It's pretty good against Affinity, Burn, and Storm. It's not great against Counter Company because of all the cords/companies/ eternal witness even though it does get both combo pieces.
As someone else mentioned it's just not a great card against Death's Shadow (any flavor)/ Eldrazi/ Counter Company Or dredge which are five of the top 8 decks atm. It used to be that the top decks were burn, affinity and jund with spell snare being very good against all three. If Goyf comes back into favor you'll see Spell Snare come back.
It's pretty good against Affinity, Burn, and Storm. It's not great against Counter Company because of all the cords/companies/ eternal witness even though it does get both combo pieces.
As someone else mentioned it's just not a great card against Death's Shadow (any flavor)/ Eldrazi/ Counter Company Or dredge which are five of the top 8 decks atm. It used to be that the top decks were burn, affinity and jund with spell snare being very good against all three. If Goyf comes back into favor you'll see Spell Snare come back.
It's not too bad vs DS. It his either Goyf or Snap depending on the version. It's also one of the better counterspells vs Dredge on the draw - Cathartic Reunion.
It can be a liability right now in Modern, but remember, it does hit Collective Brutality pretty hard.
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The amount of non-creature targets that you want Snare for can be counted on 1 hand (Plating, Goryo's, Snapcaster is pseudo non-creature, burn, a ritual, etc.) and is too many times a liability given the meta. You're much better off running spot removal in its place right now (or spend the extra mana for Negates which are better in the current meta). When Modern was about Bob/Goyf/Snapcaster/Affinity/Burn, yeah Snare was great. It's just not the right time for it.
As someone trying to play counterspells for the past 2 years, I wouldn't touch Spell Snare with a 10 foot poll right now. Then again, counterspells in general are pretty terrible all around unless you're playing a 1 mana Negate. Snare hits a lot of things but it MISSES even more things. There's nothing worse than holding up a counterspell instead of doing something proactive (even as simple as Serum Visions) only to have your opponent play two one drops. It's just really, really bad a lot of the time, especially between the huge disparity between decks that are basically mono 1-drops or ramping/cheating something huge.
I used to use it; don't now. Just not enough significant 2-drops that can't easily be dealt with in some other way.
However, I can still see "pure" control decks having a place for 1-2 in the 75.
edit: In my experience (recently), I wouldn't say counterspells are terrible in Modern. Not at all. Even so, Snare is not in my list.
How would people rank the counterspells legal in the Modern format?
Depends on the archetype, I mean Stubborn Denial is in a T1 deck but otherwise I wouldn't be caught seen with that card in a typical permission based control deck.
For stock counters I'd say Logic Knot or Mana Leak is the best counterspell in Modern, efficiency wise. Next would be Cryptic Command for overall power level/flexibility. Negate and Countersquall are generally good enough as a 1-2 mainboard but can be awkkward so sideboard is safe. Then you have stuff like Spell Snare which is a necessary evil in control as a 2-3 of. I personally prefer Mana Tithe in Spell Snare's spot. Remand is playable too. Mindbreak Trap I think is a good choice for a meta counter (UR Storm.) Dispel for the side and Pact of Negation in combo. Condescend mainly used by U Tron with Stubborn Denial being a fav in Shadow decks. Spell Burst being an "infinite" counter in U Tron or Teachings lists. Unified Will, Spell Pierce see play in tempo/creature lists with Disrupting Shoal which has seen play in RUG Delver lists. Counterflux has seen play in the side of UWR lists and Izzet Charm in some Reanimator and RUG Scapeshift.
That's most counters I can think of off the top of my head that see play in one way or another.
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It's also most often dead against Eldrazi Tron.
The card is just not well positioned currently.
It's pretty good against Affinity, Burn, and Storm. It's not great against Counter Company because of all the cords/companies/ eternal witness even though it does get both combo pieces.
As someone else mentioned it's just not a great card against Death's Shadow (any flavor)/ Eldrazi/ Counter Company Or dredge which are five of the top 8 decks atm. It used to be that the top decks were burn, affinity and jund with spell snare being very good against all three. If Goyf comes back into favor you'll see Spell Snare come back.
The simple answer is that two drops are less relevant right now, everything revolves around 1 mana spells.
Or around ramping into huge spells. Either way, Snare just doesn't have enough relevant targets to be nearly as playable as it used to be.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
It's actually fine against Eldrazi Tron. Chalice for one is a normal thing for them and playing the X X creature for 2 mana is a common play for them.
It's not too bad vs DS. It his either Goyf or Snap depending on the version. It's also one of the better counterspells vs Dredge on the draw - Cathartic Reunion.
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Spell pierce tends to be MUCH more narrow. It's rarely run as a maindeck card outside of some really low to the ground delver lists.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
However, I can still see "pure" control decks having a place for 1-2 in the 75.
edit: In my experience (recently), I wouldn't say counterspells are terrible in Modern. Not at all. Even so, Snare is not in my list.
How would people rank the counterspells legal in the Modern format?
I play Magic: the Gathering, not Magic: the Commandering.
Depends on the archetype, I mean Stubborn Denial is in a T1 deck but otherwise I wouldn't be caught seen with that card in a typical permission based control deck.
For stock counters I'd say Logic Knot or Mana Leak is the best counterspell in Modern, efficiency wise. Next would be Cryptic Command for overall power level/flexibility. Negate and Countersquall are generally good enough as a 1-2 mainboard but can be awkkward so sideboard is safe. Then you have stuff like Spell Snare which is a necessary evil in control as a 2-3 of. I personally prefer Mana Tithe in Spell Snare's spot. Remand is playable too. Mindbreak Trap I think is a good choice for a meta counter (UR Storm.) Dispel for the side and Pact of Negation in combo. Condescend mainly used by U Tron with Stubborn Denial being a fav in Shadow decks. Spell Burst being an "infinite" counter in U Tron or Teachings lists. Unified Will, Spell Pierce see play in tempo/creature lists with Disrupting Shoal which has seen play in RUG Delver lists. Counterflux has seen play in the side of UWR lists and Izzet Charm in some Reanimator and RUG Scapeshift.
That's most counters I can think of off the top of my head that see play in one way or another.
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