i'm going to go against popular consensus here and going to give it 5, simply for good balanced game play... like most most blue players i miss the days of counterspell, however (as some have stated) it was pretty broken. on the other hand while blue is stuck with cancel in standard other colours have been given spells that are almost as broken as counterspell was, namely some one drop white instants grrr... still, as also mentioned this card works well late game in a deck that applies mana leaks early!
so wizards how about don't bring back counterspell and start balancing the other colours :)
Posted By:
sly92
(2/15/2011 6:02:09 PM)
If Ancestral Recall were printed with a different name and a 1U mana cost, would it be crap?
The fact that Mana Leak and this are in the same set makes total sense. Mana Leak early game, Cancel late game. I, too, would love the classic Counterspell, but I'm not above working with what we have.
Posted By:
benegade
(8/2/2010 1:36:02 PM)
Good for late game when your opponent has enough mana to pay 3 to stop Mana Leak
Posted By:
WaffleCop
(7/17/2010 12:00:47 AM)
Hmm... I didn't expect to see Cancel again.
It seems like Blue counter control might be a viable option in limited with this, Mana Leak, and Negate.
Posted By:
Vinifera7
(7/9/2010 5:55:20 PM)
Still don't know why Cancel didn't have two colorless one blue mana cost. Wizards could then defend themselves by saying, "Hey it's more splashable than Counterspell", and it would be easier to play, and not be strictly worse than Stoic Rebuttal. I know the designers of this card could have made it a little more interesting, and it's first printing wasn't in a core set so I won't buy the "We tried to make it simple for new players" excuse. Just slapping one more mana on Counterspell is like a slap in the face. Cancel still isn't a half bad card, but whatev.
Posted By:
NuckChorris
(6/27/2011 12:03:31 PM)
Fun fact: A world champ won the tournament with FOUR cancels in his deck. If he can win a tourney with it, is it all that bad? No. It's good enough for the best of the best, so why can't you just move on instead of whining that it's not 2 mana? As a hardcore blue player, I don't mind it. It's the cheapest 100% no shortcomings "No." in standard. There are other counters that have something they don't cover (negate) or have a draw back (deprive).
Posted By:
VoidedNote
(6/21/2011 12:42:05 AM)
Hey, they made it strictly better. Stoic rebuttal, check it out in the Scars visual spoiler. In Scars limited its basically gonna be a counterspell, its three mana (2 blue 1 colorless) regular and its two blue if you control three or more artifacts.
Posted By:
TheSwarm
(9/20/2010 4:11:33 PM)
Don't release Counterspell as a rare because it will just become expensive and then beginners can't hope to make a control deck. Cancel works fine so just keep it the way it is.
Posted By:
qaq456
(9/11/2010 3:33:19 PM)
I'm of a different mind. "Must play" cards are not only not played in every deck, but they're color-defining, which is excellent. Maybe all blue mages know counterspell type spells? I'm fine with them not reprinting it, but lightning bolt in red decks makes sense, and we look to that as being color defining essentially. Doom Blade, Giant Growth and it's better kin, these are spells (or similar spells) that have defined the colors since the beginning of the game, and that's good.
We would expect most red mages to know how to zap you somehow, most green mages to know how to grossly defeat other creatures in matchups with their own, and black to demolish creatures. Similarly, we'd expect blue to snuff out your spells and... white to keep being a stupid color.
Posted By:
blurrymadness
(4/8/2011 8:44:12 PM)
Blue Mage: Bah! Terminate is so powerful and we keep getting Cancel. If red and black getTerminate, blue should get Counterspell!
Red Mage: Terminate makes me run black mana.
Black Mage: I have to run red mana and it only deals with creatures. Cancel is a hard answer to 99% of spells any opponent can use against you, how can you complain about that?
Blue Mage: BECAUSE IT COSTS ONE WHOLE MANA MOAR! QQ *rates two and a half stars*
Green Mage: I have a 4 star card that will probably be useless in most match up to deal with either an enchantment or artifact and you are complaining about a card that is a hard answer to everything for only one mana more?
Blue Mage: But Counterpsell is 2 mana and I don't have my instant speed card drawing any more!
Everyone Else: Counterspell is stupidly overpowered and instant speed card draw is lame. Everyone else has to commit when they make decisions, why should blue be any different?
Whit... (see all)
Posted By:
Temple_Garden
(7/18/2010 8:33:41 PM)