Quote Originally Posted by freakish777 View Post
your guess is 3cc is almost spot on, your guess at 1 and 2 are basically reversed from what they should be, and both are less important than you thought, as 4 and 5 are more important
The cmc2 and cmc1 spot being reversed is actually done on purpose for two main reasons. First of all, you can always counter things with a converted mana cost of one easier than something with a converted mana cost of two because of Sensei's Divining Top so that you'd rather have more cmc2 things to find one when using that Top. The second reason to include more spells in the cmc2 slot is that you can ignore the spells that are in the cmc1 slot in most cases anyway: there's removal, there're cantrips, which you can ignore [the removal because you have control of the game and so will just eventually win, it doesn't matter why | the cantrips because you can just counter what they dig into], there's the occasional Dreadnought/Vial/Lackey/Whatever, but these are rather rare, come down before Balance or can be handled quite easily and efficiently otherwise (Engineered Explosives comes to mind). The real threats are found in the cmc2 slots, mainly because of Tarmogoyf (Dark Confidant, Survival of the Fittest, Life from the Loam, Infernal Tutor, Abeyance [to stop the CounterTop engine], Burning Wish etc.) and opposing permission.
The 5spot was left out because that's basically only Force of Will and you can't be including other cmc5 cards which suck otherwise only to counter opposing Forces more frequently - especially since not every deck plays Force of Will (but every deck plays cmc1 and cmc2 spells).
Also, I'd rather not dilute the consistency of hitting converted mana costs 1 to 3 to be able to eventually hit that 4 mana spell one deck casted: that's what your other permission is for: just focus on making Counterbalance effective against the most commonly played things and handle the rare things that slip through otherwise.

Quote Originally Posted by freakish777 View Post
What do you suggest in it's place as a more powerful strategy/control element? (In your own words "eventually countering each other spell with Counterbalance," I don't know about anyone else, but that seems to go a long way into "hindering your opponent from accomplishing their strategy").
Humility, Wrath of God, Swords to Plowshares, Engineered Explosives (and Cunning Wish to a certain extent) are all I've ever needed for creature control.
Counterspell, Force of Will are all I've ever needed for permission.
What is there more to control than the board and the stack? Artifacts and Enchantments I'd guess... meh those are either creatures or irrelevant most of the time (Counterbalance) - if not, there's always Cunning Wish for a solution or Engineered Explosives.

Now the permission part might seem a little on the low side, especially if compared to a build with Counterbalance but I think that this is largely due to a playstyle difference: I don't counter anything that I can handle otherwise and keep the Counters for the scary stuff.

'Eventually countering every spell or the other' is actually not really going the control direction: if you can't be sure of what resolves and what not, you add an element of randomness to the game. Randomness = loss of control so that I'd rather have something that completely shuts the opponent down (Humility) or just win via card advantage (Wrath of God, Engineered Explosives, Standstill), as usually.

Again, you might want to have a look at my list and maybe give it a try.