Arcane Denial

Instant

Counter target spell. Its controller may draw up to two cards at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep.

You draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep.

Discussion (51)

supa_tim on Talrand of the free and home of the brave

1 week ago

I would drop:

• Clairvoyance
• Fleeting Distraction
• Grip of the Roil
• Obsessive Search
• Radical Idea
• Reach Through Depths
• Spell Syphon
• Twisted Image
• Slip Through Space
• Apprentice Wizard
• Deranged Assistant
• Hedron Crawler
• Manakin
• Sea Scryer
• Prismatic Lens

One reason is that you have a lot of cards that do nothing but draw one card. Which is usually fine in 60 card 1v1 as they function as almost running fewer cards. This lets you draw into your business spells with more consistency. However, in EDH multiplayer, I feel like you want cards with more impact. I kept in cards that let you scry or let you decide card quality because those have more impact.

The other reason is that you really aren't accelerating into anything big, so why do you need a bunch of mana ramp cards? You definitely want to hit all your land drops, but your 2-for-1 and 3-for-1 draw spells should keep filling your hand with lands. You want more business spells that keep you in the game long enough to get Talrand into play and start beating down.

I know Talrand tempts you to play a bunch of cantrip spells to have a sort of combo finish. However, in my experience it is better to have a more solid lock down of the game and win with inevitability than just trying for an alpha strike. A few 2/2 flyers can go a long way.

I would go up to 36-38 lands to make sure you keep getting those land drops.

Then I would add a few more counters:

• Counterspell
• Cancel
• Arcane Denial
• Remove Soul
• Condescend
• Spell Blast etc...

Then some more bounce (although you have most of the good ones in there already):

• Vapor Snag
• Eye of Nowhere
• Repulse
• Echoing Truth
• AEtherize
• AEtherspouts
• Whelming Wave etc...

Then maybe a couple more recursion spells:

• Archaeomancer
• Mnemonic Wall
• Monastery Loremaster
• Scrivener

Just to give you some card advantage in other ways or to get back powerful spells that you were forced to use early.

Blue shenanigans can be hard to play. Sometimes you want to be aggressive with your countermagic and bounce to stall your opponents. Other times you want to hold back and wait until the more opportune time.

Hope this helps.

Izzy- on RNG-sus Take The Wheel (Coins are a wheel right?)

2 weeks ago

Overall I have some comments and some questions.

Deprive seems a little rough to run in this deck personally, I would maybe consider just a plain old Counterspell at least since its the same but no potential downside. The same can be said for Foil, Thwart, where I'm not sure what is making you value off of bouncing your lands. There are equally cheap and powerful counterspells without hurting your boardstate. Arcane Denial, Memory Lapse, simply for example.

If the deck is mainly budget then the landbase is fine, but even cards that provide some color-fixing would help the deck. From Evolving Wilds to Command Tower to provide some consistency.

Possibility Storm here seems less like it interacts well with the deck, and more disruptive and prone to create chaos. Which again if that is what you want, then it fits well. However, depending on your meta, your playgroup may not enjoy pure chaos too much. So ultimately what do you want from this deck. I understand its coin flipping based, but do you wish to kill with commander damage? Inflict chaos on the table?

Honestly I could come up with other cards and suggestions, but I don't know enough about the deck and if you are constrained by a budget.

oo7x7oo on Elsha's Flashy Show

2 weeks ago

I try to avoid using creatures for obvious reasons: commander can't cast creatures from top.

The only two creatures I included are win cons.

Torpor Orb is very strong card especially now Thassa's Oracle is a big thing.

In cEDH deck you don't see people commonly run rift, main reason being it's 95% going to be used as single removal therefore chain is better. I like the versatility of Winds of Rebuke: it bounces threat, can save my commander from dying, disrupt commonly used library top tutors (mystical, enlightened, vampiric, imperial seal), and can manipulate my top of library. Therefore, Chain of Vapor can be an addition but not replacement for my consideration. Cyclonic Rift is not considered, it is a big advantage, but it really doesn't win the game.

I also don't see a big problem in Arcane Denial that opponent draws two cards. In cEDH quality is way more important than quantity, being able to deal the right thing is more crucial. Especially in cEDH, cards are very low curved, Remand sends back to their hand, but threat is still there and they can probably still replay it. I do see the upside that it can bounce my own spell being countered, but overall I think Arcane Denial less restricted and easier to use.

Mike94 on Elsha's Flashy Show

2 weeks ago

I see you are considering Stranglehold but maybe it's a good idea to run Aven Mindcensor instead? It's a strong reactive card and can be played from turn 1, I have a lot of succes with it in my meta. Torpor Orb should be cut in my oppinion, you are an artifact oriented deck so Trinket Mage or even Tribute Mage would be great additions. Without the Orb you can also play Gilded Drake which is the strongest creature in blue on it's own. I would also replace Arcane Denial with Remand, letting someone draw two cards is to big of a downside in CEDH. Winds of Rebuke is in essence a way worse Cyclonic Rift, you run fast mana and "Sol" artifacts, being able to cast Rift from turn 3. If you manage to resolve it, you have won and I think you don't need a better reason to play Rift ;). But, if you really don't want to play Rift, then play Chain of Vapor. It all comes down to personal preference and your own meta ofc. but those are my thoughts on your list.

Lord_Grimm on Take forever

3 weeks ago

Really like the feel and flavor of this build! My only suggestions would be as follows:

This really doesn't appear to be a 'spells' sort of build, only having 20 Instant/Sorcery cards, so both Primal Amulet  ^Flip and Baral, Chief of Compliance feel a bit out of place. Maybe consider replacing them with whichever of these you like most: Undead Warchief, God-Eternal Oketra, Gisa and Geralf, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Fallen Shinobi, The Scarab God.

I believe Commander's Sphere is grossly overplayed and is a trap. If you really like the ability to draw a card (which seems like you'll be doing very well already) then maybe consider replacing it with either Mind Stone or Hedron Archive. If color fixing is of higher priority Talisman of Hierarchy, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Progress or Gilded Lotus are great replacements.

Given you're in 3 colors, I think replacing Cryptic Command with Arcane Denial might be an easier to hold/cast (though slightly less flexible) upgrade.

As stated before, it seems as though drawing cards won't an issue. Plus having a yard full of goodies might be useful, so Dig Through Time may be a bit redundant if not a straight up non-bow. Replacing it with one of the unused creatures mentioned above may possibly be a better use for that card slot.

Hope these thoughts/suggestions help.

GeminiSpartanX on Best Counterspells in Commander?

3 weeks ago

Hello all!

I'm simply asking which are the best counterspells available in EDH. I have a UW somewhat-controlling deck, and I want to make sure the last few counterspell slots I have (roughly 12 or so in total) are better than other possible options. I know that Force of Will, Force of Negation, and Mana Drain are the best, followed closely by Pact of Negation, the OG- Counterspell, Cryptic Command, and then possibly Negate or Dovin's Veto. My question is which ones do you choose after those? Here are some that I've run before:

Swan Song

Dispel

Spell Pierce

Arcane Denial

Archmage's Charm

Muddle the Mixture

Delay

Deprive -(when you also run Mystic Sanctuary)

Disdainful Stroke

Stubborn Denial

Render Silent

Disallow

Which of these would make the cut in a deck that cared both about the overall quality of the counter as well as the efficiency (cmc) of the counter? Are there any more that I've missed that are worth mentioning? Please let me know which ones (4-5) you would use after the initial 8 that I mentioned! (P.S.- I know we're talking about blue counterspells here, so please be kind even if it's the type of magic that you don't like).

multimedia on Niv mizzet my problem

3 weeks ago

Hey, good budget version of Niv.

Ophidian Eye is another combo enchantment to enchant Niv with. Consider cutting Curse of the Bloody Tome for Eye? With the difficult color casting cost of Niv and the less than ideal color fixing in the manabase consider Chromatic Lantern? To stay within the budget consider cutting That Which Was Taken for Lantern?

To help with color fixing in the manabase there's some budget lands to consider adding. Sulfur Falls, Shivan Reef, Wandering Fumarole, Ash Barrens, Grixis Panorama. These lands can help game play a lot more than $9 Caged Sun can. To stay within budget consider cutting Sun for these lands?

Evolve is not a very good mechanic in Commander because you want to consistently cast an Evolve creature early game to evolve as you cast other creatures. Consistently you're not going to have an Evolve creature to cast early and playing one mid/late game is not doing much. Evolve is a mechanic that benefits much with having 4x of same creatures in a deck which is not Commander. Consider cutting some creatures for a few more draw spells? Brainstorm, Opt, Frantic Search, Faithless Looting are budget good draw spells. Consider cutting Cloudfin Raptor, Simic Fluxmage, Petrahydrox, Ral's Staticaster for these draw spells?

Izzet colors at a budget are at a disadvantage for tutors, but there's some good cards that can copy an opponents tutor when cast letting you also tutor. Expansion / Explosion, Reverberate, Dualcaster Mage. These spells could also copy your own spell when you cast it. Consider cutting Wave of Indifference, Sundering Stroke and Reckless Air Strike for these copy spells? Talisman of Creativity and Izzet Signet are good budget two drop mana rocks. They could replace Heraldic Banner and Spinning Wheel.

In Commander you have access to good budget counterspells that don't have a restriction: Counterspell, Wizard's Retort, Arcane Denial. These counterspells could replace Scatter Arc, No Escape, Mystical Dispute.

I offer more advice. Good luck with your deck.

Solo-ras on Experiment Kraj +1/+1 copy

1 month ago

id cut Fascination , Increasing Confusion , and Arcane Denial for starters.