This card isn't good at all guys. 3U is way, way too expensive for a madness enabler... similar to how 3 creature cards was too expensive to make Skaab Ruinator do anything. Remember each "madness card" has a casting cost too though it's POSSIBLE there's a free madness card that could combo but at that point you are likely living in magical Christmas land as an entire deck synergy wouldn't be competitive.
Card had potential but epic fail final product by Wizards, imo. The activation should be at the very least 2U or UU.
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.
It has a lot of potential, but what really will make this card shine is what kind of support either zombies/graveyard/and/or madness will also bring to the table.
If there's other zombies that can reanimate this might be big.
Interesting card for sure. Horrible, generic-looking digital art, though. At least that's the impression I get from looking at currently available low-res artwork.
This card isn't good at all guys. 3U is way, way too expensive for a madness enabler... similar to how 3 creature cards was too expensive to make Skaab Ruinator do anything. Remember each "madness card" has a casting cost too though it's POSSIBLE there's a free madness card that could combo but at that point you are likely living in magical Christmas land as an entire deck synergy wouldn't be competitive.
Card had potential but epic fail final product by Wizards, imo. The activation should be at the very least 2U or UU.
This card is not a madness enabler. This is an enormous, hard to deal with, "I win the top deck war" card. Have you ever watched control v control? This is an uncounterable threat that let's you end of their turn pitch your three garbage lands, or two lands and one irrelevant card to get back a 3 turn clock. This card will see play in a UBx control shell. If the grixis control deck still exists post rotation, that'd be my bet for where it goes.
Edit: to be clear, the reason the cost is 3U and not cheaper is because first off, it is Dread Return, and second off, it is a mana sink. This isn't something you're supposed to be able to do on turn two. If the cost was UU or 2U, that would be unbelievably stupid.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Standard
Meh
Modern BUWEsper ControlWUB BRUGrixis DelverURB WRBGKiki ChordGBRW WBGAbzan MidrangeGBW BRGJundGRB
Well... It's a zombie. I guess it has that going for it. I don't even think I'd say it's great in EDH, since you have to be hellbent to have a very basic 7/7 flyer, and if you're hellbent, it makes the recursion even harder when it dies. It's very non-synergystic with itself. I guess it's a decent Madness enabler if you pitch it into the yard from your library, but even then, that's a pretty steep cost to pair with madness effects.
Calling this card unplayable so early is jumping the gun a little. This has some things superficially in common with Skaab Ruinator, but this is far less restrictive than the Ruinator. At worst, you can always just cast this for 5 as long as you don't have seven cards in your hand. With Skaab Ruinator, you needed three cards of a specific type in your graveyard before it could do anything at all.
We already know that Madness and Delirium are in this set, and this plays well with both. All we need is some madness draw spell or removal spell and this starts looking very appealing as a finisher in control. Being able to return a 5-7 power creature at *instant speed* is very potent. It's a great use of extra lands you might have drawn, or dead cards in a specific matchup. And even if you don't have the cards to discard yet, you get to know that if you just wait a couple turns, you'll be able to bring back a 7/7 instant speed evasive beatstick to put pressure on your opponent again. The fact that it's instant speed is huge, it lets you decide on the fly if the cards in your hand are worth discarding. Your opponent will have to account for the possible appearance of a giant monster at all times when you have 3 or more cards in your hand and four open mana, in addition to possible removal spells and counterspells.
It's possible this doesn't end up seeing play, but it's not the same thing as Skaab Ruinator.
Potential power level is pretty high, but actually takes some work to make it good. This is exactly the type of card I like. Hopefully he finds a home somewhere, because this card looks sweet.
He seems pretty good. Narrow, but interesting, no doubt. You could definitely consider U/R fliers, where, because you are clever, you are playing this card instead of a dumb-o Stormbreath Dragon or Thundermaw Hellkite. Chandra's Phoenix, Flamewake Phoenix, Firewing Phoenix, Electrolyze, Geistflame, Remand, Mana Leak, Faithless Looting, and he simply hits harder; not as fast to 10 damage, but has recursion. Recurs along WITH those other things. It actually could be QUITE strong.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Warning: Um, warning. This is going to be a game state violation. And a taking extra turns and drawing extra cards violation, pretty much, a whole bunch of violations. Look at me, I'm the DCI."
Isn't this type of recursion unusual for Blue?
I'm not complaining, as it's quite flavorful,
but Blue doesn't usually put permanents from the graveyard into play, does it?
Blue's portion of the color pie is that it's suppossed to do everything that can be done and get away with it with some corner-case justification.
Reminds me of Gigapede, which was a pretty strong card with its shroud and a very easy to pay cost to get it back (while enabling discard and survival of the fittest shenanigans.
This card looks "worse" than Gigapede if you want to enable Madness and get a threat that actually survives.
However, its potentially more viable in some green/blue decks with Life from the Loam , and it fits nicely in any deck that allready mills itself.
Bad is only that its just a plain flyer, it doesnt have anything extra that makes it a real strong finisher, especially not with all the "exile" removal running around, so its recursion ability will not really matter much in constructed.
It sure is a bomb in Limited, as you get a Air Elemental that potentially grows to 7/7 and you can sit on any "useless" card you draw to get it back ; which all in all is quite strong in Limited (so it is a bomb rare, but its still disappointing for me, as this doesnt really tickle anything that Gigapede didnt tickle long long before).
Im surprised the activated ability isn't sorcery speed only. Good thing it comes into play tapped or that'd be ridiculous!
Love it, weird and uncomfortable art, but I think thats the point
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. The true heart can tough the poison of hatred without being harmed. Since beginning-less time, darkness thrives in the void but always yields to purifying light.
I invision a future where one is not mighty when he can silence a crowd with brutality,
but when he leaves them speechless with wisdom.
How has no one commented on the fact that Geralf has used Griselbrand's corpse as the basis for his masterwork? That is awesome.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
COMMANDER DECKS
Gishath, Sun's Avatar
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
Surrak Presents: Snow-where to Run (A Temur Production)
Zurgo - Mardu Warrior Tribal
Gisa and Geralf
Jhoira's Artifacts
Dragon still seems bad to me. It's not a card you really want as a curve topper unless you are reliably hellbent on turn 4 after casting it or you have a way to play it at instant speed. I suppose you can hold it until you have 5 mana and a fiery temper as your last card, but what on earth does the curve of that deck look like? : / It is possible that with good madness enablers and cards you can want it, but it still seems unreliable and worse in a vacuum than Thunderbreak Regent.
The idea is to have Gerald's Masterpiece on the battlefield then play this so you can dump your hand and power him up. Also dumping your hand and casting your madness cards. Thunderbreak Regent is not comparable to Avaricious Dragon. They serve very different roles.
Binning cards and paying mana isn't exactly easy to work with.
Standard:
UR Ral Combo
Modern:
U Merfolk
R Goblins
Commander
RB Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
R Feldon of the Third Path
Card had potential but epic fail final product by Wizards, imo. The activation should be at the very least 2U or UU.
My first thought exactly
(Okay, my first thought was actually "DREDGE!" but my second thought was "LOAM!")
WBC Eldrazi & Taxes CBW
UR Keep on Cantripin' (UR Phoenix) RU
WU Surprise! It's not UW Control! (UW Midrange) UW
BG The Rock, Straight BG
U Mono-Blue Fish U
RBW Mardu Pyromancer BWR
RG Rabble! Rabble! (GR Blood Moon Aggro) GR
Legacy
W Death & Taxes W
If there's other zombies that can reanimate this might be big.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Meh
Modern
BUWEsper ControlWUB
BRUGrixis DelverURB
WRBGKiki ChordGBRW
WBGAbzan MidrangeGBW
BRGJundGRB
Legacy
UBRGrixis DelverRBU
Commander
Also meh
-Chandra Nalaar
This card is not a madness enabler. This is an enormous, hard to deal with, "I win the top deck war" card. Have you ever watched control v control? This is an uncounterable threat that let's you end of their turn pitch your three garbage lands, or two lands and one irrelevant card to get back a 3 turn clock. This card will see play in a UBx control shell. If the grixis control deck still exists post rotation, that'd be my bet for where it goes.
Edit: to be clear, the reason the cost is 3U and not cheaper is because first off, it is Dread Return, and second off, it is a mana sink. This isn't something you're supposed to be able to do on turn two. If the cost was UU or 2U, that would be unbelievably stupid.
Meh
Modern
BUWEsper ControlWUB
BRUGrixis DelverURB
WRBGKiki ChordGBRW
WBGAbzan MidrangeGBW
BRGJundGRB
Legacy
UBRGrixis DelverRBU
Commander
Also meh
Maybe not the same turn, but Clues can give you these three cards.
We already know that Madness and Delirium are in this set, and this plays well with both. All we need is some madness draw spell or removal spell and this starts looking very appealing as a finisher in control. Being able to return a 5-7 power creature at *instant speed* is very potent. It's a great use of extra lands you might have drawn, or dead cards in a specific matchup. And even if you don't have the cards to discard yet, you get to know that if you just wait a couple turns, you'll be able to bring back a 7/7 instant speed evasive beatstick to put pressure on your opponent again. The fact that it's instant speed is huge, it lets you decide on the fly if the cards in your hand are worth discarding. Your opponent will have to account for the possible appearance of a giant monster at all times when you have 3 or more cards in your hand and four open mana, in addition to possible removal spells and counterspells.
It's possible this doesn't end up seeing play, but it's not the same thing as Skaab Ruinator.
Blue's portion of the color pie is that it's suppossed to do everything that can be done and get away with it with some corner-case justification.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
This card looks "worse" than Gigapede if you want to enable Madness and get a threat that actually survives.
However, its potentially more viable in some green/blue decks with Life from the Loam , and it fits nicely in any deck that allready mills itself.
Bad is only that its just a plain flyer, it doesnt have anything extra that makes it a real strong finisher, especially not with all the "exile" removal running around, so its recursion ability will not really matter much in constructed.
It sure is a bomb in Limited, as you get a Air Elemental that potentially grows to 7/7 and you can sit on any "useless" card you draw to get it back ; which all in all is quite strong in Limited (so it is a bomb rare, but its still disappointing for me, as this doesnt really tickle anything that Gigapede didnt tickle long long before).
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
GWUEnduring EgoGWU
GWUBant TempoGWU
EDH:
WUNoyan DarWU
Love it, weird and uncomfortable art, but I think thats the point
I invision a future where one is not mighty when he can silence a crowd with brutality,
but when he leaves them speechless with wisdom.
COMMANDER DECKS
Gishath, Sun's Avatar
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
Surrak Presents: Snow-where to Run (A Temur Production)
Zurgo - Mardu Warrior Tribal
Gisa and Geralf
Jhoira's Artifacts
Dragon still seems bad to me. It's not a card you really want as a curve topper unless you are reliably hellbent on turn 4 after casting it or you have a way to play it at instant speed. I suppose you can hold it until you have 5 mana and a fiery temper as your last card, but what on earth does the curve of that deck look like? : / It is possible that with good madness enablers and cards you can want it, but it still seems unreliable and worse in a vacuum than Thunderbreak Regent.
AND ITS EVEN A 7/7.
FLAVOR. WIN.
Meh
Modern
BUWEsper ControlWUB
BRUGrixis DelverURB
WRBGKiki ChordGBRW
WBGAbzan MidrangeGBW
BRGJundGRB
Legacy
UBRGrixis DelverRBU
Commander
Also meh
GWUEnduring EgoGWU
GWUBant TempoGWU
EDH:
WUNoyan DarWU