Bane's Contingency

A hard counter is an honest one-for-one: you stop a spell, and both players are even on cards. The genre's whole tension is that the trade rarely nets you anything beyond the tempo of denying a cast. This one carves out an exception tuned to a single format's central premise. Against most spells it is a plain stop, three mana for a counter and no upside. Point it at something that targets a commander you control, though, and the exchange flips: the counter still resolves, but now it comes bundled with a scry 2 and a fresh card, converting a defensive click into card advantage. The bonus is gated behind targeting, which matters more than it first looks: it pays out against the single-target removal, the bounce, and the steal effects opponents aim directly at your commander, but not against edicts or board wipes, which do not target that permanent at all. Everything above the floor is contingent on that gate. Strip away the multiplayer context and it is a slightly overcosted counter with no way to earn its keep; keep the context and every point of upside depends on a spell your opponents chose to aim at the one permanent the format singles out as protected. It is a counter that only pays off when your table treats your commander as the problem, which is exactly the moment you most want to be paid.