Uh; that's an unconditional hard counter that's splashable. And with a (very specific situation) upside? Not gonna fly. (Even assuming you change it to 'that you control' it's still Counterspell and Gift in a single card)

Heh, "preferment".

I think hard-counter is plausible (something we might see down the road one day) without a drawback, though Harmless Offering / Donate effect isn't strictly a drawback. The current "rule" for hard-counters is that they require two colored mana in their mana costs of which at least one is . Seems great for Zedruu the Greathearted EDH.

Is this meant to be

> Counter target spell. Its controller gains control of a permanent of his or her choice.

because as is, it's you who chooses what they gain control of and you can just have them "gain control" of a permanent they already control.

... or is it purely an upside so that when you want, you can get a Donate effect of in addition? I would say that's non-intuitive and gimmicky, but I think we already covered that in that other card.

Anyway, if that's the case, then I would word it as

> Counter target spell. You may have its controller gain control of target permanent you control.