Counter Play

by KnightoftheHokeyPokey on 06 October 2014

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (2 cards)

Creatures (2)

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Deck Description

Ambiguity is a valid card! Just because it's unhinged doesn't mean it must either break the game or suck for serious play. I also refuse to believe it sucks just because it benefits your opponent. Dictate of the twin gods and Primal Vigor do as well and are more than valid in the right decks. Hell, eidolon of the great revel made burn capable of tier 1 play!

This deck was a pain to make. While I had a flash of insight with ambiguity, the rest of the deck was highly fluid. The reason is that this deck has to use counterspells and creatures with counters. The first part is easy compared to the second. Oh, and I aimed to not includeb cards like isocron scepter. I wanted ambiguity to work in a deck and not rely on cards that are universally near broken to make the concept viable.

At first I went with all arcbound creatures. This would give me a ton of counterspells. However, I found that besides ambiguity, nothing connected my creatures to my instants. In fact, arcbound creatures like being destroyed. In short, the synergy wasn't there.

So ... I went looking for creatures to abuse counters (both the spells and markers). My quest for a similar effect to ambiguity lead me to lullmage mentor.

Seeing as it wasn't an artifact creature ... I scrapped my arcbound creatures in favor of simic. Then merfolk. Then wizards. Then simic again. Hell, I even considered levelers.

After a long and tortuous grind ... I decided I needed a merfolk theme. Sure, patron wizard and azami, lady of scrolls are great. Sure, zameck guildmage and sage of fables are neat here. However, the synergy of the entire deck is more important than the power of a single card. So the lullmage will exist to pump out tokens. What's more, the counters I put on my permanents will be level tokens.

I chose a leveler approach because the ridiculous levels of counter magic trump most removal, and decks with unleash or bloodthirst or ... you get the picture. Basically, once I drop ambiguity, my opponent will use it against me. What's more, my counterspells won't help me against the free counter (as in spell) from ambiguity.

How to Play

Ladies and gentlemen:

The joke with ambiguity isn't that the rules text is ambiguous. The rules text is the OPPOSITE of ambiguous; the wording, while complicated, is incredibly specific, which eliminates the possibility of interpreting the rules text in more than two ways. If you want ambiguous rules, go play Warhammer. :)

The joke is that the word "counter" is ambiguous because the word has multiple meanings within Magic; "counter", as in the signature blue spell of rage-quitting,right up there with bounce, and "counter", as in one of those markers proliferate abuses the hell out of.


Here's a caveat: buy some sleves for your copies of ambiguity. Why? Well ... your opponent will be reading it a LOT. It might get roughed up. Similarly, it will be spending a lot of time on your opponent's side of the table, so you want to be able to easily identify it. :)

Comments are welcome: if you read the description, very little in this deck is solid save Ambiguity and Lullmage Mentor.

Deck Tags

  • Counter
  • Counters
  • Merfolk
  • Blue

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

3
Likes

This deck has been viewed 1,700 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

055000

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Not Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Counter Play

Hey it would really mean alot to me if you checked out my newer deck because I think it's a good combo i haven't seen before and since in it a pro like you I'm not sure if its good or not so thank you in advanced.
http://www.mtgvault.com/blizard472/decks/animated-time-vault/

-1
Posted 09 October 2014 at 15:43

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Hmm ... okay, I'll check it out.

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Posted 10 October 2014 at 02:46

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evil, hokey, I never knew you had it in you. and I love the 40k reference, Tzeentchcrons for the win

1
Posted 20 July 2015 at 05:41

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Tzeentchrons? And this deck is obviously Eldar ... just sayin ...

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Posted 20 July 2015 at 06:21

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no I hate elder, they are the chosen of the old ones, but are still hiding from she who thirsts.

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Posted 20 July 2015 at 06:36

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you know what, im gonna build a tzeentchcron deck for the hell of it,

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Posted 20 July 2015 at 06:38

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Sure thing!

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Posted 20 July 2015 at 15:57

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done that Tzeentchcron deck, artifacts mainly. the juggernaut is the monolith

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Posted 24 July 2015 at 04:51

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hydranianknighttamer has deleted this comment.

Posted 24 July 2015 at 04:52

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Here's the Tzeentchcron deck
http://www.mtgvault.com/hydranianknighttamer/decks/tzeentchcrons/

0
Posted 25 July 2015 at 00:11

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And Tyranid style
http://www.mtgvault.com/hydranianknighttamer/decks/nephilim-tribal-tyranids/

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Posted 25 July 2015 at 00:40

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I gave you a plus 1 for the deck description alone.
Interesting to see a play by play of making the deck.
And inside perspective.

1
Posted 13 October 2014 at 00:08

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I just wish I could find more merfolk that come into play with counters.

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 02:02

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Arctic Merfolk
Cosi's Trickster
Enclave Elite
Gravelgill Axeshark
Gravelgill Duo
Halimar Wavewatch
Jolting Merfolk
Leech Bonder (interesting)
Paperfin Rascal
Razorfin Abolisher
Simic Fluxmage
Skywatcher Adept
Streambed Aquitects

1
Posted 13 October 2014 at 02:23

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Thank you!

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 03:07

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Oh ... and sage of fables!

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 03:10

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Yep, and most of them are better than your generic 1/1 Pearl Trident.

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Posted 13 October 2014 at 03:11

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Most of those don't actually come into play with counters ... but leech bonder does and shall be freaking awesome. Tehehe ... he can even screw with planeswalkers. Nice loyalty counters, Jace! Good luck getting to your ult!

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 03:20

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Well, good :)

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 05:30

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Interesting note: -1/-1 counters and +1/+1 counters cancel each other out as a state-based action. So ... bramblewood paragon turns scuzzback marauders into an absolute beast with auto-returns-to-battlefield.

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Posted 13 October 2014 at 21:37

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Wait, huh? I suck with rules, as often stated.
Can you state that again, for an idiot to understand? :)

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 22:04

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If you have one +1/+1 counter and one -1/-1 counter, they instantaneously cancel out, leaving the creature in question with no counters. In other words, a creature can't have a combination of +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters on it.

This action does not go on the stack or trigger any abilities directly.

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 22:09

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Persist is free to trigger over and over if the -1/-1 counter is removed. Giving a creature that enters the battlefield a +1/+1 counter effectively removes that counter.

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Posted 13 October 2014 at 22:17

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So, in theory, If one of my creatures have 3 +1/+1 counters on him.
My opponent cast a spell that puts 1 -1/-1 counter on him.
Result is he has 2 +1/+1 counters instead of 3 +1 counters and 1 -1 counter?
Interesting!!!

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 22:17

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Yes! This makes leech bonder substantially less powerful when facing simic.

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 22:40

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Chloroplast Manipulator - go!

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 22:48

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Build it and the will come :)

0
Posted 13 October 2014 at 22:49

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I'm totally building a second version of this deck ... Simic style. Graft and chloroplast manipulator are going to have so much fun. Add that to the fact that Simic loves counters. Of both sorts.

I hereby challenge your sleeper agent deck to a duel!

0
Posted 14 October 2014 at 00:02

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lol. always.

Joking aside, you seem like an awesome person.
Too bad we live so far apart.
Would love to get together and play several hours of Magic.

0
Posted 14 October 2014 at 00:50

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What was that free online magic playing thingamagig?

0
Posted 14 October 2014 at 00:53

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Exactly. lol
I tried it...forgot the name/site...but it is too complicated for me to download!!
And not even sure if it is illegal...as it keeps getting taken down and new back passage ways to download it keep popping up. Or at least I think that is true.
Cockatrice? or something...

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Posted 14 October 2014 at 01:05

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That's not encouraging.

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Posted 14 October 2014 at 01:42

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