Pointed Discussion

A wretched counter. Costs twice a normal Counterspell and gives your opponent a bonus. Its only possible use would be to counter your own spell to drop a Progenitus into play.

Terrible. The only useful way of using the ability would be countering your own spell which requires two cards, a big creature and at least 5 mana so summoning something big isn't going to be a major problem for your opponent.

Its use, which was bringing out fatties, was made obsolete by Dramatic Entrance, in many situations, still fairly meh without DE in the equation.

Given Wizards' newfound hate of blue, I wouldn't be surprised if this piece of s**t replaced Cancel as the new staple counterspell. Eventually, we'll end up with a "Counter target spell. You lose the game". Because countering things is just SO UNFAIR you need to be punished accordingly for commiting such atrocities!

Guys, this is an awful spell to counter your opponent's things, but the unwritten reason you'd play this is to counter your OWN stuff and get a free creature drop. Unfortunately, though, this is something Dramatic entrance has since done much better and with 33% less card disadvantage. Still, this card isn't worthless, it's just not immediately apparent what to do with it.

worst counterspell EVAH!!!

I dont know if you guys understand this but you can counter your own spell and summon a big/ big for as low as 5 mana, so yeah..

guys, you dont need at least 5 mana... just counter your own ornothopter or spellbook.. unless there is a new rule saying that you cant counter 0 casting cost spells such as:
kobolds (three different types)
ornothopter
phyrexian walker
phyrexian marauder (potentially 0)
shifting wall (potentially 0)
spell book
paradise mantle

and more... there are so many, i cant count them all.. it's like a non restricted version of flash, but 1/4 as good.

it still only gets 0.5 stars because of how trash of a counterspell it is.

Give me Cancel anyday, I'd rather not spend more to counter something only to allow my opponent a free replacement threat.

yeah guys its meant to put something in and get something out. every considered how awesome cascading into this to play another cascader would be?? YEAH

anyways, my buddy uses this with progenitus and ornothopter and green mana ramp. not fun when it happens

You don't need to spend three cards to get a biggy in with this spell. You can have it target itself, and nothing stops the resolution. (rules 601.2b, 601.2c, 607.2j, 607.2k) So it's one cheaper than Dramatic Entrance, and it's drawback as a counterspell (besides the cost) is negated if his hand is empty.

@ Black Mantha

Rule 113.4 "A spell or ability on the stack is an illegal target for itself."

Nice try though...

Another way to do cast this to minimize card disadvantage would be to counter your instant imprinted to isochron scepter. This works because even though you are using an ability to cast it, it goes on the stack as a spell. The isochron scepter's 'ability' goes on the stack, once it resolves it copies a 'spell' onto the stack which you can counter using this card.

I guess the major question would be, how does it weigh against Elvish Piper. This spell is more or less the same mana cost, depending of course on the spell that you are countering. The card disadvantage is also a major factor with this card but there is one thing you have to consider: it's a blue spell. Blue spells have a lot of cheap ways to make up for this disadvantage and blue spells don't usually have a lot of abilities that can put a fatty into play as easily as this can.

Another great advantage that this has over elvish piper is the "Oh shit, I did not see that coming" effect. With Elivish piper they have a whole turn to either respond with a removal spell or to adjust the strategy for what's coming.

Fold into Aether also turns trash cards into "Oh my god, I'm going to frigging pound your face in!" cards, a concept not unlike the ever-popular cycling mechanic.

And lastly, it's a costly counterspell if you desperately need it.

this card in some situations can be better than dramatic intrans in that it doesn't require the creature to be green. I play this in a U B deck and so popping the 6 mana guile or the 7 mana Szadek for only fore is very useful. and screw the card disadvantage, with a scepter its negated or with an ornithopter it really doesn't matter.

This card is best used in reanimation decks. Blue has very few good big creatures, but if you're playing a deck likely to have Reya Dawnbringer or other huge creatures you can't pay for normally, then that's just more targets for this. The only downside is that little spells that are also expendable are not common in those kinds of decks. I give it a 3.

This doesn't seem nearly as bad as some people think it is. The concept of this being useless because of Dramatic Entrance, this is a blue spell, DE is a green spell. It seems to me if you want a way to drop one of the many huge blue creatures this is a far better choice than changing your deck. Not to mention all the cards out there that let you look at the player's hand, or if they have no hand. Even if your taking a chance, you're playing BLUE! Have an unsummon ready or a boomerang, or better yet- have a "control enchanted creature" ready. You're playing blue, not green, making this far from a bad card.

Two Headed Giant anyone?

the use i see with this is countering ur own cheap spell to play a mad expensive card for at least 5 (which is still rather expensive)

The idea seems to be to counter your own spell.

Anyone who downvotes this or says Cancel is better are bad players, and probably started with M10/Alara/Lorwyn.

You counter your small threat to cheat out a fattie. also useful in two headed giant, and amazing in EDH.

Step 1: Cast Ornithopter.
Step 2: Counter it with this.
Step 3: Drop a fatty.
Step 4: PROFIT.

turn one: mox sapphire (3x) and island. play another mox and tap first four blue mana for Fold into Aether to counter your own mox: play Emarkul, Aeons Torn.

SO OVERPOWERED

@iPreferStormCrow: Overpowered? Really? Your example of how to throw down Emrakul relies on you pulling 4 moxes in your opening hand, plus Emrakul. Most players have probably never even seen 4 moxes, much less have their own playset of them. And pulling 5 specific cards in your opening hand is extremely unlikely, even if you have them in your deck. Please don't call something overpowered simply because there is some extremely unlikely combo that could be powerful one time, assuming the stars line up perfectly that day.

As for the usefulness of this card, no it is not a good counterspell. However, I like the fact that it is a way to cheat in fatties in . Seems like everyone else gets them, just not . The usefulness of this over all of the creature-cheaters mentioned is that this one is mono-blue. Meaning it could go in a mono-blue deck, which I love building. And it means I could cheat out something like Inkwell Leviathan for about half its normal cost. No, it's not going to lead to any turn 3 auto-win decks, but it is still a fun and useful card.

Oh, and did I mention it's an instant? Meaning you can flash in that fattie to block on your opponent's turn? That by itself makes this card useful.

Now I know why they made Kobolds!!

Another way to make a Reanimator type deck, really. That is, ways to cheat out big dudes without having to pay for them. When making the deck, just plug in your choice of fatty and go.
This way involves card disadvantage, but it is in a color not big on creatures: blue. Other ways include Dramatic Entrance, which has color restrictions, and Hypergenesis, which is broken, and of course the classic Entomb/Exhume type reanimator. Oh yeah and Elvish Piper and QuickSilver Amulet type stuff, too.

A nice trick with this against creature decks is to counter an opponent's creature (appear desperate), then when they drop an even bigger creature, mind control it.

Every single Vorthos cell in my body wants me to get Guile into play with it.The Johnny ones aren't unpleased with the idea either.
It shouldn't be hard... I could counter some rebound spell like Distortion Strike with no card/tempo disadvantage. Then, once the Beast is into play, Unsummon his creatures and counter everything. Sounds classy.

Dramatic Entrance can't bring out eldrazi cards, I agree for progenitus Dramatic Entrance is better also just because it's green and changeing mana to any color is green's job and mana ramp in general, but dramatic entrance can only be used for a big green fatty this got more utility and is one mana cheaper

An interesting situation where this might be useful:
1. You play a spell. Doesn't really matter which.
2. Opponent plays a counter that has an additional effect. Something nasty like Mana Drain should give you the picture.
3. You counter your first spell with this. Barring any additional interrupts, this resolves first, making your first spell an invalid target for your opponent's counter and keeping the other effect from happening. Plus, you get a free creature. It's usually nowhere great but in weird situations like this it sort of shines.

They talk about Aether like it's some kind of cake mix. Delicious.

@ TheMurderousKitten: ipreferstormcrow is clearly being sarcastic, you don't need to point out that moxen are hard to come across, it should be something that a dedicated Magic player knows. As a sarcasm font does not exist I would normally just ignore your gross misinterpretation, but your overblown response to their comment (of course realising that this is itself an overblown response to you) makes me think that you're the kind of person who ultimately caused me to stop attending FNM at my local store.
So go ahead, call out every combo that would require a ridiculous "god"hand as being remarkably unlikely, see how many friends you make.