[MH2] Subtlety
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so not actually a counterspell. gets through cavern of souls. -
It's a better than traditional remove soul that also hits walkers you can pitch that breaks bridges and can be a late game closer. Someone at WOTC really is out to make blues power level so vastly overbearing everyone just gives up and goes mono colored.
New staple I imagine for anything blue.
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This card is absolutely nutty and will see all the play.
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I'm not so bullish on this card.
FoW/FoN, like this card, are 2-for-1's and thus represent card disadvantage. The card disadvantage can be worth it, though, if the countered spell is valuable enough. If the spell is not valuable, then the 2-for-1 is a bad deal.
With Subtlety, the spell's owner has the option to put the spell on top of their library. This means they can, under normal circumstances, recast the spell the next turn. And there's the conundrum...if the spell was not highly valuable, then the 2-for-1 was a bad deal. And if it was highly valuable, then you likely don't want them casting the spell again.
If the countered spell represents the best card in the opponent's deck, then Subtlety essentially functions as a Force of Will that has the additional text of, "Your opponent gets a free Vampiric Tutor". Why would you prefer a FoW that is required to either (1) target a bad spell or (2) grant your opponent a free Vampiric Tutor, over one that doesn't?
Another perspective is that this card is to Remand what FoW is to Counterspell. After all, Remand allows you to draw a card, while this card causes the opponent to skip their next draw step (assuming they exercise the top-of-library option), and drawing a card is roughly an equivalent effect to forcing a draw-step-skip. So a good question to find a home for this card is: what decks prefer Remand to Counterspell? Generally, the answer is aggressive tempo decks. In Vintage, blue decks tend to not support that profile. My feeling is that this card will not find a home outside of such decks.
If I'm wrong, I suspect it will be because the utility of the 3/3 flyer option, along with auxiliary benefits from the Evoke effect (like the interaction with Bridge from Below), outweigh the downsides I am describing.
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I read it as the caster of subtlety got to choose whether the spell went on top or bottom. Is that not how that wording works? Because if that is the case it's a lot less insane but still probably playable at least for the bridge decks.
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@botvinik See Aether Gust. Ruling should be the same and the spell's owner chooses. That makes this nigh unplayable as a 2-for-1 that delays a narrow subset of Vintage spells for just one turn.
