The combo is alright, but the card is worse than mediorce otherwise. If you're playing a mill deck, you'll be minimizing the amount of damage sources in your deck as they don't contribute to your overall strategy. Mindcrank can turn damage sources into mill, but if you don't see it early you have a bunch of cards that are essentially dead without it. This forces a lot of unwarranted inconsistency into a deck.
Posted By:
scumbling1
(4/29/2011 10:32:13 AM)
everyone seems to be missing where this card shines best (other than obvious combo with bloodchief) - multiplayer. especially in casual groups who play large group games often where everyone has tons of lifegain to survive 4+ player games. in our group of players this does wonders. sure playerX over there may have 185 life now and gaining 35 life a turn, but thanks to my two mindcranks i just dropped on the field we can deck him and ignore his lifegain.
even better with team games if everyone in the team has some... 1 or 2 down may seem lacking, however 4 or 5 on the field (which wont be too uncommon in 2 or 3 player teams) can really change things if your primary win conditions have failed.
not saying its amazing, but when you can play a card that helps your opponents hurt each other more in a free for all, its almost always a win in my book :)
Posted By:
Aqualightnin
(6/18/2011 2:47:05 AM)
the way i see it, this card discourages you to play infect. surprising that this came out in 'New Phyrexia'
Posted By:
bluemaxx
(6/13/2011 3:30:12 AM)
Reliably, standard legally, and cheaply done:
Turn 1:
Swamp.
Pulse Tracker.
Turn 2:
Swamp.
Bloodchief Ascension.
Death Cultist?
Swing with Pulse Tracker and hope fully cause a loss of two life for the first counter.
Turn 3:
Swamp.
Grim Affliction. Proliferate the counter.
Swing with Pulse Tracker/swing with or sacrifice Death Cultist.
Ends the turn with three quest counters on Bloodchief Ascension hopefully.
Turn 4:
This little beast here.
Any mill, discard, or removal of your choice.
Posted By:
kanguilla
(5/6/2011 2:18:06 PM)
"Hey dude, what deck you running today?"
"Oh, just my new R/B mill deck."
"-pff- Yeah, ok, good luck with that."
Posted By:
NocteMundi
(5/13/2011 3:32:07 AM)
It doesn't look like much, but in a draft a shrine of burning rage at 8 and suddenly a second of these looked pretty lethal! And he finished me with some burn, only burning me for 13 overall, but milling me completely!
It may not be the sweetest card ever, but in draft it was quite competent.
Posted By:
Shiizu
(5/17/2011 3:58:55 PM)
Combo with Bloodchief' Ascension for the quickest way to lose friends!
Posted By:
Elenodul
(3/29/2012 12:13:10 PM)
OK so just for humors sake, let's say you're playing multiplayer. You have four of these out alongside four Psychosis Crawler. You draw one card, each opponent loses 4 life, then each is forced to mill 16! Draw 3 more and thats good game in all likelihood.
Posted By:
shmewdog
(7/8/2011 6:57:38 PM)
Screw you blue I don't need you anymore, I can mill just fine thank you.
Posted By:
Leonidus78
(4/28/2011 8:09:52 PM)
2 ways this in alright without Bloodchief Ascension:
In Allies running Blue for pain in baht milling ally to not be annoying in multiplayer,
AND with Vulturous Zombie so he can double himself like the big boy Szadek, Lord of Secrets and you can (probably) reanimate stuff!!!!!..................
But you know what...... just use Bloodchief Ascension. I think that'll work out just fine.
Posted By:
Bigg_ol_FATTKIDD
(4/28/2011 11:18:08 PM)