Cancel

Instant

Counter target spell.

Discussion (51)

1324J5 on Noob Izzet First Deck

3 weeks ago

You could probably get more effective use out of Cancel or Essence Scatter rather than giving the creatures back to them. If you really want any of your friends to not like the deck you could also go for more outright control like Counterspell . If you did want something pioneer friendly Sinister Sabotage is a good option which also gives some control over your next turn.

Icbrgr on Thopter dropper

4 weeks ago

love where this deck is going! from the hip Cancel must be replaced with either Dissipate / Dissolve / Disallow ... there are just better options in modern for a 3cmc hardcounter.

BMHKain on bushido_man96

1 month ago

@bushido_man96: Back again. I didn't think it was possible, but I found several decent alts for Delay , unless anyone can think of better:

Admiral's Order : Raid Abilities actually care about the entire board; but can one just play something big just for you to pay ? I'm questioning this as well.

Foil : 4CMC w/ another option to pay? Pretty good, in spite of going over the promised 3CMC MAX.

Thwart : Maybe returning all those Islands aren't so bad after all... Or is this a reject by you?

Deprive : Can you pay then return a Land to our hand to cast this? If not, Meh...

Dissapearing Act: CMC3, & you can recur any Permanent to your hand.

Sinister Sabotage : CMC3, but is Surveil 1 truly that good as a Scry 1 for a Yard Option? I'll think prior...

Dissolve : Same as Sinister Sabotage , but w/ Scry 1 is opposed to Surveil 1.

Dissipate : Exile your Target, & you may have changed a game...

Cancel : You already know what this is.

So, here we go. The best that I could find in Mono-, nearly CMC2, among other things. What would you recommend out of these? Sorry for commenting back, but these are the potential cards that can replace Delay , but only one can make it.

Any thoughts on any? & sorry about earlier... DX

The_Fallen_Duke on Wealthy Landowner

1 month ago

Just a thought: since you are playing also blue, why not to add a bit of counter-magic to protect all those big powerful creatures of yours from target removal and board-wipes?
Since you want/need to stay on a budget, there are plenty of cheap options such as the usual Negate , Cancel , Dispel and of course the original Counterspell .

FenrisBurgess on Narset, Exalted Master

1 month ago

Wow, a wall of text with potentially useful advice.

• "is not really needed since most cards are instants and can be cast immediately after attacking with Narset."

• A simple Manalith would aid in getting out Narset. As it stands, you will only be able to get Narset on turn 6, assuming you don't miss a land drop.

• You have no haste granting cards, so your strategy will only take off on turn 7 if you are lucky and nobody plays an Edict effect..
• Most people can gain a significant advantage by turn 7 if all goes well. No amount of counters can stop 3 opponent's from building their boards. You'll be a sitting duck most of the time.

• There is a reason almost all commander decks run a Sol Ring . The faster you can play your strategy, the more likely you are to win.

• "unless they are instant cards i don't really need them."

• Chemister's Insight is strictly better than Inspiration . There is no reason you cannot use both, but Chemister's Insight has far more utility.
• Counterspell , Archmage's Charm , Sinister Sabotage , Thought Collapse , and Dissolve are all strictly better than Cancel , and those are the cheap $$$ counters.
• Lightning Bolt and Skewer the Critics are strictly better than Lightning Strike and Wizard's Lightning especially considering you don't have any wizards.
• Your deck runs Lifelink . The card itself is cheap, but by the time your Commander is out, cost shouldn't be a consideration. Cards like Daybreak Coronet and Steel of the Godhead provide you with far more utility.

• Cards like Dub and Angelic Gift provide a useful effect, but there are better cards that do more: Gryff's Boon and Asha's Favor to name a few minor improvements.

• Questionably, you are running Artificer's Epiphany with only one artifact in the deck.

• You are running 11 counters as control. Those 11 counters won't do you any good with Narset unless you plan to counter your own spells. Running cards like Disperse keeps stuff off the field and will be still be useful if you happen to exile it later on.

• Your burn spells won't do much against larger creatures either.

• "this is not a budget deck. budget, mana or money, is not a priority. if it somehow is then it is merely a coincidence."

• I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, but I feel the need to advise you that:
• Your mana base does, in fact, matter.
• You have far better options for cards.
• The only reason to play this deck as it is, is if you were on a budget. If you are not, then you can certainly replace the cards with better versions.

Sorin_Markov_1947 on blue conterspells

2 months ago

Why Cancel ? There are better counterspells out there. If you want a catch-all counterspell, the real counterspell is a mana cheaper, or you could go with Sinister Sabotage , or use a combination of Quench (although that's not great late-game which is what this deck likes), Essence Scatter / Capture , and Negate . Cancel is just one of the worst ones out there.

That sounds really critical, but this deck isn't horrible. I do think it's very slow for modern though, even with delaying your opponent with counterspells, you're going to get overrun before your deck gets up to operating speed. Try and find some more ramp or some cheap blockers like Fog Bank (although not actually Fog Bank . Too limited).

SideBae on The Scarab God

2 months ago

So for starters, I think you should definitely include Ponder and Preordain . These two one-mana cantrips don't look like much, but they'll let you run thirty-three lands rather easily and smooth out your draws. There's a reason they're super-banned in Modern, and it's not 'cause no one likes them.

Brainstorm is similar to the aforementioned, but you need shuffle effects to make it good -- getting stuck with two dead cards on top of your deck blows chunks. I think you need at least three fetches to justify running brainstorm, and probably want six plus, really. If the Zendikar/Onslaught fetches ( Polluted Delta , Verdant Catacombs , etc.) are inaccessible (they often are), there're other fetch options. Prismatic Vista is good, but that one can be expensive too... Evolving Wilds , Bad River , Rocky Tar Pit , Flood Plain , Terramorphic Expanse and Ash Barrens are all valid and much more affordable.

Concerning your counter-board, there's room for (a little) improvement without breaking the bank. Disallow , for instance, is a strictly better Cancel . I don't think Thought Collapse is very good... three mana is a lot of pay for a counterspell is a lot, and milling an opponent is frequently good for them in EDH. I think you may be better off using that slot for something like Fact or Fiction (which builds card-advantage) or a low-cost counter like Spell Snare , Spell Pierce or Dispel .

The best way to improve this deck, I think, is to work on the mana-rocks. The best ones outside Sol Ring ( Mana Crypt , Mana Vault , Mox Diamond , etc.) are unfortunately very expensive; however, there're a lot of two-mana mana rocks that are very affordable, and you may already have lying around. In my experience, two-mana rocks are a lot better than three mana rocks. Consider some or all of the following: Talisman of Dominance , Dimir Signet , Fellwar Stone , Arcane Signet (I think/hope the price will drop soon), Mind Stone , Prismatic Lens , Everflowing Chalice ... These'll let you keep up with green decks, or at least have a chance of doing so.

I see you're running Gravecrawler . I feel semi-obliged to point out that Skullclamp is stupidly good with Gravecrawler . Note that if you have a lord like Diregraf Captain out, it becomes slightly less fun; however, with your Carrion Feeder , you can keep it coming.

I think most UB decks benefit from running Ashiok, Dream Render and Narset, Parter of Veils . Their hatebear-like static abilities are super relevant in EDH, and if you pair Narset, Parter of Veils with your Windfall , you're halfway to playing Leovold, Emissary of Trest (who, thank whatever G-d may be, is banned).

Obviously, I don't know exactly how this deck will play -- I've never played this list. However, I suspect you end up with a lot of guys on the field. If that's the case, consider Slate of Ancestry as a draw engine with discard as a perk.

If you run a reanimation package, you can get cards like your Grave Titan down REAL fast. Consider Entomb in addition to your Buried Alive , and two or three cards like Animate Dead , Reanimate , Necromancy , Dance of the Dead , etc. Depending how spicy you want to get, Dreams of the Dead is in your colors... I think it's probably pretty bad, but I figured I'd mention it.

Patriarch's Bidding is around $20 nowadays, but it'll help you recover from a boardwipe real fast. I suggest running it in most black tribal decks, unless your meta is more than 40% to 50% tribal.

Command Tower seems like a good land to run. However, if you want to cut the colorless lands like Emergence Zone for basic Swamp s and Island s, you can run Back to Basics to pretty good effect.

Winds of Rebuke is a good bounce effect that also mills you... It'll build card advantage via your graveyard, so you should at least test it.

Right. That's all I got for now. Good luck!

BLOODGUILT on mono blue mill

2 months ago

Lonelyyoshi1 The reason Mill decks work is because you strip your opponent's resources away from them before they can ever draw them. Basically, making someone mill is control. You want to be milling cards from your opponent every turn and right now you have two strategies in your deck. Creature and draw. the two strategies cross over with Psychic Corrosion , Hedron Crab , because both of those say "do something you're gonna do every turn and mill your opponent" Now the Creature strategy would be a focus on Sage's Row Denizen . Fewer spells and add value creatures. Merfolk Trickster , Cloudkin Seer , Frost Lynx , Fblthp, the Lost . I'm sure the great minds of this forum can list much better versions then i can but those are the few i know right now without google. The whole goal of this version would be to get Sage's Row Denizen out and play a "draw go" style unless you need to play a value creature. I would even run creature copying effects to really abuse the sage like Quasiduplicate , Mirror Image , Spark Double , Rite of Replication . you would have to drop most of your planeswalkers and maybe only keep Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor and run other effects like Blink of an Eye , Callous Dismissal to out value your opponent until you can go nuclear with your sages. at least thats how i would do a creature version. The draw version focuses more on Psychic Corrosion and control. You would run instant speed draw spells like Opt , Radical Idea , Chemister's Insight so you can keep mana open to counter your opponent with Negate , Cancel , Wizard's Retort , Counterspell . You would be 100% draw go. Your turns would more or less be draw, play a land, trigger Hedron Crab , pass. then you counter your opponents spells. if they don't play anything scary you use all your mana at the end of their turn to use your draw spells and make them mill with Psychic Corrosion . you would want to play a bounce spell, recommend Unsummon and your Jace package to get free draws for the mill. Again, I've already shown i don't know the meta for modern so listen to the other guys commenting. The reason i don't like Jace, Arcane Strategist is because he's 6 cmc and doesn't really move you towards your game plan as fast as the other Jaces do. That is also giving your opponent a free turn with 6-7 mana where they don't have to worry about a counter spell. You could run Force of Negation but you are really taking a risk relying on 1 card to protect you so you can play a Jace that has 30% synergy with your deck. I'd rather play my second Psychic Corrosion and have mana up for Thought Collapse or Opt and Radical Idea . Ultimately it is your deck so have fun with it but these are my thoughts. If you would like i could probably use your card list to build two version of your deck and you can try both out.