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Spell Snip
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Spell Snip
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Community Rating: 1.197 / 5  (137 votes)
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Aaron's Random Card Comment of the Day #21, 10/25/10

This card is essentially medicine, something that exists to fill a specific need but doesn’t excite anyone. It doesn’t help that it is worse than Miscalculation in two ways. That said, if we’re willing to print cards that are strictly better than existing cards (Primeval Titan vs. Yavimaya Wurm), then we have to be willing to go the other way on occasion as well. While the overall power arrow for Magic can only go one way (up) over time, we can choose to go down once in a while on specific individual cards or clásses of cards.

Spell Snip does a good job of being a cycling card by being narrow. Cards that offer you the choice of ditching them for something else (cycling, landcycling, transmute) should typically help you make the decision, as those decisions are hard for less experienced players. I’ve seen many people hold onto a Barkhide Maule... (see all)
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Posted By: Aaron_Forsythe (10/25/2010 10:23:45 PM)
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Wizards, you mixed something up here if you tried making a cantrip version of Force Spike.
Yes, this spell's mana cost was properly raised by 2.
No, a cantrip lets you draw a card when you cast the spell, not when you cycle it.
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Posted By: Mode (11/26/2009 6:24:53 AM)
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@Aaron; Yeah. I like Mark's card better. More balanced. And I'm sure Faeries would not have dropped Cryptic Command for it. Spell Snip is in no way an elegant card, and like you said, Miscalculation isn't that good but it is a lot better.
Elegance in magic cards is my "medicine." I'll toss out a Craw Wurm in a casual game even if I had a playset of Titans- why? Because Craw Wurm is elegant (not saying Primeval Titan's blatant brokenness is not a thing of abstract beauty). And because if you defeat your opponent with sub-par cards like Craw Wurm it is similar to taunting in a fighting game like Street Fighter. On the other hand, beating someone with Spell Snip is like trying to make Clam Chowder with garden fertilizer- you just don't get positive results, and you end up not having fun. I would play Spell Snip if I got the right cards in limited, but you really have to dislike the design of a lot of cards that are expressly d... (see all)
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Posted By: Kryptnyt (10/31/2010 1:27:30 PM)
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I use a foil one of these as a bookmark.
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Posted By: jhimbob (11/1/2009 1:33:28 AM)
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My favorite story ever involving this card:

Its a typical weekday draft over at the local store. I'm birding a match between my friend and a less-experienced player. So game one he saw spell snip from his opponent, and decides to play around it. He waits to get to eight mana before casting his Cruel Ultimatum and gleefully pays the 1 when it gets spell snipped.

This is the point at which his opponent calmly taps three mana for a second spell snip.

So thank you Aaron et.al. for printing awful cards that create amazing memories like this. I just about died laughing.
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Posted By: questionmuppet (4/19/2011 7:24:00 PM)
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Hmm, it seems like pretty much everything that can be said about this card has been said, except for one thing...

Heck, I'm just gonna go ahead and say it. This card is strictly worse than Storm Crow.
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Posted By: Tiggurix (6/5/2010 3:11:04 PM)
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This is unbelievable horrible. I'm pretty sure it is one of, if not the worst counter in Magic. Even if you look through every counter that is Counter target spell unless opponent plays X, they are better.

Look at Complicate--it let's you CYCLE and get the effect of Spell Snip. Otherwise, they need to pay 4 more.
Circular Logic is 1 per card in your graveyard. Easily going to be 5+ somewhat late into the game (like after turn, say, 4). Plus, it has Madness.
Convolute lacks any other abilites (eg Cycling) but it makes them pay 4.
Disrupt shames this. It costs U and lets you draw a card.

There are so many counters with the same (or lower) cost that are so much better. Did they think anyone would use this card? Ever?
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Posted By: Elysiume (7/1/2009 2:26:54 PM)
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For crying out loud, even Runeboggle lets you draw a card when you counter something. This MIGHT have been worth it if it cost only 1U.
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Posted By: BayushiKazemi (3/19/2009 3:16:30 PM)
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counter unless 1? That's the worst kind of counter! Why they thought the cycling would make it worth 3 is beyond me. Cancel does the same thing but the spell is countered unconditionally!
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Posted By: Ryosuke001 (6/22/2009 3:36:51 PM)
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Complicate and Miscalculation are BOTH strictly better than this.
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Posted By: Forgeling (8/26/2009 12:28:36 PM)
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Says you Lodus, you can't even make a good counterspell!
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Posted By: DoragonShinzui (5/24/2012 9:28:19 AM)
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Not strictly worse than Mana Leak. Regular worse than it, I guess.
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Posted By: MithosFall (3/6/2012 6:44:32 PM)
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At least I know where to find the rules of MTG on forums.
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Posted By: Glech (2/29/2012 6:42:12 PM)
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This card exists to make Runeboggle feel good about itself.
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Posted By: luca_barelli (11/26/2011 3:53:48 PM)
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2, Discard Spell Snip: Draw a better card.
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Posted By: Grumman (8/9/2011 6:11:10 PM)
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While I understand the concern of printing good, cheap counters with Fairies still around, printing terrible cards isn't really the solution either. If it had bumped the cost by 2, that still would have been weaker than Miscalculation, but at least it wouldn't be laughable.

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Posted By: Radagast (7/21/2011 9:47:22 AM)
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@ Aaron:
See, Spell Snip is an awful design. Cycling in general isn't much better. Of course it can balance your mana curve and therefore reduce frustration... especially in limited formats, where a missed land drop or a missed answer can be devastating. However instead of giving a card cycling, WotC should ignore MaRo and find some better way to smoothen the gameplay.

Spell snip also combines two effects that are usually triggered at the very last moment and both with similar costs.... that's increases frustration. In addition, unlike Clear, this card isn't very specific in the effect... it is useful against any spell. So there is no real way to argue this way.

I don't care about your Faeries story, since it is made by your team and to skip specific - really weak - cards, is the worst no-go ever to fix such a problem.
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Posted By: Cheza (6/4/2011 12:56:47 PM)
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spell sh*t
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Posted By: ninjaman98 (4/24/2011 2:00:34 AM)
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My favorite story ever involving this card:

Its a typical weekday draft over at the local store. I'm birding a match between my friend and a less-experienced player. So game one he saw spell snip from his opponent, and decides to play around it. He waits to get to eight mana before casting his Cruel Ultimatum and gleefully pays the 1 when it gets spell snipped.

This is the point at which his opponent calmly taps three mana for a second spell snip.

So thank you Aaron et.al. for printing awful cards that create amazing memories like this. I just about died laughing.
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Posted By: questionmuppet (4/19/2011 7:24:00 PM)
Rating: 
0.51.01.52.02.53.03.54.04.55.0

 


@Aaron; Yeah. I like Mark's card better. More balanced. And I'm sure Faeries would not have dropped Cryptic Command for it. Spell Snip is in no way an elegant card, and like you said, Miscalculation isn't that good but it is a lot better.
Elegance in magic cards is my "medicine." I'll toss out a Craw Wurm in a casual game even if I had a playset of Titans- why? Because Craw Wurm is elegant (not saying Primeval Titan's blatant brokenness is not a thing of abstract beauty). And because if you defeat your opponent with sub-par cards like Craw Wurm it is similar to taunting in a fighting game like Street Fighter. On the other hand, beating someone with Spell Snip is like trying to make Clam Chowder with garden fertilizer- you just don't get positive results, and you end up not having fun. I would play Spell Snip if I got the right cards in limited, but you really have to dislike the design of a lot of cards that are expressly d... (see all)
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Posted By: Kryptnyt (10/31/2010 1:27:30 PM)
Rating: 
0.51.01.52.02.53.03.54.04.55.0

 


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