This card makes me feel like Morpheus.
What if I told you it could kill Erayo?
What if I told you it could kill Counterbalance?
This card does (almost) everything. When Smother falls asleep it dreams of waking up as this card. In terms of EDH, this is the best removal spell printed in a long time. It shuts down some of the most annoying cards in the format. This card is the honey badger. Every Sword, every utility creature, every mana artifact, and many of the more aggressive generals. Get ready for a big price tag though, the implications this card has for Legacy and Modern are very tangible. I can see this card reaching $30+ in the next two years and foils will retain their value indefinitely.
ASSASSIN'S STRIKE
This card has some nice upside. It is a bit clunky and expensive, but most of the time it will be a 2-for-1 and sometimes you will live the dream: kill their guy, they discard another guy, you reanimate them both! This really wants to be an instant, but unconditional removal is something that every deck needs. A nice budget option if nothing else.
CONJURED CURRENCY
If there is anyone out there still playing Barack Obama.dec, here you go. This is for you. When you come back to your senses I'll be here waiting for you. Telling great stories of great games full of great cards. This card is not great.
COUNTERFLUX
This card is the business. There are only a handful of answers to Storm cards and Maelstrom Wanderer. Decks definitely want access to some sort of effect like this. If people in your metagame like to Cascade, show them what's really good. Do the Counterflux ya'll.
CYCLONIC RIFT
I can really dig this Overload thing, but I can't get behind the targeting restrictions R&D keeps throwing on my Boomerangs. Turn 2 'rang your opponents land use to be a pretty spicy start to a game of magic. It let your opponent know how things were going to be. You didn't have to just sit there and take their land drops lying down. Oh well, this card is still quite strong. It is is quite a tempo swing regardless of which mode you play it in. I like the sound of bouncing their junk on the end step and then swinging the beats.
DETENTION SPHERE
I dislike that the Blue in this cards casting cost restricts it to only certain kinds of decks, but fortunately those UW control builds are the most likely to want this card anyway. I am not going to complain about another copy of O-Ring.
But why does it always have to be nonland? Vindicate isn't even that good....anymore at least.
DREADBORE
So this is what terminate looks like as a rare? They turned it to gold and it got a lot slower..I guess that makes sense. This card has needed to exist for a long time. Pdubs are just so powerful in casual formats and so common in competitive formats, that not having answers to them is suicidal. Well, Rosewater has your back this time kiddies. Getting bored of that Jace guy? Tell him where to stick it.
On a less happy note, like most (good) rare removal spells, this card is going to be pretty expensive for a while.
ELECTRICKERY
As you have probably learned. I like to drop a pun or two. This one takes the fun out of it. They put the pun right in the name. Shockingly, this common is pretty good on both sides. Kill their looter? Kill all their saprolings. KILL ALL THE (little) THINGS. Sideboard it main deck it I don't care. This card is better than it looks. There is sure to be somebody at the table who's day is about to ruined by an upgraded Simoon.
On a side note, I can't tell whether the fairy in this art is getting fried or is firing the sparks at something else...awkward.
GOLGARI CHARM
A Black and Green removal spell that is good against all the things the Abrupt Decay isn't? Yeeeeehhhaaawwww! Kill tokens, kills Doubling Season, and counters Day of Judgment? This is what you want in an instant speed answer: versatility, flexability, and power, all with a cheap cost. This is a brilliantly designed card that plays well with the new Golgary mechanic and the flavor of death and rebirth.
HAVOC FESTIVAL
This is the EDH version of Sulfuric Vortex. It adds a lot of reach and power to aggressive strategies. It shuts down Boon Reflection and Beacon of Immortality. There are other cards like this that already exist, but this is better. This also has applications for Grixis control decks who want an edge over UB or UWB control in slow grindy games. They will not want to play wait and see against this card.
DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for what happens to you if you drop this in multiplayer. I am looking at you Kaervek!
IZZET CHARM
If MtG designers want the game to go in a direction where creatures are the focus, they are going to have to stop printing such awesome instants and sorceries. This is a beatdown. Kills utilty creatures, counters noncreature cards on curve, and lets you go nuts with double loots if you really need to dig. Expect to see this in maindecks...a lot of them.
MARTIAL LAW
What in the world? People play this kind of junk all the time and I don't know why. Apart from being incredibly slow, being blank in multiplayer, not stopping planeswalkers, and being horribly underpowered this card is a gem.
Let me relay a story from the prerelease. A friend asked, how many creatures would this have to detain before you would start it in EDH? To which I answered....3 or 4, but I don't see why it doesn't just detain their whole team for free every turn. There are easier and cheaper way to shut down creature decks.
Then he asked, well how much would it have to cost if it was only going to detain 1 creature? To which I replied: Hmmmm, I would be excited at 0. I would have to test it at 1. At 2 this card is only about as good as Prison Term, mostly because it can't stop Haste guys, but the term can.
The truth is that Icy Manipulator isn't even good enough for competitve commander games any more. Which is sad because I love to ice things. And this nonsense....is nowhere close to Icy.
What a blowout. Graveyard hate has certainly come a long way since the good old days. Enchantment theme decks will play this. In a random control deck, I don't think this makes the cut. It is strong, but the abundance of colorless options, value-added effects like Ground Seal, or surprise cards like Cremate means you will only see this card every once in a while. This card will make an impact in Standard and Legacy, so it will get its day in the sun.
SOUL TITHE
If you read other pundits reviews of this card they go something like this: "Don't be fooled. This card is terrible!"
My real question is...who was fooled? This is the worst removal spell I've ever seen. I wouldn't play this card even if it cost zero and ADDED 1W to my mana pool when it came into play.
I actually might play it if it let me draw a card when it came into play though...that's like....a million times better.
STREET SPASM
This card...is not good. It does a decent job of dealing with early creatures, but if you want to power it up in the late game it costs way too much. If you need to barbeque someones board BON(fire)APETITE!
If you really need to blow up the board, you don't want to get snagged by some guy with an untapped island and a bad attitude. Show them you mean business by laying down the law. This card is judge, jury, and executioner. I really cannot wait to play this and yell: "YOU HAVE BEEN JUDGED...AND FOUND WANTING!"
I find the color pie implications of this card to be somewhat interesting. If you asked me what an uncounterable sweeper looks like, it has historically been red. My gut tells me it should be 1WWB. I just don't know what to think anymore. The best creature in standard is blue. The best counterspell is red. The best removal spell is green. The colorless accelerators produce any color of mana. The UW deck doesn't even want wrath, but wrath is "too good to reprint". Mutilate is in print and it isn't even good enough to play? I never thought I would live to see the day.
ULTIMATE PRICE
This is pretty good, but it isn't the ultimate removal spell. GftT still stops more of the relevant creatures in the format, but this is a pretty good card to have access to. Unfortunately, monocolor decks tend to have a higher number of artifact creatures to compensate for their shallow card pool, making this even more limited. Try it out, but don't be disappointed when it is stuck in your hand instead of sticking the knife in your opponent.
Want another tyrade about color pie problems? White removal spells typically come with a draw back that helps your opponent. Black removal spells typically come with a targeting restriction, instead of a drawback that hurts you. Which is a very popular tactic for overpowering Black cards that aren't removal spells. I don't have an opinion on this; just something to think about.
Well that brings the wagons all the way back around, youngins. If you like what you see then come on back and give me a holler. Ol' Grandpa is always ready to tell you a story or two. Until next time children:
"May your library always be fat and your first mulligan free." - Grandpa Growth.
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