Out of control

One of the nice things about EDH is that control decks don’t really work. A control strategy relies on locking the opponent out of the game by removing, stealing, or neutralizing everything they play with versatile or catch-all answers (e.g. counterspells), generating incremental card advantage, and then at some point playing a single threat and protecting it on the way to victory. With multiple opponents its just not feasible to lock down the board nor to protect a single threat to victory.

At the core of control’s weakness in EDH is the weakness of counterspells in multiplayer. They are, for the most part, a 1-for-1 tradeoff. In 1v1 this is fine since a single counter can often invalidate the opponent’s entire turn, helping the control player reach the late-game where they can play their one threat and simultaneously protect it. In multiplayer there are just too many spells coming from too many angles for counterspells to create a lockdown. You’ll probably get more “control” in multiplayer playing a vigilance creature than playing counterspells.  

While you can’t pile a bunch of counterspells into a control deck, they can still be valuable cards for their ability to answer “anything”. The most powerful EDH counterspell is probably draining whelk, but my personal favourite hearkens back to magic’s official climate change set:

Arcane denial is awesome because of its mana cost and the card draw. 1U counters usually have a drawback in terms of what they can counter (negate) or whether they can counter the spell at all (mana leak, unified will). Arcane Denial gets right down to business and stops any spell in its tracks, no questions asked, with the 1U cost making it a lot more friendly for 3 colour decks than a straight up counterspell.

Of course the more important feature of arcane denial is all the card drawing that takes place. First of all it replaces itself, so you never really lose anything by countering a spell. Secondly, you’re opponent gets to draw 2 cards which should go a long way towards avoiding any hate. I mean hey, you’re technically giving him card advantage - he should thank you!

The best way to play arcane denial is to save it for spells that are clearly and specifically going to hurt you: a wrath effect when you have a lot of guys, a sacrifice effect when you’re riding an indestructible to victory, an austere command when your board has 4 enchantments. In these scenarios giving 2 cards is a small price to pay for thwarting one of the few cards that can really hurt your board position. With its card draw you can also just play it whenever you feel its amusing to do so, but at least it offers some strategic depth if you’re willing to take advantage of it.

Macaroni or Cheese?

This card is one of the few “peacemaker” cards I really like.  Counterspells are great when they stop something like insurrection, but can be brutally annoying when played pre-emptively (I feel like that akroma is going to be attacking me, so I counter it now). Denial gives you all the benefits of stopping big cheese, while also taking the edge off of those pre-emptive counters for your opponents.