I'm a tad shocked that nobody ever seems to talk about Panoptic Mirror around here. Is there something I'm missing? Is Panoptic Mirror ignored because everybody already understands why it's banned and why it should stay that way (like Limited Resources), or is it ignored because nobody cares enough about the card to take the time to talk about it? I suspect the latter to be true, but if the former happens to be true I'm prepared to make a pretty big fool of myself because I don't understand why this card is a problem. I made an effort to track down why Panoptic Mirror was banned, but I wasn't able to turn up anything. My hunch is that Panoptic Mirror comes from the era of Kokusho and Worldgorger bans long ago, and probably deserves some scrutiny. If anybody could find such information, I would be appreciative.
So, where do I begin? I happen to think that Panoptic Mirror is actually a really lousy Magic card. Why? Because of how much work it takes to get Panoptic Mirror off the ground. In order to reap the promise of a free spell every turn a player must first invest five mana and a card into something which initially does nothing. Pay five mana. Cast Mirror. Nothing happens. After that, the player must spend even more mana imprinting a spell onto the Mirror instead of just choosing to cast the spell outright. If a player elects to do both of those things AND happens to survive multiple opponents without the Mirror getting blown up, then they get one free spell during their next upkeep.
Now, I understand that Panoptic Mirror is unlikely to get destroyed with an imprinted card on it if Panoptic Mirror's controller hasn't already gotten at least one trigger off of it. Panoptic Mirror's ability can be activated at instant speed, and the most likely time players will choose to imprint an instant or sorcery onto it is at the end of their rightmost opponent's turn (presuming turns are occurring clockwise). In doing so, a player sort of secures that the imprinted card will be cast at least once before the Mirror happens to leave play. This isn't a guarantee mind you. End of turn Shatter can still happen. It's just less likely. So, whatever card imprinted on Panoptic Mirror is most likely going to pay for itself provided that Panoptic Mirror's controller even gets an opportunity to imprint something onto it before it takes a bullet. The more players in one game the worse Panoptic Mirror gets since it's more likely to be destroyed before it can do much.
After Panoptic Mirror has copied the imprinted card for the first time it must take another safe trip around the table before it may cast a second copy. If it happens to succeed in doing so, the Mirror has sort of "paid" for itself but not very well. If Panoptic Mirror's first copy paid for the imprinted card, Panoptic Mirror's second copy is kind of like a Fork, an expensive, delayed Fork that costs five mana and doesn't copy the spell you want until your next turn IF you're lucky. Only once a player has copied the imprinted card three times are they riding the gravy train, and I think that's a lot to ask for.
So, if this card sucks, why is it a problem?
My best guess is that the Rules Committee banned this card a long time ago due to its interaction with cards like Time Warp. Panoptic Mirror plus Time Warp is a two card combo that ends the game. That may have been a serious issue many moons ago, but today two card combos like those are par for the course. In fact, Panoptic MirrorTime Warp is likely one of the more fair two card combos out there because it allows everyone at the table a chance to deal with Panoptic Mirror at sorcery speed if they wish to do so. Combos like Kiki-JikiPestermite just threaten to win the game that turn unless someone happens to have an instant speed response. One could argue that since Panoptic Mirror can imprint a card at instant speed that opponents may not choose to destroy it because they do not perceive it to be a threat until it's too late, but the same case could be made for cards like Kiki-Jiki. To further exacerbate the issue, if a player doesn't have enough mana to imprint the card they want on the Mirror the same turn that they played it then they have to make it all the way around the board two times before Panoptic Mirror could combo off. If they had enough mana to both cast Panoptic Mirror and imprint something onto it then that player could have just chosen to end the game with a one card combo like Tooth and Nail instead.
There are numerous fair applications for Panoptic Mirror as well. Cards like Clone Legion come to mind. I imagine that most players would choose to use the Mirror simply to copy expensive cards each turn. If not that, players may just hope to get some kind of recurring value out of Panoptic Mirror by creating copies of something like Krosan Grip or Swords to Plowshares each turn. Yes, Panoptic Mirror can be obnoxious if someone wants it to be. Wrath of God every turn or worse — Armageddon — is going to be frustrating, but Magic is full of other frustrating cards and combos that don't always require such an extensive setup.
Does the Rules Committee believe that Panoptic Mirror creates undesirable games of Magic regardless of whatever is put on it? If that happens to be true than perhaps Panoptic Mirror is better left banned. I happen to believe that this isn't the case though, so tell me what you believe. Is Panoptic Mirror the same problem it's always been or have things changed?
Does the Rules Committee believe that Panoptic Mirror creates undesirable games of Magic regardless of whatever is put on it? If that happens to be true than perhaps Panoptic Mirror is better left banned. I happen to believe that this isn't the case though, so tell me what you believe. Is Panoptic Mirror the same problem it's always been or have things changed?
This is the official stance of the RC. Panoptic Mirror allegedly turns even benign effects into groan-inducing repetition. It also gets marks against it for being a card that is fun-looking, but fun-sucking.
Time Warp et. al. are just the most egregious offenders, but if those didn't exist, then Mirror would supposedly still be banned.
I do not necessarily agree with the philosophy behind the ban, but this is the direction the RC has chosen for the format, and the standard by which cards like Sylvan Primordial are judged.
I can see reasons for and reasons against the mirror. In the end I dont think its competative as far as combos go but its very obvious. It probably does have a good chance to cause a lot of feel bad among newer or more casual groups if it were played so from that perspective I think its fine on the list.
I dont think its good combo by any means though. Anyone who has played a bit more or tries to play a more competitive game would never resort to such a card. Being that it fits being a card that could and probably would be very unfun for a more casual game to experience I think its ok to be on the banned list.
I guess I am somewhere in leaning like 60% towards keeping it banned and 40% towards removing it.
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My group has had it legal for about a year now. When it shows up in a nonblue deck, we pretty much ignore it unless something game-ending is imprinted onto it.
When it is in a blue deck, we generally blow it up just to be safe.
I think the big thing is this card could be appealing to casual players and allowing it can break casual games too easily. Somewhat like ISB, I lean more towards keeping it banned to just make sure that my fears do not become a reality.
My group has had it legal for about a year now. When it shows up in a nonblue deck, we pretty much ignore it unless something game-ending is imprinted onto it.
When it is in a blue deck, we generally blow it up just to be safe.
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I'm not entirely sure from your post if you understand how Panoptic Mirror works; it's much faster than you think. You can activate Mirror in response to it's triggered ability and be able to copy it immediately. Essentially the Mirror only needs to make a single loop around the table before you gain the benefit. The most obvious example is:
T5-Cast Panoptic Mirror.
T6-Upkeep, in response to Mirror's triggered ability imprint Time Warp. Triggered ability resolves and you take infinite turns.
I'm almost positive Mirror was banned because of that exact situation, but even if it wasn't... I can't think of a card that would be "fun" to see under a Mirror. Wrath of God? That sounds terrible. Not to mention you just know somebody is going to put an Armageddon on there "just because". Even something rather mundane like Kodama's Reach gets out of hand pretty fast as you just accrue such a huge resource advantage for very little cost.
I think Mirror is correctly on the ban list. It's colorless making it able to go in anything. It's worse case scenarios are pretty bad (either game ending time magic combos, slowing the game to a crawl with Wraths, or just trolling with MLD) and even the more "fair" uses snowball out of control quickly with basically anything. It's too much of a threat for how cheap and easy it is to get going. These are the types of cards the RC should be banning.
It's an annoying 2 card extra turn combo with most extra turn spells by turn 6, but other 2 card combos win earlier. The problem, as others have stated, is that it does this AND has numerous "fair" applications that also ruin games.
It's repetitive. It's colorless with a powerful effect, so risks being ubiquitous. It has an extremely high potential of accidentally ruining games by being more oppressive than intended by the person running it.
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Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
My assumption has always been that it's banned for the same reason Painter's Servant is banned: it's either a busted combo piece or an underwhelming flop. More often the former if you're actually bothering to play it, and with basically no middle ground.
Also a 1-2-3 mana colorless 2-card combo that can go into any deck, I guess, but they could just as easily ban Grindstone.
I think it would be prudent of me to express my current feelings on Panoptic Mirror. In short, I'm pretty apathetic about it. I think Panoptic Mirror is usually a lame card, and I'm generally happy to not see it around, but I'm also not entirely convinced that the card needs to stay banned. In a way, Panoptic Mirror reminds me quite a lot of Paradox Engine. Both cards have few legitimate uses, and anyone misusing either card likely knows exactly what they're up to. Whatever appeal once existed for Panoptic Mirror now seems all but evaporated, and it might be safe to unban Panoptic Mirror as a result. Nobody really seems to care about Panoptic Mirror anymore.
I'm not entirely sure from your post if you understand how Panoptic Mirror works; it's much faster than you think. You can activate Mirror in response to it's triggered ability and be able to copy it immediately. Essentially the Mirror only needs to make a single loop around the table before you gain the benefit.
The argument I made in my opening post was only to demonstrate how many turns it takes for Panoptic Mirror to be profitable (and therefore how mediocre it is) which is what I believe you're referring to here. To reiterate, let's say Panoptic Mirror comes down on turn five. Five mana is spent to cast the card, and then the turn is passed. Panoptic Mirror's controller has not received any kind of tangible benefit yet. They're simply down a card and five mana.
Now let's move to turn six. The Panoptic Mirror has made its way around the table, and its controller now has the opportunity to cast a spell for free with it. At this point, the Mirror has still not paid for itself. Because the cost to imprint a spell is the same as whatever that spell's casting cost is, the first free spell cast with Panoptic Mirror isn't really free. It's functionally no different than just casting the spell outright. When the imprint cost was paid doesn't really matter. Maybe its controller responded to the Mirror's triggered ability and imprinted something onto it during their next upkeep. Maybe they imprinted something onto it the turn they cast the Mirror instead. Whatever the case, Panoptic Mirror has still not provided its controller with any kind of real benefit yet. They've only cast one spell with it, for which they've already paid both 5 and X.
Flash forward to turn seven now. Panoptic Mirror has now made it across the table unscathed a second time. For doing so, Panoptic Mirror's controller is rewarded with another copy of the imprinted spell. This is the second time the imprinted spell has been cast so far, but this is only the first time the spell has actually been cast for free. The first time the spell was cast, Panoptic Mirror's controller needed to pay the imprint cost, which is the same amount as the imprinted card's converted mana cost.
Take note here. Two turns have passed, 5 mana was spent to cast the Mirror (presumably), and the only thing its controller has to show for it so far is a single free copy of whatever spell was imprinted onto it. At this point in Panoptic Mirror's timeline, the card has only served as a fragile, delayed Fork. The first copy cast with the Mirror wasn't actually free due to the imprint cost. The second copy cast with the Mirror is really the first free copy. As such, for Panoptic Mirror to really be a profitable card and more than just a bad Fork, it needs to survive at least three times around the table. And that doesn't even take into account the possibility of the imprinted spell being uncastable (say, an imprinted Swords to Plowshares on a board currently without creatures).
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I think it would be prudent of me to express my current feelings on Panoptic Mirror. In short, I'm pretty apathetic about it. I think Panoptic Mirror is usually a lame card, and I'm generally happy to not see it around, but I'm also not entirely convinced that the card needs to stay banned. In a way, Panoptic Mirror reminds me quite a lot of Paradox Engine. Both cards have few legitimate uses, and anyone misusing either card likely knows exactly what they're up to. Whatever appeal once existed for Panoptic Mirror now seems all but evaporated, and it might be safe to unban Panoptic Mirror as a result. Nobody really seems to care about Panoptic Mirror anymore.
I'm not entirely sure from your post if you understand how Panoptic Mirror works; it's much faster than you think. You can activate Mirror in response to it's triggered ability and be able to copy it immediately. Essentially the Mirror only needs to make a single loop around the table before you gain the benefit.
The argument I made in my opening post was only to demonstrate how many turns it takes for Panoptic Mirror to be profitable (and therefore how mediocre it is) which is what I believe you're referring to here. To reiterate, let's say Panoptic Mirror comes down on turn five. Five mana is spent to cast the card, and then the turn is passed. Panoptic Mirror's controller has not received any kind of tangible benefit yet. They're simply down a card and five mana.
Now let's move to turn six. The Panoptic Mirror has made its way around the table, and its controller now has the opportunity to cast a spell for free with it. At this point, the Mirror has still not paid for itself. Because the cost to imprint a spell is the same as whatever that spell's casting cost is, the first free spell cast with Panoptic Mirror isn't really free. It's functionally no different than just casting the spell outright. When the imprint cost was paid doesn't really matter. Maybe its controller responded to the Mirror's triggered ability and imprinted something onto it during their next upkeep. Maybe they imprinted something onto it the turn they cast the Mirror instead. Whatever the case, Panoptic Mirror has still not provided its controller with any kind of real benefit yet. They've only cast one spell with it, for which they've already paid both 5 and X.
Flash forward to turn seven now. Panoptic Mirror has now made it across the table unscathed a second time. For doing so, Panoptic Mirror's controller is rewarded with another copy of the imprinted spell. This is the second time the imprinted spell has been cast so far, but this is only the first time the spell has actually been cast for free. The first time the spell was cast, Panoptic Mirror's controller needed to pay the imprint cost, which is the same amount as the imprinted card's converted mana cost.
Take note here. Two turns have passed, 5 mana was spent to cast the Mirror (presumably), and the only thing its controller has to show for it so far is a single free copy of whatever spell was imprinted onto it. At this point in Panoptic Mirror's timeline, the card has only served as a fragile, delayed Fork. The first copy cast with the Mirror wasn't actually free due to the imprint cost. The second copy cast with the Mirror is really the first free copy. As such, for Panoptic Mirror to really be a profitable card and more than just a bad Fork, it needs to survive at least three times around the table. And that doesn't even take into account the possibility of the imprinted spell being uncastable (say, an imprinted Swords to Plowshares on a board currently without creatures).
And that's basically why it mostly comes down to being either busted or bad, with a side helping of really annoying.
If the imprinted spell is an extra turn spells, then it only needs to make it around the table once to give you essentially infinite free spells, since your opponents will never get an extra turn once you imprint time warp on it. It's a situation unique to extra turns, but that's the combo.
Otherwise, you are right, it can be pretty bad, but also extremely unfun whenever it works. Putting wrath under it is probably excessive, but also very annoying. Putting geddon under it as a plan is worse than just playing geddon, but more likely to seal the game if it actually goes off. You either imprint something that absolutely MUST be dealt with or it takes over the game, or you imprint something that just doesn't have enough of an impact to matter. The best use for this that isn't annoying is imprinting bolt.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
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I'm a tad shocked that nobody ever seems to talk about Panoptic Mirror around here. Is there something I'm missing? Is Panoptic Mirror ignored because everybody already understands why it's banned and why it should stay that way (like Limited Resources), or is it ignored because nobody cares enough about the card to take the time to talk about it? I suspect the latter to be true, but if the former happens to be true I'm prepared to make a pretty big fool of myself because I don't understand why this card is a problem. I made an effort to track down why Panoptic Mirror was banned, but I wasn't able to turn up anything. My hunch is that Panoptic Mirror comes from the era of Kokusho and Worldgorger bans long ago, and probably deserves some scrutiny. If anybody could find such information, I would be appreciative.
So, where do I begin? I happen to think that Panoptic Mirror is actually a really lousy Magic card. Why? Because of how much work it takes to get Panoptic Mirror off the ground. In order to reap the promise of a free spell every turn a player must first invest five mana and a card into something which initially does nothing. Pay five mana. Cast Mirror. Nothing happens. After that, the player must spend even more mana imprinting a spell onto the Mirror instead of just choosing to cast the spell outright. If a player elects to do both of those things AND happens to survive multiple opponents without the Mirror getting blown up, then they get one free spell during their next upkeep.
Now, I understand that Panoptic Mirror is unlikely to get destroyed with an imprinted card on it if Panoptic Mirror's controller hasn't already gotten at least one trigger off of it. Panoptic Mirror's ability can be activated at instant speed, and the most likely time players will choose to imprint an instant or sorcery onto it is at the end of their rightmost opponent's turn (presuming turns are occurring clockwise). In doing so, a player sort of secures that the imprinted card will be cast at least once before the Mirror happens to leave play. This isn't a guarantee mind you. End of turn Shatter can still happen. It's just less likely. So, whatever card imprinted on Panoptic Mirror is most likely going to pay for itself provided that Panoptic Mirror's controller even gets an opportunity to imprint something onto it before it takes a bullet. The more players in one game the worse Panoptic Mirror gets since it's more likely to be destroyed before it can do much.
After Panoptic Mirror has copied the imprinted card for the first time it must take another safe trip around the table before it may cast a second copy. If it happens to succeed in doing so, the Mirror has sort of "paid" for itself but not very well. If Panoptic Mirror's first copy paid for the imprinted card, Panoptic Mirror's second copy is kind of like a Fork, an expensive, delayed Fork that costs five mana and doesn't copy the spell you want until your next turn IF you're lucky. Only once a player has copied the imprinted card three times are they riding the gravy train, and I think that's a lot to ask for.
So, if this card sucks, why is it a problem?
My best guess is that the Rules Committee banned this card a long time ago due to its interaction with cards like Time Warp. Panoptic Mirror plus Time Warp is a two card combo that ends the game. That may have been a serious issue many moons ago, but today two card combos like those are par for the course. In fact, Panoptic Mirror Time Warp is likely one of the more fair two card combos out there because it allows everyone at the table a chance to deal with Panoptic Mirror at sorcery speed if they wish to do so. Combos like Kiki-Jiki Pestermite just threaten to win the game that turn unless someone happens to have an instant speed response. One could argue that since Panoptic Mirror can imprint a card at instant speed that opponents may not choose to destroy it because they do not perceive it to be a threat until it's too late, but the same case could be made for cards like Kiki-Jiki. To further exacerbate the issue, if a player doesn't have enough mana to imprint the card they want on the Mirror the same turn that they played it then they have to make it all the way around the board two times before Panoptic Mirror could combo off. If they had enough mana to both cast Panoptic Mirror and imprint something onto it then that player could have just chosen to end the game with a one card combo like Tooth and Nail instead.
There are numerous fair applications for Panoptic Mirror as well. Cards like Clone Legion come to mind. I imagine that most players would choose to use the Mirror simply to copy expensive cards each turn. If not that, players may just hope to get some kind of recurring value out of Panoptic Mirror by creating copies of something like Krosan Grip or Swords to Plowshares each turn. Yes, Panoptic Mirror can be obnoxious if someone wants it to be. Wrath of God every turn or worse — Armageddon — is going to be frustrating, but Magic is full of other frustrating cards and combos that don't always require such an extensive setup.
Does the Rules Committee believe that Panoptic Mirror creates undesirable games of Magic regardless of whatever is put on it? If that happens to be true than perhaps Panoptic Mirror is better left banned. I happen to believe that this isn't the case though, so tell me what you believe. Is Panoptic Mirror the same problem it's always been or have things changed?
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Time Warp et. al. are just the most egregious offenders, but if those didn't exist, then Mirror would supposedly still be banned.
I do not necessarily agree with the philosophy behind the ban, but this is the direction the RC has chosen for the format, and the standard by which cards like Sylvan Primordial are judged.
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I dont think its good combo by any means though. Anyone who has played a bit more or tries to play a more competitive game would never resort to such a card. Being that it fits being a card that could and probably would be very unfun for a more casual game to experience I think its ok to be on the banned list.
I guess I am somewhere in leaning like 60% towards keeping it banned and 40% towards removing it.
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I'm not entirely sure from your post if you understand how Panoptic Mirror works; it's much faster than you think. You can activate Mirror in response to it's triggered ability and be able to copy it immediately. Essentially the Mirror only needs to make a single loop around the table before you gain the benefit. The most obvious example is:
T5-Cast Panoptic Mirror.
T6-Upkeep, in response to Mirror's triggered ability imprint Time Warp. Triggered ability resolves and you take infinite turns.
I'm almost positive Mirror was banned because of that exact situation, but even if it wasn't... I can't think of a card that would be "fun" to see under a Mirror. Wrath of God? That sounds terrible. Not to mention you just know somebody is going to put an Armageddon on there "just because". Even something rather mundane like Kodama's Reach gets out of hand pretty fast as you just accrue such a huge resource advantage for very little cost.
I think Mirror is correctly on the ban list. It's colorless making it able to go in anything. It's worse case scenarios are pretty bad (either game ending time magic combos, slowing the game to a crawl with Wraths, or just trolling with MLD) and even the more "fair" uses snowball out of control quickly with basically anything. It's too much of a threat for how cheap and easy it is to get going. These are the types of cards the RC should be banning.
It's repetitive. It's colorless with a powerful effect, so risks being ubiquitous. It has an extremely high potential of accidentally ruining games by being more oppressive than intended by the person running it.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Also a 1-2-3 mana colorless 2-card combo that can go into any deck, I guess, but they could just as easily ban Grindstone.
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I think it would be prudent of me to express my current feelings on Panoptic Mirror. In short, I'm pretty apathetic about it. I think Panoptic Mirror is usually a lame card, and I'm generally happy to not see it around, but I'm also not entirely convinced that the card needs to stay banned. In a way, Panoptic Mirror reminds me quite a lot of Paradox Engine. Both cards have few legitimate uses, and anyone misusing either card likely knows exactly what they're up to. Whatever appeal once existed for Panoptic Mirror now seems all but evaporated, and it might be safe to unban Panoptic Mirror as a result. Nobody really seems to care about Panoptic Mirror anymore.
The argument I made in my opening post was only to demonstrate how many turns it takes for Panoptic Mirror to be profitable (and therefore how mediocre it is) which is what I believe you're referring to here. To reiterate, let's say Panoptic Mirror comes down on turn five. Five mana is spent to cast the card, and then the turn is passed. Panoptic Mirror's controller has not received any kind of tangible benefit yet. They're simply down a card and five mana.
Now let's move to turn six. The Panoptic Mirror has made its way around the table, and its controller now has the opportunity to cast a spell for free with it. At this point, the Mirror has still not paid for itself. Because the cost to imprint a spell is the same as whatever that spell's casting cost is, the first free spell cast with Panoptic Mirror isn't really free. It's functionally no different than just casting the spell outright. When the imprint cost was paid doesn't really matter. Maybe its controller responded to the Mirror's triggered ability and imprinted something onto it during their next upkeep. Maybe they imprinted something onto it the turn they cast the Mirror instead. Whatever the case, Panoptic Mirror has still not provided its controller with any kind of real benefit yet. They've only cast one spell with it, for which they've already paid both 5 and X.
Flash forward to turn seven now. Panoptic Mirror has now made it across the table unscathed a second time. For doing so, Panoptic Mirror's controller is rewarded with another copy of the imprinted spell. This is the second time the imprinted spell has been cast so far, but this is only the first time the spell has actually been cast for free. The first time the spell was cast, Panoptic Mirror's controller needed to pay the imprint cost, which is the same amount as the imprinted card's converted mana cost.
Take note here. Two turns have passed, 5 mana was spent to cast the Mirror (presumably), and the only thing its controller has to show for it so far is a single free copy of whatever spell was imprinted onto it. At this point in Panoptic Mirror's timeline, the card has only served as a fragile, delayed Fork. The first copy cast with the Mirror wasn't actually free due to the imprint cost. The second copy cast with the Mirror is really the first free copy. As such, for Panoptic Mirror to really be a profitable card and more than just a bad Fork, it needs to survive at least three times around the table. And that doesn't even take into account the possibility of the imprinted spell being uncastable (say, an imprinted Swords to Plowshares on a board currently without creatures).
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And that's basically why it mostly comes down to being either busted or bad, with a side helping of really annoying.
If the imprinted spell is an extra turn spells, then it only needs to make it around the table once to give you essentially infinite free spells, since your opponents will never get an extra turn once you imprint time warp on it. It's a situation unique to extra turns, but that's the combo.
Otherwise, you are right, it can be pretty bad, but also extremely unfun whenever it works. Putting wrath under it is probably excessive, but also very annoying. Putting geddon under it as a plan is worse than just playing geddon, but more likely to seal the game if it actually goes off. You either imprint something that absolutely MUST be dealt with or it takes over the game, or you imprint something that just doesn't have enough of an impact to matter. The best use for this that isn't annoying is imprinting bolt.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!