AT WORST, it's a 4-mana counter that gets around Great Sable Stag. At best, you can make your friend want to kill himself after he FINALLY gets the legendary 6-card Cascade chain. I love thinking about a few years from now, when people have forgotten about traps, playing this in a casual game and completely warping an entire game.
Donovan_Fabian
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
One of the best uses for this is where another player has some sort of game ending combo that needs to go off, or a first turn combo chain and you just exile it for 0 mana. Pretty confident wizards just added this because of so many people finding out ways to instantly win the game on turn 3 or whatever with some long combo chain no one had ever thought of before. Great card, even if you play it for 4 its better than a last word or most other 4 mana cost counter spells, except that it also exiles them so they can't be played or returned from the graveyard.
darkfury
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
this is the bane of storm and cascade. expecially if you can create a Cascadeing storm
SocialExperiment
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Take THAT, Storm and Cascade! And it's only one more mana than Cancel, yet it can counter anything, which is great.
Adren
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Agh!!! Mind... broken... !
Riale
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
The best part about this card is because of its trap nature it has a place in the sideboard of a wide variety of decks - not just blue control.
sir_dwar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(7 votes)
Wait a second. I hope I'm misinterpreting this... But creature cards already on the battlefield are still spells, right?
If that's so... Doesn't this mean this is sort of a Planar Cleansing that only hits your creatures????
ClowWizardEriol
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(5 votes)
Creatures on the battlefield are permanents, not spells.
UNBAN_SHAHRAZAD
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I guess Wizards wasn't satisified with nerfing Tendrils in Type 1 by restricting Brainstorm. Oh well, I was sick of that deck anyway.
kajillion
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(6 votes)
At least Force of Will had you pitch a blue card. Mono red shouldn't be able to get a hard counter.
UltimaCenturion
★★☆☆☆ (2.1/5.0)(9 votes)
Ah. A Mythic Rare. Again. Seems like Magic jumped the shark. "Mythic Rare" is such a stupid phrase. Seriously, this is why no one who has graduated from middle school plays Yu-Gi-Oh. Just get back to making rares the rarest, like any sane game-making company would, please.
LeoKula
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(4 votes)
I'm trying to come up with a realistic situation on which it would counter more than 1 spell.
Genetic9
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(2 votes)
I am not actually seeing that much play for it's Trap cost... I mean, once a spell is cast, it resolves then the next one is cast, etc... so most of the time you will Exile 1 single spell for 0 mana which isn't bad but isn't Mythic either... Someone enlighten me...
lickthemoose
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
woo are high storm counts and cascade ruining your day well why not take a break from tapping your lands and clear the stack for 0
spectrrrrrre
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I'd imagine this will see extensive play in T1
GrimGorgonBC
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(4 votes)
This card was made for casual play....say a guy with an uber deck plays some dark rituals and a lotus of some sort and a huge baddy T1.......mindbreak trap.....thats right.....all your money gone to waste uber geek!!!!!
ArKive
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(6 votes)
It isn't a counter, there is no countering of spells involved, it simply removes spells from the stack. Devastating versus Cascade decks, and a way of getting around 'this spell cannot be countered' like Banefire. the most incredible time I have seen this pulled off was after a Cruel Ultimatum that was Twincasted, which in turn was Twincasted back at the opponent, and then Negated the original Cruel Ultimatum (each player is now being Cruel Ultimatummed once). The player who originally cast the Ultimatum then looked at his life total and back at his hand for the next 30 seconds, finally deciding to Mindbreak Trap everything. I think both players sighed with relief after the ordeal.
Mirvana
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I took one look at this card an immediately thought "is Storm mechanic coming back?" It has some use against Cascade, but this card absolutely murders Storm (Take THAT you Dragonstorm copycats!!!)
@Arkhive: Thats a waste, both CU would basically cancel each other out, why waste a card to have the same effect?
JaxsonBateman
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
For 1 more mana than a normal cancel you can stop pretty much ANY spell - and multiple spells if your opponent is trying to set up a combo. So not only is it a Cancel on crack, but it also has the potential to offer you card advantage. As if that weren't enough, it also increases the amount of 'counters' you can do in a turn, given that if you've countered 2 spells already in that turn you can still use this for free and exile at least a third one.
Originally I didn't think this card was all that great, but after looking at it more closely it certainly deserves rare status. Mythic Rare? Who knows.
GloTubist
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(3 votes)
so the way i interpreted this card is that the spells that you exile don't have to be on the stack, they can be creatures you've had in play since like 5 turns ago.
thats the only way i see that it's mythic and i'm 84% sure that's how it works
someone please tell me if I'm wrong, and provide some evidence.
Thank You
nukeme11
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
This was made for Legacy play. It makes other colors besides blue be able to deal with the ridiculous Storm decks. It will probably be sideboard in every deck, and may be main deck. I'd hope to see some other strong non-blue decks use this. Efficient Cascade negator as well.
kittyspit
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@ClowWizardEriol
creatures count as both permanents AND spells.
thediplomat
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The only practical situation i could imagine using this spell would be to counter a "splice into arcane" spell, since this would be the only way (that i can think of) an opponent could cast several spells that remain on the stack as you cast Mindbreak. but if anyone can think of another situation, id love to hear it. The only advantage that this card has over a Cancel spell is that it exiles the spell; Great against wizards that play spells from the graveyard.
Nickkom
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is the ultimate cascade killer.
You're tapped out and watch calmly as your opponent casts bittuminous blast, cascades into bloodbraid elves, cascades into blightning.
You cast mindbreaktrap for free and exile everything on the stack. No fuss. No muss. Just 3 for 1 card advantage.
Not to mention that it exiles cards rather than countering them, so it gets around great sable stag and banefire to name a few.
Really a cool counterspell/trap. The only thing I don't like about it is its mythic rare status. How can a trap be mythic? If everyone had told stories and legends about it, then it's pretty well known. In that case, its not a very good trap, is it?
.Fighter.
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
okay...
My friend believes that this card can exile all spells from your opponent's deck, hand, graveyard and field.
He must be wrong. I don't know how this works, but it can't be that.
littlebeast
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(5 votes)
@Fighter: yeah, very no. A card is only the spell when it's on the stack. Basically, this is a very good 4-cost counterspell.
I still don't get why it's Mythic. Rare, yes, but not mythic.
Oh well.
Guest1738264902
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
ok my only question about this card is I understand that the spell is exile from the stack but does the cards go to grave yard or do they go to your exiled pile out of game? and for all out there there is a difference from the stack and the physical card in your hand.
As for some of the rest yes creatures are spells when they are cast IN THAT TURN ONLY just read the the first line
this cards also does not care if a spell resolved this turn since you have play three spell in A turn to trigger the trap, that is the whole point of trap cards, so yes this cards is a cancel on steroids since you can just sit there let your opponent cast until they are out of mana so they can not counter your trap and just exile all of there stuff in one turn.
As combo hear is one I am going to use. kederekt leviathan, and mindbreak trap this combo is use to exile there entire board on there turn after they put all there stuff back on the board. then you have a 5/5 creature with Unearth, I also use this with poly morph which is just cool and My opponent go WTF or OMG are you @#@$$ kidding me. With that said, Yes I do agree that mythic rare is the right ranking for this card.
U-caster
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
You know, I didn't realise how good this card was until Idscovered yu could remove creatures.
izzet_guild_mage
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Bye bye, storm copies! Bye bye, uncounterables! This card is so good on so many levels. And look at the beautiful simplicity of the new word for RFG...very nice to look at. Exiling spells: a benchmark in the game.
CrimsonFury82
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
A card is only a "spell" while it is on the stack waiting to resolve. If youi opponent cast 3 creatures 1 at at time (letting each 1 resolve before casting the next), this would only exile the last one that is still on the stack.
The only time this exiles more than 1 card is if there are multiple spells on the stack. This occurs with things like storm, cascade or anything that puts copies of spells onto the stack
Fictionarious
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Here's the deal: A card is only known as a spell while it's on the stack. Once it resolves and enters the battlefield, it is no longer a spell, it is a permanent. Consider a sorcery that said "put a 3/3 elephant creature token named 'Trained Armodon' into play." The only difference between that card and Trained Armodon is that the Elephant token is a token (would cease to exist if removed from the battlefield), wouldn't be considered cast from your hand, and the sorcery would go to your graveyard. Otherwise, it helps to think of creature cards as just sorceries that say put this or that creature onto the battlefield, represent that creature permanent with this same card. So, no, you cannot exile every nonland permanent on your opponent's side of the battlefield for two colorless and two blue with Mindbreak Trap. I know, I tried it once (actually, after much debate, it did work then, but...).
Motion2Dismiss
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(6 votes)
Aside from wasting Storm, this spell really shines as the last word in a counterspell battle or if Yawgmoth's Will slips through. It's not made for Standard, where crap counters like Cancel are the norm.
coyotemoon722
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Edito: Okay I understand this card, but MAN is it situational. Even playing heavy cascade decks, usually the stack is only 2, and then that will resolve, and they may play another spell.
Usually it goes something like BBE>Lightning, then another spell, or just straight to Combat. So in that situation, you'd only get to counter the third spell if they cast one at the trap cost of 0.
PaladinOfSunhome
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Yeah, it's good, mostly if your opponent plays sevral good spells on his turn, but most of the time he might just be playing avarage spells, but if done well, yeah. Awesome.
4.0
Megrimage
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
i believe this card was made to stop storm cards.
Virel
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Now I can counter that annoying Obliterate in casual group games. Hopefully, with will help nerf storm combo. It's always good for the game to nerf storm combo in all formats.
NeoSin
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I had one passed to me in Draft, was fairly happy, never got to use it though :*(
Khias
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
You don't have to be playing blue to keep at least 3 of these on the sideboard in legacy or vintage. If you're opponent is trying to combo, just mul until you have one, then use it when they hit the combo. Maybe not necessary for your local tournament, but if your going to a major tournament you may want to consider having 4 of these just to make combo decks a laughable opponent.
commandoman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
goodbye tendrils of agony decks
Kryptnyt
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Pick them up- now- before you run into any uncounterable eldrazi. These will be a MUST come time they show up.
Orichalcon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is a BOMB against Spawnsire decks. All 3 titans coming in from the sideboard? Sorry, into oblivion you go.
Actually, I find this to be a fairly decent card. My metagame usually has two or three combo decks, which often do well, the most annoying one being a Hive Mind/Pact combo. Well, this allows my previously helpless Zoo deck to effectively let that guy be killed by his own dtupid combo.
I even saved everyone during a huge multiplayer game once, just because I was so sick of his deck ruining it for everyone. When I play casual, it has to be fun. The only person that I didn't save was him.
But seriously, this is a great card. No idea why it is mythic, but still. Get them while you can, they kill many combo decks. Especially ANT.
jlowther
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(15 votes)
Just pulled one and I immediately understand why it's mythic.
This is the only card in existence (that I know of) that can shoot down any number of the BS 1st turn kill combos.
Imagine some player with more money than brains laying down one of the ridiculous 1st turn vintage combos with $7,000 worth of cards, and once he finishes explaining the combo and looks to you to concede that you just lost, you simply drop this onto the table and make a dismissive sweeping gesture with your hand as if to say, "Get that shit out of here.".
That's right, ass-hole, your seven thousand dollars just got whomped by four bucks. >:)
Not to mention the fact that it shuts down any number of other combos that can occur later in the game with multiple sorceries that wind up killing you.
5/5 any day of the week. Not only is it a stack-flusher but it's the great equalizer against 1st turn players with insane amounts of disposable income.
zk3
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Let's compare. Force of Will is very good. The main reason Force of Will is not restricted is to keep the Vintage/Legacy meta in check, away from excessively fast combo decks. This just expands on that. It does prevent storms that FoW doesn't, and both can stop that single finisher after a long combo . However if you're tapped out, this can't stop a turn 0 or turn 1 (with a Spirit Guide or single mox) HulkFlash (irrelevant now). It can't stop a Dread Return after activating/triggering abilities fill your opponent's graveyard. FoW could.
If you have both in your hand, another blue card, and at least 2 life, then you could stop any winning play in any format. When wizards were designing this card, they believed it could directly affect T1 - that's why they made it mythic.
Aun
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Force of Mindbread Trap. For Zero. Force of Will for nonblue. olololol
Gilder_Bairn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
absolutely divine against the Ad Nauseam combo. It exiles all your opponent's copies of Tendrils of Agony, and leaves them with just a few cards left in their library, nothing a few Archive Traps and some twincasting won't finish.
In other words, if you play legacy and your sideboard has four card slots to spare, sideboard this. No matter the color you play, just do it. I mean, imagine watching someone play the Goblin Charbelcher combo, and you just waving your hand and saying "Yeah, free counter. Sorry. Oh, and your charbelcher is exiled, too..."
I love this card!!!
The_Sturm
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Man this card just takes a fat dump all over storm decks.
TheSwarm
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
oh my god.
blindley
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ArKive Why would your friend Mindbreak Trap everything? It doesn't say "exile all spells", it says "exile any number of target spells". He could've just targeted his opponent's spells and gotten off 2 CU's to his opponents none.
Thank you for eating 20 of my opponent's mana for absolutely nothing. And goodbye, Emrakul.
ZombieSnail
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Very interesting and sexy, the art alone justifies mythic status. Makes a particular breed of legacy retard bow their collective heads in shame. Awesome all round, 5/5.
djbon2112
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(45 votes)
Wow, a LOT of people seem to be missing the uses for this card...
1. An A+ all-around counter: For 1 mana more than Cancel, you can "counter" ANY spell (such as a Great Sable Stag, Obliterate, a kicked Urza's Rage, etc.), and exile it to boot! 2a. Shuts down spell-based (or spell-finished) combos. 2b. Can do this on turn one (or when tapped out), for the Legacy one-turn combos. 3. Shuts down Storm decks. 4. Shuts down Cascades.
It's hardly situational! And it's a Mythic Rare because it's (a) a very powerful spell, (b) while not "situational", it's still not a utility card or one every deck can use, and (c) it was designed with Vintage in mind, not Standard, so there doesn't need to be a billion of them floating around.
Anyone who thinks this is less than a 4.5/5 (or better) is crazy, or doesn't understand what this card does.
--- --- --- ---
RULES PRIMER:
THIS CARD ONLY STOPS SPELLS. A permanent that resolved is not a spell. Something is ONLY a spell when it's on the STACK. That means this card only works when your opponent just cast a spell and a bunch of things in response to it (such as Storm copies, Cascaded cards, multiple instants, etc.). The things above are what it's good at stopping, but not much else. You can't stop two creatures (unless one has Flash and was played in response to the other), two sorceries, or any other situation in which the spells involved must be cast after the one before resolved.
Examples:
RIGHT: Your opponent plays a Bloodbraid Elf, and cascades into Blightning. You cast Mindbreak Trap in response, which exiles both those spells from the stack. > Why? Cascade allows the player to cast the Cascaded card on top of the spell with Cascade. Since they're both on the stack when you respond with Mindbreak Trap, it works as intended.
RIGHT: Your opponent starts comboing, and plays a Brain Freeze with the Storm count at 10, which means 10 copies of Brain Freeze go on the stack in response to the original. You cast Mindbreak Trap in response (probably for free, too!), which exiles the original Brain Freeze and all the Storm-created copies from the stack. > Why? Storm, like Cascade, puts the copies on the stack on top of the original spell. It works for the same reason as Cascade.
RIGHT: You opponent casts something, you counter it, and your opponent counters that. You cast Mindbreak Trap, which exiles the original spell, your counter, and your opponent's counter from the stack. > Why? Since the counters are instants that are played in response to each other, when you play Mindbreak Trap, all those spells are still on the stack, and it works as intended.
WRONG: Your opponent casts a Llanowar Elves and an Elvish Archdruid. You cast Mindbreak Trap in response, but this will only exile the Elvish Archdruid. > Why? No matter how your opponent declairs it, a non-Flash creature (or any other Permanent, or a Sorcery) can only be cast on an empty stack, which means the Llanowar Elves resolves (and is no longer a spell) before the Archdruid is cast. Since Mindbreak Trap only exiles SPELLS on the STACK, only the currently-resolving permanent will be affected. This WRONG example should cover about 99.9% of the situations that are causing confusion with this card, so I don't even really need another one.
I hope this extraordinarially long post helps remove some of the confusion about this card ;)
SleetFox
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Even without its trap trigger, this is to my knowledge the second most powerful counterspell, after Time Stop. It's fairly reasonable for what it does, too. The fact that it's free against big casting sprees just makes it awesome, and a total kick in the nards to anyone who tries to make huge plays, especially if you're tapped out.
Teakon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
For those of you saying this card was made with Vintage and Legacy in mind. You are right. But most of you also do not think of what comes from later sets.
This card STOPS Emrakul mainly because the protection doesn't kick in until he is on the field. Also works well with any deck that uses blue. This card is sideboard material seeming how not all the people you face will cast three spells in one go making the trap cost pointless. I would personally switch out a Cancel or two for this.
Evermint
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@kittyspit
Creatures are only spells while on the stack, unless noted otherwise. They are permanents when they actually hit the field.
GainsBanding
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Good against storm, but not as good as everyone hoped. I mean, what storm player wouldn't hit you with a Duress or Thoughtseize while going off in order to get around this?
divine_exodus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@djbon2112:
That was a long post, but it answered every single question I had before they were even asked. Thanks.
@ Shukakun: If you cast an instant/sorcery on a Precursor Golem the extras are copied onto the stack, not cast, so you won't be able to play it for free. Of course it works just fine hardcasting.
krumtheslow
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
yeah this card does stop storm decks, that's why you duress your opponent before playing your storm spell.
Zaneshift
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If an opponent has cast three spells in any turn, you get a free Counterspell with remove from game. If not, it's still a Cancel with RFG that can hit every spell on the stack, for only +1 mana, which is worth it without the trap ability. If you screw up and leave no open mana, and your opponent then hits you with a ton of spells, sure, you might get to use it for the trap cost and exile those 3+ cards at once... but that's not the point. It has nearly 5/5 for a reason, and it deserves the rating.
Sironos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Very situational imo, wouldn't include it in my deck.
A card that is meant to be against storm or cascade, neither of which is standard...
Maybe a way to make sure the opponent's blood ghast or vengevine doesn't go to graveyard... But do you want keep 4 mana open to counter?
Free counter if an opponent cast 3 spells in one turn...
I don't like it. give me time stop, there's a super counter for ya!
mtear
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I love using Force of Will on this when some newb thinks they've found the answer to my Vintage Tendrils deck.
You don't stop Tendrils. Tendrils stops YOU.
Demage
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Aside from being able to totally screw combo decks, it can deal with uncounterable spells and creatures. Great card, it deserves its rarity.
Kindulas
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
once your opponent knows you even own on he'll be careful to let his spells resolve before playing another
Nighthawk42
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
For the most part this will function as a Counterspell that costs 2UU. It does get around spells that can't be countered, but it is very situational in Standard for it to hit more than 1 spell since they all have to be on the stack simultaneously. Still, it can counter a 3rd spell for 0 mana.
It can be very useful vs Cascade though and can be fetched with Trapmaker's Snare adding utility if any other traps are also being used.
DacenOctavio
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It's like a sexy new Force of Will for Standard. And it totally shuts down Chandra Ablaze's ultimate. Imagine, countering activated abilities in standard. Kind of. But it's funny.
Also, I really want to see how this interacts with Kuldotha Red. The deck likes to drop all of its threats in the first 2 turns and then beats face. A typical Kuldotha Red crazy hand is:
FACT: This entire hand can be dumped on the board in the first main phase of T1. The result is 6 Goblin tokens, a Pest, and a Memnite. Which can attack the second turn for 14 without further godly topdecking. With further godly topdecking, say, Contested War Zone, make that 22 damage T2. The land drop is uncounterable. However, you may be able to counter the Rebirths with Trap. Keep that in mind.
Xenocide1337
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(5 votes)
Hahahahaha... and after I'm done doing that, I Grapeshot you for OVER 9000!!!
...okay, I scoop...
bijart_dauth
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Could work as a save for your precursor golems. Sure the copies wont count towards the 3 spells cast, but being able to exile all the spells on the stack will stop the doom blade from killing all 3 of your golems.
BattleFish
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
If only this card had storm itself rather than being able to target multiple spells. Since it can be countered as easy as any spell. Any storm deck that was able to get enough mana to draw and play 20 spells can easily play a few counter spells to ensure their combo goes off.
Though you might not be able to stop a storm deck at the final stages, you still have hope of stopping the combo on the 3rd spell. Which makes this card completely free, even more free than Force of Will.
This is only good against combo decks though. Might be worth sideboarding. I definitely sideboard a couple in my High Tide storm deck in case someone slips in a storm card in response to mine.
Bursama
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
"Sorry, what Brain Freeze? My Mindbreak Trap sees no Brain Freezes."
Yes, that was a very nice counterspell war. Now stop it, all of you.
Gelzo
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(14 votes)
Counter the uncounterable?
(Row, row, fight the powah!)
Mitch_360
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Everyone keeps talking about the pros and cons for this card but i haven't seen one person state the obvious...THIS IS THE ONLY CARD IN ALL OF MAGIC THAT EXILES A SPELL WHILE ON THE STACK. This makes it unique and 'mythic'. 5/5 all the way.
The only card in the game that can beat Knowledge Pool + Mind's Desire.
Sure, you COULD let that resolve...after all...I'm not even sure my deck isn't actually a suicide deck with no win-con. But do you REALLY want to risk the other guy calling out 'JUDGE!' on THAT MESS?!
If you don't, Warp World, Wild Evocation, Hive Mind, Scrambleverse, and Eye of the Storm will surely follow.
The answer is, no you do NOT want a Judge to come to your table. xD Mindbreak Trap juuust to be safe.
Corey_bayoudragonfly
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
@ICEFANG: Technically, Quash and Counterbore don't exile spells on the stack: both of them counter the spells, then exile all copies in the caster's hand, library, and graveyard, thus exiling the original spell card, but not while it is a spell on the stack.
Mindbreak put the brakes on Tendrils of Agony combo kills in Eternal formats.
When I play Tendrils Storm in Legacy, I organize my entire game 2-3 gameplan around "how do I make sure they don't mindbreak me?" (Unless I'm playing versus permission control, which has a more robust set of counterspells, of course.)
Zoo decks in colors run 3-4 Mindbreaks in the sideboard to use against Tendrils combo. It's brutally effective, and it makes playing games 2-3 more exciting for both players; nonblue decks like Zoo aren't an automatic pushover for Storm anymore.
Congrats to Wizards' R&D--this card was perfectly designed for Legacy.
MacBizzle
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
And this is what Mythic Rare is doing to the Magic fanbase. Magic is a lawyer's game, for aging 20+ year old geeks to argue about obscure, extremely precise and technical rules, but when I see these poorly worded comments asking if YOU CAN EXILE A CREATURE ON THE BATTLEFIELD WITH A GLORIFIED COUNTERSPELL...
Let me ask you this. Can you cast a Cancel on a Baneslayer Angel when it's already out on the battlefield? NO. Otherwise, you'd just be terroring it, and that would be much too powerful for blue. To make a long story short, counterspells (such as this card) have to be played before the spells you're exiling resolve- that is, carry out their effects. And a card is only a spell when it's waiting to resolve. Otherwise, it's a permanent or an x card, x being artifact, creature, sorcery, instant, etc. lrn2stack yugioh fanboys.
Sedris_is_my_homie
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Ok, so it isn't as useful as it first appears. But is 2UU not worth it when someone tries to hardcast an ETAT or a Banefire? I see many peoples songs changing key when this baby makes an "uncounterable" spell bite the curb with the rest of the garbage! 5/5. 'Nuff said.
Axelle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
And I thought that for "Exile target spell" was good...
Tiggurix
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I like to imagine this card as the cardboard incarnation of this guy: http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5059/5568765167_9d930ecf56.jpg
ZaisConsultant
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Hey, it gets around things that can't be countered, like Last Word, or Thrun, or anything being cast with Cavern of Souls
Goatllama
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The art for this is so amazing. Red Mage: "Banefire for 15!" Tiki Heads: "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Red Mage: "DAFUUUUUUUUUQ"
jam_marie
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Awesome card, good art. Will continue being relevant forever.
RedAtrocitus
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(7 votes)
Mana Leak: Counter Cancel: Hard Counter Mindbreaker Trap: The HARDEST Counter
TheWrathofShane
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(9 votes)
How this card is not a 5/5 is beyond me... Its fantastic at 4 mana!! It reads... Deal with ANYTHING, and exile it out of the game to boot!! Thrun the last what??? Get outa here.
j_mindfingerpainter
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Cast this after your opponent casts it targeting your Counterflux.
Subtle_Kay
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Definitely the best and most flavourful blue card ever.
punxskywalker
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
force of will is for chumps !!!
Fenix.
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is my favourite Magic card I own. Even without the trap clause, I love it because it counters everything in the game.
Traius
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
From the rules: The storm copies are put directly onto the stack -- they aren't played. That means the copies don't generate storm copies themselves, and they aren't counted by other storm spells played later during the turn. So 1 spell, storm spell = two spells therefore does not activate the trap. And if they let the first spell resolve, you're only countering the stormed spell and not the spell before it. 2 spells and then the storm activates the trap, but you still might only be able to get the storm spell. The other 2 may have already resolved (creatures, simple damage spells, or w/e they felt they could just let resolve before the storm) and thus cannot necessarily be exiled.
Antsache
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm sure this must have been mentioned somewhere in the comments already, but it's probably worth throwing out there again: this doesn't deal with everything: just almost everything. Cards with Split Second such as Sudden Death come to mind immediately as perhaps the most obvious example of things Mindbreak Trap can't deal with, though I'm sure there are other ways around it.
Still a fantastic card, but it's worth noting that there are ways around it, and even some that aren't really all that niche (split second being a way to deal with all sorts of counters, not just this one).
blurrymadness
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
One of my favorite sideboards. Contrary to belief, it will only occasionally stop Storm combos (as they'll usually try to make you discard it or they'll cast a Silence) but it does mean that on top of their combo they have to have protection; which even knowing you have this means they slow down.
Slowing down storm is almost as good as successfully casting this and eating them; because all you really have to do is get there with enough damage and slowing them down to do that is half the battle.
When they scoop because you just ate their deck, however, is pretty fantastic.
That said, with the banning of Mental Misstep, this is a necessary card IMO. It's too easy for more and more combo decks to pop up that T1 you before you can even get a spell off. Things like this have to be there to help balance that out and I'd say that they need to even find a few more.
Kragash
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
RIGHT: You opponent casts something, you counter it, and your opponent counters that. You cast Mindbreak Trap, which exiles the original spell, your counter, and your opponent's counter from the stack. > Why? Since the counters are instants that are played in response to each other, when you play Mindbreak Trap, all those spells are still on the stack, and it works as intended.
While I agree with all the examples djbon2112 has given... the part I bolded is flawed. Mindbreak Trap actually gives the player who casted it the option of exiling any spells on the stack. In djbon2112's example, he exiles every spell in the stack... but nothing is stopping the player from deciding to only exile the opponent's counter... thus your counter would resolve and counter the original spell.
A better example of Mindbreak Trap's power would be: Your opponent casts Giant Growth on his 1/1. In response, you Lightning Bolt the 1/1. In response to your Lightning Bolt, your opponent casts another Giant Growth on his 1/1. In reponse to the other Giant Growth, you cast Mindbreak Trap.
In this situation, you want to let your Lightning Bolt hit that 1/1... so you, at least, exile the last Giant Growth on the stack... or even both Giant Growths on the stack... but you do not exile your Lightning Bolt.
Mattious_Maximous
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Opponent: "I'll cast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn." You: "That can't be countered can it?" Opponent: "Nope!" *Gleeful Laughter* You: "And you gain an extra turn with that?" Opponent: "Yes!!" *Annoying Giggles* You: "And you're tapped out?" Opponent: "Obviously! hahaha! Concede?" You: "I'll cast Mindbreak Trap exiling Emrakul from the game." Opponent: "..." You: "You okay there bud?" Opponent: "..." You: "I know, I know, it hurts." Opponent: "..." You: "...well, this is awkward." Opponent: "ARGGGGGGGGGH! I QUIT MAGIC!!!!!" You: "Buy your cards for 20 bucks." Opponent: "DEAL! F THIS GAME!!" You: *Evil laughter*
Comments (104)
If that's so... Doesn't this mean this is sort of a Planar Cleansing that only hits your creatures????
Seems like Magic jumped the shark. "Mythic Rare" is such a stupid phrase. Seriously, this is why no one who has graduated from middle school plays Yu-Gi-Oh. Just get back to making rares the rarest, like any sane game-making company would, please.
@Arkhive: Thats a waste, both CU would basically cancel each other out, why waste a card to have the same effect?
Originally I didn't think this card was all that great, but after looking at it more closely it certainly deserves rare status. Mythic Rare? Who knows.
thats the only way i see that it's mythic and i'm 84% sure that's how it works
someone please tell me if I'm wrong, and provide some evidence.
Thank You
Efficient Cascade negator as well.
creatures count as both permanents AND spells.
You're tapped out and watch calmly as your opponent casts bittuminous blast, cascades into bloodbraid elves, cascades into blightning.
You cast mindbreaktrap for free and exile everything on the stack. No fuss. No muss. Just 3 for 1 card advantage.
Not to mention that it exiles cards rather than countering them, so it gets around great sable stag and banefire to name a few.
Really a cool counterspell/trap. The only thing I don't like about it is its mythic rare status. How can a trap be mythic? If everyone had told stories and legends about it, then it's pretty well known. In that case, its not a very good trap, is it?
My friend believes that this card can exile all spells from your opponent's deck, hand, graveyard and field.
He must be wrong.
I don't know how this works, but it can't be that.
I still don't get why it's Mythic. Rare, yes, but not mythic.
Oh well.
As for some of the rest yes creatures are spells when they are cast IN THAT TURN ONLY just read the the first line
this cards also does not care if a spell resolved this turn since you have play three spell in A turn to trigger the trap, that is the whole point of trap cards, so yes this cards is a cancel on steroids since you can just sit there let your opponent cast until they are out of mana so they can not counter your trap and just exile all of there stuff in one turn.
As combo hear is one I am going to use. kederekt leviathan, and mindbreak trap this combo is use to exile there entire board on there turn after they put all there stuff back on the board. then you have a 5/5 creature with Unearth, I also use this with poly morph which is just cool and My opponent go WTF or OMG are you @#@$$ kidding me. With that said, Yes I do agree that mythic rare is the right ranking for this card.
The only time this exiles more than 1 card is if there are multiple spells on the stack. This occurs with things like storm, cascade or anything that puts copies of spells onto the stack
A card is only known as a spell while it's on the stack. Once it resolves and enters the battlefield, it is no longer a spell, it is a permanent.
Consider a sorcery that said "put a 3/3 elephant creature token named 'Trained Armodon' into play."
The only difference between that card and Trained Armodon is that the Elephant token is a token (would cease to exist if removed from the battlefield), wouldn't be considered cast from your hand, and the sorcery would go to your graveyard.
Otherwise, it helps to think of creature cards as just sorceries that say put this or that creature onto the battlefield, represent that creature permanent with this same card.
So, no, you cannot exile every nonland permanent on your opponent's side of the battlefield for two colorless and two blue with Mindbreak Trap. I know, I tried it once (actually, after much debate, it did work then, but...).
Usually it goes something like BBE>Lightning, then another spell, or just straight to Combat. So in that situation, you'd only get to counter the third spell if they cast one at the trap cost of 0.
4.0
These will be a MUST come time they show up.
I even saved everyone during a huge multiplayer game once, just because I was so sick of his deck ruining it for everyone. When I play casual, it has to be fun. The only person that I didn't save was him.
But seriously, this is a great card. No idea why it is mythic, but still. Get them while you can, they kill many combo decks. Especially ANT.
This is the only card in existence (that I know of) that can shoot down any number of the BS 1st turn kill combos.
Imagine some player with more money than brains laying down one of the ridiculous 1st turn vintage combos with $7,000 worth of cards, and once he finishes explaining the combo and looks to you to concede that you just lost, you simply drop this onto the table and make a dismissive sweeping gesture with your hand as if to say, "Get that shit out of here.".
That's right, ass-hole, your seven thousand dollars just got whomped by four bucks. >:)
Not to mention the fact that it shuts down any number of other combos that can occur later in the game with multiple sorceries that wind up killing you.
5/5 any day of the week. Not only is it a stack-flusher but it's the great equalizer against 1st turn players with insane amounts of disposable income.
Force of Will is very good. The main reason Force of Will is not restricted is to keep the Vintage/Legacy meta in check, away from excessively fast combo decks. This just expands on that. It does prevent storms that FoW doesn't, and both can stop that single finisher after a long combo . However if you're tapped out, this can't stop a turn 0 or turn 1 (with a Spirit Guide or single mox) HulkFlash (irrelevant now). It can't stop a Dread Return after activating/triggering abilities fill your opponent's graveyard. FoW could.
If you have both in your hand, another blue card, and at least 2 life, then you could stop any winning play in any format. When wizards were designing this card, they believed it could directly affect T1 - that's why they made it mythic.
In other words, if you play legacy and your sideboard has four card slots to spare, sideboard this. No matter the color you play, just do it. I mean, imagine watching someone play the Goblin Charbelcher combo, and you just waving your hand and saying "Yeah, free counter. Sorry. Oh, and your charbelcher is exiled, too..."
I love this card!!!
Why would your friend Mindbreak Trap everything? It doesn't say "exile all spells", it says "exile any number of target spells". He could've just targeted his opponent's spells and gotten off 2 CU's to his opponents none.
Thank you for eating 20 of my opponent's mana for absolutely nothing. And goodbye, Emrakul.
1. An A+ all-around counter: For 1 mana more than Cancel, you can "counter" ANY spell (such as a Great Sable Stag, Obliterate, a kicked Urza's Rage, etc.), and exile it to boot!
2a. Shuts down spell-based (or spell-finished) combos.
2b. Can do this on turn one (or when tapped out), for the Legacy one-turn combos.
3. Shuts down Storm decks.
4. Shuts down Cascades.
It's hardly situational! And it's a Mythic Rare because it's (a) a very powerful spell, (b) while not "situational", it's still not a utility card or one every deck can use, and (c) it was designed with Vintage in mind, not Standard, so there doesn't need to be a billion of them floating around.
Anyone who thinks this is less than a 4.5/5 (or better) is crazy, or doesn't understand what this card does.
--- --- --- ---
RULES PRIMER:
THIS CARD ONLY STOPS SPELLS. A permanent that resolved is not a spell. Something is ONLY a spell when it's on the STACK. That means this card only works when your opponent just cast a spell and a bunch of things in response to it (such as Storm copies, Cascaded cards, multiple instants, etc.). The things above are what it's good at stopping, but not much else. You can't stop two creatures (unless one has Flash and was played in response to the other), two sorceries, or any other situation in which the spells involved must be cast after the one before resolved.
Examples:
RIGHT: Your opponent plays a Bloodbraid Elf, and cascades into Blightning. You cast Mindbreak Trap in response, which exiles both those spells from the stack.
> Why? Cascade allows the player to cast the Cascaded card on top of the spell with Cascade. Since they're both on the stack when you respond with Mindbreak Trap, it works as intended.
RIGHT: Your opponent starts comboing, and plays a Brain Freeze with the Storm count at 10, which means 10 copies of Brain Freeze go on the stack in response to the original. You cast Mindbreak Trap in response (probably for free, too!), which exiles the original Brain Freeze and all the Storm-created copies from the stack.
> Why? Storm, like Cascade, puts the copies on the stack on top of the original spell. It works for the same reason as Cascade.
RIGHT: You opponent casts something, you counter it, and your opponent counters that. You cast Mindbreak Trap, which exiles the original spell, your counter, and your opponent's counter from the stack.
> Why? Since the counters are instants that are played in response to each other, when you play Mindbreak Trap, all those spells are still on the stack, and it works as intended.
WRONG: Your opponent casts a Llanowar Elves and an Elvish Archdruid. You cast Mindbreak Trap in response, but this will only exile the Elvish Archdruid.
> Why? No matter how your opponent declairs it, a non-Flash creature (or any other Permanent, or a Sorcery) can only be cast on an empty stack, which means the Llanowar Elves resolves (and is no longer a spell) before the Archdruid is cast. Since Mindbreak Trap only exiles SPELLS on the STACK, only the currently-resolving permanent will be affected. This WRONG example should cover about 99.9% of the situations that are causing confusion with this card, so I don't even really need another one.
I hope this extraordinarially long post helps remove some of the confusion about this card ;)
This card STOPS Emrakul mainly because the protection doesn't kick in until he is on the field. Also works well with any deck that uses blue. This card is sideboard material seeming how not all the people you face will cast three spells in one go making the trap cost pointless. I would personally switch out a Cancel or two for this.
Creatures are only spells while on the stack, unless noted otherwise.
They are permanents when they actually hit the field.
That was a long post, but it answered every single question I had before they were even asked. Thanks.
djbon2112 = 5/5
If you cast an instant/sorcery on a Precursor Golem the extras are copied onto the stack, not cast, so you won't be able to play it for free. Of course it works just fine hardcasting.
A card that is meant to be against storm or cascade, neither of which is standard...
Maybe a way to make sure the opponent's blood ghast or vengevine doesn't go to graveyard... But do you want keep 4 mana open to counter?
Free counter if an opponent cast 3 spells in one turn...
I don't like it. give me time stop, there's a super counter for ya!
You don't stop Tendrils. Tendrils stops YOU.
It can be very useful vs Cascade though and can be fetched with Trapmaker's Snare adding utility if any other traps are also being used.
Also, I really want to see how this interacts with Kuldotha Red. The deck likes to drop all of its threats in the first 2 turns and then beats face. A typical Kuldotha Red crazy hand is:
Mountain
Mox Opal
Kuldotha Rebirth
Signal Pest
Memnite
Mox Opal
Kuldotha Rebirth
FACT: This entire hand can be dumped on the board in the first main phase of T1. The result is 6 Goblin tokens, a Pest, and a Memnite. Which can attack the second turn for 14 without further godly topdecking. With further godly topdecking, say, Contested War Zone, make that 22 damage T2. The land drop is uncounterable. However, you may be able to counter the Rebirths with Trap. Keep that in mind.
...okay, I scoop...
Though you might not be able to stop a storm deck at the final stages, you still have hope of stopping the combo on the 3rd spell. Which makes this card completely free, even more free than Force of Will.
This is only good against combo decks though. Might be worth sideboarding. I definitely sideboard a couple in my High Tide storm deck in case someone slips in a storm card in response to mine.
(Row, row, fight the powah!)
Quash
Sundial of the Infinite
Shell of the Last Kappa
Time Stop
Syncopate
Delay
Spelljack
Counterbore
Assert Authority
Ertai's Meddling
Faerie Trickery
Dissipate
Liquify
Sure, you COULD let that resolve...after all...I'm not even sure my deck isn't actually a suicide deck with no win-con. But do you REALLY want to risk the other guy calling out 'JUDGE!' on THAT MESS?!
If you don't, Warp World, Wild Evocation, Hive Mind, Scrambleverse, and Eye of the Storm will surely follow.
The answer is, no you do NOT want a Judge to come to your table. xD
Mindbreak Trap juuust to be safe.
When I play Tendrils Storm in Legacy, I organize my entire game 2-3 gameplan around "how do I make sure they don't mindbreak me?" (Unless I'm playing versus permission control, which has a more robust set of counterspells, of course.)
Zoo decks in colors
Congrats to Wizards' R&D--this card was perfectly designed for Legacy.
Let me ask you this. Can you cast a Cancel on a Baneslayer Angel when it's already out on the battlefield? NO. Otherwise, you'd just be terroring it, and that would be much too powerful for blue. To make a long story short, counterspells (such as this card) have to be played before the spells you're exiling resolve- that is, carry out their effects. And a card is only a spell when it's waiting to resolve. Otherwise, it's a permanent or an x card, x being artifact, creature, sorcery, instant, etc. lrn2stack yugioh fanboys.
Red Mage: "Banefire for 15!"
Tiki Heads: "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Red Mage: "DAFUUUUUUUUUQ"
Cancel: Hard Counter
Mindbreaker Trap: The HARDEST Counter
Its fantastic at 4 mana!! It reads...
Thrun the last what??? Get outa here.
The storm copies are put directly onto the stack -- they aren't played. That means the copies don't generate storm copies themselves, and they aren't counted by other storm spells played later during the turn.
So 1 spell, storm spell = two spells therefore does not activate the trap. And if they let the first spell resolve, you're only countering the stormed spell and not the spell before it. 2 spells and then the storm activates the trap, but you still might only be able to get the storm spell. The other 2 may have already resolved (creatures, simple damage spells, or w/e they felt they could just let resolve before the storm) and thus cannot necessarily be exiled.
Still a fantastic card, but it's worth noting that there are ways around it, and even some that aren't really all that niche (split second being a way to deal with all sorts of counters, not just this one).
Slowing down storm is almost as good as successfully casting this and eating them; because all you really have to do is get there with enough damage and slowing them down to do that is half the battle.
When they scoop because you just ate their deck, however, is pretty fantastic.
That said, with the banning of Mental Misstep, this is a necessary card IMO. It's too easy for more and more combo decks to pop up that T1 you before you can even get a spell off. Things like this have to be there to help balance that out and I'd say that they need to even find a few more.
> Why? Since the counters are instants that are played in response to each other, when you play Mindbreak Trap, all those spells are still on the stack, and it works as intended.
While I agree with all the examples djbon2112 has given... the part I bolded is flawed. Mindbreak Trap actually gives the player who casted it the option of exiling any spells on the stack. In djbon2112's example, he exiles every spell in the stack... but nothing is stopping the player from deciding to only exile the opponent's counter... thus your counter would resolve and counter the original spell.
A better example of Mindbreak Trap's power would be:
Your opponent casts Giant Growth on his 1/1.
In response, you Lightning Bolt the 1/1.
In response to your Lightning Bolt, your opponent casts another Giant Growth on his 1/1.
In reponse to the other Giant Growth, you cast Mindbreak Trap.
In this situation, you want to let your Lightning Bolt hit that 1/1... so you, at least, exile the last Giant Growth on the stack... or even both Giant Growths on the stack... but you do not exile your Lightning Bolt.
You: "That can't be countered can it?"
Opponent: "Nope!" *Gleeful Laughter*
You: "And you gain an extra turn with that?"
Opponent: "Yes!!" *Annoying Giggles*
You: "And you're tapped out?"
Opponent: "Obviously! hahaha! Concede?"
You: "I'll cast Mindbreak Trap exiling Emrakul from the game."
Opponent: "..."
You: "You okay there bud?"
Opponent: "..."
You: "I know, I know, it hurts."
Opponent: "..."
You: "...well, this is awkward."
Opponent: "ARGGGGGGGGGH! I QUIT MAGIC!!!!!"
You: "Buy your cards for 20 bucks."
Opponent: "DEAL! F THIS GAME!!"
You: *Evil laughter*