Random Generator gave me Force of Will and Forest, color shifting Force of Will green. Previous counterspells in green and white focus on protecting your creatures, or forcing a creature of yours to get through. I didn't want to bank on the usual, and instead, figured that an expensive green counterspell might be willing to hit anything but creatures and lands. The fact that I didn't have to change "blue card" to "green card" was just gravy... It means this card is an expensive response in Green, but a tier 1 counterspell in Blue/Green.

My one hangup is that I'd prefer to get rid of "pay 1 life" and "exile" and replace with just discard a blue card. But the minor strangeness directly confronts players and tells them that they have Force of Will in their hand. I don't know. Anybody out there have an opinion on that?

It certainly feels more like FOW with the "pay 1 life and exile" version. And FOW is iconic enough that I'd say if it was just "discard a blue card", it'd feel wrong, and feel like it should be "pay 1 life and exile".

Discard a card just makes it a spellshaper, I guess. Force of will isn't somehting I'm familiar with. I guess it's like a counterspell? Ah, it's a counterspell good enough to convince even card advantage people to use it. Makes sense, this certainly mirrors it.

I think the green counterspell is something like 'counter target spell that targets you or a creature you control' but we're getting too wordy now, non-creature is good enough, I'd say.

jmgariepy mentioned Avoid Fate (and Guttural Response) when he said "Previous counterspells in green and white focus on protecting your creatures, or forcing a creature of yours to get through". And wow, I'm impressed you've managed to avoid hearing about Force of Will. It's been one of the defining cards in Type 1 tournaments for over 10 years.

That flaggy thing? I don't recognise that set symbol.

I actually didn't know it was from Alliances - I thought it was from Ice Age - but the set is irrelevant. It's a free counterspell. The most iconic Turn 0 counterspell, and the classic response to Turn 1 wins like Channel-Fireball. Most free counterspells like Daze and Thwart need you to have taken at least one turn before you can cast them; Foil and Mental Misstep are I suspect the only other Turn 0 counterspells, and Force of Will is far better than them.

It's an iconic free counterspell that is obviously "Mulligan until this is in your hand or you will lose" in type1. But it's too recent for me to know about :) I lost track of what type1 was doing way back. My last set was... the dark I think. Didn't restart until mirrodin.

Force is an enigma in Vintage. Despite the fact that 4x of them appear in 50%+ of the serious decks in that environment, Wizards will probably never restrict it, since the card helps stop turn 0 wins. It's also one hell of an expensive uncommon, fetching $60 at Starcitygames.com, and driving the price point up of every pack of Alliances.

But it's true. It's just the best counterspell in the game. It doesn't do anything, so I could see new or skipping players not knowing it exists in the same way they wouldn't know about Mana Drain or Hymn to Tourach if they never saw it in action.