2 New Betrayers cards from Inquest worth a look

[SimpleHiker]

This comes from the rumors forum over at mtgnews.com
Only copied a few card that are worth looking at.

Disrupting Shoal XUU (The Singapore pre-release flyer art) (R)
Instant- Arcane
You may remove a blue card in your hand with converted mana cost X from the game rather than pay Disrupting Shoal's mana cost.
Counter target spell if it's converted mana cost is X.
Scott M. Fisher, 33/165


Sway of the Stars 8UU (R)
Sorcery
Each player shuffles his or her hand, graveyard, and permanents he or she owns into his or her library, then draws seven cards. Each player's life total becomes 7.
Randy Gallegos, 54/165

[skecreatoR]

Sway of the stars is so hot if I have my Verdant Force in play when I manage to resolve it.

[Smmenen]

Wow thats fantastic.  All we need is another FOW in this format.

[bebe]

Yep. Shoal looks like it could be promising although you would need to find the right deck for it. Four new free counters may make the blue mage smile again.

[Alfred]

Shoal seems very exciting! Though it has a more restrictive cost than FoW, this is probably one of the best "free" counterspells that has been printed. With the curve of decks so low in T1, I think this will definately see play in this format as FoW 5-X.

[Klep]

Sway of the stars is so hot if I have my Verdant Force in play when I manage to resolve it.

It totally isn't.

Shoal is almost certainly going to make an impact.  It's nice that they're finally printing counters that don't suck again.

[Zherbus]

OOOOH Shoal is ARCANE! So good!

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

Z, Didn't you know? YOU CAN NOW SPLICE BLESSED BREATH to keep those damn welders from dying. OMG COUNTER FIRE/ICE, ANCESTRAL IN RESPONSE< OMG COUNTER ANCESTRAL AND GIVE MY WELDER PROTECTION. ITS THE WAVE OF THE MUTHA FUCKIN FUTURE.

Please tell me if haven't killed this joke enough.... I can do it more.

[dicemanx]

Disrupting Shoal doesn't look so hot. The odds of having a blue card to pitch of the correct CMC isn't very high. Now if it were counter a spell with X CMC  or less, that would be a different story...

[WildWillieWonderboy]

Still pretty hot in a mirror match or when decks are close enough to the same. Now we just need a blue spell with converted cost zero: Kobold Merfolk.

[Revvik]

It really is too bad this new alt. cost counterspell didn't come out sooner - Steven might be in a different mood about this.  As a new free counterspell, its regular cost against lower CC spells isn't too unreasonable in this format.

Does this seem to anyone else like an attempt at "fixing" the Ravager complaints?

[OptimusDeutz]

I wont go so far as to call it a Force of Will... but it has potential considering the low mana cost of MOST of the spells in the format. The real limitation is the requirement that the card be blue... if you could discard any card it would likely be a bit better...

[Bardo]

I wont go so far as to call it a Force of Will... but it has potential considering the low mana cost of MOST of the spells in the format. The real limitation is the requirement that the card be blue... if you could discard any card it would likely be a bit better...

No, it's ass because the card you discard/rfg with Shoal must have the exact same converted cost as the card you want to counter. It's too narrow to be useful. I don't think it's a better counter than Daze, and that's not saying much.

[Komatteru]

The card isn't horrible.  It's much better than Foil, and more focused than Misdirection (which is useless in a lot of situations).  You could always hard cast it.  Countering Black Lotus for UU isn't utterly horrible after all (it's done with Mana Drain every now and then, and that's just a waste).  Pitch an extra Brainstorm to counter Dark Ritual?  That's not horrible, since you get to keep your other counterspells available for other things.  While it's not Force, it's not horrible.  Mediocre seems like a better word.  It shows promise, and only actual testing will reveal whether it's useful.

In any case, I'm not excited to see another free counterspell.

[OptimusDeutz]

That is what I was getting at. We play in a format where a spell costs 0,1,2 or 3 mana or it just doesnt get played if it doesn't win the game. You can expect to have those mana costs in your deck. It may be viable in a mono-blue deck.

It isnt the best that is out there, but the fact that it is a pitch counter that COULD be hardcast to deal with lower mana spells gives it a merit.

O. Deutz

[rozetta]

Does this seem to anyone else like an attempt at "fixing" the Ravager complaints?

A while ago I was chatting with a friend and said that WotC could fix the type 2 Ravager problem by printing a pitch counter, but the chances of that happening would be unlikely, since they're probably weary of doing that and are also actively trying to power blue down. It seems that I guessed right after all.

While this card has a restrictive pitch cost, the hard-cast is not at all that bad - if you cast it for up to the same price as a hard-cast FoW, you can counter almost anything in type 1. The pitch cost gives it added versatility in that it might be useable in certain situations as a surprise pitch counter.

Thoughtcast just got a whole mot more attractive

[Raven Fire]

We play in a format where a spell costs 0,1,2 or 3 mana or it just doesnt get played if it doesn't win the game. You can expect to have those mana costs in your deck. It may be viable in a mono-blue deck.

Taking a look at it this way, 1 and 2 cc cards are easy to come by for blue so that's not a problem.  0 is obviously tricky, but I guess you can just counter it for uu (tough early on).  3 cc is the one I'm worried about (mainly due to CoW/Trini on turn 1).  Are Intition, C Wish, BtB, TfK, and Energy Flux enough?  What other major players am I missing? (I'm sure there are some obvious ones)

[Limbo]

We play in a format where a spell costs 0,1,2 or 3 mana or it just doesnt get played if it doesn't win the game. You can expect to have those mana costs in your deck. It may be viable in a mono-blue deck.

Taking a look at it this way, 1 and 2 cc cards are easy to come by for blue so that's not a problem.  0 is obviously tricky, but I guess you can just counter it for uu (tough early on).  3 cc is the one I'm worried about (mainly due to CoW/Trini on turn 1).  Are Intition, C Wish, BtB, TfK, and Energy Flux enough?  What other major players am I missing? (I'm sure there are some obvious ones)

How about ophidian, psychatog, old man of the sea?

[sa17dk]

I see the card popping as maybe 1 or 2 ofs in decks, sort of like the way misdirection is being used as a 1 of in some decks. The only deck that I can see possibly using 3 or 4 and pull it off is a deck like Mono U. What are your opinions?

[Revvik]

In the "Magic Community" forums, Steven Menendian can be quoted as such:

Shoals is a much better card that anyone in this thread has yet given credit.

I believe he's very right in saying so.  Pull up Menendian's old Momo-Blue list from GenCon and see how this card interacts inside of it, or a version running Chalice of the Void main.  This card, if coupled with an impressive draw engine to support it, can be immensely powerful, even more in Type 1 than in other formats due to our lower casting costs.

Don't count on Workshop getting axed, it will never happen. They will restrict Trinisphere and Crucible first.

Shoals ups the percentage of a free pitch-counter on turn one.  This card seems to be WotC's apology for all the Trinisphere complaints, only it's done with more finesse than restricting something, which is a solution we so blindly turn to.

Mono Bleu, being fairly cheap to build, can now be a stronger threat than ever before, whether run via the Ophidian engine, or the Intuition/AK/Impulse engine, killing with Severance / Belcher (Hint, kiddies, with Fish and therefore Null Rod on the decline, this deck is more viable than ever)

This card helps a properly built control deck to negate the "critical Turn One" of the format.  Brainstorm, Impulse/AK, and Thirst/Intuition all provide viable blue cards at varying casting costs to pitch to Shoals.  Never underestimate the power of saying No.

Edit: Hey, maybe my foil 'Phids will be worth something again  :lol:

[Stupid_Newb]

I like the Shoal. Stock up on your Libraries, folks. Control is coming back.

[apoc7k]

This is how I look at it. Since there is a lot of disagreement as to if Disruption Shoal is good I'll just point out the facts.

First off, it really does depend on what deck you are playing. If you are playing a generic draw-7 tendrils deck, chances are this won't see much play as it is pretty situational for you to be able to pop this one off.

Second, diversity of the cc in blue cards you have. If all you run are Misdirection, Morphling, Force of Will, this, and a bunch of 1-2 cc cards, this will rarely be THE card you need unless they play something with the correct cc.

Really it depends on your matchup because of all the different decks that are played in type 1. One matchup could be against 2 land belcher, and the next against 5/3.

My main point is that if you are going to run this card, try something like Steve Menendian's Smmenen blue deck. It really is one of the most compatable decks with this card. Since it's mono-blue and carries a variety of useful blue cards, you can deal with an array of threats.