The reason why Cryptic is annoying is the fact it gives players choices. I can counter that spell AND draw a card OR tap your guys OR bounce that permanent. If they just reprinted Dismiss (2UU, Counter target spell, draw a card), there wouldn’t be a $20 counterspell in Standard. Remand was too good for its cost because it was a “Time Walk” and draw a card for at least the first 5 turns of the game, when it’s crucial to set up your board position.

Mana Leak, on the other hand, is good early game, but not really well late game. Personally, I think that the “taxing” counter spell should be in White (See Mana Tithe). Counterspell is still way too strong and if you were complaining that Cryptic was too annoying, imagine Faeries having Counterspell on turn 2. Spellstutter Sprite is the type of 2 mana counterspell that should be out there as it’s a conditional counterspell (Can only counter spells equal or less then the number of faeries you have in play) only the mechanic that made it work (the number of faeries) was too powerful, not the card itself.

I don’t agree that counterspell is too powerful. I never had a problem with it. Cryptic Command is more annoying than counterspell right now. If someone draws two or three cryptic commands the odds of winning are very low against that player.

However, blue is getting such good cards that counterspell is certainly not going to help the situation.