This card's cost would've been fine at . Even if it has Madness, I don't see why it has to cost 6.
Yozuk
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(5 votes)
the 6 mana cost is actually an advantage against older counter spells. Spells like this and cards with suspend where made expensive so that they would be harder to counter or destroy.
Gezus82
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(9 votes)
Why is the rating on this so low? it's a 1 manna doom blade.
Velex
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(6 votes)
I keep my blue/black deck stocked with four of these. I'm constantly drawing and discarding cards, might as well kill a few things on the way. This + Looter il-Kor or Undertaker is very nice.
Tiplady
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(8 votes)
Personally I like this card when used with Spellbound Dragon, by attacking and chucking this card you get deck-thinning, +6 power till end of turn, and a destruction effect pre-block, all for the cost of 1 black mana. It's an expensive card when hardcast, but if you have a few effects that require discards, this is a solid choice, and although I'm not usually a fan of discard effects due to card advantage, the dragon mentioned above actually gives you a +1 card advantage before the discard and therefore choice.
wolfbear2
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(6 votes)
@ Volcre and Omniance: It cost so much mainly to make players want to play it for it's madness more. It also works great with Spellbound Dragon, but it also helps it agains Spell Blast and Spell Burst.
Omenchild
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Good if you can discard. Worthless if you can't. @Yozuk Like cancel? Cancel came out this set.
Diachronos
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Not as bad as people make it out to be.
There's plenty of effects that make you discard a card to do something based off its CMC. 6 is a pretty good amount for those effects... and you get to destroy a creature along with it for only {B}. And then there's all of the "Draw X, then discard Y" effects; you get to draw cards and kill a creature for dirt-cheap.
wickedragon
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Used in a deck that gets bonuses from discards I think this card is nothing less than awsome.
MisterUndueAlarm
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If you're running a huge amount of self-discard, it might be worth running. But I would honestly rather pay more for Doom Blade for cheap kill.
rareibis
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Unless you can pay it for its Madness cost (like discarding from an 8-card hand during the respective phase, or using other means like Frantic Search) I can't imagine it ever being hard-casted. It's CMC is really steep.
Schlapatzjenc
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Pretty usable in Reanimator, lots of discard spells and abilities.
Missile_Penguin
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(4 votes)
Each Time Spiral card was an homage to at least one previously printed card.
*Sigh* For six mana, you could remove the non-black clause, guys. Really. This card is...*Shakes head*
Axelle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The hardcast cost didn't have to be so expensive.
imsully2
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
I think people are missing the point, it's supposed to be terribly overpriced because you can cast it almost for free if someone makes you discard
Dustylou_2
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(6 votes)
Deserves a higher rating IMO. Yes, it's obviously terrible in most decks, because doom blade/dark banishing exist. However, in decks built around madness, it's a doom blade for one mana. More narrow than doom blade, but still a card; since I'd give doom blade a 4, I'll give this a 3.5/5.
OlvynChuru
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
People need to stop thinking of Dark Withering as "A six-mana Doom Blade with a nice added bonus of having a really cheap Madness cost." The point of this card is to build around the madness cost. Don't simply treat the cheap madness cost as a pro and the high regular mana cost as a gigantic con. It does not matter that its regular cost is so high, because you aren't supposed to pay that cost. If you have this card in a deck and you are not frequently casting it for its madness cost, you are using it wrong and you should replace it with something else. In the right deck, Dark Withering is better than Doom Blade.
Totema
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
You know, I think this card would be better received if it didn't have a standard mana cost at all, and only the madness cost. Because that's how it's supposed to be played anyway.
Reishyn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Cards like this are what give Tibalt a reason to exist.
Comments (21)
@Yozuk Like cancel? Cancel came out this set.
There's plenty of effects that make you discard a card to do something based off its CMC. 6 is a pretty good amount for those effects... and you get to destroy a creature along with it for only {B}. And then there's all of the "Draw X, then discard Y" effects; you get to draw cards and kill a creature for dirt-cheap.
This card is referencing Dark Banishing.
Really. This card is...*Shakes head*