Pointed Discussion

SO insanely good!

Sure, you get to draw a card, but it's not card advantage because your opponent got his back. I'd rather have a Counterspell, or suck it up and play a Dismiss for 4 mana.

I never used to understand why this card is good, but I finally realized that is is a less mana-specific boomerangthat can draw you a card and target spells. No denying a Counterspell is better, but late - game it's better than Mana Leak.

Don't see it as a counterspell more of a bounce card that can bounce spells on the stack and don't cost you a card. You have to look at this card as a timewalk on the first few turns. You slow down that agro deck just enough so you can survive against there first onslaught without losing any card advantage. Potentially getting closer to that 4th land or the Wrath of God you need to blow up the field a few turns later. Late game it can buy you the turn you need to stabilize or kill your opponent. It’s a versatile tool for any control player to ad to its deck alongside the actual counterspell’s.

By far the best none legacy/vintage counterspell of all time.

When using certain strategies such as playing a shocker filling up someone's hand can turn into a good thing, y'know.

An Amazing Card Great Counterspell Really Sets Back Your Opponent Lets You Draw A Card And The Mana Cost Is Real Efficient Plus Great Art. Rav Block Was Awesome.

I'd think of it as an ANTI-counterspell -
you cast your bomb, your opponent Counterspells it, in response you Remand it back to your hand.
(does that work?)

Yes Past Prophet that works, but depending on their open mana you might be better off remanding their counterspell back to their hand so that your bomb resolves.

@PastProphets

Yes that would work, but if your card is indeed a bomb, you're probably better off bouncing their counter.

Although if they're playing a multi-effect card, Cryptic Command for example, by Remanding your own spell, you will counter all effects of their card.

The flavor text is pretty funny as well.

the true power of this card is when you counter your own storm spell and cast the storm spell again which doubles the storm count on it.

It's important to note that this is extended legal... unlike the common dismissals in preference to counterspell, force of will, and the like. People seem to ignore the fact that it's the closest to a no-strings, unconditional counterspell you'll get for 2 mana in that format, disappointing that it's not standard though. Closest you'd get otherwise is Delay, and I'm sure we can all agree that Remand is better than that in almost any case.

Imagine playing against a black deck, and Remanding something they need to play a Dark Ritual for. They've got another 2-3 turns to wait before they can replay the card, and you don't lose anything out of your hand for it. On turn two, you can send a spell back to their hand until turn 3, when you have enough for a hard-counter like Farie Trickery or Counter.

It's a matter of control-- and having something to play turn 2 that will 100% stop them, rather than a gamble with Essence Scatter or Negate, and gaining momentum by getting a card... It's like cycling while making your opponent pay the cost. Think outside of your narrow little views of what a counterspell should be and you'll discover just what a counterspell can be and wow did that sound cheesy... Regardless, being able to maintain control from turn 2 is wonderful for a blue deck, if you can go first and get your lands out, that is.

This card deserves a 5, not for being some completely overpowered juggernaut, but because it's so completely underrated by your opponent. Moreover, if you have an Isochron Scepter, this becomes very nearly an Erayo's Essence in that it forces your opponent to cast two spells before they get anywhere... though you can always fake them out by not Remanding something or by using the Remand stick to mind game them into forgetting about your growing hand of counterspells. It's never useless, and it always has a target, plus it's basically cycling with a counter ability tacked on.

It's fearsome for its innocuousness, its flexibility, its potential ingenuity... not its pure might, and really, isn't that what blue's all about? Great card for outmaneuvering your opponent before they even notice they're at a disadvantage. Only reaches its potential in truly counter-heavy decks, where you need something to stave off your foe's spells while you wait for the mana to cast some Cryptic Commands and the like.

But really, try it out before you bash it, it certainly grows on you quite quickly outside of legacy and the like where straightforward counters are so taken for granted. Also, a rather flavorful card to counter an opponent in such a non-aggressive manner. And it goes great with the likes of Echoing Truth. Ah, and the fact that it's only one blue mana probably adds some flexibility with it... though I play it in mono-blue counter decks myself so I wouldn't have anything to add in that regard. It's served me well and it's very playable so long as you keep some "real" counters to balance it out in the deck. The added draw power still puts you one card above your opponent, if not by destroying something outright, so it's got plenty of purpose. So quit complaining that it's not a Mana Drain, it's legal outside of Legacy.

Sorry about the wall-o-text rant, but this card has helped me on too many occasions for me to leave such things unsaid. Having some of these on Isochron Scepters is the equivalent of asking "Is it my turn again or would you like me to draw some more first?" every time you end your turn; much too underrated.

Massive tempo flow. This card gives the best tempo out of all the other counters because it is very cheap in casting cost and allows you to draw. Slows your opponent down by a turn and speeds you up. Definately one of the best counters out there.

It's time walk! It cost 1U to play, your opponent misses a turn, and you draw a card!

@Nate_Prawdzik:

Who doesn't play with spells? Some sort of man-land deck?

Who doesn't play with islands? Some sort of non-blue deck?

Both seem ludicrous to me.

They should reprint it in M12.

Two mana for a hard counter that can hit anything.
Only one blue mana required for casting it.
Draw a card as well.

Granted, it goes back to their hand and they can replay it, but used properly and it can really mess with their tempo.

I loved this card when I played blue. This essentially says, no turn two for this game, it's turn three now. Which is exactly what control / Dragonstorm decks want.

I absolutely hated this card when my turn two beater met this. One less turn to deal the necessary 20, and soon they were getting their UrzaTron assembled / blocking off with Skeletal Vampire / etc.

The player with more Remands usually won the counter war. That was, until Spell Snare saw print - and that was one of the reasons why Spell Snare was pretty strong (another being stopping the two-drop in Gruul, Scab-Clan Mauler when going second.)

This isn't just an efficient hard counter/bounce with a cantrip. I can see this being used alongside cards like Lobotomy, Thought Hemorrhage, and Memoricide (Also Cranial Extraction.) I'm aware that Counterbore combines both the functions of Cranial Extraction and any lay counter, but Counterbore is also mana intensive and there's just a point early to midgame where you can't sit around with 5 mana open for one spell.

When I started the game, this card didnt seem very good, it didn't actually answer their threats.

I realize now that this card is pure tempo advantage. Early drops perform worse the longer the game goes.

Also, remanding your own counterspell and recasting it can win a counter war in a very stylish manner.

Should be in the base set. If not, it needs to be reprinted somewhere.

@Zaneshift: Epic post! I give it 5stars! I can't say anything that you didn't already say! Really, this card is blue at its maximum power!

@Guest513736147: Nate_Prawdzik is only joking. It means that this card can be played in every blue deck and, whatever is your opponent's deck, this card is good. --> Is always good...

Sometimes, specially in blue and black, you don't recognize immediatly the real power of a card because it doesn't come along with impressive stats like, for example, green does. Often its power has something to do with obscure card advantage or tempo gain or, for black, with counterintuitive sacrifice of resources. Those are the kind of cards that, for me, makes Magic a great game, and this card belongs to this category.

5/5

This card is only good for people who are playing with Islands against opponents who are playing with Spells.

By the way, the tech play with this is to play a spell against a blue deck. They put a counterspell on the stack targeting your spell. You remand your own spell. Resolve remand, put your spell back in your hand, draw a card. Their counter has no legal targets and goes straight to the graveyard.

And to the poster who replied to me, pointing out the obvious to the oblivious: Yes, you figured it out.

Well said Zaneshift. Apparently the Pros agree this card is good:
http://birdsofparadise-mtg.blogspot.com/2011/09/hottest-cards-of-modern.html

The poster-boy counter for owling mine control decks.

I believe Remand exemplifies a facet of the Blue color that i for one haven't seen in a while: Trickery. what i mean by this is that killing your opponents spell with Counterspell on their turn is nice, and this is something Blue does often and well. However, Remand plays the tempo/card-advantage game. Against the unaware opponent, this card poses one or more different threats.

Numero uno #1- Tempo- 9 times out of 10, people expect their deck to work a certain way. When this pattern is broken, they are more likely to make mistakes. However, hard-counters are SO common, that many players simply take them into consideration as a part of their game-plan. Remand presents a different situation. The oppenents keeps their card. Most Blue players cringe at the the thought, but think of it this way. Now, instead of dropping a 3rd turn card your opponent already planned on playing weeks ago, they have two options: play with the original strategy, (delayed by one full turn) or play the 3rd turn drop WITHOUT the 2nd in play yet. My example is my Bant deck. Tempo? Noble Hierarch, then Rhox War Monk, then Rafiq. In that order, in consecutive turns. 3rd Turn: swing 10+Lifelink. But what if Rhoxy got Remanded on turn 2? Do I wait until turn 4 to play Rafiq by Playing Rhox War Monk a turn too late? Do i try to play Rafiq on turn 3 and risk a newly drawn hard-counter? Chalk one up for Remand.

Numero uno #2- Deciet- (This was indirectly touched on in #1) Remand also has a nice added bonus effect on top of its previous goodness. I called it pychology. the impression it gives to Remand a spell is one of weakness. "He/she couldn't eliminate the threat because He/she plays Blue so they just Remanded it." If your opponent is thinking that. You, the Blue mage, win. Why? not only is it that Blue is awesome, but because your opponent THINKS he's already winning on turn 2. Your opponent is much more likely to pay attention to the spell that's still in his hand rather than what's really going on. You haven't lost much of anything by playing Remand. (Not even a card) Your unfortunate foe however has lost a TURN of momentum. You may as well just played Time Walk, and drawn a card, on turn 2.5. Impressive? i'd say its even more so considering that the guy across the table still thinks he's cool because he didn't lose his card.

I just love this card. 5.0/5.0 just because nothing is perfect unless it helps you AND the other guy gets the false sense of security too.

Show up in Avacyn Restored please!

This card is awesome with snapcaster mage! In my BUG tempo deck, this is my target for most of my snapcasters.

Works well together with rune snag since you are drawing more cards, stalling your opponent and making him want to tap out more often to recast. snapcasting rune snags is lame because then the next one does less.

Snapcasting Remand is better than casting venser, shaper savant as well since you draw a card and venser is somewhat playable as he is in my deck.

If you are running snapcasters, play Remand as well. Between remands cryptic commands rune snags/mana leaks and snapcaster, your opponents should have trouble keeping up with the tempo!

Cards that cost 3+ mana are PAINFUL to cast when playing against this card!

Should really be in M13, Wizards!

Counterspell ? Check.
Cantrip ? Check.
Pseudo-Bounde ? Check.
Bluest card ever.

Uh, is that Dack Fayden?

Just as many are quick to underestimate this card, I feel that some overestimate it's power. Sure, it's technically a hard counter and cantrip for 1U, but the fact of the matter is, most of the time this will only buy you one turn. Sure, you could luck out and draw a more expensive hard counter, but this will probably just make you wish that you were running more real hard counters in the first place. If you don't luck out and draw that Cancel or Cryptic Command, then Remand will have just prolonged the inevitable. Until Modern gets a decent, two mana counter (don't hold your breath) I'm sure this will see a lot of play and for good reason; it's perfectly playable. Just think twice before you start praising this thing as Modern's ultimate counterspell.

Item 1: Mana Leak not being reprinted in M13
Item 2: Blue shifting towards tempo builds from draw-go control
Item 3: Return to Ravnica announced a month ago.
Item 4: Balanced countermagic
Item 5: My favorite counterspell in pretty much forever

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE reprint! I will buy a box of every set forever if you do! Pretty please??? ^^

To be honest, unless it goes to the graveyard or gets exiled, I wouldn't refer to it as a "hard counter".

This is a really good spell, but I prefer a good ol' Memory Lapse. Every time I look at the homelands art I go DURRRRRRRRR

Bluest. Card. Ever. He looks like such an ***, and the flavor text supports the hell out of that idea.

One of my new favorite things about this card is that is hoses Miracles.

Use it to "reset" the storm spell you just cast.

Meddling mage

Reprint in Return to Ravnica!

I would like to see this in standar soon :3

Enables miracles: counter, draw a card in their turn, reveal a miracle, cast it for cheap in their turn.
Enables tempo decks: Delver and Snapcaster would be very happy with this tempo spell around.
And reprinting it would make it easier/cheaper to get.

This card is awesome. Why? Because card draw is always useful, setting back someone's tempo by a turn for 2 cmc can be game swinging, and because my EDH general is Isperia, the Inscrutable.

Why yes, I'd love to stop your answer to my general, know what's in your hand when I swing, and get an extra card while I'm at it. Oh, and if you could keep that all in Ravnica block, that would be great.

Better yet, I think I'll just bounce your general to your hand before I drop my Vendilion Clique. (Like they need any help to be awesome.)

5/5 from me.

I'm surprised this has never been reprinted or even included in any Duel Decks or similar products.

I love blue, but I hate playing counter spells. Something about them just feels so UNFAIR. Call me old-fashioned. Call me courteous. Call me stupid, I don't care.

This spell, however, seems to have the perfect curve. Playing it feels more like playing Unsummon over something like Doom Blade. Plus, it does what blue does best (in my opinion) - it lets you draw a card.

You could combo this with a low cost spell & Guttersnipe, to counter your own spell then re-play the spell to get extra spells played in a turn to do more damage via Guttersnipe.

Works great against miracle cards.

What kind of spell is Trent Reznor countering?

Remand is pretty hilarious with anything that copies it twice. You remand their spell, the two copies go on the stack. You have one of the copies target their spell, and the other copy target your original Remand. Copy 2 resolves, countering your Remand and returning it to your hand, you draw a card. their spell is countered and returned to their hand, you draw a card. Look at that, countered a spell, got 2 free cards, and you can do it again if you want! Hilarious!

Reminiscent of Memory Lapse, only it maintains card advantage parity by giving you a draw intead of taking one away from your opponent. Good for many of the same reasons -- any time a blue deck can stall the opponent without giving up a card, it's worth considering using.

Someone at Wizards wrote in an article that casting this T2 is like casting Time Walk T2.

While Time Walk is still more powerful because of the potential to make degenerate combo decks more degenerate, if you're just Time Walk-ing for another land drop and another card without letting your opponent do anything in between, Remand pretty much does the same. Aggro decks just missed their T2 and now have one less turn til their boards get wiped or you assemble your winning combo, etc.

@El_Pared
???? I have no idea how you think that works. If you have 2 copies of remand on the stack (1 being the card, the other being a copy), there is no way to counter 2 spells. If you counter their spell first with the real remand, your copy will have no target (it is illegal now since it went to the graveyard after resolving) and just get countered itself and you lose remand and the copy did absolutely nothing. If you counter your original remand with the copy to put it back in your hand, guess what. You just countered your own spell and it doesn't resolve. That means you just drew a card for a bunch of mana in response to their spell which will now resolve - meaning you did nothing but a draw a card in a ridiculously complicated way.

Best in combo decks, as it gets you closer to your win con while delaying theirs. You don't care about their threat in the long run, you care about their tempo.

@SAUS3: 1 Remand, 2 copies of it. Note "anything that copies it twice"

Also, incredibly ridiculous card. Remanding your own Storm spell seems like a good trick...

I know some players who use this as a crutch in all blue decks.
*edit, two years later* The card is now averaging 15 dollars...really a matter of luck, locating a playset at 4 dollars each back in 2011.

Fuck up your opponents tempo while maintaining your own.

Works well no matter what stage of the game you're in.

Cheap as hell, splashable.

5/5

Solid card is solid. Needs to be re-printed.

This card is so much more devastating than it looks. Yes, they may get to recast the card again, but you essentially just wasted their entire turn, at no cost to you (since this card replaces itself). However, when you cast Remand on something like a flashbacked Unburial Rites, or a 4-life Dismember, or a Living End cast off of Cascade, or anything cast off a ritual, well then you are in value town and just completely destroyed your opponent.

Its kind of like a mana short with a cantrip for 1 less mana. Stupid overpowered, they need to playtest their cards more.

@Silence9: Find a new game; you're far too stupid for magic.

Duels of the Planeswalkers may not be the most hardcore incarnation of MTG, but holy hell the Dodge and Burn deck's 4-of Remand makes it fun. Well, fun for you and your other cheap spells and Wee Dragonauts, not so much for your opponents. Pongify, then Remand your own monkey-maker, then cast it again to get +6/+0 on any and all Dragonauts and dispose of their flying blocker, for effectively one card and four mana. No Pongify targets? Do the same thing with Peek for the same result except instead of removing a blocker you look at their hand and the whole thing costs zero net cards. All at instant speed.

Of course Remand is awesome for playing the tempo game, too, and just as often it'll keep their answer to your Dragonauts off the board for the necessary turn. Amazing card in the deck all-around; you'll almost never have trouble finding a good use for it.

Edit: Oh, and this thing lets you hedge your lethal swing like crazy. Without it you'd be forced to spend your burn before your attacks connect to pump your creatures, potentially letting your opponent Fog you to not only survive, but cost you spells. With Remand, you can first main phase Banefire or Earthquake with X = 0, then remand it. All Dragonauts are now 5/3 and you cycled a card for 3 mana. Swing, then cast your Banefire or Earthquake for real to finish the game. This lets you keep most of your mana open for mid-combat burn or counters to tricks, and forces your opponent to decide whether to use their fog to stop your Dragonauts or the finisher they know is coming afterward (assuming they have one that can stop non-combat damage). If they pick the former, you just Compulsive Research or something during second main phase, or hold mana for counters. If they pick the latter, they still take most of the damage. It makes it a lot harder for a fog to turn into a Time Walk, basically.

People who don't realize what a bomb this is for tempo. When you're facing down a GoST with four mana and have a Lingering Souls in your hand, the last thing you want for your opponent to have is Remand, probably with Tiago. If they have a Mana Leak you can instead pseudo-Time Walk them back thanks to the magic of flashback. If you don't get a cheap threat out out, it is an admittedly finicky Time Walk, plus you draw a card. Still follows the rule that there are better and worse Time Walk casts as well. Out of the games I won today, all of them came from a concede after a Remanded spell. Of course if you aren't applying pressure (did you effect their clock? will you burn/attack/combo them out first now if nothing changes?) it is merely a small amount of time. Yes, there are reasons to run Mana Leak. Grindy decks will get little from Remand. But, that said... it definitively deserves a 4/5 and up. This of course doesn't mention the other clever tricks already covered Ad Nauseam.

Blue mages are too daft to realize they aren't actually winning the game, they're just annoying their opponent. This card is absolute garbage. Counterspell is better, hell Cancel is better, at least it rids the problem, this just buys you a turn, sometimes not even that. Oh you're going to Remand my edict? Kk recast edict same turn. Big whoop. .5/5

@Lifegainwithbite Judging my intellect by my rating of a shit card? That just proves how stupid and immature you are. Good players know this card sucks. Now *** off you annoying troll.

A really great design, I just wish they had called this "Uncast."

Anyone who thinks this card is bad is an idiot that doesn't know the game. Stop trying to be tough on the internet @Silence9

Tempo disruption wins games. 5/5