Lofty Denial

Instant

Counter target spell unless its controller pays . If you control a creature with flying, counter that spell unless its controller pays instead.

Discussion (10)

Skinken on

5 months ago

Birds is a surprisingly well supported tribe, and flying tribal has been getting a fair bit of support recently. So building birds in commander can be both fun and powerful because you can combine old and new cards.

A creature has to be a Legendary creature to be legal as your commander. The classic option for birds would be Kangee, Aerie Keeper . Some other options that are more "Flying tribal" than bird tribal could be Kangee, Sky Warden (a very budget-friendly option), Isperia the Inscrutable , Akim, the Soaring Wind , Derevi, Empyrial Tactician or Alela, Artful Provocateur .

Now you should decide whether you want cards that support having Birds specifically: Aven Brigadier , Celestial Gatekeeper , Crookclaw Elder , Seaside Haven , Soulcatchers' Aerie , Airborne Aid , Migratory Route , Animal Sanctuary etc. Or if you just want cheap flyers that may or may not be birds and just play flying tribal: Battle Screech , Favorable Winds , Gravitational Shift , Gust of Wind , Island Sanctuary , Kangee's Lieutenant , Lofty Denial , Pride of the Clouds , Rally of Wings , Sephara, Sky's Blade , Siani, Eye of the Storm , Skycat Sovereign , Soulcatcher , The Raven's Warning , Thunderclap Wyvern , Tide Skimmer , Warden of Evos Isle , Watcher of the Spheres , Waterkin Shaman , Windstorm Drake , Winged Words , Battle Screech .

Your list has a lot of pretty bad cards that don't support your strategy. I would cut Healing Salve , Resupply , Take Up Arms , Call to Mind , Survival Cache , Refurbish (has 4 targets in your deck and no matter what you get you pay more mana than you should), Siegecraft etc. Pure lifegain spells are bad unless you build around them, and this is supposed to be a bird/flying deck right? Cards that make tokens without flying are not great because your lords and synergy don't make them better. So even though Raise the Alarm is a solid magic card, you would prolly rather have like a Mistral Charger because you can build synergy around it.

Removal is always good. You can almost never have too much of it. However, if you are really cool, you can try to play removal and card draw that is flavorful and synergistic as well: Ravenform , Wing Shards , Aerial Assault , Swan Song , Winged Words , Gust of Wind , Lofty Denial . Also, sol ring is great but more ramp is usually a good idea in commander, and Azorius Keyrune is also a bird!

Good luck with the screechy dudes!

Balaam__ on Blight Rider

5 months ago

Good call on Lofty Denial . I was about to suggest Mana Leak , but it’s strictly worse in a deck like this. +1

philosopher on Flying Hate

6 months ago

Hey Breakaway,

Splashing blue gives you these: Watcher of the Spheres & Warden of Evos Isle , which speed up your taxing abilities.

Plus, adding Lofty Denial is the biggest nope card that blue has with a flyers deck.

philosopher on Mono Blue Counter Fliers

6 months ago

Lofty Denial is a must have in a blue flyers deck.

DanMcSharp on Free Fly (Arena Standard)

6 months ago

Hello again,

Honestly I don't know if my insight is so great that you should eagerly look forward to it like this, but I certainly don't mind, always glad to help as I can!

First thing I notice is that you don't have a lot of 1 and 2 drops. The deck mostly starts to come online at turn 3 or 4, and then you try to get the most out of cards like Watcher of the Spheres and Warden of Evos Isle (8 of these seems like a bit much btw, you could remove a few Warden of Evos Isle ) which would imply that you want to use all your mana every turn, otherwise they didn't achieve much. You also don't have anything to play at instant speed as it is, so if I was you I would replace the 4 Alseid of Life's Bounty with 4 Selfless Savior because taxing yourself 1 mana for each Alseid of Life's Bounty that you want to use really hurts since you have nothing else to do with the mana if you end up not using it. Getting hexproof is nice, but you run so many creatures that I'm pretty sure you should be more worried about board-wipes, and Selfless Savior usually helps more with that anyway. Sure Alseid of Life's Bounty has lifelink, but it's not getting any bigger or enchanted in this deck, so I wouldn't count on it to keep you alive with its life gain.

I have to admit I'm not a big believer in Archon of Absolution myself, but I can see how useful it can be with today's meta since mono-white life gain/agro is everywhere. But I must say I feel like it's dead weight in any control matches, and it only having 2 toughness at 4cmc makes it too easy to remove for anything that's not white. If it works well for you, I'm glad to hear it though!

Reidane, God of the Worthy  ^Flip seems like a fine addition. It's probably annoying enough to play against for you to run some, and with all the snow cards around these days it's the best time to try it out.

If you're concerned about protecting your creatures, the first thing that comes to mind for you in this deck would be Lofty Denial , but if you feel fancy you could try adding 1 or maybe 2 Flicker of Fate . It can save a creature from targeted removal, return a stolen card back to your side of the battlefield, mess with the opponent's enchantments, +1/+1 counters and equipments, could be a combat trick for your Watcher of the Spheres by bouncing another flier, could draw you a card with Cloudkin Seer or bounce another target with Riddlemaster Sphinx and more interestingly, it could turn your Hakka, Whispering Raven into Alrund, God of the Cosmos  ^Flip at instant speed!

This would already give you a few instant speed things to do if case you'd rather keep Alseid of Life's Bounty in the deck. If you go that route you could also consider Skycat Sovereign since it's a good 2 drop anyway, and it would give you more things to do with any leftover mana. Actually, 1 or 2 castles like Castle Ardenvale or Castle Vantress probably wouldn't hurt either.

I'm more used to seeing azorius flier played as a low curve agro deck, but it can probably work fine this way too. Actually you could also try slotting in like 2 Mazemind Tome , it's usually a fine addition for midrange decks that don't have much control elements, and it's also life gain!

Hopefully this gives you some food for thought.

Cheers.

cyeRunner on Modern Angels

7 months ago

I recommend Mana Leak over Lofty Denial : in Situations where Leak is better it's a lot better and in Situations where it's worse it's only a little worse.

defamagraphy1 on An Invitation to Help Magic

11 months ago

Determining just how broken a card is depends on how well it can be interacted with. Omanth is very easy to interact with. However I do believe Genesis Ultimatum or Escape to the Wilds should have seen the axe

The other problem is that so many players are playing it just to win.

I think the bigger problem is that it forces a player to interact with it so early which throws off an opponents game plan, that and players don't want to put more removal in their decks.

Bloodchief's Thirst, Giant Killer, Mutual Destruction, Feed the Swarm Heartless Act Legion's Judgment Murderous Rider Mythos of Nethroi Dirge Bat Hagra Mauling  ^Flip Drag to the Underworld Smite the Monstrous Triumphant Surge Angelic Ascension Dire Tactics Epic Downfall Necromentia Deny the Divine Eat to Extinction Banishing Light Skyclave Apparition Redcap Melee Thundering Rebuke Charge of the Forever-Beast Flame Spill Soul Sear Channeled Force Mythos of Vadrok Rumbling Rockslide The Akroan War Concerted Defense Anticognition Essence Scatter Jwari Disruption  ^Flip Lofty Denial Cancel Convolute Deny the Divine Didn't Say Please Mystical Dispute Mystical Dispute Memory Drain Rewind Agonizing Remorse Memory Theft Pelakka Predation  ^Flip Shatter the Sky Storm's Wrath Extinction Event

That's a whole lot of cards that can deal with Omnath decks. So its not so broken that it can't be dealt with. Does it mean you have to add more than 4 removal cards or change colors? You might have to. Does it mean you might have to change some strategy? Possibly.

Mono White has at least 12 solid answer cards for Omnath and you can still play aggro. Blue has counterspells though you might have to pair it with another color. Red has a few options as well, and the only color that is lacking is if you play mono green. With that many cards you really can't say it's so broken it's unbeatable. You have to play around it. You have to anticipate the strategy. These cards can easily be maindecked, and if youre a player that goes 38 creatures and only 22 lands then I'm sorry for you.

But I wholey disagree with the term Broken. Ive often seen Omnath players quit when they lose Cobra and Omnath. I've also seen a lot of them pass the turn and pass several turns. If you cannot answer it, its out of lack of trying, preparedness, or just a bad game which happens. Also, its not Omnath doing broken things. Omnath only produces the mana to do really really good things. IF Wizards bans Escape and Ultimatum players will have to switch to Lithoforming and while it won't kill the deck it will slow it down and I think that's a more fair approach. But yeah... as above, you don't have to limit yourself to just what's being played. Think outside the box.

captainamerica on Pauper Flying Men

1 year ago

Lofty Denial