Card seems OK, but nothing amazing. Not even sure its better than Exquisite Firecraft, although I suppose the first mode is useful for enabling delirium.
How does Escalate work with Goblin Dark-Dwellers? Do you get to escalate when re-cast from it?
it kills the same creatures, just deals 1 damage less to face and escalate gives it a pretty good amount of options...
It enables madness along with some card advantage as well.
the biggest issue here being the low curve on madness decks that will make it very hard to cast this card along with 2 madness cards for good card advantage...
at the very least, will replace Exquisite Firecraft in anything that's playing it post rotation.
Yeah. Maybe I was undervaluing it a little on first-glance. It's obviously worse for a simple three mana in terms of burn, which I imagine will be its primary function, but it's not that much worse. Will be interesting to see how much its first mode will be relevant, I can't really gauge it right now.
first mode is nice with graveyard strategies, to get around mana flood, to enable madness at endgame and gain card advantage from it, as you'll cast the madness card and also draw one because of it.
It also has some corner uses with cards like Waste Not or Liliana's Caress, it can be used in other corner cases to make your opponent discard something important you know he's holding...
it's a strong effect.
a card that only does that won't be played, one that has that ability as a bonus to give it a ton of flexibility is pretty decent.
not saying this card will warp standard or anything, but I think it's very much playable.
and it's absolutely a limited powerhouse. Easy 1st pick 99% of the time.
Good card but it's not what red needs at the moment . Red needs quicker instant speed burn that targets players and creatures like Lightning bolt or at least Incinerate .
Maybe. Although I think if Gisela, the Broken Blade becomes prominent (would be surprising if she didn't) we could see a reemergence of R/x dragons. Draconic Roar is quite a nice answer to a Gisela.
I'm honestly surprised more people aren't playing B/R Dragons right now. That's my current deck of choice and it just eats up GW Tokens, Mono W, etc. I'm not even that good of a player, so I'm sure in the hands of someone better who could tune the deck it would power through the current meta.
Really solid red card. I am willing to say it's the best burn in standard. Lightning axe is really really good but this is so flexible. It's a madness enabler in a pinch, but it also does so much more. I want to live the dream and wheel plus burn a control player.
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The floor is average and the ceiling is high and not hard to attain.
Winds of Change is worth R, so this is a nice bonus ability, but not usually the reason you'd play this.
Is 1RR at sorcery speed fair for 3 to the face? Nope, it's no Flames of the Blood Hand, that's for sure.
So then, how about the 4 damage to a creature? Compared to Exquisite Firecraft, it seems reasonable, although nothing special.
So then, what about 2RR for 4 to a creature and 3 to a player? This is pretty good. You can wipe out a mid-sized creature and a planeswalker for a fair cost. Under the philosophy of fire, this is a fair price for a 2-for-1. In a burn deck, this mode is sort of like a Collected Company in the way that it advances your gameplan.
Just the two burn modes make this a fair card. Not excellent like Searing Blaze, but good enough to consider.
So does the Winds of Change option put it over the top? It helps burn race combo. It enables Madness and Delirium, plus other graveyard strategies. It trades away your extra lands and useless cards for something better. It's pretty similar to Faithless Looting in this way, and that card is great. All great stuff, and definitely helps burn in two areas it usually needs it - racing fast combo and getting extra reach.
In fact, if reach is all you need, this gives you 4 and lets you loot, say, 2-3 cards. In the course of a fast game, in a typical burn deck, that's probably worth one extra burn card, so if you can live one turn after you cast it, that's another 2-4 damage you can probably throw at your opponent.
Paying 3RR for all 3 modes is great if you have the mana. Certainly one of the better things you can be doing in aggro red or burn.
Collective Resistance is THE card burn players will want to draw from turn 3 onwards.
Waiting for the blue "collective" card being the best one of the bunch and a quasi-broken or fully broken card. That is how it went with the confluence cycle, the command cycle, and the oldest cycle in magic history: healing salve (HAHAHAHAHAHA), giant growth (pfffff), dark ritual (okay, okay, pretty decent), lightning bolt (excellent! Very nice card) and... ancestral recall (wait... what? I draw 3 car... what????)
Unfortunately, WotC has stated that the escalate mechanic will be in white, black and red cards only.
Am I the only person thinking that this can be insane in Modern in a Boros shell, similar to the LD deck, but throwing in Spirit of the Labyrinth on T2, play this for its first mode on T3, watch your opponent discard his (almost full) hand then draw 1 card? Hilarious...
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first mode is nice with graveyard strategies, to get around mana flood, to enable madness at endgame and gain card advantage from it, as you'll cast the madness card and also draw one because of it.
It also has some corner uses with cards like Waste Not or Liliana's Caress, it can be used in other corner cases to make your opponent discard something important you know he's holding...
it's a strong effect.
a card that only does that won't be played, one that has that ability as a bonus to give it a ton of flexibility is pretty decent.
not saying this card will warp standard or anything, but I think it's very much playable.
and it's absolutely a limited powerhouse. Easy 1st pick 99% of the time.
I prefer the wheel to be artifact destruction if I'm honest.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
I'm honestly surprised more people aren't playing B/R Dragons right now. That's my current deck of choice and it just eats up GW Tokens, Mono W, etc. I'm not even that good of a player, so I'm sure in the hands of someone better who could tune the deck it would power through the current meta.
The floor is average and the ceiling is high and not hard to attain.
Winds of Change is worth R, so this is a nice bonus ability, but not usually the reason you'd play this.
Is 1RR at sorcery speed fair for 3 to the face? Nope, it's no Flames of the Blood Hand, that's for sure.
So then, how about the 4 damage to a creature? Compared to Exquisite Firecraft, it seems reasonable, although nothing special.
So then, what about 2RR for 4 to a creature and 3 to a player? This is pretty good. You can wipe out a mid-sized creature and a planeswalker for a fair cost. Under the philosophy of fire, this is a fair price for a 2-for-1. In a burn deck, this mode is sort of like a Collected Company in the way that it advances your gameplan.
Just the two burn modes make this a fair card. Not excellent like Searing Blaze, but good enough to consider.
So does the Winds of Change option put it over the top? It helps burn race combo. It enables Madness and Delirium, plus other graveyard strategies. It trades away your extra lands and useless cards for something better. It's pretty similar to Faithless Looting in this way, and that card is great. All great stuff, and definitely helps burn in two areas it usually needs it - racing fast combo and getting extra reach.
In fact, if reach is all you need, this gives you 4 and lets you loot, say, 2-3 cards. In the course of a fast game, in a typical burn deck, that's probably worth one extra burn card, so if you can live one turn after you cast it, that's another 2-4 damage you can probably throw at your opponent.
Paying 3RR for all 3 modes is great if you have the mana. Certainly one of the better things you can be doing in aggro red or burn.
Collective Resistance is THE card burn players will want to draw from turn 3 onwards.
Mono Red's Strengths and Mono White's Strengths
Unfortunately, WotC has stated that the escalate mechanic will be in white, black and red cards only.
Also, having your hand-cycle act as removal (or both!) in a pinch can be nice.
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