This card made a huge impact on the eternal formats when it saw the light of day. However, narrow 'window'-type counterspells like Spell Snare or Negate are rarely seen in many cubes, but Mental Misstep has several things going for it. In the spirit of getting some discussion going, here's what the card offers:
It's a free counter to some of the best spells in cube like Sol Ring, Land Tax, Lightning Bolt, Recall, Thoughtseize, Birds/Heirarch etc. Turn one plays are something most decks aim for and plan around, and this can scupper plans.
The thing that sets MM apart is that you don't need to keep mana up to cast it, ever. Even better, you can counter a one-drop even on the draw. Denying an aggro 2/1 on turn one, a Thoughtseize or Duress for your sweeper or a ramp deck's Birds, Elf or Dark Ritual even before your first turn is a swingy play. And if you're on the draw, you can lead with a one-drop and still pull out a surprise counter to removal or an opposing one-drop or filter spell like Ponder, Brainstorm, Preordain. It also ruins a lot of powerful early reanimator plays like Looting, Entomb and Reanimate itself.
You can run it an any colour deck. It can protect your early aggro drops from Burn/Force Spike/StP with no additional investment at all, which is cool. No-one expects their spell to be countered by R/G beats.
It's not as bad a topdeck as it looks. The majority of one-drops are reasonably likely to be played early on, but the relative occurrence of these in decks is pretty high, and the chance of freely countering burn or kill or Mana Tithe that was held back for a key creature, or a Pithing Needle for your 'walker, seems reasonable.
On the downside:
For all the versatily of when you play it (i.e. no strings attached), it is narrow. 1-drops are super important in most matchups, but only make up a narrow fraction of a deck. So you're restricted in targets. On the plus side, because you don't need to leave mana up, you can just do your thing and wait for a target.
The ability to drop a counter for free on the draw and/or despite curving out looks amazing, but would an aggro deck play it? In practice, it could go either way.
I haven't played with the card yet. This is all just theorycraft. But I think it could be fairly decent, particularly in the smaller cubes with lower CMCs.
Compared to Hydroblast, the card is not dead against 4 out of 5 colours, and furthermore, it's free. The average deck we draft has > 3.2 1 CMC drops in it, so I'm not quite sure what you mean. Looking at cube numbers isn't too useful here, as I'm more likely to maindeck all my 1 drops than I am all my 4 or 5 drops, for example.
I would add that many of the most important cards are 1-CC.
If you can counter a turn 1 Sol Ring, Dark Ritual, Thoughtseize, Noble Hierarch, or Goblin Guide, you are well on your way to winning. Later in the game, counter their Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile on your finisher while you're tapped out. Tell that combat-trick Lightning Bolt to get out. Counter game-winning spells like Ancestral Recall, Reanimate, or any of the Mirage Tutors. Even countering a Ponder, Preordain, or Brainstorm can seal a game.
Looking at the total number of cards you might want to counter is not a very useful way of approaching the problem. Rather, look at how many 1-drops there are in the average deck, and consider how important they are. The answer: usually several, and typically very important.
Also, this card can be played by any color (and for free), as opposed to (for example) Hydroblast.
Looking at the numbers in my list, the card is just as narrow as Hydroblast, with a bit less than 3.2 targets / player. This makes it a card that you probably don't want to maindeck.
it's reasonable to expect most decks will run 1cc cards. it's not reasonable to expect most decks will run red cards. we cube plenty of 1cc cards that suck after turn 1, this is a 0cc card that sometimes but doesn't always suck after turn 1. so i think it's probably better than you're giving it credit for.
When I see Healing Salve, I'm often like "Oh girl, I wish I could turn every card into this." Thanks they removed the gain life part, otherwise this would have been broken.
I think it's a card that should stay on people's radars as cubes inevitably end up running more one drops. At the moment though, a deck with 0-2 one drops is really quite common, and I wouldn't want mental misstep against such a deck.
I picked up a foil one once the price was acceptable in the case I would run it one day. Plus its a staple in the alternate 2v2 team cube format around here due to having double the numbers of players = more targets :).
I think Spell Snare is likely a far better counter. There's a greater concentration of 2cc spells in the cube, and a larger suite of targets to counter in the opponent's deck too. And by in large, the targets are higher quality in the cube environment. And I don't use that spell because I don't want to have counterspells stuck in my hand lacking targets when I could've used a different answer instead. I'm sure cards like Misstep and Snare are fine, but they're not the kinds of cards I want to maindeck in an environment as random and volatile as the cube. Constructed is a completely different story, because you know exactly what to expect and the metagame is stable.
I'd play Spell Pierce 100% of the time over this spell. Doing a quick recap I think I had a total of 7 1 drops in the last 4 decks I drafted. The card is horrible in comparison to Spell Pierce which I currently don't play. The number of cards Spell pierce can hit equates to practically half of the cube.
I'd play Spell Pierce 100% of the time over this spell. Doing a quick recap I think I had a total of 7 1 drops in the last 4 decks I drafted. The card is horrible in comparison to Spell Pierce which I currently don't play. The number of cards Spell pierce can hit equates to practically half of the cube.
Sounds more like bad drafting, or a too-high curve. I rarely have a deck without numerous one-drops, which could explain our experiences. If I have that few one-drops in my decks, I won't be able to run Misstep with success, but I imagine I would get randomly stomped a lot unless I'm in hard blue control.
I just don't like narrow cards like this in Cube (same with Spell Snare, Nix, Prohibit, Envelop, Dispel, etc.). I'd rather have cards that can interact with a wider range of possible scenarios.
I just don't like narrow cards like this in Cube (same with Spell Snare, Nix, Prohibit, Envelop, Dispel, etc.). I'd rather have cards that can interact with a wider range of possible scenarios.
-AA
Whilst this is understandable, it's very different when you have to hold up mana and hope for the right type of spell to come along, which already makes a card narrower. When it's just a case of holding onto the card until a target comes regardless of mana, it's a different matter. Plus, Misstep is the only one that lets me pre-empt a huge number of very significant turn one plays on and off the play.
I don't have concrete experience yet, but I played a bunch of drafts yesterday where it would have been extremely welcome in my decks. Like I say though, our curve is lower than many cubes. If your decks have on average 1.6 x one mana cards in them like HG's, it will obviously suck. Although it's then only terrible in the same way that Wrath of God is a terrible card when the only creature your opponent drafted is Manor Gargoyle. I'm set on giving it (and maybe Spell Snare, although the latter suffers the same issues as you described above) a shot at some point. The difference with Spell snare is that I have other options turn one/two to deal with those cards, like Force Spike, but I could always do with more, maybe.
Sounds more like bad drafting, or a too-high curve. I rarely have a deck without numerous one-drops, which could explain our experiences. If I have that few one-drops in my decks, I won't be able to run Misstep with success, but I imagine I would get randomly stomped a lot unless I'm in hard blue control.
There are whole archetypes that work perfectly well without a single 1-drop. Like the last deck that I drafted. This makes Mental Misstep quite awkward to run maindeck. And while there are certainly match-ups where it would be good, I am just not a fan of pure sideboard cards in cube (unlike Tom LaPille).
However, all decks will have multiple 2-drops, so Spell Snare might actually be interesting as a kind of third Force Spike effect (after the namesake and Daze). It counters less cards, but it retains its value during the whole game.
I can't think of a single deck I've ever played that didn't have at least 2 or 3 cards that only cost 1 mana.
Me either, though I can think of a lot of decks and times where I played zero 1 cost cards all games, or more likely, zero 1 cost cards worth using a card to counter.
There are whole archetypes that work perfectly well without a single 1-drop. Like the last deck that I drafted. This makes Mental Misstep quite awkward to run maindeck. And while there are certainly match-ups where it would be good, I am just not a fan of pure sideboard cards in cube (unlike Tom LaPille).
However, all decks will have multiple 2-drops, so Spell Snare might actually be interesting as a kind of third Force Spike effect (after the namesake and Daze). It counters less cards, but it retains its value during the whole game.
Thanks for the comment Star Slayer. In such an environment, it would be a horrible card, and it would indeed be a SB only card. I can say in all honesty though that I never run a deck without 2-3 one-drops, and usually I would run all those I draft. Only the hardest of hard monoblue control decks have as few as 2.
Spell Snare is a bit different because it has more targets, but also you have more options for dealing with the early two drops (like Force Spike, Mana Tithe and Daze if you run it). With MM you can run your game as normal in any deck and counter an aggro drop or removal/disruption without breaking your pace. It does something a little different from every counter out there, which piqued my interest. The possibility of turn zero countering on an Isamaru or Thoughtseize could be clutch, and although it loses a little value later, stuff like Path and StP and Lightning Bolt is regularly held back.
I agree though, Spell Snare could be worth reevaluation too inthe days since Dissension. I hope for a reprint, because I flogged my foil when it got expensive
Me either, though I can think of a lot of decks and times where I played zero 1 cost cards all games, or more likely, zero 1 cost cards worth using a card to counter.
This does happen, but the majority I think are worth countering for 2 life. Any removal, disruption, counterspell or aggro one drop I would say is worth the card to counter, and Sol Rings/Recalls even more so. Stuff like Ponder, Brainstorm and Preordain makes a less convincing case for countering, but it could ruin someone's day if they took a risky mana-light hand with one of the latter.
Some control and ramp decks just don't need 1 mana cards to be good. See the link above.
I wouldn't have built/drafted that deck. The shell is fine, but I would've dropped any number of cards from that list for good 1cc cards, which I would've drafted with higher priority. I don't even build hard control decks without multiple 1cc spells in them.
Thanks for the comment Star Slayer. In such an environment, it would be a horrible card, and it would indeed be a SB only card. I can say in all honesty though that I never run a deck without 2-3 one-drops, and usually I would run all those I draft. Only the hardest of hard monoblue control decks have as few as 2.
Well, decks without 1-drops don't happen all the time, but 1/3 of the decks in my cube certainly don't need their 1-drops. Unless you snatch a Sword or a Path, most 1-drops that those decks run can live with being countered, since it will cost the opponent a card and maybe even some live.
With MM you can run your game as normal in any deck and counter an aggro drop or removal/disruption without breaking your pace. It does something a little different from every counter out there, which piqued my interest.
This is certainly a good point and the reason why I got excited when you made your case for this overlooked card. However, after thinking about it a bit, I just came to the conclusion that the negatives outweigh the positives.
I wouldn't have built/drafted that deck. The shell is fine, but I would've dropped any number of cards from that list for good 1cc cards, which I would've drafted with higher priority. I don't even build hard control decks without multiple 1cc spells in them.
The thing is, for decks that don't need 1-drops (because laying a curve beginning on turn one isn't their game plan), 2-drops are just better because you can get more bang for you buck mana. Why should those decks use weaker cards that aren't needed?
Why should those decks use weaker cards that aren't needed?
Who said anything about weak 1-drops? I'm talking about cards that are great in control that only happen to cost 1 mana. There's a TON of them in the cube.
Who said anything about weak 1-drops? I'm talking about cards that are great in control that only happen to cost 1 mana. There's a TON of them in the cube.
Those decks don't want 1 mana creatures (with the exception of very few utility guys and maybe mana elves). This already reduces the amount of 1-drops quite a bit. And since their curve doesn't start on turn one and they don't plan to kill the opponent as quickly as possible, but rather make the game go longer, they have more time and more mana to cast their spells. Then, why not pay a bit more to get a better effect? Why not pick Flames of the Firebrand over Chain Lightning?
Who said anything about weak 1-drops? I'm talking about cards that are great in control that only happen to cost 1 mana. There's a TON of them in the cube.
I agree with this. Anything in blue, the white removal/land tax/mana tithe, all the black disruption and rituals, all the burn and Looting, and all the 1 mana artifacts. Pretty much everything that isn't a creature, and some of the 1-mana creatures are still pretty good in control, like Lavamancer, Cryptologist and Mother of Runes. My control decks often run 'em, anyway. Maybe it's a group-dependent thing *shrugs*.
Sometimes I need that one-drop or two-drop dead on turn one, before it starts beating my face.
Those decks don't want 1 mana creatures (with the exception of very few utility guys and maybe mana elves). This already reduces the amount of 1-drops quite a bit. And since their curve doesn't start on turn one and they don't plan to kill the opponent as quickly as possible, but rather make the game go longer, they have more time and more mana to cast their spells. Then, why not pay a bit more to get a better effect? Why not pick Flames of the Firebrand over Chain Lightning?
I may very well pick Flames over Chain Lightning. But there are a lot of decent 1cc creatures, and a TON of great 1cc spells that I'd include over more expensive spells in control. Especially since I'm bound to have enough better 3+cc cards, and looking for more spells that are good spells in the early stages of the game. Ponders, Brainstorms, Path, Swords, Tutors, so on and so forth.
A reason may be that I have a 600 cards cube, so the really nuts 1-drops show up less often than in smaller cubes. There are enough aggressive 1-drops to support aggro at 600 cards, but I probably don't run more of the 1-drops that are good in every deck than smaller cubes. Simply because there aren't enough of those.
There's still more than enough of them that it would be incredibly rare for me to build a control deck without at least a couple of them. Even when I draft huge cubes (720+), control decks feature multiple 1cc cards.
This card made a huge impact on the eternal formats when it saw the light of day. However, narrow 'window'-type counterspells like Spell Snare or Negate are rarely seen in many cubes, but Mental Misstep has several things going for it. In the spirit of getting some discussion going, here's what the card offers:
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
If you can counter a turn 1 Sol Ring, Dark Ritual, Thoughtseize, Noble Hierarch, or Goblin Guide, you are well on your way to winning. Later in the game, counter their Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile on your finisher while you're tapped out. Tell that combat-trick Lightning Bolt to get out. Counter game-winning spells like Ancestral Recall, Reanimate, or any of the Mirage Tutors. Even countering a Ponder, Preordain, or Brainstorm can seal a game.
Looking at the total number of cards you might want to counter is not a very useful way of approaching the problem. Rather, look at how many 1-drops there are in the average deck, and consider how important they are. The answer: usually several, and typically very important.
Also, this card can be played by any color (and for free), as opposed to (for example) Hydroblast.
it's reasonable to expect most decks will run 1cc cards. it's not reasonable to expect most decks will run red cards. we cube plenty of 1cc cards that suck after turn 1, this is a 0cc card that sometimes but doesn't always suck after turn 1. so i think it's probably better than you're giving it credit for.
Draft it on Cubetutor!
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Sounds more like bad drafting, or a too-high curve. I rarely have a deck without numerous one-drops, which could explain our experiences. If I have that few one-drops in my decks, I won't be able to run Misstep with success, but I imagine I would get randomly stomped a lot unless I'm in hard blue control.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
-AA
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Whilst this is understandable, it's very different when you have to hold up mana and hope for the right type of spell to come along, which already makes a card narrower. When it's just a case of holding onto the card until a target comes regardless of mana, it's a different matter. Plus, Misstep is the only one that lets me pre-empt a huge number of very significant turn one plays on and off the play.
I don't have concrete experience yet, but I played a bunch of drafts yesterday where it would have been extremely welcome in my decks. Like I say though, our curve is lower than many cubes. If your decks have on average 1.6 x one mana cards in them like HG's, it will obviously suck. Although it's then only terrible in the same way that Wrath of God is a terrible card when the only creature your opponent drafted is Manor Gargoyle. I'm set on giving it (and maybe Spell Snare, although the latter suffers the same issues as you described above) a shot at some point. The difference with Spell snare is that I have other options turn one/two to deal with those cards, like Force Spike, but I could always do with more, maybe.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
There are whole archetypes that work perfectly well without a single 1-drop. Like the last deck that I drafted. This makes Mental Misstep quite awkward to run maindeck. And while there are certainly match-ups where it would be good, I am just not a fan of pure sideboard cards in cube (unlike Tom LaPille).
However, all decks will have multiple 2-drops, so Spell Snare might actually be interesting as a kind of third Force Spike effect (after the namesake and Daze). It counters less cards, but it retains its value during the whole game.
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Some control and ramp decks just don't need 1 mana cards to be good. See the link above.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
Me either, though I can think of a lot of decks and times where I played zero 1 cost cards all games, or more likely, zero 1 cost cards worth using a card to counter.
Thanks for the comment Star Slayer. In such an environment, it would be a horrible card, and it would indeed be a SB only card. I can say in all honesty though that I never run a deck without 2-3 one-drops, and usually I would run all those I draft. Only the hardest of hard monoblue control decks have as few as 2.
Spell Snare is a bit different because it has more targets, but also you have more options for dealing with the early two drops (like Force Spike, Mana Tithe and Daze if you run it). With MM you can run your game as normal in any deck and counter an aggro drop or removal/disruption without breaking your pace. It does something a little different from every counter out there, which piqued my interest. The possibility of turn zero countering on an Isamaru or Thoughtseize could be clutch, and although it loses a little value later, stuff like Path and StP and Lightning Bolt is regularly held back.
I agree though, Spell Snare could be worth reevaluation too inthe days since Dissension. I hope for a reprint, because I flogged my foil when it got expensive
This does happen, but the majority I think are worth countering for 2 life. Any removal, disruption, counterspell or aggro one drop I would say is worth the card to counter, and Sol Rings/Recalls even more so. Stuff like Ponder, Brainstorm and Preordain makes a less convincing case for countering, but it could ruin someone's day if they took a risky mana-light hand with one of the latter.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I wouldn't have built/drafted that deck. The shell is fine, but I would've dropped any number of cards from that list for good 1cc cards, which I would've drafted with higher priority. I don't even build hard control decks without multiple 1cc spells in them.
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Well, decks without 1-drops don't happen all the time, but 1/3 of the decks in my cube certainly don't need their 1-drops. Unless you snatch a Sword or a Path, most 1-drops that those decks run can live with being countered, since it will cost the opponent a card and maybe even some live.
This is certainly a good point and the reason why I got excited when you made your case for this overlooked card. However, after thinking about it a bit, I just came to the conclusion that the negatives outweigh the positives.
The thing is, for decks that don't need 1-drops (because laying a curve beginning on turn one isn't their game plan), 2-drops are just better because you can get more bang for you
buckmana. Why should those decks use weaker cards that aren't needed?Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
Who said anything about weak 1-drops? I'm talking about cards that are great in control that only happen to cost 1 mana. There's a TON of them in the cube.
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Those decks don't want 1 mana creatures (with the exception of very few utility guys and maybe mana elves). This already reduces the amount of 1-drops quite a bit. And since their curve doesn't start on turn one and they don't plan to kill the opponent as quickly as possible, but rather make the game go longer, they have more time and more mana to cast their spells. Then, why not pay a bit more to get a better effect? Why not pick Flames of the Firebrand over Chain Lightning?
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
I agree with this. Anything in blue, the white removal/land tax/mana tithe, all the black disruption and rituals, all the burn and Looting, and all the 1 mana artifacts. Pretty much everything that isn't a creature, and some of the 1-mana creatures are still pretty good in control, like Lavamancer, Cryptologist and Mother of Runes. My control decks often run 'em, anyway. Maybe it's a group-dependent thing *shrugs*.
Sometimes I need that one-drop or two-drop dead on turn one, before it starts beating my face.
On spoiled card wishlisting and 'should-have-had'-isms:
I may very well pick Flames over Chain Lightning. But there are a lot of decent 1cc creatures, and a TON of great 1cc spells that I'd include over more expensive spells in control. Especially since I'm bound to have enough better 3+cc cards, and looking for more spells that are good spells in the early stages of the game. Ponders, Brainstorms, Path, Swords, Tutors, so on and so forth.
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Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
My 630 Card Powered Cube
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