In standard aggro I think this could see play. If you're aggro you're already running around 20 lands, making you less likely to reveal lands versus the 40 gas cards in your deck (obviously not exact math for a game that is already in play and at least on your turn 3. I'm just saying, at least in aggro, for 3 cmc: Draw three sounds amazing, draw two/bolt them sounds good, draw one/smack them for 6 sounds good, and smack them for 9 for 3 mana sounds amazing. The downside being that you don't get to choose which mode you get and that any cards you draw are revealed to your opponent.
I'm not saying g that this card is amazing, but I think that while it definitely doesn't belong in most decks. I think that an aggressive strategy will almost always appreciate what this card has to offer.
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"Pop in, find a dragon, roast a dragon."
-Chandra Nalaar
Can't wait to draw three lands or garbage for 3 mana!
One is tempted to suggest not to add any garbage to your deck. More seriously, though, if your three next cards are garbage, you got them out of the way instead of over three painful turns.
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
I think the most major problem I have with the card is the fact that,again, why isn't this an instant? If it has the potential to punish me, would it really have been too pushed to have this be instant speed?
Isn't this card actually crazy in dredge because dredge is a replacement effect or am I not seeing something...
You're not seeing something. Or more accurately, you are seeing something everyone else isn't - the word draw. This reveals cards and then puts cards in your hand. It doesn't draw cards. Dredge replaces draws.
What they needed was to do it individually rather than outright show all three cards. Something like "Reveal the top card of your library. Put this card into your hand unless your opponent pays 3 life. Repeat this process 2 more times." Because it makes the decision making much tougher for the opponent.
The only standard deck I can think of that would even remotely want this card is is maybe some janky Afflict midrange burn deck. Might be worth looking into.
Um this isn't better than Browbeat, LOL. Browbeat gave you three cards or 5 damage. This lets your opponent chose between each card. It's super flexible in your opponent's favor as they are basically paying what they want to pay. Anyways kinda a moot point as a better question would be is Browbeat playable currently.
It's an instant speed 5/5 trampler for 4. Wtf do you people want seriously? It has applications in populate/ above the curve beats decks, or in Bant control/ flash. I seriously think anyone mad at this card for any reason other than losing an attacker to instant speed wurm, should go home and make their own awesome card game and leave the rest of us alone.
Cards like this are fine if you can limit the choice. In a RB aggro deck you chip in for handful of damage and then play this t4. Your opponent is pretty much forced into letting you draw at least one or two cards. If it's jank you didn't need you go deeper to drawing gas. If it's something you need it's a bolt to the face. If played in conjunction with the HOU torment cards you can begin to remove the choice aspect and the card starts doing impactful things.
Torment of hailfire after countering something juicy with spell swindle is going to be back breaking for a lot of decks if you've kept the field clean prior to casting it. This fits well into the game plan I think although glimmer may be better. There are plenty of U and B spells to control the game until that point. Firing off a timely swindle can also set up for an instant kill the following turn with marrionette master. You now have a variety of end games (1 ctr and 1 spell).
Quick scenario:
You spell swindle a 6 drop like torrential gearhulk or the new vraska and get 6 tokens. Next turn you untap, drop marionette master fabricating to buff, crack your 6 tokens for mana to resolve the drains, bontu's last reckoning, then play this. Wtf is your opponent gonna do... exile the cards? May seem magical Christmas land but that just requires you to have a handful of cards control is already going to be running potentially. Up to that point your using glimmer/counters/discard/removal to hang in the game and shape your hand. When you start gearhulking swindles back it's value town all day long.
And then your opponent will let you keep Spike and Bump and tank the 3 life to ensure that your real Bolt won't hit their valuable creature. That way, you will be forced to spend mana and part of a turn casting Spike and Bump.
Regarding Browbeat, it's not completely bad, but it has to be played near the end, where it either helps you close the gap (because, you know, cheap Lava Axe) or draws you enough gas to close the gap.
As for this, it's good in limited. Elsewhere? Well, first, combo has no use for this. And control probably doesn't either. Aggro may have a use for it. And midrange may, but it's unlikely. If you're playing blue, you have better. If you're playing green, you probably have better. If you're playing just black (and maybe red or white), you still have better in Modern or eternal.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I don't think it's fair to compare Vexing Devil to this. The devil costs just R and is a permanent. The other is 3cmc. Not saying it's a great card, but it gives possible options to Black/X aggro decks. This could be a decent curve topper.
Yeah, Vexing Devil is a freaking bargain at 1 mana.
It becomes a lot less reliable later on in the game,
but it's a really nasty T1 play.
This is going to be terrible no matter when you cast it.
Couldn't it at least have been an instant?
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Cards like this are fine if you can limit the choice. In a RB aggro deck you chip in for handful of damage and then play this t4. Your opponent is pretty much forced into letting you draw at least one or two cards. If it's jank you didn't need you go deeper to drawing gas. If it's something you need it's a bolt to the face. If played in conjunction with the HOU torment cards you can begin to remove the choice aspect and the card starts doing impactful things.
Torment of hailfire after countering something juicy with spell swindle is going to be back breaking for a lot of decks if you've kept the field clean prior to casting it. This fits well into the game plan I think although glimmer may be better. There are plenty of U and B spells to control the game until that point. Firing off a timely swindle can also set up for an instant kill the following turn with marrionette master. You now have a variety of end games (1 ctr and 1 spell).
Quick scenario:
You spell swindle a 6 drop like torrential gearhulk or the new vraska and get 6 tokens. Next turn you untap, drop marionette master fabricating to buff, crack your 6 tokens for mana to resolve the drains, bontu's last reckoning, then play this. Wtf is your opponent gonna do... exile the cards? May seem magical Christmas land but that just requires you to have a handful of cards control is already going to be running potentially. Up to that point your using glimmer/counters/discard/removal to hang in the game and shape your hand. When you start gearhulking swindles back it's value town all day long.
The problem with playing this in an aggro deck is that you will have bad cards in the late game that don't matter, and the problem with playing this in a not aggro deck is that your opponent will just laugh and take 9 with no repercussion.
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That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating. Take it back!
There is a lot of life loss, drain type of cards in this set, so I can see where this card would be useful. I wouldn't, however, optimally play this card with an empty hand. I think this card is really at it's best if used when you still have 2-3+ other cards in hand, because then your opponent can only choose to exile the best options for what is already revealed (your board state). At that point they may go ahead and give you a card or two that they see as useless at the time but may very well synergize with a card or 2 still in your hand. I understand that hyper competitive players will always hate punisher cards, so you will never see them in tier 1 deck lists, but not because they couldn't or wouldn't be useful; but because above all else the hyper competitive want 'predictable' and 'consistent' cards only in their decks. That's fine, and a good strategy obviously, but choosing vanilla pushed cards every time does not mean the more variable consistency cards are 'bad'. This card can be great in the right builds as several people have said. I happen to love punisher cards specifically because they vary in consistency, making the games less routine and scripted. They also tend to surprise opponents who automatically dismiss them during spoiler season, and they have trouble dealing with them in actual gameplay. I like this card, I think it will be fun.
This is going straight into my Kaervek the Merciless "bidding life/opponent chooses their damage/opponent takes damage for casting spells" themed EDH deck. Stuff like Remorseless Punishment, Pain's Reward, Dash Hopes, Mages' Contest, etc. stuff like that. LOVE that deck, so much fun to see opponents pay 20 life to cast some dumb ramp spell with Wound Reflection+Spellshock+Paralletric Feedback+Kaervek or something like that, then follow up with a card like this to make them perplexed as to what to do if they should pay life to let you Browbeat or not.
This is the kind of card I usually enjoy: risky, best suited for an aggro deck, and packing enough fuel to totally change the game in your favor.
But in this case it's just SO BAD. There's just... nothing that will get me to play this. You want me to PAY2B and waste a card... to give my opponent the ability to nerf what would have been my next three turns of topdecks? No.
When you'd rather splash blue to get Divination, your card has problems.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
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I'm not saying g that this card is amazing, but I think that while it definitely doesn't belong in most decks. I think that an aggressive strategy will almost always appreciate what this card has to offer.
-Chandra Nalaar
One is tempted to suggest not to add any garbage to your deck. More seriously, though, if your three next cards are garbage, you got them out of the way instead of over three painful turns.
You're not seeing something. Or more accurately, you are seeing something everyone else isn't - the word draw. This reveals cards and then puts cards in your hand. It doesn't draw cards. Dredge replaces draws.
Torment of hailfire after countering something juicy with spell swindle is going to be back breaking for a lot of decks if you've kept the field clean prior to casting it. This fits well into the game plan I think although glimmer may be better. There are plenty of U and B spells to control the game until that point. Firing off a timely swindle can also set up for an instant kill the following turn with marrionette master. You now have a variety of end games (1 ctr and 1 spell).
Quick scenario:
You spell swindle a 6 drop like torrential gearhulk or the new vraska and get 6 tokens. Next turn you untap, drop marionette master fabricating to buff, crack your 6 tokens for mana to resolve the drains, bontu's last reckoning, then play this. Wtf is your opponent gonna do... exile the cards? May seem magical Christmas land but that just requires you to have a handful of cards control is already going to be running potentially. Up to that point your using glimmer/counters/discard/removal to hang in the game and shape your hand. When you start gearhulking swindles back it's value town all day long.
And then your opponent will let you keep Spike and Bump and tank the 3 life to ensure that your real Bolt won't hit their valuable creature. That way, you will be forced to spend mana and part of a turn casting Spike and Bump.
As for this, it's good in limited. Elsewhere? Well, first, combo has no use for this. And control probably doesn't either. Aggro may have a use for it. And midrange may, but it's unlikely. If you're playing blue, you have better. If you're playing green, you probably have better. If you're playing just black (and maybe red or white), you still have better in Modern or eternal.
On phasing:
Yeah, Vexing Devil is a freaking bargain at 1 mana.
It becomes a lot less reliable later on in the game,
but it's a really nasty T1 play.
This is going to be terrible no matter when you cast it.
Couldn't it at least have been an instant?
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
The problem with playing this in an aggro deck is that you will have bad cards in the late game that don't matter, and the problem with playing this in a not aggro deck is that your opponent will just laugh and take 9 with no repercussion.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Many thanks to DNC at Heroes of the Plane Studios
Agreed, if it did damage then it would threaten walkers. This is just bad in all ways.
But in this case it's just SO BAD. There's just... nothing that will get me to play this. You want me to PAY 2B and waste a card... to give my opponent the ability to nerf what would have been my next three turns of topdecks? No.
When you'd rather splash blue to get Divination, your card has problems.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.