This makes the cost at least 2 mana, because it counts the spell that Flusterstorm counters. Not as diverse as the very good Spell Pierce, but far better at stopping instant and sorcery spells.
HairlessThoctar
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Kind of niche in Commander, but really good none-the-less.
Vividice
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(7 votes)
Shouldn't have been printed in the Commander Precons. With cards like these they could have put expensive EDH Cards like Doubling Season in some Decks as well.
VampireCat
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(10 votes)
Wallpaper version of this art: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/735
MasterOfEtherium
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(7 votes)
Awesome Art. To Bad It Wasnt All Spells : )
MrBarrelRoll
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(9 votes)
Why did they feel the need to put a legacy hoser in the Commander precons?
Lateralis0ne
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Dude.
ANT.
Tanaka348
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@ClockworkSwordfish
The rarity doesn't really matter too much for the new commander cards since it just means that it's only in one of the decks rather than multiple ones. Sure, it's rarer than some of the others, but not nearly as rare as the usual rare vs. common spread.
ClockworkSwordfish
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.7/5.0)(3 votes)
WHY RARE WHY
Get your Legacy fodder out of my Commander deck!
Hoonster
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(4 votes)
This is seriously over-hyped. Spell pierce is far superior counterspell in my opinion. I don't know why this is over $10.
CrimsonFury82
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
@Hoonster The reason this card is highly valued is because it helps beat storm decks in legacy. Since this card is only printed in commander theme decks, the supply of this card is low which drives the price up more.
Woozly
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(5 votes)
*** YEAH FLUSTERSTROKE
endersblade
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(6 votes)
Some of you people don't seem to understand. Notice the SECOND ability on here? Yeah. Let those gears grind for juuuuuust a second.
There are a million better counterspells in Magic. No doubt. However, this one absolutely HOSES Storm decks. and they pretty much scoop. One blue is so much easier to keep open than for a regular CS, or any of the other costs for counters. Most of the storm decks I've seen completely tap out, save for up to (to counter things like Mana Leak) when they get ready to storm. You drop this, and their buildup completely fizzles out.
What's even better is that it's isochron'able. Sure, not that important in regular games, but in EDH you can stop just about every storm that ever tries to go off. I'm always on the lookout for good spells to toss on the ol' scepter.
This hoses storm decks that can't make infinite mana. Quite a few decks that cast lots of spells have been known to do that. Mindbreak Trap actually hoses storm decks.
DoubleTarget
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm still trying to understand why this card is in a Commander deck. Are there many Commander storm decks? I've seen maybe one since I started playing.
This sounds like a fun card. Even if your opponent isn't using storm, I'm amused by the idea of throwing a dozen counterspells in front of a single spell in the hopes that one will stick.
And versus Storm, I'd love to see this go off with a Lullmage Mentor out.
DarthParallax
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
is 1 drop-rare? is Blue? is Instant? is broken >.<
Mike-C
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So.. Are cards with the "commander logo" legal outside of EDH??
Salient
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
In terms of Legacy, I don't think this card is meant to be anti-Tendrils of Agony tech. It's a counterspell that a Tendrils Storm player could only dream of; it's pro-Storm tech, exactly what I need to resolve my Ill-Gotten Gains. (Worth noting -- you can make the copies target your original spell, nullifying it. Against something like Zoo, any other counterspell is dead weight in my hand when I attempt to "go off" for the combo kill, unless they're silly enough to Bolt me, but with Flusterstorm at least I can target my own spell safely. Sure, +1 storm for isn't exactly great, but it's significantly better than useless dead counterspell card for .)
Mindbreak Trap is still miles better for anti-Tendrils tech. Costs pretty much all the time, and it exiles the spells so that I can't Ill-Gotten Gains them back. I fear Mindbreak in games 2-3 enough to overload on Duress-type effects; some other folks use Silence. We all fear getting mindbroken. Consider, why would an anti-Storm sideboard prefer to pay rather than , for a soft counter effect I can partially overcome with mana? Storm decks generate tons of excess mana when they go off.
So, I predict over the next year we'll see Flusterstorm in Storm Tendrils decks' mainboards more often than in other decks' sideboards. Good thing, too. Storm combo decks haven't posted decent tournament results since Mystical Tutor got banned. Cards like this make slower Tendrils combo decks feasible. Combo, with stronger control elements at the expense of raw speed? That's interesting and awesome and fun. :)
Kryptnyt
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(5 votes)
@Salient The difference between this and MBT is that this won't be a dead maindeck card. It's usually about as strong as Spell Pierce anyway.
YawgmothsWish
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Playable in any format where it's legal. Maybe not the card you'd want in your opening hand vs a Mishra's Workshop deck, this is at the very least, a great sideboard card.
JaxsonBateman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I don't think I can agree that this is better than Force Spike *in all situations*. Obviously it's always better when it comes to instants and sorceries. But there are a lot of early plays where you need that cheap counterspell that this just won't hit, such as Aether Vial. You'd have to consider the meta before you decide to MB, SB or not include this.
Also, @Drpvfx, copying spells doesn't cause extra storm count, only casting spells. So I don't get how you plan to get 4 extra storm counts off of one Flutterstorm.
EpicBroccoli
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Hopefully they reprint this sometime. It's such an interesting tension between this and Spell Pierce.
drpvfx
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This isn't just great *against* Storm decks- it's also great in Storm decks; as long as you keep U open, pretty much any big Storm spell you cast is basically guaranteed to go off, barring Mindbreak Trap and the like.
So this card has plenty of value in Storm decks as well as non-Storm decks. If it isn't reprinted outside of Commander, you can expect its value to keep going up.
And Mike-C, all of the Commander-only cards are legal in Legacy and Vintage only (and Casual, of course)
Sofa_King_Dirty
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
this is the only counter decent enough to go up against Shattering Spree and keep most of your artifacts
Lord_of_Gelectrodes
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(5 votes)
Mode, I don;t mean to be a hater, and I like ponies, but it gets old. Please go to the pony forums. This is a MTG website. I go here for mtg. I go to other sites to talk about ponies. If they intermingle the universe might implode. Thank you.
BongRipper420
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
For a 1 drop, this is a very powerful counterspell.
LordRandomness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I rescind my previous comment in favour of the following: Flusterstorm prevents your opponent from countering your counter effectively, barring anti-storm effects of their own. It's kinda like a version of Last Word with a mana out, but considerably cheaper.
Lueseto
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@endersblade
I disagree in that there are a lot of counterspells which are better than this. This card is super strong, be it for the complete ridiculousness against storm (stifle might be better there though) or how good it is in counter-wars and against blue decks.
It is really bonkers in a legacy deck that runs Nivmagus elemental with delver of secrets and some snapcaster mages and a bunch of 0 cost spells. Flusterstorm can protect the Nivmagus from most removal with a pretty decent storm count from the 0 cost spells, and the excess copies are fed to the Nivmagus to make it as big as you can possibly imagine, and it's fun as hell
Also, as someone already stated, this makes for great combo-protection IN storm decks.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Awesome card. Good for counterspell battles, burn decks, storm decks, Show and Tell decks, and a variety of other harsh things you need to go away *right now.* Also, it's well designed as it doesn't out-perform Spell Pierce and neither Pierce or Flusterstorm outperform Force Spike (as Zoo and aggro are things that still win; and still need counters continually.)
Rant: Ugh, can they please reprint this somewhere that isn't $15 a piece :(?
This is a good example of money-grabbing IMO; exceptionally useful counterspell stuck as a 1 of in an expensive deck and that's the only place it's ever been printed..
I get this is a Collectible Card game, but you should be able to feasibly collect a card at some point in it's lifetime; selling it only in a deck takes away the excitement of finding it in packs and the practicality of it being printed enough that people can actually collect the thing without spending *tons* of money.
Mode
★★☆☆☆ (2.4/5.0)(6 votes)
So this is what happens when Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash join forces?
Edit: Dang, misread the card. Seems more like a banding between Derpy Hooves and Rainbow Dash :D
Edit #2 (since 7/8/2011): "Mode, I don't mean to be a hater, and I like ponies, but it gets old. Please go to the pony forums. This is a MTG website. I go here for mtg." -- Lord of Gelectrodes
Yeah, you got a point here. I made a couple of them I admit, and in hindsight this one was too blatant and cheesy (I'll keep it as it is though, so people that care to read know what the fuzz was about). I saw top-rated pony comments before, so I assumed the bigger part of the community would like the reference - but with a ~2/5 from 19 ppl I see that's not the case.
Well, in general, every now and then you'll find comments that refer to pretty much any kind of internet or pop culture, which can be very refreshing for those who know, even if some don't know or don't want to know about it. I do enjoy them at least, and don't mind those which I don't get. But yeah, ponies are a sore subject and can get unbearingly intrusive quickly.
I don't think making a reference in a comment is a bad thing per sé, but it really shouldn't be overdone.
Goatllama
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Mode, you're the kind of representative of fans of MLP that I actually like. Not some raging goober like waaaaay too many of them, hence the immediate reaction of most to downvote you into oblivion. Anyways, thanks for being reasonable about it.
maxmwb
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
How about we all just grow a pair and not discuss some child tv shows like a bunch of pedophiles
DiamondFlavor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Spell Pierce with upside essentially. It storms off the thing you want to counter, so you can essentially Pierce that, or just wait for a stack you don't like and, well, fluster it. For (U) this is insane.
Aremath
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
In general, I like the idea of the card, but I really like my counterspells to be more general. Spell Pierce has gotten a lot of text here, but it gets planeswalkers, cranial plating, batterskull, splinter twin etc. Many of the big finishers in some decks can be gotten by spell pierce, especially if you remand them first.
That said, it works amazingly against most control decks. It feels like sideboard material for the most part, but it is good sideboard material.
In EDH, the format for which it was ostensibly printed, it counters a lot of things efficiently. Many big X-spells or other high-casting cost spells get gotten by it almost no matter what, and since most people are casting multiple things per turn, it stays relevant. The only issue is that permanents are often more valuable sources of board presence/card advantage, which is almost more important since 1-for-1ing is pretty terrible there. Overall, the spells that you do counter with this are relevant ones, but sometimes it'll be flat.
Most of all, it is a cool card. Even if it doesn't stand up to other counterspells, the idea and the templating and the art make it fun to play.
Comments (38)
ANT.
The rarity doesn't really matter too much for the new commander cards since it just means that it's only in one of the decks rather than multiple ones. Sure, it's rarer than some of the others, but not nearly as rare as the usual rare vs. common spread.
Get your Legacy fodder out of my Commander deck!
I don't know why this is over $10.
There are a million better counterspells in Magic. No doubt. However, this one absolutely HOSES Storm decks.
What's even better is that it's isochron'able. Sure, not that important in regular games, but in EDH you can stop just about every storm that ever tries to go off. I'm always on the lookout for good spells to toss on the ol' scepter.
And versus Storm, I'd love to see this go off with a Lullmage Mentor out.
Mindbreak Trap is still miles better for anti-Tendrils tech. Costs
So, I predict over the next year we'll see Flusterstorm in Storm Tendrils decks' mainboards more often than in other decks' sideboards. Good thing, too. Storm combo decks haven't posted decent tournament results since Mystical Tutor got banned. Cards like this make slower Tendrils combo decks feasible. Combo, with stronger control elements at the expense of raw speed? That's interesting and awesome and fun. :)
The difference between this and MBT is that this won't be a dead maindeck card. It's usually about as strong as Spell Pierce anyway.
Also, @Drpvfx, copying spells doesn't cause extra storm count, only casting spells. So I don't get how you plan to get 4 extra storm counts off of one Flutterstorm.
as long as you keep U open, pretty much any big Storm spell you cast is basically guaranteed to go off, barring Mindbreak Trap and the like.
So this card has plenty of value in Storm decks as well as non-Storm decks.
If it isn't reprinted outside of Commander,
you can expect its value to keep going up.
And Mike-C, all of the Commander-only cards are legal in Legacy and Vintage only
(and Casual, of course)
This is a MTG website. I go here for mtg.
I go to other sites to talk about ponies.
If they intermingle the universe might implode.
Thank you.
I disagree in that there are a lot of counterspells which are better than this. This card is super strong, be it for the complete ridiculousness against storm (stifle might be better there though) or how good it is in counter-wars and against blue decks.
It is really bonkers in a legacy deck that runs Nivmagus elemental with delver of secrets and some snapcaster mages and a bunch of 0 cost spells. Flusterstorm can protect the Nivmagus from most removal with a pretty decent storm count from the 0 cost spells, and the excess copies are fed to the Nivmagus to make it as big as you can possibly imagine, and it's fun as hell
Also, as someone already stated, this makes for great combo-protection IN storm decks.
Rant:
Ugh, can they please reprint this somewhere that isn't $15 a piece :(?
This is a good example of money-grabbing IMO; exceptionally useful counterspell stuck as a 1 of in an expensive deck and that's the only place it's ever been printed..
I get this is a Collectible Card game, but you should be able to feasibly collect a card at some point in it's lifetime; selling it only in a deck takes away the excitement of finding it in packs and the practicality of it being printed enough that people can actually collect the thing without spending *tons* of money.
Edit: Dang, misread the card.
Seems more like a banding between Derpy Hooves and Rainbow Dash :D
Edit #2 (since 7/8/2011):
"Mode, I don't mean to be a hater, and I like ponies, but it gets old. Please go to the pony forums.
This is a MTG website. I go here for mtg." -- Lord of Gelectrodes
Yeah, you got a point here.
I made a couple of them I admit, and in hindsight this one was too blatant and cheesy (I'll keep it as it is though, so people that care to read know what the fuzz was about).
I saw top-rated pony comments before, so I assumed the bigger part of the community would like the reference - but with a ~2/5 from 19 ppl I see that's not the case.
Well, in general, every now and then you'll find comments that refer to pretty much any kind of internet or pop culture, which can be very refreshing for those who know, even if some don't know or don't want to know about it.
I do enjoy them at least, and don't mind those which I don't get.
But yeah, ponies are a sore subject and can get unbearingly intrusive quickly.
I don't think making a reference in a comment is a bad thing per sé, but it really shouldn't be overdone.
That said, it works amazingly against most control decks. It feels like sideboard material for the most part, but it is good sideboard material.
In EDH, the format for which it was ostensibly printed, it counters a lot of things efficiently. Many big X-spells or other high-casting cost spells get gotten by it almost no matter what, and since most people are casting multiple things per turn, it stays relevant. The only issue is that permanents are often more valuable sources of board presence/card advantage, which is almost more important since 1-for-1ing is pretty terrible there. Overall, the spells that you do counter with this are relevant ones, but sometimes it'll be flat.
Most of all, it is a cool card. Even if it doesn't stand up to other counterspells, the idea and the templating and the art make it fun to play.