Counter target spell. There are so few cases when non-blue colors get this. Mana Tithe is probably our favorite, but this is an unconditional counterspell.
I think the effect very much depends on your cube setup and your matchup. Powered and against blue? Someone will share a story about flipping Ancestral Recall. But if you're aggro against control? A counterspell against their stabilizing Wrath of God might clinch the game. Flipping a counterspell (or other spells with an illegal target) will fizzle.
It's essentially red Arcane Denial, but worse because your opponent is not only up a card, but they don't even have to spend mana casting it. Most of the time you're countering your opponent's spell on their turn, so they wouldn't even draw the extra cards until your next turn and probably can't even play those cards until their next turn. Tibalt's Trickery does all the work for your opponent.
I feel like this is really only useful against blue decks, where they counter your spell and you cast this targeting your own spell. The mill clause makes it so you really can't set up a combo with it, so only useful in fair cases. In that case, I think I'd rather have Red Elemental Blast, and REB is too narrow as-is for me to consider including.
This really only seems good in aggro against control (you'd basically always counter their wrath cause they have a decent chance to hit something lower impact like draw or a counterspell), and in combo to protect your combo from opposing counterspells (the chances they hit a 2nd counterspell are very low).
All in all, way too narrow where it's good, and there's so many spells you just CAN'T counter with this (are you ever countering a 2-3 mana spell? Ever countering the ramp deck's ramp spell?).
I love the idea of playing an odd, janky counterspell in red, but this is just too janky and unpredictable. Yeah, they could flip into a whiff, but they probably won't. It's probably good in some matchups, but it's too narrow without a backup option.
I will say, countering your own spell when you don't have much else to do is actually good tech with this.
This really only seems good in aggro against control (you'd basically always counter their wrath cause they have a decent chance to hit something lower impact like draw or a counterspell), and in combo to protect your combo from opposing counterspells (the chances they hit a 2nd counterspell are very low).
All in all, way too narrow where it's good, and there's so many spells you just CAN'T counter with this (are you ever countering a 2-3 mana spell? Ever countering the ramp deck's ramp spell?).
I mean, you would never want to counter a ramp deck's ramp spell. You would always wait for the ramp payoff, so something with high CMC. In addition, I would definitely like to counter everything above 4 CMC with this which would ruin my day in Rx decks. From Wraths, Baneslayers, Mulldrifters, Avengers of Zendikar, Omnath, Oko etc.
I think that this gives Red the option to not surely lose against the cards it usually loses too. If I play an aggressive Red deck (not even Mono R, could also be Gruul or Rakdos), I am usually ahead until some 4+CMC (or even 3) card turns the corner. It is usually a very specific card for which the opponent mulliganed for or kept the hand for. Mostly Wraths, but also others which I already mentioned. We get more and more Baneslayerdrifters and my Red decks can't answer them anyway with Bomts because they already go their value from the ETB or Endstep trigger. So, this is the only card in Red that can answer a threat for sure (of course at a huge cost of them getting something random for free).
However, getting a random card from your deck while being behind is awful. We play powerful cards in cube, but the average "bare powerlevel" of cards in cube is very low because we play a lot of cheap cards that don't have a high impact in a vacuum, like Preordains, Manadorks, Manarocks, Counterspell and generally low CMC cards. Hitting some of these is terrible when your opponent is ahead. Of course, this card can and will be really bad for you sometimes, but on average, this card is a 2 mana counterspell (not even for RR) which lets your opponent cascade into something of 1-3 CMC most of the time that won't help them in that situation. I think that having the option for such a counterspell in Red is huge and could potentially lead to us to question our play everytime if your opponent has RX mana up.
Considering the number is chosen at random and you hit literally any spell that comes first, that sounds hard
You can use Scroll Rack to set up the top of your deck with 3 lands on top and then the spell you want to cast. Or, you know, set up a Doomsday pile with 3 lands and Thassa's Oracle
Considering the number is chosen at random and you hit literally any spell that comes first, that sounds hard
You can use Scroll Rack to set up the top of your deck with 3 lands on top and then the spell you want to cast. Or, you know, set up a Doomsday pile with 3 lands and Thassa's Oracle
I mean, sure? But there are far better ways to enable those combos then saving 3 lands in hand until you can counter your own spell or having 6 mana or more to case doomsday + a spell + this card. Not to mention a lot of small-to-medium cubes don't play doomsday or rack (I play neither).
In general, I try to avoid giving my opponent a 2-for-1, which is what this card does. Arcane Denial gets away with it because it's a hard counter, they still have to spend mana on the cards they draw, and you get first crack at your new card most of the time (assuming you aren't countering on your turn, and if you are, it's probably to protect a game-winning play). And I don't even love arcane denial TBQH. This gives them the spell for free and they get to immediately cast it.
Counter target spell. There are so few cases when non-blue colors get this. Mana Tithe is probably our favorite, but this is an unconditional counterspell.
I think the effect very much depends on your cube setup and your matchup. Powered and against blue? Someone will share a story about flipping Ancestral Recall. But if you're aggro against control? A counterspell against their stabilizing Wrath of God might clinch the game. Flipping a counterspell (or other spells with an illegal target) will fizzle.
What do you think?
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All in all, way too narrow where it's good, and there's so many spells you just CAN'T counter with this (are you ever countering a 2-3 mana spell? Ever countering the ramp deck's ramp spell?).
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I love the idea of playing an odd, janky counterspell in red, but this is just too janky and unpredictable. Yeah, they could flip into a whiff, but they probably won't. It's probably good in some matchups, but it's too narrow without a backup option.
I will say, countering your own spell when you don't have much else to do is actually good tech with this.
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I mean, you would never want to counter a ramp deck's ramp spell. You would always wait for the ramp payoff, so something with high CMC. In addition, I would definitely like to counter everything above 4 CMC with this which would ruin my day in Rx decks. From Wraths, Baneslayers, Mulldrifters, Avengers of Zendikar, Omnath, Oko etc.
I think that this gives Red the option to not surely lose against the cards it usually loses too. If I play an aggressive Red deck (not even Mono R, could also be Gruul or Rakdos), I am usually ahead until some 4+CMC (or even 3) card turns the corner. It is usually a very specific card for which the opponent mulliganed for or kept the hand for. Mostly Wraths, but also others which I already mentioned. We get more and more Baneslayerdrifters and my Red decks can't answer them anyway with Bomts because they already go their value from the ETB or Endstep trigger. So, this is the only card in Red that can answer a threat for sure (of course at a huge cost of them getting something random for free).
However, getting a random card from your deck while being behind is awful. We play powerful cards in cube, but the average "bare powerlevel" of cards in cube is very low because we play a lot of cheap cards that don't have a high impact in a vacuum, like Preordains, Manadorks, Manarocks, Counterspell and generally low CMC cards. Hitting some of these is terrible when your opponent is ahead. Of course, this card can and will be really bad for you sometimes, but on average, this card is a 2 mana counterspell (not even for RR) which lets your opponent cascade into something of 1-3 CMC most of the time that won't help them in that situation. I think that having the option for such a counterspell in Red is huge and could potentially lead to us to question our play everytime if your opponent has RX mana up.
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Considering the number is chosen at random and you hit literally any spell that comes first, that sounds hard
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588
I mean, sure? But there are far better ways to enable those combos then saving 3 lands in hand until you can counter your own spell or having 6 mana or more to case doomsday + a spell + this card. Not to mention a lot of small-to-medium cubes don't play doomsday or rack (I play neither).
In general, I try to avoid giving my opponent a 2-for-1, which is what this card does. Arcane Denial gets away with it because it's a hard counter, they still have to spend mana on the cards they draw, and you get first crack at your new card most of the time (assuming you aren't countering on your turn, and if you are, it's probably to protect a game-winning play). And I don't even love arcane denial TBQH. This gives them the spell for free and they get to immediately cast it.
375 unpowered cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/601ac624832cdf1039947588