You don't call "dying to removal" if the removal is more expensive in resources than the creature. If you have to spend BG (Abrupt Decay), or W + basic land (PtE) to remove a 1G, that is not "dying to removal". Strictly speaking Goyf dies to removal, but actually your removal is dying to Goyf.
I want to remind everyone that every time a new punisher card gets printed, people say that this is the one that's pushed enough to see play. But it almost never is. Remember Soul Ransom? Remember Remorseless Punishment? Remember Sword-Point Diplomacy? The only time a punisher card actually delivered on its promise was with Vexing Devil. Don't get your hopes up for this one.
Its like having 8 browbeats in the deck but condensed into 4. Throw in a playset of vexing devil and browbeat for extra fun.
As your basically asking your opponent: Can I draw 36 cards? Would you like to take 52 damage? Or how about a mix like I draw 18 cards and you take only 26 damage? Sound fair to you?
The more these punisher cards get printed and also pushed, the harder it is ignore what punisher cards do.
I want to remind everyone that every time a new punisher card gets printed, people say that this is the one that's pushed enough to see play. But it almost never is. Remember Soul Ransom? Remember Remorseless Punishment? Remember Sword-Point Diplomacy? The only time a punisher card actually delivered on its promise was with Vexing Devil. Don't get your hopes up for this one.
This one is not like the others, not in the slightest. Instant speed really matters. Draw 3 at instant speed? Or 4 damage, at instant speed. You have to play around it as the opponent due to Jump Start. It’s miles ahead of the other cards you listed, just by being an instant.
This will see play in burn decks across most formats, I’d bet serious money on it.
I want to remind everyone that every time a new punisher card gets printed, people say that this is the one that's pushed enough to see play. But it almost never is. Remember Soul Ransom? Remember Remorseless Punishment? Remember Sword-Point Diplomacy? The only time a punisher card actually delivered on its promise was with Vexing Devil. Don't get your hopes up for this one.
Yeah, this is tough to evaluate but this is fair. Even Vexing Devil is a bit of a stretch since it seems like more of a fringe Modern card than a serious format definer and to my recollection the card saw nearly no play in Standard. Temper your expectations, because Punisher effects have to be REALLY bonkers to actually see play.
THAT being said, this is the first time I think ever that we've received a remotely interesting punisher effect on an instant. All the cards you mentioned, as well as Browbeat, Skullscorch, Breaking Point and Temporal Extortion, are sorceries. That added flexibility is very helpful. Additionally, this has Jump-Start. The only Punisher effect to have Flashback or something similar is Flaming Gambit which was simply too awkward to ever be played outside of limited, but having the ability to redo an effect like this is strong as it puts an immense amount of pressure out for a low card and mana investment. We have seen that if you hit someone with ENOUGH of a punisher effect, it gets good - Torment of Hailfire is a nasty piece of work in Commander/Brawl.
I think the claims this is broken and insane and so good are exaggerated, but this may actually really for real be the punisher card that is "good enough".
For sure will be trying 2 of this in my budget modern Burn. Being able to discard a land to "Flashback"... for another chance to dome for 4 or draw 3 is just too good.
There is also the matter of your opponent now having to deal with how the draw-3 and jumpstart interact. As they now have to weigh in the fact that they just supplied fuel for Risk Factor's jumpstart ability for a second cast of the same card if they chose to give you gas. As the Risk player only needs to pitch at minimum a mountain for jumpstart to work.
That and counter spells stop it. Because it targets the player.
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There is also the matter of your opponent now having to deal with how the draw-3 and jumpstart interact. As they now have to weigh in the fact that they just supplied fuel for Risk Factor's jumpstart ability for a second cast of the same card if they chose to give you gas. As the Risk player only needs to pitch at minimum a mountain for jumpstart to work.
I agree, this played with Adeliz, the Cinder Wind and Wee Dragonauts. The OP could end up in a real tough bind if they don't have a sweeper or good removal. Like this combo'd with lightning strike or wizard's lightning would be interesting. Either the OP takes the damage by taking the hit. Or they defer and potentially open the door to take even more damage to lose the game.
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I have a feeling that.. most of the time an oppponent would prefer to be blasted with this, the few times someone would give the draw is if they would die from the 4 damage. Well, total 8 damage is still almost half a person's hp.
I already mentioned that Jump-start cards have been overcosted and underpowered.
Now I think the real turning these into playable cards is in the "discarding a card" part of the card. Like the R&D designers have really valued this as a bonus, rather than a negative effect is my guess. If you go deep there might be archetypes this really works in.
Obviously there is Reanimation. But 3 mana for the Jump-start cards so far; Sonic Assault, Direct Current, Risk Factor, is just way to slow for Modern or Legacy to fit this strategy.
I'm just pointing this out, because in my opinion to make any Jump-start card really work, that "discard from hand" has to really count in some way, due to the overcosting and underpowered nature they seem to have been given.
But getting 8 damage from a single card could be strong. Being able to turn a land (or anything else) into a damage card is a boon. Obviously the down-side is that opponent get to choose what mode it is, and drawing 3 cards isn't perfect if you're looking for the finishing blows. But at the same time drawing 3 cards is a way to find action to push through further damage.
"Unless a player has Risk Factor
deal 4 damage to him or her,
draw three cards."
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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.
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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.
With enough burn spells this could be a good card in standard. You really need those cards to impact the game immediately otherwise your opponent will have a chance to stabilize. 3 mana for 4 to the face doesn't seem good anywhere but burn/aggro so thats what you want to leverage.
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You always get the 4 damage when it does not matter and you draw 3 when they are at like 4 life.
Casting it 2 times is at least "something" , but its still pretty bad, unless you REALLY want a direct burn in your deck in the first place.
In what competitive format is losing 20% of your maximumstarting life twice at instant speed "not matter"?
Fixed your question for you.
Well 4 damage doesn't matter when you have more than four life and don't want your opponent to draw an answer to whatever you might be doing. After all winning at 1 life is just as good as winning at 100.
Still I like this card. The jump-start certainly makes this quite interesting.
if you're in burn/aggro and you want to convert mana to damage, is something that's worse than 4-damage-for-3-mana-you-can-draw-twice, really going to compete against other options to give red more mid/lategame reach? Even after rotation when red's current curve toppers like hazoret, pia nalaar and chandra rotate, theres still going to be options like rekindling phoenix or siege-gang commander that can get through the last points of damage more effectively. A lot of the time you're going to just wish you had a wizard's lightning, lava axe or unfriendly fire in your deck instead. Heck, even volley veteran for goblins. But as far as recursive spells go, its competing directly with repeating barrage. Which recurs itself as card advantage and forces through damage more reliably.
I don't think punisher cards are inherently bad, I just think wizards has a long track record of printing them underpowered
In what competitive format is losing 20% of your maximum life twice at instant speed "not matter"?
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As your basically asking your opponent: Can I draw 36 cards? Would you like to take 52 damage? Or how about a mix like I draw 18 cards and you take only 26 damage? Sound fair to you?
The more these punisher cards get printed and also pushed, the harder it is ignore what punisher cards do.
This one is not like the others, not in the slightest. Instant speed really matters. Draw 3 at instant speed? Or 4 damage, at instant speed. You have to play around it as the opponent due to Jump Start. It’s miles ahead of the other cards you listed, just by being an instant.
This will see play in burn decks across most formats, I’d bet serious money on it.
Yeah, this is tough to evaluate but this is fair. Even Vexing Devil is a bit of a stretch since it seems like more of a fringe Modern card than a serious format definer and to my recollection the card saw nearly no play in Standard. Temper your expectations, because Punisher effects have to be REALLY bonkers to actually see play.
THAT being said, this is the first time I think ever that we've received a remotely interesting punisher effect on an instant. All the cards you mentioned, as well as Browbeat, Skullscorch, Breaking Point and Temporal Extortion, are sorceries. That added flexibility is very helpful. Additionally, this has Jump-Start. The only Punisher effect to have Flashback or something similar is Flaming Gambit which was simply too awkward to ever be played outside of limited, but having the ability to redo an effect like this is strong as it puts an immense amount of pressure out for a low card and mana investment. We have seen that if you hit someone with ENOUGH of a punisher effect, it gets good - Torment of Hailfire is a nasty piece of work in Commander/Brawl.
I think the claims this is broken and insane and so good are exaggerated, but this may actually really for real be the punisher card that is "good enough".
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That and counter spells stop it. Because it targets the player.
-Stay Frosty
I agree, this played with Adeliz, the Cinder Wind and Wee Dragonauts. The OP could end up in a real tough bind if they don't have a sweeper or good removal. Like this combo'd with lightning strike or wizard's lightning would be interesting. Either the OP takes the damage by taking the hit. Or they defer and potentially open the door to take even more damage to lose the game.
-Stay Frosty
none
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At the same time though, this is stopped by Leyline of Sanctity because of the target clause.
Either way, it's a definite Limited Bomb, even blasting your opponent for 4 damage twice (at instant speed) is value in the format.
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Now I think the real turning these into playable cards is in the "discarding a card" part of the card. Like the R&D designers have really valued this as a bonus, rather than a negative effect is my guess. If you go deep there might be archetypes this really works in.
Obviously there is Reanimation. But 3 mana for the Jump-start cards so far; Sonic Assault, Direct Current, Risk Factor, is just way to slow for Modern or Legacy to fit this strategy.
Hollow One or Vengevine decks also doesn't fit any curve.
I'm just pointing this out, because in my opinion to make any Jump-start card really work, that "discard from hand" has to really count in some way, due to the overcosting and underpowered nature they seem to have been given.
But getting 8 damage from a single card could be strong. Being able to turn a land (or anything else) into a damage card is a boon. Obviously the down-side is that opponent get to choose what mode it is, and drawing 3 cards isn't perfect if you're looking for the finishing blows. But at the same time drawing 3 cards is a way to find action to push through further damage.
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deal 4 damage to him or her,
draw three cards."
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.
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Fixed your question for you.
Well 4 damage doesn't matter when you have more than four life and don't want your opponent to draw an answer to whatever you might be doing. After all winning at 1 life is just as good as winning at 100.
Still I like this card. The jump-start certainly makes this quite interesting.
I don't think punisher cards are inherently bad, I just think wizards has a long track record of printing them underpowered