@iPreferStormCrow: Overpowered? Really? Your example of how to throw down Emrakul relies on you pulling 4 moxes in your opening hand, plus Emrakul. Most players have probably never even seen 4 moxes, much less have their own playset of them. And pulling 5 specific cards in your opening hand is extremely unlikely, even if you have them in your deck. Please don't call something overpowered simply because there is some extremely unlikely combo that could be powerful one time, assuming the stars line up perfectly that day.
As for the usefulness of this card, no it is not a good counterspell. However, I like the fact that it is a way to cheat in fatties in 
. Seems like everyone else gets them, just not . The usefulness of this over all of the creature-cheaters mentioned is that this one is mono-blue. Meaning it could go in a mono-blue deck, which I love building. And it means I could cheat out something like Inkwell Leviathan for about half its normal ... (see all)
Posted By:
TheMurderousKitten
(8/5/2011 1:15:00 PM)
You don't need to spend three cards to get a biggy in with this spell. You can have it target itself, and nothing stops the resolution. (rules 601.2b, 601.2c, 607.2j, 607.2k) So it's one cheaper than Dramatic Entrance, and it's drawback as a counterspell (besides the cost) is negated if his hand is empty.
Posted By:
Black_Mantha
(1/18/2010 7:44:40 AM)
I dont know if you guys understand this but you can counter your own spell and summon a big/ big for as low as 5 mana, so yeah..
Posted By:
the-faceless
(10/11/2009 7:22:06 PM)
Guys, this is an awful spell to counter your opponent's things, but the unwritten reason you'd play this is to counter your OWN stuff and get a free creature drop. Unfortunately, though, this is something Dramatic entrance has since done much better and with 33% less card disadvantage. Still, this card isn't worthless, it's just not immediately apparent what to do with it.
Posted By:
ratchet1215
(9/5/2009 12:48:28 PM)
yeah guys its meant to put something in and get something out. every considered how awesome cascading into this to play another cascader would be?? YEAH
anyways, my buddy uses this with progenitus and ornothopter and green mana ramp. not fun when it happens
Posted By:
Omenchild
(12/30/2009 10:35:17 PM)
Now I know why they made Kobolds!!
Posted By:
Gaffy00
(9/16/2011 2:14:12 PM)
A nice trick with this against creature decks is to counter an opponent's creature (appear desperate), then when they drop an even bigger creature, mind control it.
Posted By:
LordRandomness
(2/26/2012 11:22:47 PM)
An interesting situation where this might be useful:
1. You play a spell. Doesn't really matter which.
2. Opponent plays a counter that has an additional effect. Something nasty like Mana Drain should give you the picture.
3. You counter your first spell with this. Barring any additional interrupts, this resolves first, making your first spell an invalid target for your opponent's counter and keeping the other effect from happening. Plus, you get a free creature. It's usually nowhere great but in weird situations like this it sort of shines.
Posted By:
Totema
(4/6/2012 10:05:31 PM)
They talk about Aether like it's some kind of cake mix. Delicious.
Posted By:
itsandycapp
(7/18/2013 3:30:46 AM)
@ TheMurderousKitten: ipreferstormcrow is clearly being sarcastic, you don't need to point out that moxen are hard to come across, it should be something that a dedicated Magic player knows. As a sarcasm font does not exist I would normally just ignore your gross misinterpretation, but your overblown response to their comment (of course realising that this is itself an overblown response to you) makes me think that you're the kind of person who ultimately caused me to stop attending FNM at my local store.
So go ahead, call out every combo that would require a ridiculous "god"hand as being remarkably unlikely, see how many friends you make.
Posted By:
poprockmonster
(11/29/2013 12:44:55 PM)