Combos Browse all Suggest
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 |
| Freeform | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Modern Beyond Horizons | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Planar Constructed | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| PreDH | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Delay
Instant
Counter target spell. If the spell is countered this way, exile it with three time counters on it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard. If it doesn't have suspend, it gains suspend. (At the beginning of its owner's upkeep, remove a counter from that card. When the last is removed, the player casts it without paying its mana cost. If it's a creature, it has haste.)
ASalesman on
Unesh, Ultimate Guide (Tribal)
6 months ago
Quick optimization from the bulk upgrade
Add:
- Delay, easier to cast than counterspell, hits all cards, and my snowball engine doesn't care if your spell resolves 3 turns from now.
- Mind Stone, for more consistent ramp
- Fellwar Stone, for more consistent ramp
- An Offer You Can't Refuse to defend important turns, engage with enemy combos/tutors.
- Swan Song to defend important turns + some general interaction.
- Pact of Negation, it wasn't on the list because of oversight, but this is one of the best counterspells in the deck.
Remove:
- Barkform Harvester, the main upside of this card solves a problem the deck has already solved structurally.
- Firdoch Core. It looks tempting, but it tends to just be a slow rock without Unesh on the field. It was a hard choice on this one, but ultimately its one of the weakest cards on the list.
- Amoeboid Changeling, make room for interaction, there are enough low cost sphinxes in the deck that have a bigger impact.
- Mothdust Changeling, make room for interaction, there are enough low cost sphinxes in the deck that have a bigger impact.
- Sink into Stupor, the flexibility of being a land is nice, but the spell is too clunky at 3 cmc.
- Mistrise Village is easily the weakest land. There are plenty of lands without it.
SufferFromEDHD on hootsnag
7 months ago
Hinder + Spell Crumple I know 2 CMC is your sweet spot but these do exactly what you want.
Ertai's Meddling the OG Delay
I like you have not purchased a MTG product in years. Modern Horizon 3 was the last set that caught my attention. Splinters Technique is definitely playable along with Raphael's Technique
Gidgetimer on Help with counterspell optimization in …
2 years ago
How are you using these counterspells? Are you just countering stuff for the sake of countering and trying to play a tempo game? Or are you just using them to protect your win or prevent an opponent's win? Because if the second Delay and An Offer You Can't Refuse are great spells.
capwner on
2 years ago
". I build with what I have available at the time as well lol :)"
That makes sense if this is an exact representation of a paper deck, it seemed pretty well put together so I thought it was a more optimized/conceptual list! Peeking at your opponent's deck is pretty fun too. I think a card like Delay could be really good in that slot, since it's a little more flexible. Also Flusterstorm
and An Offer You Can't Refuse are hands down some of the best counters and pretty budget friendly!
Coward_Token on How Are Red, Black, and …
2 years ago
Anyway, slightly more on topic: Maro has already said 'no', but I think it would be cool if white got Delay. Maybe for ?
Also, a chunk of white's old counterspells could just be reworked with defensive abilities; Vigilant Martyr, Dawn Charm, and Rebuff the Wicked could just give hexproof, while Equinox could give indestructible to all your lands.
Murrow on
Anew Polymorph Deck
3 years ago
jdogz32 I gotcha. Yeah the tweaks never stop in an under explored archetype haha. I like Remand the card draw/replacement is a big plus. However I’ve personally been leaning more towards Delay lately instead of Remand because it buys you 3 turns versus maybe the one turn you get from Remand. But we all have different needs so obviously act accordingly lol. However Delay does let them cast it for free essentially after the suspend is up sooo that’s a consideration lmao.
Azoth2099 on
Narset's Work Out Plan
3 years ago
This version of Narset looks so fun, man!
One thing that I feel is fundamental when remembering Narset, Enlightened Exile's function as a Commander is that her ability gives you Graveyard hate as well as pseudo card draw by giving you access to your opponent's Graveyards as well as your own, meaning that you will always have card advantage as long as you protect your Commander.
That being said, I would definitely find room for Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Mother of Runes, Giver of Runes, & an abundance of Counterspells. Personally, I don't like spending more than 1 Mana for a Counterspell these days. Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast, Dispel, Swan Song & An Offer You Can't Refuse provide a crazy ceiling of value for a single Mana. If you wanted to roll with 2-drops for budget reasons, though, Delay, Arcane Denial, Dovin's Veto & Negate are all easy to cast, & throw a wide net. Misdirection & Bolt Bend are also options here.
Secondly, Narset, Enlightened Exile can only trigger on your own turn, & you need to ensure that everything is going to go as planned. Grand Abolisher & Conqueror's Flail will lock your opponents out of your turn without giving your opponents the same utility like cards like Teferi, Time Raveler & Defense Grid notoriously do. Silence, Revel in Silence Flip, Abeyance & Orim's Chant can do something similar for 1-2 Mana.
Speaking of Stax, there are a few concise, utilitarian pieces that you may want to consider. Drannith Magistrate, Sanctum Prelate, Archon of Emeria, Lavinia, Azorious Renegade, Boromir, Warden of the Tower, Aven Mindcensor & Containment Priest shut down a LOT of strategies. You'd be surprised how little most decks can do once you take away their ability to cheat stuff in, Tutor and/or cast things for free. Personally, every deck I have is heavily handicapped by all of those pieces. I wouldn't even be able to target them with removal if you played your cards right.
For noncreature Stax, you've got Chalice of the Void, Cursed Totem, Thorn of Amethyst, Deafening Silence, Grafdigger's Cage (which your Commander's ability gets around btw, very strong here), & Rule of Law as a few solid options.
You do need quite a bit more card draw, though. Scroll Rack & Sensei's Divining Top are obviously great, but the level of toolbox utility they actually give you in practice is even better than it seems! Archivist of Oghma, Faerie Mastermind & Ledger Shredder all give you card draw that scales with what your opponents are doing, which is fantastic. Other things like Deep Gnome Terramancer & Wandering Archaic Flip do the same thing, though they technically aren't card draw. Hell, might as well throw Monologue Tax out there too since I'm talking about scaling.
There's also Careful Study, Frantic Search, Tolarian Winds, Faithless Looting, Cathartic Reunion, Burning Inquiry, Thrill of Possibility & Dragon's Rage Channeler, which are great synergy here!
Speaking of synergy, let's get into that! The foremost synergies for Narset, Enlightened Exile imho is Underworld Breach + Lion's Eye Diamond + Brain Freeze & Intuition, and much of the deck should be geared towards maximizing on that. They're all very easy to Tutor up via cards like Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, Solve the Equation, Fabricate, Reshape, Transmute Artifact, Reckless Handling, Goblin Engineer & Gamble, in addition to being easy to recur via your Commander's ability. It's actually absurd, truly busted. I wouldn't recommend throwing Wheels like Wheel of Fortune or Windfall into the mix, though. They're very overrated, & you can just run Brain Freeze for the combo instead. No need to give all of your opponents a bunch of cards for free if you don't have to! Queen Kayla bin-Kroog is for sure worth consideration, though, if you choose to run Artifact Stax.
Maximizing on Underworld Breach, however, means running Storm. I'd recommend Birgi, God of Storytelling Flip, Storm-Kiln Artist, Urabrask Flip, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual & Seething Song to keep your Storm engine from shutting off. I personally don't condone Runaway Steam-Kin, as it's just too freaking slow & conditional compared to other options.
Additional Combat Phases would also be of great use here as opposed to trigger doublers like Strionic Resonator or something. Aggravated Assault, Waves of Aggression, World at War & Seize the Day are the only ones I'd consider running, though. You don't wanna load up on too many synergy effects when you can just Tutor for the best of them when the time's right, ya know?
Since you're running Dockside Extortionist, I'd also consider Cloudstone Curio. With one other Creature (like Spellseeker for example), you can produce infinite Treasures & ETBs with little effort, which is usually more than enough to get you to the finish line.
Your ramp package is looking solid enough, but I'd include 2 more Rocks as well as the rituals I named previously. Fellwar Stone is, functionally, a 5-color Rock for 2 Mana, which is absurd. I tend to not condone 3-drop rocks, with the exception of Chromatic Lantern, which was just reprinted recently and is currently super cheap.
Oh man, now that I think of it Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal gives your whole team infinite power and toughness via your Commander, as well as giving you infinite Mana if you have enough Rocks on the field. Maybe consider it lol.
Monastery Mentor seems to fit like glove here as well, offering some much needed redundancy and a surprising amount of board presence. It's kind of like Deep Gnome Terramancer or Wandering Archaic Flip in the sense that it just provides waaaay more value while playtesting than you thought it was going to!
Also, consider giving yourself Hexproof with stuff like Witchbane Orb to protect your own Graveyard.
To summarize, I really think your best bet with this one is building a system that gets to either an Underworld Breach + Lion's Eye Diamond + Brain Freeze combo win or an Intuition win as quickly as possible, with other combos like Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter being strong potentialities on the way.
Cheers!
Azoth2099 on
Green/Black toxic/proliferate need recommendations
3 years ago
Balvron Thanks, man! Happy to help, really.
So the core of the / presence in the deck should be devoted to Dorks, Ramp and Tutors so that you can quickly get the deck engine up and running. Getting your commander on the field and geared up as quickly as possible is everything in this new context. Some cheaper options for Tutors are Diabolic Tutor, Profane Tutor, Mastermind's Acquisition and Increasing Ambition. I'd really recommend just biting the bullet and slotting in the more efficient ones like Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Diabolic Intent & Wishclaw Talisman though. Cheaper card draw options like Phyrexian Arena & Dark Tutelage are also pretty solid. Necropotence, Black Market Connections & Dark Confidant are up there, but worth it.
The only thing you need for is for card draw and interaction, with a few key Proliferate pieces that you'll be able to Tutor for when the time is right. Spells like Brainstorm, Ponder, Tolarian Winds, Impulse, Preordain & Serum Visions provide decent gas for cheap. Classics like Counterspell, Delay, Negate, & Dispel protect your game plan. Flux Channeler & Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus are probably the only Proliferate pieces you'll need, but I'd Throw a Serum Snare in there too. Mystical Tutor, Rhystic Study & Mystic Remora are always nice to have as well.
The few things you'll need for here is to Tutor up gear for your Commander with cards like Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor, Steelshaper's Gift & Open the Armory, and occasionally control the board with Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile. I'd also recommend some Stax pieces like Silence, Grand Abolisher, Smothering Tithe, Esper Sentinel, Archivist of Oghma & Drannith Magistrate for good measure, & some more Commander protection with Mother of Runes & Giver of Runes.
Some good pieces of gear to retrieve slap on could be Swiftfoot Boots, Mask of Memory, Conqueror's Flail, Bone Sabres & Mask of the Schemer, for example.
