In a deck that wants to play things from exile - of which there are many - these are just upgraded clue tokens, because they not only cost no mana, but also have so many synergies in Commander with cards like Laelia, the Blade Reforged, who gets stronger whenever you put cards into exile
In Limited very few decks could defeat a Masticore even if it had no backup at all, and despite a huge portion of the cost of this card being something you need to pay continuously often players who used Tinker would go get a Masticore
According to what I wrote, at the moment Counterspell is being played only in blue-red Murktide, among the tier ones of the format
Try playing against it
Cameron Williams (April 21, 2026)
It's a combination creature and ramp spell, and a pretty good one at that