It's almost funny to see a Temur-themed
counterspell, seeing as their main color is
green and we've been trained not to expect green
or green-flavored or green-aligned counterspells.
There's not so much that's funny about trying to
kill a pair of gigantic Tarmogoyfs with Wrath of
God and being told "no, never"; nor about how
easily this card fits into decks involving
Magnivore or Cognivore. And even if they don't
have the creature with power 4, it will still
somehow blow you out sometimes, when you just
have to tap all your mana. This could be the
beginning of a "counter-Titan" archetype,
especially in casual settings with older cards.
Magic The Gathering Card of The Day: Stubborn
Denial
Welcome back readers today's card of the day is
Stubborn Denial a non-creature force spike,
which gets significantly better if you
control a creature with power four or greater.
In standard this is a great counterpsell for
monster decks, or those decks who try and ramp
out big creatures quickly such as Polkuranos.
This card allows creature heavy decks to have an
opportunity to fight back against some of the
powerful spells in the format. In modern I could
see this card seeing some fringe play although
the circumstances have to be just right. In
legacy and vintage this card is inferior to the
other more reliable counterspell options
available. In casual and multiplayer there are
better counterspells available to you, however
if your deck specializes in large creatures this
can be a cheap and effective way to protect
them. In limited its a solid counterspell if
your deck focuses on having a wide variety of
large threats. Overall a card more for standard
than other formats but still a unique and
powerful counterspell..
Today's card of the day is Stubborn Denial
which is a one mana Blue instant that counters
target non-creature spell unless its controller
pays one mana or with Ferocious it counters the
spell. This is a low cost, but otherwise
mediocre countermagic that is far better
replaced with a more reliable two mana
alternative that isn't as situational such as
Negate. The increase in cost with Negate
is a drawback in some situations, very early in
the game and at some points for maintaining
tempo, at which times Stubborn Denial can be
better. It also works well alongside
higher power creatures to trigger Ferocious,
which could even include the two mana 4/1 Dandan.
Overall this is a situational choice that can be
playable, but probably won't have slots in many
decklists.
In Limited this is low cost and can counter a
key threat, but most of the format is dominated
by creatures and excess mana is typical in later
stages of a game. It can be included when
running Sealed if space is available and it is
an okay later pack choice in Booster when on
color.
The very situational nature, more noticeable in
the format, makes it a low priority though and
other cards should usually be a better fit.
This is an example of a card that I
overestimated when it came out. I had decided to
play a Temur deck with lots of 4 power
creatures, and I thought this would be the
perfect card to counter creature kill on my big
guys. The problem turned out to be twofold. One,
it's no given that you will be able to get a 4
power creature out, have this card in your hand,
and still have the blue mana to cast it. Without
ferocious, this card is pretty bad. Two, it only
stops non-creature spells. There were too many
times I had this card sitting dead in my hand
because the opponent was only playing creatures.
I would still consider this card for a sideboard
in such a deck, but it's value has gone down in
my book.
