The goal of this post is to sheerly and intellectually rank and debate which counterspells are the best in modern, from 1.Best to 10.Tenth Best. Since the old thread has been locked and is outdated (14 February 2014 - 21 October 2015), please provide your most insightful, logical, and judicious reasons for your rankings of the counterspells in the current metagame. I will begin by providing a sample top 10 list and some others below that can be worked off of:
It's just me but I've really liked condescend in fair control decks. The scry 2 is gigantic when you're fishing for the right card, and it scales a lot better than mana leak when you're likely to be close to topdecking most games because of all the discard.
Most decks are tapping out for their threats these days so force spike is often good enough, and it also scales.
Stubborn Denial is the best performing right know I think.
Cryptic Command is good but so slow in the current environment. I still ranked high because it's often the draw that you want later.
Warping wail is great because you don't have to play blue to use it. It hits a number of important spells and can be removal on creatures already on the board.
Logic Knot is the closest thing to a UU counter there is but it's hard to play in multiples and sometimes isn't a hard enough counter.
Negate is relevant almost always but can't hit most threats which keeps it from being great.
Spell queller is a counter on a creature which now has a relevant creature type and it can abrupt decay which is hard to do.
Condescend gives you scries with that counter and scales slowly into the late game.
Dispel is usually a SB card but it does the job better than other counters do in the main board so I put it on the list.
Remand has felt a little weak recently when your opponent can just recast everything but it counters and digs and can be part of a storm combo.
Pact is the best free counter right now.
1.Stubborn Denial: Usually half-priced-negate in the decks that can run it.
2.Countersquall: Negate with upside in the decks that can run it.
3.Negate: Hard answer to problematic cards that creature-based removal won`t address.
4.Cryptic Command: Gives control a strong late game.
5.Dispel: Efficiency is key for interactive matchups where one might find this card.
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Modern Decks
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
It always depends on the deck and strategy, but for my particular draw-go control deck rankings is:
`1. Mana Tithe - The only card I am 99.9% ecstatic to see in my opening hand. Deals with all sorts of nonsense when I am my most weakest position in the game.
2. Spell Snare - Included for the same role as Mana Tithe early game, albeit more narrow, but is live in the late game. This card is primarily used for hitting hyper-aggro decks.
3 Spell Pierce - Included for the same role as Mana Tithe early game, albeit more narrow, but hit the problem non-creature stuff a bit better as well as staying somewhat relevant in the later game and in counter wars. Primary use is to hit RG Ponza.
4. Spell Burst - An "infinite" oounterspell that allows me less redundancy of counterspells in deckbuilding. Very good against 1 drop aggro and locks out longer games after stabilisation.
5. Logic Knot - IMO the most efficient/"unconditional" counterspell in the format and is virtually Counterspell most of the time. Stops turn 2 to turn 22 plays like a boss.
6. Cryptic Command - Highest power/versatile counterspell in the format. Heavy mana cost means it doesn't place higher in my list.
I think it's a mistake to consider Mana leak to be a top 5 counterspell, and perhaps even top 10. The card is straight up bad in the late game, which is what most of the decks that would consider a 2cmc counterspell are playing towards. Negate is almost always 100% better than Mana leak because it is a hard answer into the late game and only misses threats that can be dealt with via the rest of your removal. Mana leak is really underwhelming unless you can be the beatdown in matchups that threaten to go medium-long.
Others have somehow been including Remand on the list at all, despite it seeing almost no play. The card is just too inefficient vs aggro like burn/affinity to be on the list. At least cryptic is card advantage and much more flexible. Remand being 1U:Cycle in the meta too often should also really limit its placing to the bottom wrungs. To emphasize how bad Remand is, consider that it has effectively been replaced in control decks by Spreading Seas as more effective way of disrupting your opponent. Spreading Seas is more effective at disruption than Remand. That says alot about Remand in the meta imo.
I'd like to add that Ceremonious rejection should probably have won out over Dispel in my above list due to its broader application in the meta.
I think it's a mistake to consider Mana leak to be a top 5 counterspell, and perhaps even top 10. The card is straight up bad in the late game, which is what most of the decks that would consider a 2cmc counterspell are playing towards. Negate is almost always 100% better than Mana leak because it is a hard answer into the late game and only misses threats that can be dealt with via the rest of your removal. Mana leak is really underwhelming unless you can be the beatdown in matchups that threaten to go medium-long.
Others have somehow been including Remand on the list at all, despite it seeing almost no play. The card is just too inefficient vs aggro like burn/affinity to be on the list. At least cryptic is card advantage and much more flexible. Remand being 1U:Cycle in the meta too often should also really limit its placing to the bottom wrungs. To emphasize how bad Remand is, consider that it has effectively been replaced in control decks by Spreading Seas as more effective way of disrupting your opponent. Spreading Seas is more effective at disruption than Remand. That says alot about Remand in the meta imo.
I'd like to add that Ceremonious rejection should probably have won out over Dispel in my above list due to its broader application in the meta.
I put Mana Leak over things like Negate and Logic Knot simply because its seeing play as a 3 of in UW Control currently and while Remand is seeing play in Storm I feel that it is almost more of combo enabler in that deck bouncing back your Grapeshot. I think that the fact that its functionally counterspell between T1-4 makes it solid enough as the format is dominated by decks looking to get established mostly by T3.
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Stubborn Denial - This card is just insane in Grixis Death's Shadow, it's too good not to be at the top spot.
Cryptic Command - When you're playing control this card is perfect, expensive counter with lots of options to get you out of all sorts of situations.
Pact of Negation - The fact that it costs 0 means even non-blue decks can play it. In fact, they sometimes do just to protect themselves when going off, having no intention of playing it. Being played in decks like Amulet (sometimes even as the win condition) is pretty crazy.
Mana Leak - An all-around solid catch-22 card. It has some scaling issues late game but you're usually really just concerned about the early game, where this card shines.
Remand - Pretty good, especially with cards like Living End and delve being popular. Can't go wrong with a counter that draws a card, really.
Negate - The great catch-22 out of the board. I actually like it more than Dispel personally because it answers a significantly wider array of cards, like Planeswalkers for instance.
Dispel - The de-facto sideboard card for narrow answers. Cheap counter and does exactly what you need it to do.
Logic Knot - Solid card and good for control decks, only this high on the list because it's not feasible for many decks.
Ceremonious Rejection - This is great when it's good, but a lot of the time it's bad. Between Cavern of Souls and Affinity playing more proactive than you can respond, this card often sits in your hand. It's unfortunate that's what happens but that's how it is.
Spell Pierce - This card is just all around solid, cheap cost with a steep enough cost for the opponent.
Deprive not being mentioned until this point is a travesty. It puts logic knot to shame in my opinion. In decks with a low curve bouncing a land can often net the user mana. Its not as great in a control deck but even then bouncing a land in a deck that always hits its land drops generally means you arnt hurting for mana at most phases in the game.
Stubborn denial is hands down the most powerful single counterspell in modern. Force spike is certainly passable and when ferocious it's one of the best in the game. It just requires specific builds so it will never see the copious amounts of play like a one mana negate should.
Remand is undervalued here as well. It needs the right home but when remand is the right counterspell choice for a deck, it's obscenely good. It just isn't control card. If people viewed it as a cantrip instead of a counter it would be held in a better regard. I personally think it's a great complement to mana leak.
ceremonious rejection is purely a sideboard card but I believe deserves a spot. Tron, affinity, eldrazi, and lantern control make up at least 25% of the mtgo meta right now, and rejection hits literally almost every relevant card in those matchups for a single mana unconditionally. That's a powerful hate card.
Here I think that we have to divide the conditional counters from "full" counters.
Even if right now Stubborn denial is the most PLAYED counter is far from being the most powerful, at least for me. You have to build a deck that could support that. Quite frankly I think that Negate is more powerful just because it could be played in any blue deck, without ferocious.
The reason behind that list is the fact that I ranked unconditional counters higher than the conditional ones, and stubborn denial is a thing just because Grixis Shadow is a deck, otherwise, it would see random play as side in delver/control Grixis lists.
Logic Knot is conditional so shouldn't it be ranked lower than Negate, spell snare, deprive etc...
I personally put it lower on my list because its most often a 1 and is only better than Mana Leak in the later game, before T5 Mana Leak is strictly superior.
Deprive not being mentioned until this point is a travesty. It puts logic knot to shame in my opinion. In decks with a low curve bouncing a land can often net the user mana. Its not as great in a control deck but even then bouncing a land in a deck that always hits its land drops generally means you arnt hurting for mana at most phases in the game.
Stubborn denial is hands down the most powerful single counterspell in modern. Force spike is certainly passable and when ferocious it's one of the best in the game. It just requires specific builds so it will never see the copious amounts of play like a one mana negate should.
Remand is undervalued here as well. It needs the right home but when remand is the right counterspell choice for a deck, it's obscenely good. It just isn't control card. If people viewed it as a cantrip instead of a counter it would be held in a better regard. I personally think it's a great complement to mana leak.
ceremonious rejection is purely a sideboard card but I believe deserves a spot. Tron, affinity, eldrazi, and lantern control make up at least 25% of the mtgo meta right now, and rejection hits literally almost every relevant card in those matchups for a single mana unconditionally. That's a powerful hate card.
The Problem with Deprive is that its not good in Control or Tempo. Even in a deck like Delver falling back on land drops is often just putting you to far behind on Mana, its okay as a 1 of and possibly a 2 of but it would only be picked over something like Logic Knot if your deck is already taxing its own GY to much.
Remand is pretty terrible right now because everything being cast is cheap, It was good in Twin because you only really needed to maybe buy a turn which Remand does well. Right now its biggest draw is bouncing your own Storm spell back to your hand. If counter wars were prevalent enough its stock would go up because bouncing your counters back to hand+draw a card is always a nice way to pull ahead on those types of exchanges but no Tempo deck in Modern exists that is either fast enough or resilient enough to make use of it well, even Delver would rather have Leak since Remanding any of the most common removal is a losing proposition.
I like splashable counterspells that work and possibly do something when they can't counter stuff practically anymore, and this no doubt influences my rankings:
Vendilion Clique: I don't care that this guy technically doesn't counter anything and proactively turns good cards into randomized ones instead. I don't care that these Faeries cost 3 mana and require UU. These guys have ripped out good spells (just like counterspells) and won plenty of games for me. V. Clique is probably the strongest reason why the most popular 3-mana counterspell is Spell Queller--all those other 3-mana counterspells do is prevent you from losing, not being win cons. V. Clique has filled counterspell slots in several of my decks in a spectacular fashion.
Mana Leak: It's pretty friendly with fetching basics early-game. It counters stuff pretty reliably early- and mid-game. It decays hard late-game, but that's the price you pay for this cheap counterspell.
Cryptic Command: The hard-to-splash, expensive, and therefore easily countered heavy-hitter. But bah, it does so much! Not only does it counter spells, it also cantrips, bounces hate permanents, negates alpha strikes, and/or clears out all the blockers so you can alpha strike FTW.
Supreme Will: Everyone's sleeping on this one, I believe. It counters dang near everything Mana Leak does, and it also digs for combo pieces and/or powerful cards instead. Practically all my blue-based combo-control decks start with 4 Remand and 4 Supreme Will nowadays. I've got to determine when I should prioritize digging with Supreme Will over countering their Turn 3 play with it--it's been the hardest counterspell to optimally play out of this list for me by a good head start.
Negate: It does its job and it does it well. It's dang splashable, too. It's your go-to guy in sideboards, even though I don't think it's maindeckable.
Remand: It delays. It cantrips. Against expensive cards, it turns dead later than Mana Leak does. Against a field full of Cavern of Souls, at least it cantrips whenever your opponent casts a creature spell.
Logic Knot: Probably the most splashable out of the 2-mana harder counterspells (face it--this costs 2 mana fairly often). The Delve is actually fairly manageable, even with Snapcaster Mage in your deck. Shame about its early-game performance, but the goal of a deck with counterspells is to hit the late game, isn't it? That's when Logic Knot shines in its ability to still counter stuff for 2 mana.
Izzet Charm: It used to be even better, but it does counter enough spells and kill enough creatures to reach this high on the list.
Spell Snare: The best of the 1-mana counterspells, IMO, and the only one that I can stuff in any blue deck without worrying that it'll be dead. Its glory days are over, though, as UB(r/g) decks can now kill Turn 2 Goyfs with Fatal Push.
Spell Queller: I've had fairly bad experiences playing with this guy in any decks other than creature-heavy ones, and it's backfired on me more times than I can count. Opponents have killed it immediately, killed ones holding creatures during my combat phases, killed ones holding removal so they can chain more, killed ones holding counterspells while I'm trying to resolve spells...but it's done one thing to Modern that all other true counterspells haven't: It's been maindecked in creature-heavy decks that otherwise wouldn't touch maindeck counterspells in their lives. It's easy to cheat in with Collected Company and Chord of Calling, so it's likely the counterspell that's the easiest to find.
The goal of this post is to sheerly and intellectually rank and debate which counterspells are the best in modern, from 1.Best to 10.Tenth Best. Since the old thread has been locked and is outdated (14 February 2014 - 21 October 2015), please provide your most insightful, logical, and judicious reasons for your rankings of the counterspells in the current metagame. I will begin by providing a sample top 10 list and some others below that can be worked off of:
1. Cryptic Command
2. Remand
3. Mana Leak
4. Spell Snare
5. Negate
6. Logic Knot
7. Dispel
8. Spell Pierce
9. Izzet Charm
10. Spell Queller
(Here are some others: Counterflux, Countersquall, Spell Pierce, Condescend, Rune Snag, Disallow, Mana Tithe, Dissipate, Dissolve, Disrupting Shoal, Pact of Negation, Delay, Deprive, Familiar's Ruse, Mindbreak Trap, Disdainful Stroke, Stubborn Denial, Venser Shaper Savant.)
Spell Queller isn't a counterspell.
Also, are we counting chalice of the void? It may be the best counterspell in modern.
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Delver U
Elves G
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Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
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Tymna and Ravos WB
But if we are just going by pure data, Stubborn Denial is probably in the top 3.
Most decks are tapping out for their threats these days so force spike is often good enough, and it also scales.
Generally I'll just play it over mana leak.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
Yeah, I was going to say, "How can Stub not even make the list?" Looks like the OP left off Warping Wail too.
2. Cryptic Command
3. Warping Wail
4. Logic Knot
5. Negate
6. Spell Queller
7. Condescend
8. Dispel
9. Remand
10. Pact of Negation
Stubborn Denial is the best performing right know I think.
Cryptic Command is good but so slow in the current environment. I still ranked high because it's often the draw that you want later.
Warping wail is great because you don't have to play blue to use it. It hits a number of important spells and can be removal on creatures already on the board.
Logic Knot is the closest thing to a UU counter there is but it's hard to play in multiples and sometimes isn't a hard enough counter.
Negate is relevant almost always but can't hit most threats which keeps it from being great.
Spell queller is a counter on a creature which now has a relevant creature type and it can abrupt decay which is hard to do.
Condescend gives you scries with that counter and scales slowly into the late game.
Dispel is usually a SB card but it does the job better than other counters do in the main board so I put it on the list.
Remand has felt a little weak recently when your opponent can just recast everything but it counters and digs and can be part of a storm combo.
Pact is the best free counter right now.
1.Stubborn Denial: Usually half-priced-negate in the decks that can run it.
2.Countersquall: Negate with upside in the decks that can run it.
3.Negate: Hard answer to problematic cards that creature-based removal won`t address.
4.Cryptic Command: Gives control a strong late game.
5.Dispel: Efficiency is key for interactive matchups where one might find this card.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
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`1. Mana Tithe - The only card I am 99.9% ecstatic to see in my opening hand. Deals with all sorts of nonsense when I am my most weakest position in the game.
2. Spell Snare - Included for the same role as Mana Tithe early game, albeit more narrow, but is live in the late game. This card is primarily used for hitting hyper-aggro decks.
3 Spell Pierce - Included for the same role as Mana Tithe early game, albeit more narrow, but hit the problem non-creature stuff a bit better as well as staying somewhat relevant in the later game and in counter wars. Primary use is to hit RG Ponza.
4. Spell Burst - An "infinite" oounterspell that allows me less redundancy of counterspells in deckbuilding. Very good against 1 drop aggro and locks out longer games after stabilisation.
5. Logic Knot - IMO the most efficient/"unconditional" counterspell in the format and is virtually Counterspell most of the time. Stops turn 2 to turn 22 plays like a boss.
6. Cryptic Command - Highest power/versatile counterspell in the format. Heavy mana cost means it doesn't place higher in my list.
7.Disallow - Is a key card in my particular deck that is my only playable answer to Emrakul, the Promised End's Mindslaver triggered ability.
8. Mindbreak Trap - Primarily for UR Storm and has utility against Gigadrowse and Cavern of Souls decks. At best, a free counter, at worst an easier to cast Cryptic Command without bonus.4
#2 Ceremonious Rejection
#3 Cryptic Command
#4 Dispel
#5 Mana Leak
#6 Logic Knot
#7 Negate
#8 Countersquall
#9 Spell Queller
#10 Unsubstantiate
#1 Stubborn Denial
#2 Cryptic Command
#3 Ceremonious Rejection
#4 Mana Leak
#5 Dispel
#6 Spell Pierce
#7 Logic Knot
#8 Remand
#9 Warping Wail
#10 Negate
Boom.
Others have somehow been including Remand on the list at all, despite it seeing almost no play. The card is just too inefficient vs aggro like burn/affinity to be on the list. At least cryptic is card advantage and much more flexible. Remand being 1U:Cycle in the meta too often should also really limit its placing to the bottom wrungs. To emphasize how bad Remand is, consider that it has effectively been replaced in control decks by Spreading Seas as more effective way of disrupting your opponent. Spreading Seas is more effective at disruption than Remand. That says alot about Remand in the meta imo.
I'd like to add that Ceremonious rejection should probably have won out over Dispel in my above list due to its broader application in the meta.
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
KnightfallGWUR
Azorius Control UW
Burn RBG
I put Mana Leak over things like Negate and Logic Knot simply because its seeing play as a 3 of in UW Control currently and while Remand is seeing play in Storm I feel that it is almost more of combo enabler in that deck bouncing back your Grapeshot. I think that the fact that its functionally counterspell between T1-4 makes it solid enough as the format is dominated by decks looking to get established mostly by T3.
Hmmm... I will have to consider this change, thanks.
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Or Lapse of Certainty. I mean we get Memory Lapse in Modern. MEMORY LAPSE in Modern guys. Tough crowd
yeah for 3 and in white, trust me ive tried to make this card work too many times and each time the 1 more mana is so painfull i just give up.
if we ever get memory lapse in modern, ill rearenge my scapeshift deck as a RUG deck thats 100% sure
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Grixis Death's Shadow, Jund, UW Tron, Jeskai Control, Storm, Counters Company, Eldrazi Tron, Affinity, Living End, Infect, Merfolk, Dredge, Ad Nauseam, Amulet, Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Mono U Tron, Lantern, Mardu Pyromancer
Stubborn denial is hands down the most powerful single counterspell in modern. Force spike is certainly passable and when ferocious it's one of the best in the game. It just requires specific builds so it will never see the copious amounts of play like a one mana negate should.
Remand is undervalued here as well. It needs the right home but when remand is the right counterspell choice for a deck, it's obscenely good. It just isn't control card. If people viewed it as a cantrip instead of a counter it would be held in a better regard. I personally think it's a great complement to mana leak.
ceremonious rejection is purely a sideboard card but I believe deserves a spot. Tron, affinity, eldrazi, and lantern control make up at least 25% of the mtgo meta right now, and rejection hits literally almost every relevant card in those matchups for a single mana unconditionally. That's a powerful hate card.
Logic Knot is conditional so shouldn't it be ranked lower than Negate, spell snare, deprive etc...
I personally put it lower on my list because its most often a 1 and is only better than Mana Leak in the later game, before T5 Mana Leak is strictly superior.
The Problem with Deprive is that its not good in Control or Tempo. Even in a deck like Delver falling back on land drops is often just putting you to far behind on Mana, its okay as a 1 of and possibly a 2 of but it would only be picked over something like Logic Knot if your deck is already taxing its own GY to much.
Remand is pretty terrible right now because everything being cast is cheap, It was good in Twin because you only really needed to maybe buy a turn which Remand does well. Right now its biggest draw is bouncing your own Storm spell back to your hand. If counter wars were prevalent enough its stock would go up because bouncing your counters back to hand+draw a card is always a nice way to pull ahead on those types of exchanges but no Tempo deck in Modern exists that is either fast enough or resilient enough to make use of it well, even Delver would rather have Leak since Remanding any of the most common removal is a losing proposition.