Why doesn't anyone play this in Modern?
why does anyone play modern at all? the format is dead.
>>46283671
that requires memedern to play blue, and memedern is played by 12 year olds who are aggrobabbies who cry whenever anything not considered aggro happens.
1. The majority of abilities, in particular enter-the-battlefield abilities, are triggered abilities.
2. Activated abilities in Modern tend to be on multi-turn activated abilities, like vial and manlands, rather than sacrifice effects. As such, you're typically just gaining a turn of tempo instead of 2 for 1ing.
So it's narrow effect, and doesn't do enough when it does hit something to justify its narrowness.
>>46283747
I've had people tell me that Cancel is useless in modern and Counterspell would be so much better because it's literally impossible to stop or even slow down your opponent by turn 3, but doing so turn 2 would somehow fix it.
>>46283762
like i said, 12 year old aggrobabbies who literally do not understand how to play the game.
its sad really.
>>46283762
Remand > all.
>>46283775
>>46283747
>aggrobabies
>twelve
You mean midrange/bigstuff. Stuff in an aggro deck has too small of a power/toughness to appeal to such people.
>>46283748
Do you even know what a fetchland is?????
>>46283827
Squelch is competing with Shadow of Doubt on that particular front, and SoD's secondary utility wins pretty handily at the moment.
>>46283671
It sees play in the sideboards of U Tron.
>>46283955
Oh to hit Ghost Quarters, that makes sense.
>>46283762
In a format every deck will either win or shit all over you with card advantage by turn 4, the difference between turn 2 and 3 is huge. Arguably more important than the difference between 1 and 2 or 3 and 4.
tl;dr those people are absolutely correct and you're a retard.
>>46283996
It hits shitloads of things. U Tron is the deck that just plays value spells be it scrying or drawing cards on all their counters.
>>46284012
*In a format where
>>46284021
What relevant shit does it hit besides fetches, Ghost Quarter and Fulimator Mage? Granted, those last two are reason enough for Tron.
>>46284012
To clarify something, I don't play Modern, and was asking people why that 1 mana difference was such a big deal, since Control decks are trying to drag things out regardless.
It might seem like a dumb question, but I still haven't gotten a satisfying answer for it.
>>46284089
Planeswalker activations, Twin activations(outdated), any particular nasty artifact activations(Mindslaver in mirror matches), Eye of Ugin activations etc. Not any particular must have but it's a good cantrip and half Stifle effect. Usually if they're running it in the side it's a U Tron list with a 1 or 2 Snapcaster in there as well.
>>46284132
You can't sit on nothing and hold up 3 mana unless you already have board position, having 4-5 lands means playable 3 cmc threats of any variety opposed to 1-2 cmc threats, which are generally less, well, threatening.
The simplest answer is that threats>answers in modern, legacy is the reverse.
>>46283762
If you're going to play Cancel there are cards that do things much better now because they cost the same as Cancel but exile the spell instead.
>>46284272
I wasn't really talking about Cancel specifically, more 3 mana counterspells in general. It was the mana difference that was important.
>>46284132
The general rule in modern is this:
1 mana gets you an answer (ie Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, Thoughtseize, or Spell Snare)
2 mana gets you a threat (ie Tarmogoyf, Voice of Resurgence, Dark Confidant, Young Pyromancer, Cranial Plating)
3 mana gets you card advantage (ie Kholagan's Command, Snap-Bolt, Esper Charm, Lingering Souls)
4 mana wins you the game or puts you so far ahead you can't lose (ie Splinter Twin, various planeswalkers, hardcast Leyline of Sanctity or Night of Soul's Betrayal when they're relevant)
Now, there is a lot of room for flexibility here.
Cryptic Command, for example, is a very powerful 2-for-1 at 4 mana. It can afford to be behind curve because it's so versatile. Same goes for Abrupt Decay or Mana Leak as 2-mana answers.
SImilarly, threats like Geist of Saint Traft or Etched Champion are playable at 3 mana because they are more resilient to removal than 2 mana threats are.
Cancel is unplayable because a three mana one-for-one answer needs to both hit everything relevant AND not be limited by timing like a counterspell is in order to keep up with the format's threats and be playable. Even then, a card like Maelstrom Pulse is too slow to see use outside of 1-ofs and sideboards.
However, at 2 mana Counterspell is on curve for a universal answer and doesn't have the drawback of Mana Leak in that it becomes worthless in late game grinds. It would be a very powerful card for control decks to have (especially UWR, which is currently stuck balancing Path and Mana Leak in the same deck) while not being broken.
>>46284132
>since Control decks are trying to drag things out regardless.
Well yes, but your opponents often dance to a different tempo, so to speak.
Let me give a somewhat narrow scenario for CS > Cancel; Modern has some really, really strong turn 3 plays you really want to counter. Tron is dropping Wurmcoil Engines and Karn Liberateds (6-7 mana spells), Eldrazi is dropping Reality Smashers, Amulet was until recently dropping Primeval Titans, Storm can easily go off, and even the "fair" Liliana from the value decks is scary for Control. Now Counterspell will always be active for these plays, but Cancel will NOT be active on the draw. That is a huge fucking deal when your opponents are making these powerful, game-deciding plays on turn 3.
>>46284355
on a related note, why isn't counterspell played in Legacy? Is that format so fast they can't even play two mana answers?
>>46283762
Remand and Mana Leak are playable in modern because they're 2 mana. As is Spell Snare and Spell Pierce at 1 mana.
Of course Counterspell would be playable. But the problem is blue more than anything else.
>>46284483
>Is that format so fast they can't even play two mana answers?
Pretty much, although it wasn't always that way. Counterspell and Remand were pretty popular in Legacy c. 2008.
It still pops up as a one or two of in Miracles from time to time.
>>46284483
Yeah, mostly. Or you don't have room for it past the 4 Force of Wills. Decks need to be streamlined and if you're playing a control deck you might as well be playing counterbalance in that slot instead of counterspell.
>>46284483
That and Force of Will and Daze are really good counterspells. But I believe the resident control deck (Miracles) plays a straight Counterspell or two.
>>46284285
Oh well yeah that one mana differences does slow it all down. Because by the time you're on turn 3 some decks may have either vomitted out their hand or have gone fast in assembling key combo pieces or fast mana and it's too late to counter anything. Stoic Rebuttal is actually a reasonable counterspell if you could always trigger Metalcraft on it but that's an if.
So as it is Counterspells in Modern are generally fine against non-creature spells but horrible against all the creature spells in Modern. Modern is also kind of a turn 4/turn 5 format on average against most combo decks so the turn 3 can be a little too slow sometimes.
