Well, we have here a weaker prophetic bnolt, I guess.
Costs more mana, sorcery speed instead of instant, you draw more cards but they will be random instead of the best of four, and the burn part is somewhat unreliable. Unless I already have an expensive card on hand, that I consider to discard to kill a creature (or players, or planeswalker), I might just draw three low casting cost ones (or lands) and thus not deal enough damage. Not to mention that, by the time I can spend six mana for such a spell, what I'd most likely discard would be lands. Which would be the worst thing to discard in this case.
It's not a horrible card, but I don't like the design of it, that makes me discard expensive cards and keep cheap ones on hand in the late game, where I'd normally want it the other way round.
Posted By:
majinara
(4/23/2013 11:44:59 PM)
Old Niv looks quite ridiculous back there.
Posted By:
Fenix.
(4/24/2013 8:27:43 AM)
these are NOT two of the effects you want in one card by paying a lot of mana. and that's lame to waste the AWESOME work of Terese Nielsen.
Posted By:
don_miguel
(4/25/2013 4:12:42 PM)
This card actually reminds me of spellbound dragon in regards to discarding cards to boost damage potential based on CMC.
Posted By:
Shadowcaster3975
(4/29/2013 11:59:49 AM)
Honestly, if you run this properly, it will be a game ending spell. Which, at 6 CMC, is what it should be.
Everyone who keeps talking about it not going off, target it directly at the opponent when you're topdecking. Two cards up in that stage of the game is often all you'll need, and the extra burn doesn't hurt.
Posted By:
Taudisban
(5/1/2013 7:57:31 PM)
Awesome in EDH. I run this in a Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind deck, which has a good number of high-CMC cards (about 17 cards that have CMC 6-11). You just need to drop a card with 6 or more damage to break even with this guy, because seriously---6 mana for 6 damage and 3 cards is already pretty good. The deck has 39 instants and sorceries; in such a deck, discarding Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre to get back your entire graveyard (including the Blast of Genius) is a valid play.
Posted By:
Okuu-chan
(8/4/2013 6:29:08 AM)
Wizards was way too safe with this card (as they were with most cards in dragon's maze).
For starters, drawing three cards then discarding a card is worth 3U (sift). The idea was that 1R added damage, but the problem is that in order to do the damage, you need to discard a card with the appropriate mana cost. Killing a 5 toughness creature, for example, means you lost a 5 (or higher) mana card, which in most cases is probably the best card in your hand.
Sometimes you whiff entirely, because you have to choose the target before you even draw. For example, say you need to kill a 5 mana creature and your hand is empty. You topdeck this and play it, but you don't draw a 5 mana card, so you just spent 1R more for sift.
In other words, sift lets you discard your weakest card while blast of genius either makes you discard one of your best cards, or is a sift that costs 1R more.
Basically, this card could have easily cost 1 less mana. It is not really significantly better (if even at all)... (see all)
Posted By:
mdakw576
(8/12/2013 3:21:59 AM)
Let's see, draw 3... Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Draco, and Gleemax.
I accidentally the game.
Posted By:
SirLibraryEater
(12/8/2013 3:21:30 PM)
This card has amazing synergy with Omniscience, Vengeful Rebirth and Chandra Ablaze.
Posted By:
lorendorky
(1/15/2014 10:38:41 PM)