Pointed Discussion

This card pretty plainly says: "If you can't counter it, destroy it."
The Spite side wouldn't be broken at though.

it be good if it wasnt so freaking expensive

Actually, i really like this card. My two favourite colours with their basic spell types. Although it is overpriced, i think it's a nice versatile card and i'd play it in most U/B casual decks.

Good effects but stupid cost for both sides. 4CMC for either counter non-creature or destroy non-black is rediculous.

Both sides at 3 cmc would have been great.
I do like them though.
3.5/5

I think part of the cost is the fact that you could use either at the time you needed it. If you want cheaper destruction, run something else; if you want counters, run something else...this gives you both options in one card.

Was a very new versatile type of card, so I can live with both 4CMC. Any U/B Invasion deck have a room for one copy of this. It's nearly "One card for one card", so why not?

If both sides had been 2CMC, this would have been the ultimate Blue-Black spell. More iconic and devastating than Glimpse the Unthinkable. It would have made Lightning Helix look like a cheap trick. At 4CMC, nobody seriously wants to actually use it.

Are these effects that should cost the same? Maybe...maybe not, if you're putting them on the same card.

1UU and 1BB are my vote for what the best possible version of this card, looking at it from both sides of the tables it's being cast at, should cost. Still a little overcosted, to pay for the convenience, and a bit of extra inconvenience built in with the color density, but that would defintely get played. But hopefully the guy getting hit by it won't call it 'stupid/broken/they never should have made that.'

*Opponent casts a black creature*

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuu...

I started playing Magic when Odyssey first came out. I was playing a mono black deck with Spite//Malice in it. I was playing against my friend; both of us were pretty new at magic, so we had really bad decks. My friend smiles with confidence and says, "Drain Life. You lose." He said it so smugly. He didn't think my mono black deck could do anything - and frankly, neither did I...

But I had Spite//Malice in my hand... If only I had some way to counter his spell... Some way to add a blue... And that's when I noticed for the first time that I had a Bog Wreckage in play. The only reason it was in my deck was because I didn't have enough swamps. I sacced it for a blue and countered with Spite! That allowed me to stay alive and make a beautiful comeback to eventually win the game.

It was one of the first out-of-nowhere epic Magic plays that I have ever managed to pull off. I will never forget this card because of that.

Malice is totally worth it since it will get rid of something. Spite, however, is terrible. Considering all the other options that you have, some of them are cheaper and better. Still, it's a split card, so it deserves 3 stars minimum.