Ertai's Meddling MTG Card

Tempest (TMP)
1997-10-14 - Number 61

The List (PLST)
2020-09-26 - Number TMP-61

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Rare
Type	Instant

Key Takeaways

Ertai’s Meddling grants temporary board and hand advantage by shifting spell timing to your favor.
The card offers versatility for combo decks, making it a strategic asset despite its cost.
In meta games where timing is vital, its delay tactic can pivotally disrupt opponent strategies.

Text of card

When target spell is successfully cast, put X delay counters on it. X cannot be 0. During each upkeep of that spell's caster, remove a delay counter from the spell. If the spell has no delay counters on it, it resolves.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Ertai’s Meddling provides a nuanced approach to card advantage. By delaying an opponent’s spell, you effectively deny them the immediate benefit, forcing them to wait additional turns before regaining access to that particular strategy. This can lead to a temporary advantage on the board and in your hand, as you gain more time to draw and play more of your own resources.

Resource Acceleration: While Ertai’s Meddling does not directly accelerate your mana resources, it can be viewed as a form of resource acceleration by disrupting your opponent’s tempo. Slowing down an adversary’s play can grant you the upper hand as you continue to develop your board at a normal pace, effectively putting you ahead in the race.

Instant Speed: The power of instant speed spells is in their flexibility, and Ertai’s Meddling harnesses this by allowing players to interact with their opponent’s spells on the stack. This can be strategically crucial, giving you the ability to impact the outcome of the turn while keeping your options open, and only committing to the action when it’s most advantageous.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Ertai’s Meddling requires you to exile it as part of its delayed-counter ability. This aspect means it’s one less card you’ll have access to later on, potentially depleting your resources over time.

Specific Mana Cost: This spell’s cost is tied to blue mana, and while it may appear flexible with its ‘X’ value, it necessitates a significant blue mana commitment. This can be restrictive, mainly if your deck runs multiple colors or lacks sufficient mana-fixing.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Given its initial casting cost coupled with the ‘X’ variable, the total mana investment to delay a spell effectively can be steep. This often results in a smaller effect for a higher cost when compared to other counter spells or disruption options available within the game.

Reasons to Include Ertai’s Meddling in Your Collection

Versatility: Ertai’s Meddling serves as a unique disruption tool, offering a twist to typical counterspell mechanics. Its ability to delay rather than outright cancel an opponent’s spell allows for strategic planning around an opponent’s moves.

Combo Potential: This card can synergize with strategies that benefit from stalling opponents, giving combo decks the precious time they need to assemble their winning conditions without fearing immediate threats.

Meta-Relevance: In games where spell timing is crucial, Ertai’s Meddling can be particularly effective. It’s well-suited in metas dominated by spells with precise timing requirements, disrupting your opponents’ strategies just long enough to secure your advantage.

How to beat

Ertai’s Meddling presents a unique challenge on the battlefield. At its core, the card serves as a method to delay spells, effectively altering the timing and strategy of your opponent. Unlike a conventional counterspell that outright cancels an enemy’s move, Ertai’s Meddling adds a time counter to the spell, essentially suspending its activation. This subtle difference can throw a wrench in carefully laid plans and requires a nuanced approach to overcome.

To best tackle this disruption, maintaining strategic flexibility is key. A diverse set of instant-speed spells in your deck can adapt to the delay, ensuring that your momentum remains unhindered. Additionally, cards that nullify spell abilities or remove time counters can preemptively neutralize or quickly recover from Ertai’s Meddling. Keeping pressure on your opponent and being ready to shift gears can turn the tables, transforming a potential setback into an advantageous position. Above all, understanding the flow and pace of the game can help you anticipate and counter this type of strategic meddling.

Overall, Ertai’s Meddling stands out as a clever and potentially troublesome barrier. Yet, with thoughtful planning and responsive play, overcoming its delaying tactics can lead to a victorious outcome in your Magic: The Gathering matches.

Cards like Ertai's Meddling

Ertai’s Meddling is a unique disruptor in the realm of MTG counter spells. A notable comparison is with the classic staple, Counterspell, which outright negates a spell for a clean two mana. Ertai’s Meddling, however, adds a twist by delaying the spell’s effect rather than cancelling it outright, which can lead to both strategic advantages and unexpected complications. The delay tactic can disrupt an opponent’s timing, potentially leading to advantageous turns despite the spell eventually resolving.

Delay is another card that offers a postponement approach but with a lower cost and the addition of suspend. This allows players to see when the spell will come back into play, offering a clear-cut strategy on how to deal with the impending magic. Both Ertai’s Meddling and Delay can displace spells, creating opportunities for temporally strategic plays.

By examining their place among disruption tactics, Ertai’s Meddling offers a different take on how to handle threats, favoring predictive plays over the certainty of a straight counter. Its unique delay approach echoes the intricate playstyles MTG is known for, where timing is just as critical as the spells themselves.

Cards similar to Ertai's Meddling by color, type and mana cost

Blue Elemental Blast - MTG Card versions

Whispers of the Muse - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Ertai's Meddling MTG card by a specific set like Tempest and The List, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Ertai's Meddling and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Ertai's Meddling Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 1997-10-14 and 1997-10-14. Illustrated by Steve Luke.

#	Released	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	1997-10-14	Tempest	TMP		61	1997	Normal	Black	Steve Luke
2	~~2020-09-26~~	The List	PLST		TMP-61	1997	Normal	Black	Steve Luke

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Ertai's Meddling has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Ertai's Meddling card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2004-10-04	A targeted spell which is delayed will still succeed even if its target has phased out and back in again.
2004-10-04	Ertai’s Meddling can’t be cast through any way that doesn’t pay its mana cost. This is because the X in the Meddling’s mana cost can’t be 0, but effects that allow spells to be cast without paying their mana costs set X to 0.
2004-10-04	If Ertai’s Meddling is used to copy a spell being cast face down due to Morph ability, the spell will create a face up, 2/2, colorless, nameless creature with no text. This may be a little counter-intuitive, because you might expect the card to enter the battlefield face down like it would have when originally cast, but Ertai’s Meddling copies only the original spell and not the entire card the spell represented.
2004-10-04	If a copy of a spell (one that has no card representing it) is affected by Ertai’s Meddling, the spell ceases to exist when exiled. It will not gain counters and will not be put back on the stack.
2004-10-04	Note that a delayed spell that targets another spell won’t resolve when it resolves since it will find that its target is no longer on the stack.
2004-10-04	Once it is put back on the stack, it is a “new” spell again and can be countered or even targeted by another Ertai’s Meddling.
2008-04-01	This now exiles the spell as part of Ertai’s Meddling’s resolution, instead of waiting for the targeted spell to start resolving.
2011-01-22	If the spell was cast using flashback, Ertai’s Meddling will still exile it with delay counters on it. When the card is returned to the stack, it still “remembers” the flashback cost was originally paid. It’ll be exiled when it resolves or otherwise leaves the stack.
2013-04-15	Ertai’s Meddling has the spell’s controller put the spell back onto the stack; it does not have its controller cast the spell again. Anything that triggers off of casting spells, such as Contemplation , won’t trigger. Simillarly, effects that count spells that are cast (like Rule of Law) or prevent spells from being cast (like Iona, Shield of Emeria) won’t count or affect the copy that is put onto the stack since the copy wasn’t cast.
2013-04-15	If Ertai’s Meddling is used to copy an arcane spell that had effects spliced onto it, it will create a spell with all of those effects. That spell’s controller will not be able to splice additional effects onto the spell, since they did not re-cast the spell and instead simply put it back onto the stack.