The BEST Counterspells EVER Printed in Magic: the Gathering 

While it's true that Force of Will warps eternal formats, I'd also argue that it *un*-warps eternal formats, it's the reason that Legacy and Vintage aren't just "dump your entire hand into a turn 1 win" formats.

unmentioned upside to Force of Will: many people are so used to pitch casting it, that when you hard cast it, you get extra dopamine

Force of Negation was MH1, not 2. MH2 did get the OG Counterspell printed into the format, however, so they both got a notable counter.

2:28 First appears in..... Homelands. The GOAT set strikes again.

Good old counterspells. I will never forget the day I countered a large chain of spells with rewind, dismiss, twart, foil and daze. Slowed my board down but totally derailed my buddys plans. I then slowly built back up while swinging with stalking stones and faerie conclaves. Good times.

Erayo Ninja is one of the few decks viable in Standard outside of Ravager Affinity at one time and actually put up several Top 8 finishes. It was trivial to flip with the amount of 0-cost and affinity spells at that time and the Ornithopters synergized well with ninjas.

I would say the most "broken" counterspell is still missstep, just because it's playpattern are so much more toxic the force.

Top was also banned as a quality of life because it would add an additional 15+ mins to each game, EOT top, top again, upkeep top, top in response, top again because I forgot....etc it causes so many games going to time.

Without the Turn 0 interaction that Force of Will provides, Legacy and Vintage would implode. Arguably Timeless needs it as well (at least for Bo1) but this is a case where I think I'd prefer a digital only card that is free as your first spell of the game if you aren't going first or something like that.

#10 - Reminder: for a brief moment, it was _Standard-legal_ with Top.

Have you ever consider doing a video about most played color and color combinations across or within a specific format? The fact that Force of Will is played in 50% or so of decks in vintage/legacy feels like it tells you something about the distribution of colors within certain formats.

I have to say, I prefer when the sidebar gives a more detailed breakdown of the points by format instead of just showing the first tier second tier total.

When blue gets so overpowered that blue starts trying to out blue.

I'm dumb and tired. On Memory lapse, I read the 31 points for Second Tier as "31-Second Tier Top 8s". I was like, what the hell is a 31-second Tier.

TN cackling from exile as her GOATED art will forever dominate top 10 counter lists.

OK, here is an idea... A counterspell that cost 0 but is a sorcery, so you can only use it if you figure out how to give it flash 😅

Without watching it yet, I guessed this could also be called "Top 9 counterspells not named 'Force of Will"."

Memory Lapse is a great example of a card that doesn't look all that great, but in practice is incredible. It basically removes the opponent's next draw in addition to countering, which in a decent number of situations ends up being almost a Time Walk. Yeah, they draw that card again but that also means it isn't in the graveyard, which can also be an upside

I played Counterbalance/Sensei's Divining Top in standard. Then after Kamigawa rotated out, I got to use Faeries instead. Faerie Harbinger and Mistbind Clique together with Momentary Blink was not as good as Sensei's Divining Top, but I could still counter most everything AND flickering the Mistbind Clique on the opponent's upkeep is like taking an extra turn.

Is literally anyone surprised about #1? I'm actually very confident it would make it onto "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)"!

I like non blue counterspells a lot myself.

Worth mentioning that Erayo also has a very nasty combo with Arcane Laboratory. Which, arguably makes it even worse in the 99 of decks that have access to white as they have a lot more copies of Arcane Laboratory's effect. Though, those decks do have Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant.

Would like to see your thoughts on what the difference is between a card warping a format and one becoming a new evergreen staple, and perhaps also what the healthy ways are to introduce and establish a brand new evergreen staple.

Was not expecting to see a Homelands card on this list.

A fun interaction I’ve come across, the new Conspiracy Unraveler from Karlov LOVES pitching for counter spells. In my Sphinx tribal EDH, pitching a Sphinx to cast force of will basically guarantees 10 mana worth of stuff in the graveyard.

Once again Storm Crow shows its worth as the most overpowered Magic card ever printed

3:20 I always thought that the wizard in the original counterspell art was growing roots out of his fingers, I never considered it was a fizzled spell...

The original counterspell artwork just seems to say "magical disfunction"

I think that Rewind and Unwind should be honorable mentions.

Don't know if daze should be that high and fluster storm should be on there somewhere

What place was red elemental blast?

Oh wow first time I catch a new video right when it’s uploaded

I believe that if it weren't for its high price tag, Force of Will would be the most played card in commander.

I'm pretty sure legacy and vintage would be literally unplayable if Force of Will was banned or restricted. FoW feels broken when the combo deck is storming off quickly and has force backup, but that usually requires some kind of godhand that will happen once in awhile. Otherwise, it's basically the only card stopping these turn 1 combo decks from steamrolling. And, Force is actually not that good against "fair" decks that want to grind out games, since you're still 2-for-1'ing yourself. It's somehow simultaneously a supremely broken but "fair" card, and is integral to keeping mtg's most powerful formats from becoming degenerate cesspools.

Hello guys,I'm confuse about this particular card called "abjure" my question is,can you sacrifice an island to activate it?

@nizzahonmagic was there a reason that you got rid of total points from your videos?

Mana Drain is not better than Daze. It may be banned, but it would see dramatically less play than Daze if it were unbanned. Paying mana to counter a spell is bad, even if there are upsides.

Wondering if counterspell makes the list.

I'm surprised that stern warning isn't on this list

Mana Drain should be #1. It would have way more top finishes if it wasn't banned in pretty much every format. Its way more powerful overall than force of will. It being banned in legacy while FoW isn't tells use everything.

I came here for #2-10. We ALL KNOW before starting what #1 should be.

“Counterspell is the fifth most played card in commander” Presumably only beaten by basic island, basic plains, basic swamp and basic forest

Counterspells, my favourite MtG card type. Which I'm not sure what says about me...

This is a stacked list so it might be hard for this card to get on, but I feel like fierce guardianship should have made the list. If erayo can make it because of commander, and deservedly so, the guardianship can too

Pact of Negation not even worth a mention? That did surprise me a bit

babe wake up, new top10 just dropped

Surprised cryptic command didn't make the list

The fact that you can play force of will before your first turn is insane.

Anyone else suprised to not see cryptic command?

I'm surprised that pact of negation isn't in this list.

Honorable mention: mind break trap?

Memory Lapse strangles a deck if you put it on Isochron Scepter. It might not be a truly competitive combo, but damn does it kill an opponent's will to play.

the memory lapse ban in historic is a case study of how whiny and spoiled magic players usually are

surprised not to see pact of negation

Force of Negation is from MH1

The top should be the top card of all top card lists.

Wait, is Erayo #6 without any top finishes just because its banned in Commander?

Why not pact of negation?

Non rotating formats cannot exist without FoW.

If you play counterspells then expect to be punched in the face XD

Surprised by some of the cards left off the list here but I can't necessarily disagree with the ones that are there instead

Ah, free counterspells. The worst feeling in the world! (when you're on the receiving end, that is)

Chalice for zero. Nice Black Lotus. Nice Moxen.

Imo mana drain is #1. That card is just ridiculous.

One big thing that makes Erayo so busted is that if you play it alongside Rule of Law or Narset Parter of Veils, then you completely lock your opponents out of the game.

Where’s fierce guardianship?

Oh, so Force of Will and the 9 others? Hell, since this one is so easy, I will also try and guess top 2, Force of Will is obviously 1, so 2 is...Mana Drain? Edit: I was close.

Force of Will is like Snorlax in Gen 2. Yes, it's broken, but what it does for the game overall isn't

Historic brawl gut renamed to brawl and brawl is standard brawl

I think Wizards should (re)print better counterspells this days. Its sooooo stupid creatures get stronger but Disruption gets weaker at the same time. The idea is that the players should think they are doing incredeble powerful things and no one can stop them, but without worth to play Disruption the game is just boring. Thats the reason everybody who admits magic has powercreep is totally wrong. Creatures get stronger, but if we had powercreep we would already got counterspells better than FoW, discard better than Hymn to tourach, land destruction better than sinkhole and also tutors better than demonic tutor.

Kinda surprised fierce guardianship wasnt mentioned. Probably the 2nd or 3rd best counterspell in commander (behind force of will and/or negation)

Huh, no Fierce Guardianship

First 5 minutes yes

HTF so you not have Arcane Denial on this list. Can't take you seriously

Lapse is better than counterspell to me.

As someone that only plays commander, wash away is the most broken BS in the world, you literaly have to change your way of playing the game for just 1 island. They should rework counterspells as not adding to the commander tax.

I'll always stand behind the idea that "counter target spell" is inherently an unbalanced concept and should have either never been added to the game or never been printed on a card under 3 mana, let alone for free. Every colour other than blue generally has weak points, types of permanents where its really hard for them to interact it. Like how red generally can't mess with enchantments, black generally cant mess with artifacts and so on. But blue and it's counterspells can not only answer ANY permanent but it can even stop instant and sorceries, something no other colour can do. As mentioned in the video, the entire format of vintage is often based around 1 single card, "Force Of Will" a counterspell. Mental Mistep had to be banned because games came down to who had more of them. Cheap counterspells were rightfully banned in historic cause they warp the format. When playing commander, I almost always find that the only players I have to worry about is any player with access to blue. It doesnt what their commander is, just having access to counterspells makes them the biggest threat since they can quite literally stop anything, for free. There's just such a HUGE disparity in power between blue and the other colours in so many formats. I think Wizards just kinda made a mistake with blue from the start and its just kinda the cancer that we have to deal with cause it's too late now to change it and without counterspells, blue doesn't really have much else. I'd still love to see a format where we just banned any card with blue in its colour identity so we could have 4 balanced colours rather than 4 balanced colours and 1 colour that's leaps and bounds ahead of them all and just dominates everything. And lol just to preemptively respond to the "But its a 1 for 1!" and "But they're a necessary evil!" people. No....just being a "1 for 1" doesn't make something balanced. Would a instant that cost BB and read "Destroy target non-land permanent" be balanced? I mean, its a 1 for 1, right? And they're NOT a "necessary evil". It's okay if someone other than the blue player wins sometimes, its okay if stuff happens and there's not one player that can answer ANYTHING. There's other ways other colours can interact with and stop combos and if combos do go off and there's no one to counter it...so be it, its called playing magic. The game isn't gonna fall apart and degenerate into madness because counterspells dont exist.

i would've put mental misstep at #1 over force of will but def a good list overall !

Trust me, memory lapse has absolutely not held up......the cards today are so OP that you really dont wanna put it on top of their deck. Ps. Control decks were not too strong with memory lapse, they were just playable.

Fon is an MH1 card, not MH2.

Counter magic can never be OP. You could have literal free counters, and they still wouldn't be OP.

Erayo is fine, comnander players are just fckin crybabies