I was inspired to write this article after seeing someone tweet about Mental Misstep. In short, it was a post if I realize that Mental Misstep is a powerful card, but banworthy? I'd say it was an exaggeration on his part.
So I decided to think it out and have the results to share with you. Does Mental Misstep degenerate Legacy into a play-with-it or learn-to-play-against-it format?
At first, I was thinking that this is another blue answer for Aether Vial. Blue suffers more than other colors from Aether Vial since the Vial circumvents counterspells by putting creatures into play, making it a must counter for blue. The only answer blue had for a turn 1 Aether Vial before Mental Misstep is a Force of Will, so providing the color with a counter for Vial for 2 life seems reasonable.
Here's the first big point for Mental Misstep: Any color can play it by paying two life.
Wanna play Misstep in Goblins? Go for it. Misstep in Elves? Go for it. Misstep in Affinity? YOU CAN HAVE IT, WITH NOOOOOOOOOOOO PROBLEM.
Letting any color use the counterspell wouldn't be a problem if the card is so limited in scope. There aren't a significant number of cards in Legacy that cost one mana to bring out.
...right?
...really?
Yup, wrong.
Let me pull out my beloved Enchantress deck and see how it gets hit by Mental Misstep.
-Elephant Grass, check
-Wild Growth,check
-Utopia Sprawl, check
A good quarter of my deck gets countered by MM. Enchantress typically runs less land than usual, so should a mana boost spell get hit by MM, the Enchantress player is knocked off tempo.
But that's not all! Here's even more cards that Mental Misstep answers:
- Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning/Rift Bolt/Lava Spike
- Swords to Plowshares
- Ponder/Brainstorm
- Pithing Needle
- Duress/Cabal Therapy/Thoughtseize
- Llanowar Elves/Heritage Druid
So many utility cards get hit by Mental Misstep in every color. While I'll doubt you'll pay the two life cost if you're counter a burn spell, the other cards are cards that'll typically mess up your gameplan, making them worthy of a counter.
I'd like to hear what you think. Do you think Mental Misstep is ban worthy? Either tweet me @shadowsketched or drop a comment in the box below.
-sketch
I don't think its ban worthy in legacy but it was interesting to see it being banned in Modern and we will have to see what kind of effect it has there.
ReplyDeleteWould you mind updating your link to mtgblogger to the new permanent URL? Thanks!
Mental Misstep really made an impact in the Legacy format. Most Legacy decks strive and build up on the first 3 to 5 turns, so being able to disrupt spells especially spells that are played on the first turn will have a significant impact on the game.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question. Is it ban worthy? I don't know. But I recently noticed that Mental Misstep is almost in every top decks in tournaments. If I'm not mistaken, a recent SCG tourney had more than 90% of the top decks include Mental Misstep.
If a card is "omnipresent" in almost every top decks in the format should be banned?
I'm still watching the results of other Legacy tourneys and judge from the results if having Mental Misstep in Legacy makes it a good format.
For now, I'm still OK with it.
By the way, I think Rift Bolt can't be countered by Mental Misstep, it's a 3 to cast spell with a 1 suspend cost. :D
@MTGBlogger - Yo, your link's been updated. Though I don't know how much longer it'd be good for since I'm getting somewhere with the new page design.
ReplyDelete@Mike - Rift Bolt has been noted. Mental Misstep is just that good that it shuts downs spells it shouldn't ;).
Personally I feel that if a format degenerates to a "play with or play against" a card format, that card should be considered for banning. Using your statistics of the "90% of the decks", that's a play with or play against format to me.