What an irony of fate to have the card named "Balance" as one of the most imbalanced cards ever printed.
Posted By:
Mode
(11/4/2009 6:07:56 AM)
One of the most broken cards ever printed, how this made it to 4th edition is beyond me. discard, LD and removal all for 1W, stupidly powerful.
This was comboed with Zuran Orb for a one-sided Armageddon with the help of artifact mana, with Mox Diamond to create a cheap Mind Twist, and so on...
Although one of the funniest stories about that second combo, printed in the old Inquest, was that somebody dropped down to two cards in his opening hand when he played balance. His opponent promptly dropped three Guerilla Tactics dealing 12 damage on the first turn.
Posted By:
Guest57443454
(7/1/2009 10:09:53 AM)
One of my friends told me this card was broken the other day.
I called him a fool, and said it was clearly balanced. To bad I didn't have any shades handy.
Posted By:
faisjdas
(6/22/2010 12:58:04 PM)
Of course, what makes this card ridiculous is its two mana cost. With that, you can play it basically whenever it would benefit you. It definitely deserves a 4.5/5.
I would almost want to splash white into a Madness / Hellbent deck just so that I could combo this with One With Nothing.
Also, a Barren Glory-based deck could benefit from this, since it won't have many permanents out anyway.
Posted By:
Weretarrasque
(10/23/2009 6:45:58 AM)
Staggeringly powerful and another example of how such a simple and seemingly fair idea can be anything but balanced.
Posted By:
Radagast
(9/15/2011 11:27:34 AM)
This card is a good way to show that you can have an advantage in magic with more than just sheer number of creatures/lands/cards/etc. you have, and that it's really beutifully complex.
Posted By:
Kurraga
(10/29/2012 7:05:44 AM)
Commenting on Every Card on Gatherer this Weekend ^_^
I must say, there is a LOT to say about Balance, but I have many printings to say them with :)
The important thing to say about the Alpha one is, that after a long time of thinking I did not like this strange knight in the art nearly as much as the FTV Angel art for it, I have come around to deciding that my favorite Balance art is the Judge Foil Promo. :O
The odds of us getting THAT art again anytime soon are very low, but it is a really cool Time-Spiral-esque homage/tribute to the Alpha Balance :) (Yes, I'm aware of Restore Balance's existence: Judge Foil Balance is still better!)
Posted By:
DarthParallax
(3/30/2013 1:26:38 PM)
Barren Glory? Or Barren Glory?
Posted By:
Ibn_Shisha
(6/9/2013 3:38:50 PM)
Today I've made my first 11-for-1: my opponent discarded 3 cards and sacrificed 4 lands and 4 creatures, with no loss on my side. And I was topdecking. Thank you Balance.
Posted By:
Thanato5
(7/22/2013 10:03:33 AM)