The Magic word "counter" can mean either of two things in the rules. Shouldn't one of these be changed to avoid ambiguity? Why not "cancel" to replace the "counter" in counterspells?

Both terms are pretty ingrained. Luckily they don’ get used in a way that often causes confusion.

Three 2 mv counterspells at common and uncommon is too many, please don't do this again. Yes I'm counting the cancel as 2 mv because of the bargain. I feel like there us a fun set stuck behind my inability to play my cards. I have made all reasonable efforts to play around them but this is in fun and a 'controller unplugged' experience because I no longer have agency that should be seen as a mild failure. The game is about things happening, not things not happening.

Do others share this concern?

Different user, but on the topic of top down design in UB cards, one thing that stands out to me is how unique the card feels and how well its abiilites both establish it as a homage to an existing character and a unique, exciting game piece in Magic the Gathering
The Street Fighter Secret Lair cards are some of the best examples of this with the untap symbol on Ryu mirroring the quarter-circle input and the way the card working essentially letting you pull off a special cancel in card form. It took fairly simple abilities and stretched them into a way that was mechanically unique and filled a space that isn't filled by other cards.
Whereas I look at a card like Michonne from TWD Secret Lair and while there are clear allusions to Michonne's character, it's nothing that feels especially Michonne, let alone exciting as a card. She's equipment matters (in a color combo that really doesn't have much for that) and even the equipment she was printed alongside belongs to a different character (whose card has no benefit from being equipped with it at all), she doesn't do much that's exciting besides be a decent body in combat, it doesn't feel like you get anything special from playing Michonne mechanically, leaving her somewhat lackluster when compared to even other cards from her same Secret Lair, let alone some of the high points of UB design. You can tell Michone is a top down design, but nothing feels all that exciting about her or novel and while her abilities do harken back to her lore and character, they don't do much to excite the player.

At least that's my perspective on it, it definitely is a very subjective topic.

I designed Michonne (and all the Walking Dead cards) so I can get into the specifics. At the time, we were restricted to evergreen abilities, so I had a lot less paint metaphorically to work with. (Glenn having his ability listed as skulk happened in development.)The card represents very early Michonne, so she comes with her two zombies, which were a key part of her early appearance. Michonne starts as a loner and she has two Zombies on leashes that she uses as protection. Those two Zombies play heavily into her backstory. I made her an equipment matters creature because her defining character, especially in her early appearance, was her mastery of her sword. She’s black/green because I was trying to capture the wild nature, out for herself, early version of Michonne. I like pushing themes to colors that don’t traditionally do it as it forces players to have to make a new deck rather than just plug into a premade deck. There are plenty of available equipment for a black/green deck. Lucille was never meant to go with Michonne. It was just a cool object from the show that we liked as the secret card.Her cost and power/toughness were up to play design to figure out. I took a stab, but that type of balance happens later. I do appreciate that we later dropped the evergreen restriction as that allows for a lot more nuance of design, but I’m proud of Michonne’s design given the constraints I had to work of. I read the Walking Dead comic, long before the TV show, and I spent a lot of time getting the essence of the characters.

Fixing broken cards that do simple things is undoubtedly good. I'd argue Cancel isn't your most successful fix. Cancel has been around forever and it's rarely Standard playable. We have started routinely seeing "Cancel with mild upside" in most sets. Sometimes *those* don't get played, even when counter-heavy decks are in standard. Its the cleanest implementation, but the reality is that Counter Target Spell is overpowered at 2 mana and marginal at 3. Too bad it can't cost 2.5.

You’re looking through the game with an optimized lens, assuming that every player understands power level and only plays the best version of any effect. The reality is players are drawn to simple cards they understand, and play what they own. I know this because we have digital data on every card of what gets played. Cancel gets played *a lot* (by people playing blue).

Kind of some loaded questions. Does having to design in an eternal world mean you have to look at the " We wont be held hostage by the past" more closely? Can you explain how as designers you have to consider an eternal world more specifically? Does this also include how many varients of Shock/ cancel/ removal, etc will end up in these larger formats? Or are you fine/ have to accept that sometimes formats will be being significantly unbalenced/pushed until bannings can occure? And are you more likely to Memory Jar preemptively ban cards?

We’re going to make the cards we need to make and if larger formats have issues, we’ll use banning to solve them. Being more focused on eternal formats means we have to hold onto “we can’t let the present be hostage of the past” even more strongly.

Are there any cards you’ve made that went completely unchanged throughout development? If so, which ones?

Lots and lots. Naturalize and Cancel are two.

Ward is, IMO, a Hexproof that works better because it gives opponent the choice to circumvent it for a price. I have always thought that Counterspells, especially in matches where sideboarding isn't a thing, are too hard to play against. How do you feel about making Counterspell be like Ward by default and allow the counterspelled player to cancel the counterspell for a price (i.e. a little like Mana Leak)?

Counterspells have to be costed correctly, but do come with a real cost for the caster. You have to not do things to leave the mana open. I think having some conditional counterspells is good, but I also think the counterspell player should be able to depend on some of them. I think a mix is what creates the best overall gameplay.

Just an FYI, if you preordered Godsend part 2 from Amazon, there's a chance the weird release date from a while back has broken your order. You should just be able to cancel your preorder and reorder the book and get it immediately.

FYI.