Don't be fooled by this card; most of the time its a much worse version of narcolepsy. Sure you can switch targets over time, but you get horrid value if your cipher target dies, and only modest value the turn after you cast it if you actually connected to tap down 2 creatures. From that point on its conditional narcolepsy.
In limited its alright as removal is obviously worse overall and a bad narcolepsy is still removal.
Posted By:
AitrusX
(4/9/2013 1:46:33 PM)
"cast a copy", does that mean the copy would trigger effects like Wee Dragonauts'?
Posted By:
PyroQwerty
(4/18/2013 9:58:37 AM)
pair this up with a Guttersnipe. Go ahead, give it a shot.
let's say you had your guttersnipe out on 3. they probably swing with whatever they have, assuming you wont block and kill your snipe (because you wont, that would be stupid). they drop their 3rd/4th turn creature.
tap 2, cast this (guttersnipe hits), put it on the guttersnipe, swing 2, cast again (guttersnipe hits again).
that's 6 damage and 2 tapped creatures for 2 mana. they don't untap, buddy, nice try. my turn again?
Posted By:
ToAsTy42o
(4/20/2013 9:45:05 PM)
Why would I want to tap a creature AFTER I've attacked?
Posted By:
Iam_IronMan
(4/24/2013 7:31:08 PM)
This might be a stupid question but I recently just went back to playing MTG. If a creature is tapped and doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step, when does it untap then?
Posted By:
sketch.tan
(4/30/2013 12:15:49 AM)
Play it on Nivmagus Elemental turn 2, it taps down their blocker and then the cipher copy can be exiled to pump the elemental since it likely has no targets.
Posted By:
LordRandomness
(5/22/2013 4:31:37 PM)
Cipher cards can work with the pumpable creatures like Nivix Cyclops if you use them on someone with Doublestrike or First Strike.
Consider Viashino Slaughtermaster
Posted By:
blurrymadness
(6/11/2013 12:35:11 PM)
I'm a little sad the way cipher turned out. While this card and Shadow Slice are very playable in limited, most of the other cards simply don't work very well in limited, since they are overcosted. At the same time, I like the idea of the mechanic, and it works really well with extort. I'm hoping that someday it returns as a returning mechanic for a core set, just so that we can get some ciphered burn spells. As it is, the advantage you get from the cipher doesn't outweigh the extra cost. Consider Last Thoughts versus Divination. Divination gets you the cards immediately and costs {1} less. If you're doing it right, Last Thoughts is also 2 cards the turn you cast it, and can get you extra cards later. {3}{U} for draw 3 is extremely good, but anything less than that, and you have a worse card than most other blue draw effects. That means you have to have an evasive creature 2 turns in a row, and if you don't have a creature ... (see all)
Posted By:
Aremath
(6/13/2013 12:25:17 PM)
Beast little card.
Posted By:
TheWrathofShane
(7/30/2013 9:46:27 AM)
I used this with Invisible Stalker, and then I use Gideon Jura to kill just about anything I want :D
Invisible Stalker + Hands of Binding + Gideon Jura = Fun times!
Posted By:
MrSunso
(8/15/2013 7:47:13 AM)