Mental Misstep

Instant

({UP} can be paid with either {U} or 2 life.)

Counter target spell with converted mana cost/mana value 1.

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
Highlander	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (46)

moo1234 on Card creation challenge

1 month ago

do {UP}

Instant

Counter target spell that targets one or more other spells on the stack

"I'm afraid dieing won't let you get away that easily"-Jin Gitaxias

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I get that Mental Misstep is banned in like, everything. but this is basically just a counter counter spell with nearly no other uses.

make a card called Mr.Brightside or Mr.Darkside (or even Mrs of either)

ASalesman on Unesh, Ultimate Guide (Tribal)

1 year ago

BIG REVISION + SIDEBOARD

I will post this comment then make the changes as specified in the list.

I have been studying a lot of cEDH meta, and found a lot of cards that I haven’t been using that are really great in Unesh. After a lot of consideration I have decided to pull the trigger on this revision.

• Replace Mystic Sanctuary with Otawara, Soaring City. Mystic Sanctuary is used to retrieve interaction and put it on the top of your deck. This is anti-deck thinning which feels really bad in this deck. Instead, lets have the interaction printed on the land itself. What is great about Otawara is that this interaction is an ability, not a spell. So it can be used even while cards like Grand Abolisher are on the field. You can remove the abolisher and then interact with your opponent.
• Replace Extraplanar Lens with Urza's Saga. The lens feels clunky. Sure it combos with Palinchron, but this combo requires lands to be on the field. Sacrificing a land has anti synergy with this. If the lens gets removed, you are out the double mana AND a land. It feels bad too often which is why it is getting cut. There are still 5 other combo pieces in the deck that you WILL see. You can even tutor for High Tide if you have to. Urza’s Saga is one of the best lands in the format and it isn’t hard to see why. More deck thinning. If its in your opening hand you guarantee Unesh by turn 3. Moonsilver Key seems to perform really well, so keeping this in as redundancy for this effect will turn out well I think.
• Replace 2 Islands with Mox Opal and Mox Amber. This deck has a lot of lands in it for cEDH. Although Unesh doesn’t mind being mana flooded usually, the count is still a bit high especially after adding Urza’s Saga. Fast mana in these spots feels nice. They aren’t necessarily going to get Unesh on the table faster, BUT they can effectively make your Thassa's Oracle win con cheaper. While you are rolling through your deck after Rite of Replication resolves, you can pick up these pieces to gain mana to cast Thassa’s Oracle.
• Replace Island with Gemstone Caverns. I goldfished this change a lot and found that Unesh will almost always prefer this in your opening hand over an Island. It makes early Unesh more likely, which is the primary goal of this deck.
• Replaced Trickbind with Mental Misstep. Mental Misstep is too good in the format. There are a lot of awesome 1 cmc cards. Sol ring, carpet of flowers, swords to plowshares, mental misstep, other 1 cmc counters, mystic remora, and more. Trickbind is a great card against the right opponent(ie Kinnan), so for me this goes in the sideboard.

Sideboard revision 0

This is my first stab at a sideboard. So constructive criticism is very welcomed. The main goals of the sideboard is to change out the interaction package to fit the pod better, and to shift to more of a midrange strat than turbo if necessary.

• Trickbind. Great interaction with other ability centered decks.
• Grafdigger's Cage. Unesh can play this card without consequence pretty much, and it is an effective stax piece in the meta. This card might even weasel its way in to the main board.
• Tormod's Crypt. More graveyard hate, nothing else to explain here.
• Flusterstorm for a spell heavy pod.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse also for a spell heavy pod.
• Pongify for a more creature heavy pod.
• Lotus Petal for better odds to cast Unesh first, making the deck more turbo. I think this card is possibly better than 1 or more of the mox’s, but I will leave it in sideboard for now.
• Perplexing Chimera. If you need to grind in the midrange more this guy can be a great option. Combining him with Homeward Path can be a good combo to soft lock your opponents in the mid game while you get to the bottom of your deck.
• Homeward Path for the above card.
• Ledger Shredder for making the deck more midrange with another card draw engine, allowing you to more likely get the interaction you need.

nbarry223 on Modern Horizons 3 Predictions/Wishlist

1 year ago

I don’t see any cards like Mental Misstep ever returning to the format. It literally became who had the most of them to win counter wars at a certain point. A spell that requires no colors or mana investment just doesn’t have a place in modern.

MH2 elementals and the like at least require the rest of your deck to have that color, where Mental Misstep and Gitaxian Probe do not.

I cannot see a time when either is acceptable ever again. As much as I like phyrexian mana, when have you ever seen someone not pay the 2 life.

Icbrgr on Modern Horizons 3 Predictions/Wishlist

1 year ago

An interesting side effect to a 2CMC effect like this could maybe open up the idea of Mental Misstep returning to the format?

All in all I just personally find the idea horrifying (not exactly saying I disagree with where your coming from though).... I could just be biased/Traumatized though because there is a really good Ponza player at my shop and I find him hard enough to beat/play around let alone giving him an new angle to pressure.

legendofa on Is WotC Being Cautious About …

1 year ago

In the earliest days, there was Channel giving 19 "free" mana. Force of Will and Necropotence weren't far behind, as a "free" counterspell and "free" draw 19. Life payments then went pretty quiet for a while, until the fetchlands and shocklands came in, followed by Phyrexian mana. Gitaxian Probe and Mental Misstep stand out here. Virtually every time that life payments were allowed to gain an advantage or offset a "standard" cost, it changed the way the game was played.

Basically, you start with 20-40 of a resource that is easily recoverable and is generally spent 1-2 at a time. Even if your opponents are trying to deplete that resource in big chunks, there's no official difference between winning at 20 life and winning at 1 life. You don't get points for having more life left, so might as well use it.

On that line of thought, are there any games where your life total, or the equivalent, is the primary resource?

nbarry223 on Do you think The One …

1 year ago

Basically, the decks that aren't running it either can't, or want to win before they'd play it (having too low of a land count to get to 4 mana consistently). Even some that want to win prior to playing it still run it, for example Breach decks are running the card oddly enough.

The decks not running it play a tempo/aggro playstyle, or the inclusion of a 4 mana artifact breaks their strategy (creativity).

Almost every other deck is running the card. It isn't quite as easy to include as something like Gitaxian Probe or Mental Misstep where there's no wall to inclusion, but it is pretty close since it is a colorless card that is pretty easy to slot into almost any deck.

Icbrgr on Minor Misstep

1 year ago

I am wondering what you all think about Minor Misstep?

At first I just thought this was just Mental Misstep without the phyrexian mana cost... but then I noticed that it counters spells costing {1} or less... granted that's not paying life for cost/cant be included in literally any deck...but the flexibility to counter 0-1 mana value spells seems really strong. Almost to the point where if your in {U} why wouldn't you run a few copies?... it can hit Chalice of the Void/Crashing Footfalls... Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer/Aether Vial/Sigarda's Aid....lots of stuff.

Am I over glorifying this card?

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor on Phyrexia: All Will Be One …

1 year ago

DemonDragonJ - Maro did hint that there would be a big game play change coming with this trip to Phyrexia so a new card type is within the realm of possibility.

So today we got a fixed Mental Misstep that also hits 0 cmc spells. I wonder if that will be safe enough for Modern?

Green got it's obligatory giant, keyword soup, mythic creature. I do like it though. Every set that we get one pushes me closer to building a commander deck constructed exclusively of these creatures.

Staff of Compleation is awesome. A great nod to Staff of Domination. It's a little less combo-centric, but still very powerful.

I like Otharri's design. I am definitely considering them to replace Iroas as the new leader of my Boros tokens deck. That artwork will pop in foil.