Negate

Instant

Counter target noncreature spell.

Discussion (51)

WickedlyRested on Brudiclone Stompies

3 days ago

The only other adjustments I would make would mostly be lands. Have you considered Academy Ruins instead of Buried Ruin? Its repeatable. You also might consider cutting some of your colorless lands for the rest of the fetches in your colors: Arid Mesa , Bloodstained Mire , and Misty Rainforest .

Have you tested Spell Swindle? it seems like its kind of slow, and might be better as just a cheaper counter like Counterspell or Negate instead.

Optimator on SadoArtifacthate

1 week ago

Mana Leak is also a weaker counterspell in EDH (it's pretty decent in 60-card formats). I would only recommend it in very counterspell-heavy decks. If the goal is protecting against removal/boardwipes use Swan Song or Negate . Otherwise, use Counterspell , Arcane Denial , or any of the other good cards that counter anything.

As for Rift Bolt and Lightning Bolt , if they're for removal I would highly recommend something more reliable like Pongify , Rapid Hybridization , Reality Shift , Aftershock , or Fissure . Comet Storm or Rolling Thunder work well with Saheeli too. If they're for going upstairs I'd again recommend things like Comet Storm to have a bigger impact and even end the game outright.

Without counterspelling them, the only way in to handle enchantments is Chaos Warp . I insist you run it. There are a few colorless ways to deal, like Scour from Existence , Unstable Obelisk , and Spine of Ish Sah . The latter two are great with recursion.

Personally, I always run two boardwipes minimum and I try to squeeze more in when possible. You already have the best in Cyclonic Rift, but another could save your bacon (you don't have tutors to find it, nor would I necessarily recommend running any). Even decks that go wide, like ours, need reset buttons in emergencies. Blasphemous Act is the gold standard, but Ixidron , Earthquake , Wash Out , and Coastal Breach are good too.

KayneMarco on Alela, Art Of Control

1 week ago

Few ideas for ya to mull over. Solemnity turns your Glen Elendra into an infinite Negate . If you go that route then Kithkin Spellduster would be huge in here as well since you could blow up any enchantment on the board you don’t like infinitely. And speaking of the spellduster blowing things up you could really have fun with that by adding Enchanted Evening so the duster can blow up anything you don’t like.

BioProfDude on Azorius humans in Pioneer

1 week ago

chrclgry, Icon of Ancestry is an interesting suggestion-- thank you!

I have 25 creatures, and 2x Gideon Blackblade who is a creature on my turn. That has been plenty so far. Your point is taken about Thoughtseize , but it's a non-unique argument because that's true of pretty much every deck when an opponent uses Thoughtseize . The card is just powerful and can hurt an opponent's hand. That's true even against a control deck if Thoughtseize is played turn 1 (as it often is) before I play a land.

Thalia, Heretic Cathar does okay in the deck. It has its uses, like causing lands and creatures to come in tapped. That has been pretty good, actually. I'm not married to the card, though, and it may be replaced (likely by Deputy of Detention ).

Elite Guardmage does look odd, but it flies, gains me life, and draw me a card. It's better than I had anticipated. For now, I'm keeping it.

Tormod's Crypt is the card that I happen to already own. Rest in Peace does look good for this-- thank you for the suggestion!

Dovin's Veto is worthless with only three counter spells? Then why did U/W aggro run three Negate s in the side just before the last Standard rotation? This is not meant to be a control deck. Rather, those are very useful as an occasional way to stop a combat trick, counter a planeswalker, etc... As it turns out, only three copies is pretty good against burn and midrange as I have had nice success in my (admittedly limited) play testing. It's a solid card that has utility.

At the end of the day, you have essentially identified what I have thought of the deck-- it either needs to go 100% aggro or 100% U/W control. If I want to go aggro, though, then I'm wasting my time on both U/W and humans and I should just run G/W aggro CoCo, and if I want to run 100% control then I need to dump the humans and just commit to doing the control route. I just really like humans as a tribe and I get to play a bunch of cards that I really enjoy.

Am I going to win FNM with this deck? Probably not, but I have ZERO interest in trying to qualify for the pro tour, I don't really care if I am competitive to win FNM every week. Rather, I like to just play the game and have fun. Do I like to win at least some matches? Sure, and this list should be able to get me to about a 50% win rate, and I'm okay with that! :-)

SideBae on Ezuri, Claw of HELP!

1 week ago

My first suggestion is you include the big three xerox spells: Ponder , Preordain and Brainstorm . They may not look like much, but superior card-selection for one blue is hard to argue with. I run them in every blue deck, though I think you'll need more shuffle effects to make Brainstorm good. Though I don't recommend them, you can also consider second-class cantrips like Serum Visions , Sleight of Hand and Opt .

My second suggestion is that you include the one-mana mana-dorks. I see you have Elvish Mystic , but running Birds of Paradise and Arbor Elf can be very helpful too. Utopia Sprawl works really well with Arbor Elf .

I think some of the two-mana ramp spells could be improved; I've never been a fan of Rampant Growth . Consider Nature's Lore (or its $100 cousin, Three Visits ) and/or Farseek . These can get non-basics, like your Breeding Pool , and Nature's Lore etbs untapped.

Evolution Sage is a card that MAY be good, but I'm not sure. Not having an immediate board-impact is a major downer, but its ability may be good enough to make it worth including. Playtesting can help.

Windfall is an excellent card-draw spell if you're down on cards. I suggest running Narset, Parter of Veils to act as a stax piece that is particularly abusive with Windfall . (Note that if you do end up with proliferate effects, you can proliferate her and get extra activations.) Other good card-draw spells include Fact or Fiction , Concentrate , Tezzeret's Gambit , Harmonize ...

Mystic Remora is a GREAT card. I personally think it's better than Rhystic Study , but I'm sure that'll raise a lot of hell (I also think Griselbrand should be unbanned, so I'm used to getting yelled at).

Wirewood Symbiote is a card you may want to consider. It words well with cards like your Reclamation Sage and can protect your guys from getting Toxic Deluge -d, and can buy you more triggers with your mana elf etbs for your general.

Depending on how many creatures you tend to have out, Slate of Ancestry could be a powerhouse. If you don't want to use that, running something like Collector Ouphe to fetch off Green Sun's Zenith can raise your decks chances against storm and the like significantly.

Opposition is a card I've been seeing more and more in powerful EDH decks these days. If you pair it with tokens and Seedborn Muse , Opposition can win the game on the spot. Adding something like Winter Orb to the mix can yield even more fun.

You can get more 'at the beginning of combat' triggers by having more combat steps. Consider extra-turn spells, like Temporal Trespass , Temporal Manipulation , Expropriate , Karn's Temporal Sundering , Nexus of Fate ...

Finally, counter magic is a good thing. Idk what the budget for the deck is, but the best counters are Force of Will and Mana Drain . More affordable cards that are still REALLY good are Spell Snare , Arcane Denial , Negate , Fuel for the Cause and the like. Counter-counters (I call them 'second-order counters,' since it makes me feel smart) are also good. Veil of Summer is the best right now, but Autumn's Veil and Dispel are also really good.

Right. That's all I got. Good luck!

Icbrgr on Going all in with kiora ...

2 weeks ago

@abbatromebone Your very first sentence kinda says it all for me right now... I'm supposed to be "Turbofog" and the aggro matchup is supposed to be easy/what my deck is made to beat and currently Im playtesting against Naya Zoo (small zoo with Kird Ape / Loam Lion / Wild Nacatl & Rancor ) and it's far from an easy win...the deck gets me under 8 life by T4 pretty consistently and as soon I "stabilize" the combat damage they go upstairs with Lightning Bolt /similar and close out the game before i can usually..... grrrrrrr!

I need to firm up my deck in general I think and then revisit this sideboard talk..... really starting to see the importance of Negate / Dispel ... starting to think maybe that should just be mainboarded.

Icbrgr on Going all in with kiora ...

2 weeks ago

@abbatromebone I agree... maybe Veil of Summer mist be the "new" or "better" option for Turbofog over Dispel / Negate ...can also slap down Thoughtseize so i like that a lot... or perhaps just in the SB along with the others depending on the matchup... ill look into it for sure.

currently this is what my sideboard is shaping up to be

4x Beast Within For addressing resolved permantants that just need to go... i figure the 3/3 token should be completly negated in turbofog so that should be golden removal in theory.

2x Mindbreak Trap I think could be good to just slow down anyone with lots of cantrips or stormy decks.

3x Negate : straight up noncreature counterspell.

2x Pithing Needle resolved planswalkers primarily.

2x Torpor Orb for keeping my Whelming Wave useable/useful against people getting advantage with ETB value.

2x Witchbane Orb Budget Leyline of Sanctity (which honestly is a lot more affordable than it was a few years ago... wow)... try to stave off burn/hand disruption.

May be Kiora, Master of the Depths could also help out with Genesis and Spore Frog ?... and if i splashed white i can see the possibility of integrating Kami of False Hope too...I currently dont think this is the way i wanna go because i really wanna try to stay simic for budget reasons (mostly mana base issues); but definitely an idea to be explored.... ill work up a theoretical "fog re-animator style" decklist and see where the price tag would end up.

Spairut on Deck Control

2 weeks ago

You need cards like Crucible of Worlds , you may mill your lands and with this you can play them and fix your mana.

Wand of denial is not modern legal, but you can replace it with something very similar Pyxis of Pandemonium and also is a graveyard hate card.

The big problem i see is this deck is quite slow and doesnt have a lot of control early game , which you absolutely need if you dont want to get screwed. Early game is harder to control what they draw with the "lanterns" because you wont have most of them, until later in the game, so you need cheap discard to remove the big threats from their hand, the same with counters, it is less powerful late game because your lanterns and discard do most of the job to not let your opponent get their cards but that wont always happen so you need counters and removals to control as much as possible , they shouldnt draw what they need and if they draw it you discard that, and if that didnt work you may use a counter or destroy that creature, or the ensnaring bridge but the last one only works against attacking creatures (mostly big ones) against combo or decks with small creatures or raw damage is more of a dead card,i would have 3 ensnaring bridge you may need some more removals/discard/counters instead. You need low to zero cost cantrips to get those artifacts faster like Mishra's Bauble Cerulean Wisps (not the best but 1 mana for what it does is good and is budget) .

Orbs of warding i think you use them mostly for hexproof rather than the synergy with ensaring bridge + orbs though it is a good combo to prevent most damage it comes as early as turn 6 you may need to use other things than get that thing down if youre looking for hexproof Witchbane Orb is lower mana cost .

The eradicate and zendikon combo looks pretty cool as wincon but im not sure how often you can pull it off but if you do you remove most of its deck as you said works better with mono coloured but a wincon that only has a big impact in some decks like mono green elves makes the deck less versatile i would move them to sideboard though i liked the combo. Remember you need low cost removal, you have to stop the other player rather than actively kill him.

Your counters are very high cost you use them more to mill and kill your opponent than to protect yourself. What will you do against a combo if they get all pieces by turn 4 like a retraction helix+ altar of the brood(look for this deck on google) combo, maybe they wont use their combo but you must save your mana to counter that, the high cost of the counter is slowing you down and your opponent may have a secondary win condition for example with a Genesis Chamber . You cant counter 2 things at once(not only that, you may need to destroy something or discard and you cant because of the counter) with that high cost, if you had cheaper counters or discard you could have removed the pieces long ago, even in turn 1 if you Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek the Altar of the Brood and if you dont want that to come back Surgical Extraction which you can cast almost for free and also mills, Sadistic sacrament slows you a lot.

Good counters for early Mana Leak Disallow Dispel Negate Remand (this one also a cantrip) Hinder has a good synergy with your deck. This deck is hard to master because you need knowledge about what kind of deck has your enemy, to know what to remove and when also you can check other decks with the same strategy, it is called "Lantern control". Lands that enter the battefield tapped slow a lot, remove Skyline Cascade,Jwar Isle Refuge,Maze of Ith doesnt give mana it may screw you and you dont really need it and it isnt modern legal

In conclusion:

Lower the mana curve (counters,removal)

Must add discard

Must add draw cards, cantrips or things like that,

Spreading Seas destroys fetch lands and is a cantrip you may add them.