An interesting comparison is Trail of Evidence. This is cheaper but more color-intensive to cast, and the cost to draw a card is the same (but more color-intensive), but needs two spells to cast instead of one. OTOH, it's more resilient to artifact removal (not that many people used artifact removal on Clues).
Given all of this, I am surprised that it's 2 counters per card... I don't recall Trail really taking off much.
I think it's the second ability that actually counts, the draw is maybe useful in an emergency or with some draw synergy. Just set this up, continue with your plan as usual, eventually get a cheap lava axe, rinse and repeat. That doesn't sound that bad, especially when a lot of spells in the set can be cast twice.
That said, reducing the cmc and/or activation cost wouldn't hurt...
The 2nd ability is awful because, even in a Constructed environment using Jump-start cards, you'll still need a minimum of 5 cards and at least 2 lands, plus casting this before anything else. That means that the bare minimum requirement is 8 cards for a single effect. And Jump-Start doesn't fixes the card requirement as it requires a discard, it just makes it easier to get the Instant/Sorcery. It wouldn't be as bad if this card wasn't a do-nothing. Getting a Lava Axe only once is useless because you still used a card for it, so you'll need at least 2 activations of anything to be worth.
The tl;dr is: Unless you're running something stupid like Cantrip.dek, you'll exhaust every single one of your resources before getting a single Lava Axe. And don't even get me started on Limited.
This seems pretty awful. A 4 mana investment to draw a single card is already bad enough, but the need to cast 2 instants and sorceries on top of that just kills it. The 2nd effect isn't much better either, giving you a below average effect for FIVE spells cast.
If this card had no mana costs for activation, it would be a fun build-around-me combo card. As-is, this card seems to be one of those cards botched by R&D at the last second due to being too scared of Combo decks ruining Standard.
The cards that broke the game are cards like Ancestral Vision and Glimmer of Genius. Yes, they functionally complete the task they were assigned, but there is no sense of play to them. Just look at it from this perspective: Do you really go "Oh, I'm totally building around Glimmer of Genius", or is it more "Well, I'm playing the long game with this deck and I need some card draw... ah, here we go, problem solved"? I'd argue that from a perspective of enjoyment, having to manipulate a card to put counters on it, then treating it like a power source, is far more in the spirit of playing the game than a card like Glimmer of Genius. Even Azcanta is technically a build around me card, just it errs a bit close to the whole strait card advantage line.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
The tl;dr is: Unless you're running something stupid like Cantrip.dek,
Yeah cantrip.deck is so stupid not like its one of the archtypes that constantly needs to get hit with the ban hammer in eternal formats or something.
Good cards + Bad cards achieving something doesn't means the bad card is good. Plus, these decks don't need to use Gitaxian Probe five times to get some result out of it.
An interesting comparison is Trail of Evidence. This is cheaper but more color-intensive to cast, and the cost to draw a card is the same (but more color-intensive), but needs two spells to cast instead of one. OTOH, it's more resilient to artifact removal (not that many people used artifact removal on Clues).
Given all of this, I am surprised that it's 2 counters per card... I don't recall Trail really taking off much.
I think it's the second ability that actually counts, the draw is maybe useful in an emergency or with some draw synergy. Just set this up, continue with your plan as usual, eventually get a cheap lava axe, rinse and repeat. That doesn't sound that bad, especially when a lot of spells in the set can be cast twice.
That said, reducing the cmc and/or activation cost wouldn't hurt...
The 2nd ability is awful because, even in a Constructed environment using Jump-start cards, you'll still need a minimum of 5 cards and at least 2 lands, plus casting this before anything else. That means that the bare minimum requirement is 8 cards for a single effect. And Jump-Start doesn't fixes the card requirement as it requires a discard, it just makes it easier to get the Instant/Sorcery. It wouldn't be as bad if this card wasn't a do-nothing. Getting a Lava Axe only once is useless because you still used a card for it, so you'll need at least 2 activations of anything to be worth.
The tl;dr is: Unless you're running something stupid like Cantrip.dek, you'll exhaust every single one of your resources before getting a single Lava Axe. And don't even get me started on Limited.
You don't exhaust the resources, though. You would cast the spells anyway, this just gives some (admittedly small) bonus on top of it. Saying that you exhaust your resources to fuel this is like saying that you exhaust your resources to boost a creature with Prowess. The real question is whether it's worth the two mana and one card early on, the activation cost likely won't matter because you get to use it pretty late anyway.
You don't exhaust the resources, though. You would cast the spells anyway, this just gives some (admittedly small) bonus on top of it. Saying that you exhaust your resources to fuel this is like saying that you exhaust your resources to boost a creature with Prowess. The real question is whether it's worth the two mana and one card early on, the activation cost likely won't matter because you get to use it pretty late anyway.
First off, this is not a "bonus on top of it". You used a card - itself - to get an effect, and my calculations are just to get a Lava Axe effect out of it. The first activation is void because you're offsetting the cost of playing something that did nothing, while you could have used any other card that did something. Therefore, this card only gives your spells a "bonus" from the 2nd activation onwards.
Second, I never said the cards magically go "blank" once you use Firemind's Research. I'm pointing out the fact that the total requirement of spells + lands to activate the 2nd effect is too high, is moot until you get through the 5-spell threshold AND will most likely leave you with no cards in your hand if you do go through it (which could mean that you'll just want to go with the 1st ability anyway). If you casted every spell but couldn't get to 5, congratulations, the 2nd effect is a blank and now you're playing Trail of Evidence in your Constructed deck.
The cards that broke the game are cards like Ancestral Vision and Glimmer of Genius. Yes, they functionally complete the task they were assigned, but there is no sense of play to them. Just look at it from this perspective: Do you really go "Oh, I'm totally building around Glimmer of Genius", or is it more "Well, I'm playing the long game with this deck and I need some card draw... ah, here we go, problem solved"? I'd argue that from a perspective of enjoyment, having to manipulate a card to put counters on it, then treating it like a power source, is far more in the spirit of playing the game than a card like Glimmer of Genius. Even Azcanta is technically a build around me card, just it errs a bit close to the whole strait card advantage line.
...what are you even talking about? Seriously, I don't even know what are you talking about. Literally the only valid comparison you're making here is Azcanta, which requires less investment, has a small effect even if you don't go through its threshold and has significantly more powerful card selection once you get to reap the benefits. Otherwise, you're literally comparing "3U: Scry 2, then draw 2" to "1UUR: Draw 1".
These "engine cards" are all about efficiency, not flashiness. Firemind's Research is simply not efficient.
They haven't released the whole set of course but given that the blue guilds are always up on their card draw effects (Sphinx's Revelation reprint baby *cross fingers*) odds are we will have way better card draw effects. This is going to be another Alhammarret's ArchiveTrail of Evidence where it eventually gives enough value to win the game almost by itself, but it simply takes way too long and you'll be dead before it becomes a thing.
You don't exhaust the resources, though. You would cast the spells anyway, this just gives some (admittedly small) bonus on top of it. Saying that you exhaust your resources to fuel this is like saying that you exhaust your resources to boost a creature with Prowess. The real question is whether it's worth the two mana and one card early on, the activation cost likely won't matter because you get to use it pretty late anyway.
First off, this is not a "bonus on top of it". You used a card - itself - to get an effect, and my calculations are just to get a Lava Axe effect out of it. The first activation is void because you're offsetting the cost of playing something that did nothing, while you could have used any other card that did something. Therefore, this card only gives your spells a "bonus" from the 2nd activation onwards.
Second, I never said the cards magically go "blank" once you use Firemind's Research. I'm pointing out the fact that the total requirement of spells + lands to activate the 2nd effect is too high, is moot until you get through the 5-spell threshold AND will most likely leave you with no cards in your hand if you do go through it (which could mean that you'll just want to go with the 1st ability anyway). If you casted every spell but couldn't get to 5, congratulations, the 2nd effect is a blank and now you're playing Trail of Evidence in your Constructed deck.
The cards that broke the game are cards like Ancestral Vision and Glimmer of Genius. Yes, they functionally complete the task they were assigned, but there is no sense of play to them. Just look at it from this perspective: Do you really go "Oh, I'm totally building around Glimmer of Genius", or is it more "Well, I'm playing the long game with this deck and I need some card draw... ah, here we go, problem solved"? I'd argue that from a perspective of enjoyment, having to manipulate a card to put counters on it, then treating it like a power source, is far more in the spirit of playing the game than a card like Glimmer of Genius. Even Azcanta is technically a build around me card, just it errs a bit close to the whole strait card advantage line.
...what are you even talking about? Seriously, I don't even know what are you talking about. Literally the only valid comparison you're making here is Azcanta, which requires less investment, has a small effect even if you don't go through its threshold and has significantly more powerful card selection once you get to reap the benefits. Otherwise, you're literally comparing "3U: Scry 2, then draw 2" to "1UUR: Draw 1".
These "engine cards" are all about efficiency, not flashiness. Firemind's Research is simply not efficient.
Talking about the sense of play and functionality. As the game is currently designed, you're correct that it just doesn't cut it on efficiency. I just feel like the designers got themselves caught in a corner with how they did card draw and now are bound to the past by it. In a perfect world, I'd rather have had card draw across all the different colors and changed blue to have a completely different core to it's identity, along with some of the other colors like Red, which has so far only really gotten a chance to express it's other facets in EDH via cards like Feldon of the third path and Goblin Welder.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
This is the kind of card that speaks to maybe being a cycle - one for each guild.
That said - the colour specific effects are already gated on their activation cost. I'd rather this have cost (U/R) or otherwise did something the turn it came into play (scry?)
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Rose tint my world, keep me safe from my trouble and pain.
Given all of this, I am surprised that it's 2 counters per card... I don't recall Trail really taking off much.
Trail is a decent comparison - and usually decks that used it had other things you get off clues rather than just the card draw.
Dynavolt Tower was the card that came to my mind. It required 2.5 spells for the 3 damage activation (and no mana) on it's own. It requires tapping. Again - other energy sources can use this energy and feed it so it's hard to make a strict comparison. This card WAS used in a lot of burn-heavy spells decks that existed before AKH, but those decks also ran Glimmer of Genius and Harnessed Lightning to feed it and draw from it.
So I think that because this is similar to Trail and Dynavolt - which saw some play in edge cases - that this might also see play in edge cases. It will largely depend on how much other 'spells matter' stuff we see with the Izzet guild - it looks like it is going to be a pushed sub-theme.
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Rose tint my world, keep me safe from my trouble and pain.
This card is clearly aimed at limited play and I wouldn't really bother thinking too much on it. They put it at rare because having this at uncommon or common would be pretty annoying during the draft. It doesn't do anything on it's own and requires building around to make it work, plus most limited decks like to focus on creatures. Charge counters, brick counters, ooze counters, etc, are all the same thing skinned in different ways and serve to make games more interesting for players. Still, I feel this is a strictly worse design than pyramid of the pantheon or Sunset Pyramid. I'd have preferred this kind of card coming into play with charge counters already on it. Maybe they have cards that add charge counters to things in Izzit and this is one of the payoffs?
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
This card is clearly aimed at limited play and I wouldn't really bother thinking too much on it. They put it at rare because having this at uncommon or common would be pretty annoying during the draft. It doesn't do anything on it's own and requires building around to make it work, plus most limited decks like to focus on creatures. Charge counters, brick counters, ooze counters, etc, are all the same thing skinned in different ways and serve to make games more interesting for players. Still, I feel this is a strictly worse design than pyramid of the pantheon or Sunset Pyramid. I'd have preferred this kind of card coming into play with charge counters already on it. Maybe they have cards that add charge counters to things in Izzit and this is one of the payoffs?
I hope you're right, but still, Limited has historically never been a good format to stack your deck full of Instants or Sorceries. I see this card as a Jump-Start build-around-me Enchantment, as it's the only reliable way to get enough Instant/Sorceries in your Limited deck for it to work. However, cards that fill this card's niche (Burning Vengeance, Goblinslide, Faith of the Devoted) have historically been Uncommons, so you could draft it somewhat reliably or possibly get 2-ofs out of your build-around-me Enchantment.
Here's hoping that they actually manage to create a Limited environment where playing a very high Instant/Sorcery count is viable, but we all know Wizards too well.
I wonder if there will be any Jump-Start cards (even one?) that create Tokens. A Weird-making Jump-Start spell would actually be really good to, ah, jump start their decks.
Basically, imagine a 1R Sorcery that made 2 1/1 red Weird creatures. With Jump Start. Works with Izzet's plan of playing Instants and Sorceries, and works with Boros's Mentor concept.
Anyway, until we see more Jump-Start cards, it's really difficult to say what this will do.
Here's hoping that they actually manage to create a Limited environment where playing a very high Instant/Sorcery count is viable, but we all know Wizards too well.
It´s a story spotlight card but doesn´t mention how many of the story cards there will be and it doesn´t have any flavor text to give context as to why it´s important for the story.
They need to just drop the "story spotlight" thing altogether. It never really made sense when the story was always played out on more than 5 cards anyway. And yeah, completely giving up on the order of the cards (which should matter) and the text linking it to the story feels like they've just stopped trying. This would have been cooler with an Izzet watermark. But hey, cool art!
It is implied Jace will recruit Niv to outsmart Bolas.
Nah, I don't think that is really implied by the card alone, particularly not the name. In fact it has nothing to do with the name. Seems more like it is connected to the research Niv has been doing and maybe him discovering planeswalkers (as it seemed he was close to doing) or discovering Bolas's mettling with the plane. If a Gatewatch-Niv teamup *is* the story beat they want to tell with this card, then it really needed some flavor text to make that work.
This seems pretty awful. A 4 mana investment to draw a single card is already bad enough, but the need to cast 2 instants and sorceries on top of that just kills it. The 2nd effect isn't much better either, giving you a below average effect for FIVE spells cast.
If this card had no mana costs for activation, it would be a fun build-around-me combo card. As-is, this card seems to be one of those cards botched by R&D at the last second due to being too scared of Combo decks ruining Standard.
But after that, it's two additional mana (and counters) for each card, and I'm not sure you want more to "do 5 damage for 1R". Let's be honest, the last ability is just there to end the game.
All in all, cards like this get dangerously close to storm. I can see why they're cautious.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Man, if Simic gets Proliferate in RNA, I could see a Temur deck built around Research taking off. Cards like this make me wish they'd expand Izzet's focus to noncreature spells, though; imagine if this also triggered off enchantments, noncreature artifacts, and planeswalkers. Wouldn't look so terrible then, would it? Though it would also probably cost two or three extra mana.
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MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
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.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
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.
Man, if Simic gets Proliferate in RNA, I could see a Temur deck built around Research taking off.
Does Proliferate make sense in blue? I guess maybe - it is the colour of cloning.
The alternate art has me curious - biological research is more a Simic thing than an Izzet thing. I'm wondering it that's Bolas' doing and he stumbles across it. Also, being a Dragon with questionable ethics I'm wondering if he'd wind up working with Bolas (he certainly will in the game since he's Grixis colours and Grixis dragons is already a thing he can slip right into)
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Rose tint my world, keep me safe from my trouble and pain.
Man, if Simic gets Proliferate in RNA, I could see a Temur deck built around Research taking off.
Does Proliferate make sense in blue? I guess maybe - it is the colour of cloning.
The alternate art has me curious - biological research is more a Simic thing than an Izzet thing. I'm wondering it that's Bolas' doing and he stumbles across it. Also, being a Dragon with questionable ethics I'm wondering if he'd wind up working with Bolas (he certainly will in the game since he's Grixis colours and Grixis dragons is already a thing he can slip right into)
Working with Bolas would mean that he suddenly wouldn't be the biggest, baddest dragon in the neighborhood. I don't think his ego could handle that...
The alternate art for the card is likely Niv-Mizzet trying to look into the Blind Eternities. Whether or not this is also part of Project Firebug is not really stated.
The alternate art for the card is likely Niv-Mizzet trying to look into the Blind Eternities. Whether or not this is also part of Project Firebug is not really stated.
It's not a reflection - see the bubbles in the underwater version.
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Rose tint my world, keep me safe from my trouble and pain.
Man, if Simic gets Proliferate in RNA, I could see a Temur deck built around Research taking off.
Does Proliferate make sense in blue? I guess maybe - it is the colour of cloning.
Proliferate is blue, are you thinking of populate?
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The alternate art for the card is likely Niv-Mizzet trying to look into the Blind Eternities. Whether or not this is also part of Project Firebug is not really stated.
It's not a reflection - see the bubbles in the underwater version.
The 2nd ability is awful because, even in a Constructed environment using Jump-start cards, you'll still need a minimum of 5 cards and at least 2 lands, plus casting this before anything else. That means that the bare minimum requirement is 8 cards for a single effect. And Jump-Start doesn't fixes the card requirement as it requires a discard, it just makes it easier to get the Instant/Sorcery. It wouldn't be as bad if this card wasn't a do-nothing. Getting a Lava Axe only once is useless because you still used a card for it, so you'll need at least 2 activations of anything to be worth.
The tl;dr is: Unless you're running something stupid like Cantrip.dek, you'll exhaust every single one of your resources before getting a single Lava Axe. And don't even get me started on Limited.
Yeah cantrip.deck is so stupid not like its one of the archtypes that constantly needs to get hit with the ban hammer in eternal formats or something.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
The cards that broke the game are cards like Ancestral Vision and Glimmer of Genius. Yes, they functionally complete the task they were assigned, but there is no sense of play to them. Just look at it from this perspective: Do you really go "Oh, I'm totally building around Glimmer of Genius", or is it more "Well, I'm playing the long game with this deck and I need some card draw... ah, here we go, problem solved"? I'd argue that from a perspective of enjoyment, having to manipulate a card to put counters on it, then treating it like a power source, is far more in the spirit of playing the game than a card like Glimmer of Genius. Even Azcanta is technically a build around me card, just it errs a bit close to the whole strait card advantage line.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Good cards + Bad cards achieving something doesn't means the bad card is good. Plus, these decks don't need to use Gitaxian Probe five times to get some result out of it.
You don't exhaust the resources, though. You would cast the spells anyway, this just gives some (admittedly small) bonus on top of it. Saying that you exhaust your resources to fuel this is like saying that you exhaust your resources to boost a creature with Prowess. The real question is whether it's worth the two mana and one card early on, the activation cost likely won't matter because you get to use it pretty late anyway.
First off, this is not a "bonus on top of it". You used a card - itself - to get an effect, and my calculations are just to get a Lava Axe effect out of it. The first activation is void because you're offsetting the cost of playing something that did nothing, while you could have used any other card that did something. Therefore, this card only gives your spells a "bonus" from the 2nd activation onwards.
Second, I never said the cards magically go "blank" once you use Firemind's Research. I'm pointing out the fact that the total requirement of spells + lands to activate the 2nd effect is too high, is moot until you get through the 5-spell threshold AND will most likely leave you with no cards in your hand if you do go through it (which could mean that you'll just want to go with the 1st ability anyway). If you casted every spell but couldn't get to 5, congratulations, the 2nd effect is a blank and now you're playing Trail of Evidence in your Constructed deck.
...what are you even talking about? Seriously, I don't even know what are you talking about. Literally the only valid comparison you're making here is Azcanta, which requires less investment, has a small effect even if you don't go through its threshold and has significantly more powerful card selection once you get to reap the benefits. Otherwise, you're literally comparing "3U: Scry 2, then draw 2" to "1UUR: Draw 1".
These "engine cards" are all about efficiency, not flashiness. Firemind's Research is simply not efficient.
Talking about the sense of play and functionality. As the game is currently designed, you're correct that it just doesn't cut it on efficiency. I just feel like the designers got themselves caught in a corner with how they did card draw and now are bound to the past by it. In a perfect world, I'd rather have had card draw across all the different colors and changed blue to have a completely different core to it's identity, along with some of the other colors like Red, which has so far only really gotten a chance to express it's other facets in EDH via cards like Feldon of the third path and Goblin Welder.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
That said - the colour specific effects are already gated on their activation cost. I'd rather this have cost (U/R) or otherwise did something the turn it came into play (scry?)
Trail is a decent comparison - and usually decks that used it had other things you get off clues rather than just the card draw.
Dynavolt Tower was the card that came to my mind. It required 2.5 spells for the 3 damage activation (and no mana) on it's own. It requires tapping. Again - other energy sources can use this energy and feed it so it's hard to make a strict comparison. This card WAS used in a lot of burn-heavy spells decks that existed before AKH, but those decks also ran Glimmer of Genius and Harnessed Lightning to feed it and draw from it.
So I think that because this is similar to Trail and Dynavolt - which saw some play in edge cases - that this might also see play in edge cases. It will largely depend on how much other 'spells matter' stuff we see with the Izzet guild - it looks like it is going to be a pushed sub-theme.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I hope you're right, but still, Limited has historically never been a good format to stack your deck full of Instants or Sorceries. I see this card as a Jump-Start build-around-me Enchantment, as it's the only reliable way to get enough Instant/Sorceries in your Limited deck for it to work. However, cards that fill this card's niche (Burning Vengeance, Goblinslide, Faith of the Devoted) have historically been Uncommons, so you could draft it somewhat reliably or possibly get 2-ofs out of your build-around-me Enchantment.
Here's hoping that they actually manage to create a Limited environment where playing a very high Instant/Sorcery count is viable, but we all know Wizards too well.
Basically, imagine a 1R Sorcery that made 2 1/1 red Weird creatures. With Jump Start. Works with Izzet's plan of playing Instants and Sorceries, and works with Boros's Mentor concept.
Anyway, until we see more Jump-Start cards, it's really difficult to say what this will do.
It's doable in M19 with the right cards;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sgb5TZHwxI
They need to just drop the "story spotlight" thing altogether. It never really made sense when the story was always played out on more than 5 cards anyway. And yeah, completely giving up on the order of the cards (which should matter) and the text linking it to the story feels like they've just stopped trying. This would have been cooler with an Izzet watermark. But hey, cool art!
Nah, I don't think that is really implied by the card alone, particularly not the name. In fact it has nothing to do with the name. Seems more like it is connected to the research Niv has been doing and maybe him discovering planeswalkers (as it seemed he was close to doing) or discovering Bolas's mettling with the plane. If a Gatewatch-Niv teamup *is* the story beat they want to tell with this card, then it really needed some flavor text to make that work.
But after that, it's two additional mana (and counters) for each card, and I'm not sure you want more to "do 5 damage for 1R". Let's be honest, the last ability is just there to end the game.
All in all, cards like this get dangerously close to storm. I can see why they're cautious.
On phasing:
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Are we looking at an army of Niv-Mizzets in the making?
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.
Does Proliferate make sense in blue? I guess maybe - it is the colour of cloning.
The alternate art has me curious - biological research is more a Simic thing than an Izzet thing. I'm wondering it that's Bolas' doing and he stumbles across it. Also, being a Dragon with questionable ethics I'm wondering if he'd wind up working with Bolas (he certainly will in the game since he's Grixis colours and Grixis dragons is already a thing he can slip right into)
Working with Bolas would mean that he suddenly wouldn't be the biggest, baddest dragon in the neighborhood. I don't think his ego could handle that...
It's not a reflection - see the bubbles in the underwater version.
Proliferate is blue, are you thinking of populate?
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Well, they did give Quasiduplicate to Izzet...