Neutralize |
Instant (U)
Counter target spell.
Cycling (, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
On Ikoria, reactive magic can make the difference between barely grazed and really dead.

It doesn't take much to obsolete Cancel, but among the many three mana counter spell variants, this one seems pretty good.

Cancel has been obsolete for a long time.

I prefer the conditional counterspells to this, I don't see myself using Cycling on something so generally applicable without Fluctuator.

I don't like this flavor text. Actually saying "On Ikoria" and "reactive magic" sounds too meta to me. I would have preferred if was more like "A wizards quick reactions can make..." It would be forgivable if it said something interesting about the world but it doesn't really do that either.

Since Counterspell has never been banned or restricted, Cancel was ALWAYS obsolete.

Although, Cancel is a common and nearly all "strictly better" Cancels, including this one, are uncommon.