Death Gaara's Bringing your A Game! Counterspells and How to Combat them?

For whatever insight it's worth, I would go ahead and play Tamiyo.

During my paragraph response I concluded the same thing. That is the correct play.

I am not fully aware of the situation, but if Tamiyo is what you have left..well I mean, odds are you weren't going to win. Ya know? Again, I don't know what the deck does, what it plays like. The thing about aggro decks, which is why they beat control, is constant threats. Combo deck players get upset because their gameplans get broken up.

It all depends on context.

I am not fully aware of the situation, but if Tamiyo is what you have left..well I mean, odds are you weren't going to win. Ya know? Again, I don't know what the deck does, what it plays like. The thing about aggro decks, which is why they beat control, is constant threats. Combo deck players get upset because their gameplans get broken up.

Correct, read my paragraph analysis of the situation to see that I deduced the same thing. You are on the losing end. Tamiyo will probably get answered. But at the state your in, you have nothing left to lose and unanswered she can swing the game in your favor.

I thought it was clear enough, sorry, I said he'd wiped the board two turns ago. So next turn he'd untapped, sun Titan into snap caster for a think twice, so 8 mana total, which falls in line with turn 8.

I thought it was clear enough, sorry, I said he'd wiped the board two turns ago. So next turn he'd untapped, sun Titan into snap caster for a think twice, so 8 mana total, which falls in line with turn 8.

Again in that scenario he has no countermagic mana open (6 for Titan and 2 for think twice = 8 mana on turn 8 with 0 open)

That is an excellent point and we should probably pretend he brought back a land or something but either way the scenario was resolved. Thanks.

That is an excellent point and we should probably pretend he brought back a land or something but either way the scenario was resolved. Thanks.

Sure no problem. Even if he did bring back a land, still run the Tamiyo out. No matter what happens, you are losing, so just push and hope it sticks.

The longer you wait to cast something, the more chances you give your opponent to draw an actual mana leak.

The longer you wait to cast something, the more chances you give your opponent to draw an actual mana leak.

True story.

You're playing Blue/White control versus Blue/X control. Opening hand is Island, 2 Seachrome Coast, Ponder, Mana Leak. and 2 Dissipate. Your opponent goes first, drops Seachrome Coast, passes turn, you draw into a Grand Abolisher.

In this situation, i'm always torn between two options: Trying to get things on the board, or waiting to see if he'll cast something first that I can counter. My opponent often feels the same way, and this can lead to land-drop-pass for up to five turns at times. My question is, is it smart, when facing another control player, to wait for him/her to cast the first spell to try and get a tempo advantage, or should you try and work something in yourself? I never wanna be the guy who tries to play an Abolisher turn two, gets it Leaked, then here comes a Mirran Crusader or something while i'm tapped out and boop, there's the downhill.

I'm sure most control players have had a game where they're just stuck in that mexican standoff mode for a while.

You're playing Blue/White control versus Blue/X control. Opening hand is Island, 2 Seachrome Coast, Ponder, Mana Leak. and 2 Dissipate. Your opponent goes first, drops Seachrome Coast, passes turn, you draw into a Grand Abolisher.

In this situation, i'm always torn between two options: Trying to get things on the board, or waiting to see if he'll cast something first that I can counter. My opponent often feels the same way, and this can lead to land-drop-pass for up to five turns at times. My question is, is it smart, when facing another control player, to wait for him/her to cast the first spell to try and get a tempo advantage, or should you try and work something in yourself? I never wanna be the guy who tries to play an Abolisher turn two, gets it Leaked, then here comes a Mirran Crusader or something while i'm tapped out and boop, there's the downhill.

I'm sure most control players have had a game where they're just stuck in that mexican standoff mode for a while.

Play the turn 2 Abolisher. Your opponent has to waste a counter or removal spell on it. If not, than their counterspells are useless. Holding a ponder, if you a playing UW properly, than you are playing Oblivion Rings, Tamiyos, Terminus, Day of Judment, more abolishers to stall, Lingering Souls (with black splash), Snapcaster Mage, and possibly banishing stroke as answers. Also Vapor Snag if your into that card. You should be able to find an answer for the Mirran Crusader. If not, you are either playing the wrong cards, or have all your answers on the bottom. In this case, thats just the game. Sometimes all of your answers are on the bottom, this is just another unavoidable factor of the game. If your opponent chooses to run out a crusader without protection, they are the ones who misplay. That card is good enough to take games on its own and is scary with a sword attached to it. When playing control, you must use your life as a resource. Punish the opponent who chose to run out a threat without protection. This is a bad play. Unless you are playing tap out, you never want to tap on on turn 3 forward unless you know you are going to win. T1 ponders are okay and T2 Abolishers are fine. Anything past that, you dont want to tap out unless your are in a position to win. Generally when you tap out early with control, you lose. That has been proven for a long time.

These articles are great keep up the good work.

I'm not sure how comfortable you are with taking suggestions on articles, but do you think you'd be able to lend us your opinion on how the biggest Standard deck archetypes and themes will change when we lose the Scars block and M12? I don't expect you to write it now with your magical knowledge of the contents of M13 and RTR, just something to keep in mind.

I'm not sure how comfortable you are with taking suggestions on articles, but do you think you'd be able to lend us your opinion on how the biggest Standard deck archetypes and themes will change when we lose the Scars block and M12? I don't expect you to write it now with your magical knowledge of the contents of M13 and RTR, just something to keep in mind.

I am always open to suggestions. If you want me to write an article on that, that is fine. I will work on it over the next few days (I am still arguing with the phone company over the $500 they took from me). I was planning this article anyways, but was waiting until we got closer to rotation. I wanted to see how AVR fleshed out first. If you want, I can write on this topic matter and then revisit it a month or so before rotation.

As a blue player myself, I read this as "Leave 2-3 mana open to scare them even when you have junk in your hand."