[Card] Bind

[Nihil Credo]

Bind - 1G

Instant

Counter target activated ability.
Draw a card.

Invasion rare

Bind is to Stifle what Abeyance is to Orim's Chant, in several ways.

Its effect is 80% of Stifle's. In my experience, Stifle usually counters Incinerator damage, Storm triggers, or activated abilities. Once in a while you'll do something like stopping a Smokestack for a turn, or resolve a spell through Chalice@2, but such instances are pretty rare.

It costs 1 more and draws a card for it. It doesn't really "cycle", because you have to counter something to draw a card, but it's uncommon to have no targets at all to exploit (even something meaningless like a SDT activation or a Nantuko Shade pump).

Most importantly, it is a different colour.

What decks could use this card? The first idea is a deck with Green and a land destruction (sub-)theme. Stifling a fetchland is hot; Binding a fetchland is utterly fucking retarded.

One problem I spot is that Bind wants you to keep mana open for it. What decks want to keep mana open? Usually it's blue decks... which would probably favour Stifle.
However, there are exceptions: RG Goblins has an ever-annoying empty spot at the 2cc slot, and Bind could be a reasonable contender, supplementing Wasteland and Port (will your opponent play a dual land and get it Wasted, or try to fetch a basic land and risk having it Bound? Tough spot). Green decks with lots of mana (a la Trinity) may enjoy keeping 1G open to defend against devastating Pernicious Deed. A mono-green Crystalline Elves version fears both EE and Deed, and could use this as an answer... perhaps complementing Wastes and Ports, Goblins-style. Another deck which keeps green mana open is Survival, but having some experience with the archetype I'd dismiss the idea, because the lists are incredibly tight already.

I've thrown out my thoughts. What is your opinion of the card? Does it stand a chance of seeing competitive play?

[Nightmare]

Bind is to Stifle what Abeyance is to Orim's Chant, in several ways.It's more like, Bind is to Stifle what Burnout is to REB.

You sacrifice versatality for one mana and a cantrip. It's ok, but I would never run it over Stifle.

[Lego]

Storm triggers

The reason, I think (well, and the one mana) not to run Bind.

[DarkAkuma]

I considered it for 9LS against deed and such, back when i couldnt afford needles. But honestly, if you play blue, play stifle. If you need more then stifle play twincast. If your not playing blue, in most cases play needle if you have them. The cantrip just isnt worth it for most green decks.

[Finn]

Nihil, I played Bind briefly. I eventually dropped it primarily because leaving two mana open is very uncool if the opponent does nothing you can bind. It is the same problem as with Counterspell, only much more pronounced. The only way you can be OK with keeping the mana open is if you have blue and cantrips. But then are you really going to choose this over Stifle?

[Tacosnape]

In the typical Taco bluntness I'm rapidly becoming famous for, Bind sucks.

Seriously. 2 mana for a narrow-ability cantrip isn't terribly acceptable. What activated ability did you want to counter with it, exactly? There's plenty of relevant ones, but worth keeping mana open in a green deck? (Finn is dead on here.) And several of the relevant ones (Fetchlands, Wasteland, etc) can go before you have Bind mana.

Triggered Abilities get countered with Stifle as often as not. It's what makes Stifle good.

Stifle, in addition to everything listed, also has the tremendous advantage of being blue. Bind isn't nifty because it's green. Bind is weak because it's green. Being blue is a tremendous advantage for a card in a format where Force of Will is king.

[Phantom]

All the reason above plus the simple fact that people often drop and crack their first (and often only) fetch before you hit 1G. This is the reason why Shadow of Doubt sucks too sadly.

[Tacosnape]

All the reason above plus the simple fact that people often drop and crack their first (and often only) fetch before you hit 1G. This is the reason why Shadow of Doubt sucks too sadly.

That and the fact that library searching is passe and decking yourself and making your graveyard a face-up library / second hand is in.

[cann0nfodder]

Bind is to Stifle what Abeyance is to Orim's Chant, in several ways.

Its effect is 80% of Stifle's. In my experience, Stifle usually counters Incinerator damage, Storm triggers, or activated abilities. Once in a while you'll do something like stopping a Smokestack for a turn, or resolve a spell through Chalice@2, but such instances are pretty rare.

It costs 1 more and draws a card for it. It doesn't really "cycle", because you have to counter something to draw a card, but it's uncommon to have no targets at all to exploit (even something meaningless like a SDT activation or a Nantuko Shade pump).

Most importantly, it is a different colour.

What decks could use this card? The first idea is a deck with Green and a land destruction (sub-)theme. Stifling a fetchland is hot; Binding a fetchland is utterly fucking retarded.

One problem I spot is that Bind wants you to keep mana open for it. What decks want to keep mana open? Usually it's blue decks... which would probably favour Stifle.
However, there are exceptions: RG Goblins has an ever-annoying empty spot at the 2cc slot, and Bind could be a reasonable contender, supplementing Wasteland and Port (will your opponent play a dual land and get it Wasted, or try to fetch a basic land and risk having it Bound? Tough spot). Green decks with lots of mana (a la Trinity) may enjoy keeping 1G open to defend against devastating Pernicious Deed. A mono-green Crystalline Elves version fears both EE and Deed, and could use this as an answer... perhaps complementing Wastes and Ports, Goblins-style. Another deck which keeps green mana open is Survival, but having some experience with the archetype I'd dismiss the idea, because the lists are incredibly tight already.

I've thrown out my thoughts. What is your opinion of the card? Does it stand a chance of seeing competitive play?


Actually, there is a blue bind. The card is called squelch and it costs 1u, its an instant, it counters activated abilities and it draws you a card. However, the card is not playable since it doesn't hit triggered abilities and its too expensive. I considered running a couple copies of the card alongside stifle and wasteland in have plenty of land destruction spells but there are much too many options available at u or 1u when it comes to blue instants for me to even think of running squelch.

[Nihil Credo]

@Finn: Good to know. I feared as much, but thought the card was worth trying out. Out of curiosity, what deck were you running Bind in?

@Taco (and cann0nfodder): Bind isn't nifty because it's green. Agreed, but being green it can be run in nonblue decks, which is the reason I mentioned that card instead of Squelch (which will never get played over Stifle).

IMO, Bind being a turn 2 play isn't the reason it's bad - would you run a 1BB cantrip Sinkhole? I would, in a heartbeat. The only problem is making it worthwhile to keep 1G open, as I mentioned in the opening post.

[Finn]

I ran it in the first versions of Dirt. At the time, the deck was still an experiment on a Pox deck without Pox.

[Hopo]

As I discovered there's a card called Bind, I wanted to try it somewhere. I'm now working on my BWG Deedguy build, and ever since I dropped Sinkholes I've been dreaming of being able to squeeze some Binds in. I just haven't found the cards that could be cut. Still, they might be usable as SB cards against something like opposite Deeds or perhaps even Belchers. Could be an awesome tech in mirror matches. And the colors could definitely use some cantripping.

I don't know. I wanted this card to be cool and great, but there are just so many cards that give me the same or better feeling. I'd love to see this card in a tier1 deck somewhere. My best guess is some BWG build. I'm doing my best to contribute to this.