As a decades long MTG fan, one of the most useful bits of knowledge every player needs to have is a general awareness of when your opponent is most likely to ruin your carefully laid plans.
What is their preferred method of removing your creatures off the board?
How soon will it start happening?!
IS THERE EVEN ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP IT!?
I present to you ALL Light Counter cards along with where along the mana curve you can expect to start experiencing their nasty effects!
NOTE: Some cards appear identical in effect but with different mana costs due to omitting additional effects unrelated to these lists. Please look up each card to see what other "surprises" they might have.
| Creature Abbreviations | Keyword Abbreviations | |
|---|---|---|
| [c]reature | (Ab)ility | (R)oar |
| [r]elic | (A)fterlife | (S)tart (o)f (T)urn |
| (E)nd (o)f (T)urn |
You'll notice right away that Light is lacking in hard removal, and I've relaxed my requirements for making the Card Removal list. Specifically, cards like Divine Judgment and Pluck From Fate are included even though both require at least one other card/effect to function. That doesn't mean that Light's removal is any less effective, though. If anything, Imperious Smite, Excommunicate and Purification Filter could be all the removal needed for a Light deck given how much board control their creatures offer.
Going further, much of Light's best removal is in the core set along a convenient curve:
It's also almost all Common (YIKES!).
The main things to watch for are stat demotion (-Strength/Health) and conversion (transform into possession). It's also worth noting that Light removal can be extremely efficient when considering how many "Make that dude an Acolyte and give'em to me!" cards they have. Purification Filter can be a twofer by removing the strongest threat, bolstering their weakest creature, and then slamming it into another one of your creatures.
Just watch for the magic number 2, as that's the early tipping point for your creatures possibly converting to the light. It's also the most common value Strength/Health will be reduced to by spells and effects. One exception is Sit Down, which is cheap enough that it could easily be played alongside Onyx Nightblade (R: Destroy a Creature with <2 Strength). Alternatively, it's an incredibly easy way to allow any creature to be bumped off the board without taking something out with it.
Regarding the overlap between the two lists, especially with stat demotion, I set the threshold for distinguishing removal from control at how the card was most likely to be used. For example: Sit Down is under removal because it's cheap enough to readily be played with Onyx Nightblade, a Neutral core card. Gentle Monk is under control because you need 6 total mana to combo with Nightblade. At that cost, cards like Excommunicate or Purification Filter are more efficient plays. That's not to say that Gentle Monk can't set up a solid attack, though.
Reformation could arguably be used in the same way, but the +1 Health suggests to me that it's more about control. You could setup removal, but it won't be as easy to do with the extra health tacked on. Similarly, Lightdaemon King is a removal engine, but my normal restriction applies: It takes more than one turn to get him started which leaves him vulnerable to counterplay for one turn.
Pharaoh's Body-Double deserves special mention because he has very specific combos that are too slow for hard removal but sneaky enough to be a surprise later in the game. If Gold-Wing Sphinx (A: AoE Protected), Nephthys Guardian (A: +1/+1, Protected) or Apep's Doomcaller (A: AoE Deadly) hit the board, their Afterlife removal can be forced by Body-Double.
The last thing to briefly cover is Order. It's Light's secondary form of control, but it can be particularly painful to Deception (need Order to fall off to trigger abilities) and useful to Magic (hide passive abilities behind Order). Keep this in mind when playing any of the three Gods, as it could create unexpected advantages/disadvantages depending on which side of the match-up you're on.
That's all for now, but do share in the comments below if you've discovered other strong combos or plays worth learning or being prepared for!
~ Ent
Counter Lists for Each God:
DEATH — Card Removal, Board Control
DECEPTION — Card Removal, Board Control, Card Advantage
MAGIC — Card Removal, Board Control, Mana Ramp
NATURE — Card Removal, Board Control, Card Advantage
WAR — Card Removal, Blitz, Creature Ramp
