Counterspell is a 3rd-level abjuration spell that allows a spellcaster to interrupt and negate the casting of another spell. It can counter instant spells, sorcery spells, and creatures within 60 feet of the caster. Counterspell is an evergreen keyword action that remains on the stack until it resolves, is countered, or otherwise leaves the battlefield.
It is possible to counter a counterspell using just a reaction, but you will lose the effect. Counterspell should be used to stop the casting of powerful spells in battle, and one should be judicious when casting the spell. A spell remains on the stack as a spell until it resolves, is countered, or otherwise leaves the battlefield.
Imprint occurs when the permanent enters the battlefield, not when you cast it. Certain spells and abilities can “counter target spell” (or similar effects), and some spells or abilities have “counter target spell an opponent controls”, which cannot be used to target your own.
When Clone Shell enters, look at the top four cards of your library, exile one face down, and put the rest on the bottom of your library. You can also steal spells that are party only buffs like the Moon’s Light or Salvation of Time.
In summary, counterspell is a powerful spell that can be used to stop the casting of powerful spells in battle. However, it is important to be judicious when using counterspells and to consider the effects of other spells and abilities.
📹 Magic Rules You Might Be Getting Wrong
Answering some tricky Magic rules questions from my viewers. Patreon https://www.patreon.com/edhdeckbuilding TCGPlayer …
Can you counter a spell with itself?
It is not possible to direct a counterspell at its own source; however, a counterspell may be directed at the redirect in order to counter it indirectly. When the spell “Redirect” is cast, it is not possible to modify a spell that is targeting another spell on the stack so that it targets itself. Nevertheless, modifying the spell’s target to Redirect will negate the spell upon its attempted resolution, as Redirect has been removed from the stack.
Can you counter a played spell?
In order to negate the effects of a spell or ability, it is necessary to cancel it from the stack without allowing it to be resolved and placed in the graveyard of its owner. The player who initiated the casting or activation of the countered spell or ability is not entitled to a refund of any costs incurred.
What is the counter spell rule?
When trying to interrupt a creature during a spell, the spell fails if the creature is casting a spell of 3rd level or lower. If the creature is casting a spell of 4th level or higher, the DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. If successful, the spell fails and has no effect. If the spell is cast using a 4th level or higher slot, the interrupted spell has no effect. A reaction is taken when a creature is within 60 feet of the player.
Can you counter copies of spells?
A growing number of cards can copy permanent spells, which become tokens once they resolve. However, these copies are still spells until they leave the stack, which can be countered, re-copied, or targeted like other spells on the stack. Two spells have a specific clause stating “This spell can’t be copied”, while Display of Power and See Double can copy multiple spells at a time to avoid an infinite loop.
A copy of a spell is similar to an ability, not represented by a physical marker, and players remember it on the stack until it resolves or leaves the stack. This logic was modified in Zendikar Rising to allow permanent spell copies to function.
Can you counterspell innate spells?
In order to counterspell a spell, it must first be perceived as being cast. This is due to the fact that innate spellcasting features which do not possess verbal or somatic components cannot be counterspelled. This may be attributed to the fact that JavaScript is either disabled or blocked by an extension, or that the browser in question does not support cookies.
Can you counter your own instant?
Coyping a counterspell allows you to counter it with a new copy of the counterspell. However, if someone is trying to counter your spell, you might as well copy your own spell instead. If you have mana in a red deck and someone cancels any of your spells, you can counter the counter using the Cancel. Reverberate doesn’t make the copy red, but it can be used to counter enchantments or Blue Elemental Blasts. Infernox works by reverberating their Cancel and then canceling it.
Do copied spells count for storm?
Storm copies are not cast; thus, they do not generate their own storm copies and are not counted by other storm spells. Cards such as Twincast, which are capable of replicating a spell with the Storm mechanic, merely result in the generation of a single novel spell.
Can you counterspell item spells?
It would be beneficial to ascertain whether magic items can be counterspelled. Affirmative. This is the case when the item in question indicates that a spell is being cast. Nevertheless, it is open to question whether one can interrupt oneself. However, if one is seeking a dramatic or humorous moment, it is probable that this is the case. It is a given that cantrips, which are considered to be at level 0, are automatically counterspelled. This presents a potential challenge.
Can you negate an equip spell?
Equip Spell Cards are used to equip face-up monsters on the field, with their effect remaining on the monster even when negated. Equip Cards can be equipped to monsters controlled by either player, and changing the control of a monster does not change the control of an Equip Card. The Equip Card’s controller is the one referred to “you” in the card text, not the monster’s controller. Examples of ATK-boosting Equip Spells include “Daemon’s Axe”, DEF-boosting Equip Spells like “Horn of Light”, and some Equip Spell Cards that change the control of the equipped monster, such as “Snatch Steal”.
What is the rule for instants in MTG?
Instants are one-shot or short-term magical spells that do not appear on the battlefield. They take effect when their mana cost is paid and the spell resolves, and are immediately placed in the player’s graveyard. Instants are the only card type in Magic with no timing restrictions, allowing them to be played at any time, including during other player’s turns and while another spell or ability is waiting to resolve.
What cannot be counterspelled?
The function of Counterspell is to halt the utilization of a particular form of magic, rather than indiscriminately disrupting all forms of magic. It should be noted that this does not apply to a dragon’s breath attack, despite it being a form of magic. This is analogous to the manner in which ad blockers can disable or block JavaScript, and browsers may not support cookies.
Interesting additional tidbit about ownership, if your opponent is borroing one of your decks to play, they are considered the “owner” of those cards during the game, but in the case of stickers are not allowed per the rules to put actual stickers on your cards (they would have to use a non-sticker method of tracking them).
108.3: The owner of a card in the game is the player who started the game with it in their deck. If a card is brought into the game from outside the game rather than starting in a player’s deck, its owner is the player who brought it into the game. If a card starts the game in the command zone, its owner is the player who put it into the command zone to start the game. Legal ownership of a card in the game is irrelevant to the game rules except for the rules for ante. As noted, legal ownership of a card has no relevance as to who the owner of the card is by game rules. This is most relevant if you are letting someone else use your deck in a game. Despite being the legal owner of the deck, you do not own any cards in that deck during the game
I belive the person confused about tapping/tap-symbol was talking more along the lines of, what if Azami said “all wizards gain ‘(T): draw a card'” versus what she does say “tap un untapped wizard: draw a card”. It’s the presence of the tap-symbol versus oracle text saying the word “tap”. Tap-symbol effects can’t be used by creatures that have summoning sickness, but cards that read tap can.
Corrosion is a very good card, but for specific situations only and that is its flaw. It works only on your upkeep and doesn’t stop your opponent from using their artifacts. If an opponent wants to just go ahead by playing a Dockside Extortionist and use all their mana (either for comboing off or just to put more stuff in play), the Corrosion does nothing.
Meticulous excavation would be a cool card from brothers war to highlight for rulings. Since its designed in a way to get unearthed cards back by bypassing the replacement effect. (2W: Return target permanent you control to its owner’s hand. If it has unearth, instead exile it, then return that card to its owner’s hand. Activate only during your turn.)
I think there’s some semantics on the first one. I’m not sure if it ever worked the old way (actually if somebody has proof please let me know because now I’m curious), but regardless, yes, you are correct that return to dust will exile the remaining target if one becomes illegal. But it sounded like they were asking what happens if you cast Hex on six of your opponent’s creatures and they Lazotep Plating, in which case Hex would fizzle as all of its targets are illegal when it tries to resolve. Also fun fact, if one of Biomantic Mastery’s targets become illegal, I’m like 95% sure it will still count their creatures due to some weird rules bullshit. Small addition on the second, I believe specifically owner is defined as the player whose deck the card began the game in. So people can’t lend a friend a deck and be like “Hurhur, I technically own that card.”
I think it would be interresting if you made a article about Ranar the ever-watchful’s errata and how it affects playing him. He’s such a popular commander and I think a lot of people are playing him wrong, which is interresting to me at least. In case you didn’t know: he’s been errataed twice because the first time made it so foretell didnt trigger him, now he does trigger when you foretell, but not when the exile is part of a cost, like with inquisitive puppet
If something can have 0 as the “number of counters on it,” it always at all times has 0 counters of every type on it until modified and things like triggers that reference the number of counters would still resolve. You’d have random 0/0s spawning from creatures with “zero +1/+1” counters on it dying, then those 0/0s die as a state based action, triggering more stuff. Never seen anyone argue the second scenario is what happens with these kinds of counter related triggers.
About the first one: I hate when WotC changes rules. Why the hell do they keep doing that :-/ Most of the time the old rules actually made way more sense. (E.g. redirecting dmg towards planeswalkers, old step between damage and state based actions where you would react with regenerate etc.). Changing rules and then needing to errata cards all the time is just shitty design.
I have a question. If a card says something to the effect of “double the numbers of counters gained” like with the green phyrexian praetor, does that also apply to negative effects? Could I as an opponent flood his creatures with -1/-1 counters and have those effect doubled against his will? Could I double the slug counters I’m putting on his creatures using my toxikrill?
Watched back the part about Corrosion back several times now to make sure I get the argument. And I’m not sure I agree with your point about destroying the zero mana artifacts with zero counters on it. As you pointed out the periods are important. So lets take out the segment between periods this is about: “Then destroy each artifact with mana value less than or equal to the number of rust counters on it.” Now put some emphasis on pronouncing the last two words, ON IT. How can it be it destroys artifacts were you cannot point to the counter this line is talking about? Zero counters on it, means there or no counters on it, therefore it does not belong to the set of artifacts that are checked by Corrosion. Love the website and thank you for this article that gets me thinking again and not just assume I always understand the rules correctly 🙂
Titania’s Song is a better Artifact hate card than March of the Machines or Corrosion. Not only does it shut down abilities, the effect also persists until the end of the turn the Song is destroyed, so a player can’t just untap, destroy the Song and then use all their mana rocks/altars/equipment/etc. And since the effect persists for the entire turn, any 0-mana non-creature Artifact that is put into play that turn will still turn into a 0/0 creature with no abilities.
Here’s one: a guy in my group runs Temur Ascendency and plays a Theros devotion god. He claims that the god enters the battlefield as a creature, then checks for devotion, finds it insufficient and “shuts off,” but since it entered as a creature he draws a card. I am 1000% sure this is wrong but I’m not sure how to explain it.
If you have a card that changes the target of a spell does the new target need to be a legal one? Like for example could one change the target of a counter spell to spelskite using it’s activated ability? Also if i cast a curse on someone and then I die does the curse stay on the field till they die?
Rules Question: How does Ranar, the Ever-Watchful interact with myriad? Scenario: Let’s assume it’s a four-person game. Ranar, the Ever-Watchful, Legion Loyalty, and four 1/1 spirit tokens are on my board. I attack one opponent with all four 1/1 spirit tokens. Due to Legion Loyalty’s ability, I create token copies of all four spirits for each of the two other opponents (a total of eight copies). Myriad states that the copies are exiled at the end of combat. The exiling of the token copies will trigger Ranar, but how many times? Option 1: Each token being exiled is a separate event that triggers Ranar individually. Ranar triggers eight times. Option 2: The myriad ability comes from the four tokens in play. So there are four sources of cards being exiled. Ranar triggers four times. Option 3: All the tokens are exiled in one event at the end of combat. Ranar triggers one time.
So i have a special question for the Commander Format. I am normally the guy how knows the rules of magic, but a few days ago my playgroup got together, and someone saod there werr Commander specific rules. First one: do your permants lesve play if u lost the match ans someone stole it before? Imo they do. Second one: do u still get your triggers ok the stack and resolve them i.e. for getting dmg if u took leathal dmg and lost the game? In single player i know it doesnt. Is this different in commander? Thanks!
Magic Names You Might Be Getting Wrong: every single japanese-influenced name that comes up. 7:23 A simple rule to remember is that vowel sounds are very consistent in japanese. In “Azami” the sound you’re making during the first “a” and second “a” should sound the same. Currently making a bit of an “uh” then “aa” sound differently.
A rule many players don’t know is when you gain control of another player’s creature it gains summoning sickness again even if it has been in play for multiple turns already. This is why act of treason cards give them haste until end of turn. But cards like Veldalken shackles doesn’t give haste and you must wait to attack due to it having summoning sickness.
I believe you are still wrong about corrosion because I was about to buy one I checked out the rulings on orcale and this what it said. Only puts rust counters on artifacts your opponents control, but destroys all artifacts with rust counters on them, even your own. When it leaves the battlefield, it removes all rust counters, not just those that happen to be on artifacts. As you notice the ruling says destroy all artifacts with rust counters on them.
Never heared of Corrosion, but I’m not with you about it. If an artifact has no rust counters on it, it can’t be equal to the rust counters. In programming terms it is the difference between 0 and NULL. The one says “I count the rust conters and my result is 0” the other is “there are no rust counters on it”. Or even more common the toilet paper example: “The roll is empty” vs “ther is no roll” In my oppinion the rules text of the card specificly says to count the rust counters on cards and compare it to the mana value. If no counters are on the cards, it can’t be count from beginn with and therfore doesn’t compare it to the mana value. Unluckly I didn’t found Judge decisions about this scenario. So it is more a personal view of how I (or you) would interpret the text. At the moment both sides would be equaly correct. /e I tried to find somethin similar with MTGAssist.com. If your interpretation would be used to Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager then every single times he dies you get at least a 0/0 creature, because I count the +1/+1 counters, there are zero on him, so I got a 0/0. It would dies on an instant, but ETB, LTB or Die-trigger happen. But everyone is common sense with this creature, if no counters are on Grakmaw, nothing happens.