At its core, the card is a four-mana blue prejudice enchantment that says whenever an opponent casts a creature spell that doesnt share a color with a creature you control, counter that spell unless that player pays X, where X depends on the difference in color
In that context, the original phasing mechanic did an excellent job of translating flavor into gameplay
Technomancer is the workhorse: it enters, mills three, and returns any number of artifact creatures with total mana value six or less straight to the battlefield, so one card can rebuild half a board
Cemetery Prowler A powerful body and some cost reduction First up is one of the Cemetery cycle, which is pretty fantastic all around - but Cemetery Prowler is the best of the bunch
It matters not, for the ability to kill Psychatog and Wild Mongrel alike puts Smother firmly in the top ten black instants of all time
most tournament Magic is played during the daytime, after all, not that MLP and tournaments overlap that much