Why don't people play Force Spike in Modern?
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on June 13, 2015, noon by Serra_Sentinel
Force Spike was color shifted to Mana Tithe. Why does nobody play this soft counterspell?
Here's a turn 0 counterspell: Mental Misstep
Here's an anti-cheaty counterspell: Nix
Here's a beast of a counterspell: Pact of Negation
Here's the anti-counter counterspell: Mindbreak Trap
Here's the anti-modern counterspell: Spell Snare
What I'm getting at is that there are better counterspells. There are tons of 1 drop counters. A lot of them are specialized ("counter target non creature spell", "counter target spell that targets a player", etc), but they also hard counter a lot (there are two categories of spells: creatures and non creatures).
Don't get me wrong, it's a solid card, that can really mess up someone's play. It's just that most players would rather have a hard counterspell in hand, or have a benefit for the soft counter (like Remand). Then there's the whole legality issue.
June 13, 2015 12:14 p.m. Edited.
Programmer_112 says... #5
@Magicrafter: Oh yeah that's also a good reason derp.
June 13, 2015 12:14 p.m.
Programmer_112 says... #6
Also, @Epidilius: Mental Misstep is actually banned.
June 13, 2015 12:16 p.m.
Serra_Sentinel says... #8
Let me clarify, I know that Force Spike is illegal. I mean Mana Tithe.
June 13, 2015 12:17 p.m.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is like a permanent version of Mana Tithe. Grand Abolisher just stops counterspells. Oblivion Ring removes threats too.
White usually relies on permanent-based stuff, as opposed to instants and the like.
June 13, 2015 12:26 p.m.
It's primarily just because people will most often have 1 mana open so after turn one it falls off in usefulness very hard. You dont want cards in your deck that are only useful on turn 1 or turn 2
Programmer_112 says... #2
Well, the actual card Force Spike isn't legal, but I assume that you really mean Mana Tithe from the OP. I've seen Mana Tithe in a few lists (I loved seeing it in Bogles). However, in Modern, there aren't really that many 1 mana cards that need to be countered, and Mana Leak is just better after T1.
June 13, 2015 12:04 p.m.