MTG Salvation

I'm a sucker for Guttural Response and was kinda surprised not to see it mentioned yet.

I am somewhat favortist towards Remand then Arcane Denial. Denial is more conditional then Remand I find. I liked remand better for the list because it was insanely good in recent years right until it rotated. =D Denial is good if I had something like Niv-Mizzet out and I had something that I didn't care about countering. Again conditonal, but it should be noted as being somewhat favorable hard counter.

I thought about Forbid when coming up with my list but a bunch of others got in the way of me choosing, mainly Memory Lapse. I remember how annoyingly strong Memory Lapse is when you are playing Legacy format with interesting things like Temporal Distortion (just one of many) from my stall.dec. (It was very fun combo deck.) Memory Lapse keeps the pace of the game to a reasoable crawl especially if you are running something like a combo or lockdown. Which is why I picked it mainly over Forbid.

Forbid, if you want it for its recur effect, is not worth it. Unless its something like Reanimateor or Madness its not good in my opinion over some of the other counters.

This list represents the best counterspells in the game right now, in order.

1. Force of Will
2. Mana Drain
3. Counterbalance - yes this is a counterspell
4. Daze
5. Spell Snare
6. Cryptic Command
7. Remand
8. Spellstutter Sprite
9. REB/Pyroblast
10. Counterspell

1. Force of Will - Sure it costs a card, but it's mana free.
2. Counterbalance - I'm wondering if this should be #1 just for the sheer value you get from it in the long run. I still prefer FoW though.
3. Mana Drain - Counterspell + Free Mana?
4. Daze - The poor man's Force of Will...kind of
5. Rune Snag - As someone mentioned before, it just gets better and better as the game goes. Eventually, better than...
6. Mana Leak - Loved it when this was in standard, but the days of cheap counterspells are gone, as Cancel seems to be the new minimum.
7. Counterspell - Just a no frills counterspell. It does what it does.
8. Cryptic Command - I don't know if this should switch places with Counterspell on the list, but I think the UUU in the mana cost makes it a little worse. This just so happens to be the perfect standard environment for easy to cast, color-intensive cards, so I think people underrate how difficult UUU is.
9. Undermine - I've always liked this card, but I do think it's quite good. Absorb, I think may be a little worse or on par with Undermine, but I think life loss is better than life gain in most cases.
10. Force Spike - Nothing like snipping off your opponent's first card of the game, eh?

Quote from Shinny Shinny

When i played in a legacy tourney last week another counterspell showed up that no one has mentioned.

Forbid

frankly this one's much better than some of the other ones mentioned (especially in a deck like landstill)

I put Forbid on my list, too. I'm definitely for that one.

I'm surprised to see no love for Thwart and Foil. Both are pitchable/free! (Anyone remember playing Thwarts alternate cost, and then playing Foil's alt cost right after?)

My Faves:

1. Force of Will
2. Mana Drain
3. Counterspell
4. Cryptic Command
5. Pact of Negation
6. Rewind
7. Memory Lapse
8. Arcane Denial
9. Remand
10. Mystic Snake (I know, not really a counter spell, but what the heck!)

I know these may not all be the absolute best counterspells, but they are my favorites.....and I think most of them are pretty good too!

Mana Drain
Force of Will
Counterspell
Force Spike
Cryptic Command
Rewind
Dismiss
Memory Lapse
Mana Leak and Rune Snag
Daze

i really like memory lapse because of how similar to a time walk it can be

No love for power sink? I think all time best would have to be forbid especially if used with obsidian.

1. Force of Will
2. Counterbalance
3. Mana Drain
4. Daze
5. Counterspell
6. Rewind
7. Remand
8. Cryptic Command
9. Dismiss
10. Spell Snare

Force of Will
Mana Drain
Counterbalance
Counterspell
Red Elemental Blast
Cryptic Command
Pact of Negation
Daze
Forbid
Spell Snare

I always liked Patron Wizard as a permanent that can counter spells. In the right deck, it can completely take over a game.

Quote from FrankDV

No love for power sink? I think all time best would have to be forbid especially if used with obsidian.

Power Sink just isn't the same ever since interrupts were removed from the game. Power Sink lived off of freezing the stack since it was an interrupt, and then completely wiping out the other player's mana pool without giving them a chance to respond to it.

Quote from Surging Chaos

Power Sink just isn't the same ever since interrupts were removed from the game. Power Sink lived off of freezing the stack since it was an interrupt, and then completely wiping out the other player's mana pool without giving them a chance to respond to it.

True...luckily I play casual so my friends and I still use interrupts:D

Quote from Oni kadaki

Note that this is not a purely arbitrary question, as I will be taking the answers into consideration when building my newest deck.

I really like Draining Whelk as it can serve as a 1-card auto-win. Basically, on t6 or later, you just counter their "bomb" and get a ridiculous bomb of your own and proceed to win the game. I don't think it's one of the 10 best counters, but it's an excellent counterspell-on-a-stick.

Quote from fatdogwiggle

Once again Counterbalance isn't a counterspell. Its almost 100% useless without Top. Almost the same thing goes for Spellstutter sprite. I don't think a card that requires a deck to be built around it to be good "one of the ten most powerful counterspells.
If you are going to list counterbalance you might as well list nether void or chalice since they are both very silmilar.

Except Counterbalance establishes a lock on the game with more versatility, and nether void is a symetrical countering effect that is easily circumventable. Just because it requires a bit of building around does not mean that it isn't a counterspell. If anything its like infinity+1 counterspells.

Rewind is not one of the most powerful counterspells by a long shot. Show me one decklist ever that played that card and was competitive.

http://www.deckcheck.net/list.php?main=Rewind

I found some. Eleven pages worth. Its strong whenever its legal in standard, and its like the best EDH counterspell.

Quote from Galspanic

I'm a sucker for Guttural Response and was kinda surprised not to see it mentioned yet.

Its strictly worse than both Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast, which have been mentioned a few times.

Edit: Also, responding to old posts is fun!

1: daze(has saved my ass a lot)
2: Force of will(no comment)
3: counterspell(UU=no)
4: remand(cantriping counter)
5: draining whelk(counter and wincon all in one)
6: spell snare(what goyf?)
7: hinder(I play edh)
8: rewind(''free'' counter)
9: cryptic command(great in t2, too slow for ext and 1.5)
10: force spike(counters psycatog if your last name is Ruel)

Quote from TwOnEight_Magic

Last Word

I was wondering if anyone would mention that. not on par with FoW or mana drain but dude, its the uncounterable counterspell

Imo Force of Will, then Mana Drain.

Also why are people putting counterspell higher than Mana Drain. Counterspell is 100% worse than Mana Drain, thx to the rule changes Mana Drain is all gain no loss.

My list goes something like this:

Mana Drain
Force of Will
Counterspell
Remand
Forbid
Rune Snag
Arcane Denial
Voidslime
Cryptic Command
Ertai, Wizard Adept

My list goes:

• Force of Will
  
• Mana Drain
  
• Negate
  
• Mana Leak
  
• Daze
  
• Red Elemental Blast
  
• Pyroblast

-end list of playable counterspells-

I'm not going to put them in an order...only that Force of Will is, and always will be, number 1.

Force of Will
Counterspell
Rewind
Last Word
Desertion
Remove Soul
Foil
Arcane Denial
Quash
Stifle

FoW
Mana drain
Counterbalance
daze
Pact of Negation
Counterspell
Mana leak
Force spike
pyroblast/R.E.B
Cryptic command

best counter spells in order IMO.

1: FoW ...
2: Mana drain. Great but the next turn... Is AWSOME!!!
3: Mental Misstep. No lacky/vial for you!
4: Daze. Pay one more?
5: Spellsnare. No goifs in here!
6: Counterspell. <Classic!
7: Pact of Negation. Great, but the next turn sucks.
8: Cryptic command. Slow but versatile.
9: Manaleak/Runesnag. Not hard counters but good for splashed colours.
10: Venser, Shaper Savant 2/2 counter. seems good.


Honourable mentions go to
1: Remand. Tempo
2: Arcane denial. Super classy
3: Rewind. Kinda free.
4: Mindbreak trap. It is fun

P.S I only count instants as "Counterspells" Counterbalance people see coming.