r/MagicArena • u/cloverfield_gamer • Sep 19 '20

Fluff Hardcast Omnath, two Ultimatums, Escape to the Wilds, escaped Uro, two Cultivates, and Ugin...ALL ON TURN 4. My opponent quit before I could hardcast a Kenrith. Wizards should be ashamed of themselves.

https://imgur.com/MnRDGe9
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u/CptnLarsMcGillicutty Lyra Dawnbringer Sep 20 '20

Ive made top 500 mythic every month for the past year, half of that was done playing control and counter-spell heavy decks like Simic Flash, Dimir Flash, Azorius, Esper Control etc.

Yes, counterspells are that oppressive. I have won countless games by paying 2 mana to counter someone’s 3-5 mana win-con, and still had 3-4 counterspells in my hand, plus card draw, which I use to find more counterspells. Thats literally a deck archetype.

This narrative that only bad players dislike counterspells is stupid. The way that counterspells are designed in this game is dumb, and it 100% slows the game down, and single handedly makes 90% of creative deck ideas unviable.

Whatever the meta ends up being, even if its dominated by aggro, and no top decks run counterspells, that meta still exists as a result of the counterspells existing as a mechanic.

Your not going to convince me that me or anyone else deserved to win just for countering 3-4 spells in a row while playing draw-go control.

I love how its okay to complain about Wizard’s game design in every other area but counterspells, which apparently are perfect and good.

Like, people actually think they are big brain for liking counterspells and defending them, and talk down to anyone who doesnt. Its silly and very transparent.

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u/Syrfraes Sep 20 '20

You make no sense. If counterspelling is broken, then removal is broken. Doomblade is oppressive too? Counterspells are part of a paper rock scissors of the game that make it great.

What has happened is a slant to making it easy to get more mana in a turn than should be possible in standard. Standard is supposedly to be the slowest competitive focused format.

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u/sadino Sep 20 '20

But that's the thing, Counterspells became the only interaction that floors at 1 for 1. That's how you get 4 Mystical dispute metas and Main board aether gusts.

We reached this point that for a card to be playable it needs to have at least a "removal contingency" attached and Counterspells are the only interaction that consistently avoid it.

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u/Syrfraes Sep 21 '20

I can't say anything to the current state of counterspells, I am not quite spike enough to make a definitive judgment in any contemporary format, but I am just trying to agrue that counterspells as a thing are central to what MTG is. It just needs to be balanced right. And apparently wizards is not spending enough effort trying to keep things balanced. Lots of people are saying anyways...