Pointed Discussion

I'd rather just play Cryptic Command.

Frost Reaper Sucks. This Card Is Awesome

@ TheFrostReaper, they didn't have Cryptic back then...
@MsterOfEtherium, You Suck, Please Stop Capping Ever Word!
@Qazior, in a vactum I agree with you, but if you're having trouble with creatures in your meta, this wins.

I'd prefer Undermine though it can't kill creatures, but costs less and makes that 3 to player.

cryptic is better maybe, but this is just fun, countr their combat trick and kill their creature hopfully

sure you could counter their trick and bounce their creature with cryptic but why not run both, really, whats not fun about this card in UR EDH

@TheFrostReaper:
I would rather play Baneslayer Angel over Serra Angel. I would rather play Thoughtsieze over Duress. Etcetera, etcetera. Format defining staple cards are better than their predecesors. Who knew?

Compare Cryptic Command to nearly any other four-mana counterspell. It wins. That does not make everything that has come before it inhertly bad. This is a good card, especially for the burn/counter strategy of blue-red.

Damaging players is nice, but for a control strategy (which blue-red clearly is. It's the instant/sorcery combination), dealing with opposing creatures to stabilize the board is the kind of thing you want to do, not beat your foe down. That comes later.

And it's not overcosted at all, actually, even by moden standards. Cancel is 1UU. Lightning bolt is R. There we have it. (Or, if you'd rather, Incinerate for 1R and Counterspell for UU). The limiting factor on the Bolt (unable to hit players) is the cost you pay for the card advantage (combining it into one card instead of getting the same effect for two cards).

@DoctorKenneth: Amen to your first two paragraphs.

Having played this thoroughly back in the day, the only problem with it is that it doesn't work if you've already cleared the(ir) board. And that ends up feeling like a real issue.

it's a low end incinerate and a counterspell rolled into one card! sure beats wasting 2 spots for 1 card.

Suffocating Blast: When you just need a Cancel stapled to a Lightning Bolt.

Qazior: Spot on.
TheFrostReaper: No. Two effects are always better than one. Plus, the only part of Cryptic that's anywhere near reasonable mana curve is the tapping clause.
MOE: Keep on trollin.

@blindthrall: You do realize that CC lets you choose two effects, right? It's a powerful chase rare, not utter jank.

excessively attractive card design.

It costs four mana and is stuck in your hand when there are no creatures. Occasional 2 for 1 is not worth it.

As far as I'm concerned, the only reason to choose this over other counterspells is that suffocating blast is sunforgerable.

By far the weakest of all the "fancied up" counterspells in this cycle (Absorb, Mystic Snake, and Undermine being the others) and yet it's still very, very playable. It really only looks bad when you stand it next to Undermine.

Had this either cost {1} less and/or had included the damage as an optional "may" clause, this would have been just as heavily played as Undermine was.

How did I only just learn about this sweet 2-for-1? Jesus, hard counter and removal in one? Sweet. Just sweet.

There was a mega cycle of rare, multicolored counterspells in the Invasion block. Mystic Snake, Absorb, Undermine, and this.

This card is a game-changer if you get to use it to its full potential. Of course, that doesn't always get to happen. I still run one in my R/U deck over other counterspell options; its won me games before.

Probably having an "or player" clause at the end would have been too much. Still a good spell.

I slap your spell and toast your critter.

Hey, I'd use it. Four is a bit much for a counterspell, but it's still useful.

This card could very easily cost for a couple of reasons:
If you consider Counterspell to be the baseline power level for counterspells, you're paying that plus an extra for a situational Lightning Bolt (more like a reverse Lava Spike). And Counterspell is a common.

Even if you consider Cancel to be baseline power, it's still a common; this is rare. You're replacing a colorless mana symbol for a colored one, and that's enough to give it another effect, even if it weren't rare. Compare Negate with Countersquall to see what I mean.

If ever the title "Counterpunch" would've been appropriate for a card...

A Cancel stapled to a nerfed Lightning Bolt Not as good as Mystic Snake and Undermine. For an extra mana, it should have given a choice between damaging a player and damaging a creature. Really solid pick in Limited, but otherwise it's a pretty good utility spell for casual.

@Qazior: the difference between this and undermine is card advantage--stop a spell, remove a spell that's been sitting around.

Reminds me of Die Hard

It's a cancel with a lightning bolt tacked on.

. . . or is it a counterspell with a searing spear tacked on?