Not Quite Stifle

[asi]

"Wish I were red"

Instant
Counter target activated or triggered ability.
Instead of paying NQS’s mana cost, you may remove a blue card from your hand from the game.


"Wish I were green"

Instant
Counter target activated or triggered ability.
Instead of paying NQS’s mana cost, you may remove a red card from your hand from the game.


"Wish I were Chuck Norris"

Instant
Counter target activated or triggered ability.
Instead of paying NQS’s mana cost, you may remove a green card from your hand from the game.





Quite simple. Can counter Hulks/Tendril's/ETW's triggered abilities as well as fetchlands, even when not going first. Obviously very expensive when hardcasr, but that's probably the only way to balance this card. What do you think?

edit: made all three suggestions in the first post. Personally, I love the red one; green and blue make much more sense, flavorwise at least.

[zeus-online]

Maybe..if you control an island you may remove a blue card in your hand from the game instead of playing NQS's manacost?

Not quite stifle-FoW anymore but should still do what you want it to...although i'd hate to see more stifle effects...

/Zeus

[asi]

The condition to have to control an island wold make this so much worse than Stifle. It certainly is powerful, but so are typical vintage plays such as first turn Protean Hulk or large Tendrils.

I would really love  to make this card red. Is there any chance red could have such a card, flavour wise? Blue already is very strong and hase some stifle effects. Red is bad at stopping certain things and the 2nd worst control colour, but a "narrow" card such as this could really be a bonus to the colour, I think.

NQS

Instant
Counter target activated or triggered ability.
Instead of paying NQS’s mana cost, you may remove a red card from your hand from the game.

[Crankster]

Stop, in the name of love
 
Instant
Counter target activated or triggered ability.
Instead of paying NQS’s mana cost, you may remove a green card from your hand from the game.

Green has voidslime and avoid fate in a similar vein, besides green needs more tricks

[asi]

Stop, in the name of love
 
Instant
Counter target activated or triggered ability.
Instead of paying NQS’s mana cost, you may remove a green card from your hand from the game.

Green has voidslime and avoid fate in a similar vein, besides green needs more tricks

I like red more than green. Your point is quite valid, though, and it does indeed make more sense in green than in red. It would probably be much more awesome in red. Maybe a 5-card cycle of the same card in every colour  ? Come on, no one likes Tendrils and fetchies!

Ok, I will modify the first post to include all three suggestions.

[Harlequin]

Green already has ESG+ESG -> Bind.  Well for fetchlands at least....

[jro]

I think that if the goal is to provide a way to counter first turn fetches or combo-oriented triggered abilities, this isn't a particularly elegant or clever solution, no matter what color it's in.  I guess it's fun to play the "what color should pitch stifle be in?" game, but it doesn't really seem like all that interesting a question.

Moreover, I think that inasmuch as stopping fetches or triggered abilities is a worthy goal, there's no special reason why one card should do both things.  Especially since I think it's generally agreed that while fetches are enormously powerful, they're ultimately fair, while triggered abilities used in combo decks like from Protean Hulk or Storm cards are (in some way) unfair.

For instance, suppose you just focused on the triggered ability part.  Using Lorwyn as inspiration:

Bartleby's Sprite
2U
Creature - Faerie Rogue
Flash
Flying
When Bartelby's Sprite comes into play, counter target triggered ability an opponent controls.
Evoke - Reveal a Faerie card from your hand
"I would prefer you not to."
1/1

Or perhaps a more generic card along the lines of Patrician's Scorn:
Belay
U
If you played a blue spell this turn, you may play Belay without paying its mana cost.
Counter target triggered ability.
Buyback 2

[Harlequin]

Silent Song
Instant
If you control no lands, you may remove a green or blue card in your hand from the game insead of paying Silent Song's mana cost.
Counter target activated or triggered ability.

You could argue that mono-blue or mono-green could run the card - but it would have to be a landless build to cast it reliably.

[Crankster]

I must admit I have trouble understanding why blue would need another stifle effect. Stifle, trickbind, interdict, teferis response... see where I'm going with this?


Natural quiet
Instant
Counter target activated or triggered ability.
Instead of paying -cardname- mana cost, you may remove a green card from your hand from the game.

[Anusien]

Why do we think the game of Magic needs a free stifle?

[asi]

Why do we think the game of Magic needs a free stifle?

1. I like Stifle.
2. I like free cards. Most of them, at least.

I don't know whether the game needs a free Stifle. What makes a card "necessary" for the game?


The cards suggested above are very interesting, though also very different from mine. Less elegant, but much more innovative, I think. You might want to open a new thread for them. I sort of like them.

[Anusien]

Personally I think Stifle is a useful card, but we've seen it twice in its current form, and killing activated abilities is an old trick by now.  You're making it free, which might make it better, but doesn't make it more interesting.

Also, I think Stifle is a pretty blue ability with a slight possibility of being green.  Then again it was just blue twice, so I'm pretty sure it's blue.

[asi]

We've actually seen it thrice, Stifle, Voidslime, Trickbind. I think the effect is interesting enough to create more of it, though it is obviously quite narrow. But see it this way: most colour-hosing or random-standard-mechanic-hating is much more narrow.