Nothing Up My Sleeve

[GMontag]

Nothing Up My Sleeve
3U
Instant

If you control an Island and have no instants in your hand, you may reveal your hand instead of paying ~THIS~'s casting cost.

Counter target spell.


The name is obviously just a placeholder.

The alt. casting cost is a fair drawback, as it means the card is useless in your hand in multiples. The controlling an Island bit is just so every color doesn't get a free counterspell.

Comments?


Current wording:

Nothing Up My Sleeve
3U
Instant

If you control an Island and have no instant cards in your hand, you may reveal your hand instead of paying ~THIS~'s mana cost.

Counter Target Spell

[Guardian]

Should it be worded this way instead?

Nothing Up My Sleeve
3U
Instant

If you control an Island and have no instant cards in your hand, you may reveal your hand instead of paying ~THIS~'s mana cost.
Counter target spell.

The hard cost should be 2UU instead of 3U and it could even be upped to 5 mana since there's an alternate cost, just like Force of Will, because the no instant clause is pretty harsh, especially for blue. But I like the idea of a FoW like counter.

[Upinthe]

What is with the sudden surge of alternative cost counterspells? This is the third one. We won't get anywhere if people are always making the same stuff.

[MrZuccinniHead]

Well I can see why having no instants hurts i.e., no draw spells to draw more counters.  BUT shouldn't it be worded, "Any other instants"?

[GMontag]

Well I can see why having no instants hurts i.e., no draw spells to draw more counters.  BUT shouldn't it be worded, "Any other instants"?

No, the spell would already be on the stack, and not in your hand when the ability is relevant.

Guardian, you're right it should be "instant cards" not "instants". But as for upping the cc to 5, I don't see why it would be necessary. At 4 it is still hard castable in T2 at least. The standard power for counterspells these days is 4cc with a bonus or 3cc with a drawback.

Any ideas for the name? I'm horrible with card names unless I start with it.

[MrZuccinniHead]

Last Attempt?
Last Gasp?

[Nazdakka]

The idea is neat, but you'll need to cost it at 3UU and load on another serious drawback to make this anything approaching fair - as is this is a broken card for GAT style aggro-control, and an utterly stupid card for combo. Look at Foil... 3 for 1 card disadvantage and you STILL have a borderline playable aggro-control card... the drawback on this is insignificant by comparison.

NB: The current going rate for 'Counter target spell' is about (0.5)UU, and the extra 0.5 mana goes on a minor extra ability (see: Hinder).

[Norm4eva]

Weird, this slew of free counterspells popping up.  Maybe an accidental response to the 'consequence of speed' thread in the Type 1 forums...?
Aaaanyway, while drawback is severe and the ACC should probably be 2UU+, etc etc...  Force will remove the other Instant.  Or if it does not, Brainstorm can bury it.
I'm not an opponent to more free spells but... the counter thing has been explored.  I think it's time the rest of the color wheel was explored on the same level of FoW.

[Guardian]

I believe 2UU would be fine. At 3U, it is splashable in decks that should not be able to use countermagic and they could even use the alternate cost. 2UU is the only way to go.

And I don't believe it needs another drawback, as I believe no instant cards in hand is a big drawback: no card drawing, no backup counter. It is strong and playable. Maybe in T2 it could be problematic at 4 mana, that's why I proposed to cost it 3UU in my first post.