Discussion Forum

Counterbalance and CMC

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this, but I want to be sure because it will influence the way I design my deck.

If I have both Trinisphere and Counterbalance in play, does Counterbalance check the casting cost printed on the card, or the amount required to be paid to cast the spell? That is, will Trinisphere cause spells that would normally cost less than {3} to be countered only if I reveal a card of the same printed casting cost, or a card with converted casting cost {3}?

I'm lead to believe it is the former, however Counterbalance does check for the amount of mana paid for {X} in a card's casting cost.. I don't think this is the same, but it sets enough precedence to make me wonder. If it is the latter, however, then I have an insidious idea :)
Posted 04 October 2011 at 15:21

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3 replies

counterbalance cares about the cmc of the card, trinisphere affects the cmc of the spell.

so no, they don't interact.
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Posted 04 October 2011 at 16:25

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Awesome, that simplifies things quite a bit.
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Posted 04 October 2011 at 21:54

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[QUOTE=Seras]counterbalance cares about the cmc of the card, trinisphere affects the cmc of the spell.

so no, they don't interact.[/QUOTE]

Just to clarify, the CMC of a card never changes unless it's a clone on the battlefield or an X spell on the stack (the X spell changing to add the X to its original CMC). The cost added by Trinisphere would fall under additional cost territory, and it's checked after everything else is calculated for the card's cost(s)
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Posted 06 October 2011 at 11:03

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