Probably just good as it does absolutely nothing when you're behind, and it makes all your giant non-evasive green guys even more giant and non-evasive. Still solid as it wins races pretty easily. Base case is probably opponent sacrifices two creatures, which is fine for five mana.
Not very impressive unless you have guys who already have some kind of evasion. 5 Mana, no evasion built in, and sorcery speed really kills it. 5 mana means it's a late game play and probably too expensive to really be used for heroic triggers and more for closing out a game but sorcery speed and no evasion means you can't use it to sneak in damage, they'll always know what gets the pump. Even in decks with alot of evasion I'm not sure how good it is... That's my initial impression at least.
I'm not sure this is really good at all. It's really a kind of Lava Axe effect for Green. Two things can go wrong:
* If you're playing a match where you probably win once you stabilise, this card just isn't what you want at all.
* Any time your opponent has a chump blocker or two the card won't do what you want it to.
Remember Monstrify? That was basically unplayable.
The fact that this is a five drop really hurts it, because Green has plenty to do at 5 already.
(Now if I could somehow run this in my R/W decks, that might be a different matter...)
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First, this spell isn't like most other pump spells. It is in a block where pumping creatures is rewarded. Secondly, for five mana, it adds 8 points of power and toughness to the board. Even if you are behind there's not a lot that does damage better than this. Sorcery speed, sure, but it's mostly good in Heroic decks anyway. Definitely not a very high pick, but it can be a blowout and I would pick it up in the mid pack.
I agree with bateleur. This card seems a little loose. It doesn't really affect the board (unless you've got significant heroic creatures), and it isn't guaranteed damage like a Lava Axe. And it's super expensive - there is so many powerful things you can do at five mana in this format that I doubt this will see play (or should see play) outside aggressive decks with an abundance of solid heroic cards.
"Worse than Lava Axe" is never a good place to be. I'm with Bateleur, Sene, etc. that the card is not very good -- but I imagine it will be popular out of the gate since people will be lured in by the super-sizing aspect.
The only thing going for it is that Green's Heroic creatures are more expensive than the others, which, uh, is raising your curve over where you want it to be?
Something that would really help Green in the Heroic department is if they could get a Heroic Lotus Cobra or something, but it'd probably have to have the Mark of Sakiko effect or something...
Remember Phytoburst? Same thing. Early on, people will think it's an instant and therefore good. Then, when they try to play it at instant speed, you'll remind them that that effect would be very good at instant speed, but that's not what the card says.
Yeah, they've printed a number of these kinds of effects in the past few years, and they've never been any good. I don't know why they keep devoting slots to sorcery speed tricks. I almost expect next to see:
New and Improved Counterspell! UU
Sorcery
Counter target spell.
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
The thing about Mischief and Mayhem is that at least it has some point to it. If you are somehow getting through for damage or if the opponent's only blocker is something big then the upside is high. Also, it's relevant to Heroic simply due to being a double trigger. For all that it's a weak card I do think it belongs in the set and I wouldn't want WotC to stop printing cards like this.
Besides, once it starts tabling it might be viable sideboard tech for some situations?
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I don't think it's as bad as some think. Most cases I think this lets you eat two of their guys or one of their guys and you get through 4+ damage, which seems fine. I won't go out of my way to pick it but I think I'd usually play one. It can also randomly close out races by itself, which is nice.
If you've got some lifelink courtesy of Hopeful Eidolon then the card becomes better. At that point, you do have a very large life swing on your hands regardless of if the opponent blocks your guys or not. Otherwise, there's probably some Omenspeaker or something that just gets thrown under the bus and it's no big deal. Obvious shoutout to Archetype of Aggression as well here.
I don't think it's going to be as bad as a lot of people are suggesting, and this is from a guy who was happy to mock people openly for playing Phytoburst. It should threaten to do more than 8 damage most of the time, as it will let you attack with guys that otherwise couldn't. That said, it's no Overrun, and even Overrun probably wouldn't be as good in this format as it normally is. After thinking on the consensus opinion I'd probably downgrade my initial thought to 'mediocre but playable in a reasonable number of decks'.
Yeah, mediocre but playable seems about right to me, provided you have a heroic theme. Without heroic creatures, I think there's no shortage of better uses of five mana in this format. Definitely best in GW.
This card is secretly a lava axe/cruel edict punisher card. Your deck has to be pretty aggressive to use this, because tapping out and swinging can be a liability if you're behind or on the defensive. there are times where they'll just soak the hit and be happy you tapped blockers
the real problem i have with the card is why is it not a split card. Mischief // Mayhem would have been an awesome Izzet // Grull or Rakdos card
I do agree this is a great name for a split card. They used up a few names this set that were great names but got used on cards that will be forgotten before the set even rotates (Nullify being the one the frustrates me the most).
Edit: Well does this stop a card from being called Mischief//Mayhem? I don't think so but I could be wrong.
Amazing, or just very good?
* If you're playing a match where you probably win once you stabilise, this card just isn't what you want at all.
* Any time your opponent has a chump blocker or two the card won't do what you want it to.
Remember Monstrify? That was basically unplayable.
The fact that this is a five drop really hurts it, because Green has plenty to do at 5 already.
(Now if I could somehow run this in my R/W decks, that might be a different matter...)
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GWB Junk Stax Ghave BWG
The only thing going for it is that Green's Heroic creatures are more expensive than the others, which, uh, is raising your curve over where you want it to be?
I'd probably play (obv not pick) Warriors' Lesson over this.
Something that would really help Green in the Heroic department is if they could get a Heroic Lotus Cobra or something, but it'd probably have to have the Mark of Sakiko effect or something...
New and Improved Counterspell! UU
Sorcery
Counter target spell.
Besides, once it starts tabling it might be viable sideboard tech for some situations?
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I think it's obvious that the aim of this card is to settle the p2p1 pick of whip of erebos over the gorgon. 8 additional life swing, batman!
So, you pick your luring unicorns and play this and post in the pwnd thread.
the real problem i have with the card is why is it not a split card. Mischief // Mayhem would have been an awesome Izzet // Grull or Rakdos card
Edit: Well does this stop a card from being called Mischief//Mayhem? I don't think so but I could be wrong.