Spell Pierce

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Brawl Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Pre-release Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Standard Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Spell Pierce

Instant

Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays .

wallisface on Sheoldred Control

2 weeks ago

Some thoughts:

wallisface on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

3 weeks ago
  • Preordain is miles better than Serum Visions

  • yes you can trigger Lion Sash multiple times. You’d presumably always do it in the opponents end step.

  • I should reiterate as I have been this whole thread that your artifact creatures aren’t very-well suited for a control or aggro shell at-all… this is why i’d suggested a bunch of creatures that would actually help you. I know you like Ethersworn Canonist but this is a really bad home for it - trying to force it into this deck is going to make it’s performance bad, and the deck worse.

  • Haughty Djinns 3-mana cost can be a little awkward, but i’ll note Murktide Regent is two mana and survives fine. The trick is to know the matchups well enough to gauge when to ”shields down” to cast it - or wait till you have 4-5 lands so you can also Spell Pierce or Counterspell.

  • Tolarian Terror is 1 mana and wins the game on its own. You’re in no massive rush to dump it down, but tempo-control builds could often get it down by turn 3-4 no problem.

  • Touch the Spirit Realm is fine, but not great. You’re unlikely to ever channel it, but it’ll still be decent-enough.

  • Detention Sphere is decent.

  • of course opponents will be paying 2 mana to crack clues, but only if its the best thing for them to be doing fir their turn. Them gaining clues is an advantage for them.

9-lives on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

3 weeks ago

What I'm saying about Assemble the Players is that since it is automatically casting on my turn a creature spell of, say 2 mana, it is not a loss at all even if I only spend 1 turn with it on the field. Thus, it is no loss at all, and if it stays on the field for 2 turns, then it gives an advantage.

Ahh. I agree that Spell Pierce is better! Thank you for recommending it, because I'll be running it!

Oppressive Rays is good considering that I want to tie up as much mana as possible. 3 mana per creature is really nice, considering that oppressive rays is 1 mana cost. I have played this card whenever I was running my Azorius Defender-Damage deck, and it worked really well. Can you recommend any mana-tying up cards that are like Oppressive Rays but better?! I'm thinking Lawmage's Binding is nice, but I really want a mana-intensive card that ties up mana.

Ahh, you're right about Urza's Saga. I was thinking that it would allow me to search for 1 white mana cards, but yeah. So, I'll just use it to tutor out Mishra's Bauble, I guess.

Mishra's Bauble is amazing. I really don't know why you're arguing against it, considering that it is a staple in a lot of competitive decks. And, yes, they may shuffle, but I'm counting on that they don't, and looking at the top card is great for predicting what will happen. Do you think this hand-knowledge is good? I think it will give me the heads-up for using counterspells on the opponent's turn.

Defiant Strike is just a suboptimal draw card, and adds +1 power. Nothing too bad or too good about it. I don't mind running it, considering that I need to increase the power of my creatures as a support for my aggro-control archetype.

I have a question for you! What is a good card for granting haste in Azorius colors?? I don't even know if they have this type of card available.

wallisface on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

3 weeks ago

9-lives

For Defiant Strike you yourself even admit that Opt and Preordain are better - and that's the exact reason why this card is bad.

I have no idea what you mean by "And, no, I don't have to cast two creatures for it to be worthwhile, as whenever i cast it I would lose nothing if I didn't keep it for over 2 turns.". Assemble the Players does effectively nothing on its own. You play it, and now you have 1-less resource in-hand, for no inherent board-state advantage. Once you play the first creature from the top of your deck with it, now you've at-least "broken even" - that is, the cards you've invested into it have equaled the gain in boardstate you have acquired (albeit, costing 2 additional mana and having to wait an undetermined number of turns, so still being more hassle-than-value). Only once you've cast your second creature from the topdeck, has the card made any kind of net-advantage. The problem is that the sheer amount of time it would take to achieve that is ridiculous.

You are saying "Oppressive Rays is far underrated" but this is just your unfounded opinion. There's good reason why it sees no play at all, even in budget decks or in Pauper (where you can only play commons... if it's not even seeing play there then alarm bells should be ringing!).

Spell Pierce is infinitely better than Miscast, simply because it hits a much, much wider berth of spells. The difference between an opponent paying or is far less-wide of a gap than the one between only being able to target instants and sorceries, versus being able to target instants, sorceries, planeswalkers, enchantments, artifacts, and battles.

Mishra's Bauble doesn't let you look at the opponents hand at all, just their topdeck (which may get shuffled away before they draw anyway). Urza's Saga can only specifically search for artifacts costing exactly or , which none of your artifact creatures are, so you cannot grab them with this card.

I am looking at the whole deck. Some of the cards I have said are bad here can conceivably work in different shells. Just not remotely this one.


I have asked you twice now already what your budget is for this deck, so that people giving you card suggestions can cater this for what you are wanting to spend. If you want people to be able to help you, you need to include this information!

The biggest problem holding your decks back at the moment, as far as I can see, is that their constructor is too stubborn and not-open enough to feedback. By getting super-combative with every suggestion/response people give you, these decks are not going to be able to improve, and instead cycle around in a rut indefinitely. The best thing you can do to help strengthen your deckbuilding is learning to be more open to healthy non-combative discussion, and being more open to listening to others ideas. Coming to a pre-determined decision that everything you've done is correct from the start only serves to leave you exactly where you began.

9-lives on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

3 weeks ago

What is so bad about Defiant Strike if it's simply a addition to having the ability to draw a card? It's no Opt or even Preordain, but it's good for my purposes.

And, no, I don't have to cast two creatures for it to be worthwhile, as whenever i cast it I would lose nothing if I didn't keep it for over 2 turns.

Oppressive Rays is far underrated for its power.

I have 13 counterspells out of around 70 cards. Miscast is not better nor worse than Spell Pierce. Spell Pierce is targeting other things, and also has a different mana cost to the opponent.

Urza's Saga and Mishra's Bauble are great. The latter lets me look at the opponent's hand. The former is good for artifacts, and can search for artifact creatures as well as Mishra's Bauble.

wallisface on Azorius Aggro-Control deck

3 weeks ago

To counter your points:

  • You've changed the list since first read as Defiant Strike wasn't initially there - but this should never be in any deck aside from maybe some super-janky prowess build. But my point on Assemble the Players is that you need at least 2 creatures to make it worthwhile (which was the 5 turn estimate, re-read my post because I think you've misunderstood). Furthermore, you can only cast this card reasonably once you also have the mana to control your opponents turn as-well, so it's a super late game tool which won't really give you the value you're wanting. Mishra's Bauble doesn't help Assemble the Players at all because you have no flash-creatures, so there's no interval where you can make use of Assemble the Players with it.

  • Your argument for keeping Oppressive Rays isn't a valid one, and shows a clear misunderstanding of how games typically play out. I feel like you're just digging-your-heels-in as opposed to taking-in actual advice and well-meaning criticism.

  • With 11 counterspells, 16% of your cards are countermagic, which is a low-enough density that you can't assume to be reliably countering magic for long.

I've just noticed you're at 68 cards. Get down to 60. I remember having this discussion before with you - but if you're even remotely trying to take deck-building seriously, this is the first thing you need to do.

I see you've added Miscast to the deck... this is just a worse Spell Pierce.

I think Sorcerous Spyglass was in the deck initially but I should call out this is a sideboard-card at best. The vast majority of decks won't care at all about this card - a lot of cards don't have activated abilities.

Urza's Saga can only grab Mishra's Bauble so seems unideal to have here, but it's no biggie either way.

You still haven't let anyone know what your budget is!!

wallisface on Turtles goes brrr

3 weeks ago

Some thoughts:

  • 20 lands is extremely low considering how steep your mana curve is. I’d suggest going to at least 24.

  • you’ve got 11 cards that let you assign combat damage with toughness, and while you obviously want that effect, you’ve currently got such-high density of these cards that you’re bound to draw into multiple redundant copies. I’d drop the number of these effects down to 8-9 (ditching 2-3 of the enchants).

  • Glaring Aegis seems like a really bad card. You’ll almost never need the extra 3 toughness, and this just lets the opponent 2-for-1 you with a killspell.

  • Skeleton Key is cute, but imo not particularly strong. You never want to draw a second copy of it. I’d suggest running an absolute maximum of 2, if at all.

  • Fading Hope is almost always just giving you card disadvantage (the opponent still has all their cards, you just lost one).

  • I know i’ve just dismissed all your 1-mana cards as being bad, but I do think you need some actually playable 1-mana cards so that you can do something turn 1. Spell Pierce, Preordain, and Utopia Sprawl are all good options.

  • you really need more ways to interact with the opponent, your only viable option at the moment is Mana Leak… you need more options!

K4nkato on Tinkerbell says “No”

3 months ago

Some thoughts:

Moved Foil to one of my flex slots. Faeries is a deck that unique uses hidden information and cards in hand to force opponents to make uninformed decisions. The threat of Mutagenic Growth turns obvious blocks into potential risks. Brinebarrow Intruder and Saiba Cryptomancer make attacks and removal much more difficult for your opponent. Counterspell gatekeeps when your opponent can commit to an action. Foil adds an extra layer of stress by threatening an opponent even when you’re tapped out. The high MV and expensive alternative cost are notable downsides, but Faeries draws more cards than any other deck in the format. 3-for-1 trades are unprofitable for most decks but Faeries is fast enough and disruptive enough to make it work.

I only recommend running one copy of Foil. The card’s value comes from its scarcity. Opponents who play around Foil are intentionally slowing themselves down and making sub-optimal decisions to fight a card you might not have. Opponents who ignore Foil open themselves up to getting caught by it. This adds another layer of decision making for your opponent, increasing their odds of making a mistake. The more opportunities you give your opponent to mess up, the more games you can win to pilot error.

Foil occasionally puts you in a very difficult spot in mana-screwed games. If you have 2 Islands in play and 1 Island in hand + Foil, you have to ask yourself if you should keep the land for a free counterspell or play it for more mana. I welcome the difficult decision, but this opens you up to mistakes as well. It’s worth practicing these corner cases if you want to play Foil, but I think the risk is worth the reward.

Smoke Shroud is a promising card I decided to cut. This aura allows you to turn Ninja of the Deep Hours into the most jacked Delver of Secrets  Flip you could imagine, but there aren’t enough discard outlets for it. You never want to play it & Faeries doesn’t really mill or discard outside of Foil and Moon-Circuit Hacker. 5 situational sources just isn’t enough to enable this card. I’ll say though, if the Faerie mirror ever becomes a matchup in need of breaking, I think this card will do it. It’s very difficult to permanently answer and forces your opponent to block unprofitably.

I’m debating Force Spike over Spell Pierce in my flex slot, but only because I genuinely don’t know how good Force Spike is.

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