Help with counterspell optimization in budget
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 7, 2024, 4:59 p.m. by 9-lives
Void Shatter's Thousand Virulent Cuts: A.K.I.
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 8 | 12 COMMENTS | 933 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS
I'm wondering if there are any Budget options for counterspells that I can use that are better than what I already have. I do like how I have some counterspells to tie up mana, but I'm not sure if that would simply be strictly worse than a normal counterspell. I'd like a few suggestions on what to do with my counterspell area of my deck. Any help with anything else is appreciated, but don't expect me to always agree.
Gidgetimer I am using a mixture of mana-knots and normal counterspells that are absolute. Mana-knots will help me as well as other players by tying up mana usage, (the ones that say pay x or be countered) where they have to pay to keep their cards from being countered. This helps not only me , but also prevents others from using counterspells on other's turns, and helps other players in making the countered player threat minimal. I would prefer to have more mana-knots, as they will be more fun, more instrumental, and more helpful. I am really wanting to use counterspells to prevent the commander from coming into play as well. Counterspells are also useful to keep the opponent from casting anything too strong, as I will try to prevent myself from being destroyed by their creatures, considering most of my creatures are very low p/t and cannot fight any stronger creatures. I'm thinking of including more cards like Mass Diminish that will be useful for myself as well as other players.
August 10, 2024 9:16 p.m.
CommanderMeanderer says... #4
From my experience, absolute counter spells tend to scale much better than mana-knots for EDH. It's very playgroup dependent but I find with my playgroup we usually run out of cards before running out of mana after turn 4 or so.
If you just want to slow down the game you can try more hate-bears or stax type cards, they will be more card-efficient than a 1-to-1 psudo-removal.
If you want to counter threats that specifically threaten you/your cards even after early game, you'll probably prefer hard counterspells.
These suggestions are based on pure power level though. If the flavor/theme of your deck is more important to you, or if your playgroup WILL hate you out for playing stax (not uncommon lol), then there's nothing wrong with playing what you like.
August 12, 2024 4:06 p.m.
CommanderMeanderer I have plenty of straight-up counterspells; the amount of mana-knots i have is minimal. My deck is mainly a theme, certainly not those 2000$ competitive decks with Jodah. I would play stax, but that would require me going azorius, at least.
Gidgetimer says... #2
How are you using these counterspells? Are you just countering stuff for the sake of countering and trying to play a tempo game? Or are you just using them to protect your win or prevent an opponent's win? Because if the second Delay and An Offer You Can't Refuse are great spells.
August 8, 2024 9:57 p.m.