I'm recently switching over to a blue deck and I am just curious, why is Spell Snare good? Often times it's a dead card in your hand. And even against decks with a lot of 2 CMC cards such as BGx Rock, it can still be a dead card in your hand.
Since modern is a format where games can end on turn four, it's often important to get the best use out of your mana. This often means jamming a lot of cards in the 1-3cmc range in a deck. Most decks run a plethora of two drops, and spell snare is a hard counter. It is not one your opponent can pay out of like mana leak, it hits every two drop whether it's a creature, instant, or sorcery. It allows you to take care of your opponents two drop on the draw.
I've actually kind of been wondering about this myself (although I was actually thinking about Chalice of the Void on 2), from the tier 1 decks (on here) it hits in maindecks:
the communist manatee pretty much hit the nail on the head there. spell snare is good because it has strong targets against many commonly played competitive decks. that said, you don't want to be running 4, I think 2 is the right number.
Another important aspectvis that it often wins counter wars. They play something like Scapeshift or Splinter Twin backed by a counter, you counter their game-winning spell, they counter your counterspell with something like Mana Leak or Remand or Negate, you Snare that and come out on top.
Dispel does it better ofc, but Remand does that on top of countering so many other good spells.
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Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
The strenght of Snare is subtle, but if you study each modern deck, you will systematically find insanely important cards at the 2-drop slot, and they're often hard to answer ones, too. Tarmogoyf doesn't die to red removal, Snapcaster generates value when it hits the battlefield, Summer Bloom only exists on the stack, Pyromancer Ascension and Cranial Plating are very hard to remove once they hit the field (especially in the maindeck), etc. And Spell snare not only counters them all, but it doesn't leave them a window to resolve them on turn two if you're on the draw. Yes, sometimes you'll topdeck it late and it will just so happen your opponent doesn't draw a two drop before the game ends, but by that time remand and mana leak are also probably dead.
It's not versatile enough that you want to run the full playset most of the time, but it's so rarely dead (Living End being the only deck I can think of that dodges it) that it's very much worth it. I like it as a 2 of in twin, and I could see literally any other legal number being right, depending on the problems your deck has in certain matchups.
And by the way, it's interestingly the best counterspell you can have against affiny, because every other counterspell is too slow, and this one hits all of the spells they need to make their 0/2s and 1/1 into something remotely threatening (Plating, Ravager, Steel Overseer).
It's not right against every deck, but it does counter some very important spells, like Tarmogoyf, Snapcaster, Boros Charm, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Mana Leak, and so many others.
Infect: Blighted Agent, Ichorclaw Myr, Apostles Blessing and Spellskite
Affinity: Arcbound Ravager, Steel Overseer and Cranial Plating
Abzan: Dark Confidant?, Tarmogoyf, Scavenging Ooze, Voice of Resurgence and Zealous Persecution?
Burn: Skullcrack, Boros Charm, Searing Blaze, Searing Blood, Lightning Helix, Eidolon of the Great Revel and Atarka's Command
Twin: Remand, Mana Leak, Anticipate?, Telling Time?, Snapcaster Mage and Izzet Charm
I can update this list to include Tier 2 if people want me to?
Starting Tier 2:
Tempo Twin: Tarmogoyf, Scavenging Ooze, Snapcaster Mage, Spellskite, Remand and Terminate
MonoU Tron: Dimir Signet and friends, Remand, Talisman of Dominance etc and Cyclonic Rift?
Jund: Tarmogoyf, Scavenging Ooze, Terminate and Dark Confidant?
BW Tokens: Raise the Alarm, Gather the Townsfolk, Honor of the Pure, Intangible Virtue, Zealous Persecution and Doom Blade variants
UR Storm: Peer Through Depths? Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Manamorphose, Goblin Electromancer, Pyromancer's Ascension and a copy of Grapeshot (I'm assuming Chalice doesn't work vs Storm either right?)
Wilted Abzan: Voice of Resurgence, Zealous Persecution, Quasali Pridemage and Tidehollow Sculler?
Zoo: Tarmogoyf, Lightning Helix, a huge list of two drop creatures like Flinthoof Boar that I don't want to add to this already huge post :P, Boros Charm and Tribal Flames
Living End: Swing and miss! Not many decks with no two drops but this one does it!
Merfolk: Silvergill Adept, Lord of Atlantis, Master of the Pearl Trident, Spellskite, Phantasmal Image, Mana Leak, Remand and Spreading Seas noteworthy that often Aether Vial or Cavern of Souls is going to mess this up.
UWR Control: Snapcaster Mage, Mana Leak, Remand, Izzet Charm, Lightning Helix and Think Twice
Blue Moon: Snapcaster Mage, Mana Leak, Remand and Izzet Charm
R/G Tron: Sylvan Scrying and Pyroclasm
RUG Scapeshift: Snapcaster Mage, Mana Leak, Remand, Izzet Charm, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Peer Through Depths, Anticipate, Telling Time, Explore? and Prismatic Omen
UWr Geist: Snapcaster Mage, Mana Leak, Remand, Izzet Charm and Lighting Helix
Bogles: Daybreak Coronet, Spirit Mantle, Kor Spiritdancer
Ad Nauseam: Pentad Prism and Peer Through Depths
Amulet Bloom: Summer Bloom
*collapses and dies*
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Dispel does it better ofc, but Remand does that on top of countering so many other good spells.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
It's not versatile enough that you want to run the full playset most of the time, but it's so rarely dead (Living End being the only deck I can think of that dodges it) that it's very much worth it. I like it as a 2 of in twin, and I could see literally any other legal number being right, depending on the problems your deck has in certain matchups.
And by the way, it's interestingly the best counterspell you can have against affiny, because every other counterspell is too slow, and this one hits all of the spells they need to make their 0/2s and 1/1 into something remotely threatening (Plating, Ravager, Steel Overseer).
EDIT: hmmm. Didn't realize this was a semi necro.
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