Eh...not amazing, but certainly not terrible. It's okay late-game to put your opponent on a clock. Recurring burn is nothing to scoff at, even if it comes at a rather high price. Just look at Cursed Scroll: Crank any of the numbers up or down just a little, and Rod of Ruin would jump from mediocre to broken.
Posted By:
ratchet1215
(9/15/2009 9:30:23 AM)
It's not that bad a card, I don't see what all the fuss is about. It's not a creature, so it's less vulnerable (i.e. Pyromancer and his ilk can't touch it), hence the activation cost. And at colourless, it should be expected to cost one more than the like of Pyromancer.
@achilleselbow:
It still needed to be tapped pre-Revised, they just didn't have a tap symbol. Artifacts that tapped to activate had "Mono Artifact" on their type line.
Posted By:
Master-Crimson
(6/2/2010 2:08:36 AM)
I love this card with infinite turn combos.
"You know what? I'm gonna kill you by slowly pinging you to death with rod of ruin. So ha!"
Horrible card, tho...
Posted By:
channelblaze
(8/24/2010 9:45:53 PM)
Bad because it can't even kill a Storm Crow.
Posted By:
Duskdale_Wurm
(3/25/2011 11:21:44 PM)
I hate the interaction my eyes have with looking at this card next to Scepter of Empires.
Of course they would make the badass looking one actually suck, and vice versa. Darn you, Wizards!
Posted By:
DarthParallax
(8/8/2011 10:32:36 AM)
Why, oh why did they reprint this so many times? It's horrible!
Posted By:
Saxophonist
(7/29/2009 7:11:49 PM)
I recall a day when this was, in fact, decent. Mostly because every other artifact was total jank, and this was your poor-man's Timmy. Now, it's getting all kinds of hate. I don't think it's quite fair for the card- it's all Mirrodin's fault, really. It taught us that a colourless mana is pretty much equivalent to a coloured one when Wizards wants it to be. Now, as artifacts have reached the standards of other card types, this has just fallen behind a little. It could be retired gracefully, yes, but there are cards that deserve hate much more than this. Cards that fill space in sets other than a core. Cards that are overpowered to the point that they're not fun. Cards that were modified or that simply exist for questionable reasons (I'm looking at you, new M10 cards). Cards that we were lied to about (Mythic Rares are NOT all legendary or epic flavoured, thanks, Mr. Warren Instigator). Rod of Ruin? Minor offendor, at best.
Posted By:
DoctorKenneth
(11/21/2009 8:01:10 AM)
why? why...
Posted By:
mrnubnub
(7/12/2009 3:51:51 PM)
There were so many good artifacts that just became illegal in standard, why the hell wasn't this one of them? This card is pitiful in just about every format and on top of that its uncommon; why? A more important question: why didn't Wizards bring back Loxodon Warhammer? It was expensive but it was also an amazing hell of a card! Why, why, why?
Posted By:
SavageBrain89
(7/14/2009 7:45:15 PM)
Rod Of Disgrace
Posted By:
MasterOfEtherium
(7/14/2009 12:30:27 AM)