All 18 Ways To Stop Enters The Battlefield Effects
Enter-the-battlefield effects are a surefire way to get value out of permanents without sinking any additional resources into them, but believe it or not, ETB effects didn't used to be so prolific in Magic. Nowadays, ETB effects define the creatures that players choose to run in their decks, so much so that there are dozens of different commanders bent on abusing ETB triggers. Yarok, the Desecrated, Brago, King Eternal, and Roon of the Hidden Realm each have 1000+ decks on EDHrec, and each list hundreds of ETB combos on their individual pages.
With so many punishingly strong ETB effects, and more and more Panharmonicon effects printed each year, this archetype can feel unbeatable. Luckily, I've assembled the best spells and effects for halting those ETB effects. We're going to ruin that Preston, the Vanisher's player's good time this Friday!
What Are ETB Triggers? How Do We Stop Them?
Many permanents have a triggered effect that happens when they enter the battlefield. This happens after the spell resolves and it's moved from the stack to the field. Recently shorthanded to "enters" to save text space, enters the battlefield used to be known as "comes into play," which was confusing for new players at times due to the way the stack feels like it's "in play."
Enters the battlefield effects were introduced in Visions, where some of the most popular ETB creatures hail from. Nekrataal, Uktabi Orangutan, Shrieking Drake, and Man-o'-War were all introduced in the first run of ETB effects.
Stopping ETB effects can be accomplished two ways: we can counter the triggered ability when it goes on the stack, or we can put a full stop to ETB effects with staxy control cards. Ready to find out which is best? Let's dive in!
#18 Nimble Obstructionist
Nimble Obstructionist can counter an ETB effect when it's cycled. Three mana to stop an ETB and draw a card is a pretty good rate, but this flashy creature pales in comparison to even Hushwing Gryff when we plan to use it specifically for stopping ETBs.
#17 Hushwing Gryff
Hushwing Gryff is just plain slower and worse than Doorkeeper Thrull. The extra point of power is technically useful, except we don't really want to risk our fragile 2/1 hatebear by swinging in with it. Still, consistency in singleton formats is key, so Hushwing Gryff makes a fair replacement for your other hatebears once they've been Murdered. Possibly worth it if you really just want to save $1 on the Doorkeeper Thrull.
#16 Ertai Resurrected
Ehh... Ertai Resurrected might be good in Limited formats, but in Commander, it'll be mid at best. Ertai is four mana for a 3/2 body that'll drop a Murder or Stifle a spell when it enters, and draw its target's controller a card. That last part is what sinks Ertai. Replacing the effect you just countered or creature you just destroyed with another card is a net zero interaction, leaving you at about the same place you started, except now you have a legendary creature that dies to Shock.
#15 Brokers Confluence
The triple threat of Brokers Confluence's variety is what makes it playable. Three Stifles for five mana is a bad going rate, but getting one Stifle and a couple proliferates ain't half bad. Unfortunately, five-mana counterspells just aren't the move when it comes to EDH; that mana is usually better spent on a three-mana spell while you keep two up for a Counterspell.
#14 Adric, Mathematical Genius
The Doctor's Companion Adric, Mathematical Genius has a two-mana activated ability to sacrifice itself to counter a triggered ability. Regular access to this effect in your command zone sounds like it'd be useful, until you realize you're paying upwards of four mana for each instance of this effect as you cast and recast Adric to keep it on the field. Not bad, but definitely not the best option.
#13 Sister of Silence
The Warhammer 40K card Sister of Silence is a flashy five-mana 3/3 that counters triggered and activated abilities, as well as instant or sorcery spells. The broad utility of Sister of Silence makes a fairly useful control card, but, once again, five mana is way too much to pay for a simple counter. Maybe if it was bigger than a 3/3 it'd see more play as a staple of this effect, but ultimately it just can't keep up.
#12 Overcharged Amalgam
Overcharged Amalgam is a tough sell. In a Zombie deck, where you'll typically have lots of little tokens to exploit, Overcharged Amalgam is a great pick! It's a 3/3 flyer with a built in Cancel or Stifle for just four mana! But in any deck where you don't expect to have a hundred little Zombie tokens to use as fodder, losing a creature in addition to these costs brings this beefy blue Zombie's value down. At least it replaces that chumped creature with another body!
#11 Sublime Epiphany
I know I've spent this whole time bemoaning the expensive costs of many of these ability-counterers, but I'll make an exception for Sublime Epiphany. Six mana is an insane amount to pay for a Counterspell, or even a Counterspell + Boomerang + card draw, but it's a steal to do all that plus a Stifle and a Clone. No limit for how many modes you can choose on Sublime Epiphany means the ceiling for value on this spell goes all the way up. You probably won't be choosing both the "counter target spell" and "counter target ... ability" modes at the same time, but if you do, please tell me about whatever ridiculous pile of spells and effects were placed on the stack prior to that.
#10 Green Slime
Green Slime is the only green card that can counter a triggered ETB ability, and only from an artifact or enchantment source. That might seem incredibly limiting until you realize this card has foretell and can be safely stored in exile until you're ready to cast it, freeing up space in your hand for threats. Green Slime also destroys that permanent if it managed to counter the ability, further hindering that player from accessing any of that juicy value they were planning to generate. Go ahead and get rid of that Panharmonicon as soon as it hits the field.
#9 Defabricate
Modularity can greatly increase a card's playability, and Defabricate's two modes make it useful as an ETB-stopper and as a typical Dissipate. At two mana, Defabricate is kind of a sleeper as far as valuable ETB counters go; just a smidge worse than Tale's End, honestly.
#8 Trickbind
Trickbind's utility lies in its split second mechanic, preventing any sort of counterspell war if your opponent tries to protect their precious ETB effect. It also stops that permanent from activating any of its other activated effects, something unique to Trickbind in the world of Magic. Trickbind is situational, but there are some great ETB effects that it makes sense to counter with this, like Breya, Etherium Shaper. However, it's usually more effective to just fully Counterspell any creature with activated abilities you don't want resolving.
#7 Tale's End
Tale's End is the Stifle for Commander players. For one more generic mana, you get everything you get with [ell]Stifle[/el] plus the option to counter a legendary spell. This makes Tale's End useful in Commander, where you know your opponents will be casting at least one legendary spell at some point during the game.
#6 Tocatli Honor Guard
Tocatli Honor Guard is the toughest of the two-mana ETB-stopper creatures, but that isn't saying much with its measly three toughness. What makes this creature stand out from the rest is its utility as an early game blocker: opponents that try to sneak in a little damage early with a handful of Dragon Fodder'd Goblin tokens or what have you will be forced to pick another target for their early game jabs.
#5 Stifle
The famous Stifle is the cheapest way to counter any ability on the stack. For a whole one mana, we're countering everything from Grave Titan's ETB and attack trigger to Cityscape Leveler's cast trigger to an opponent's fetchland activation.
The biggest drawback to Stifle in this list is we're trading a card in hand to stop one ETB trigger, whereas one of our permanents with a passive ability will stop all of them.
#4 Hushbringer
Hushbringer is an interesting one. Costed similarly to Torpor Orb and Doorkeeper Thrull, this 1/2 Faerie has the added benefit of shutting of death triggers as well as enters-the-battlefield triggers. This means Hushbringer not only saves you from dying to the token deck's Impact Tremors, it saves you from the Blood Artist on the way out, as well.
Without flash, Hushbringer's cost makes it a little harder to justify than Doorkeeper Thrull, assuming we're only focused on ETBs and not LTBs. To be honest, Hushbringer is a worthy inclusion if you're doubling down on stax and hatebear effects, but it really depends on the local meta you play against.
#3 Doorkeeper Thrull
Doorkeeper Thrull gives Torpor Orb a run for its money, that's for sure. Doorkeeper Thrull mitigates the loudly broadcast Torpor Orb effect by flashing in at instant speed to stop an ETB from a creature or artifact while it's still on the stack. On a 1/2 flying body, the Thrull isn't super tough, so it probably won't stick around as long as an artifact would. That said, flashing it in stops the exact ETB effect you were waiting for without giving away too much information with your Orb.
#2 Torpor Orb
New Phyrexia's Torpor Orb stops all enters-the-battlefield from triggering, or the ETBs from creatures, at least. Luckily, most of the best ETB effects you'll see in a typical Commander game come from creatures, and many of the most popular commanders have effects that trigger on ETB (I'm looking at you, Atraxa, Grand Unifier).
Torpor Orb is cheap, colorless, and its symmetrical effect can be used to your advantage as well if you run it in the 99 of your Phage the Untouchable deck. As the cheapest and most resilient source for this effect, this decade-old classic tops the list of best ways to stop ETB effects.
#1 Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines
In what must be the ultimate incarnation of the white Praetor, Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines is the most powerful creature with this effect that you can run. Elesh Norn's asymmetrical ETB-stopping effect negates your opponents' ETBs and doubles each of yours.
Combining a Panharmonicon with a Torpor Orb and then slapping it on a 4/7 body with vigilance sounds like something dreamed up by a mad scientist Magic designer, especially when you set its mana cost to just five mana? Who was in charge of this thing!?
Putting Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines in your command zone is the new Iona, Shield of Emeria. It shuts down a significant portion of most players' Commander decks, and it completely hoses any other deck built around blink effects. Really, Elesh Norn's only downside in Commander is that it's locked into mono-white, limiting the number of good ETB effects to abuse, but still, having access to cards like Fiend Hunter, Flickerwisp, Karmic Guide, Ephemerate, and Cloudshift, just to name a few, is no joke.
Wrap Up
Enter-the-battlefield effects will always be some of the most powerful and easily abusable mechanics in the game. The prevalence of Panharmonicons and Roaming Thrones drive me crazy, personally, so much so that I've decided to start mainboarding many of these spells just to spite my opponents. From now on, you're getting a creature or an effect; no more casting a Grief for both a Thoughtseize and a 3/2 body.
Which of these effects do you think is best? Is my list totally, completely, irrevocably wrong? Let me know in the comments! Trust me, I can take it.
Thanks for reading!
