This is the second Last Word variant we've had
in the past year, and I quite like it. It's not
flashy, and not particularly groundbreaking
design, but it is good at what it does, and is
arguably one of the most efficient counterspells
ever - in theory, you could counter ten spells
with it for four mana. I like that it can be
used against activated and triggered abilities,
although if your opponent suspects you have it,
they'll simply avoid triggering more than one at
a time. It's also pretty good against cards with
the storm keyword, which is not something you
can say about most counterspells.
The newest way to say “no”, and the most
complete way, to boot. It has text that we’ve
seen explicitly on only one other spell,
Mindbreak Trap from Zendikar, and this has the
added ability of stopping Eldrazi cast triggers
(and other cast triggers, too!). This ducks
around uncounterable spells by simply removing
them from the game entirely, and you can use it
in a pinch to stop a dangerous ability from
resolving.
Four mana is expensive for a countermeasure
(ideally, 3 or 2 is better), but the
completeness of this effect makes it even more
impressive. It’s not as easy to make use of as
Mindbreak Trap, since its predecessor had the
alternate casting cost attached to all Zendikar
traps. And it also feels bad if you're using
this as a four mana Stife. But the sheer
versatility of this spell makes it potentially
very powerful.
