It's pretty simple. When you dredge Narcomoebas and Ichorid, they come back into play. You use them to sacrifice for Return, Bridge from Below makes some tokens that you can use to play another Dread Return, and then you can bring back more stuff.
It's really weird that the card can only be used on the mid to late game, but it's way worse against things with high CMCs. It basically punishes someone for using a Thoughtseize or Lightning Bolt on the late game, while it's horrible against ramp strategies. Multiples feel really bad, specially in sequence, as the increasing curve of threats makes the life setting part of the spell get worse.
I love it my only nitpick is I wish it was each opponent but my Edgar is going to love it. If I am understanding right the bishop will count the vampire token that Edgar creates when you cast him.
You get the token on cast, and the effect ETB, so definitely.
In Standard, this seems like a good way of winning faster in decks trying to win with Approach of the Second Sun, specially more controlling shells. Both sides speed up your clock and provide some filtering and eventually card selection.
I feel Saving Grace might be good with the low curve enrage dinos, specially when the boost is enough to sponge an attack and a burn spell on the same turn.
I'm starting to think this isn't as bad as it seems at a first look. Yes, it gets removed by almost anything, but that's also kind of the point. You use it to lure out removal, and with the aid of disruption, you can leave your opponent without enough interaction for the rest of your creatures. And, if they don't kill it, it will surely enough rip some good chunks of their lifepoints.
Future Fatal Pushes even get the added bonus of Revolt off the Treasure tokens, so it's pretty risky, and yet it can run off with the game if not answered on curve. You could always Magma Spray it before it goes down...
I think it wouldn't have broken the game if it costed 4, or were a 4/4 to at least trade with Heart or Avacyn. Maybe be 3/5 to have some utility in combat. An O-ring with a body means nothinh when said body is this outclassed in combat.
The ENTIRE point of a split card is that they function as different cards. They're designed to LOOK like two different cards in one. If you show a split card to someone who's never seen a split card and ask them what's the CMC of beck//call, they'll almost always throw two different numbers at you, 2 and 6. If they wanted to simplify the rules that's what they'd change the rule to. That the CMC is always treated as a 2 drop or a 6 drop (except when fused). They could have even changed the ruling so that if a card specifies a cmc requirement, you're locked into that part of the split card. That would have made more sense and I would have begrudingly accepted it. Instead, they changed the ruling on split cards in the least intuitive, awkward way possible and called us all idiots while they did it.
I feel the same. It doesn't remove the awkwardness, it just moves it elsewhere WHILE removing the interesting and fun interactions. The unintuitive part was being able to target/cast the part of the card excluded by the constraints of the effects that care for it, and not the total mana cost.
There are many ways around counterspells, from powerful hosers to mindgames. You can use cheap threats that throw a wrench on their tempo game. You can use your own cheap permission to get your things to stick, creatures with flash at their own end step that force them to either let it through or give you a turn with them tapped out. Cheap wheel effects that force them to discard their hands. Cheap ramp into powerful threats, counterspells are far from unbeatable, and against permission-heavy decks a few of those tactics can disrupt their own disruptive games. Also, play a bit with one of those decks, it will make it much easier to see the weakpoints and the mistakes you can force out.
Essence Backlash already does something very similar.
You get the token on cast, and the effect ETB, so definitely.
Well, good old Fungusaur will have it's type updated and definitely join the dino party.
I feel the same. It doesn't remove the awkwardness, it just moves it elsewhere WHILE removing the interesting and fun interactions. The unintuitive part was being able to target/cast the part of the card excluded by the constraints of the effects that care for it, and not the total mana cost.