How do use Arcane Denial suboptimally? You counter a bad card? You use it when you could as well use another counter you have in your hand? You kill next turn but only have one card in your library?
Maybe countering a card that isn't important in the game state is bad, but that would be a mistake even with a normal Counterspell.
I don't think this is necessarily true. There are plenty of scenarios where countering a card with Arcane Denial is a much worse play than countering the same card with counterspell. I probably wouldn't counter most 1-2 mana cards with it unless I was playing a specific deck (one with inevitability). Giving my opponent two cards is not worth trading 2 mana cards usually. I'd almost always make that play with counterspell though. There are exceptions to both scenarios obviously, but giving up card advantage is not something you can do all the time.
With that said, I think Arcane Denial is an ideal cube card in most lists because there are so many bombs floating around. I'd happily go 3 for 2 to counter Jitte or Recurring Nightmare or Ancestral Recall or a Mox (and the list goes on and on). So the higher power your cube, the better this card gets I think. In lower powered environments, it's really only good countering big spells or if you are playing a deck with inevitability that just needs to stall (combo and certain control decks). I've always been a fan of this card, but the more I've lower my cubes power level the more I've found how situational this card actually is. I don't think I'd play it in a C/Ube.
I've committed to throwing this into my Newbies' Peasant Cube, so we'll see what the kids think of it as they learn!
I think the splashability is what I like best about Arcane Denial - it's pretty easy to throw a couple of islands and an Arcane into what was a very non-blue deck, just so you can have some hard counter backup. The rest of the half-decent counterspells either need double-blue, or another blue card sitting around (so they are much harder to splash for). Arcane has found its way into quite a few low-blue decks in my cube this way.
Without repeating several arguments on this page, let me add something interesting:
- You can counter your own spells. I done this several times in the late game when I drew a mox/ Thoughtseize and my opponent and myself were both top decking.
- Arcane Denial could be played like Remand in modern, where you can counter your own spells in a counter spell war to essentially deny your opponent's spell and draw 3.
- If I was playing a combo deck, I would more than happy to play this in my 2 CMC slot to buy tempo + dig 1 card deeper for my combo.
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I'm actively maintaining a comprehensive article to help explain to new cube players how some complex vintage level cards work in a cube environment. Vintage Cube Cards Explained
I don't think this is necessarily true. There are plenty of scenarios where countering a card with Arcane Denial is a much worse play than countering the same card with counterspell. I probably wouldn't counter most 1-2 mana cards with it unless I was playing a specific deck (one with inevitability). Giving my opponent two cards is not worth trading 2 mana cards usually. I'd almost always make that play with counterspell though. There are exceptions to both scenarios obviously, but giving up card advantage is not something you can do all the time.
With that said, I think Arcane Denial is an ideal cube card in most lists because there are so many bombs floating around. I'd happily go 3 for 2 to counter Jitte or Recurring Nightmare or Ancestral Recall or a Mox (and the list goes on and on). So the higher power your cube, the better this card gets I think. In lower powered environments, it's really only good countering big spells or if you are playing a deck with inevitability that just needs to stall (combo and certain control decks). I've always been a fan of this card, but the more I've lower my cubes power level the more I've found how situational this card actually is. I don't think I'd play it in a C/Ube.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
Retro combo cube thread
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/retro-combo-cube.1454/
I think the splashability is what I like best about Arcane Denial - it's pretty easy to throw a couple of islands and an Arcane into what was a very non-blue deck, just so you can have some hard counter backup. The rest of the half-decent counterspells either need double-blue, or another blue card sitting around (so they are much harder to splash for). Arcane has found its way into quite a few low-blue decks in my cube this way.
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- You can counter your own spells. I done this several times in the late game when I drew a mox/ Thoughtseize and my opponent and myself were both top decking.
- Arcane Denial could be played like Remand in modern, where you can counter your own spells in a counter spell war to essentially deny your opponent's spell and draw 3.
- If I was playing a combo deck, I would more than happy to play this in my 2 CMC slot to buy tempo + dig 1 card deeper for my combo.
Vintage Cube Cards Explained
Here are some other articles I've written about fine tuning your cube:
1. Minimum Archetype Support
2. Improving Green Archetypes
3. Improving White Archetypes
4. Matchup Analysis
5. Cube Combos (Work in Progress)
Draft my Cube - https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/d8i