Pointed Discussion

This is not a good card. Giving your opponent some card advantage is a terrible idea. That being said, fun in Type 4.

No, this is a great card...well, as long as you are playing decks with cards like underworld dreams and sezan, perverter or truth.

There are plenty of decks this card is good in. Does that make it a good card? not necessarily. As far as card advantage goes decks like rule of law and orims chant/ isochron decks take all the advantage out of card advantage making this a very playable card because it either forces discard or thins the deck into the hand, bringing a deck that much closer to depletion. Outside of stuff like that it can work as a quick counterspell cantrip for decks that win before the card advantage can matter. Its a really good niche card, so youre not going to see it in the average deck because there are plenty of cards that fill its role more efficiently in those sorts of decks.

are you guys kidding me?

counter your own spell for three the following turn.

duh.

It's good. Sure, Counterspell is better but this ain't as color heavy. It's just good.

Why do Aliiance commons have two different prints?

Cast Scragnoth or another uncounterable spell, then cast this for 3 cards.

Cast Obliterate, 'counter' it with Arcane Denial, a few indestructible mana sources and you're all set. :)

Have you ever heard Howling Mine overload deck? This is made for it.

It's not for some silly hand-overload deck.

It's not for an Underworld Dreams deck.

It's for that deck with 30 counterspells which needs to just stop the opponent from doing anything while it combos out. For that use, it is another copy of Counterspell which also replaces itself. Your opponent's hand size doesn't matter it you're just going to counter everything anyway.

It's not a good card, but it has its uses.

I do believe it says "may" draw 2 cards ... overloading my hand be damned!

More love for this card, please!!

It's a hard counter which does not cost {U}{U}!

Yes, I'm aware card draw can give strong advantages, but still, this is so nicely splashable, and a slowtrip for you too.

Also, yes, the RKF art is brilliant.

I imagine the best trick here would be to cast this to counter your own spell that just got countered. Oh, you're countering my spell? Here, let me do that for you.

Consecrated Sphinx

This is a very underrated card. People rate it low because it gives the opponent card advantage, but at the end of the day, it's still a hard counter, no questions asked, for just {1}{U}. That's awesome. And don't forget that it replaces itself in your hand, so in certain situations it's even better than Counterspell.

Ideatog is on it.

I run this with Fows and Isochron Scepters in an Armageddon deck, purely just to shut the other player up and get to my combo faster. Slap it on an Isochron Scepter and I burn through my deck(or yours) with ease. I can counter my memnite or Shield Sphere, and get 3 cards during my opponent's turn for 2 mana!

Drawback aside, this is, pure and simple, a good card IMO. I mean, sure, your opponent draws 2 cards at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep, but you hard counter a spell - creature or non-creature, and draw 1 card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep for a splashable (as opposed to the for Counterspell, or the costs of and higher for similar hard counters, and those that hard counter + let you draw).

Not to mention you can take advantage of the fact that the countered spell's caster draws 3... and that it's a ****ing COMMON.