There is a running joke, that most of the time, the real wording of Howling Mine is something along the lines of; “Your opponent gets to draw another card, and then have to discard a Disenchant“. Similar to that, one could argue that this spell is more or less a green sorcery that reads: “Opponent must discard a Counterspell“.

That wording is actually really not that bad, and I can see this taking a slot over Mana Short in some combo brews, since they’re most likely in green anyways, playing spells like Sylvan Library and Fastbond. Mana Short sometimes fall short (yes, very much pun intended) of protecting your huge Fireball from being countered because of non-land mana sources like Fellwar Stones and the allmighty Black Lotus. City of Solitude to the rescue. This was indeed one of the primary use cases for this enchantment during the Mirage block era, protecting your huge Prosperity fueled Drain Life.

I do however think that writing this one off as purely an anti-counterspell enchantment, is not looking deep enough. I feel that the ‘ability’ part of the card is far more interesting and what really makes this into a real impactful card in our current metagame.

For example, part of the reason Argothian Pixies is considered one of the top five creatures of the format, is their ability to sneak past opposing factories. Here we have an enchantment that makes all your creatures unblockable by Mishra’s Factories, and immune to Maze of Ith! Opposing Sedge Trolls are not able to regenerate, and all Circles of Protection are void.

No more “End of turn, draw a card”.

No more “Upkeep, I’ll tap the land you so desperately need with my Icy Manipulator”

You can safely kill a Triskelion without the fear of getting trike arms flung all over the battlefield and your face. This and a lot of other things we today take for granted, like being able to flip an Orb, or pop a Disk as a response when it’s being targeted by destructive spells, are no longer possible.

All of this for the measly price of three mana? Impactful indeed, and I really hope we will see this card in action!

/ BJ Myrbacka - The Enforcer

PS

When I began to write this post, I was planning to end with a spectacular revelation, namely that one of my absolute favourite cards had finally become playable now that the opponent can no longer respond by casting all their cool spells: