So, I'm sure someone must have come up with this design before and decided it just doesn't work as intended, but I thought I'd post it here and see what the Multiverse Brain Trust can tell me regarding its functionality.
And assuming it does work, anyone have thoughts on whether it'd be better served in a different color? In theory, it functions like a counterspell against counters, which is more green/red, but the fact that it rearranges the stack seemed very blue.
It has some other functions as well... if you're opponent plays a lot of Giant Growths and you play a lot of Lightning Bolts, you'll find it useful. I can think of very few situations where a straight up Cancel (not counting the casting cost) wouldn't be a better choice, though. Multiplayer shenanigans? Circumventing Last Word? It's probably too expensive for what it does... but is probably fair. seems... well... I don't think I'd want it to be cheaper than Gainsay.
Seems too tricksy for being too infrequently being useful compared to "Target spell is not countered after all" (or, probably, would have to be worded 'is uncounterable) and "Counter target spell that counters a spell" (which itself gets changed to the simpler "counter target instant")
Still, yeah, it probably works - reigniting the whole "But it's too late, it's already dead" arguments just seems like a bad idea to me.
Right, I recognize that ultimately it's just a silly card, but I know there have been moments where there's a complex stack of spells and activated abilities that has had me wishing "hmmm, if only that spell on the bottom would resolve first". And in this set in particular, it can potentially enable or disable Melody effects.
Control player's dream? Or just weirder, worse Cryptic Command?
I had written "charge" the target. Whoops.
So, I'm sure someone must have come up with this design before and decided it just doesn't work as intended, but I thought I'd post it here and see what the Multiverse Brain Trust can tell me regarding its functionality.
And assuming it does work, anyone have thoughts on whether it'd be better served in a different color? In theory, it functions like a counterspell against counters, which is more green/red, but the fact that it rearranges the stack seemed very blue.
It has some other functions as well... if you're opponent plays a lot of Giant Growths and you play a lot of Lightning Bolts, you'll find it useful. I can think of very few situations where a straight up Cancel (not counting the casting cost) wouldn't be a better choice, though. Multiplayer shenanigans? Circumventing Last Word? It's probably too expensive for what it does... but
is probably fair. 
seems... well... I don't think I'd want it to be cheaper than Gainsay.
Seems too tricksy for being too infrequently being useful compared to "Target spell is not countered after all" (or, probably, would have to be worded 'is uncounterable) and "Counter target spell that counters a spell" (which itself gets changed to the simpler "counter target instant")
Still, yeah, it probably works - reigniting the whole "But it's too late, it's already dead" arguments just seems like a bad idea to me.
Right, I recognize that ultimately it's just a silly card, but I know there have been moments where there's a complex stack of spells and activated abilities that has had me wishing "hmmm, if only that spell on the bottom would resolve first". And in this set in particular, it can potentially enable or disable Melody effects.
Now if this somehow had Split Second... only seems really useful in multiplayer counterwars, but still.
In addition to screwing with counterspells, this also messes with the order of the stack, which I think is very cool.