[SCD] Mental Misstep

[Jeff Kruchkow]

I really don't think people are overreacting at all. The card is sick. Seriously every deck in legacy has 1 drops except Chalice decks. And as a point of fact, every deck in legacy has 1 drop cards it hates seeing and this is just a versatile answer to all of them.

Look at it like this:
Control Matchups:
Combo: stops at worst cantrips to dig, at best stops High Tide, Dark Rit, Duress, Chant and the list goes on
Non-Vial Aggro: Stops one drops like Nactal and Lynx that can get in a ton of damage if not answered right away, plus isn't really dead late game as they have to keep playing dudes.
Vial Aggro: Probably the weakest here in terms of what it hits but its also FoW 5-8 for their best card against you - Vial.
Tempo: Stops near 50% of their deck. Awesome.

Combo Matchups:
Control: stops Snare (maybe) and opposing Missteps as well as Top. Not that great
Any Aggro Deck: Stop Vial/Nactal/Lackey/whatever is going to give them a chance to race you
Tempo: Stops 50% of their deck which is nice.

Aggro Matchups:
Combo: Gives you a chance to race by stopping a critical Dark Rit/High Tide/etc
Control: Helps fight removal so your dudes can get in for more damage
Aggro: stops vial in vial mirrors and stops opposing removal to allow you to win creature wars.

So of the three big pillars of Combo, Aggro, Control, everyone has a pretty big benefit to playing misstep. Combo probably has the least to gain but if everyone else plays it they kind of have to.

Also, saying the meta will shift away from one-drops really isnt fair. For one, combo just can't do that, and for two, if you are a deck that is less reliant on 1 than you are either a Vial deck or a Chalice deck

[paladin3056]

I think it is already said that this is a great card. Now the only problem is in what deck would this fit, and how they would fit it? With how Legacy decks nowadays are already crammed, adding in 4 of these in their decks would be quite hard without loosing the main focus of the deck. I myself can't wait to get a foil set of these and see how it would fare out in my deck as well.

I won't comment on how well this would work in other decks since I only play one kind of deck, but I think this card would truly affect legacy, how big I am not sure but we would have to wait for a few months and see. I am quite certain this would strengthen some and maybe weaken several other decks in the format.

[Deady]

This could easily replace Spell Snare in Supreme Blue Countertop builds as a 2-off, with 2 more in the board. It would be sick, if only to protect Lavamancer from dying to a Swords, Bolt or Path and/or to protect your fetchlands from getting Stifled.

[spirit of the wretch]

Ok, these days I seldom post something on the non-team forum. But all this hype here just provokes a reaction.
This card is good. Right. It is not the be all end all holy grail of Legacy.

This card isn't all too hot in blue or black decks. And it’s pretty mediocre in Combo.decs. There, I said it! Yeah it counters stuff for free and that's awesome, but it also only counters SOME stuff.

Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize are both better in my opinion.

And blue already has Daze, Countersell, Spell Snare, Spell Pierce, Force, ... as viable Counterspells.

This card really shines in colors that traditionally have a problem to disrupt the opponent.

Oh and before you tell me just how many cards this stops, I have a little bit of hype, too:

There is this new fancy card that stops Vial, Lavamancer, Top, Mother of Runes, Grind Stone, Engineered Explosives, Wasteland, Maze of Ith, Fauna Shaman, Knight of the Reliquary, Ravanger, all equipment, all planeswalker and even ALL FETCHLANDS!?!?!
And it only cost a single colorless Mana. And to be true, it’s not even new. Clearly it should be an automatic 4-off in every Legacy.dec

Long story short: Good card but not the sky falling!

[dsck]

And it only cost a single colorless Mana

0 and 1 have quite large difference though Against merfolk you can counter Vial if you are on the play and have 1 mana for their daze available.

[Barook]

This card isn't all too hot in blue or black decks.

Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize are both better in my opinion.

...

And it only cost a single colorless Mana.

Bob wins games and discard doesn't help against top-decked removal. Mental Misstep does, in turn making strategies with Bob better.

Pithing Needle shuts down your own copies of Vial etc, too, while Mental Misstep is not symmetrical.

[Final Fortune]

You guys are seriously overrating Misstep vs Combo, at most it costs them a Dark Ritual or Rite of Flame and likely gets Duressed or Orim's Chanted instead of an irrelevant card. It might be problematic if the aggro decks SBs in Mindbreak Trap, a Gaddok Teeg for Green Sun's Zenith and an Enlightened Tutor package post board, but combo is still going to win game 1 and aggro is only going to be able to play as a worse Counter/Top deck games 2 and 3.

I agree you pretty much 4x this in almost every deck, but it's not like it makes "that big" of a difference in an already terrible match up for aggro. And If aggro-control plays Misstep over Spell Snare or even better Spell Pierce, it's probably to Combos benefit. I'm totally expecting more game 1 wins from opponent's Misstepping my Dark Ritual instead of Spell Piercing my Burning Wish.

[godryk]

Glad to hear some words from a sane person, Stefan. Seriously, when I fist saw this card I thought it was nice, that it could become really powerful in a different metagame. But I inmediatly said to myself that I would not be playing this over Force of Will, Daze or even Spell Pierce in my Bant decks. I thought it's too conditional. I felt pretty dumb when reading most of these posts, maybe my grasp of the metagame isn't huge, but I was actually experiencing that cards that prey on low mana curves like Counterbalance or on specific mana costs like Spell Snare were seeing less play. I've seen some control and high tide players drop situational cards like Snare for the good old Counterspell, as the format is just too wide.

I only find it exciting against Goblins, as a blue player most of the success against this deck comes from stopping these turn 1 drops. But, seriously, I still wouldn't play it. It's a nice card for non-blue decks, or for very specific decks with very specific problems.

I see it as a very powerful tool for Zoo decks against combo, as it wins you some time for your fast clock. However, I would like to hear what the combo experts have to say about it.

I'm not saying that this card isn't good, and I may be wrong and have to eat my own words in a few months, but I still feel that the reaction to he card in this thread is a little off

[Gui]

Just wanted to mention that Tarmogoyf was spoiled as common. xD

I think the card is great... I still can't determine how great it is, but I think tempo decks will make huge use of it, since it fits tempo so well. Aggro decks will be able to use it as well, but I just don't know how effective it will be, since most decks packing removal are just packing StP or PtE or Black 2cc removal, which means black 2cc removal is now slightly stronger.
I don't think it is strong for combo, they already have protections, even free ones, and their problems are not the 1cc ones, so.
Control decks shall preffer wider solutions, but a free counter to slow the game and reach their control point seems to be useful, so I'm risking to say they will use it too.

A probable format definer, being included in Aggro, Tempo and Control?

[Bahamuth]

So it really is an unc.

[AriLax]

From my skewed perspective,

1) It's better than Daze at protecting Force from a Duress.
2) It's a good way to protect Teeg/Canonist from Chain.

Doesn't seem like enough to change combo murdering everyone.

[Gui]

So it really is an unc.

They can change it. Tarmogoyf was spoiled as common. Sometimes I wondered if they leaked the info to know whether ther card was too strong or not.

I really wish it is uncommon, tho :D

[nwong]

I don't think the "it protects against StP/PtE" argument is valid.

Sure you get to keep your creature, but wouldn't you rather it was another creature that beats face, rather than just sit in your hand waiting for their removal?

[Gui]

I don't think the "it protects against StP/PtE" argument is valid.

Sure you get to keep your creature, but wouldn't you rather it was another creature that beats face, rather than just sit in your hand waiting for their removal?

No, my creature would enter a turn later, and besides, it doesn't counter StP/PtE only. It's not like it will be clogging my hand all the time with 4 useless counters.

[Lemnear]

Ok, these days I seldom post something on the non-team forum. But all this hype here just provokes a reaction.
This card is good. Right. It is not the be all end all holy grail of Legacy.

This card isn't all too hot in blue or black decks. And it’s pretty mediocre in Combo.decs. There, I said it! Yeah it counters stuff for free and that's awesome, but it also only counters SOME stuff.

Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize are both better in my opinion.

And blue already has Daze, Countersell, Spell Snare, Spell Pierce, Force, ... as viable Counterspells.

This card really shines in colors that traditionally have a problem to disrupt the opponent.

Oh and before you tell me just how many cards this stops, I have a little bit of hype, too:

There is this new fancy card that stops Vial, Lavamancer, Top, Mother of Runes, Grind Stone, Engineered Explosives, Wasteland, Maze of Ith, Fauna Shaman, Knight of the Reliquary, Ravanger, all equipment, all planeswalker and even ALL FETCHLANDS!?!?!
And it only cost a single colorless Mana. And to be true, it’s not even new. Clearly it should be an automatic 4-off in every Legacy.dec

Long story short: Good card but not the sky falling!

I guess you and some other people miss the point. This card interacts on the draw without additional drawback unlike Force in a meta with very powerful 1cc drops. Comparing this card to counterspell is like Force of will to Spelljack and therefore misplaced. Pierce can't counter Lackey, Nacatl or anything on the draw. Daze can't counter anything on the draw, is almost dead in midgame and comes with a drawback. Mental Misstep closes the gap Control is weak atm.

Misstep is imo a better tempo card too. Playing a turn 2 goofy with Misstep for opponents StoP is huge.

Needle is not an argument either. Both cards are complete different. Needle on the draw doesn't stop a first turn fetch and on the play you never know what card to name, so your example is plain stupid.

[Barook]

They can change it. Tarmogoyf was spoiled as common. Sometimes I wondered if they leaked the info to know whether ther card was too strong or not.

I really wish it is uncommon, tho :D

There's a difference between leaked info and the picture of the actual card.

It's uncommon, there's no room for discussion.

[Skeggi]

I guess you and some other people muss the point.

Nah, they didn't muss the point. If anyone just mussed the point it's you

I think sotw hit the nail on the head: (very) good card, sky not falling.

[Gui]

There's a difference between leaked info and the picture of the actual card.

It's uncommon, there's no room for discussion.

Sure there is a difference. But you cannot be 100% sure too, since project changes. I'd say that it will hardly change, but it's not impossible.

[nwong]

No, my creature would enter a turn later, and besides, it doesn't counter StP/PtE only. It's not like it will be clogging my hand all the time with 4 useless counters.

Sure, if it wasn't already in play beating them already.

Also, since you're an aggro deck, there are very few 1 drops you care about.

Granted, it might slow down combo long enough for you to get a hate bear into play But even then it's probably a sideboard card - not main deck material for aggro imo.

Obviously, if you're a tempo deck with few (and presumably giant) creatures, all of this doesn't apply and the card is a godsend.

[emidln]

At first thought this is kinda awkward for a deck that relies on cantrips to do anything interesting at all (ala DD or ANT). Then I realized that people still don't counter my Brainstorms and Ponders when they can with stuff like Daze, Cursecatcher, and Spell Pierce so I don't think this will matter much.