Lapse of Certainty Vs Remand
Modern forum
Posted on April 30, 2015, 12:05 p.m. by 2npii
I've just discovered the white counterspells and [Lapse of Certainty]] in particular looks awesome. Unless I'm missing something, it's essentially Remand (instead of drawing a card yourself you stop your opponent drawing their next card) and the fact that it's white instead of blue seems to make up for the extra 1 mana it costs. However everything I've seen about it it negative. Am I missing something?
The main problem is that it costs one more mana, which is a very important thing. It's the difference between getting a Tarmogoyf back in there hand and not. If you're looking for 3cmc counterspells, just use an actual hard counter.
April 30, 2015 12:11 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #4
Lapse of Certainty costs too much. I would rather use Remand since it's CMC is 2 instead of 3. That being said, Memory Lapse would be great if it was Modern legal. One of these days...
April 30, 2015 12:19 p.m.
Another problem to consider is that it doesn't effectively push through your deck further. If you're looking for an answer, and your opponent is beating you on the board, Lapse of Certainty gives them an extra combat step, which seems pretty deadly.
April 30, 2015 12:34 p.m.
If you're just looking for white counters then Mana Tithe can be fun, you may have to wait for the right time to play it but nobody ever expects it
April 30, 2015 12:34 p.m.
We do not generally play 3 mana counterspells in modern.
April 30, 2015 12:45 p.m.
Especially if they don't cantrip.
And I don't see how being white "seems to make up for the extra 1 mana it costs" either.
April 30, 2015 12:49 p.m.
ChiefBell has it right. The only 3+ mana counterspells I can think of having been resolved in Modern are Counterflux and Cryptic Command.
April 30, 2015 12:53 p.m.
And referring to cryptic as merely a counterspell is a bit mean.
April 30, 2015 12:54 p.m.
For context, I asked this as I was thinking about an Abzan control-combo deck (something along the lines of Sanguine Blood+Doubling Season+Ajani, Mentor of Heroes = Target player loses 100 life) so was specifically looking for non-blue counters.
vishnarg - I didn't know about Memory Lapse but yes, that's a much better comparison. Everyone seems to love Memory Lapse too though (4.5/5 on gatherer if that means anything!). I guess I just thought that being non-blue would be enough to make up for the extra cost.
BadumPsh - I guess that boils down to the difference between drawing a card and making your opponent discard one. Saying that, Memory Lapse gets almost as much love on gatherer as Remand...
Panda213 - I like Mana Tithe a lot!
square711 - It seems comparable to Beast Within and Rapid Hybridization/ Pongify; the latter are strictly better and costs 2 less, but beast within still sees some use, I presume, because it's green. The price of Lapse proves that I'm wrong, but I can't see why.
April 30, 2015 1:57 p.m.
Because it just costs too much mana. Theres nothing else too it.
April 30, 2015 2:12 p.m.
ChiefBell - I agree that calling Cryptic Command just a counterspell is misleading, but can you say I'm wrong? Are there other 3+ CMC cards in Modern that are widely played that say "counter target spell"? I guess Mindbreak Trap does, but it's really just an Anti-Storm card.
April 30, 2015 2:30 p.m.
You are not wrong. I am trying to explain WHY Cryptic sees play despite its 4 mana cost.
April 30, 2015 2:35 p.m.
KrosanTusker says... #16
Lapse of Certainty being white doesn't make up for it's mana cost, because it's still not a playable card, even in a hypothetical deck that really needs a counterspell for some reason but can't splash blue. It's just not good enough to see play.
Although I am a huge fan of Mana Tithe. That card is awesome.
April 30, 2015 2:54 p.m.
2npii Beast Within seeing play is a bit deceptive, because the only deck that runs it runs it because it's expensive. The Living End deck doesn't want to cascade into any spells except Living End. Violent Outburst and Demonic Dread can't cascade into a 3 CMC Beast Within.
April 30, 2015 2:59 p.m.
CharonSquared says... #18
Pongify/Rapid Hybridization aren't at all strictly better than Beast Within because they only hit creatures, while it hits any permanent.
April 30, 2015 4:05 p.m.
Slycne - That's interesting; I didn't realise it was a living end staple!
CharonSquared - So it does! That's so wierdly flavoured.
vishnarg says... #2
It's only good in Commander, and it's actually more comparable to Memory Lapse. The reason it doesn't see any modern play is if you were going to play a deck that needed counter spells for hard control, you would splash blue for Remand.
April 30, 2015 12:09 p.m.