A Swamp and four life are enough to kill almost anything that isn’t black, even on turn one. Free creature removal is rare in Old Frame, and Snuff Out does it without costing you another card.
What is your favorite target?
A creature that is often better in the graveyard than in your hand. Nether Spirit gives black control decks a recurring threat without asking for much more than an empty creature slot in the graveyard.
Which deck do you associate it with?
Here’s the first foil printing of Dark Ritual, behind so many explosive first-turn plays from black decks.
Do you prefer this version or the original Alpha/Beta one?
Such a complicated card that Stephen Menendian wrote an entire book about it. Free card draw is never really free when it changes how you build your deck, sequence your lands, and play every turn.
Have you read it?
Mercadian Masques gave Counterspell its first foil printing. Two blue mana, one line of text, and still one of the cleanest answers ever printed.
Which Counterspell printing is your favorite?
You can’t even trust your own creatures. Against the right deck, Bribery turns their best threat into your win condition.
What is the best creature you have ever taken with it?
It’s time to move to Mercadian Masques, the first set of the Masques block. Brainstorm already saw some play, but Onslaught fetchlands turned it into something much stronger.
In Old Frame Vintage, decks using four copies became so dominant that we had to restrict it.
What do you usually put back?
If you manage to resolve one of these, your lands won’t matter that much anymore. Four mana turning into three every turn is how big plays start.
What do you usually ramp into with it?