Pointed Discussion

An amazing card--this effectively says "no" to a spell played by your opponent without the loss of card advantage. It is a little costly in terms of mana, but unlike the modern equivalent Cryptic Command its quite easy to play this in a multicolored deck as it only requires 2 blue mana to cast. Funny flavor text, but I don't remember ertai looking that silly...

unless you already have 4 cryptic commands in your deck, add them instead of this. this is good, but Cryptic Command is better and more flexible.

cryptic command is also about 10 bucks while this is, liek, 1.

Of course if you have the money, cryptic command is obviously better, but this is a good low budget option.

I love this card. Fantastic. It's so simple and effective. I love how the way it says it in two simple sentences. "Counter target spell. Draw a card." Yeah sure Cryptic Command is better but there is something I just love about this card. Went well in the old school "Draw Go" decks. I really wish they would reprint this for M11 so we can have a decent counterspell in standard. At least give us our Mana Leak! I have never seen so many request to get a card printed for M11 than I do Mana Leak. We know you hear us wizards! We want our Mana Leak back! I'll take dismiss if you would rather do that, but you need to bring back at least one good counterspell! Cancel and Deprive and especially Unified Will are just not working out for me.

The flavor text is just fantastic as well.

of the 4 casting counters, this, Rewind and Foil are the ones I'd ever use.

Even in a five-colour deck you're better off running Cryptic Command. This is just entirely outclassed.

@Henrietta

No sane 5 colour decks will use Cryptic Command, as most will run green as a main and the other colours as sides. Cryptic Command is more strict on the blue mana requirements while dismiss is less flexible.

Ultimately its up to each player to decide whats best, sometimes easier to cast simple card draws are worth more than the options provided by cryptic command and vice versa

I give it a 4/5 as its a hard counter with a nice replacement draw, though I would rate cryptic command higher than this

It's like a Cryptic Command with fewer options. Almost as powerful too - say no to any spell and still draw a card on top of it.

People complaining that this is "not as good as Cryptic Command" are showing a lack of understanding about card design. Cryptic Command is a rare, was part of a series of iconic uber-spells, and does have a slight casting cost disadvantage to offset its greater versatility. There is not a single blue player who wouldn't love to see this in standard; self-replacing counters will *always* be potent.

Self replacing counters.
Gotta love 'em.

Probably my equal 2nd favourite 4cmc counter spell, after Rewind, equal to Foil, and before Discombobulate (if only for name and ft).

Cryptic command is too expensive for me... I can only build pauper.

Still, very good card.
4.5/5

3.5/5 card.

One of the best 4 cmc countermagic spells. secon only to Cryptic Command, but better than Rewind, and Discombobulate.

This thing is beautiful. I always wanted a hard counter that could replace itself.

Holy crap. A counter that does not leave any gap in card advantage. In the words of Dr. John Zoidberg, "I'll take eight!"

"There is nothing you can do that I cannot simply deny."

Sees Cavern of Souls

ok :(

This.
Counterspell
Mana Leak
Forbid
Power Sink

All legal at the same time. You wonder why Wizards started making an effort to weaken blue, huh?

While obviously Cryptic Command is a stronger card in general, don't discount how powerful this card is. By only having UU instead of UUU in its casting cost, it is much easier to splash for and use in three colour decks.

5/5