Is Swan Song Even Good Anymore?

Swan Song is currently the 5th most played counterspell in Commander – but does it deserve that spot? Is it still a premium choice, or are the downsides starting to accumulate? Today I want to look at how Swan Song is best played to answer the question: is Swan Song even good anymore?

SWAN SONG 

For a single blue mana, Swan Song lets you counter an instant, sorcery or enchantment spell. In return for such a good deal, you have to give that opponent a 2/2 Bird token with flying. 

When you look at the counterspells that are more widely played, you end up with spells that are much more of a hard answer, and spells that give an opponent less. Arcane Denial sees a lot of play for being a more “soft” and friendly counter in lower power play, as it softens the blow of losing a spell by offering cards instead. 

The closest spell to Swan Song in the Top 5 is An Offer You Can’t Refuse, and it’s a very similar spell – it gives resources in exchange for being a super cheap answer. These two spells are the only spells in the Top 20 blue counters that give an opponent something in exchange, which is a natural jumping off point for discussing why giving an opponent free stuff is generally not what you want to be doing.

NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LAUNCH

When you play  Swan Song, An Offer You Can’t Refuse, or new kid on the block Strix Serenade, you’re giving the opponent a resource that they can leverage against you. The prevailing reason to play these cheap counters is because they’re flexible enough, and cast a wide enough net, to be a great way to spend one mana. Chances are, you’re also going to be in the kind of deck that wants to play a faster game, as holding one mana open is the absolute lowest commitment outside of casting a free spell. Therein lies the heart of the debate – are you in a deck that even cares about giving the opponent a seemingly meaningless resource? Is the type of Magic you’re playing so stripped down in efficiency that you’re just going as low to the floor as possible?

If you are, then it makes way more sense to be running the likes of Force of Will, Force of Negation and Fierce Guardianship – alongside a hard Counterspell – than something conditional like Swan Song. If your interaction has to be one mana, then it may as well be free, right?

And if you’re not so hard pressed for interaction mana, then you have way more flexible cards you can take alongside your favored primary counterspells. Having an MDFC like Sink into Stupor, or a modal card that can be card draw or a clone as well, leaves you Three Steps Ahead of your opponent. 

Oh, and then we get to Mana Drain. If you’re not a sweaty combo deck in cEDH, then Mana Drain is probably going to do a lot more for you than Swan Song, as you’re way more likely to run into the splashy haymakers you’d love to counter with a Mana Drain when you’re at tables that are a little more relaxed. 

With so many other premium spells that are competing for your slots, it’s useful to consider further whether playing Swan Song is actively detrimental to your strategy. 

THE DOWNSIDES OF SWAN SONG

Giving an opponent a 2/2 flyer might seem inconsequential to your strategy – especially at higher levels of play – but it might be worse for you than you’d think. That 2/2 flyer can block any number of big attacks. It can swing in itself in order to draw cards or trigger on-attack or on-damage triggers.

If an opponent is in a deck with common go-wide finishers, a 2/2 flyer is a massive boon. Same for a deck using auras and equipments; suiting up a free 2/2 flyer isn’t the hurdle you think you’ve given them. 

When your deck’s strategy and win condition is well defined, you also get access to a number of counter spells that other decks don’t, that can make Swan Song look like a worse option, too. If you like Mana Drain, then you have access to Mana Sculpt if you’re playing with a Wizard Commander or Wizards in your deck – which is then a three mana version of the same effect. If you play a lot of blue creatures (like in a Merfolk deck), then Flare of Denial might be an additional free spell to consider. Playing a Simic or Temur list with a lot of big bodies? Stubborn Denial will catch folks unawares. Playing a flying-men deck led by Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate, or a Bird typal deck? Well, Lofty Denial is a great budget option that won’t leave them a blocker to stop your aerial assaults. 

And that’s before you even look at other colors – Permission Denied, Dovin’s Veto, and even the tempo based red redirects like Return the Favor and Redirect Lightning all perform way ahead of Swan Song these days. 

END STEP

Swan Song was, for a long time, one of the counterspells that defined Commander. It could deal with Gods and removal and wraths and protection, and other counterspells, making it ideal in the Battlecruiser environment the format enjoyed previously. Since then, we’ve had increasingly efficient options printed, and a deluge of free spells, too. The format has also increased in aggressiveness, meaning that 2/2 flyer could more readily be your undoing.

Another way to look at it is to look at Generous Gift. White finally got Beast Within, but by the time we got Stroke of Midnight, I was already swapping it out as my more low to the ground decks didn’t want to be walled off by a 3/3. Come Edge of Eternities, I was happier still to give them a Wayfarer’s Bauble instead of a blocker. The times do be a-changin’.