The bread and butter of blue control deck players, counterspells are designed to stop your opponent’s plans in their tracks. Every Magic: The Gathering player worth their salt knows what it means to counter – but how well do you know the various counterspell cards that have been printed throughout MTG history?
MTG fans Alex Lien and Ida Mayer have put the community’s counterspell knowledge to the test with a free counterspell guesser game. The concept is simple: match the card names to their correct card art, and see how many you got right. Play multiple rounds, and the counterspell guesser tracks your accuracy over time, too. Mayer, who is also a model, game designer, and acrobat, hosts the free MTG game on their personal website.
Reddit user and friend of the game’s designers u/akrolsmir shared a little of the game’s backstory after posting it on the social media site. “I was organising a hackathon for my team and some of our friends,” they said, “and my friends Ida and Alex created this entry which ended up winning first place”.
The game is already fairly challenging (unless you’re a veteran who can recall all the MTG sets in order), but it’s made more challenging by the broad range of counterspells included. Expect Secret Lair counterspells, Alchemy cards, and even counterspells from the infamously bonkers ‘Un’ Magic sets.
“This game was a great way to tap into some nostalgia”, said u/akrolsmir on Reddit, “as well as discover very niche/weird/exotic counterspells and card arts I’d never paid attention to”. July has been a great month so far for MTG nostalgia – last week also saw a MTG artist share nostalgic reference photos from cards they designed back in the 1990s.
You can find the counterspell guesser game here.
To prepare for future counterspells, be sure to check out our MTG set release dates guide. We also have a guide on how to build a MTG Commander deck, too.
Update: A spelling error in one of the creator’s names was corrected on July 12.