Mana Leak

Instant

Counter target spell unless its controller pays .

Discussion (47)

lagotripha on Speedy pirates

3 days ago

Echoing wallisface, budget aggro lives or dies by casting 1 mana spells as fast as possible.

If you move to straight rakdos colours, you lose only Daring Saboteur and Frantic Inventory , while your mana becomes a lot more reliable.

With the land set here, I'd go so far as to run almost entirely 1 colour with splashes for higher cmc spells.

A few options; Deadeye Tracker + Grasping Scoundrel + Outcast with a focus on 1 and 2 mana black spells - Kitesail Freebooter in particular is good in a black shell with other sources of discard.

Rigging Runner + Daring Buccaneer + Fanatical Firebrand will work well with a focus on fast damage partucularly spells that deal direct damage and like creatures. I'd look at Captain Ripley Vance and the budget staple Curse of Stalked Prey alongside sources of evasion.

Blue as a primary colour has some neat options if you want to go for a more instant-speed tempo game - Siren Stormtamer , Spectral Sailor , & Brineborn Cutthroat , while opening up sideboard tricks like Crafty Cutpurse and cheap past staples like Mana Leak .

There are a few notable pirates to build combos around - Skyship Plunderer , Timestream Navigator , but they don't have a coherent theme which will make builds awkward.

legendofa on Top 5 Counterspells Of All …

1 week ago

I think Mana Leak is a solid Standard/Limited baseline for counterspells, similar to Giant Growth for pump or Shock for burn. It has a reasonably cheap and flexible mana cost, and it's effective without being overly complicated or overpowering. It's not the best counterspell in the world, but it's reliable and easy to use. It's a perfect Core Set common.

Caerwyn on Top 5 Counterspells Of All …

1 week ago

I always got the impression that Mana Leak was a reluctant staple in Modern--it reached staple status not because it was a great counter, but because there was a dearth in good Modern counters at 2 mana.

Looking at MTGTop8 for 2020, 10.2% of decks ran Mana Leak, and they ran an average of 2.2 copies. Compare to Force of Negation at 16.8% and 2.8 cards and Cryptic Command at 17.2%. This data shows players were running a few copies of Mana Leak because they wanted to fill in some additional counters--but the card itself is not good enough to warrant much investment.

Flash forward to decks for the past 2 months. Mana Leak is no longer the 3rd most common counterspell--it is the 10th, seeing play in only 1.8% of decks. There are a number of reasons for this massive decline.

The most significant is the introduction of the better two-mana counterspell, Counterspell , which immediately established itself as the second most common counterspell after Force of Negation , sitting at 16.3% of the decks and an average of 3.7 copies per deck. This indicates people are not just running Counterspell , but they are running playsets of it--a clear indication that Mana Leak was simply filler until something better came along.

The remainder of the counters that have overtaken Mana Leak are more niche cards such as Drown in the Loch (which doubles as removal), Metallic Rebuke (which can be cast for one mana), and Spell Snare (which is a strong meta counter for one mana). These cards are generally going to be better than Mana Leak in any deck/meta that can utilize them effectively.

All told, I think Mana Leak is valued exactly where it should be - a second-rate card that's inferior to other two-mana options, but held a disproportionate sway in the Modern meta for a long time due to Wizards' not printing Counterspell in Modern. I could see it finding a home in Standard, for the same reason it found a home in Modern--lack of better competition.

Kazuhahaha on Top 5 Counterspells Of All …

1 week ago

Grubbernaut i didn't say card advantage, i said draw. "you" said card advantage. btw, i also never said snag was the "best" option for anything, simply that it's better than Mana Leak in a deck that could consistently get a 2nd copy. i never denied that there were counter spells that were better than both. so this is at least 2 examples of where you misinterpreted what i said.

Kazuhahaha on Top 5 Counterspells Of All …

1 week ago

Grubbernaut it's helpful to tag a person if you want them to know you responded. btw it's not about "which deck", its about how much card draw you have. after that first Rune Snag , the rest become better than Mana Leak . hence with reliable card draw, it will outperform mana leak in any deck it's put in, even today. if you can't think of a deck for something, make a new one. no netdecking required.

Kazuhahaha on Top 5 Counterspells Of All …

1 week ago

if you've got reliable card draw then Rune Snag becomes better than Mana Leak .

Naksu on Top 5 Counterspells Of All …

1 week ago

Hmm, I don't think Mana Leak is underrated at all. It's been a staple in modern for atleast a decade.

DemonDragonJ on Top 5 Counterspells Of All …

1 week ago

I think that Mana Leak is severely underrated, and I am surprised that no one has yet mentioned it. It is a soft counter, rather than a hard one, but it still is very effective, as it can counter any spell unconditionally and most players will not be able to afford to pay 3 mana until later in the game, and the fact that it costs only 2 mana (and only one of which is colored) means that it can be cast early in the game.

Counterflux is another excellent card, in my mind, because it, itself, cannot be countered, and its overload ability is very nice, as well.

I also think that Countersquall , Undermine , and Thought Collapse deserve to be mentioned, as well; while they may not be the most powerful counterspells in the game, the fact that they add insult to injury with their additional effects should not be overlooked.

Arcane Denial is also an excellent counterspell, as well; while allowing an opponent to draw two cards may be less than ideal, the fact that it can unconditionally counter any spell for a very low and easy cost.