is incredible. It triggers most of white's creature based draw effects, it gets around uncounterable, and its also a flying blocker. Also mages contest is hysterical.
Bought a copy of mages contest on a lark back when I was first getting into commander and just realized I'd kind of stumbled into building a deck recently it might actually be half decently playable in, was super stoked to finally add it to something
There are counter spells with value 1 that are specific to sorcery and cost less than a dollar. In casual, board wipe spells are sorcery, so they protect your table.
Yes! Spell pierce normally stops someone who has tapped out for an instant or sorcery, and! It screws over turn 1 sol rings. Also there’s “envelop.” Which only hits sorceries. Finally, arguably one of the best is “Swan song” and “an offer you can’t refuse”
I have had a lot of situations where I am more than happy to be hit with an offer you can’t refuse
Vadrik is one of my main decks so more expensive and counters are always welcome
What do you think of it to play? Have thought of making a Vadrik deck built around running basically as many over-costed one blue pip counterspells as possible for a while now but have never encountered one in the wild
I've been testing stifle effects in my reanimator deck. Usually players only have 1 or 2 graveyard hate pieces if any at all and being able to stop someone who attempts to ruin my whole game with a single bojuka bog is very useful.
I think a very underrated 3 cmc counterspell that is forgotten due to being relatively new due to being printed in foundations is Refute, the effect of drawing then discarding a card is really good even without discard synergies
It almost made the list!
I think an underrated side effect of playing this weirder counter spells is that they seem more "fun" and may lead to more memorable moments.
I love giant-ass counterspells in a deck with lots of flash or cost reduction. I’m building new Melek right now and the big counterspell section is called “Ya know I had to do it to ‘em.” And yes it has a Spell Swindle
When building $50 budget decks for my roommates I put Urza's Rebuff into a Felix Five Boots deck to make it easier to get unblocked damage, for a Jenny Flint/Madame Vastra deck I chose Ice Out because they'll usually have a surplus of clues and foods, making it as cheap as a counterspell while triggering the various sacrifice triggers.
My all time favorite counter spell that not much people talk about (at least I never see anyone did) is "Thwart".
Yes it's 4 mana counter spell but this card save my ass so many time during late game.
Returning 3 tapped islands instead of paying the cost, really got my opponent off guard with hard counter, and with my simic landfalls deck, it's just help me drop more land fall lol.
I recently made a mono blue Watcher in the Water EDH deck and it has been some of the most fun I've had in mtg. Part of the fun is that I play a bunch of 3 mana counterspells that while not great on paper, allow me to subvert mono blue's otherwise middling removal suite. It's also great because the whole point of The Watcher in the Water is to draw cards at instant speed so I can threaten counterspells with the mana I'm holding up and otherwise draw on the last player's end step in order to make a bunch of tokens. It's not something I've tried before this but it is a lot of fun and a really different way of playing in that you always have something to do and need to be paying attention to everything people cast.
I love the Dr. Who counterspell Reverse the Polarity.
It is a 3 mana modal counterspell thats main counter mode is a counter to all spells on the stack, its 3rd mode gives Unblockable to everyone until end of turn, and while it's 2nd mode isn't very useful (switching everyone's power and toughness) I have used it twice to hilarious effect (Unexpected toughness alpha strike and dodging a Massacre Wurm).
If you are ok with Universes Beyond it is an amazing pickup.
I don't know if Rewind is underrated or not but I love it
Two counter spells I love that do essentially the same thing is Rewind and Unwind, they're a 4 mana Counterspell and 3 mana Negate respectively but untap lands up to their mana values. I love playing spellslinger decks so being able to counter something and then still have mana up for something else is very handy.
Cryptic Command is especially crazy in Hylda of the Icy Crown
For any that are applicable, some of these (especially render silent I find) are very good in a sun forger deck. (yes I'm evil, yes my playgroup hates me)
Fun call-out for a lot of budget counterspells -- if you're in at least jeskai, keep a careful eye towards 2 color or greater counter spells. Using sunforger as a tutor for utility counter spells is a GREAT way to hit your table with a big gotcha moment
I want to play cost reducers. A lot of spells I'm playing are so low cost, the mana reduction is negligible if any. Now I'm researching for cards that have mana costs ripe for reduction, that offer a lot more value than the cheapest "best" spells commonly used.
I've been extremely impressed with Rewind
Since I'm building a Kellan the Kid deck, I'm in search for unique cards.
One of my favorites for the deck is.... Gale's Redirection! a 5 mana "counterspell" since you exile the spell (so you can basically counter those uncounterable stuff), roll a d20 and add the spell's MV to the dice roll to get your result: 1~14 you may cast it paying it's mana cost but you can use mana as though it were mana of any color to cast that spell. But if you get a 15 or higher, you cast it for free!
Snatching an uncounterable spell from your opponent is so gooooood!
I have been playing more disallow and voidslime and modal counterspells recently, with the former two, I found it rather useful to counter activated or triggered abilties that would either cause me to lose, cause someone else to win, or prevent a snowball from happening, it surprisingly comes up more often then I thought and its useful to have.
I have used Sunforger to get Counterflux more than any other spell. It cant be overloaded from the library, but its great to see the reaction when they thought they had a counter of their own. Reinterpret is great too for dropping a free threat off-turn
I liked to play Fear of Impostors and Perplexing Chimera in my Enchantress deck recently as a means of countering spells. They might not be ideal, but kinda on-theme. And it is actually funny having Chimera just sitting on the board giving my opponent(s) a sweat, haha.
I just wanna say that i absolutely like, that you put so much thoughts in your content instead of filling it with that shitty "top 10 commanders from set xy" content.
Keep up the good work!
Whirlwind Denial stopped a Haze of Rage + Stormkiln infinite. That moment solidified my love for it as a good, fair counterspell with utility.
I loooove Whirlwind Denial
I really like Confounding Riddle for the card selection option, especially because it puts cards in the graveyard. Also Mental Misstep will never not be funny.
YESSS I love invert polarity sm in any izzet deck I play, another really nice tempo swing in these colours is reinterpret, and it's put in some work in the games I draw it
I already have most of these in my Eluge deck. Six mana is peanuts in that deck. I love the deck just because I get to cast the big counterspells you'll basically never see anywhere else.
Such a great series! Thanks for these!
I had Spelljack as one of the few counterspells in my Kalamax deck as a mild lock piece. If for some reason I was allowed to have Kalamax tapped and any other permanent spell copy effect, I could cast spelljack on one of my opponents' useful spells each turn, copy the spelljack twice, use a copy to counter the real spelljack and a copy to counter the actual spell, rinse and repeat once a turn. The first time I assembled it, all of my opponents conceded after the first demonstration and I took spelljack out of the deck. I still haven't found another deck where it fits yet, but it's pretty awesome to see it mentioned
Reverse the polarity is one of my favorite counter spell. It is quite cheap. I highly recommend trying it. It is also a game ender
I also really love Time Stop! Can interrupt virtually any win attempt, be it Craterhoof, a Vultron attack or a combo finish.
Only falls flat against decks that can combo off based on what's on the board - which will then kill you in your upkeep or on the stack (which probably just means you should have Time Stop-ed earlier, when they assembled that combo board state)
Timestop is such silly fun.
The only one I can think of I’m surprised wasn’t mentioned was unwind. I have it in a bauble storm deck and it’s helped a lot. TLDR 2 and a blue counter non creature, untap three lands.
As someone that generally doesn´t play counterspells, i tend to go for creatures with inuild counterspells instead. While you loose the suprise factor that way, it makes people play more cautious.
Better than a booster one of my favorite things. I so rarely see truly new cards anymore that i havent seen before. I will be trying a few of these.
I think the closest comparison for Archmage’s Charm’s last mode is Threads of Disloyalty.
Great vid as usual. I am a control player through and through. I've played about half the cards on your list and enjoy the hell out of them. These are all really good picks, and a few I hadn't considered but might need to. I love the Summary Dismissal gotcha of countering the uncounterable. Also, I have occasionally used it when I made a deal to not counter someone's spell, then the spell turned out bad and I exiled it instead. As for my addition, I love Rewind. If you have four mana available, it's basically free. And sometimes you can actually gain mana out of it with the land untap shenanigans.
I'd also like to say, I think Counterspell is a card that warps player perception unfairly. They look at UU for a counter any spell with no restrictions and use that as the standard for counterspells, when in reality it is an outlier. I'd argue that the real standard is for counterspells is three mana with slight upside.
Shoutout to reinterpret. It’s a great card for izzet colors and a deck where you are already gonna be holding up mana
I've liked Traumatic Visions quite a bit lately. It fills a similar niche to Lorien Revealed in that you can keep greedy hands without risking bad draws leading to a screw, but the cooler part is how it manipulates what the group thinks you have. "Oh, X just discarded a counterspell to get more lands, he must be mana-screwed and not a threat." It's great for filling your grave with instants/sorceries for commanders like Octavia and if you're in a very-low-power pod where players will end up hellbent with some regularity, it's still just a (very bad) Cancel.
Not really a counterspell, but one of my favorite overcosted blue instants is Gather Specimens. Hands down the funniest answer to mass reanimation or an Eerie Interlude.
I really like lining up the mana costs of my counterspells, removal spells, and activated abilities from creatures or utility lands. It makes holding up mana feel so much easier because you always have a backup to dump that mana into. Holding up 4 mana for a cryptic command isn't the worst when you can have lands like Talon Gates, Horizon of Progress, or War Room to back it up.
I run a Jin-Gitaxias/Great Synthesis commander deck that runs exclusively mana value 3+ counterspells, excepting offer you cant refuse cuz i like the art. Those 3 mana counterspells feel real good when they are card neutral
Render Silent can also be searched out with a Sunforger too! Cryptic Command is nutz in my Hylda deck
Forbid is slept on. A 1UU counter with a buyback of discarding 2 cards. Minimum it is a Cancel, but the first time in each game that you buy it back the whole game warps around you. No one wants to cast spells into it.
Of course you pay the buyback when you put the spell on the stack, so if it gets countered, you’re down 3 cards, but if you were about to Forbid stall til victory, or spite Forbid a player who had wronged you, you kinda deserve it.
I really like "you find the villains lair" i dont play it much cause its not often that i want that many counterspells
I have perplex in my tasigur deck to find villainous wealth
I feel like unwind and rewind are good ones you could put up there. I run them as I still then have mana to threaten counters or endstep shenanigans, but they can also be mana positive with bounce lands or cost reduction, as well as being color filtering garunteed
While we're on your honorable mentions, I wanna give a shoutout to my gal, Smirking Spelljacker! (Basically) a spelljack on a creature for one less mana and also only one blue pip (instead of Spelljack's three)
I have a deck that runs Keruga the Macrosage as a companion, which means it cannot run any of the efficient counterspells. Instead I have opted to run the most expensive counterspells with the greatest upsides possible.
So I'm quite surprised that neither Spell Swindle nor Plasm Capture got mentioned, since they both essentially function as a mana drain.
Depending on how much bounce/flicker shenanigans you've got going on to synergize with Keruga maybe look at Sister of Silence from the WH40K precons? Just retooled my Roon deck to run it as Keruga companion and that's one I added
Because im an artifact lover, i have to shoutout Access Denied of course! That and Disruption Protocol, live those two
shout out Ertai's Meddling. only thing better than countering the Craterhoof is delaying it 3 turns so the entire table is forced to gang up and kill timmy for you.
I honestly prefer a counterspell to have some sort of modality to it if it's going to be more than 3 mana. My Gandalf of the Secret Fire deck is all modal counterspells, since I pretty much always cast my instants twice there. Also, I'm with you on Mana Leak. It's one of those cards that I always end up cutting because if I'm going to say "no" to a cast, it's going to be a hard "no".
It's true that the tax imposed by Mana Leak isn't necessarily enough to stop a spell, but if your opponent is holding up 3 mana they're probably planning on using it for something. Mana leak is good because you're almost guaranteed to gain mana advantage of of it, if not card advantage
I essentially built an Eluge deck just so i can run bad counterspells. My top picks for that deck are fervent denial and time stop.
Generally, my rule of thumb for "Power vs efficiency" with Counterspells sits at a spot, where when you're paying 3, I'd like it to be unconditional. At 1 mana, it's hard to expect anything more than something super-conditional or narrow in targets. At 2 mana, while counterspell itself is the standard, I'm fine with effects like Mana Leak as well. When we get to 3 mana though, it either has to be a completely unconditional "Cancel" or it needs to provide some specific, yet relevant utility. Whirlwind Denial would definitely make the cut here, because of being able to handle entire stacks. Once we hit 4 mana, it has to be doing some good shit to justify itself.
I'm definitely picking up Whirlwind Denial and Summary Dismissal for my Unctus Vehicles deck. That deck in particular has a mid-game (Around, when I'm working with like 3-5 mana), where it is perfectly happy "durdling" for a little bit, whether it be amassing drakes with Drake Haven or juicing a Chasm Skulker one loot at a time while sculpting the hand for interaction. Depending on the situation, it is perfectly happy paying 3 mana for countering stuff, because it absolutely needs to stick on the board to win.
I love these better than a booster videos
I use whirlwind denial and summary dismisal against cascade decks and its brutal.
Stoic Rebuttal is a goto pick for any counterspell enjoying artifact deck. It's so easy making it cost 2 blue.
As someone who just brewed Melek, Reforged Researcher using tips from your Control in EDH videos, I’m a huge fan of Mystic Confluence, Gale’s Redirection, and Spell Swindle as big counters.
Love this video format, and thank you for your help!!
Spell Swindle my luv 🥰
I also run every Fact or Fiction effect I can find, even the kinda bad ones like Fortune’s Favor lol
Playing Borrowing 100,000 Arrows after Cryptic Command is disgusting. Tap every single opponents' creature, and draw 1 for each of them.
Dude is cooking
Modal spells or choose multiple spells are amazing! I think card value is much better than mana value/efficiency!
Spelljack is one of my favorite cards in the game
If someone in your playgroup is running Dark Depths you need an Archmage's Charm
Any love for Sudden Substitution? Stuck it in my Kykar list awhile back but have never drawn into it to. Seems fun in a tokens deck and can potentially even steal creatures. Also like Commit // Memory just in general
Render silent is my favorite card, barely passing folio
The art on the promo version is so cool too!
@@thetrinketmage I run the Japanese original art, I love explaining the card to players who don't recognize it.
I own a Gale's redirection, which is a 1 mana less, slightly weaker effect version of spelljack
0:35 you state that, “that in most cases you do not need to counter a spell turn 2.”
I played a game last week and I won the dice roll. I went first, drew for my turn, played an island and passed my turn. Player 2 draws, plays a land for turn, taps the land, and plays a turn 1 sol ring. In response I tap my island and cast Strix Serenade, countering the turn one sol ring. It shut down player 2 the rest of the game, because he only two lands in his opening hands and didn’t draw another one until turn 5. If I don’t get a sol ring, either do you 🤷♂️
Cant beivr you didnt mention reinterpret, one of my all time favourite cards
I play cryptic command in my grixis deck with a mana base so greedy i can cast it reliably on turns 3-4.
I keep trying to pay 3+ mana for counterspells in Eluge, the Shoreless Sea. But for some reason they keep costing less than that...
My favorite use for Cryptic Command's 3rd mode is as a better Fog. If you tap your opponent's creatures before the declare attacker step you don't have to worry about attack triggers or "Damage can't be prevented" effects.
Counterflux is a nice 3 mana counterspell. It's cant be countered, and for 1 more you can nuke the stack
trinket how do you feel about rewind or unwind, countering something for basically free since it will untap the lands you just used? i've been considering them in my draw go control list but i don't see them being run that often.
They are only good in control decks that have many counter spells but can be good there
Surprised reverse the polarity from the doctor who set is not here, 3 mana and you choose to one, it can stop storm spells on top that regular spells, it can protect you from attacks or can make your creatures unblockable
I'm partial to Dromar's Charm myself
The best counterspell in EDH is Dream Fracture. Change my mind.
I used to think invert polarity wasn't bad. Until I needed to counter a board wipe. That 50% chance to gain control really isn't clutching anymore. If someone casts something with only one legal target and you want to counter it, again, gaining control of it is really not good.
And with that, there's too many good counter spells to run invert polarity. It's good a high ceiling but also the lowest floor I've ever seen in a counter spell.
Yeah, I don't like it either, sure, the situation that you want to counter a spell might not be that common, specially on a control deck where you usually don't care about being board wiped most of the time, that is still "most of the time" AND wipes are just the most common example of a spell you rather counter than take control...I don't like its inconsistency either
A card I think gets much less respect than it deserves is Overwhelming Denial. 2UU uncounterable counterspell, but with a Surge cost of UU. So if you cast another spell this turn you can, for only 2 more mana, counter the spell of someone trying to win, even through any defensive counterspells they have.
I pay 5 mana for counterspells. No exceptions
algorithm ⬆️
erm yeah i havent even watched the video yet but im only running negative 3 mana counterspells. yeah, thats right, they pay me mana to cast them. anything more expensive than that is a scam and deserves to be burnt in the draft chaff pile.
I like to play exclude to counter people's commanders 😏
Counterlash is not worth playing. But will I play it in my mono blue sea creature deck? You bet your ass I will!!
Sublime epiphany...
Whirlwind Denial better be on this list. Will reply if it is 🙂
Nice, I love this spell. The platinum level goal is to counter two fetch lands lol
I was a bit confused about the title. Great video, but please... "3+ Mana Counterspells Worth Playing"
Changed!
I looove using my counterspells to force through cards I'm playing
Oh you're countering my spell? I bet you didn't expect a counter to your counter!! 😆🤣
Algorithm
too expensive
First