An Offer You Can't Refuse
This counterspell is kind of terrible for general-purpose use. There are a lot of concessions to being able to prevent the end of a game or ending the game ourselves. That is the real use-case here. While treasure tokens are temporary mana, we are still ramping our opponent by two mana as a trade. Therefore, that should be considered when deciding if this is a good idea to utilize as a counterspell. Know that even if this counters the intended spell, they can then still utilize this two mana for more interaction with the original target if they choose to. This falls into the same line of counterspells as Pact of Negation, since we don’t have to care about the drawback if we just win instead. Alternately, the mana an opponent gains is meaningless if they win the game themselves.
There is also a trick with this counterspell. If we counter our own spell this becomes “mana-positive” ramp. A play to also consider is if we know we need more mana on upcoming turns we and we have interacted with a large spell stack, often there can be counterspells or interaction we own on that stack which may fizzle as a result of the target being handled my something else. We can use this spell to counter one of the pieces destined to fizzle as a result so we can gain the treasures ourselves. Admittedly, this is very niche, but it is important to look for value where it may not be readily apparent. Just because this might be an available line, if it leaves us “shields down” it might not be worth considering despite being a slick use of resources.
Brain Freeze
This card is (and arguably always has been) incredible. It is a very simple effect that does a bit of everything. It is important to understand that the graveyard is a resource, particularly in this list. Aside from being able to perform mill kills on opponents, we can actually use this with smaller storm counts to mill ourselves first which allows us to see more cards. It is also a great target as the second instant or sorcery returned by the Kairi, the Swirling Sky death trigger in addition to the clone spell. Once we achieve infinite turns if we are going for this line of kill, we use excess engine casts of our clone effect to continue to mill ourselves if we haven’t seen Thassa's Oracle yet. If we mill this creature, then we need to consider if Midnight Clock is available to reshuffle it. If not, no big deal since we don’t rely on Thoracle to win like a lot of lists do. We can’t actually mill out due to Nexus of Fate *list* under most circumstances, so our engine will simply clean up the board of permanents and we can just kill our opponents with Kairi beats as a worst-case.
Brainstorm
Among the best draw spells ever printed; this card both helps us draw new cards while also improving our card quality due to fetch land interactions like Flooded Strand. This allows us to to shuffle away cards we have put back on top which we didn’t need. If hit with hand disruption effects like Thoughtseize we can use this card to protect a critical spell by tucking it safely on top of our library. If we assemble something like Crucible of Worlds and our engine, it is completely reasonable to return Brainstorm as the other instant or sorcery so we can cast it and fetch every turn as needed, allowing us to see at least nine cards per turn cycle for about depending on the clone effect being used and providing consistent land drops. While this is not a board state that we need to be sure to assemble every game, being on the lookout for value synergies as the game progresses allows these cards which are great on their own to become insane value sub-engines.
Cackling Counterpart
One of the clone effects we utilize as part of our engine with our commander. This should be the primary use for these types of cards in this list. When we copy Kairi, the Swirling Sky and choose the second option for the death trigger caused by the state-based sacrifice of the token clone, this card will have already resolved allowing us to choose it along with another instant or sorcery card in our graveyard. Most of the time, this is what we will do as it provides instant speed value and tool-boxing, eventually occurring multiple times per turn cycle. This improves the quality of our 1-for-1 card interaction, allowing us to incrementally sidestep the fundamental card disadvantage issue with having more than one opponent. The flashback on this card may exile it, but it allows another clone effect to take over while being a viable play from the graveyard itself. Many times this line can act as a mini-Cyclonic Rift since we can choose the first option for Kairi’s death trigger due to having another iteration of the engine in our hand. This is by design and should be considered as part of our gameplan as everything progresses. If we can keep gaining this incremental value while making opponents relive their previous turns while running into our now recurring interaction pieces, we can grind a game out. This is the Control Deck Experience™.
In all seriousness, this kind of recursion is the only thing that allows us to reasonably play a late game strategy in a high-powered meta. Most decks we will see will usually try to turbo something out with only a consideration like their commander as a fallback strategy. We are designed to punish this play, but we cannot be complacent just because it is our plan. This deck does not hard counter that type of strategy. Its just positioned to out-value it.
Chain of Vapor
Cheap interaction. Has extra synergy with Archmage Emeritus in particular, since we can copy this for mana-positive value while drawing cards; but only if we are in a position to sacrifice abundant tapped lands to bounce our own 0cmc mana-producing artifacts or something like a Mana Vault which is mana-positive. Most of the time, this will bounce a problem permanent providing temporary removal as the average use case. We just don’t want to overlook it’s potential as ramp, storm-enabler, and card draw if the situation arises. Even if it is only to reset a Sculpting Steel for a better target, this card is rarely a dead draw.
Consign to Memory
It troubles me how little of this card I see in lists. It straight-up handles Thassa's Oracle lines in a decisive fashion. Usually, an opponent will attempt to win by playing the Oracle; then while the trigger is on the stack, they cast a Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact to mill their library. A clever opponent will hold up some amount of interaction to attempt to counter our efforts to prevent the library exile effect or Stifle the Thoracle trigger. We will choose to stifle the Thoracle trigger. This card has an ability called “Replicate ”. This means that when we cast this, as an additional cost we will pay as many times as we need to place extra copies of this effect onto the stack. An opponent is rarely prepared for say… 4-5 extra copies. This even outpaces something like Flusterstorm, since replicate copies are not cast and will not increase the storm count beyond the original spell. Counterbalance or Chalice of the Void also only triggers off of a cast spell, so the copies are immune from triggering it. The card best suited to deal with Consign to Memory is Mindbreak Trap, which is not even in all lists. If we are careful here, we also don’t fulfill the condition for this to be free since we have not cast three spells. Many times, they will also try to protect the combo win with Veil of Summer, however we are not targeting a spell or permanent. We are targeting an ability on the stack. Congratulate them as they see themselves out of the game due to having an exiled library. Then draw a bunch of cards if Archmage Emeritus happened to be lurking somewhere on our board.
Even if this seems like a super-niche use case for a slot in our deck, it is still rarely a dead draw. There are many triggered abilities we may want to prevent from resolving, and these are often the most difficult effects to interact with. If this wasn’t enough, the prevalence of artifacts (particularly mana acceleration) means we have cheap interaction which can be very difficult to interact with itself if we need to replicate it.
Cyclonic Rift
Blue staple, loved by everyone who isn't on the receiving end of it. I've seen a lot of people who sit on this, waiting to have the mana to overload it. Don't be afraid to use it as a single target bounce spell if it is the right play for the current board state. This is a great target to return to hand utilizing our decks main engine for extra oppression.
Eldritch Immunity
This is a really, really good card. Any time an effect breaks the color pie it should be scrutinized for its utility. In this case, a trick common to / is now available to . In a world with counterspells, this may not seem very interesting. However, the mind games the presence of this card provides are really useful. For one, most opponents who are planning their removal are often considering how much interaction we have. In the case of the most common target, Kairi- due to being a high-cmc value engine, they have to get through the Ward so they already have a reduced number of spells they can cast offensively, and therefore will normally try to back it up with defensive interaction to protect their invested spell. They tend to account for our blue mana to “calculate” how many we can conceivably cast. Then we tap a Liquimetal Torque and cast this, throwing a wrench in all of that calculation. It is cheap, recursive using our commander, and even allows for us to perform combat tricks since this gives protection from all colors and can be overloaded to extend it to our whole team. This provides flexible interaction while also providing an edge in combat that many decks simply don’t account for in . There are a lot of upsides here for the low chance that this is potentially a dead draw if we don’t need to protect our investments.
Fierce Guardianship
One of the "free" counterspells in our counter package that is... actually free, provided we have Kairi in play. For some, this might not be a card they want in the list due to how late our commander can enter play. That’s actually fair, and this slot can be some kind of interaction if needed to flex it out for meta considerations. Our deck does produce a lot of mana though, so we can always cast this for . A trap I see players fall into is only considering the free alternative cost of one of these types of spells when they can also be cast normally for a fairly reasonable rate. Remember also that it only targets non-creature spells.
Flare of Denial
"Free" counterspell. This time, the alternate cost is sacrificing a non-token creature. We have a few candidates in this deck. However, unless it is critical to do so we should not sacrifice Kairi, the Swirling Sky to this effect- no matter how tempting it can be with the death trigger. If we do need to consider this line, this is a situation where the value of bouncing a bunch of out opponents’ permanents using its first ability will help offset the tempo lost from needing to recast our commander. I tend to wait for additional value from an evoked Subtlety if possible, since the interaction trigger form it goes to the stack first allowing us to sacrifice it to Flare of Denial to provide more interaction. Think about cards that have already done their job, like Snapcaster Mage. These become great choices to sacrifice to extra interaction like this.
Force of Negation
We cannot cast this for its "free" cost on our own turn. Also, this is for non-creature spells only. These are common mistakes I've seen when this card is played. Otherwise, exiling a single blue card is a low cost for this deck and even paying 3 mana if needed isn't too demanding.
Force of Will
The most powerful counterspell in Magic: the Gathering. We will very rarely cast this for five mana, as the alternate cost is trivial to pay with all of the cards we draw. Note that there are some effects like Gaddock Teeg, Boromir, Warden of the Tower, and Lavinia, Azorius Renegade which can prevent this from being cast or simply automatically counter it, so try to have a backup plan as well.
High Tide
More classic mono- ramp for combo turns. Pay attention to what opponents are also playing blue, because this effect is for all Islands in play. Being an instant means that with our engine online, this goes from being a powerful line of play in a single turn to potentially being used on multiple turns. For those uninitiated to High Tide lines, they work best if we can either cast multiples of it using non-island sources and/or untap our islands afterwards. We can use Candelabra of Tawnos to accomplish this while being able to bounce and replay it for mana-positive value, or flicker it with Displacer Kitten. We can also use the classic spell for High Tide lines, Turnabout, to untap our lands.
Kozilek's Command
Another color-pie breaking effect and a great mana sink. Recurring this with our deck engine adds quite a bit of value over the course of a game as well. There is a lot going on here, so let’s look at what it does. First, we need to pick two different modes from it.
• If we use it to generate X eldrazi spawn, it becomes instant-speed ramp utility, emergency blockers, or sacrifice fodder.
• We can scry X and draw a card. If we are making absurd amounts of mana, doing this turn over turn is pretty close to stacking our deck, and should be a major consideration on a High Tide combo turn to find Thassa's Oracle for the mercy win with less risk of milling it. With all of the “free” interaction in our list, we can dig as an emergency and run less risk by expending a large amount of mana or tapping out to do so.
• It can exile a creature with cmc of X or less. This provides us recursive exile-based removal.
• This can also remove X cards from graveyards from the game. As we know, this can be a crippling effect. What is important about this clause is that we can choose any graveyard. This means the mode can be cast more efficiently than many other graveyard effects, as most would either indiscriminately nuke all graveyards or target a single player’s graveyard at a time.
Mana Drain
Polarizing card due to its powerful effect. We need to be wary when we cast this, as the mana we get from it will be on our next main phase. If we tap out in main phase one to counter a spell with this, we get the mana from it in main phase two, and it might go to waste. This is an excellent way to ramp out a surprise Kairi, the Swirling Sky, getting our engine online way earlier than we normally would. Due to the Ward on our commander, we are less likely to be punished by casting it early with less protection, since it is built in. We just need to be ready with stack interaction to ensure it can resolve. Even if we aren’t casting Kairi with the mana from this, we are still rewarded for our interaction by being able to utilize this mana to cast something like artifact ramp while being able to hold up more interaction for following turn cycles.
March of Swirling Mist
Interesting and cheap interaction. Can be used defensively to save our own creatures from removal or we can use it offensively to leave and opponent open for another attack (or our own). I've seen a game where an opponent was attempting to resolve a Thassa's Oracle trigger but failed to win due to this effect phasing out the Oracle, shorting the player two crucial blue devotion. This sort of thing isn’t common, but it always seems to find uses in blue lists.
Mental Misstep
This "free" counterspell is probably the second most powerful counterspell in the game- and is often called the most powerful anyway. The alternate cost of two life to counter any 1cmc card is exceptional in a format where many powerful spells cost only a single mana. We are playing blue; we should be running this.
Mystical Tutor
Finds the answer we need for the problem at hand, or the solution to win the game. With the draw available to us, top deck tutors like this cause less of a potential negative impact since the card can be grabbed reliably when we would need it. Since this finds an instant or sorcery, we can even use our deck engine to mill what we found at instant speed and return it to our hand.
Nexus of Fate *list*
The slot this provides our deck doubles as both protection from ourselves as well as inevitability. This is due to how it will shuffle itself into our library if put in the graveyard from anywhere. This is also a replacement effect, so at no point is it actually in the graveyard for an opponent to have priority to remove it. Therefore, we need to know to keep it safe from exile effects when it is in our hand, library, or on the stack. Our deck is designed to utilize its engine to take infinite turns while generating as much value as possible. Once we have removed our opponent’s ability to interact with us during this process, we will eventually mill to our very last card- Nexus of Fate *list*. From here, if we haven’t won with Thassa's Oracle, Brain Freeze, or just beats from Kairi, the Swirling Sky we can now use our last card to take extra turns every turn. From here is where the inevitability is, as Kairi beats punish the opponents who refused to scoop.
Pact of Negation
I hate this card. But it is very strong, and my own personal preferences don't change that fact. This is a commonly misused counterspell, and often considered a "free" spell despite having a cost of - a rate which is absurdly higher than we normally pay for this effect. It only costs , as advertised, if we never pay the cost. This can be accomplished a few ways. The most efficient way to utilize this spell is to protect our win. If we win the game, there won't be a following upkeep to pay or die on. Alternately, the Stifle-effects I keep placing importance on can take care of the trigger for 1-2 mana instead of its full cost, but this solution also costs another card from our hand. Compare this to effects like Force of Will and Force of Negation which only cost the additional card, but no mana requirement and we get an effect that is less potent and often misplayed. I don't blame anyone for replacing this with another reasonable option which performs a similar role. This card is more powerful in combo lists that protect the winning turn.
Spell Pierce
A time-tested and flexible counterspell for non-creature spells. It has more strength in the early game than the late game, but it also retains value when in a resource-heavy stack interaction with an opponent. If we are in a meta where it feels like we simply cannot live without Flusterstorm, this is probably the slot I would use for it since it serves a similar purpose but with more brute force as a tradeoff for only being able to target instants and sorceries.
Stifle
I cannot stress enough how important it is to have Stifle-effects in EDH. The namesake is also the most cost-efficient version. There are many spells that are not dangerous on their own but have costly and scary activated or triggered abilities after they resolve. Answer what is actually required to answer. Sometimes we can Stifle an opponent’s opening fetch land, potentially making that player lose the game on the spot. Every meta is different, so we shouldn’t sell our options short.
Three Steps Ahead
This card does a bit of everything- sometimes all at once. I have a special place in my heart for Cryptic Command *list*, and while this is not that card it feels like the natural evolution of it. It has multiple modes, allowing us to tailor it for what we need but we don't end up paying for things we don't. While other modal cards have static mana costs, sometimes we just need a single effect from it and the cost is tailored to the effect. This is simply the most powerful main engine component in our deck. We can reach a point where we can use two modes: countering a spell and creating a token copy of a creature. This gives us repeatable counter magic to grind down our opponents with, as the Kairi, the Swirling Sky death trigger will return this and another instant or sorcery to our hand. Prior to this point, we have had to return interaction and the card cloning our commander. When we see this pattern of play then the end is probably near. It can be tempting to also draw cards using the other mode, but I generally don’t use all three in favor of being able to hold up multiple interaction instead. However, nothing stops us from using it at the last end step before our turn to draw and copy Kairi, at which point whatever we discard is probably just more fuel or can simply be returned later.
Trickbind
The most difficult to deal with Stifle-effect, allowing us to stop a dangerous activated or triggered ability with split-second. Watch out for triggered abilities like Counterbalance, while no spells or activated abilities can enter the stack until the spell with split-second resolves, triggered abilities can still trigger. While not as powerful as Consign to Memory, this is among the best interaction for a Thassa's Oracle trigger.
Turnabout
A flexible spell as well as being a flexible slot depending on meta. This spell makes it easier to abuse High Tide during a critical turn, allowing us to untap our lands. This is the classic use for it. For those who have played High Tide lists before, they know that every permutation of this card has its uses as well. I bring this up so that we won’t get tunnel vision or treat it like its too good to use. Our commander engine adds even more depth to the spell, allowing us to perform some really nasty tricks. We can use it to blank an opponents attack every turn by tapping down their creatures. We can tap their lands at priority on their upkeep, providing a high likelihood combined with our ability to bounce permanents that we can lock down their entire turn. We can untap all of our own mana-producing artifacts, allowing lines where we are using the mana from multiple Gilded Lotuses, Grim Monoliths, and Mana Vaults multiple times in a turn, and in the case of the latter two also never needing to untap them “normally”. This is why it remains in the list, but at 4cmc I can see why certain meta make this a dubious choice and it should be pointed our that this can be replaced for a more meta-appropriate call.
Ugin's Binding
At face value, this is an underwhelming bounce spell. But this might be the one card in our list we can get away with never casting- intentionally. As our commander mills through our deck, this card might end up in our graveyard, waiting for a Nulldrifter (it even works when evoked) or Kozilek's Command to trigger it. When we do, we can choose for it to become a Cyclonic Rift for zero mana. This is in addition to the spell we were already casting anyway. It is also not a spell at this point; this is a triggered ability which goes to the stack, meaning it can be very difficult to interact with for our opponents. As part of a deckbuilding consideration for this list, I also considered Not of this World but could not find a consistent way to get Kairi, the Swirling Sky to seven power for actual free protection that would also trigger Ugin's Binding. This might just be some future technology when a set releases something that might consistently provide this power boost without feeling like a dead slot. Even if we don’t want to spend to cast this, we should use it if situationally appropriate. Pay attention to the Devoid clause as well- we cannot pitch this to Force of Will, Force of Negation, or Subtlety despite having a blue color identity.
Winds of Rebuke
Solid interaction with pure upside. While it does have 2cmc, it does more than just return a nonland permanent to its owner’s hand. We can use this to also mess with top-deck tutors from our opponents by casting after they have used a card like Vampiric Tutor. The cards we would mill add more fuel to the engine, potentially building the toolbox further. If we can get a loop where we are casting Nexus of Fate *list*, this might also be a win condition by bouncing a mana-positive artifact to our hand each turn and milling our opponents over and over with the help of our engine, becoming a pseudo Brain Freeze if the situation calls for it.
