Pointed Discussion

Mana Leak variant number... seventeen? I've honestly lost track.

Oh right, the card's actual merits. Cool stuff, though if you're devoted enough to blue you would have no problem paying for a hard counter. Still, 4/5

It's funny, the only cards I can easily see fit into a competitive standard deck is a lowly uncommon. In a good enough blue devotion this is cancel for two.

Solid card, if conditional.

Works well with Fish deck variants, stable # of blue permanents and in need of counters.

This is going to see constructed. Mono blue is pretty strong at the moment, so I nice counter spell like this is quite nice.

Eh, a counterspell that does absolutely nothing in the early game...

Just like Aspect of Hydra is a devotion version of Giant Growth, this is a devotion Mana Leak. I wonder if Acolyte's Reward gave counters at one point like Test of Faith. And Thunderous Might is a devotion version of Song of Blood, and Marshmist Titan with devotion = 3 is a Razorjaw Oni... almost. : )

If you have no U devotion on your side of the field and your opponent taps out completely for a spell, will the spell then be countered?

Where do I begin with a card like this? According to the forums, this was heralded as pretty much the second coming of Mana Leak. Hopefully, people will realize how silly that was when they actually play it though. The problem with this counterspell is that generally blue decks don't have permanents on the board, and if they do, it's not enough to make for a very powerful X-counterspell. This spell can't be cast sooner than turn 3 and is very easy to play around if your opponent knows it's coming, since they can just count your devotion. Which isn't to say that I think blue needs more powerful counterspells--just that this isn't one of them.

Ah yes, because mono-blue needed yet ANOTHER card to make it even MORE viable and therefore be even MORE overused.

FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN.

@Eternal_Blue

With Cloudfin Raptor, Judge's Familiar, and Vortex Elemental available, blue CAN in fact play this on turn two to stop the likes of Pack Rat or any of his aggressive 2-drop ilk. Sure, at that point it isn't better than Symied Hopes or Syncopate, but the ability to grow relevant over time and let blue drop things in a little more aggressively than with 3-mana counterspells is more than decent.

3/5 for being potentially strong and well-designed, but not game-defining.

I don't know about standard but for Modern this card is more then the new mana leak it's the new counterspell, it's that good period. In my merfolk deck the fishies cast for free with the Aether Vial getting your devotion up and leaving your mana available to cast it. I could see this being so powerfull in Modern players scoop when they find out you're playing it and Aether Vial.