Some say that the best defense is a good offence. Obi-wan Kenobi praises anticipating rather than reacting, and ultimately countering a spell in anticipation of the damage it can do is often better than letting it resolve. Even I pick up Blue from time to time, and when I do, I like to be prepared.
Force of Will , Mana Drain , and more recently Force of Negation are the premier efficient ways to counter spells, requiring either no mana from you, or rewarding you with a tidy portion the following turn. These are all very playable, particular in cEDH, the faster and more interactive way to play Commander. In no particular order, here are some cards you just have to try. Mental Misstep is similarly free—all it asks is two life.
Whilst this is definitely going to do more work in a competitive and high-budget metagame—one with access to Mana Vault , for example —it can still do work outside of this. If your playgroup loves Sol Ring , Swords to Plowshares , Path to Exile and the like, this might still be up your street. If you encounter a lot of combo decks, or decks that can quickly get out hand if they resolve a particular spell, then consider this Pact.
Swan Song is perhaps the most efficient counterspell in Commander. For a single Blue, you can counter an instant, sorcery or enchantment. You do it all the time for removal, so why not for Swan Song?
Guaranteed to infuriate your opponents. It also replaces itself, which is something. Sometimes a couple of cards is worth pacifying a potential mutiny. Blue can be oppressive to fight through for Red, Boros, or Gruul decks.
Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast are a great ace up the sleeve when pushing through permission, and in a pinch can destroy a problem permanent too.
Speaking of things I love to grab from Sunforger : Rebuff the Wicked. Give it a go sometime. Perhaps my favourite counterspell right now, Summary Dismissal is a catch-all answer. The player new to multiplayer has seen plenty of games where either they or their opponent simply countered every threat, then eventually played their own threat and took down the game. Multiplayer games make counterspells so much worse for a couple of reasons. The first is card advantage.
In one on one games, you draw a card and your opponent draws a card. The even draw allows you to counter whatever they are playing. In multiplayer games, you are being outdrawn three to one by your opponents.
If you hope to counter their threats, you need to draw into a lot of counters and draw far more cards. Eventually, your opponents are going to start getting their cards onto the battlefield when you run out of cards. And that also tends to be the time when they can finally afford their bigger, nastier spells!
Mana also makes counterspells worse in multiplayer games. Your opponents have much more of it than you do. You may find a way to draw all the counters you need, but you won't likely have the mana you need to counter all the threats. My real issue with counterspells, though, is that you are the one doing all the work! When an opponent plays a nasty creature, your counterspell solves the problem, but how do you know it was your problem? Perhaps our friend was going to attack me and not you.
Not only did you save me from taking damage, you also saved me from having to use my Swords to Plowshares on that creature. When our friend plays another creature and you don't have a way to stop it, you don't think I'm going to use my Swords to Plowshares to exile it for you, do you?
You can try to get around it by asking where it is going to go, but that is a limiting factor in itself. You want to wait and let others solve your problems for you, and a counterspell demands you respond to the spell right away. We all know the importance of drawing cards, but some of us forget that the reason drawing cards is important is to have answers and ways to win the game.
Using up your resources countering spells that may not hurt you flies in the face of card draw. Now, in spite of everything that I've said, there are times when you need a counterspell. When Josh insists on playing Expropriate , not having the counterspell pretty much means the game is over.
Some spells just set you so far back, that not responding to them is dire. Given that, I thought I would go through some of options I like to use that try to address some of the issues I've just discussed. Mystic Snake and now Frilled Mystic are the counterspells with a bonus that everyone knows about. They don't really address the whole countering when the spell happens drawback, but at least you are getting a creature after countering the spell!
Generally it is easier to flicker or bounce a creature than to get a regular counterspell out of the graveyard, so the recursion aspect is better here. Personally, I prefer Draining Whelk. I know that keeping six mana up for a counterspell is very difficult, but Draining Whelk rarely disappoints. Most of the spells I'm looking to counter are game changers. Those spells tend to cost at least four or more mana. I did manage to counter an Eldrazi when I had Doubling Season in play!
Admittedly a once in a lifetime play, but I did get to live the dream! A more effective way to avoid the card disadvantage is to simply have a creature that allows you to counter a spell! Ertai, the Corrupted is an old school option that lets you counter a spell once per round.
This one is really only effective if you have plenty of creatures to spare. Add in the three-color cost to play it and the number of decks it would work in is pretty limited.
Brine Shaman is another option and it is only two colors. However, it also requires a sacrifice that non-Zombie decks probably aren't willing to pay too many times.
Ertai, Wizard Adept eliminates the card disadvantage issue. Once it is on the battlefield, you can counter target spell every round of the game without it costing you card after card. I've used Ertai with some success, but he tends to need a little more help than you initially think. This isn't usually an issue, since most of us are already packing ways to protect our commanders, so using the Greaves for Ertai can help solve problems.
The real issue with Ertai is the cost to counter a spell. Keeping up four mana is a tall order, so you are really looking at decks that can use a ton of mana at the end of an opponent's turn to be really effective.
The other issue with Ertai is the unfortunate tap requirement. This means that you only get one shot. If your opponents sucker you into countering a spell early, everyone gets free reign to play out their big spells. This next category of counterspells offers the typical counterspells, but they do something extra. Mana Drain is the best example of this.
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