3 Mana Counters and More

It's number 97! That leaves me with two more articles before number 100!

Three is another important number in Magic.

It’s the deadliest number in Vintage, for example, because Yawgmoth’s Will and Tinker both cost three. It’s a helpful adage in Vintage that if something costs more than three, it had better win you the game. Those do, a lot.

Black Lotus, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Dark Ritual, and Mishra’s Workshop all produce three mana. Ancestral Recall and Brainstorm both draw you three cards. Ichorid and Ashen Ghoul attack for three, and sacrificing three of them lets you Dread Return. Grim Tutor costs three and makes its caster lose three life. Trinisphere makes everything cost at least three. Mind’s Desire and Yawgmoth’s Bargain both cost twice three, which is what Isamaru, Kataki, and True Believer (three white creatures) will attack for if they all swing together. Some decks play three basic lands!

Coincidence?!

More than bloody likely!

Anyway, tomorrow is a very special event, one unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. On November 30 (ten-times three!) at 6 p.m., the Gamers Lounge in Bowling Green is hosting an Odyssey Block Constructed tournament.

902 East Wooster St.
Bowling Green, OH 43402
(419) 352-0531

At least that’s what they tell me. I heard about this more than a month ago, and they do have it listed on their calendar, but I don’t know. (What I’m trying to say here is that I would probably call first if you’re really jonesing for OBC and nothing else will do).

I promised I’d offer up an overview of Odyssey block, but I’ll freely admit that I’d have no idea what I was talking about.

Most people’s lasting impressions of Odyssey is UG Madness. This was probably the deck that made me start spending more on cards, and I never even played it. My friend Josh bought the entire thing and got some Tropical Islands and a couple Forces of Will to go with it since we technically only played casual. It was the most unified killing machine we had seen, and there really weren’t many decks in our playgroup that could beat it.

Plus, UG Madness just refuses to die. It took home the crown at this year’s Legacy World Championship at Gencon, and has been played in at least three other formats as well. Some of its components even show up in Vintage as Oshawa Bazaar Stompy (don’t ask). All of its various incarnations look like fun to play—What warm-blooded American male doesn’t like taking beef into the red zone with protection?

Plus, to get back on my original theme of “three,” UG Madness kept up the long tradition of using quality, three-mana counterspells.

Usually, a counter has to cost two, so it becomes active before the really powerful spells start hitting. Counters in Vintage, for example end at two with Mana Drain (sometimes Mana Leak, now Rune Snag). If Drain cost three, I dare say it would be played, but nowhere near the degree to which it’s played now because half the time it would be available one turn too late and you’d have died to some Yawgmoth-fueled Tendrils of Agony.

In other formats three is okay.

Forbid was really good back in the day with Ophidian because Phid drew you into the lands you needed to pitch to buyback the Forbid. Whence, Forbidian. If you couldn’t buy it back, it didn’t matter because it was still a hard counter.

In UG Madness, Circular Logic was amazing. It might as well have been a hard counter all the time because it grew proportionally, if not exponentially, to your opponent’s ability to deal with it.

Just last Standard season we had Hinder, better known by it’s full name, Hinderbottom. It always was a hard counter, though it didn’t always get rid of the countered card. In fact, it never got rid of the card, just putting it out of reach.

Now we have Cancel. It’s new, it’s not especially splashy, but it gets the job done effectively in all of three words: “Counter target spell.” Clearly, it’s Wizards’ new full-time replacement for Counterspell. I honestly thought they might bring back the two-blue demon in Tenth Edition, but it doesn’t look that way now. It’ll be Cancel from here on out.

I’ve already said my piece on Counterspell in previous blogs—how cards like Remand and Mana Leak are just as good when it really matters for blue decks (i.e. all the time). And how they’re easier to cast and take less skill because it’s much easier to accidentally leave 1U up than it is to have UU. Don’t get me wrong, Remand and Mana Leak are good, and I use them, but I think that if Wizards is going to print them they might as well just put Counterspell back on the presses.

Oh well. It’s really the end of an era, I guess. The phrase, “Counter target spell.” with a period, will now cost at least three mana forever.

Anyway, if you want to use some four-year old cards in a decrepit format that nobody cares about, head for Bowling Green tomorrow. Maybe your Wild Mongrel won’t get taken by Faceless Butcher because you’ll bust out a three-mana counter for one mana, get the power-up, and win the game.