The BEST Counterspells EVER Printed in Magic: the Gathering
23,252
Published 2024-03-14
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Direct Card Kingdom Links for Each Card That Appeared in This Video (Spoilers)
Note: Prices may have changed
Counterbalance - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/coldsnap/counterbalanc/?pa…
Memory Lapse - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/7th-edition/memory-lapse/?…
Counterspell - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/tempest/counterspell/?part…
Force of Negation - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/modern-horizons/force-of-n…
Erayo, Soratami Ascendant - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/saviors-of-kamigawa/erayo-…
Chalice of the Void - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/modern-masters/chalice-of-…
Daze - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/mystery-booster-the-list/d…
Mana Drain - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/commander-legends/mana-dra…
Mental Misstep - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/new-phyrexia/mental-misste…
Force of Will - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/dominaria-remastered-varia…
Counterspells are incredibly powerful, and in this video I give my picks for the 10 most powerful ones ever printed in Magic: the Gathering!
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I Can Feel it Coming Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com/ )
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All Comments (21)
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unmentioned upside to Force of Will: many people are so used to pitch casting it, that when you hard cast it, you get extra dopamine
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While it's true that Force of Will warps eternal formats, I'd also argue that it un-warps eternal formats, it's the reason that Legacy and Vintage aren't just "dump your entire hand into a turn 1 win" formats.
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2:28 First appears in..... Homelands. The GOAT set strikes again.
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Force of Negation was MH1, not 2. MH2 did get the OG Counterspell printed into the format, however, so they both got a notable counter.
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I would say the most "broken" counterspell is still missstep, just because it's playpattern are so much more toxic the force.
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Good old counterspells. I will never forget the day I countered a large chain of spells with rewind, dismiss, twart, foil and daze. Slowed my board down but totally derailed my buddys plans. I then slowly built back up while swinging with stalking stones and faerie conclaves. Good times.
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Without the Turn 0 interaction that Force of Will provides, Legacy and Vintage would implode. Arguably Timeless needs it as well (at least for Bo1) but this is a case where I think I'd prefer a digital only card that is free as your first spell of the game if you aren't going first or something like that.
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Top was also banned as a quality of life because it would add an additional 15+ mins to each game, EOT top, top again, upkeep top, top in response, top again because I forgot....etc it causes so many games going to time.
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#10 - Reminder: for a brief moment, it was Standard-legal with Top.
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Erayo Ninja is one of the few decks viable in Standard outside of Ravager Affinity at one time and actually put up several Top 8 finishes. It was trivial to flip with the amount of 0-cost and affinity spells at that time and the Ornithopters synergized well with ninjas.
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Have you ever consider doing a video about most played color and color combinations across or within a specific format? The fact that Force of Will is played in 50% or so of decks in vintage/legacy feels like it tells you something about the distribution of colors within certain formats.
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I have to say, I prefer when the sidebar gives a more detailed breakdown of the points by format instead of just showing the first tier second tier total.
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I'm dumb and tired. On Memory lapse, I read the 31 points for Second Tier as "31-Second Tier Top 8s". I was like, what the hell is a 31-second Tier.
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When blue gets so overpowered that blue starts trying to out blue.
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TN cackling from exile as her GOATED art will forever dominate top 10 counter lists.
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OK, here is an idea... A counterspell that cost 0 but is a sorcery, so you can only use it if you figure out how to give it flash 😅
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Without watching it yet, I guessed this could also be called "Top 9 counterspells not named 'Force of Will"."
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A fun interaction I’ve come across, the new Conspiracy Unraveler from Karlov LOVES pitching for counter spells. In my Sphinx tribal EDH, pitching a Sphinx to cast force of will basically guarantees 10 mana worth of stuff in the graveyard.
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Memory Lapse is a great example of a card that doesn't look all that great, but in practice is incredible. It basically removes the opponent's next draw in addition to countering, which in a decent number of situations ends up being almost a Time Walk. Yeah, they draw that card again but that also means it isn't in the graveyard, which can also be an upside
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Would like to see your thoughts on what the difference is between a card warping a format and one becoming a new evergreen staple, and perhaps also what the healthy ways are to introduce and establish a brand new evergreen staple.
