MTG Salvation

How does this look to folks? Only 1cc to counter noncreatures but the drawback isn't nothing.

Cheers,
rant

I think that drawback is too steep for cube in general, just as with Swan Song. The fact is Negate and Spell Pierce are already pretty niche.

Giving this a shot. I like that it is a 1CMC hard counter for non creatures. Giving the opponent 2 treasures is going feel bad sometimes but that just means not playing bad magic and thinking.

In my head 2 treasures are pretty similar to drawing a card, and I would be all over a 1cmc hard non-creature counter that drew them a card.

Another way I've looked at it is in comparison path to exile; only hits creatures and give a permanent mana boost. It terms of downside to my 1cmc removal I think a land is steeper than 2 treasures.

@mergaroid_jones - Is Negate niche these days? Still plays solid for me.

Quote from steve_man »

Quote from TheGroglord »

@mergaroid_jones - Is Negate niche these days? Still plays solid for me.

I've found that Negate (and Negate variants) can be pretty cube dependent. It's been gaining a lot of value with a lot of powerful things like new planeswalkers / Pest Infestation type cards being printed recently, but it can be lackluster in cubes that play few or no planeswalkers.

I wouldn't say I run alot of planeswalkers and it's solid in any X/u deck. Non-creature is a pretty broad spectrum IMO. It would take something fairly spicy to put it near the chopping block for me.

Negate never played well for us, and not being able to counter creatures is a really big deal in cubes that run ...good creatures. The card has to be particularly exceptional for me to want to use it over an effect that can counter all kinds of threatening cards instead, and there's only a handful that I like. And of those, Negate is pretty far down on the list, IMO.

I've played a fair share of aggro vs control/ midrange or combo vs control/ midrange and I can attest that the aggro/ combo player should ideally use tempo/ removal to keep the combo/ control player off planeswalkers to avoid the other aside accuring card advantage. In most cases, when both players are at card parity, the aggro/ combo player will come out ahead.

Fast Forward to this card - This is fantastic for combo/ ramp players at protecting their combo, fair decks at countering sweepers/ planeswalkers/ key combos from the opponent. Its not ideal in midrange mirrors.

My thoughts are this depends on your meta.

I think this is a poor counterspell for cube.
I'd rather run vanilla cancel and don't think it's close.
Two treasures is a huge cost that immediately offsets the mana advantage you get by having a cheaper counter.

The only match up where it's very good is when you are playing a combo deck and are looking for a cheap way to protect your final play, or playing against a combo deck that wins via a non-creature spell.
In the vast majority of fair situations, it's borderline unplayable.

This is coming from a spell pierce/negate fan in powered cube

I don't wanna give my opponent essentially Dark Ritual.