MTG Salvation

Bounce your Snapcaster and one of their things for UUU.

Quote from Lord Seth »

The inclusion of the Swords makes me wonder if we may see the printing of a "fixed" Stoneforge Mystic that will work with the Swords but not Batterskull (e.g. a Stoneforge Mystic that only works with equipment that costs 3 or less).

I think you're looking for Goblin Engineer.

Ya, I'm not very good at building fast decks, lol. I'm glad I dropped the thought here first because I like the Swords cycle a bit and they're just sort of sitting in my rares box.

I know there was once some play with Kuldotha Rebirth in a Goblins 8Whack like list. Maybe you could look in that direction? Use Rebirth and Engineer to get use of some of the artifacts and start swinging with Swords into your opponent with a go wide strategy that can port into a Swords strategy?

I know it's an older Saffron Olive list, but it's a starting black.

EDIT: I also had what is probably a horrible trash thought... Could you go for Blue Moon style list with Goblin Engineer, Sword of Sinew and Steel, and Liquimetal Coating? The use Spell Pierce and similar to keep your hack and slash engineer safe? Start using Coating + Sword to blow up lands. Coating also provides artifacts to sac to get a Sword back, you can fill extra creature slots with Warboss and Rabblemaster looking things.

EDIT again: Use Goblin Matron as Engineer 5-8 if you need. She probably costs too much though.

Quote from Spsiegel1987 »

I'm really not understanding the *****ing about counter spell.

This is how people can complain about Counterspell:

Quote from Spsiegel1987 »

Sweet art work but it looks underwhelming.


I'm not sure I love the idea of SFM being unbanned anymore...I think UW midrange/control would see a major restructure but I don't love the risk. I'm beginning to agree---what is she benefitting in modern right now? DnT? It's certainly not UW decks. Abzan...has some serious fundamental issues that is outdated in modern now. Abzan would still be a very bad deck.

The difference is that Counterspell is a specific card people want and what was given wasn't good enough compared to SFM being a potential and you saying it's not good enough.

Quote from Ritokure »

Someone in WotC really, REALLY hates Tron.

HATES Tron!? What? This says "play" and not "cast"! You can HAVE Tron!

Quote from cfusionpm »

Quote from Arkmer »

I also don't think Logic Knot is the same 99% of the time, but that could be a whole new thread.

I spent 6 months casting Knot in UW (and find it unplayable in just about every other blue shell for various other reasons). It was Counterspell most of the time. But it's mediocrity wasn't due to not being able to pay enough for X. Rather, the largest factors for its mediocrity were on-cast triggers, activated/triggered abilities, Cavern of Souls, and Aether Vial. Counterspell just ain't what it used to be. They're much more effective when trying to protect what you're doing than trying to stop what they're doing. Battlecruiser at its finest.

Yes, they're similar at the beginning of the game, but Logic Knot sort of dictates that you not run more than 3 of them and you very rarely Snap them back. I've been playing Silumgar's Scorn in this for awhile and Snapping back what amounts to actually Counterspell over and over again plays very differently than Logic Knot. I am never counting my grave to see if I can keep my overpriced win condition alive against a T9 Path to Exile. I can almost always Snap a Scorn without having to consider if I'm depleting too many resources for late game Knots.

At a minimum, the wide and obvious claim that Counterspell would just replace the strange x1-2 Negates/Knot/Something is absolutely true. Because you're replacing all the conditionals with just one absolute, you are more likely to just have the right counter at the right time.

One specific match up that surprised me was Tron- the most popular deck in the format, at the moment. Knot isn't going to be very effective, they have tons of mana to pay, but Counterspell is always going to outclass their one spell per turn strategy. Trust me, once you cast your 5th Counterspell against Tron, you'll never want Knot back.

The bullet point differences are:

• Better deck building - No balancing these vs those counters
• Higher chances of having a relevant counter - Double tapping that deck building
• Much easier to Snap back - A seriously underrated advantage, they go miles further

I do, however, totally agree that there are a ton of ways around all counters. We are no longer just accounting for a x1 Thrun, we need to win the land fight to bypass Cavern of Souls, we need to bring Artifact hate to bypass the Aether Vial rushes, we need to be aware of the growing hand hate that threatens to remove more relevant things than Counters.

"Counterspell isn't what it used to be." I agree, I've said it myself, but that just means we need it now more than ever.

Thing about Flusterstorm is that I'm not sure if it counts towards the actual count of counterspells in the set because it's the BaB. I was reading an article earlier about how it was added to the set after all the other cards were finalized. Additionally, we have no unconditional counter yet and most sets have one. With the norm being 3 or 4 counters per set, I would assume we have a reasonable chance to have 1 more if Flusterstorm isn't counted.

I still have hope for Counterspell. We have 3 slots for it in the name and number crunch still.

I also don't think Logic Knot is the same 99% of the time, but that could be a whole new thread.

Still hoping for Counterspell.

If not that, I'm looking for an unconditional BB: exile target creature at instant speed. Maybe with Gain 2 life stapled to it.

Uncommon Manland. Interesting...

I think Planebound Accomplice needs a flicker effect to make him really shine. Pay a R, slam that minus button, flicker the walker for sustained value. Too bad Astral Drift can't hit walkers... Unless you turn them into DRAGONS!!

This is too silly.

I think there's an old Daily MtG article about how designing a cycle of cards typically starts really well then falls off with the last couple; I think it gave some examples. I can't think of a name for the article and all I get when googling is articles about the keyword cycling.

Anyway, with White breaking the idea of a cycle of safety valves, my money is on Red just being some version of Pyrokinesis. It's about as Red as Red can be, but what it's allowed to target is anyone's guess.

This seems like a huge booster to infect...

Their T3 wins just got much more consistent and require many fewer cards.

"Become a Snake"

I think I would rather it gained life, lol. This is a strange card. At least it's not legendary.

Can anyone think of a reason why this is a safety valve? What degenerate plays is this looking to counter? I'm sort of at a loss. This isn't stopping "degenerate" board wipes, it doesn't stop decks that create a super board state early. I don't get it.

I suppose I'm glad White didn't just get a piece of super removal like it always seems to though. Leaves the door open for Black to get a good unconditional Exile at 2cmc, which I think the color desperately needs.

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Spore Frog and Preordain at 2cmc with flashback.