It is sad how much Lightning Bolt makes this look bad. Even Shock seemed better, but Replicate 'sorta' made up for that. Next to Lightning Bolt, though? No reason to play this without an infinite combo. What makes me half-mad but okay with that is that Izzet was the guild of Combo, so it fits with that....but I really think that any Red card that stoops to the level of needing to combo to be good is not pulling the weight of the color. RDW is supposed to be the perennial non-combo answer to combo, and if even Red falls back on Combo as Green already has, then the entire game will be combo forever. I don't want to live in that world.
Posted By:
DarthParallax
(3/20/2011 3:38:04 PM)
Isochron Scepter, definitely.
Posted By:
themlsna
(6/7/2010 2:46:26 AM)
Pyromatics... MY OLD NEMESIS, WE MEET AGAIN. ALL MY HATE.
I've loathed this card ever since I started using it when I first started playing Magic over six years ago upon receiving an Izzet Gizmometry starter deck from my older and younger brother. It befuddles me that such a potentially amazing mechanic like replicate for the most part ended up stamped on instants and sorceries that were among some of the worst ever printed; all the more bewildering considering that the Izzet were supposed to be unparalleled masters of magic. Replicate cards were sold as supposed to be able to "be flexible enough for early or late game," but only accomplished reaching new lows. Despite all that, this one by far knows how lonely it is on the bottom.
Lets compare, shall we?
If you cast this as soon as you can, it's 
for 1 damage. For that same amount of mana, you could cast a Volcanic Hammer, dealing 3 damage.
To deal as much damage as that Volcanic Hammer, you'd hav... (see all)
Posted By:
DaMaster012
(12/17/2011 5:20:34 PM)
Man, I love this card! I remember the very first game I played, I was handed a r/u deck from the ravnica block and they sat me down in a 4 man FFA. I ended up knocking two people out with this card =D Oh, memories. I don't even play red anymore, but I still love it.
Posted By:
PolskiSuzeren
(1/24/2010 8:59:43 AM)
2 mana for 1 damage is never, under any circumstances, a good deal. No matter how you slice it. You can replicate it all you want, but this will always, and forever more, be an atrocious and unplayable burn spell. It is outclassed by EVERY burn spell with a set cost, every burn spell with an alternate cost, every burn for X spell, and even the burn spells GREEN AND WHITE GET.
Posted By:
DoragonShinzui
(2/10/2013 6:46:52 PM)
One time I do love this card is against illusions; turns every two mana you replicate into a kill spell, so long as you've made sure to get rid of any targeting restrictions (IE; Lord of Illusions).
That said I could see someone building a fun EDH deck with spells like this and Dismiss into Dream or Cowardice
Aside from targeting tricks, I wouldn't grade this worse than a 1.5 or 2 maybe; obviously this spell is designed around multiple targets, and in that respect it's pretty much the equal of Fireball (both would pay {4} to deal 1 damage to two creatures). Fireball is more flexible in the fact it costs less to deal a lot of damage to one target, but Pyromantics has its own advantage in being able to distribute the damage more freely rather than dividing and rounding.
Agree that none of that still makes it a good burn spell, but those saying it's the worst ever or giving it a 0.5 rating are very muc... (see all)
Posted By:
Yukikah
(8/11/2013 3:38:06 PM)
@DaMaster012:
Wow! You really didn't understand this card, did you?
You can't compare it to the majority of the burn spells, not with Volcanic Hammer, nor Lava Axes, Blaze neither, because it's very different. You can compare with
Arc Lightning
Conflagrate
Fire
Fireball
Forked Bolt
Rolling Thunder
Electrolyze
and the like...
Since this is an instant, so it's better to compare it with other instants. Notice that the even sorcery aren't strictly better, and only situationally better.
Fire
Electrolyze
Not so many, uh? They are better to deal 2 damages, and are very good cards, but in order to deal more damages you have to choose Pyromatics. This kind of spells are very costy because they are CARD ADVANTAGE in RED, something that is quite difficult to gain... This is at instant speed and very "modular":... (see all)
Posted By:
leomistico
(9/11/2013 1:30:30 AM)