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#counterspelling posts
counterspelling · 10 months
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th4t1guylol · 6 months
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astraltrickster · 9 months
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kitthenameless · 2 months
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Gosh I love Counterspell. It has to be the most frustrating thing for the enemies, and Gale looking hot and powerful when he does it is a nice bonus.
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wearesorcerer · 3 months
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greyias · 8 months
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Still poking my way very slowly through Act 1 of BG3 with my half-elf pally girl, Aravyn, and just had the best series of quests/encounters that hit me a little in the feels.
So, long long ago, when WotC was starting to play test 5e, I started to attend some D&D Encounter sessions at a local comic/game shop, where we'd use some random pre-rolled character sheets to play. And I got handed the following:
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This randomized Paladin who, for some reason, was also a wandering minstrel. I got to play her for all of one session, and unfortunately never was able to attend any more sessions (for reasons). Yet this yodeling Paladin has lived rent-free in my head for years, but had never found a group to play with in the years following.
So when I realized that I might be able to bring a version of her to life in BG3, I leapt on the chance and gave her the Entertainer background, and despaired a little that I couldn't multiclass her into Bard in Explorer Mode (although there is a mod for that).
I found a lute on the beach, played it very badly in camp and got yelled at by Lae'zel for it. And then, I wandered a little bit outside of the Druid's camp, to find a Tiefling bard singing so badly a bunch of squirrels were wailing with despair.
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Having failed so spectacularly in serenading the camp, it would have been smart for poor Aravyn to just talk her way through this encounter. But here she was, being offered a lute and a chance to inspire someone with music.
And she knocked it out of the park -- being gifted the lute of the bard's deceased lover mentor as thanks for helping her break out of writer's block. (I mean, I get it. I feel that pain Alfira)
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Mood™
Right afterwards, because I refuse to take a long rest while still full up on spell slots, I kept the party exploring, and encountered the harpy ambush at the beach. And we died. A lot. Especially in a frontal assault. So finally as a last ditch effort before having to put off saving the tiny child being lured in as a harpy snack for a better leveled party, I just had Aravyn sneak up behind and yeet herself from the harpy nest straight at the beasty ladies on the rock where they were hiding.
As you do.
Anyway, Shadowheart joined her, because what else should a healer do but leap into the fray and harm's way? (there was no way this was going to work, so what did I have to lose but my pride, I told myself) And as both holy ladies started swinging away wildly while the warlock and wizard looked on from above, I found myself wishing I really had some levels in bard in order to use countersong* to nullify the crooning harpy below slowly luring a little tiefling child to his doom.
After exhausting all actions and bonus actions, and since I had Lihala's lute already equipped with nothing else to do in between rounds I was like "...fuck it, we rock", and started blasting a song.
My Paladin, apparently, while fighting a bunch of harpies.
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And I don't know if it was just a quirk of the dice rolls, but it worked. On his next round, the tiefling child immediately was able to break free of the song, which was the first time that had happened in all five tries and started running the fuck away. And I was like "...wait what?" and so after kicking ass on the next round, played again. And he was able to resist again and kept running further away while the harpies were distracted tearing the party to pieces.
No one in the party got charmed while Aravyn was playing her heart out, and by guzzling a lot of healing potions, they were able to just manage to squeak out a win. Bloodied and burning through all of their spell slots, they were victorious.
Uh, so yeah. Apparently I unintentionally recreated the end of season 4 of Stranger Things (with less tragedy!), and saved a little kid with the power of rock and roll while using the lute of slain bard. And damn, if that's not a true D&D experience I don't know what is. So I think it's safe to say that Larian has been able to somewhat recapture some of that lightning in a bottle feeling of playing a tabletop RPG in this game.
(even if that was all luck of dice rolls and playing the lute did nothing, I'm headcanoning Ari was channeling Lihala's spirit, because that's a far better story)
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justicekylar · 29 days
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wizard-spells · 1 year
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Summon Moth Clothes: summons a variety of cute outfits for my swarm of highly trained moths (from extremelyethicalspells)
perfect counterspell example
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bragganhyl · 6 months
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Berci and Gale took out Lorroakan in one attack and I'm laughing so hard my belly hurts
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fzzr · 9 months
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The most iconic Magic: The Gathering cards.
What does it mean to be iconic? I think it's pretty simple - it's whatever you think of first. This is to be independent of any particular format - so for example Sol Ring's overwhelming popularity in Commander doesn't make it an automatic winner. These will not be controversial opinions, I just want to talk about them.
White: Wrath of God
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White is the color of fairness, and what's more fair than the equality of the grave? The transition from regeneration to "indestructible until end of turn" as protection against board wipes has robbed Wrath of God of some of its power, but it's still the standard for mass destruction effects.
Runner up: Swords to Plowshares - Pinpoint removal, with due compensation paid to the owner of the removed creature. Fairness in a different form, even if it's too efficient to be printed today.
Blue: Counterspell
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"Counter target spell." Or, even more succinctly: "No". Blue is the color of magic itself, and no spell demonstrates that more than Counterspell. As with Wrath of God and board wipes, Counterspell is the standard against which all countermagic is judged. Nearly every set gets a Cancel - "Counter target spell" plus some set-specific upside, costing one and two blue. When it comes to simplicity and efficiency (and ignoring the broken Mana Drain) Counterspell is the go-to way to make your objections known.
Runner up: Ancestral Recall. Blue is the color of knowledge, and Ancestral Recall is what happens when that is taken too far.
Black: Vampiric Tutor
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Black is the color that can get anything it want... for a price. Every color has some ability to search the library for one mana, but only Black can get anything it wants and be guaranteed to keep it. In exchange, it costs more than mana - you also pay in life. Between the functionality and the flavor, nothing so simply demonstrates the essence of Black.
Runner up: Necropotence. When you discard the simplicty of Vampiric Tutor, this is what you get: As much life as you wish to spend, for as many cards as you need - and one of the most busted cards in all of Magic.
Red: Lightning Bolt
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"Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to any target." One sentence, eight words, infinite possibility. What could represent Red better than mana for damage? As of March of the Machine, there are four things Lightning Bolt can target: Creatures, Planeswalkers, Battles, and Players. Anyone who thinks Red is all about chaos and smashing rocks together is invited to consider the subtleties of Lightning Bolt. Turn one, bolt their Birds of Paradise - it puts back their whole strategy. You chump blocked their 7/4 - it has one damage marked on it - finish it off with a bolt. Lightning Bolt to the face when they have 20 life - a waste. The same thing at 3 - that's the game. Do they have a huge field of blockers, but you want to take down some 'walkers or battles? Bolt! Did you block something that would die, but they pumped with Giant Growth? Bolt in response! Lightning Bolt might be the best-designed spell in Magic, and the better you get at the game the more you can do with it.
A note on the flavor text: For a long time, Wizards stopped reprinting Lightning Bolt due to concerns that it was too powerful. When it did return, they gave it the flavor text you can see above in reference to that delay. Today it is considered too powerful for Standard, but does show up in supplemental sets.
Runner up: Wheel of Fortune: OK but red *is* still about chaos.
Green: Llanowar Elves
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Green is the color of creatures. Green is the color of growth. Elf is the characteristic creature type of Green. Llanowar Elves is an Elf creature that makes your mana grow. It's really that simple! Llanowar Elves is so fundamentally Green that they printed two functionally identical cards (Elvish Mystic and Fyndhorn Elves) due to needing the effect with different flavor.
Runner up: Giant Growth. This was very close. Giant Growth or some variation of it is printed in virtually every magic set. It represents the essence of Green in a different way, by making a statement that for one green mana, my creatures will beat yours.
Colorless: Skullclamp
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This was tricky. Colorless, by definition, doesn't really have an identity of its own. An artifact can do almost anything, but shouldn't do things too efficiently or it would be able to undermine the weaknesses of the colors. Skullclamp was first printed in the Mirrodin block, while design was using Equipment for the first time. They looked at a card for one mana that was making a creature stronger and decided no, that's too good. Let's make it a tradeoff by reducing toughness. As a result, if you equip Skullclamp to a one toughness creature it dies instantly and you draw two cards. Oops, we created one of the most efficient card advantage pieces in the game's history and made it available to every color. By any standard, Skullclamp is a design mistake, but it represents exactly why and how artifacts and colorless cards in general can be so powerful, and so dangerous.
Runner up: Black Lotus. It's probably the most iconic Magic card, but one doesn't necessarily think of it in the same category as other colorless cards. It sorta exists in a category of its own. I put it here anyway, to recognize its overall impact.
Land (without a basic land type): Strip Mine
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I decided to specify lands without basic land types because otherwise the answer would be the basic lands and if it was just nonbasic lands the answer would be the ABU duals. That's boring, so let's look at utility lands.
The only true identity lands have is "produce mana" (there are a few lands that don't produce mana on their own, but they don't print new ones). Strip Mine is one of the first utility lands ever printed and it stands as a symbol of just how powerful and important lands actually are. Lands don't cost mana, and you almost always get at least one a turn. Strip Mine's lesson is just how scary that "almost" is. No format allows for more than one in your deck, because if you could play more than one it would allow you to lock down any opponent with more expensive cards than you, by effectively unplaying their land from the previous turn. The land that hates land is a lesson about why land, and Magic's mana system in general, is so precious.
Runner Up: Mana Confluence - When looking at lands without basic land types that just produce mana, nothing hits quite like Mana Confluence. Legal in nearly every format, generically good but not broken - this is the true neutral of nonbasic lands, and arguably a baseline against which all others can be judged.
Conclusion
So, what do these iconic cards have in common? For starters, they're often very old - several were printed in Alpha. Indeed, between the main list and the runners-up, three of the five original boons (one mana for three of something) are represented. They're all powerful, probably because bad cards don't see play often enough to become iconic. They're usually cheap to cast - though this tracks with power, because low cost and high efficiency is a classic way to make a powerful card. Most of them are simple - often one or two lines. This leads to them being the baseline (or the ceiling) for what the color can do.
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maydaymadier · 1 year
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happy 2023 it’s still funny that the most controversial statement I’ve ever made on this hellsite is that “wizards aren’t sexy”
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counterspelling · 10 months
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the thing about that roll is like............... maybe a few days after the sess where (a) we decided in-table that adelaide should talk to her dad and (b) it became clear above table that both me and adelaide were sorely mistaken about how much wyatt actually knew of and had control over adelaide’s situation, i thought having adelaide use her ‘take a chill pill’ rote against herself would be a fun mechanical way to represent just how earth-shattering that revelation would be.
in that moment, adelaide would feel like she was right back where she started after first being trapped in harborview, with all the anxiety & fear & terror that that came with. it made narrative sense that she would resort to her old and unhealthy coping mechanisms to magically override her own emotions and force herself to be Okay with her situation.
also, given adelaide’s general volatility, i liked being able to introduce some level of randomness into her response, rather than making that decision entirely myself. the probability & unpredictability particularly in a more rp and failure-heavy system like monster of the week is part of the fun!!
so i kneeeeeeeew that this particular outcome was a possibility. an unlikely one, but a possibility nonetheless, and when i first realized that.............. i gotta say i wasn’t ROOTING for a failure per se, esp because i know my keeper is going to make this suck ass for adelaide, but the chance for her to spiral not even in the expected direction (reckless callous disregard & hatred) but a NEW and unexpected direction (hopelessness & despair)....................................... FUCK I LOVE PLAYING NEGATIVITY
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inventors-fair · 2 years
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Counter Your Blessings
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Counterspells are one of those things where every additional mana really counts. [[Counterspell]] is way too strong for standard and, for a while, was thought by some to be too strong even for modern. (It probably still is, to some people, I imagine). [[Cancel]], meanwhile, can be given additional upside and still not see any play. Cause counterspells are very reactive, you have to hold up mana and hope you’ll be able to spend it, so the less you need to hold up the better. So, inspired by a recent EDHREC article, here is this week’s challenge:
Create an expensive counterspell, that costs four or more mana (but not because of a cost reduction mechanic).
Now that the cat’s out of the bag, let’s get on with the MEOW
Mandatory- Your card must cost at least four mana to cast (meaning no cost reduction effects or kicker-esque effects where the base card is cheaper) and must directly counter a spell, in some form.
EDIT: I’m changing the rules a little bit. You can have a kicker effect or some kind of [[Nimble Obstructionist]]-esque effect, as long as the actual effect that counters costs at least four mana. Even something with a cost reduction effect might be okay, as long as it’s somehow capped at 4+ mana, but not something that cost like, 4UU and and has delve. The point of this contest is a counterspell that you’ll actually pay the 4+ mana for
Encouraged- Get splashy with it! Competitive magic is the environment where eking out these kinds of advantages matters most and a counterspell even at three mana has got to really pull its weight to be worth playing, so most cards here are gonna be better suited for more casual environments. So keep that in mind when you design, really amp up the splashiness and fun factor where you can.
Optional- Your card doesn’t have to literally say “counter target spell”, if you don’t want. You can go for “exile target spell” or “return target spell to its owner’s hand” or “gain control of target spell”. (And redirect effects, that change the target of a spell, also qualify). But something like “creatures you control gain hexproof until end of turn” is a bridge too far. As a solid rule of thumb, it should affect the spell directly, not indirectly. Or the ability! I’ll also accept [[Stifle]]-esque effects that don’t technically function with literal spells. You also don’t have to just stick with instants! Something like [[Mystic Snake]] would also be fine! Though [[Ertai, Wizard Adept]] might not be. (Basically for permanents, ETB triggers are a-okay because the upside there is that you get whatever permanent, but much beyond that is straying into murky waters.)
Warning- The point of this contest is to explore what kind of upside you can add to a counterspell that makes it still worth playing at 4+ mana. Which means something like [[Force of Will]], where the upside is that sometimes you get a counterspell for cheaper than you normally would, isn’t really a good fit even though it technically is a counterspell with mana value 4+. I’m looking for cards where you’ll actually spend that much mana.
I hope I’ve made it clear what I’m looking for, since both “counterspell” and even “four+ mana” can be harder to define than you’d think. If you have any questions, feel free to ask here on tumblr or better yet @ me on our discord server (@/StormtideLeviathan).
Join our discord server    >> HERE <<
Submit your final card     >> HERE <<
Good luck!! And have fun!
- @loreholdlesbian​
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sleebyconfy · 1 year
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romanken · 8 days
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cazador talks a big game until shadowheart with turn undead spirit guardians and blood of lathander and hastened pally lae'zel turn up and then it's chow time
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