Counterspell

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed 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
Oldschool 93/94 Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Counterspell

Instant

Counter target spell.

wallisface on Krakens

2 days ago

Looks like a fun deck! My only thoughts are that you're going to often be in an awkward position where you're unable to hold up mana for your countermagic, because soo much of your stuff is sorcery speed (and you're land count is too low to be leaving-up excess mana). I'd suggest either ditching Counterspell and Spell Pierce, or play waay more of your cards as instant-speed versions (for example, Consider instead of Serum Visions, and Thought Scour or Fleeting Distraction instead of Slip Through Space).

I'm also very skeptical about Thing in the Ice  Flip - it's a nonbo with all your own creatures (especially the creature-tokens that you'll lose completely), and doesn't feel massively helpful in general. It might be better-off as just being more draw cards.

TheEvilWizard on Dr. Seuss, Teller of Tales: All Art Altered!

5 days ago

Really like how everything is altered, especially Counterspell

Swebb87 on Attack phase - interaction & …

1 week ago

Sorry for the long question: in a game recently played, there were 3 of us left. Will describe what happened in turn order etc

Player 1 declared attacks on player 2 for lethal combat damage (player 2 had no blockers) and declared attack on player 3 (the creature attacking was Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer equipped with Staff of Titania and made unlockable with a Suspicious Bookcase.

Player 2 declared no response to the attack, player 3 then cast an Abrade targeting the Staff of Titania which would have saved their life, in response to the Abrade, player 2 cast Counterspell ensuring that the damage was enough to be lethal, thus player 1 won the game.

The question is: is what player 2 did legal? Had they technically died after declaring no blocks or do they stay in the game as a legal participant until the combat phase has finished?

multimedia on Urza's Legacy

1 week ago

Hey, some interesting card choices for upgrades to the precon. I can tell your deck is based on the precon because I see Darksteel Juggernaut.

A kink here to work on is the avg. CMC. The mana curve is very high at 4.3 not including Organic Extinction and Mycosynth Golem. The precon mana curve is already high at 3.5 not including Thought Monitor. A higher mana curve would be fine if supported with lots more low mana cost ramp, but you cut most of the low mana cost ramp (Signets, Liquimetal, Vessel) from the precon. There's only 6 ramp sources here 3 CMC or less which is low.

You could have a difficult time casting Urza using artifact creature affinity with only 7 artifact creatures 3 CMC or less. You really can't count on Urza's artifact affinity to first cast him and having not many ramp sources, ramp can't be counted on either. Master Transmuter is a great upgrade, she helps a lot when playing a lower amount of ramp. To improve the mana curve which will help gameplay consider choosing a few of the better high mana cost cards and cutting the others? Most 4 drops here are much better than the 5-7+ drops and that's good for the mana curve.

Research Thief, The Mightstone and Weakstone  Meld, Blightsteel Colossus, Mycosynth Golem, Thopter Assembly, Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge, Organic Extinction, Darksteel Forge, Mycosynth Lattice, Kuldotha Forgemaster, Cyberdrive Awakener these are the better 5-7 CMC cards here. The others could be cut to lower the mana curve because they're simply not as good as these.

  • Thief, it's repeatable draw effect is good when you want to be attacking with Constructs.
  • Weakstone because you have Urza, Lord Protector  Meld.
  • Blightsteel, best secondary attacker and because you have Master Transmuter.
  • Golem because Urza is a consistent way to create artifacts.
  • Assembly because you have Time Sieve.
  • Tezzeret because of Constructs.
  • Extinction because of Constructs.
  • Forge, best protection for all artifacts and because you have Lattice, Transmuter and Padeem.
  • Awakener flying for Constructs.

Some upgrades at your price point to consider:

Good luck with your deck.

multimedia on Urza upgrade

3 weeks ago

Hey, some nice upgrades to the precon so far. Good additions of wincon combos: Sword + Foundry + Altar and Urza, PoK + Altar + Battlesphere.

Consider cutting a few of the lesser unnecessary higher mana cost creatures for some more draw? Constructs have an easy time if they can attack at doing combat damage to an opponent thanks to menace from Urza. If you can draw a card each time a Construct does combat damage to an opponent then you're getting great value from Constructs and a good reason to want to attack. Bident of Thassa is in the precon and it's repeatable draw with Constructs. Research Thief is more repeatable draw with Constructs that's also a flying artifact creature. More repeatable draw from Constructs can help to draw combo pieces.

Skullclamp is in the precon and it's excellent with Sword + Foundry combo since it creates 1/1 Thopters that can then each be saced for 1 mana to draw two cards. Because Urza's artifact creature affinity can pay for his Commander tax then Skullclamp with Urza is another way for repeatable draw.

Grim Hireling doesn't draw with Constructs it makes ramp, treasures which can help with Revel in Riches since the only reliable source of treasures here is Tithe. Hireling's effect is like Thopter Spy Network where you can trigger it more than once if you have creatures do combat damage to more than one opponent.


When deciding to add a card, it can help deck building and the mana curve to cut a card that's more mana cost. Wire Surgeons is a lesser 6 drop here than the rest and it's effect is only artifact creature not artifact. Having to pay the mana cost of an artifact creature in your graveyard to then exile that artifact is not good. Sharuum the Hegemon another 6 drop here who reanimates an artifact which is much better than what Surgeons does. Marionette Master can be a wincon with combos: Sword + Foundry + Altar and Urza, PoK + Altar + Battlesphere, but this is adding a fourth card, 6 drop, to the combos which is a lot and is really not needed because these combos create infinite artifact tokens which gives Constructs infinite power/toughness.

If you want to combo with Sword + Foundry then you can't control any effect that increases p/t of artifact creatures. Thankfully, Foundry can sac any nontoken artifact, before you want to combo with Sword + Foundry sac the artifact anthem effect. This makes anthem effects that increase p/t that are artifacts better than anthem nonartifact cards. Urza, Prince of Kroog is the exception since it's part of another combo. Since playing Sword + Foundry consider cutting Tempered Steel?

You want to avoid artifact exile effects as much as possible because you have no way of getting back a card in exile. Playing some more Counterspells is a mana efficent way to counter opponent exile effects. Urza's Ruinous Blast hurts you too much since it exiles all Constructs and all combo pieces here except Urza, Prince of Kroog. All the 4 drops here have effects either when ETB or repeatable except Filigree Attendant doesn't, making it a much lesser card that could be cut?

Steel Seraph is a reasonable priced upgrade for Hexavus. Seraph can be cast with prototype for 3 mana giving you a 3/3 artifact creature flier to help artifact creature affinity for Urza and it can on your turn at combat give a creature you control flying including Urza. Wonder is another better option then Hexavus for flying, Unctus, Grand Metatect or Armix, Filigree Thrasher can discard it while in combat. Discard Wonder when you have to discard down to 7 card hand size because you drew so many cards.

Good luck with your deck.

AThiccNacho on Bruna's Wave of Light

3 weeks ago

Man, Bruna is one of the BEST budget commanders out there.

Kor Spiritdancer is an amazing card to have. With a ton of low drop auras, you can keep stacking her VERY quickly. You can use kor as a "fake" and draw out removal spells. Graceblade Artisan is similar, but more expensive and no draw.

Lightning Greaves is absolutely VERY important to have. Bruna bypasses shroud (same with Retether) and giving her a swing after cast is VERY important.

Helm of the Host - Any reason this is here? I feel like it doesn't do much of anything and for 5 mana, something like Arcane Signet would just be better because it ramps and usually isn't a "kill on sight" card. If you can copy Avacyn, i can understand, but that's 17 mana likely over 2-3 turns that's better spent elsewhere.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope <3 favorite MTG card!

Creatures like Invisible Stalker and Ascended Lawmage are REALLY good since hexproof is the best ability in MTG. When i play my Bruna deck, i often get targeted at the first chance, and cards with hexproof ensure my opponents have to work to get them off the board.

You should really consider these cheap cards:

Sovereigns of Lost Alara - Get ANY aura for free when voltron swinging. Can search for unblockable, indestructible, hexproof,... +10/+10 trample annihilator 2 (Eldrazi Conscription) or any other toolbox card.

Danitha Capashen, Paragon - Makes auras and equipment less to cast and comes STACKED With great abilities.

Auramancer's Guise - Gives +2/+2 for each aura on a creature AND vigilance?? Makes Kor Spiritdancer get +4/+4 for each aura on her... CRAZY good.

Ethereal Armor - Gives +1/+1 for each enchantment you control and gives first strike!

Open the Armory - VERY cheap tutor for aura/equipment.

Diplomatic Immunity - Gives shroud and has shroud so it's very difficult to remove the creature it's on. Bruna also does not care since she gets around shroud.

Counterspell - To replace Cancel as it's pretty bad and slower.

If you can spare a bit more cash: Nomad Mythmaker - REALLY good recursion and does NOT target so it gets around shroud.

I made my recommendations from Bruna, Enchantments of Alabaster I have a lot of other good stuff that i didn't feel like citing. Feel free to give it a look!

wallisface on Minor Misstep

1 month ago

Yeah Gidgetimer, you're incorrect here. The MV of a spell with X in its value takes the value of X into account when they're on the stack, so the MV of Prismatic Ending, Engineered Explosives, and Chalice of the Void will always take the X into account while on the stack - and so often Minor Misstep will not be able to target them (just to add further, Prismatic Ending can NEVER have MV 0 because it has a required white-pip in its casting cost).

Icbrgr I think the problem is that the card is competing early-game with Spell Pierce, and then late game with Counterspell and Archmage's Charm... there's just such a narrow application for the spell that it feels iffy to be running mainboard. Saying that, I do think it could see some play in limited number mainboard (1-2 copies at most), and possibly some sideboard play also. I just feel there are too many other solid control cards that Minor Misstep might not have too narrow an application to be the optimal choice in almost all decks.

One thing that could be interesting is pairing Minor Misstep with Spell Snare. While neither are optimal in terms of countermagic, they might allow for some aggressive tempo-based control where mana is tight (i'm thinking the Monastery Mentor decks that a lot of people have been toying with since seeing AspiringSpike brewing in that vein, though something like Sultai-Shadow might also be interested in this approach).

Balaam__ on Balaam__

1 month ago

@Daikodubs Alright, so here’s what I cobbled together. It isn’t quite Sultai, and I’d actually very much recommend abandoning a tri color mana base in favor of instead, but if you’re dead set on Sultai it’s easily adaptable.

4 Vapor Snag 10 Swamp 4 Spell Pierce 4 Mana Leak 6 Island 4 Hedron Alignment 4 Gurmag Angler 4 Counterspell 4 Cling to Dust 4 Choked Estuary 4 Cabal Therapy 4 Cabal Therapist 4 Bojuka Bog

You’ve got enough mana to reliably cast Hedron Alignment from your hand.

You’ve got 8 cards that will get a copy from your hand into your graveyard, namely Cabal Therapy and Cabal Therapist. Just name yourself as the target player and dump from your own hand.

You’ve got 8 cards that let you exile a copy from your graveyard, playsets of Bojuka Bog and Cling to Dust. That last one will let you recover lost life too in case you’re dangerously close to death.

You’ve got a boatload of countermagic to fizzle a lot of what your opponent may try, either to stop you or else to bolster their own strategy.

Lastly, I threw in Gurmag Angler because you mentioned you like Delve and it’s also a fine card to block with if necessary or even to win with should Hedron Alignment somehow not be a viable wincon for whatever reason.

Prices fluctuate depending on where and how you buy, but this rings it at around $20 or less depending on the set of card you’re looking at. Like I said, this is but one way to try building around Hedron Alignment and there are many others. But the idea is to fully commit to it while ignoring anything that’ll only distract from it. Take it, adjust it as you see fit, make changes etc.

Hope this helps.

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