Cancel is pretty close to playable, much more so than say Grizzly Bears (which no one complains about). Some might even say that Cancel is playable, it's just not played because there have always been slightly better variants around (Stoic Rebuttal, Dissipate). If you play Grizzly Bears in place of your Flinthoof Boars, your Gruul deck will stop being competitive all of a sudden. If you play Cancel instead of Dissipate in your Esper control deck, your deck would remain pretty decent.
Trying to tone up Cancel is dangerous. I'm sure the rationale behind the making of Cryptic Command was how underpowered the players perceived Cancel as. The truth is it isn't any more underpowered than Shock, Giant Growth or Ravenous Rats.
Posted By:
sweetgab
(8/5/2013 11:09:48 PM)
I'm not going to complain that we have Cancel back. Yes, Counterspell and even Dissipate were strictly better, but come on. Paying three mana to stop pretty much anything in the game is still pretty strong.
After Dissipate cycles out I can see this getting a home in control decks that don't have red mana for Counterflux, although Syncopate is another viable option. How about you just go ahead and run both, okay? :)
4/5
Posted By:
Tamerlein
(7/19/2013 9:51:06 AM)
A hard counter for 3 is more fair than 2cmc. Yes, it's great when you can counter for 1 or 2, but in modern right now, there are very limited options for a hard counter at 2, and they have draw backs. 1 Mana cost and it's use is very situational...
Mid to late game, when there is 6 or more mana on the board... I like seeing a hard counter like cancel in my hand instead of mana leak when many spells cost 1 - 3 mana and are easily paid for... Although Cryptic Command is the mid to late game go to counter, sometimes I like to fit 1 or 2 cancels in the deck list.
Posted By:
Zylo-
(9/6/2013 9:22:10 AM)
Removal for almost anything. Three mana is fair for this effect. If you want to counter something at less mana you have to accept some draw backs like essence scatter or negate. Classic card, makes me happy.
Posted By:
Purplerooster
(7/10/2013 10:24:01 PM)
Blue players are so spoiled. 3 cmc for a hard counter and all they do is ***.
Posted By:
Briaronfire
(12/8/2013 12:26:41 PM)
Good ol' Cankles.
Posted By:
Kryptnyt
(7/10/2013 4:57:30 AM)
Come on, Wizards, just print Dissipate in the core set.
Posted By:
Continue
(7/9/2013 2:59:17 PM)
I actually don't REALLY mind this card. Wizards has made it pretty clear that only 2 blue mana for a counterspell is too cheap, so I've thought of something, utilizing scry, since they're bringing that back in Theros. Maybe they could make it cost 2 blue, then your opponent gets to scry 1. Since letting them draw a card would be a bit too much, I feel like simply scrying 1 doesn't give your opponent as much of a card advantage. Either that, or keep the same cost, and allow you to scry 1. Drawing a whole card would be too much for either and the card would be either too good or too awful, but I feel like scry 1 is just enough.
Posted By:
F33N1X
(9/26/2013 12:54:41 PM)
I once used this to counter my friends Mana Leak
He laughed
I still can't work out why...
Posted By:
MCcreator
(12/26/2013 1:39:39 PM)