Decks that can play larger creatures are probably likely to survive the longer game if the first rush of weenies is withheld. However in decks that are creatureless, or low on creatures it is often necessary to have other permanant methods of stopping/slowing the weenies. Common methods include using Icy Manipulators in combination with mass creature destruction, or in Type I permanents such as Moat or the Abyss. Land destruction decks may also have problems with weenies since they require little mana to use, and in LD decks permanents such as Mudslide or Koskun Falls can be used to stop or slow down an attacking horde.

Fighting early big creatures requires spells that you can use early. Suppose your opponent does this: Turn 1: Forest, Tinder Wall. Turn 2: Second Forest, Sac Tinder Wall, Erhnam Djinn. You can't depend on spells like Wrath of God or Fireball that cost 4 or 5 mana and won't be available until 4 or 5 turns into the game - or never if an Armageddon hits. You need anti-creature spells that cost one or two mana.

Here are some of the best (there may be more Alliances cards that deserve to be in here, but I'm not up-to-speed on Alliances):

• Swords To Plowshares.
• Meekstone.
• Force of Will (probably).
• Pyrokinesis (probably).
• Paralyze.
• Unsummon, Boomerang.
• Balance.

Borderline Great - the possibility of an Autumn Willow increases their value.

• Wrath of God.
• Counter Spell / Remove Soul: These would be great, but it's too easy for the Blue player to get all tapped out.

Honorable Mention Anti-Creature Cards - and why they don't quite make the "Great" list:

• Icy Manipulator: Costs 4 - likely to show up too late.
• Terror/Dark Banishing: Black is a popular color, so not working on black is too big a limitation.
• CoP: No way to be sure of having the right color.
• Retribution (probably): Great against big creatures, but I don't like cards that may turn out to be useless.
• Giant Growth: Useless if you don't have a creature, and often used on a 1/1 to stop a 4/4, which causes you to lose 2 cards to stop 1 - poor card economy. However if used with other creautures with either first strike, or high toughness (eg Elvish Archers or Spectral Bears or even Brass Men), can take down the big creatures more card efficiently since these creatures probably won't die.
• Lightning Bolt / Incinerate: The very definition of a big creature is - 'One Bolt Won't Stop It'. But bolts and incinerates are so cheap and versatile, using 2 as a strategy against big creatures may be effective enough. They also combine well with small first strike blockers to take down a big creature.
• Hymn to Tourach: Has sent a lot of big creatures to the graveyard before their owner got a chance to cast them. But not guaranteed.
• Control Magic: Awesome card, but likely to show up too late.
• Will O' Wisp: Great in many situations, but in others cases, it just doesn't get the job done.

It may just be my prejudice, but I don't include anything like Pit Trap or Ice Flow that doesn't work against Flyers.

Bryan Jacobson, bryanj@plaza.ds.adp.com

The three main ways to combat permission:

"Smoking out" the permission

"Smoking out" the permission player is a tactic that many players employ when going up against this type of deck. This strategy consists of saving key cards to cast later, while also amassing cards which will be harmful to the permission player. For example, you may want to wait to cast your Force of Nature until you get a Tsunami. The Tsunami must be dealt with by the permission player, and will possibly tap him out, allowing you to cast your Force. Tapping out is a situation that Blue players never want to find themselves in: the situation of having no mana immediately available. Of course, this is not as important now with cards such as Force of Will, which let you discard a card instead of paying the casting cost of the spell. The strategy of 'smoking out' counterspells is very useful, and can be very effective. The most effective way to use it is in a situation where every spell you have must be dealt with by the permission player in order for them to keep control of the game. This brings us to the second point:

Casting with reckless abandon

This tactic is often the best, as it confuses the permission player. Confusion amidst counters is a good thing for you. Basically, you cast everything you have, and as fast as you can. The theory is, something will get through eventually. This kind of ties in with "smoking out" counters, as you will generally save your best spells for last, and let them figure out what to counter. This tactic takes advantage of the fact that countermagic is very slow and expensive, mana wise. A permission player simply cannot counter 3 or 4 spells every turn. They must choose the most strategic card to counter. This often means that they will let your elf be cast, then later on, by casting other spells, they won't be able to counter the two Giant Growths you cast on it during the attack. This strategy has the advantage of often unnerving the counterspell player, and the disadvantage of going up against a player who is experienced with your type of deck, and who knows exactly what key cards to counter.

Fighting water with water

This is certainly the most amusing (to some, boring to others) if not the most effective way to deal with a nasty blue player. All you need is a deck with more countermagic than them. Spells like Flash Counter and Memory Lapse come in handy in a counter war, and a well timed Mana Short can devastate the permission player. Of course, you don't need to have more, just some. Red does this excellently, with Red Elemental Blasts and their IA equivalent. All the red player does is sit back and wait for that strategic counter, and blast it.

Every deck has a better chance at one of these strategies than the others. Green and Red decks can use the first well, casting their larger creatures or color hosers to bring out the counters, then having enough mana left over to cast more. Black and green are extremely adept at the second, green being able to amass huge amounts of mana, and Black having low casting cost spells and Dark Rituals to cast tons of important key cards. White is also good at this, especially in a White Weenie deck, where many creatures can be a 1 casting cost 4/4. Red and Blue are best at the last one, Blue having more counters than you can shake a tree at, and red having anti-counters.

Bennett Campbell, hcschc@cnsibm.albany.edu

Peter F. Varcoe added these additional comments in response to the above article.

I believe you might have missed a few points that I have found useful in combating permission:

1. Although you mentioned in "Casting with reckless abandon" that you can cast a horde of spells, you didn't mention how to really achieve this. I would suggest that you draw and have available more cards than your opponent. The easiest ways to do this (for me) are:
   • Card Drawing, such as Jayemdae Tome, Ancestral Recall, etc.
   • Deny Card Drawing, such as Black Vise, Strip Mine for Library, Artifact destruction for Tome, early (uncountered) Hymn to Tourach. Even Zur's Weirding can be effective, due to the inability of Permission decks to do damage early.
   • Make opponent's cards useless. Counterspells are not very effective against Stormbind. Moat/Island Sanctuary/Mudslide are not very effective, by themselves, against flyers. Swords are not as effective against a creatureless deck.
   • Use and beware of 1-to-many spells such as Nevenyrall's Disk, Wrath of God and Moat.
   • The most controversial, due to weakness against Land Destruction, is by using fewer land with more cheap creatures. Ignoring Land Tax and Zuran Orb, by my running 18 Land and the Permission player running 22-24 land to insure mana for her Counterspells, I will draw an extra spell, occasionally. Along with this advantage comes the ability to cast the majority of your spells early (low casting cost) and rush the Permission player.
2. Permission decks tend to have fewer ways to win than other decks. Weissman's deck tends to be crippled by 1-2 successful Jester's Caps.
3. Permission decks can often be rather slow. If you manage to win the first game in a timed match, the 2nd game may never be finished and you can gain a win for the match.
4. If you can see the Permission player's hand, you can frustrate him by knowing whether they actually can counter your spell(s).
5. Many times you can beat the Permission player by just ignoring the threat of CounterMagic. You will need a diverse deck, but even if some of your threats are countered, you should be able to still finish them off. However, beware those easy life-gaining artifacts (Zuran Orb, Ivory Tower, Mirror Universe) as they can buy the Permission player the few extra turns that it needs to achieve their game.
6. Permission decks are slow and reactive, normally, by nature. Therefore, when YOU reset the environment, you can take the advantage. For instance, Armageddon with you having Land Tax, Black Vise, Ankh of Mishra, non-Land Mana producers, etc. can cripple such a slow deck. How often can an opponent use Counterspells with Storm Cauldron in play?

Peter F. Varcoe, PFVarcoe@Juno.COM

Use spells that allow you to "store" cards out of your hand, where they will be invulnerable to discard effects. Sylvan Library is probably the best for this; keep that vital spell (StP vs. the Hyppie, Disenchant vs. the Disk, etc.) safely on top of your library until the moment comes when you can best use it. Another spell that gives a similar effect is Brainstorm. Elkin Bottle also works, although it is less versatile. Finally, the new Alliances card Gustha's Sceptre is specifically designed to do this, plus it is a great combo with Balance. (Put your entire hand there, then Balance. Voila, you have a hand, and your opponent doesn't!)

Play a lot of critter destruction (usually good advice in any deck!) since your opponent's most reliable source of discard is his trusty Hyppie squadron. Bolts, StP, and the like are great. The new Guerilla Tactics is tailor-made to combat discard, and is an effective Hyppie killer without being discarded. One-to-many spells, like Wrath of God and Pyroclasm, can really hurt a classic discard deck, and will shut down a Necro deck with their hordes of Knights if the Necro overplays his hand.

More generic advice, but play cheap spells. If you can quickly cast anything in your hand, it minimizes the power of the Hymns. It also helps if your deck is heavy in instants and interrupts, like a classic R/W utility deck.

Use artifacts and enchantments, since once on the table, the average discard deck will be able to do little about them, except with the Disk. Black is traditionally weak versus both of these permanents -- take advantage of that weakness!