Black/Red sword seems a lot better than Blue/White sword. If swords in general are ever good enough again (And that new goblin seems kind of specifically designed for them?), this is a great SB card.
I really hope it's not those cycling lands, because Snow still needs support and snow duals that can enter untapped would be the best possible support for it.
That said, snow lands with cycling could also be pretty rad.
I don't think comparing this to Cryptic is correct. Yes, it's a modal counterspell with heavy blue investment, but the difference between CMC3 and CMC4 is massive. It's also going to be cast purely for card draw in a huge number of situations in which Cryptic wouldn't. Honestly, I think that most decks that want either want both, but I wouldn't expect them to compete with each other for slots.
It can't hit transform cards, but it *can* hit almost any token (What tokens are good?) and X-cost creatures (Walking Ballista just gets sacced in response, does anything run Hangarback Walker or that one X-cost Eldrazi?).
Ok, had to look that up. Turns out that the back side of Transform cards *used* to be CMC 0, but now their CMC is based on the front side of the card, after a rules change when Shadows Over Innistrad released.
The last mode seems a lot stronger than it sounds at first, just looking through established decks. There's obvious stuff like stealing a Death's Shadow, but even stealing something like a mana dork can be very strong.
The last mode seems a lot stronger than it sounds at first, just looking through established decks. There's obvious stuff like stealing a Death's Shadow, but even stealing something like a mana dork can be very strong.
So if the non-pitch aggressive mode is good, this card is nice. Does Burn (Or some other RDW thing) want six damage across two bodies for CMC3? If so, then the ability to occasionally block a high-priority attack seems like nice gravy.
Pro Black/Red
Destroy an artifact and/or Planeswalker if it hits a player.
That's a pretty strong SB card, imo. Especially if the new goblin spawns some sort of goblin-sword archetype.
Snow DRS that can only use Snow cards for its abilities. > . > (Is there a way to make it not do these hideous-ass emoji?)
That said, snow lands with cycling could also be pretty rad.
Excellent.
EDIT: I keep misreading cards this season. Still works if you've kept a bunch of lands : p