You can try and port the standard control shells all you like but you cannot port what seems to be the most important piece which Wizards has neglected to give us for the THIRD time in a row and that is Negate. We missed it in Origins, Oath of the Gatewatch, and Kaladesh I believe.

What is the best substitute for this card?

It deals with non-creature spells on the stack such as instants & sorceries before they resolve, they also interact with Enchantments, Artifacts, and Planeswalkers before they hit the table.

Anguished Unmaking and Cast Out interacts with those cards but doesn't with instants/sorceries.

Is the correct configuration perhaps 1 Dispel, 2 Anguished Unmaking, and 3 Cast Out?

Dispel is the closest we get but it's way more limited in its usefullness
For decks where is not an issue, all you've got are 3 CMC counterspells.
If you only have access to , you'll have to rely on Convolute.


Otherwise, if you want to deal with resolved permanents Angelic Purge, Anguished Unmaking or Cast Out are your best bets.
in Blue, you also have access to Imprisoned in the moon.

You also have Warping Wail, but it's also kinda limited in usefullness, and requires which can be hard to get reliably.

You're just best off running the good 3-CMC-counters like Scatter, Spell Shrivel (strictly better than Convolute btw) and Broken Concentration.
Dispel is a card to win a counter-war, but way too narrow to be maindeckable.
If you need it at 2 CMC, Censor and Unsub are your options, but both have a significant downside.

i love playing around censor and eventually see the opponent cycle it out of frustration.

This doesn't frustrate me at all and I laugh when I see opponents doing it; if I've forced you to play off curve just because I MIGHT have Censor in hand then that is a big tempo gain for control as you aren't playing your deck to it's optimal level. The fact that I still get a card out of it is just gravy.

If I'm playing aggro I'm forcing my opponent to have the answer; holding back just gives them more time to take over the game.

I play around it only when I strongly suspect it might be there. The advantage you are getting from me doing this incorrectly is FAR SMALLER than the advantage I gain from playing cards ONE turn off and effectively killing at least one of the cards in your hand in the process.

Plus, that one mana I'm saving for Censor is often used to hold up a blink or blossoming defence or whatever. I don't mind.

Anyway, i never lose to censor anyway. I hope all my opponents play that trash.

To Gem's point, Negate will cause me far more fits

You are highly underrating Censor.

You're not killing a card from anyone, since they can cycle it.

Anyone playing with Censor should be happy that their opponents are playing around it, since you'll be messing with their curves for the cost of 1 mana and no cards. That's a great deal for control decks.

I'm just saying that this card has not caused me any problems.

As an aggro player, I'm not happy at all when my opponent plays around my removal. I would much rather they play their strongest drops first so i can zap them. The fact that they sometimes hold onto their best creatures and play the weaker ones first to draw out removal that I may or may not have isn't a big win for me at all. Those creatures are eventually coming out.


edit: anyway what the hell do i know about playing control anyway? If Vert comes on here saying Censor is good, then Censor is good and I'll know I'm wrong.

"U're all sub par magic players. Censor is damn gud".

-DivineVert, probably.

But you don't kill Censor because I can cycle it. It's never dead. Essentially I slowed you down a turn and wasted zero resources.

Yes, Censor is good. Especially for the reason of this thread : getting from 2 cmc to 3 cmc (where our hard counters are) is a massive win for counter control.

Our old strategy was Unsubstantiate to 2-for-1 ourselvrs

You actually can play around Censor to some degree, since Aggro especially likes to play multiple cards a turn. If Control Censors a 1-drop we're happy, if they Censor a 2-drop you're still fine.

That being said, Aggro needs to be mana-efficient, so if your curve is 2-3-4-5 playing off-curve doesn't really help.

If aggro is playing a turn slower and I still lose, the decks issues aren't Censor.

I'm Not talking about going a turn slower, instead I'm talking about playing a 2-drop and a 1-drop (for Umstände) on turn 3. Or drop two 2s (or 2-drop and leave up Scrounger) turn 4.

I agree Aggro has to be mana-efficient, but that doesn't mean every Aggro deck drops a 3-drop turn 3.

But then you either counter the extra 1-drop or remove something or cycle Censor.

Like, Censoring a 1-drop vs aggro still seems pretty great unless I'm about to Languish.

Censoring a 1-drop is like using a 2-mana removal spell on their 1-mana play. I see this as a necessary evil rather than actively great. While you trade resources (which is your goal in Control), Aggro gains tempo (which is Aggro's goal). You slow them down, but not to the point that they need to slow down.

Strongly disagree. If you are trading a counter for a threat, you're doing fine. Control doesn't need to generate their advantages early, we just need to buy time before late game plays completely shut aggro out. That will absolutely slow them down enough.

I'm not losing any sleep about trading a conditional 2 mana counter for a 1 drop.

If the Censor-holder DOES in fact cycle the card instead of holding it forever, then yeah, that's a decent way to use it. But I don't think Xbox Control players are mostly doing that. I think they're holding onto it cuz they want to live the dream of countering a t6 Chandra or a t10 Nissa. That's why i think Censor is bad. I don't think they are disciplined (did I spell that right?).

Don't blame the card for the bad players that use it.