the ceiling is immediate victory and its a ceiling you barely have to stretch to reach
Even in Legacy, it has been tournament-winning, getting multiple uses in UB Ninjas and returning to hard counterspell status in revived Faeries decks
When calculating a spell's total cost, include any alternative costs, additional costs, or anything else that increases or reduces the cost to cast the spell
Its biggest tricks rely on making Illusion cards Vanish from the field, only to return to your hand, gain some insta-lore, or manipulate the board state
While they read like niche color hate, the absurd efficiency of a one-mana counterspell/one-mana removal split card elevates this to an S+ sideboard card for red decks, and a mirror-beater for any blue deck capable of fetching Volcanic Island which is all of them
Will you track them down