Spell pierce / Swansong / other 1 mana counter variant.
I'm very inclined to believe that the extra 1 on the tax is worth it for giving up the ability to hit walkers, artifacts, and enchantments. I think it's purely sideboard, but it seems like an instant staple to me.
@protoaddict I think Dispel is just better in most situations where you're fighting over countermagic. In Vintage, I think 3 mana walkers, artifacts, and oath of druids are too prevalent to make this see more play than spell pierce. In other formats, without moxen, people tend to play spells as soon as they hit the cmc...and pierce does fine there. I think not hitting 3 card types is not worth the +1 mana in any format, especially Vintage.
It sits in a very specific an niche spot somewhere in the nexus of Flusterstorm, Dispel, Spell pierce, Swan song, and a few other cards. I think there will be situations where this is just better that those others but people will have to make meta calls about it as they already have to do with this overabundance of 1 mana counters we have.
is this better than pyroblast/red blast? How many decks that play this don't/can't have access to red?
Seeing as how this can counter a black tutor or a bolt or a REB/Pyroblast the, yes, maybe.
My gut reaction is that this is the sort of card that won't see play often, but is definitely worth getting 4 and throwing them in your collection. I think people are correct to compare it to Pyroblast and Spell Pierce which will usually be better, but I think you can put it alongside those cards when you're building your deck, and it occasionally makes the cut. I could imagine a field where you have two or three Pyroblasts, but you want an extra slot to use against Storm decks that you don't need to bring in against a Planeswalker-heavy blue deck. I have a set of Annul sitting around for similar reasons.
