I would also like to retroactively say that frost walker has been underperforming so much in my cube I don't think it could be a 3.
How so? Too many ways to target it? Or just traded with something too often? If it's the latter, I can update the description that it is best surrounded by tempo cards to bounce and tap down opposing creatures.
Maybe there is more description that should be added to Quickling also? Where else does it shine?
I would be surprised if any of the regulars' blue sections were much more tempo oriented than mine. It is of course best when surrounded by man o war and frost lynx, but you can't just make sure you draw the walker with one every game
I meant more as a caveat that without them you probably aren't going to be maximising its value, and if you have few in your cube you might look elsewhere. I can see it can be an amazing beatdown in an opening hand with removal or tempo cards, or poor to middling if you just have permanents to play that don't interact with the opponents board. So I assume it is just inconsistent.
Updated previous entries, dropped Frost Walker from 3 to 2.
Vaporkin / Welkin Tern - 3 Description - The inability to block forces this into aggro decks more than others, but it's not unreasonable as a cheap evasive threat for control decks. It's an evasive 2 power 2-drop whose drawback is not going to be relevant most of the time in those decks. Anchors - Aggro, Skies Supports -
Vedalken Mastermind - 2 Description - Good for bounce decks. Baseline lets you block with something and then boune it before damage is dealt as a stalling tactic, but once you start throwing ETB effects into the mix then you start generating incremental advantage. If you suspect removal, you can always hold up this effect. Anchors - Bounce Supports -
Wall of Deceit - 1 Description - It gives control decks an early wall that can turn into a bear when you are ready to turn the game around. But it's still a 0 power wall until then. Halimar Wavewatch is comparable and likely to be preferred over this. Anchors - Supports -
Wall of Tears - 3 Description - Tempo card that can hurt aggro decks, and even it doesn't survive it still gets to return the creature. The more prevalent ETB effects are in your cube, the less effective this will be. Kaijin of Vanishing Touch slightly worse (3 toughness) but may be an option if you find this too good at anti-aggro in your environment. Anchors - Supports - Control
Waterfront Bouncer - 2 Description - It's a card disadvantage trade for tempo, but can be useful for graveyard filling for reanimator. In the late game it turns all your extra lands into bounce spells to keep big threats off the board or remove blockers. It won't be your go-to for Crystal Shard decks, but can provide that deck some extra support. Fringe use of 'countering' removal by trading the target with the worst card in your hand. Anchors - Supports - Bounce, Reanimator, Graveyard Matters
Willbender - 1.5 Description - The payoff can be great, redirecting removal back to an opponents creature. But it does come with the caveat that you need enough other morphs to give it the surprise factor, and you also need to hold up mana for the 'right time', making it situational. Anchors - Supports -
The problem I have with vertigo spawn is that it is actively bad against decks that don't want to kill you with 2/2 grounded creatures. It must be unplayable.
trading 2 mana for 1 mana at best seems unplayable to me. a 1/1 flier doesn't quite make up for it. It can really just sit in your hand being a terrible negate
Spellstutter Sprite maybe give 1.5 with the caveats Leelue mentioned. The trade itself seems solid, but I'm a bit dubious as to how often it is worth holding up mana for it and not making another play. It might have more targets on odd occasions with Pestermite and Quickling, but those situations are pretty slim.
A 1/1 flier is less irrelevant, but I wouldn't call it a full card's worth of value. At best you're coming out even but you're still holding up 2 mana to come out about even on an investment of time.
Agoraphobia - 1 Description - It removes a threat, but you still have to attack into it. However it may still have a place in control decks that just need to shut down early threats. Anchors - Supports -
Anticipate - 2 Description - It's worse than Impulse, but it is still playable if you want redundancy of the effect, giving you instant access to the top 3 cards if you need an immediate answer. Anchors - Supports -
Arcane Denial - 2 Description - It's the only unconditional counter that doesn't have 2 water drops in its casting cost. It does give your opponent extra cards, but if you are playing the tempo game and just need to keep the board long enough to win, the cards in their hand won't matter. You also get to draw into (hopefully) more tempo-oriented spells to keep the pressure going. In a slower control deck, the card disadvantage is likely to matter more. Anchors - Supports -
Boomerang - 2 Description - There are better ways to bounce creatures, but being able to bounce lands puts this in contention. Setting your opponent back in the early game can make this a great tempo play, epecially against lands that enter the battlefield tapped. Brutal against bouncelands if you have them in your card pool. It still plays as creature bounce once your opponent has a stable land base. Anchors - Supports - Tempo
Call to Heel - 1.5 Description - Most bounce leans towards your opponents creatures with the upside of targeting yours in a pinch, but this is the opposite. Can help save a creature from removal while generating card advantage, or provide assistance to a bounce deck. In a pinch, you can always clear a blocker or a truly threatening creature. Anchors - Bounce Supports -
Chronic Flooding - 1 Description - It doesn't affect the board, but could be useful if you want to go deep for dredge / delve / threshold strategies. Potential for player to assume you have mill win conditions in your cube if they see this without understanding the archetypes you are pushing in your cube. Anchors - Dredge, Graveyard Matters Supports -
Compulsion - 2 Description - The filtering can be useful, though is unlikely to make the cut in faster cubes. In slower cubes, the extra time can improve your card quality while helping dump relevant cards in the graveyard for any graveyard matters theme. It has more resiliency than creature based version, and with sufficient mana on the board can help you really dig for the answer you need. Opens up the opportunity for a turn 3 filter plus Reanimate. Anchors - Supports - Reanimator / Graveyard Matters
Confound - 1.5 Description - It has limited targets, but it counters most removal as well as opposing creature buffs while providing card advantage. Anchors - Supports -
Counterspell - 3.5 Description - It's a baseline for hard counters, but the double blue in conjunction with non-Constructed mana bases can make the U1 soft counters more desirable, depending on the deck. But still a solid counter for most blue based control decks, particularly for long games. Anchors - Supports - Control
Daze - 3 Description - Most of the time it is going to be cast in the mid-game when your opponent taps out for a midrange threat, providing you a solid tempo boost while having minor impact on your ability to keep affecting the board. Anchors - Supports -
Delay - 1.5 Description - So long as you are going to win in the next 3 turns, it doesn't matter that the spell is coming back. It makes this counterspell a bit narrower than others, but can help give aggro / tempo decks a counterspell that 'hunker down' control won't want. Some spells might fizzle or be less than optimal if they do come back. Anchors - Supports - Aggro / Tempo
Deprive - 1 Description - It's obviously worse than Counterspell, but is a 2 mana hard counter. You won't be playing it early, but allows you to hold up two mana in the late game when the likes of Mana Leak are too late to be effective. Aggro / tempo decks might have more option to give up the land drop a little earlier, but the soft counters are probably going to be just as effective there. Anchors - Supports -
Unplayables Accumulated Knowledge - Not for cube. Aether Burst - Not for cube. Alexi's Coat - It kind of says "counter target spell or ability that targets a creature you control". Confound is better for that. The ongoing shroud doesn't really make up for that. Arcanum Wings - Doesn't do enough. Aura Graft - Too narrow. Aura of Dominion - Token decks with pingers? Block and then protect with Mother of Runes? Outside of those narrow combos, any other instance where it might be useful, say untapping a big attacker so it can block, you would rather have just played another creature or something else that affected the board. Backslide - Way too narrow. Barrin's Unmaking - Too unreliable. Brain Freeze - There isn't enough support for a dedicated mill deck, and you don't want to cast it on yourself for graveyard strategies because it does nothing to the board. Not reliable enough for storm decks. Buoyancy - Bad. Carry Away - Bad. Chill - Bad. Cloak of Mists - Bad. Aqueous Form cheaper and better. Consuming Vortex - Bad Unsummon / Vapor Snag. Contempt - Creature can still block. Better to lock it down with something like Singing Bell Strike etc. Convinving Mage - Bad. Coral Reef - Way too intensive for little gain. Corrupted Resolve - Bahahahaha. Counterbalance - Bad. Can't effectively control this like in constructed. Creature Bond - Bad. No impact on the board. Crown of Ascension - Bad. Crypsis - I think they forgot to print "Draw a card" on it. It's not worth the card investment. Cunning - Bad. Customs Depot - Enclave Cryptologist, Looter il-Kor and Merfolk Looter are going to be more consistent. They are creatures and a bit more vulnerable, but having to pay mana and having no effect on the board renders this short of playable. Dampen Thought - Not enough good support to make dedicated mill into a thing. Dance of Many - Too much investment and setup required. Dance of the Skywise - Requires too many things to go right. Deep Water - Bad. Diplomatic Immunity - Alexi's Cloak strictly better. Disdainful Stroke - Well, it’s guaranteed to give you mana advantage! But you want more flexibility from your counterspells, given that most (well constructed) decks won't have many cards 4 and above outside of ramp decks. Dispersal Shield - Too conditional. Disperse - Into the Roil is strictly better.
I would imagine call to heel is unplayable. It is only good when you're blanking removal and not falling behind to do so.
Disperse is just bad into the roil, so zero.
Chronic flooding takes a long while to be better than that 2 mana jace mill spell, so I'd go with unplayable.
Dance of the skywise wasn't playable when it was tribal in lorwyn and it isn't playable now.
Compulsion isn't card disadvantage for one, since it can cycle itself. I've heard it used in slow, graveyard themed decks and even just as a crystal ball variant in regular slow decks if the environment allows games to go that deep. Creature based filtering can be undone so easily which is part of why this has a place somewhere.
Arcane denial gets a pass because its the only hard counter at the mana cost, and sometimes you really, really need something to not resolve. This is better in lists with more game changing cards since precious card advantage doesn't matter if you're going to practically lose to that thing you're worried about. Even countering a flametongue kavu is a 2 for 1 in exchange for a 2 for 1, but this one leaves your threat in play and keeps his out.
Agoraphobia isn't... That bad? It still locks anything down in control like a cage of hands would.
Wait, Arcane Denial is listed as unplayable? Ahahahah... I think simply the amount of discussion here should prove that wrong.
As for its actual value, the question becomes quite a bit harder. What the card effectively does is turning an opponent's spell into a slowtripping Divination. You also slowtrip, causing no loss in resources for you besides the two mana you used. The opponent does however get a +1 CA boost from it, presupposing their original card would have resulted in card parity. Often, of course, the plays you would like to counter are ones which would result in at least a +1 CA advantage for the opponent in nay case but in a form of more tangible value than 'hand cards during next turn'.
Speaking of experience, the card pulls it weight easily. I would go as far as to replace Mana Leak before I would remove Arcane Denial. Of course, few are as extreme but hard counters in the long game are simply that good and often the fact that it replaces itself is much more valuable than the opponent gaining extra cards. It often wheels when people consider it a sub-optimal counterspell, granting it an interesting role during drafting. But it does quite well in a control build which must sometimes ensure that certain spells do not resolve (and costing 1U makes it easy to keep up) and in tempo builds which care less about the CA the opponent gains than the fact that their board development is hindered.
Deprive is like Dark Banishing. A very strong card, but outclassed to the point that no cube will ever really need it unless it's either huge or has some weird card pool restriction like "modern only".
I'm pretty sure Alexi's Cloak is just worse than something like Mizzium Skin, since the mana efficiency is more relevant than staving off future targeted spells.
The make-a-4/4-flyer thing is clunky and bad.
Dance of Many deserves a ~1 for being the closest we get to Phantasmal Image. Upkeep cost is awful, true, but still a potentially powerful card.
I'm not much of a blue mage, so I expect to make more mistakes than usual when it comes to blue!
Arcane Denial. I figured this might be my biggest misevaluation. I can see the arguments, and I'll make an update. Maybe give it a 2, because it can go in a range of decks, but preferably in tempo decks.
Agorophobia... If you just want to nullify a threat, this will do the job. But I'd assume at some point you are going to want to attack into the enchanted creature, and they can still block. I'm not sold on it, but I'll give it a reluctant 1 unless someone wants to make some more arguments.
Compulsion - Yeah, it isn't card advantage if you cycle it, but presumably you want to use the filter ability first, and you are inherently down a card until you do. But the card quality can be worth it in slower decks / cubes as has been mentioned. I suspect a 2 is fair.
I like Chronic Flooding as an inevitable graveyard filler (in theory at least) whereas the Jace spell is just a hard 7 cards. Certainly narrow, but the score of 1 reflects that.
Maybe I was being dismissive in just comparing Deprive to Counterspell, but presumably casting it in early turns is too much impact on your board development. Late game it is fine, but I couldn't see myself playing it frequently. Though I suppose as a 1-of in a 40-card deck, even in your opening hand you could sequence it as a play for later. I'll give it a 1.
Dance of Many - I can't get behind the upkeep. What type of deck would you play it in? I suspect by the time you have something you want to copy and can afford to pay the upkeep, you already have enough mana on the board for Clone. The only time I can think of where the mana cost would be significantly worth it is against an opposing reanimator deck that gets the god draw and reanimates something stupid on turn 2.
With no further comments, I'll move on to the next lot. I'll update the other entries soon.
Echoing Truth - 1 Description - Tempo decks are going to much prefer Vapor Snag / Unsummon. There will be occasions where you will want to bounce an artifact or enchantment, but auras and equipment will still fall off if you bounce creatures. The mana difference will be relevant more frequently. This can hose tokens if you want a card to counter those types of decks; consider Disperse if you don't want that effect. Into The Roil is going to strictly better unless you really care about dealing with tokens. Anchors - Supports -
Eel Umbra - 1 Description - It's functional, but not exciting. It's best use will be where the +1/+1 is enough to win a combat that was going to be a loss, and then have the totem armor provide a sort of 2 for 1 by surviving another combat. But that is all situational and it is likely to be stranded in your hand for a while. Anchors - Supports -
Essence Scatter / False Summoning / Preemptive Strike / Remove Soul - 2.5 Description - You will always have targets, but the lack of flexibility hurts it a little. You'll sometimes wish you just had a soft counter like Mana Leak in the early game for non-creature threats (e.g. Curse of Predation), but is better in the late game for control decks that want to go long. Sometimes the extra mana matters, but Exclude gives you card advantage for an additional mana and may be the preferred spell. Anchors - Supports -
Familiar's Ruse - 1 Description -Counterspell is 'strictly' better because it doesn't have an additional cost, but this has narrow applications in a bounce deck. You might play it outside of that archetype, but it will be inconsistent and sometimes just stranded if you don't have a creature on the board. Anchors - Supports -
Ghostform - 1 Description - This can let your biggest two creatures get through for some final damage, or enable some saboteurs. However Artful Dodge is going to provide more flexibility in most cases (barring when you want to cast it twice in the same turn and need the two blue mana). Anchors - Supports -
Unplayables Downpour - While not essentially unplayable, there are enough better options that serve a similar purpose, like Frost Breath, Sleep, Crippling Chill, all of which can maximise value even if the opponent doesn't have 3 creatures. Dragon Wings - Narrow. Need to have sufficient fatty support, plus enough ways to get this into the graveyard. Maybe in Simic ramp? Probably not useful elsewhere. And probably better ways to give flying to things anyway. Fatigue - This is going to be too inconsistent to matter. Early Frost - You could make a case for it supporting an aggro tempo deck to lock down opposing lands, but it's too inconsistent to rely on. Encase in Ice - Too narrow. Enervate - Fire // Ice strictly better. Ensoul Artifact - Requires too much support to be consistent enough. Evasive Action - Mana Leak (or many other counterspells) will be better than this vast majority of the time. Excavation - The symmetry is too hard to break given that you have to invest the card. Nice with Land Tax, but not worth it for that synergy. Extinguish - Too narrow. Eye of Nowhere - Boomerang strictly better because it is an instant. Fascination - Sorcery speed kills it. The card draw gives you’re opponent a full turn to use everything they have drawn. The milling is not efficient. Fate Foretold - It needs a creature in play before you can cantrip it. If the target is removed in response, you get nothing. And you have to have it die to get the extra card. A lot of things need to go right. Fishliver Oil - Bad. Flash Counter - Too narrow. Flashfreeze - Too narrow.
Font of Fortunes - It costs 4 mana for 2 cards. While there are some advantages to being an enchantment, it's not close enough to playable to make it in enchantment matters deck. Force Away - The conditional card filter isn’t strong enough to make up for the extra mana cost over Unsummon / Vapor Snag. Foreshadow - Bad. Foresight - Manipulate Fate strictly better. Framed! - Cube dependant. Gainsay - Too narrow.
Downpour 1 -- it's theoretically fine, but definitely worse than something like Frost Breath so 1.5 feels too high
Early Frost 0 -- way too inconsistent
Echoing Truth 1 -- again, Into the Roil exists and itself isn't really great, so its worse variants are about a 1
Fatigue 0 -- way too inconsistent
Font of Fortunes 0 -- the narrow "enchantress" idea doesn't really leak into blue in any considerable way
Ghostform 1 -- worse than Artful Dodge, whose flexibility is worth the more narrow mana cost (assuming you cast it back-to-back in the same turn)
Next lot. I might be a bit optimistic about some of these, but they can always be lowered.
Hands of Binding - 2 Description - It has some high upside, particularly if you can pair it with something evasive. The first cast also makes it more likely you will get through, allowing you to keep a big threat in lockdown, or over a couple of turns guarantee 2 creatures are out of action. Gets more value if your cube has some unblockables, shadow etc. Anchors - Supports -
Ideas Unbound - 1 Description - It can help graveyard based decks, but has minor use outside of that archetype given that it ends up being card disadvantage. It could be used in explosive aggro decks as the last card in hand that it plays in the mid-game, to fill up the hand and cast stuff the same turn, but that is pretty narrow, and the double blue doesn't help. Anchors - Supports - Graveyard Matters, Reanimator, All-out aggro
Impulse - 3 Description - Great for digging and finding the answer / threat that you need, and fits in nearly every blue deck. It doesn't enable anything specific; it's just good everywhere. Instant speed lets you dig for the answer you need at the exact time you need it. Anchors - Supports -
Into The Roil - 3 Description - Solid and flexible tempo card. Early game you can simply clear an early threat and push a board advantage, and late game you can throw card draw in to maintain card parity. Anchors - Supports - Tempo
Jilt - 3.5 Description - You might consider this a blue+ card, or an Izzet card. There are better pure blue options for creature bounce, but is still ok as just bounce for tempo. When kicked it can clear the board for a turn and usually results in strong tempo advantage while maintaining card parity. The rating reflects how powerful it can be in red / blue decks. Anchors - Supports -
I just added Quickling , can't really imagine it being that high. 2-2.5 seems fair
How so? Too many ways to target it? Or just traded with something too often? If it's the latter, I can update the description that it is best surrounded by tempo cards to bounce and tap down opposing creatures.
Maybe there is more description that should be added to Quickling also? Where else does it shine?
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Vaporkin / Welkin Tern - 3
Description - The inability to block forces this into aggro decks more than others, but it's not unreasonable as a cheap evasive threat for control decks. It's an evasive 2 power 2-drop whose drawback is not going to be relevant most of the time in those decks.
Anchors - Aggro, Skies
Supports -
Vedalken Mastermind - 2
Description - Good for bounce decks. Baseline lets you block with something and then boune it before damage is dealt as a stalling tactic, but once you start throwing ETB effects into the mix then you start generating incremental advantage. If you suspect removal, you can always hold up this effect.
Anchors - Bounce
Supports -
Wall of Deceit - 1
Description - It gives control decks an early wall that can turn into a bear when you are ready to turn the game around. But it's still a 0 power wall until then. Halimar Wavewatch is comparable and likely to be preferred over this.
Anchors -
Supports -
Wall of Tears - 3
Description - Tempo card that can hurt aggro decks, and even it doesn't survive it still gets to return the creature. The more prevalent ETB effects are in your cube, the less effective this will be. Kaijin of Vanishing Touch slightly worse (3 toughness) but may be an option if you find this too good at anti-aggro in your environment.
Anchors -
Supports - Control
Waterfront Bouncer - 2
Description - It's a card disadvantage trade for tempo, but can be useful for graveyard filling for reanimator. In the late game it turns all your extra lands into bounce spells to keep big threats off the board or remove blockers. It won't be your go-to for Crystal Shard decks, but can provide that deck some extra support. Fringe use of 'countering' removal by trading the target with the worst card in your hand.
Anchors -
Supports - Bounce, Reanimator, Graveyard Matters
Willbender - 1.5
Description - The payoff can be great, redirecting removal back to an opponents creature. But it does come with the caveat that you need enough other morphs to give it the surprise factor, and you also need to hold up mana for the 'right time', making it situational.
Anchors -
Supports -
Vedalken Aethermage - Tribal.
Vedalken Engineer - The colored mana is not going to make any difference in 99% of cases. Renowned Weaponsmith is better.
Vertigo Spawn - A tempo blocker, but requires your opponent to only be attacking with bears to maximise value. Wall of Tears has a similar but more effective impact.
Viscerid Drone - If it was mono-colored, the repeat kill might be worth something.
Vodalian Hypnotist - Too slow.
Vodalian Merchant - You would probably prefer Omenspeaker in most cases.
Vodalian Mystic - Too narrow.
Vodalian Soldiers - Vanilla badness.
Voidmage Apprentice - 7 mana to counter a spell…
Walking Sponge - Not going to be relevant most of the time.
Wetland Sambar / Wu Infantry - Bad.
Whirlpool Rider - Not really a good way to take advantage of this.
Willbender - Meh.
Wind Dancer - There are better ways to give your creatures evasion.
Winged Sliver - Tribal.
Wormfang Newt - If you want blue aggro creatures, you would rather get a 2/1 with upside than play this.
Wu Light Cavalry - There are better evasive creatures than this.
Wi Scout - Bad.
Wu Spy - Doesn't do enough.
Zephyr Falcon - Doesn't do enough.
Zuran Enchanter - A bit slow and not good enough as a Dimir card.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Seconding Leelue on Vertigo Spawn.
Draft it on Cubetutor here, and CubeCobra here.
Treasure Cruise did nothing wrong.
Spellstutter Sprite maybe give 1.5 with the caveats Leelue mentioned. The trade itself seems solid, but I'm a bit dubious as to how often it is worth holding up mana for it and not making another play. It might have more targets on odd occasions with Pestermite and Quickling, but those situations are pretty slim.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Description - It removes a threat, but you still have to attack into it. However it may still have a place in control decks that just need to shut down early threats.
Anchors -
Supports -
Anticipate - 2
Description - It's worse than Impulse, but it is still playable if you want redundancy of the effect, giving you instant access to the top 3 cards if you need an immediate answer.
Anchors -
Supports -
Arcane Denial - 2
Description - It's the only unconditional counter that doesn't have 2 water drops in its casting cost. It does give your opponent extra cards, but if you are playing the tempo game and just need to keep the board long enough to win, the cards in their hand won't matter. You also get to draw into (hopefully) more tempo-oriented spells to keep the pressure going. In a slower control deck, the card disadvantage is likely to matter more.
Anchors -
Supports -
Boomerang - 2
Description - There are better ways to bounce creatures, but being able to bounce lands puts this in contention. Setting your opponent back in the early game can make this a great tempo play, epecially against lands that enter the battlefield tapped. Brutal against bouncelands if you have them in your card pool. It still plays as creature bounce once your opponent has a stable land base.
Anchors -
Supports - Tempo
Call to Heel - 1.5
Description - Most bounce leans towards your opponents creatures with the upside of targeting yours in a pinch, but this is the opposite. Can help save a creature from removal while generating card advantage, or provide assistance to a bounce deck. In a pinch, you can always clear a blocker or a truly threatening creature.
Anchors - Bounce
Supports -
Chronic Flooding - 1
Description - It doesn't affect the board, but could be useful if you want to go deep for dredge / delve / threshold strategies. Potential for player to assume you have mill win conditions in your cube if they see this without understanding the archetypes you are pushing in your cube.
Anchors - Dredge, Graveyard Matters
Supports -
Compulsion - 2
Description - The filtering can be useful, though is unlikely to make the cut in faster cubes. In slower cubes, the extra time can improve your card quality while helping dump relevant cards in the graveyard for any graveyard matters theme. It has more resiliency than creature based version, and with sufficient mana on the board can help you really dig for the answer you need. Opens up the opportunity for a turn 3 filter plus Reanimate.
Anchors -
Supports - Reanimator / Graveyard Matters
Confound - 1.5
Description - It has limited targets, but it counters most removal as well as opposing creature buffs while providing card advantage.
Anchors -
Supports -
Counterspell - 3.5
Description - It's a baseline for hard counters, but the double blue in conjunction with non-Constructed mana bases can make the U1 soft counters more desirable, depending on the deck. But still a solid counter for most blue based control decks, particularly for long games.
Anchors -
Supports - Control
Daze - 3
Description - Most of the time it is going to be cast in the mid-game when your opponent taps out for a midrange threat, providing you a solid tempo boost while having minor impact on your ability to keep affecting the board.
Anchors -
Supports -
Delay - 1.5
Description - So long as you are going to win in the next 3 turns, it doesn't matter that the spell is coming back. It makes this counterspell a bit narrower than others, but can help give aggro / tempo decks a counterspell that 'hunker down' control won't want. Some spells might fizzle or be less than optimal if they do come back.
Anchors -
Supports - Aggro / Tempo
Deprive - 1
Description - It's obviously worse than Counterspell, but is a 2 mana hard counter. You won't be playing it early, but allows you to hold up two mana in the late game when the likes of Mana Leak are too late to be effective. Aggro / tempo decks might have more option to give up the land drop a little earlier, but the soft counters are probably going to be just as effective there.
Anchors -
Supports -
Accumulated Knowledge - Not for cube.
Aether Burst - Not for cube.
Alexi's Coat - It kind of says "counter target spell or ability that targets a creature you control". Confound is better for that. The ongoing shroud doesn't really make up for that.
Arcanum Wings - Doesn't do enough.
Aura Graft - Too narrow.
Aura of Dominion - Token decks with pingers? Block and then protect with Mother of Runes? Outside of those narrow combos, any other instance where it might be useful, say untapping a big attacker so it can block, you would rather have just played another creature or something else that affected the board.
Backslide - Way too narrow.
Barrin's Unmaking - Too unreliable.
Brain Freeze - There isn't enough support for a dedicated mill deck, and you don't want to cast it on yourself for graveyard strategies because it does nothing to the board. Not reliable enough for storm decks.
Buoyancy - Bad.
Carry Away - Bad.
Chill - Bad.
Cloak of Mists - Bad. Aqueous Form cheaper and better.
Consuming Vortex - Bad Unsummon / Vapor Snag.
Contempt - Creature can still block. Better to lock it down with something like Singing Bell Strike etc.
Convinving Mage - Bad.
Coral Reef - Way too intensive for little gain.
Corrupted Resolve - Bahahahaha.
Counterbalance - Bad. Can't effectively control this like in constructed.
Creature Bond - Bad. No impact on the board.
Crown of Ascension - Bad.
Crypsis - I think they forgot to print "Draw a card" on it. It's not worth the card investment.
Cunning - Bad.
Customs Depot - Enclave Cryptologist, Looter il-Kor and Merfolk Looter are going to be more consistent. They are creatures and a bit more vulnerable, but having to pay mana and having no effect on the board renders this short of playable.
Dampen Thought - Not enough good support to make dedicated mill into a thing.
Dance of Many - Too much investment and setup required.
Dance of the Skywise - Requires too many things to go right.
Deep Water - Bad.
Diplomatic Immunity - Alexi's Cloak strictly better.
Disdainful Stroke - Well, it’s guaranteed to give you mana advantage! But you want more flexibility from your counterspells, given that most (well constructed) decks won't have many cards 4 and above outside of ramp decks.
Dispersal Shield - Too conditional.
Disperse - Into the Roil is strictly better.
Disperse is just bad into the roil, so zero.
Chronic flooding takes a long while to be better than that 2 mana jace mill spell, so I'd go with unplayable.
Dance of the skywise wasn't playable when it was tribal in lorwyn and it isn't playable now.
Compulsion isn't card disadvantage for one, since it can cycle itself. I've heard it used in slow, graveyard themed decks and even just as a crystal ball variant in regular slow decks if the environment allows games to go that deep. Creature based filtering can be undone so easily which is part of why this has a place somewhere.
Arcane denial gets a pass because its the only hard counter at the mana cost, and sometimes you really, really need something to not resolve. This is better in lists with more game changing cards since precious card advantage doesn't matter if you're going to practically lose to that thing you're worried about. Even countering a flametongue kavu is a 2 for 1 in exchange for a 2 for 1, but this one leaves your threat in play and keeps his out.
Agoraphobia isn't... That bad? It still locks anything down in control like a cage of hands would.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
As for its actual value, the question becomes quite a bit harder. What the card effectively does is turning an opponent's spell into a slowtripping Divination. You also slowtrip, causing no loss in resources for you besides the two mana you used. The opponent does however get a +1 CA boost from it, presupposing their original card would have resulted in card parity. Often, of course, the plays you would like to counter are ones which would result in at least a +1 CA advantage for the opponent in nay case but in a form of more tangible value than 'hand cards during next turn'.
Speaking of experience, the card pulls it weight easily. I would go as far as to replace Mana Leak before I would remove Arcane Denial. Of course, few are as extreme but hard counters in the long game are simply that good and often the fact that it replaces itself is much more valuable than the opponent gaining extra cards. It often wheels when people consider it a sub-optimal counterspell, granting it an interesting role during drafting. But it does quite well in a control build which must sometimes ensure that certain spells do not resolve (and costing 1U makes it easy to keep up) and in tempo builds which care less about the CA the opponent gains than the fact that their board development is hindered.
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
I'm pretty sure Alexi's Cloak is just worse than something like Mizzium Skin, since the mana efficiency is more relevant than staving off future targeted spells.
The make-a-4/4-flyer thing is clunky and bad.
Dance of Many deserves a ~1 for being the closest we get to Phantasmal Image. Upkeep cost is awful, true, but still a potentially powerful card.
Arcane Denial. I figured this might be my biggest misevaluation. I can see the arguments, and I'll make an update. Maybe give it a 2, because it can go in a range of decks, but preferably in tempo decks.
Agorophobia... If you just want to nullify a threat, this will do the job. But I'd assume at some point you are going to want to attack into the enchanted creature, and they can still block. I'm not sold on it, but I'll give it a reluctant 1 unless someone wants to make some more arguments.
Compulsion - Yeah, it isn't card advantage if you cycle it, but presumably you want to use the filter ability first, and you are inherently down a card until you do. But the card quality can be worth it in slower decks / cubes as has been mentioned. I suspect a 2 is fair.
I like Chronic Flooding as an inevitable graveyard filler (in theory at least) whereas the Jace spell is just a hard 7 cards. Certainly narrow, but the score of 1 reflects that.
Maybe I was being dismissive in just comparing Deprive to Counterspell, but presumably casting it in early turns is too much impact on your board development. Late game it is fine, but I couldn't see myself playing it frequently. Though I suppose as a 1-of in a 40-card deck, even in your opening hand you could sequence it as a play for later. I'll give it a 1.
Dance of Many - I can't get behind the upkeep. What type of deck would you play it in? I suspect by the time you have something you want to copy and can afford to pay the upkeep, you already have enough mana on the board for Clone. The only time I can think of where the mana cost would be significantly worth it is against an opposing reanimator deck that gets the god draw and reanimates something stupid on turn 2.
To unplayable;
Dance of the Skywise
Disperse
Echoing Truth - 1
Description - Tempo decks are going to much prefer Vapor Snag / Unsummon. There will be occasions where you will want to bounce an artifact or enchantment, but auras and equipment will still fall off if you bounce creatures. The mana difference will be relevant more frequently. This can hose tokens if you want a card to counter those types of decks; consider Disperse if you don't want that effect. Into The Roil is going to strictly better unless you really care about dealing with tokens.
Anchors -
Supports -
Eel Umbra - 1
Description - It's functional, but not exciting. It's best use will be where the +1/+1 is enough to win a combat that was going to be a loss, and then have the totem armor provide a sort of 2 for 1 by surviving another combat. But that is all situational and it is likely to be stranded in your hand for a while.
Anchors -
Supports -
Essence Scatter / False Summoning / Preemptive Strike / Remove Soul - 2.5
Description - You will always have targets, but the lack of flexibility hurts it a little. You'll sometimes wish you just had a soft counter like Mana Leak in the early game for non-creature threats (e.g. Curse of Predation), but is better in the late game for control decks that want to go long. Sometimes the extra mana matters, but Exclude gives you card advantage for an additional mana and may be the preferred spell.
Anchors -
Supports -
Familiar's Ruse - 1
Description - Counterspell is 'strictly' better because it doesn't have an additional cost, but this has narrow applications in a bounce deck. You might play it outside of that archetype, but it will be inconsistent and sometimes just stranded if you don't have a creature on the board.
Anchors -
Supports -
Favorable Winds - 2
Description - Can be used as an anchor card for a Skies deck. Great with cards that put multiple flying tokens into play, like Spectral Procession, Lingering Souls, Midnight Haunting, and Talrand's Invocation, where the boost can add up quickly across multiple creatures.
Anchors - Skies
Supports -
Ghostform - 1
Description - This can let your biggest two creatures get through for some final damage, or enable some saboteurs. However Artful Dodge is going to provide more flexibility in most cases (barring when you want to cast it twice in the same turn and need the two blue mana).
Anchors -
Supports -
Downpour - While not essentially unplayable, there are enough better options that serve a similar purpose, like Frost Breath, Sleep, Crippling Chill, all of which can maximise value even if the opponent doesn't have 3 creatures.
Dragon Wings - Narrow. Need to have sufficient fatty support, plus enough ways to get this into the graveyard. Maybe in Simic ramp? Probably not useful elsewhere. And probably better ways to give flying to things anyway.
Fatigue - This is going to be too inconsistent to matter.
Early Frost - You could make a case for it supporting an aggro tempo deck to lock down opposing lands, but it's too inconsistent to rely on.
Encase in Ice - Too narrow.
Enervate - Fire // Ice strictly better.
Ensoul Artifact - Requires too much support to be consistent enough.
Evasive Action - Mana Leak (or many other counterspells) will be better than this vast majority of the time.
Excavation - The symmetry is too hard to break given that you have to invest the card. Nice with Land Tax, but not worth it for that synergy.
Extinguish - Too narrow.
Eye of Nowhere - Boomerang strictly better because it is an instant.
Fascination - Sorcery speed kills it. The card draw gives you’re opponent a full turn to use everything they have drawn. The milling is not efficient.
Fate Foretold - It needs a creature in play before you can cantrip it. If the target is removed in response, you get nothing. And you have to have it die to get the extra card. A lot of things need to go right.
Fishliver Oil - Bad.
Flash Counter - Too narrow.
Flashfreeze - Too narrow.
Font of Fortunes - It costs 4 mana for 2 cards. While there are some advantages to being an enchantment, it's not close enough to playable to make it in enchantment matters deck.
Force Away - The conditional card filter isn’t strong enough to make up for the extra mana cost over Unsummon / Vapor Snag.
Foreshadow - Bad.
Foresight - Manipulate Fate strictly better.
Framed! - Cube dependant.
Gainsay - Too narrow.
Early Frost 0 -- way too inconsistent
Echoing Truth 1 -- again, Into the Roil exists and itself isn't really great, so its worse variants are about a 1
Fatigue 0 -- way too inconsistent
Font of Fortunes 0 -- the narrow "enchantress" idea doesn't really leak into blue in any considerable way
Ghostform 1 -- worse than Artful Dodge, whose flexibility is worth the more narrow mana cost (assuming you cast it back-to-back in the same turn)
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article
Hands of Binding - 2
Description - It has some high upside, particularly if you can pair it with something evasive. The first cast also makes it more likely you will get through, allowing you to keep a big threat in lockdown, or over a couple of turns guarantee 2 creatures are out of action. Gets more value if your cube has some unblockables, shadow etc.
Anchors -
Supports -
Ideas Unbound - 1
Description - It can help graveyard based decks, but has minor use outside of that archetype given that it ends up being card disadvantage. It could be used in explosive aggro decks as the last card in hand that it plays in the mid-game, to fill up the hand and cast stuff the same turn, but that is pretty narrow, and the double blue doesn't help.
Anchors -
Supports - Graveyard Matters, Reanimator, All-out aggro
Impulse - 3
Description - Great for digging and finding the answer / threat that you need, and fits in nearly every blue deck. It doesn't enable anything specific; it's just good everywhere. Instant speed lets you dig for the answer you need at the exact time you need it.
Anchors -
Supports -
Into The Roil - 3
Description - Solid and flexible tempo card. Early game you can simply clear an early threat and push a board advantage, and late game you can throw card draw in to maintain card parity.
Anchors -
Supports - Tempo
Jilt - 3.5
Description - You might consider this a blue+ card, or an Izzet card. There are better pure blue options for creature bounce, but is still ok as just bounce for tempo. When kicked it can clear the board for a turn and usually results in strong tempo advantage while maintaining card parity. The rating reflects how powerful it can be in red / blue decks.
Anchors -
Supports -
Ghostly Touch - It effectively costs you two cards to get this effect, and it isn't worth that.
Ghostly Wings - Doesn't do enough.
Glint - Doesn't do enough.
Grip of Amnesia - Terrible.
Hermetic Study - Bad, card disadvantage.
Hesitation - Your opponent can see it coming and can play into. Does nothing when you are behind.
Hidden Strings - The lack of lockdown means it isn't really relevant for combat once it has been ciphered. Too situational.
Hisoka's Defiance - Too narrow.
Homarid Spawning Bed - It costs 5 mana before it does anything, and either requires an additional sacrifice upfront, or timing to respond to removal etc. Too intensive.
Hoodwink - You would not want this over other bounce options.
Hubris - Too narrow.
Ice Cage - Bad. Too easy to break.
Iceberg - Bad.
Icy Prison - Too costly.
Illuminated Wings - Doesn't do enough.
Illusionary Terrain - Bad.
Immobilizing Ink - Gives them an out, and no worthwhile combos you can play yourself.
Inaction Injunction - Not good enough.
Inertia Bubble - Bad.
Interdict - Too narrow.
Invisibility - Bad.
Ior Ruin Expedition - Too slow.
Jace's Erasure - Too slow even if you want to push mill.
Jaded Response - Too narrow.
Hesitation 0
Hidden Strings 0 -- way worse than the instant tap-3 from last post
Hoodwink 0
Immobilizing Ink 0
Impulse 2.5 -- two mana is a lot, even at instant speed, though it's a fine card
Inaction Injunction 0 -- the horrible blue version of Niveous Wisps
Into the Roil 3 -- the best Boomerang option around
--
nothing stands out from the unplayables
My CubeCobra (draft 20 card packs, 2 packs.)
430, Peasant, Very Unpowered
Why you should take your hybrids out of your gold section
Manamath Article