Counterflux timings? When to play it correctly?
Asked by Tintin 11 years ago
During a game my opponent kept asking after every spell he every cast if i had any responses and i mean after every single spell . I roughly knew his tactic was to throw down loads of creatures and attack so i held my Counterflux spell until he had literally laid his last card in a turn and then said i respond with an over loaded Counterflux . To say he flew off the handle was an understatement! he called me a cheat and said that my Counterflux would only counter his last creature as he had asked all the way through if i wanted to respond to anything. Now with no judges available i said fine i'll take it back bur we replay the sequence to which i could then counter with other counters i had in hand, he agreed and we went on with the game.... Who was right though?
nobu_the_bard says... #2
Counterflux can only target spells on the stack. If he played Raging Goblin followed by Heart Sliver or something like that, it isn't normally possible to counter both of them by overloading Counterflux- he could only have cast the second creature spell on an empty stack, so Raging Goblin had entered the battlefield and was beyond the reach of a counterspell. He probably implied, "Do you have any responses? no? Neither do I, so the spell resolves and the stack is now empty. Next I cast..." by asking if you had responses constantly. (An annoying habit but common for some people playing against a blue control deck.) This is something that he should have clarified for you if you were having trouble understanding.
Most of the time, you most likely will not overload Counterflux , because most of the time an opponent will let his spells resolve before casting the next, in order to prevent that kind of thing from foiling all of his effects at once. However, something with Storm, like Empty the Warrens , puts a large number of spells on the stack at once; an overloaded Counterflux could counter all of them at once. Counterspell wars can be won with Counterflux also ("I counter your counter!")
February 27, 2014 1:09 p.m.
Yes, It will only counter the last creature he played.
You can only cast creatures at sorcery speed(unless they have flash), and you can only cast sorceries when the stack is empty.
Once a spell resolves and comes off the stack, It stops being a spell, and in the case of creature spells, It becomes a permanent.
Even if they did have flash, Every time he asked you for responses, and every time you said no, that represents you each passing priority, and the top spell on the stack automatically resolves. Counterflux would still have only countered the last creature.
In a tournament setting, you wouldn't be able to take back your Counterflux . It would resolve, and only counter the last spell, and the rest of the spells would already have resolved.
February 27, 2014 1:11 p.m.
I owe the guy an apologie for my mistake and you guys (Rocknj06, nobu_the_bard and Sam_I_am) some thanks for helping me to understand things, clear and indepth answers. Totally makes sense now, and if it had worked the way i thought it did then Counterflux would be an insane card!
Rocknj06 says... #1
He was right. The creatures had already resolved minus the last one. The only things overloaded counterflux would counter would be unresolved cards on the stAck. Because creatures can not be put on the stack unless it's the starting spell minus those with flash, before he could cast another creature, that creature would have had to resolve.
February 27, 2014 1:01 p.m.