Counterbalance

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Counterbalance

Enchantment

Whenever an opponent casts a spell, you may reveal the top card of your library. If you do, counter that spell if it has the same converted mana cost/mana value as the revealed card.

legendofa on Rat Colony hub

2 months ago

Taking this point by point, skipping what I've already mentioned:

Decks based around the Tribal supertype are much less common, and much more gimmicky, than decks that are built around a specific subtype. Also, the Tribal hub got deactivated several years ago, when the subtype checklist got introduced. (Or, it should have been. If it's still selectable, let me know.)

Budget is definitely subjective, and I have it defined as "a deck that costs less money than a deck of the same format or strategy. This is a fairly subjective term." This definition is here (ignore the Commander bit; hub pages are just linked to formats based on the deck you got there from). Each hub has its own page with my definitions. So for your really nice budget deck, $2,000 is extremely high for Pioneer, very high for modern, but very budget for Legacy and unheard of for Vintage. Commander is all over the place. So for Budget, Casual, Competitive, and similar hubs, it does strongly come down to the builder's intent. Which format would that $2,000 deck be in?

"Card draw matters" and "top deck matters" are relatively recent hubs. Parallel to "legendary matters", CDM's not just the act of drawing. It's using cards that interact with drawing, such as Dream Trawler, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Queza, Augur of Agonies, and so on. Similarly, TDM is for Aminatou, the Fateshifter, Counterbalance, Miracles, etc. I added the word "matters" because, like you said, every deck wants to draw cards and wants good topdecks, but the act of drawing and topdeck manipulating can be built around. That's why they're not just "card draw" and "topdeck".

"Goodstuff" describes a deck that simply uses the best individual cards available, with no concern for synergy or interactions. This is a term with a specific definition that I believe is well-known enough to use as a hub title.

I have three goals for hubs: clarity, conciseness, and objectiveness. Sure, some of the terms aren't natural English, but they make sense in Magic-ese. If you have suggestions for name changes or clarifications, please let me know.

hootsnag on

4 months ago

Yeah there just aren't many cards like Presence of the Master. Counterbalance is a good one though.

SaberTech on Zurtron

5 months ago

Counterbalance generally doesn't work out that well in casual commander, especially when you don't have any top-deck manipulation. The CMC of spells varies too much for it to get consistent value and once you reveal the top card your other opponents can play around it.

DreadKhan on Zurza's Saga

7 months ago

I love Urza's Saga in my Zur deck, but I don't really max out it's value, it's just another good card and a way for Zur to ramp me. It's nice to see someone take the time to lean into this! I have a few ideas for you, but most of them don't really use sagas, but I am a big fan of Zur decks and studied up on them a bit, most of the ideas are to increase the power level/offer backup plans that I think are thematically similar. If you're totally happy with this as is feel free to ignore, it's easy to make a Zur deck too strong and end up the archenemey

If you're going to be running Sensei's Divining Top, you might like Counterbalance, which Zur can find. Similarly, I feel like if you use Out Of Time you should consider Vanishing, this lets Zur wipe the board of creatures with safety, it also gives him useful protection. If you don't need Zur to keep swinging you can use some copy enchantments to lock creatures off the board, I think if you used Mirrormade (which I'm pretty sure you should run either way) and Estrid's Invocation, have Estrid's copy Out Of Time, then use Vanishing to protect Zur so you can swing next turn and get Mirrormade, copying the Estrid's Out Of Time, now you can just lock creatures off the board indefinitely, not sure if this is worth it or not, but I think all of the cards are good includes. I think since you can always choose to not return the Out Of Time creatures and then advance your board state with Zur it's probably worth a look vs pretty aggressive metas. There is also Copy Enchantment, I found in my competitive Zur list that having all 3 wasn't a problem very often, they're great to draw if someone has a Rhystic Study/Tithe, there are lots of splashy enchantments out there that are worth grabbing. If you do run a bunch of copy enchantment effects they are really good with All That Glitters as a fall back plan, ATG and a copy is sometimes enough to 1 shot people with Commander damage, I liked it because I already wanted the copy effects and I gained access to impressively large voltron at the cost of including only 1 card.

If Urza's Saga gets exiled somehow (or vs Proliferate maybe?), Luminarch Ascension can generate a ton of bodies, and while they'll be smaller they have flying, be 1 mana cheaper, and dodge Vandalblast. The Ascension is pretty easy to make work if you get it out early, and once it's online it's often the best thing you can do with your mana. If your meta is pretty harsh, you might toss in Solitary Confinement as a way to delay your demise, and if you're worried about sustaining Confinement all you need to add is Court of Cunning, this will pay for Confinement until you deck yourself, meaning you can use spare mana to make tokens while your opponent's can't do anything to you, they get swarmed by super cheap 4/4 Flyers.

Do you need to target your artifacts themselves for any of your interactions? I ask because I'm not sure if Hanna's Custody would be useful, it also protects your opponent's stuff, but when I play Zur I loved facing an artifact deck because you can just dig out Energy Flux and they either remove it or pretty much scoop. Flux can be a dead card, but when you run into a busted artifact deck this will punish them quite effectively, and Zur can dig it out whenever it's going to be relevant.

It's a pretty spicy card, but have you considered Hall of the Bandit Lord for Haste? Zur really wants Haste in my experience, but I built for cEDH and needed to move fast.

It's potentially pretty unfun, but if your Zur deck isn't often casting multiple spells you should consider Rule of Law/Arcane Laboratory if your opponents won't revolt, Zur already cheats out an enchantment and you can make tokens with mana, how many spells do you really end up casting compared to people playing more traditional decks? Lots of people like to run really low curve decks these days, Rule of Law effects (I'd also consider Archon of Emeria maybe, since those decks also love untapped lands) really make life hard for those decks. If your area has players that like small draw spells then Rule of Law is going to feel pretty good.

fluffyeel on Leeching Cotton: Oloro's Couch

8 months ago

Some thoughts:

BlockTheWok on Rev Miracles

9 months ago

4 Counterspell cut any of the blue counter like stuff like charm cut Bonfire for 4th Terminus 3 Counterbalance for anything honestly Counterbalance seems like the big selling point the core of the deck counterbalance terminus and maybe entreat also all planeswalkers should be Jace, the Mind Sculptor

BlockTheWok on Rev Miracles

9 months ago

4 Counterspell cut any of the blue counter like stuff like charm cut Bonfire for 4th Terminus 3 Counterbalance for anything honestly Counterbalance seems like the big selling point the core of the deck counterbalance terminus and maybe entreat also all planeswalkers should be Jace, the Mind Sculptor

SufferFromEDHD on Azorius Voltron Control

1 year ago

Cool voltron concept.

Riptide Laboratory to properly abuse that Snapcaster Mage.

Capsize would be a great spell in this draw/go strategy. Dust Bowl for similar reasons.

Mystic Speculation fits the top deck Counterbalance strategy.

Urza's Saga to grab that crucial Sensei's Divining Top, Relic of Progenitus removal and two powerful mana rocks.

Sentinel's Eyes cheap and reusable vigilance.

Narset, Parter of Veils round out the playset of powerful planeswalkers.

Pendrell Mists would be a useful stax tax.

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