Countervail

[Bram]

Countervail
?
Instant
Until end of turn, if an opponent plays a card from his or her graveyard or puts a card from his or her graveyard into play, you may play a nonland card from your hand without playing its mana cost.

This meant as a hoser for cards like Will, Crucible and Animated stuff. I'm sure there are many other examples. This could be a good Wish target but I'm unsure about the colors. We still need rare blue spells for our set, but I could also envision this as being white. Opinions?

Countervail:

v. tr.
1. To act against with equal force; counteract.
2. To compensate for; offset.

v. intr.
To act against an often detrimental influence or power.

Seems suitable to me.

Current wording:

Countervail
2G
Enchantment
Whenever an opponent plays a card from his or her graveyard or puts a card from his or her graveyard into play, you may play a nonland card from your hand without paying its mana cost.

[Laurie Cheers]

Needs to be a triggered ability - "whenever", not "if".

I like the idea. Play it in response to Patriarch's Bidding and just empty your hand onto the table.
Alternatively, it's a combo with Exhume...

[Bram]

Heh. A very weak combo with exhume That didn't occur to me, though. It's kinda cool.

Changed to 'whenever'. Any thoughts on the color and mana cost?

[Laurie Cheers]

The card feels green to me (although the name is clearly blue). I think it should cost 1G.

It's hardly a weak combo. Provided your opponent has a creature card in his graveyard, you can reanimate it along with your best creature, and then play the most expensive spell you have in hand, all for just 2BG.

[Bram]

Green? Hmm. I don't see this as green, really. Although there is that death vs. life, necromancy vs. birth thing. I dunno. I need more opinions.

It's hardly a weak combo. Provided your opponent has a creature card in his graveyard, you can reanimate it along with your best creature, and then play the most expensive spell you have in hand, all for just 2BG.

For one thing, it's a two card combo that only works if your opponent even has a creature in the yard. You need to be able to force through both Exhume and this in order to a. give your opponent his best creature back, and b. play one lousy card from your hand for free. Oh, you need to have the card you want to play, too, so that makes it a three card combo. And if you want to mention that fact that you get a creature back, too, fine: then it's virtually a four card combo :-)

While this could be cool as a 'standalone' in casual or funky combo decks, I see this more as a wish target to countervail Will.

For another: I don't see this costing 2. It needs to be 3, somehow. Like 2U or 2G or something.

(although the name is clearly blue).

Just because it says 'counter'? This is exactly why I posted the definition ;-) Again: jury's still out on the color.

[Laurie Cheers]

Just because it says 'counter'?

Just because it says counter, yes.

Green is the colour which gains power when dead things come to life. Not to mention that this is a blatant black hoser, so it ought to be green or white.

[Bram]

AGreed, it should be green or white. Initially, I was thinking white, but now that youmention it, I suppose green could work better, flavor wise. I honestly don't see a problem with the name though. Countervail is an english word that perfectly describes what's happening.

[Bram]

LevelZero suggested this should be white because of the anti black thing and blue because of the put into play thing. In other words: gold. But I'd like it to be white. Can it be white? There's really no precedent for this.

Additionally, some people in #tmd suggested this could be an enchantment so it could hose something liek Crucible more reliably. It makes it less narrow, I guess. It'd have to cost more then, though. How do you guys feel about making this a triggered 2W or 3W enchantment?

[Jacob Orlove]

The effect is very green, though. If it gave you some other benefit when those cards were played, I could see it being white.

[Bram]

Well, OK then. That's two people for green. Who am I to argue? It's not a green enchantment that actually might be playable (and an interesting hoser, IMHO).

Clock?

[Matt]

Um, give it more than a single day, man.

[Bram]

Fair enough (in other words: bump).

[Bram]

Um, give it more than a single day, man.

I could have almost concieved and had a child between my last clock and this one

So again: clock?

(by the way, you'll note I only closed & added 'old' cards of mine on which the clock had already expired. If no formal clock was initiated, I have only bumped the card and initiated the clock).

[Matt]

Loooks good to me.

[Bram]

Closed and added.