Whirlwind Denial – Theros Beyond Death MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

There are times in a game when your opponent doesn’t have the four mana to pay their way out of Convolute, and it’s basically a hard counterspell. There are times when they do, and your actual gain was tying up their extra mana for a turn. But, outside of the most extreme ramp matchups (usually in places like EDH), there are very few times when your opponent has four mana for every spell on the stack. Ordinarily, that would mainly come up in counterspell wars, and some cases where an opponent tries to Lightning Strike you in response to a counterspell or some such. Note, however, the use of the plural “opponents” and the extra word in that rules text: “ability”. That makes it relevant in Two-Headed Giant, relevant against storm cards, relevant against Valakut, relevant against planeswalker loyalty abilities, relevant against Sensei’s Divining Top. And it’s hardly going to get less relevant as time goes on.

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 4/5 
EDH/Commander: 4/5

Whirlwind Denial is a very unusual card, to be sure; it’s a soft counter, but it soft counters everything that your opponents have on the stack, including abilities of the activated and triggered kind. Being able to counter abilities alongside the spells is what helps elevate Whirlwind Denial to relevance, and it even keeps your spells in one piece. It itself can be countered in a single go, which means it’s not going to usurp spells like Flusterstorm (whose storm makes it harder to answer…though Whirlwind Denial is a good check to it), and while it can just be used as a more-expensive Mana Leak, three mana is in that awkward spot of “telegraphed answer”. It’s not half bad, though; most decks won’t be able to reliably scrounge together four mana for all of their spells or abilities, and I think this card’s flexibility gives it a lot of subtle power overall. I don’t think it’s the best uncommon of Theros Beyond Death, but it’s one of the better ones, and I’m rather bullish on Whirlwind Denial in Constructed.

Constructed: 3.75 (not a must run, but probably a good sideboard card at worst)
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander: 4.5

Phat
Pack
Magic
YouTube

Hello Everyone and welcome back to Pojo’s Card of the Day!

Today we’re taking a peek at an interesting counterspell that like all others attempts to stand next to the gold standard of the iconic spell. So how does it match up? Let’s take a look!

This spell seems to be like a mix of Convolute, Stifle, and Flusterstorm. This spell comes down and for each spell and ability your opponent’s control, counter it unless its controller pays (4).

Like Flusterstorm it counters each spell on the stack for your opponents, unless they have a ton of mana available, but unlike Flusterstorm it hits creature spells, but also very important, abilities as well. That means planeswalker abilities and creatures ETB Triggers and Activated Abilities.

In Standard and Draft, this will usually play out like Convolute or the rare time you’re going to be able to ‘get your opponent’ by countering their planeswalker ultimate. I doubt this card will see much play in the ‘Counter Wars’ for control decks as they have much better options like Dovin’s Veto or Mystical Dispute which are more efficient.

The true beauty that you’ll see with this card is in the Multiplayer and Commander formats where multiple opponents are the norm and you want a lot more oomph for your countermagic. I think this will play very well if you’re looking to have a clutch couple of versatile counterspells in your deck without going too overboard.

I could also see this possibly in a very low powered cube where you don’t want counterspells to be that effective, basically Standard!

Constructed 2/5 – Basically a low powered counterspell which has become the norm in current Magic design, it makes me a saaaad Panda.
Multiplayer / Commander 5/5 – Basically what this spell was made for! Get out there and flusterstiflelute your friends and family!
Limited 3/5 – It’s a fun splashable counterspell that you can use in U/x decks.
Cube 1/5 – Too clunky and low powered for 3 mana.

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