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5: Spine of Ish Sah (Adam), Chaos Warp (Shannon), Sylvan Reclamation (Ryan)

4: Nevinyrral's Disk (Adam), Bane of Progress (Shannon), Vindicate (Ryan)

3: Aura Shards (Adam), Massacre Wurm (Shannon), Toxic Deluge (Ryan)

2: Capsize (Adam), Cryptic Command (Shannon), Swords to Plowshares (Ryan)

1: Grave Pact (Adam), Blatant Thievery (Shannon), Cyclonic Rift (Ryan)

As an amusing anecdote, my Noyan Dar list can very easily create boardstates that are unaffected by Cyclonic Rift, but that deck is hot garbage.

No Anguished Unmaking? Personally, I like instant speed more than I like the ability to target lands and not lose 3 life.

I absolutely disagree with the comments on which counterspells are good or not. Some of my favourite counterspells are Mental Misstep, Spell Pierce or Daze. Nothing worse than keeping a hand based on the assumption that your turn 1 sol ring is going to resolve and then it gets countered...probably takes you out of the game for at last two or three turns if you would otherwise have taken a mulligan. These counters are also cool later in the game because they hurt everyone who wants to play on curve every turn. These spells are so ridiculously strong I can only recommend testing them if you are not yet convinced.

On the number of counterspells I think it really depends on the overall strategy. In a primarily blue deck, like my Jhoira deck for example, I run like 20+ counterspells in the current build. If there's no combo that needs to be assembled but just a sort of plan that needs to be protected, I feel there needs to be a very high chance of drawing a counterspell without the need to draw a huge lot of cards. It's even more important than removal (not only because blue removal are often weaker than those of other colours) as there are quite a few things that simply should not resolve in the first place.

I am willing to try some of these spells more, but note that i have played Mana Leak in edh and it was thoroughly underwhelming. Something like Mystic Confluence just has more reach.

Also, Mental Misstepping a Sol Ring should not put a player out. Thay player should not be keeping a hand that is that dependant on one card.

While the tax counterspells can work, i would rather ensure they are countered. I want my counterspells to counter when i need thwm to, not just under specific conditions.

IMO 20+ counters is way too many. But i really only play them to stop things regular removal can't or to protect combo.

@ibstudent2200 - Ryan talks about liking Anguished Unmaking, not sure why he went with Vindicate for his list.

@Winterblast - I'm a big proponent of Mental Misstep because it is great against Sol Ring, Burgeoning, and Exploration early and good against Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares late. Other soft counters are great only early game, so can be good in 1v1, but are bad draws after T3. I'm sure you can surprise someone who taps out for X spells, but there will probably be enough times where the counter cannot impact the game for me to feel like it is a wasted slot. Also we aren't huge on the early tempo plays, as they seem like a big gamble. Sometimes people are able to stabilize, and our group doesn't often keep greedy hands.

@Squire1 UR isn't particularly good at answering threats once they're on the board, and playing draw-go with Jhoira seems fine. You can just suspend your haymakers on an opponent's end step if you didn't need to counter anything, and most of your threats are going to be so powerful that they won't need much to protect them.

@NickyBolas Here's a list of soft counters I think are reasonable in EDH:

• Stubborn Denial
• Sunken Field
• Logic Knot
• Mana Confluence
• Flusterstorm
• Disruptive Student
• Patron Wizard
• Disruptive Pitmage
• Sage's Dousing
• Temur Charm

My problem with Mental Misstep is that I always feel relieved to see a target for it, which usually indicates that the answer is too narrow.

Mystic Confluence, not Mana Confluence.