Is spell snare a dead card in this format now?

[kingsey]

For awhile it was used highly. I am coming back after a small break ( 7 months ). What is your guys thoughts on running it now ? What has changed ?

[Lemnear]

For awhile it was used highly. I am coming back after a small break ( 7 months ). What is your guys thoughts on running it now ? What has changed ?

Increasing use of Green Sun's Zenith, Show&Tell as well as Delver of Secrets. All remains 4 Snare are Stoneforges or Counterbalance (Blade or Miracle Control). Spell Pierce does a better Job atm against the meta. Even ANT/TES laughs @ Snare with 1cc discard or better ... Silence

[Final Fortune]

Increasing use of Green Sun's Zenith, Show&Tell as well as Delver of Secrets. All remains 4 Snare are Stoneforges or Counterbalance (Blade or Miracle Control). Spell Pierce does a better Job atm against the meta. Even ANT/TES laughs @ Snare with 1cc discard or better ... Silence

+1, also see Terminus.

[Einherjer]

Well, no.

Spell Snare isn't a 4of any more. That's right. People play more Spell Pierces, and less Spell Snares, right too. But Spell Snare is not a dead card, by far. To begin with, we have to clarify what deck we are talking about. I talk about Canadian Threshold. Spell Snare is not dead for this deck, it handles so many cards it does not want to see --> Counterbalance, Stoneforge Mystic, Scryb Ranger, Scavenging Ooze, Tarmogoyf, GSZ X=1(for manaacceleration/Dryad), Fire//Ice, Snapcaster Mage, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Umezawa's Jitte.... While I agree that Spell Pierce is a very good Counter nowadays, Spell Snare is far from being dead.

Greetings

[Tormod]

Spellsnare was popularity diminished when Esper stoneblade swapped snares for hand disruption. Inquisition and thoughtseize.

Right now, spellsnare is an excellent meta call, but I would not consider them before 2x spell pierce.

Spells are hits:
Burning Wish
SFM
SCM
Counter balance is a very relevant target since miracles can play around pierce
Thalia
Hymn
Chalice for 1
Jitte
Goyf
Pridemage
Energy field
Counter spell
price of progress

My meta has slowed down considerably and snare is very good.

[JDK]

Spellsnare was popularity diminished when Esper stoneblade swapped snares for hand disruption. Inquisition and thoughtseize.

Right now, spellsnare is an excellent meta call, but I would not consider them before 2x spell pierce.

Spells are hits:
Burning Wish
SFM
SCM
Counter balance is a very relevant target since miracles can play around pierce
Thalia
Hymn
Chalice for 1
Jitte
Goyf
Pridemage
Energy field
Counter spell
price of progress

My meta has slowed down considerably and snare is very good.
Most of those spells are 1-ofs or in decks with little play. As you said, it's meta dependent, but I wouldn't call it "excellent" in the current "general" meta.

[bowvamp]

Most of those spells are 1-ofs or in decks with little play. As you said, it's meta dependent, but I wouldn't call it "excellent" in the current "general" meta.

Umm no, I see no 1-ofs in that list. What are you looking at?
I'll take "Most of" to mean > 50%. Here's the ones that see heavy play:

SFM
SCM
CB
Thalia
Hymn
Goyf
Pridemage

7/14

[JDK]

Hymn is heavily played? :eyebrow:

Jitte is often a 1-of (of course, it gets fetched by SFM) and so is Counterspell.
Pridemage is not something every blue deck needs to counter, so just because it can be hit by Snare doesn't make it a good choice. Also, Maverick is seeing less play.

[Esper3k]

I think RUG decks are going to have to start playing Spell Snare again just to deal with Rest in Peace. That single card almost completely neuters RUG if it resolves, so they absolutely can't let it get down.

[Hanni]

I think RUG decks are going to have to start playing Spell Snare again just to deal with Rest in Peace. That single card almost completely neuters RUG if it resolves, so they absolutely can't let it get down.

Counterbalance too.

[John Cox]

What about Envelop ? :laugh::laugh::laugh:

[Amon Amarth]

I've always viewed Spell Snare as similar Stifle in that it goes in and out of vogue regularly because the metagame shifts and not because the cards is too weak. It wouldn't be hard to make a convincing case for Spell Snare in specific metas.

[ThomasDowd]

pay attention to your metagame, and adjust accordingly. also decide what you need to beat more. snare deals with a lot of the important cards you care about (goyf in the mirror, stoneforge, counterbalance, bob, chalice on one, all things you kind of lose to on the spot).


basically, depends on the meta.

[Jenni]

Really, it is a great card to have, but a lot of the things you want to spell snare can also be spell pierced, so you just have to judge based on the cards you expect to be up against if it's better to have a hard counter for cmc=2 cards, or a soft counter that can't hit creatures(Spell pierce), or a soft counter that hits anything(Force Spike) but is easier to play around, and so on. They're all good spells, and I've used all of the ones I named at various times, it just depends on what you're expecting and what your deck needs to stop the most.

[Final Fortune]

pay attention to your metagame, and adjust accordingly. also decide what you need to beat more. snare deals with a lot of the important cards you care about (goyf in the mirror, stoneforge, counterbalance, bob, chalice on one, all things you kind of lose to on the spot).


basically, depends on the meta.

At least in the context of aggro-control, I don't see Spell Snare being a MD card over Spell Pierce post Terminus unless you're specifically targeting 2cc creatures with your Spellsnare, because Spell Pierce protects you from every other 2cc, non-creature threat and every other card you care about above and below 2cc for the amount of time you need to win.

You need a reason not to be playing Spell Pierce in aggro-control before you even think of using Spell Snare.

[Einherjer]

What? In no way!

Did you ever play RUG vs Miracle? Did you? I am very confident you did not. Counterbalance can be Spell Pierced early on - but this does not matter. This MU often goes to the late-game, whether RUG likes it or not. And if the Miracleguy is like putting down a Counterbalance in turn 12...well...good game Spell Pierce. --- under the assumption that your "aggrocontrol" means the same thing as SCG labels as "aggrocontrol" namely, RUG Delver. ( I dont know if they always do so, but during Todd Andersons winning matches they did )

Greetings

[catmint]

Pierce is indeed not super exciting in the Miracle matchup from a RUG perspective. Unfortunately snare neither - true it hits some key-spells (Counterbalance, Snapcastermage if played), but is overall narrow in the sense of "does not hit a lot of spells". Pierce is good if you can build up pressure early so they have to play into it, but at the same time you don't want to overextend because of terminus. Games were always long for me against Miracles playing RUG and especially because of their SD.top, pierce is relatevily dead soon. Concerning miracles, Stifle & Red-blast are the best counterspells. :cool:

Back to the topic: the biggest reason why Pierce is so heavily played over snare is Griselbrand (Show&Tell/Sneak attack). The most common combo deck, which the blue based "beat everything" decks need to prepare for. Snare was dead in this matchup (getting better with Burning wish tough still bad). If Show&Tell would be banned/not popular my guess is snare & pierce would switch roles again and both counters would be played leaning more heavily towards snare.

[alderon666]

After seeing BUG control casting about a bilion copies of Liliana and Jace this weekend, I think that Spell Pierce is just the better card.

[ThomasDowd]

At least in the context of aggro-control, I don't see Spell Snare being a MD card over Spell Pierce post Terminus unless you're specifically targeting 2cc creatures with your Spellsnare, because Spell Pierce protects you from every other 2cc, non-creature threat and every other card you care about above and below 2cc for the amount of time you need to win.

You need a reason not to be playing Spell Pierce in aggro-control before you even think of using Spell Snare.

I never said to cut it over pierce. I am probably cutting the worst card in the deck for snares in the future.

[Fossil4182]

For awhile it was used highly. I am coming back after a small break ( 7 months ). What is your guys thoughts on running it now ? What has changed ?

Thoughts on running it?
Maybe. Refer to the above posts for arguments for and against running it. To say there is a definite answer to the question is absurd. Amon Amarth is right in that the popularity of the card comes and goes depending on which decks are popular. If you're playing at a larger tournament or regional event (such as the SCG Open), then check recent top eights from larger tournaments to get an idea about where the metagame is going. If you're playing local, go check you're local shop to see what people are playing and decide for yourself.

What has changed?
The format has slowed down a bit. There isn't a true dedicated aggro deck in the tier one decks so decks. This means decks can run and rely on 3 and 4 casting cost spells without risking a blowout draw from a fast aggro deck. In someways the format has shifted away from 2 casting cost spells. Counterbalance, while present, does not influence deck design as it once did. Thus, I would say while 2 casting cost spells are still powerful and influential in counterspell selection, Spell Pierce is the new norm and I believe Spell Snare more likely to compete with Stifle for slots in deck design.

[Mr. Safety]

I am a firm believer in Spell Pierce over Spell Snare, hands down. Removal is for the 2-mana dudes, Pierce is for everything else. If someone is playing Green Sun's Zenith that also translates into an opportunity to use Spell Pierce. Probably the best reason for using Spell Pierce is that it's a better response than Daze to protect your threats against opponent's removal. Many decks such as RUG or Team America that leave mana open for instant-speed removal can't pay the extra 2.

Long story short: Pierce is better at protecting your own threats, and you definately want to be the one playing the threats. Spell Snare is best described as a counterspell that 'occasionally, randomly works and also pitches to force'. Blah, not good enough for me. Pierce all the way.

[DragoFireheart]

Spell Snare would be much better if Mental Misstep were legal.

Counter spells at CMC 1 and 2 for free or one mana.

[ThomasDowd]

Or you can just cut daze and play snare over that.

[Dark Ritual]

Or you can just cut daze and play snare over that.

Except daze costs zero mana while snare costs 1. And daze can counter a wide range of spells while snare is quite narrow in what it can counter.

Spell snare wasn't good when misstep was legal. It wasn't uncommon to be misstepped when you cast spell snare. Misstep made snare worse when misstep was legal.

Right now pierce is leagues ahead of snare. And pierce, when it was spoiled, wasn't even looked at closely is the funny thing outside of vintage. I've always thought that pierce should be a heavily played card in a spell based format since it's really really good in terms of what it can counter.

[Mr. Safety]

Except daze costs zero mana while snare costs 1. And daze can counter a wide range of spells while snare is quite narrow in what it can counter.

Spell snare wasn't good when misstep was legal. It wasn't uncommon to be misstepped when you cast spell snare. Misstep made snare worse when misstep was legal.

Right now pierce is leagues ahead of snare. And pierce, when it was spoiled, wasn't even looked at closely is the funny thing outside of vintage. I've always thought that pierce should be a heavily played card in a spell based format since it's really really good in terms of what it can counter.

QFT, I was using Spell Pierce before I got my Forces, and now I play both. Word.

[Piceli89]

I don't know if the answers given in this thread can be taken as a worthy representation of the (american) players' thought, but it's so funny to read "Spell Pierce is hands down the best, miles ahead Snare"; very flattening, and in some degree it may reflect lack of playtesting.
If you're playing a pseudo-mirror match against a blue-based midrange like Stoneblade, Miracle or BUG, and most of all against good players, you'll find out that the pivotal plays (Jace, Top, Counterbalance, and so on) are always done playing around Spell Pierce. Its efficiency in stopping those spells greatly decreases from turn 5 and so on, and you'll find yourself wanting Spell Snare and not Pierce as their Snapcasters, Tourachs and Mystics wreck your plan with card advantage while you sit on your pierces that are taking the rust.
Unless you're playing a very aggressive deck -like Threshold or Delver Burn- which puts a lot of pressure and forces to play under Pierce to keep up tempo, every other deck with a slower clock is better to run a split of those. Even against Maverick, although not stellar, Spell Snare can hit Thalia, Library and Pridemage on the draw. And later on, too. Pierce will nail a Zenith here and there, but if things go for the long route, it will be played around.
Spell Snare is also a hard counter against ANT, complementing Force and being a valid way to win if hidden under a Top; Pierce is quickly played around even by Show and Tell, because of Sol-lands (it's obviously better than Snare, but later builds are leaning towards Omniscience, making Burning Wish a valid reason to keep Snare).
I'll repeat myself, I've seen good pilots biting the dust to Spell Pierce really rarely, and even in the deckbuilding process they always prefer a 2-2 split of the two. The key is understanding that several powerful tools of the tier decks and still within the cc2 drop, and you want to be able to consistently cover them. It's pretty rare that you don't have to fear any cc2 drop because the rest of your spells are able to cover the major threats; maybe I could see BUG an exception to the rule because of the usual four cc-1 discard spells.

[death]

Spell Snare would be much better if Mental Misstep were legal.

Counter spells at CMC 1 and 2 for free or one mana.

No, Spell Snare will be unplayable if Mental Misstep is unbanned. To answer the question, both are good but Snare is better in decks that want the long game. Spell Pierce is a dead card mid-late game, Tempo might like this card though it's garbage in control where boarding into Flusterstorms seem much better.

[Umezete]

I'm at a 4/2 pierce/snare split in rug delver atm.

Snare hits less than pierce atm but is still really strong and much better against certain decks. Pierce is just stronger in rug delver if you are able to get and maintain the early aggro.