Counterspell is an evergreen keyword action that can only counter a spell, which is a card or copy of a card on the stack. It cannot counter instant spells, sorcery spells, or creatures. However, certain spells and abilities can “counter target spell” (or similar effects).
When you cast a spell, it is placed onto the stack, and when you take a nonland card from your hand and pay its mana cost to play it, you are casting a spell. Counterspell can counter instant spells, sorcery spells, and creatures. However, you cannot counter an ability with an effect that says counter target spell.
Some counter spells only work against creature spells, as they are not spells. The only way to counter a creature’s activated ability is through a card like Stifle that specifically states “counter target activated”.
Creatures, artifacts, and enchantments have always been spells that could be countered, and now planeswalkers are also possible. Counterspell does not deal with abilities because abilities are not spells. Cards like Voidslime, Stifle, and Trickbind do deal with abilities.
Creatures, artifacts, and enchantments have always been spells that could be countered, but they cannot target a creature spell on the stack. Counterspells can only target the creature while on the battlefield, just like you couldn’t cast Doom Blade.
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Does Counterspell target a creature in 5e?
The spell’s immunity affects the creature casting the spell, with a clear distinction between targeting the spell and targeting the caster. This interpretation is corroborated by both the Dungeon Master’s ruling and the statements made by Jeremy Crawford on his Twitter account.
Can you counter a mana ability?
A player can activate an activated mana ability whenever they have priority, during spell casting, or when a rule or effect asks for a mana payment. This ability doesn’t go on the stack and can’t be targeted or countered. It resolves immediately after activation and cannot be activated again until it has resolved. For example, an enchantment states that a player can add one mana of any type to a land when tapping it for mana, which can be used to pay for a spell.
Can a counterspell target 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.
Does counterspell work on creature abilities?
Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is a complex game that incorporates various abilities, spells, and abilities. These abilities are essential for keeping the game dynamic and engaging. Modern sets have more creatures with abilities, and WotC is pushing design space on cards. Abilities are any rules text on cards, even on instants and sorceries. They can be positive or negative, depending on the situation.
Counterspell, for example, only counters spells, while Stifle and Disallow are cards that specifically counter abilities. Despite the complexity of the game, it is possible to spin negative abilities into positive ones, making it a dynamic and engaging experience for players.
What does counterspell target?
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 counterspell target items?
In a recent statement, Jeremy Crawford clarified that counterspell is designed to target any creature casting a spell, regardless of whether the source is a creature or an item.
Does the counter target spell include creatures?
Counter a target spell by placing the card on the battlefield under your control instead of its owner’s graveyard. Creature and enchantment spells cannot be countered. If the spell’s controller pays, create a 1/1 colorless Eldrazi Scion creature token with “Sacrifice this creature: Add”. Create X 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature tokens with flying, where X is the spell’s mana value.
Does a countered spell still target?
The text explains that choosing targets is a crucial part of casting a spell, and once chosen, it becomes targeted. In the case of a Phantasmal Dragon, the opponent casts an Unsummon on it, and the player casts Cancel on it. The question arises whether the player should sacrifice the Phantasmal Dragon as it was the target of the Unsummon or if countering the Unsummon invalidates its targeting. The text provides a summary of the concept of choosing targets and their impact on spells.
Do creature abilities count as spells?
Activated and triggered abilities on the stack are not spells and cannot be countered by effects that specifically counter abilities. Static abilities, which don’t use the stack, cannot be countered at all. Ability categories include spell abilities, activated abilities, triggered abilities, and static abilities. Some activated or triggered abilities are also mana abilities, while some static abilities are evasion abilities or characteristic-defining abilities.
Some abilities may be indicated by a keyword, and certain card types grant intrinsic abilities. Each separate ability of a card is listed on a different line, functioning independently of each other. Removing abilities is not common, but removing creature abilities falls under White and Blue’s color pie.
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.
How do counter spells work?
Certain spells and abilities can “counter target spells” or similar effects, which are evergreen keyword actions. A spell that is countered is put into the graveyard instead of doing its effect, negating it. Counterspells or permission spells may have conditions, such as forcing a player to pay additional mana. Most counterspell cards are blue, with white being tertiary. Counterspells in other colors only existed in the early days of Magic and the Time Spiral block. The most recent off-color counterspell is Verdant Command from Modern Horizons 2, which is green.
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As much as I enjoy the articles where we get to see Gavin’s lovely face, there’s something very satisfying about these kind of more edited articles. Anyways, my favorite Counterspell art is Ice Age. There’s something so cool about the image of this woman with magic so potent that it literally streams off of her fingers. And that flavor text really captures the feeling of getting someone who wasn’t expecting it.
This is probably not the right article, but this has been bugging me for a few weeks now There are 2 pieces of criticism I would like to put out about how the commander decks are being released right now 1) I really like how each set gets 2 (or in the case of the dnd set, 4) commander decks that are tied with it, but one thing I am not a fan of it how the spring set gets the yearly 5 commander decks. I would much prefer the core set to get this treatment, that way more of the multiverse can be explored, which means that there is a chance for worlds not in stanard to get a deck for them, and for each world to not get more than one, which I ask for because in both the case of Ikoria and Strixhaven, those were my least favorite worlds in their respective “blocks”. 2) This is minor compared to the first point, but can you please have all the basic lands of each type in a precon deck be the same artwork? I recently got my hands on the Sneak Attack and Phantasmal Precognition decks, as well as Silverquill Statement, and aesthetically, having all the basic lands of each type being the same art just looks much cleaner and nicer, and having differing artworks for basic lands of the same type just looks sloppy.
I don’t understand what you mean by the debate over which art is the best. As far as I’m concerned, Mark Poole’s counterspell is the only one that’s canon and all the rest might as well be deviantart pages. I’m only kidding, 7th edition counterspell is actually my personal favorite in terms of artwork. With Ice Age being a very close number 2 and Signature Spellbook Jace being right up there at number 3. They’re all fantastic. Now tell wizards to give us a seb mckinnon counterspell or we riot!!!!
My favorite is probably the Hannibal King art they started putting in 5th edition. he looks so crestfallen, it always cracks a smile from me, seeing it. otherwise, I cannot deny the amazing compositional work on the Rindo Karasuba JP Mystical Archive version, even if I have my qualms with Project Booster Fun.
I’ll never forget the Starter 99 version of the card. Since the rules were so vague and simplified for Starter, there didn’t seem to be any explanation as to how countering spells worked (as well as a few mechanics like first strike and trample I’d seen in the actual expansions). I don’t remember exactly what we did, but my sibling and I kinda made up our own rules for the effect. I think it still played out basically like this but it’s been so long it’s hard to recall. And for the reason also, the Hannibal King art is easily my go-to art choice. I just wish it had a non-foil black border printing!!
I wouldn’t be in favor of crafting standard around Counter Spell. I think Lightning Bolt should regularly be in standard (the difference between “3 toughness matters” and “4 toughness matters” standard is often Bolt), but it’s easy enough to craft around (maybe throw in some efficient instant life gain to “counter” a bolt to the face; maybe on a maindeckable charm?); but I’d be far more interested in balancing standard around Fetchland reprints in Zendikar sets and Shockland reprints in Ravnica. Feel free to preemptively ban fetches in Pioneer if you like; but the virtues of having an essential game piece in $4 boosters far outweigh the cost of having to ban something in a format. Frankly, I’d be very interested in seeing Fetchland “hate” in standard – maybe a hasty goblin that gets +1/+0 for each land in your opponent’s graveyard, a 3/3 beast for 2G with Flash you could play for free if your opponent sacrifices a land, a Magnus of the Probe, maybe a hate bear that gains you 5 life whenever an opponent sacrifices a land, so forth and so on. Obviously Zendikar and Ravnica need to be separated by 2 years (or 18 months if you’re feeling spicy). I’d also be interested in CIPT legendary typed lands that you could tutor up for with fetchlands. These feel like they’d be good rares and excellent mythics – they’d be absolutely unplayable in commander w/o affordable fetchlands. Think of it this way – Modern players need playsets of each fetchland; but commander players? They might have a dozen decks, so they might need a half dozen copies of each.
I’m glad Counterspell’s finally going to be in Modern. While I never played competitively, I started early enough (Ice Age) that Modern never quite felt like Magic without Counterspell to me (and I say that as someone whose least favorite thing to play or play against is Control). I think I’ll always have a soft spot for the Mercadian Masques art, though. That was around the time of my only sojourn into old Standard/Type II events at one of my LGS, and my main play partner almost always played some form of Blue Control.
Ironically, when I began playing in Unlimited, I was a huge control fan and played my counterspells with delight. As I have played over the years I have found that regardless of my own enjoyment of telling people “no”, counterspell decks aren’t fun to play against….and isn’t that why we are all here? I began to stop playing counter decks around 10th edition and to this day, I don’t play standard decks or decks of any other format (other than Legacy and Vintage) with counterspells of any kind in them. I refuse. Sure I want to win, and sure I want to have fun, but as I have gotten older, I also want my opponent to have fun. Playing a deck where all you do is tell people “I’m sorry you can’t play that card” isn’t fun. I now play decks that respond and typically kill what ever it is they cast, but at least everyone is having fun, they get their etb’s, they get their big combo for a little bit…..does it mean I don’t do as well as others….yes. Does it mean everyone I play against and myself have fun yes. Its also part of the reason during my time at WOTC I strongly pushed for Counterspells to be removed from intro decks and learn to play decks. Its not fun for new players to experience this. It takes the wind out of new players who are on the receiving end of this constant no you can’t play anything and I kill you with 1/1’s. I’ve seen dozens of player quit either during learning the game or during their first event because they didn’t play blue counterspells. That’s not what magic should be about and its just not fun.
It would be interesting to see an insider’s take on the core gameplay mechanic of denial and how it is used (or ignored) across the color pie. To me it feels like any time there’s a version of a deck that can run blue (for counters) or black (for discard) to protect the deck’s goals, that is always the optimal version of the deck to be playing. Green does have Hexproof to deny removal (or Indestructible to deny sweepers) but white rarely gets either of those and red gets basically nothing. It’s good that colors interact with the same core gameplay mechanics in their own unique way (and that means some will be better than others even when the mechanic stops only existing in one color) and I think denial is the next one that should be looked at (now that card draw is, almost, fixed across the color pie).
I started playing magic in 2010’s and really had no idea what I was doing at the time. A friend let me dig through his old collection of random cards and told me I could keep whatever I wanted. I found a seventh edition counterspell and have since been most fond of that cards art. The strixhaven promo does look pretty sick too though.
Jace v Chandra artwork is my favorite. Many counterspells depict something being deflected or dissipated but I think that one in particular captures a sense of a powerful force turning aside another powerful force. The curving, magical arcs really sell that feeling of motion and the colors pop nicely. Mystical Archives are great in general too. I love the occasional art treatment that is more abstract than strictly representational, especially since we don’t see a lot of those anymore.
A couple things I wanted to clarify and/or correct: -Indestructible means a creature can’t die from “destroy” effects or from damage. -Crew is a keyword from Kaldheim, not Strixhaven. -Decayed also means the creature with Decayed cannot block. -I forgot to mention “Investigate” under the Midnight Hunt section. When you Investigate, you create a colorless artifact Clue token, which you can pay 2 mana and sacrifice in order to draw a card. Also, a full table of contents is listed in the description by section.
hey so ward you mispoke on (and it said also said this in the keyword description) but with ward, you can still target, but all abilities/spells get countered unless you pay that extra two. most people play in such a way that they say “can’t be targeted” but really its more of a triggered ability that responds to cast
At the end of the section about “Protection from…” you inserted an aside-comment on “indestructible” not preventing the exile effect of Borrowed Time (which is true, exile is not destruction). Then you were almost about to say that “Protection from …” also wouldn’t prevent this, but caught the mistake. But then you said that in this case, it would be prevented because Borrowed Time is an enchantment, which is wrong. Borrowed Time is an enchantment, yes, but it doesn’t try to enchant/equip the exiled card, so it doesn’t come under the E of DEBT. It does, however come under the T, because it targets the card it wants to exile. I’m sure this was just a brain fart that happened because you went off-script for that aside comment. At least you seem to have a very thorough understanding of the rules and how stuff works. As a side note: Keyword abilities (and other abilities too) only function while on the Battlefield (in play) – except if the ability specifically says otherwise (such as Flash).
Trample is an interesting combat ability, as it has interactions with both Deathtouch and additional sources of damage, such as Double Strike or damage spells. Basically, every time a creature takes damage from any source, that damage is “marked on” that creature until the turn is over. Trample says, you only need to mark additional damage from attacking until the creature has “lethal” damage marked on it. Any amount of Deathtouch damage is considered lethal, so if a 6/6 Deathtouch Trample creature is blocked by another 6/6 creature, you only need to mark 1 damage on that creature and can let the remaining 5 damage go through to the defending player or planeswalker. Similarly, if a 2/2 Double Strike Trampler attacks and gets blocked by a 3/3, it marks 2 damage on that blocker during the first strike damage step, and then during normal damage only needs to mark another 1 damage on that creature to assign lethal damage, allowing the remaining 1 point of damage to “trample over”. Trample may easily be one of the most versatile combat keywords in the game, as it allows you to push damage through blockers in so many different and potentially unexpected ways.
What i really need is an immersive intuitive card game that doesn’t require me to a.) unlock cards with mechanics and more often b.) lets me know instantly what a card does without the need to read everything. Cause the cover pictures are nice for every card but they don’t tell me the ability in a neat way. (sorry)