No Escape

Counterspells that also exile are usually a concession to a specific problem: a recursive threat, a flashback engine, a graveyard-hungry deck that treats its own countered spells as fuel. What is unusual here is the narrowed target. This is not a catch-all like Cancel or Absorb; it answers only creatures and planeswalkers, which is precisely the range of permanent-based threats most likely to want to come back. Aim it at a value creature or a planeswalker, and the exile clause turns a temporary tempo answer into a permanent one, denying the reanimation spell, the recursion trigger, or the second cast. The scry attached to the back end is the small compensation for the target restriction: you give up flexibility against noncreature spells and get to smooth your next draw in exchange. As permission goes, this sits in the specialist bracket rather than the generalist one, built for a deck that already knows the threats it fears wear a creature or planeswalker type line and wants to make sure they stay gone.