Ionize

Instant

Counter target spell. Ionize deals 2 damage to that spell's controller.

Discussion (51)

Sorin_Markov_1947 on Haktos-Trawler

6 days ago

Nope, genuine compliment. :)

Honestly, I can't argue with most of it. I'm still not high on Phoenix of Ash, but it might just be one of those cards you have to play to see the value of. The main purpose I see in him is as an escape card, which is something I think most every Standard deck should have.

I agree that Thassa's Intervention stretches your already taxed mana base, but it also provides some utility the deck is short on. I'd probably replace it with more Elspeth Conquers Death, which is just broken (especially with so many valuable creatures in the deck). Come to think of it, Ionize does nearly the same. Do you find you're casting it consistently, and then still being able to cast Haktos?

HyrdaDOOM666 on Wincons

1 week ago

Thanks! The reason I have Reliquary Tower is to have maximum options if I cant mill them out or deal damage enough damage to kill them from the main combo if I do not have the available mana for Laboratory Maniac or Thassa's Oracle when it triggers. I can definitely take out one Laboratory Maniac for a Thassa's Oracle (already have 1 too lol) I do know the main combo is heavy on the mana and would love to make it faster. What should I remove for the extra draw spells? Maybe the counter Ionize seeing as how I'm already running burn?

ZendikariWol on Niv's 59 Dualcolored Hits

4 weeks ago

Bring to Light may be pretty good, Fight to the Death , when revealed, serves to say "wanna make a big attack? ban plan." Flower / Flourish or Safewright Quest is good two-color mana fixing. Putrefy and Mortify are both pretty strong. Thrash / Threat is pretty all right creature removal if Niv is out. I am partial to Archon of Valor's Reach - I just like the card. Armadillo Cloak is def all right if Nivvy's your main wincon. Artifact Mutation and Aura Mutation are awesome, as is Hull Breach . I know one of my friends has a Kresh the Bloodbraided deck that would be utterly demolished by a Backlash . Bedevil is absurdly versatile removal. Blightning has a special place in my heart for taking any deck that doesn't know how to draw cards directly out of the game. Mostly a 60 cards, 20 life thing tho. Boros Charm can fizzle a removal spell, or it can make Niv into a really big meat stick. Burning-Tree Shaman and Cindervines are absolute murder for spellslinger decks. Casualties of War might help with those planeswalkers you seem to want to make disappear. Cauldron Haze is an... unconventional way to eat a removal spell. Clan Defiance is pretty all right, though it is an X spell that doesn't just kill a player directly. Countersquall is a good not- Negate , as is Dovin's Veto . Curse of Chains is a cool removal spell. Deathsprout is removal and ramp. A bit costly but Murder and Rampant Growth combined (minus one mana) is worth considering for casuals like me. Debtors' Knell can be a nice finisher.

Defiler of Souls is one of my favorite cards of all time. I just love playing colors and I like turning downsides into upsides.

Despark and Deputy of Detention (not to mention the D-Sphere itself) is pretty good removal. Destructive Revelry is pretty good removal as well. Dimir Doppelganger would fuck a reanimator deck six ways from Sunday. Divinity of Pride is a big, lifelinking threat. Djinn Illuminatus is sneakily very strong. Imagine duplicating all your removal spells as many times as you bother to pay for them. Domri's Ambush is even more good removal (this time creature removal). Dragonlair Spider is just quite good at making tokens. Dreadbore kills two relevant types. Dromoka's Command is sweet removal but not many of its other options are relevant. Dueling Grounds is Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist (or Mirri is Dueling grounds- whatever). Both are awesome pillow fort. Escape to the Wilds draws cards. The color-matters auras from Eventide and Shadowmoor are strong with Niv and also on-theme.

Fossil Find alluded to graveyard order... in a 2008 set... huh.

Identity Crisis just discards your opponent's... everything. Ionize is a pretty all right counterspell. Justice Strike , another pet card of mine, is just very a flavorful removal spell. Mindleech Mass is crazy cool. Mirari's Wake is a really conventionally strong card. Mistmeadow Witch is more expensive and more timely Soulherder (fizzles removal!). Mnemonic Betrayal is just a gem. Mystic Snake and Frilled Mystic are both counterspells. Necrogenesis makes tokens and screws up reanimation. Palliation Accord is pretty freaking pillow forty. Pillory of the Sleepless , Anguished Unmaking , and Vindicate are more solid Orzhov removal. Plasm Capture isn't great, I don't think, but it feels like a card that has some wild stories attached to it, don'tcha think? Rakdos's Return seems like another really fun spell. I want to make a RB casual Rack deck. Silumgar's Command is a good card. Thought Erasure is a perfectly suitable discard spell. Trygon Predator is good. Wheel of Sun and Moon ensures that every card in your deck is just a few Niv triggers away.

And BAM, I've looked through every two-color card in Magic. There we go. That's what stood out to me, but I find that many players are more competitive than I am and therefore have different definitions of what a good card is. Feel free to take some or none of my advice. All would likely prove disastrous for your deck- a lot of the cards I suggested were removal.

Berndh01 on UR Spellslinging

1 month ago

I really like your list. The low 2 drop slot is hard. I feel like you're already playing the good ones. I would maybe recommend considering: Condescend ? Maybe even: Into the Roil or Blink of an Eye . I feel like once certain threats are in play your deck doesn't have a lot of answers to them and late game bouncing a mid-range threat and drawing a card is super relevant. An argument could also be made for Censor and Lat-Nam's Legacy ? Eh?

For your threats, I really like Brineborn Cutthroat . I'm also a fan of looter Jace Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip. I personally would maybe play them over the goblins. They come in a turn sooner and I feel like they're both viable threats even if they don't start producing tokens. Not to make your list literally the list by WindyDelcarlo, but I'm also a big fan of Dack Fayden and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer .Taking a tinker'd out target or Crucible of Worlds with Dack Fayden feels reeaaallly good. I could see the goblins you have maybe being a bigger threat than Saheeli, because you don't always have a relevant threat to make a copy of. I'm also a sucker for Baral, Chief of Compliance .

Two cards that I think could be better slots are: Dive Down and Ionize . I think I would value things like: Disallow , or Supreme Will . I also like Divert better than Dive Down . It's more versatile and will probably save your creatures from the same spells as well as win you a counter war.

I would also strongly urge you to play Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon . Maybe Back to Basics .

Bolo33 on Please Help - cheap deck ...

1 month ago

Standard. Cheap?

That's hard to bear, for most. The thing I do to keep my decks cheap is avoid Shock Lands( Steam Vents and the like) and cards like Fabled Passage . I'm not denying their value, but are they really 10-20 times more valuable (in the game) than a card like Temple of Epiphany ? They both tap, and both give an add on.

Also, Sleeves exist, to protect cards. Cards can be bought cheaper when they are in a less-than-new condition. And foils are also a bit unnecessary, if your goal is to stay cheap.

Now for an actual idea. I was looking at the cards you liked at the top of this post. Pteramander and Crackling Drake are both big on instants, and getting Humongous as a result of them. Enigma Drake has already rotated, it is no longer standard legal. Two other red and blue cards that get Gargantuan as a result of instants/sorceries are Erratic Cyclops and Wee Dragonauts . Cards that help you cast such spells are Goblin Electromancer , and (sorta) Spellkeeper Weird . The instants/sorceries you want to cast with this can be damaging type, card advantage type, orcreature buff/debuff, or even the first two of these combined. (Counterspells are essential, too)

For Damage, Shock , Lava Coil and Electrodominance are good. Card-Drawing, Opt , Winged Words , and Chemister's Insight all draw and give card advantage. Infuriate , Sure Strike , and Sonic Assault both buff/debuff. Ral's Outburst both damages and gives card advantage. For a damaging deck, you may want Electrostatic Field . For a card-drawing deck, The Magic Mirror and Niv-Mizzet, Parun make a great combo. If you want to simply buff your creatures to victory, make sure to keep the pumping creatures.

Counterspells are essential, I find Quench is surprisingly useful. Ionize is great too, and everyone seems to love Mystical Dispute too, although it is pricey. Convolute is a cheaper (monetary-wise) thing to use.

I hope this helped you decide on cards!

Haurent on U/R Standard Mill, budget

1 month ago

Hey there! I know this deck is kinda old since ixalan rotated out of standard, but I can help you with this R/U mill vision you have. So first of all if your boyfriend is playing a deck around Approach of the Second Sun something you wanna have around are counterspells. Now we have counterspells that mill in Thought Collapse and Didn't Say Please . Splashing red you also have Ionize . Following that, R/U decks usually have good mechanics to draw cards, which is an excellent method to mill down an opponent with Sphinx's Tutelage , which should be accompanied with several card draw engines. Cards like Radical Idea , Chemister's Insight and even cycling cards of your own like Censor or Hieroglyphic Illumination could work. Mill usually struggles with board pressence, so cards like Sweltering Suns , Hour of Devastation work okay as boardwipes. If you want to add some pressence of your own cards like Electrostatic Field , Crackling Drake , Murmuring Mystic or Guttersnipe can lend you a hand as either blockers or as a way to put pressure on the opponent.

Regarding sideboard, Mill struggles A LOT against aggro, so early-game blockers, boardwipes and counterspells to disrupt tempo are your best ally.

If you have other questions feel free to contact me, I play a lot of mill and everyone hates me for it, but I enjoy it.

DemonDragonJ on Elemental Storm

2 months ago

I have replaced Trap Essence with Ionize , because, while the former card is very awesome, it has two major flaws: first, it can counter only creature spells (if it could counter any spell, I would have kept it in this deck); second, if I do not have a creature on the battlefield, it's second ability does nothing. The latter spell, however, is much more versatile, and is useful in a much greater number of situations.

Gracco on You're A Wizard, Faerie!

2 months ago

Consider more Mistbind Clique. Your deck looks like it wants to follow a Tempo plan so Wee Dragonauts may not be what you want to be doing since that is a more aggressive polarized card. Consider working in a playset of Ionize to support the counter-burn angle the deck is already taking. I know Faerie Seer is on theme as being both a faerie and a wizard but it is undoubtably the weakest card in the deck so if you need to cut anything that would be one of the things to cut. Also, Blood Moon could easily be in the main deck, and likely should be, since your mana base is already pretty much the mana base that the established Blue Moon deck uses. Vapor Snag is also a fairly weak card in this deck. The only thing that really makes Brazen Borrower worth the slot is because it also comes with a reasonable body. I play a pretty good Jeskai counter-burn tempo deck from time to time so I am pretty familiar with that gameplan and it seems like what this deck is trying to do for sure.