Perhaps a more reasonable version of Womb Wither, this will compete for the same spot in the skeleton of set 1.

Um, so now it's "Counter all creature spells, and creature token making abilities, and their little dog too?" Seems kind of more powerful than Murder now.

But is it more printable than Goatcloud Stranger?

Mmm... not more powerful than Murder. Like most counterspells, this card can't affect creatures that are already on the battlefield. It's as Cradle to Grave is compared to Terror.

But, yeah, this is a very good answer to, say, a Firecat Blitz.

It's half of Gather Specimens. It's pretty similar to Withering Boon but affects tokens nicely.

In response to a token making spell (or ability - this is good in response to the triggers from Nacatl War-Pride or Hero of Bladehold), this results in the odd instruction "Put two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens into your graveyard". Nothing wrong with that, it's just quirkily amusing. They obviously disappear immediately afterwards.

I also considered "the next time a creature would ETB this turn," but I went for the big bang first. Do you think it's unreasonable? At CMC 3, it reminds me a bit of Render Silent, in that it sort of reads "Counter target creature spell. Players can't make creatures this turn." Of course, Render Silent is a multicolor rare.

It does feel pretty darn good for a counterspell; especially a black one. Maybe add a small additional lifeloss cost per creature effected; to justify the blackness?

You can justify any black spell if you have to pay enough life, which means you shouldn't use life loss to put it in black's slice of pie. In Anydria, where the pie gets stretched, it could work. I would recommend making it a tad more expensive, though; maybe ?

I see a bad cancel :D

Or, alternatively; a better Remove Soul - albeit upcosted due to going into black. Sure; a blue player would almost always run Counterspell instead. But this will make "I wanted to cast two creatures" turns really painful.

I could see it being costed more. It does stop token generating abilities and Reanimate, as well as Narcomoeba and creatures that can't be countered.

This was just almost printed as a white card in Hallowed Moonlight. Of course, there are important differences, but I think it shows that this effect is doable.

See also Containment Priest from last autumn.

Indeed.

­Force of Despair is now also relevant for this. I think something along the lines of "Until end of turn, whenever a creature arrives, its controller sacrifices it" would be more appropriate.

I think it's intentional that this prevents etb and death triggers

I don't doubt it's intentional, I was just saying that not doing so might be more appropriate.