MTG Salvation

Card was recently re-added to the spoiler as legit. Link to the original post.



If true, and it seems realistic enough, this seems resoundingly meh. Note that the non-transformed creature only deals damage to target player.

So, to transform her, you need another red spell in hand and have her attack and survive; or two red spells in hand you can cast in a single turn. All this trouble for the most damage, damage, moar damage version of Chandra ever.

If she's real, I'm really not impress. She wouldn't have been broken at all with first strike or something to help her actually deal those 3 damages. OMG, I'm so disapointed for now. Left me hungry.

I suspect she plays better than she looks, because she looks like a glorified Goblin Fireslinger. By the time you get to untap with her in play, your average red deck should certainly enough mana to play 2 spells a turn. One you do that, Chandra's slinging around a sum total of 5 damage on the turn you flip her, some of which you can direct towards a creature. Still, the 3 drop slot of red has improved significantly lately and I doubt this supplants anything.

I really really want an A Tier Chandra. Would it have been broken to have her -2 a +1 instead? I don't think so... Also sucks that she doesn't replace herself like Lili does. I wish she did damage for flipping or something.

I'm hoping she's not real...

Edit: even if she did the damage to both creature and player it should still be a + ability.

Her Sulfuric Vortex impression isn't too terrible, although her creature stats make me sad. Seems decent in the spells matter archetype, or a heavy burn deck. Something like "Tap, bolt, tap, chain lightning, tap, flip, shock" is 11 damage on turn 4 that leaves a 5 loyalty walker behind; I think we can agree that's pretty cool. One of those cards I'll have to play with more to get a better feel for.

Not impressed. Looks like it'll be difficult to flip, pretty bad before it flips, and only mediocre once it does. Replacing herself with another body, pinging creatures & players on the front side, and not having a -2 to shoot creatures on the flip side would have made it worth trying to flip. But not doing any of those three things? I think this is a pretty easy pass. And 1RR to boot. Hopefully it's fake and they can give us a good red flip walker.

She looks fine in Rx aggro, very good in Rx burn, and pretty meh everywhere else. The question is will she be good enough in those two decks because I can't imagine any other deck wanting this.

Her BCS is pretty good. If you play her on t3, and flip her on t4, she can do 5 to the opponent and leave a 5 loyalty PW in play (obviously with the down side that you didn't really do anything t3). She gets to stick around and do a mediocre vortex impression even if your opponent has a wrath, and if your flip turn was 2 3-damage burn spells (perfectly reasonable in cubes nowadays) congrats, you just did 11 damage. Obviously the more creatures your deck has, the worse she looks compared to 4-drops like hero and hellrider, who can also represent a ton of damage on t4, and usually more than 5, but they are susceptible to a lot more cards.

I see her going in the same sort of deck that likes guttersnipe - she shores up the spells matter deck by giving it a little reach and a little bit of a damage sponge. I think that's the deck that's going to determine if she's worth a spot - I'm cautiously optimistic that she's better than she looks.

All that being said, I hope it's fake - she's much worse than the spoiled lilli, and won't be reversing the trend of Wizard's not really knowing how to make powerful, versatile red walkers.

Note that she says "red spell", not "red instant or sorcery". The terminology is a bit confusing, because we say "spells matter deck" when we mean a deck full of instants and sorceries. However, any two red cards that you cast allow you to flip her.

I have two gripes with her:
1) She seems a lot weaker then Liliana. Really needed a better body, cost or ability.
2) She is pretty boring. As willdice said: She's just damage, damage and more damage.

I wonder why she isn't at least a 2/3, like Liliana. That would have helped her to attack and survive so that you can flip her with a single red spell. Or make her cost RR. That seems fair for a 2/2 with an upside. (I don't think there is any more space to add a creature keyword, so that option is out as long as the rest of her text stays the same.)

Quote from Star Slayer »

Or make her cost RR. That seems fair for a 2/2 with an upside. (I don't think there is any more space to add a creature keyword, so that option is out as long as the rest of her text stays the same.)

This would make her strong, exciting, and not overpowered IMO. Given that this is a mockup (and if true, presumably from a leaked document rather than an actual scan of the card), it's possible that even if it's generally right there are details that are wrong.

If I untap with four mana and cast lightning bolt, chain lightning incinerate, I get 3 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 2, 14 damage on turn four? If she pinged creatures or players and transformed off that she would be much better, but I'm still going to test this.


Important to note, You can't flip Chandra by equipping a sword and beating face :(.

I also still don't believe this is a real card.

Skeptical all the details are accurate.
The planeswalker side looks so boring and feels inconsistent with how they print planeswalkers.

My intuition only, but gonna call fake on this exact printing.

As is, damage output is too slow relative to the cost.
No good way to cast/flip her in one turn (you don't want to hold out to 5 mana in burn decks)

It's also too easy to disrupt.

Question Rules Gurus.

Can I respond to her transform trigger with spells and 2 more pings?

Chandra attacks, red spell, pings, red spell, pings, red spell, pings, then transforms?

Technically, no, but you can get the effect you want. The effect that transforms her is part of the same ability that you activate. You could activate her ability, hold priority, cast a red spell, causing the untap trigger, let that trigger resolve, then activate her again. Just note that whichever trigger is the first trigger to see her dealing 3 or more damage will be the one to transform her. Any additional instances of her ability that are on the stack will still resolve but won't exile and transform her, since the object that activated them won't be around any more.

Am I reading this wrong or can you just equip her and attack for a flip? Or when I attack, I bolt their creature out of the way, get in for two, tap to do a third, then do 2 with the plus one. 5 damage on turn 5 from a 3 drop is pretty outstanding. And if they don't have a blocker , I can't just cast another red creature after combat to transform her.

I am not saying she is great but we have never gotten a 3 drop red planeswalker. The only two drop we have is a joke, so we don't really know what it is like to have an agressive planeswalker in red.

Quote from dschumm »

Am I reading this wrong or can you just equip her and attack for a flip?

You can't. The transformation is part of her activated ability's effect. You need to tap her for that ability at a point where the ability's damage will be the third point (so no tapping, untapping then attacking).

Just attacking with a buff won't transform her.

Quote from willdice »

Quote from dschumm »

Am I reading this wrong or can you just equip her and attack for a flip?

You can't. The transformation is part of her activated ability's effect. You need to tap her for that ability at a point where the ability's damage will be the third point (so no tapping, untapping then attacking).

Just attacking with a buff won't transform her.

OK, I do need to tap her, but the 3 damage is a separate line from the activated ability (and doesn't say this way or with this ability), so I can attack for 2, untap her with any red spell, do 1 more point of damage and transform her. Seems like a piece of cake.

I can easily see a deck casting this on 3 then

Turn 3 cast it
Turn 4 do 5 damage
Turn 5 do 2 damage
Turn 6 do 2 damage
Turn 7 do 7 damage (6+1 on upkeep)

16 damage from a 3 mana creature that they have 1 turn to easily deal with

Not bad

People thought rabblemaster was going to be too hard to protect and utilize the damage output. This isn't on the same level, but it does have more utility, and a smaller opening.

Are you assuming you have a burn spell every turn? That doesn't seem reasonable. Where are you getting those values from, and why is she doing 7 damage on turn 7?

And this and Rabblemaster are not the same thing at all.

He's assuming she transforms on turn four and ultimates on turn 7.

Oh. I don't think assuming that this will transform on T4 with regularity is a safe assumption to make.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

Oh. I don't think assuming that this will transform on T4 with regularity is a safe assumption to make.

I think it's pretty reasonable to assume an easy transform on t4 in a low-slung red deck, assuming you cast it on turn 3. It's a miserable top deck though.

Ya, It's probably not as hard as I first thought, because you can use instant-speed burn in the combat step to clear a blocker and have her flip with activation post combat.

I was assuming a turn 4 transform. Most aggro red decks can clear the road on two, instant clear on 3 or make some other accommodations.

But double red is tricky, and with Feldon and Rabblmaster 3 drops may be too tight. I think I would give it a try over flamespeaker but I am one of few who run it.

Ya, since the ability has to be activated in order to trigger it, it can be tricky. You need a clear board to attack into, but you can't use burn precombat to do it because then she can't transform. So you would need to do it mid-combat after declaring her as an attacker I think. Makes it awkward.