Cancel

Instant

Counter target spell.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

ThassaUpYo@ssa on Kros

23 hours ago

Swagner240sx

For your strategy, I'd focus on either infect or +1/+1 counters since the list seems to be a bit "busy" with too much going on. Once you choose which way you'd like to take the deck, we can further tweak - proliferation will still be central to your overall plan.

Here are some suggestions by color that you might want to consider adding to your mainboard:

{G}:

Heroic Intervention, Nature's Lore, The Great Henge, Three Visits.

{W}:

Akroma's Will, Flawless Manuever, Smothering Tithe, Teferi's Protection, Trouble in Pairs.

{U}:

Cyclonic Rift, Fierce Guardianship, Mana Drain, Swan Song.

{W}{U}

Permission Denied

I think you can get away with swapping out removing some counter spells as it seems a bit overkill - Cancel, Dispel, Envelop, Negate, and Nullify could probably come out in favor of Fierce Guardianship, Mana Drain, and Swan Song (the others could just be cut).

For your land base, I'd work the following lands in to help with your {G} {W} {U} color wheel:

Fetch Lands: Flooded Strand, Misty Rainforest, Windswept Heath

Filter Lands: Flooded Grove, Mystic Gate, Wooded Bastion

Pathways Lands: Barkchannel Pathway  ^Flip, Branchloft Pathway  ^Flip, Hengegate Pathway  ^Flip

Shock Lands: Breeding Pool, Hallowed Fountain, Temple Garden

Tri-Cycle Land: Spara's Headquarters

True Duals: Savannah, Tropical Island, Tundra

For mana rocks, I prefer the talismans over the signets:

Talisman of Curiosity, Talisman of Progress, Talisman of Unity

I think your Kros, Defense Contractor list is in a good spot, it just needs to be a little more focused.

plakjekaas on Are Free Spells Becoming Too …

3 weeks ago

As for your sidenote, the whole idea of free spells is that the spell will cost you something different than mana. All previous free spells in MH sets required you to exile a card from your hand, and only {W} is able to Pull from Eternity. That never limited their usefulness. Especially because you would need the additional card to be in hand, to actually pay for the spell, which has no bearing on your ability to reimburse the costs.

Every color has playable creatures, though not every deck will want to play creatures to enable a free Cultivate or a free Cancel. I want to see what the other effects are before complaining that black will have an easier time to get their cost refunded, for what possibly could still be a free Alms of the Vein at the cost of a creature.

RiotRunner789 on Void Shatter's Thousand Virulent Cuts

1 month ago

I'd swap Graceful Adept for Library of Leng. Cheaper, harder to remove, and added bonus against discard.

Cancel for any other counterspell. There are plenty of 1UU with upside such as personal favorite of mine, Admiral's Order. Rewind, Dissipate, Unwind and Negate are also solid budget options. Personally not a fan of Mana Leak-esk counters since if an opponent has a ton of Mana, they become useless. Also, Defense Grid is an odd choice for a blue deck since it hurts your own counters on your opponents turn.

I'd consider trying to find room for a card or cards like Coastal Piracy, Bident of Thassa, and The Indomitable.

Single protection to consider, Mithril Coat is amazing, Commander's Plate always pulls a ton of weight in mon color (may hurt commander's unblockable agaimst another monoblue but otherwise really helps), Dive Down not amazing, just a pet card when it was in standard.

legendofa on Tiers of card badness

2 months ago

Not all "bad" cards are created equal. As I see it, just like how there's build-around good cards, really good cards, and must-include cards, there's several tiers of cards that don't quite measure up.

At the top, there's the weird cards. These cards have unique effects. They're generally useful and/or interesting, but make lots of demands for deckbuilding and have no redundancy. Spellweaver Helix, Riku of Two Reflections, and Leyline of the Guildpact are some examples. Good for casual play and for "trying to make work".

Next is the draft fodder. Good if you don't have anything better, but easily replaceable. These cards get functionally reprinted a lot, and are usually pretty straightforward. I would put Cancel, Shock, and Alabaster Host Sanctifier as examples. You won't be ashamed to use them in Limited, and they work well as starters for a new collection, but they get outclassed quickly.

Next, and the first tier I would call truly bad cards, are the very inefficient cards and the cards that just don't do anything. They're significantly overcosted, or there's many better options. These cards might still be technically useful, or at least not actively harmful, but they can't compete with anything else. Mudhole, Razor Boomerang, and Aven Trooper go here.

Finally, there's the worst of the worst. The cards that actively hurt you and make it harder to play the game. If you put them in a deck, you're either trying to meme or you're going to Donate them. Alabaster Leech, Soldevi Steam Beast, and Goblin Elite Infantry fall into this group.

This is subjective and a continuum, so there's a lot of room to arrange individual cards. I've been reading Mark Rosewater's articles on bad cards, and designing Nihilist decks (example here), and there's been some forum discussion on what cards are worth using and which aren't. So it's been on my mind recently.

azja on yuriko edh 500

9 months ago

Hey thanks again for your comments on my primer :)

A few suggestions I have:

1. Replace 2 mana enablers with weak/no abilities (such as Dimir Infiltrator and Gurmag Swiftwing) with 1 mana enablers (like Gudul Lurker) or stronger 2 mana enablers (i.e., Baleful Strix, Augury Owl).

2. Replace 3 mana ramp (like Basalt Monolith, Dimir Locket) with 2 mana ramp (i.e., Dimir Signet or Talisman of Dominance).

3. Soft permission spells such as Spell Pierce and Mana Leak are usually weak in budget/lower-powered pods because the games go longer. Some potential replacements could be Misdirection, Drown in the Loch.

4. Cancel, Murder, Hero's Downfall, Perplex, Connive / Concoct and Rite of Undoing seem quite weak to me. Some budget-friendly cards I like that you might want to play are Curtains' Call, Portent, Far / Away, Discovery / Dispersal, Submerge, and Murderous Cut.

Good luck in your tournament!

enpc on Tutorless Commander?

1 year ago

Niko9: A lot of people build 75% decks which specifically exclude cards like tutors, so there is a decent cross section of what "tutorless" commander looks like.

I understand that this wasn't a poo-poo on tutors, but then it also raises the question about functional reprints. For example, in a slower more casual meta you could run Cancel and the fifty billion differnt varaints of it which again decreases variance but without adding tutoring at all.

AThiccNacho on Bruna's Wave of Light

1 year ago

Man, Bruna is one of the BEST budget commanders out there.

Kor Spiritdancer is an amazing card to have. With a ton of low drop auras, you can keep stacking her VERY quickly. You can use kor as a "fake" and draw out removal spells. Graceblade Artisan is similar, but more expensive and no draw.

Lightning Greaves is absolutely VERY important to have. Bruna bypasses shroud (same with Retether) and giving her a swing after cast is VERY important.

Helm of the Host - Any reason this is here? I feel like it doesn't do much of anything and for 5 mana, something like Arcane Signet would just be better because it ramps and usually isn't a "kill on sight" card. If you can copy Avacyn, i can understand, but that's 17 mana likely over 2-3 turns that's better spent elsewhere.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope <3 favorite MTG card!

Creatures like Invisible Stalker and Ascended Lawmage are REALLY good since hexproof is the best ability in MTG. When i play my Bruna deck, i often get targeted at the first chance, and cards with hexproof ensure my opponents have to work to get them off the board.

You should really consider these cheap cards:

Sovereigns of Lost Alara - Get ANY aura for free when voltron swinging. Can search for unblockable, indestructible, hexproof,... +10/+10 trample annihilator 2 (Eldrazi Conscription) or any other toolbox card.

Danitha Capashen, Paragon - Makes auras and equipment {1} less to cast and comes STACKED With great abilities.

Auramancer's Guise - Gives +2/+2 for each aura on a creature AND vigilance?? Makes Kor Spiritdancer get +4/+4 for each aura on her... CRAZY good.

Ethereal Armor - Gives +1/+1 for each enchantment you control and gives first strike!

Open the Armory - VERY cheap tutor for aura/equipment.

Diplomatic Immunity - Gives shroud and has shroud so it's very difficult to remove the creature it's on. Bruna also does not care since she gets around shroud.

Counterspell - To replace Cancel as it's pretty bad and slower.

If you can spare a bit more cash: Nomad Mythmaker - REALLY good recursion and does NOT target so it gets around shroud.

I made my recommendations from Bruna, Enchantments of Alabaster I have a lot of other good stuff that i didn't feel like citing. Feel free to give it a look!

Robstar on Urza’s legion

1 year ago

multimedia thank you for your suggestions! I’m already making the requisite purchases to get those cards. I’m open to hearing more of what you have to say. I do however feel inclined towards keeping Curate but I do recognize having something like Cancel and Counterspell can be a useful tool to avoid interference from a board wipe or target creature removal.