­Rewind + 9th Ward Captain

Just about the only overcost Counterspell that's actually better than the original.

And a sunburst of +1, vigilance, first strike, UEOT.
Kinda interesting.

So, hmm. Could tack some creature buff onto a counterspell. That seems like it's not a useful combo though.

So sunburst counterspell. Humm. Could have something like "~ costs 1 less for each colour used to cast it", but even if I can template that, it's still just costing more for no useful effect.

Counter one spell per colour used to cast it? That's really niche; but y'know what? So what. Niche is allowable.

And look at me ma; I made a bad Cancel and a worse Counterspell. Downcost to 3 so that it is at least better than Cancel. (In most situations, it's not usefully Isochron-able, for example),

Hmm, this looks like a strictly better Double Negative.

Considering it only has a single , it doesn't make much sense to account for "X" that would imply there being more than two which would pretty much only happen through some obscure cost increase shenanigans.

Both are true comments. But if this costs 4 it's just sad. And as a hard counter it really shouldn't cost either. So.. it's just bad, I guess.

Mm. Could also be written as...

"Counter target spell. If non-blue mana was paid to cast this spell, instead counter up to two target spells."

Or (X cannot be less than 1)

But that's bad in another way.

­ is also possible (Drain Life) though I'm not too fond of the direction.

­ is also an interesting possibility. Strange aside: if you pay 8 life to cast the spell for free, it does nothing.

But it does let you cast a hard-counterspell for and 6 life. Which feels wrong.