Baral, Chief of Compliance

$3.36

Baral makes your instants and sorceries cost {1} less, so a Counterspell costs a single blue and many cantrips become free. Whenever a spell or ability you control counters a spell, you may draw and then discard, which turns every answer into card selection. The deck is mostly cheap interaction and card draw, with Baral holding the line while you dig toward a finisher. Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal, or High Tide with Mind Over Matter, can generate enough mana to draw the deck and win with Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac.

In the recorded games, Baral spent most turns holding mana up and countering the key spell of each turn, with Cryptic Command and Patron Wizard doing a lot of the work. An early Mystic Remora taxed the table and slowed everyone's plans. Sensei's Divining Top and Consecrated Sphinx kept the cards flowing, and Paradox Engine lines with Blue Sun's Zenith appeared as a finisher. The weak point was that the deck often reacted for a long time before it actually closed. Cheap counters like Force Spike and Memory Lapse could delay its setup, and long games against several threats at once stretched its answers thin.