Pointed Discussion

Too damn expensive! Counterspells need to be cheaper! And don't bring up Cryptic Command, that's an entirely different story.

Cascade sucks
New cards are too broke, they're boring

I really like this card. It's quite expensive for a counterspell, but it's side effect (the 4 life) makes up for it.

Nice card but it should be a hard counter for that cost.

I used this the other day and found it to be a great card. Super-late game the opponent may be able to come up with the 4, but against high cost threats like the Eldrazi this thing is money.

One of the nice things about the card is that you can be sneaky about available mana to set up the counter... leave 3W & 1U open on the table, opponent doesn't expect you to have a counter like Cancelavailable.

3.5/5

considering it's essentially a counter with a stipulation for 2 and then 2 to gain 4 life. It's a pretty nice card to me.

I really love the flavour text

This card is just bad. Countersquall's in the same block.

I'd just stick to absorb. It has double blue in the mana cost and gains only three life instead of four. Yet it's total manacost is three instead of four, and it's a hard counter.

@majinara
This is a common. It'll cost you about 8 bucks more for a playset of Absorb. Don't tell me that doesn't matter! haha

It looks like WotC realizes what life gain is good - on cards that have other useful effects. This is a good example of that philosophy.

Coyotemoon... you can't really compare this to Countersquall. Both spells are counter magic, but they serve different purpose and both are designed to be in different types of decks.
Countersquall is hard counter, it's much more efficient, but it's not so flexible in terms of use. With Offering, you can face creature heavy decks without having almost dead card in your hand. Countersquall is somewhat aggressive, Offering is with it's lifegain part defensive card. I agree it should be hard counter as well with 4 CMC, but soft counters are not so bad. Most of your plays, your opponent will cast spells without having 4 mana available (and it serves it's purpose of a counter magic), and if he will, he is probable to cast some combo, which is screwed if he pays the additional 4 mana or not, and you still gain 4 life, which is not breathtaking on it's own, but can you buy you turn or two, which can be really, really important.
Offering is not bad card, it just need the right conditions. I consider making a control deck based on restricting my opponent, forcing him to pay additional costs for literary everything... it's going to be WU, so Countersquall have no place in this deck... but Offering to Asha may prove usefull... need to test it to be sure.

The Awkward moment when you use this to counter a Rest For The Weary .

Vaishinos be gettin' sigil'd all over the place.
A cool card from a very cool set. Blue-aligned Bant stuff is generally very awesome. I loved Alara (:

So it's an Overrule locked into X=4, for which you get a discount of {2}. Interesting...

If it isn't a hardcounter, you're pretty much screwed. If they can pay an extra for it, they're either just toying with you, or you've waited too long to drop this.

It's a Mana Leak stapled to a Sacred Nectar with an extra in the soft counter clause.

Compatible with Sunforger.

4 extra mana is hard to come up with. Might as well be a hardcounter. Lifegain is best when its tacked onto something else! I would pay extra for a cancel that gains 4 life.

But just make sure you have some wrath in your deck to keep aggro humbled. There is a lot of nasty critters that can hit the table before 4 mana.

@NuckChorris: I was actually thinking more Convolute+Sacred Nectar...until I found that SN costs 1W, not W. So maybe more those two put together with a discount of 1?

Yeah, I really don't think the life gain makes the card not meh like everyone else. For the card to be really good it should have been a hard counter or just had something in place of the life gain.

Before you judge this card too harshly, remember that hard counters almost always cost at least two blue mana- this one requires only one. In a white-leaning WU deck or a Bant deck, this is much less likely to sit pointlessly in your hand. Plus, people usually cast their bigger spells as soon as they get the mana, so they probably won't have 4 sitting around to pay the extra cost.
In addition, the flavor and art of this card are epic.