Interesting. Seems quite strong.

Or, come to think of it, it could be "2UU. Counter target spell or search your library for an island card and put it onto the battlefield tapped."

That would solve the templating problem even more simply, but sort of suggests it would be too good, since blue doesn't normally get that.

I like awall's suggestion.

Loyalty abilities are [+1] not {+1}.

For what it's worth, this card is almost identical to Denying Channel, the card originally submitted by Taigo Chan when he won the Magic Invitational. R&D tried playing with it for a while and decided it was too strong, so they asked him for another design. We wound up "merely" getting Snapcaster Mage instead. See http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/826 .

Granted, this isn't uncounterable and it etb tapped as a land, but I still think that this is probably going to be a huge boon to slow, grindy control decks. It also doesn't lead to particularly many interesting choices: if you have other lands, you always hold it back; if you're mana hosed, you play it as a land. I'd much rather see the spell half of this be something that was relevant at the same point in the game that the land would help; perhaps something like, "U: Counter target creature spell unless its controller pays 1."

Oh, also the rules don't support split cards that are half-permanent, half-instant. But there are ways to work around this, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Curve seems to keep getting the same response. I find it more funny than anythings else. I definitely understand BD and Link's response, but I don't feel like adding to what's probably a dead subject for you.

I will, however, point out that creatures like this are particularly Spiky. Better on round two, and continues to stay that way throughout the game is probably fine on one or two creatures, but I, personally, wouldn't pull that trick too often. I like curve when it gives me a noticeable effect, then goes away. In this instance, for example, gaining 4 life when the creature comes into play may make a better incentive for curve. Why? Well, you don't feel bad when you play this creature on round 8 because it's smaller. It was always going to be a 2/3... but playing it on turn 2 gave you a bonus.

Yes, it seems more like you'd want to reward players for playing differently. Also, it's unlikely most people are going to want to count their turns up to turn 5.

I like what you're trying to do with Curve. The problem with this implementation is that you're incentivizing players to do something that they would be doing anyway - playing their spells on the optimal turn. Rather than providing interesting decisions, it removes interesting decisions, because players will have less reason to make alternative choices with playing out there curve.

­Ertai, Wizard Adept and Ertai, the Corrupted have activated countering on tap. Like those, this does only get one spell per turn. (Unless blue has any untap effects... oh wait.) And I'm not sure you can really call a 3/4 for an "efficient" creature. That kind of creature gets Ancestral Recall as a tap ability, if you remember Arcanis the Omnipotent...

As an activated ability, it can't be countered by normal spells. Only cards like Stifle can interfere. As an ability, it should be expensive and only soft counter.

Mmm... even with the rule complication this is definitely strong. Not overpowered, per se, but it sure does shore up some holes in the standard counterspell deck.

Also, evoke or discard probably automatically increases the "casting cost", since that would make this card very close to being strictly better than Last Word.