Pointed Discussion

Counter /and/ draw? Nice! :D

Because *** YOU duress!!

You can't see it, but Urza is flipping off Thoughtseize Faerie through the portal.

better than cancel!

I just love playing this when your opponent taps all their lands for fireball or something to that effect. The card draw is just insult to injury. "I completely smothered your spell and all your mana, and now i'll draw a card, too!"

@reapersaurus- this is good because it allows you to save mana in environments where resources are heavily bogged down by your opponent. Its a great card against the Sinkholes and Duress and Hymn to Tourach and Mind Twist that form the disruption backbone of Suicide Black, a very strong deck against control. There's also the Strip Mines and Wastelands to worry about too so 3 mana might be a little high for those, and if you can counter a Dark Ritual plus draw a card, this is just great.

@reapersaurus: In type 1 people are often casting spells on the 1st and 2nd turns, and those spells often go in this order: 1. disrupt you, 2. Win the game. They usually tap out to do these and having a counter that replaces itself is awesome.

I guess people are completely ignoring how situational this card is.
Most of the time it's going to be in your hand, useless because the opponent didn't tap out to cast their instant or sorcery. The rare occasion it works, that's great. But I'd rather spend the 2 extra most of the time and have the more-useful Runeboggle (or better yet, Complicate).

edit : in tourney, you have to gamble a lot more and HOPE that when you keep the mana open, your opponent will cast an instant or sorcery and the spell works. But when they cast artifacts, creatures, planeswalkers, or enchantments, you have a wasted precious cardslot in your hand.

Personally, I can not stand having a card in my hand that is useless, especially if I kept a land open for it, so again I'll go with the more reliable counterspell cantrips.

Also interesting how the Weatherlight version of this card is almost a full point lower rated on here.
When it came out, I was one of the only people in my area that would give it a chance - everyone else dismissed it off-hand. Interesting how times and metagames have changed.....

This card works great in theory, and in practice too against RDW and the like.

However, it's the most annoying card in the world to have in your hand against an increasing number of decks which are entirely composed of permanents (or with maybe 4 instants or sorceries tossed in). In decks like my goblin deck, you often don't need sorceries and instants because their effects can be had with cards like Mog War Marshal and Goblin Bushwhacker.

I think it's safe to say that this is superior to force spike, despite what ratings may indicate.

I think most people overlook the self-replacing part. Even if this card is situational, you can cast it along with a hard counter when your opponent plays a random instant or sorcery and just get a free draw to replace it, without ever losing card advantage.

I'm gonna try this in EDH and see who I can piss off.

Interesting card, I would definitely sideboard it and maindeck force spike. But then again at its worst its instant speed cantrip for , even though you cant cast it unless a spell is on the stack.

Nice Oblivion Gate you got there..

Disruptive Student doing what he does best.

This card is never useless. Even If the opponent has no instants or sorceries you can cast it on your own spell and pay the 1 to replace it. I love it in my pauper MUC deck.