I like this card. ITs great in several formats. It does give the opponent a choice but in this way its a skill call to make them choose which one they think will be the best while in reality it won't.
Letting them think that their life isn't in immediatly danger so they save a creature or two. or they only save the one that they need when you have a tragic slip or other removal at the ready. ect.
Or even bluffing them out to saving more creatures when you DON'T have an extra removal. Its a mind game that is so perfectly evil and fit for the innistrad black trend. I like it. ITs devious, evil, cunning and down right nasty.
I could see this as well as several other cards working in a B/R lifeloss race. Bump in the night could be a good card for once.
Just out of curiosity, can you name the multiple formats you feel this is playable in? If you're not referring to 2 player formats, that's fine. Not every card is, nor should be, designed for a duel.
As for the scenario you mentioned above, remember that you have to make the exact same decisions on your creatures before your opponent does. At worst the opponent can simply choose to save the same number and lose the same amount of life as you do. In which case you likely just spent a card and a full turn's worth of mana to bring the game state back to square one. This doesn't even factor in that your opponent gets home field advantage - able to make their decisions after you do.
This might be "good" if every single one of their creatures are 1/1, but even if you're lucky enough to be playing against a token deck sans pump effects, you are not even guaranteed any effect at all, let alone a beneficial outcome.
Wow anyone who says this card isn't playable is absurd. I've been waiting for a miracle card with a reasonable cmc, and this is it.
That's the strange thing, they gave the reasonable mana cost to the more degenerate effect.
Edit: The one "issue" with Reforge is that you can't reliably chain multiples together in a single turn. On the other hand, just being able to resolve a single draw 7 is usually enough to put a player so far ahead that a competent person should win the following turn.
Five mana is very fair, but Wizards sure as **** was generous reducing the miracle cost wrt the original. That's some serious fire power for eternal formats and unlike some other miracle cards, this one is actually organically degenerate.
Well I'm not sure anyone would complain about a 1 mana ancestral/ritual split. (But I suppose you could argue the ancestral half will just dig into more rituals / free mana)
The great thing about the above cards is that you will (virtually) always get the desired outcome regardless of your opponent's decision or choice of deck.
Why does Wizards print a card to teach beginners that "Cards that give the opponent choices are bad" when they could, you know, just try making better cards of that type?
It isn't about "Cards that give the opponent choices are bad." It's about "Cards that give the opponent choices better be undercosted for each choice."
So when the odds aren't in your favor, you'll let him twiddle his thumbs instead of +1, having already cost you a tap out on turn 2 and a card?
To be fair, when the odds aren't in your favor, that probably means your library is giving you the perfect draws.
When you a land clump, random-looting gives you a higher chance of evening things out. Or if you kept a two land (for example, after mulling to 6) and just need that one extra land, random-looting actually can also get you there.
It's sort of like the Law of Large Numbers (Strong Law). Let's say your deck has 24/60 = 40% lands. So whether you see 10 or 20 cards during a game, you'll expect to have 40% of them be lands.
However, with only 10 cards (# trials), there's a higher variance in the expected value (# lands), than if you were to see 20 cards.
Ironically, random looting actually decreases mana distribution variance by increasing the number of cards you see.
Its almost an 8 Mana Yawgmoth's Bargain, which at 6 mana is banned across the board. Now the 8 Mana Yawgmoth's Bargain will not see legacy play because a 5 mana Yawgmoth's Bargain exists.... Ad Nauseum.
That said, he will be a retarded EDH general that will hated for years to come. I'm confident that turn 3 consistent wins are totally possible.
And that would be it as far as interactions with this card goes. Well, maybe T6 Lingering Souls + flashback.
I am not really excited with this card. Seems flashy and all but I am worried that it comes into play too late, while when it comes into play sooner it would be too overpowered.
I feel it is win-more in aggro decks, while non-aggro will not make good use of it.
I actually like this at 2WW especially compared to Glorious Anthem - 1 more mana for an enchantment that's more powerful early but weaker as a top deck seems more or less fair for Standard.
I was actually expecting the word "other" in the card text...
I don't know if it makes a Standard deck but if you can sandbag a Hero of Bladehold, that's potentially 12 points of damage to face post board sweeper. (+1; then +3 & +3)
Also, the back half of Souls can give you a nice 6 points of power to help recover from a slagstorm. Not bad for half a card.
It's rare (or at least it used to be) to see a creature with so much potential for eternal formats. Dredge my entire library for 7 life? Don't mind if I do. Irregardless of whether your opponent has spotremoval.
My jaw literally dropped when I first saw this card. This was so sick, when my girlfriend walked in on me I had to switch to porn.
The cards +1 is a huge draw back, because of this he wont see any play.
Statistically speaking, in the long run your hand will end up being ~approximately~ the same strength before and after his +1 ability, since you simultaneously gain and lose a card at random.*
The net positive results from two different real (or potential) resources increasing: 1. Tibalt's loyalty 2. Your graveyard.
* This won't necessarily be the case if you use the ability after spending mana sculpting your hand using cards such as Demonic Tutor, Brainstorm, Ponder. Then again, this issue only applies to a) a highly unsynergistic or more likely b) suboptimal decision making.
Just out of curiosity, can you name the multiple formats you feel this is playable in? If you're not referring to 2 player formats, that's fine. Not every card is, nor should be, designed for a duel.
As for the scenario you mentioned above, remember that you have to make the exact same decisions on your creatures before your opponent does. At worst the opponent can simply choose to save the same number and lose the same amount of life as you do. In which case you likely just spent a card and a full turn's worth of mana to bring the game state back to square one. This doesn't even factor in that your opponent gets home field advantage - able to make their decisions after you do.
This might be "good" if every single one of their creatures are 1/1, but even if you're lucky enough to be playing against a token deck sans pump effects, you are not even guaranteed any effect at all, let alone a beneficial outcome.
That's the strange thing, they gave the reasonable mana cost to the more degenerate effect.
Edit: The one "issue" with Reforge is that you can't reliably chain multiples together in a single turn. On the other hand, just being able to resolve a single draw 7 is usually enough to put a player so far ahead that a competent person should win the following turn.
However, it actually makes sense in this case, since this is one of the few miracle interactions that negates NO's card disadvantage.
Fake edit: Okay, it's probably the only one that negates NO's CA loss.
Five mana is very fair, but Wizards sure as **** was generous reducing the miracle cost wrt the original. That's some serious fire power for eternal formats and unlike some other miracle cards, this one is actually organically degenerate.
Well I'm not sure anyone would complain about a 1 mana ancestral/ritual split. (But I suppose you could argue the ancestral half will just dig into more rituals / free mana)
The great thing about the above cards is that you will (virtually) always get the desired outcome regardless of your opponent's decision or choice of deck.
To be fair they have.
It isn't about "Cards that give the opponent choices are bad." It's about "Cards that give the opponent choices better be undercosted for each choice."
To be fair, when the odds aren't in your favor, that probably means your library is giving you the perfect draws.
When you a land clump, random-looting gives you a higher chance of evening things out. Or if you kept a two land (for example, after mulling to 6) and just need that one extra land, random-looting actually can also get you there.
It's sort of like the Law of Large Numbers (Strong Law). Let's say your deck has 24/60 = 40% lands. So whether you see 10 or 20 cards during a game, you'll expect to have 40% of them be lands.
However, with only 10 cards (# trials), there's a higher variance in the expected value (# lands), than if you were to see 20 cards.
Ironically, random looting actually decreases mana distribution variance by increasing the number of cards you see.
Meaning Standard won't have the tools to abuse TM...
What about Zero Mana Yawgmoth's Bargain?
Is that playable in Legacy?
I actually like this at 2WW especially compared to Glorious Anthem - 1 more mana for an enchantment that's more powerful early but weaker as a top deck seems more or less fair for Standard.
I don't know if it makes a Standard deck but if you can sandbag a Hero of Bladehold, that's potentially 12 points of damage to face post board sweeper. (+1; then +3 & +3)
Also, the back half of Souls can give you a nice 6 points of power to help recover from a slagstorm. Not bad for half a card.
Edit: With battle cry that's 14 points. Derp.
It's rare (or at least it used to be) to see a creature with so much potential for eternal formats. Dredge my entire library for 7 life? Don't mind if I do. Irregardless of whether your opponent has spot removal.
My jaw literally dropped when I first saw this card. This was so sick, when my girlfriend walked in on me I had to switch to porn.
Aren't you glad they banned Lingering Souls in Block?
Also, why is some Vintage dude creating a thread for a Block Constructed card?
Discuss.
Statistically speaking, in the long run your hand will end up being ~approximately~ the same strength before and after his +1 ability, since you simultaneously gain and lose a card at random.*
The net positive results from two different real (or potential) resources increasing: 1. Tibalt's loyalty 2. Your graveyard.
* This won't necessarily be the case if you use the ability after spending mana sculpting your hand using cards such as Demonic Tutor, Brainstorm, Ponder. Then again, this issue only applies to a) a highly unsynergistic or more likely b) suboptimal decision making.
mana cost (evokedMulldrifter + Ghostly Flicker) = mana cost (Opportunity)