MTG Salvation

Is this in certain situations possibly better than just a straight up counterspell?

Notably, you can't really Redirect a Cruel Ultimatum back at the caster. This lets you do that.

Better, in some ways, yes—this works on uncounterable spells. It puts the spell in its owner's hand, though, so it's only a delay, but it's pretty potent stuff. In Standard, bouncing back a huge March of the Multitudes or the like and creating your own army is pretty strong. Blue and blue-based control decks definitely come out of this set the winners.

I think I'd prefer Redirect, actually. At least for dealing with enemy spells. A different situation with your own spells, though.

This is clearly best for handling game-winning cards that are difficult for the opponent to cast, especially if casting them involves a lot of build up and sacrificed resources to do so.

It's also very good for postponing a huge momentum-swinging spell, and taking advantage of its power, which you can then counter next turn.

When your opponent sacrifices 6 treasures for their final spell and you play this.... feels nice.

I could use it with self-exiling spells to use them again and make it easier to recurr probably multiple times

Not to mention that with any spell copy effect it returns itself so if it's perpetual like Swarm Intelligence, than you can cast any spell every turn

This man gets it. This can be used as buyback as a separate card. You can buyback your spell that's getting countered so that you still get it's effect AND cast the original card again later.