Pointed Discussion

More effective in the early to mid-game because "half of your life" only sounds threatening if you have a larger life total to lose half of. You'll have to figure out what to do for the extra turn because otherwise it's a waste. Your opponent might call your bluff and let you have an extra turn, which could be card advantage, but a very small one. Plan ahead for this card.

If you play black aggro, then it's win/win, since if you take an extra turn, you'll be attacking for a bunch of damage anyway.

And if you really wanted to just take an extra turn, you could always just Stifle or Trickbind the trigger from the first part of the card, but then again, you'd be playing blue and would probably already have other extra-turn-taking cards.

even though BBBB sounds expensive, i think its seriously a bargain. You either trick the oppoonent into halving their life, or just get to attack twice on turn 4. not bad at all, considering time warp costs 5

I run four of these in my B/U mill deck with Twincast, according to the Oracle ruling, even if someone pays the 1/2 their life, it stays on the stack, so twincast it.

I love these cards you give the opponent a choice, because usually they are tricked to choose exactly what you want them to choose..

Lol final punishment win.

Some people really don't know how to use it right, they play it when they have no creatures so they essentially make it, bbbb draw a card.

Combo time. Tainted Sigil and sanguine bond. "Are you sure you want to pay half your life?"

Actually, MTGfreak, if the first ability resolves, it's too late to Twincast. I checked it out in the Rules forum. On the other hand, if you Twincast before they pay, the extortion ability doesn't trigger, because it wasn't "played". Now it reads, "UUBBBB: I get a free turn, and you wither pay half your life or let me have another one." And if you're packing two Twincasts? Or a Pyromancer Ascension?

@tommy: using Wound Reflection would be more simple

Yay, calculus!

This is AWESOME! You either get a bloodtribute for only 4CMC or you get a timewarp in black.

This could get complicated with unhinged or unglued cards that have something and a half power...Great! Now my opponent has 8 1/4 health!!

This card sucks.
Compared to the blue versions anyway, because those are forgiving in matters of color requirements (while this can only really be played in mono black) and always give you a turn.

Next: what does getting an additional turn actually help you? You draw a card. Well, you spent a card for playing this card, so that does nothing. You untap. Ok, that's nice, if you untap more than you needed to tap to play this card. If you don't have a well sized army in play, or other cards that generate game deciding effects, this card basically does nothing.
And if you have enough stuff in play that it matters, some time late game, you have to hope that your opponents are stupid. Well, if they are stupid, you should win anyway. If they are clever, they will choose the right thing, and this card won't help you much.

If you are about to lose, because your opponent is about to combo out, or deal lethal damage to you, and you play this card: then you lose anyway. They pay half of their life, and continue to beat or burn you to pulp. If you are winning anyway, then playing this card doesn't matter this much. Or your opponent is that low on life, that it doesn't matter much. If they are on 6 life: well, they pay 3 to made you waste 4 mana and a card.

In short: this card never saw tournament play, and never will. It plain sucks, and is terribly overrated. And casual? Casual is often multiplayer. There it's even worse. It's a "win more card" that only makes sense if you are winning anyway, and then you don't need it. It's unplayable in the early game too.

In a team game, I wait for one of my teammates to Mindslaver an opponent, then I use Layline of Anticipation to let me flash this on their turn, and we have them pay half their life. It's a jerk move, I admit, but it's pretty hilarious, too.

Play in aggro. Drop good creatures for the first three turns, then cast this on turn 4 before combat.

@ majinara: please do us all a favor and let those of us who still enjoy mtg, still enjoy mtg. Seems like half the cards on here have you both a) figuring a card is completely worthless because it doesn't suit your apparently hyper-competitive style of play, and b) completely trash talking everyone else who has commented on it.

Go comment on Force of Will or something.

I think this is a grand card. I really like the ideas put forth in the Time Spiral block. An extra turn can do a lot of things for you, it's not just a cantrip and another attack phase. Activated abilities can be activated again, you get another upkeep, and of course, untapping. Unfortunately, against most experienced players in the right deck this is basically, BBBB: Target player loses half his or her life. Still has the ability to win games on its own, though.

I think Majinara's comments get down rated so often because he's a spike player, and he presents straw man arguments that would only apply to other spike players like him. In short, he cares only for efficiency in cards. The cards he claims "suck", are usually the kind of cards that really DON'T see tournament play for a reason.

im new here an this is a really good card i use it a lot an my friends hate me an its good in a infinite mana loop mono black deck game winer every time lol

Cards like Temporal Extortion are inconsistent to the point of being worthless. Having two completely unrelated outcomes leads you to be unable to count on the one you'd prefer happening, and thus makes it impossible to actually build a deck to capitalize on it. You could argue that both effects are beneficial to you -- I agree that they are -- but Magic decks work better when they are focused, rather than generalized in their abilities. Players do all they can to remove as many vairables from the game as they can: they play tutors, draw spells, mulligan aggressively, ect. Playing cards like Temporal Extortion relenquishes some of your control over the game, unnecessarily.

Well, hopefully not over-focused to the point that you don't have at least the potential for a plan B pre-sideboarding (a plan C would be rather excessive). All the power, speed, and focus in the world won't help if you get outflanked, so one had better have a way to undo the outflanking (granted, this is coming from someone who thinks that games that only take 5-8 turns per side are a little TOO fast to be enjoyable/interactable, or even utilize an appreciable fraction of the library, say one-third...11-14, anyone?). Granted that doesn't help here--can't choose WHICH plan is being executed, and just taking an extra turn doesn't strike me as an alternate plan in and of itself. Although I do tend to think of cards like this, Browbeat, Lava Blister, etc. as being primarily about the life loss/damage, just with a blackmail option thrown in; choosing "draw cards" with Browbeat suddenly looks a lot less obviously preferable when you consider that that's potentially three Shocks--even worse damage than the Browbeat on its own. In fact, comparing Browbeat with Lava Axe shows what's going on--it's just Lava Axe cheapened by including the choice. Not quite so appealing after that...(Not that I'm sure what you'd make of Dwarven Driller; the repeatability translates to me to dependable 2-per-turn at SOME point, probably an early point)

Nonetheless, even IN mono-black, I don't expect you'll be able to cast this thing THAT quickly, which makes me worry that by the time you have an opening, the half life cost won't be as irksome as one would like (are you sure you can do more damage in that extra turn than they would lose by countering this?).

@majinara

Are you a complete moron? I'd feel a little bit annoyed if you were trolling, but, here goes:

1. "This card sucks. Compared to the blue versions anyway, because those are forgiving in matters of color requirements (while this can only really be played in mono black) and always give you a turn."

You completely fail to realize the differences between color roles and limitations. Sure, this card is twice as mono-black-oriented, but that's not the point. This card is different because it's NOT blue, which is the color that specializes in getting extra turns. What's more, this costs 1 less CMC. This card is extremely good not only because black has nothing else quite like it, but also because it is cheaper and can have a seperate effect. First scenario: you get an extra turn for 1 CMC less than the blue version. Second scenario: you get your opponent to lose HALF his/her life for 2 CMC less than casting a Blood Tribute or playing/equipping a Quietus Spike.

2. "what does getting an additional turn actually help you? You draw a card. Well, you spent a card for playing this card, so that does nothing. You untap. Ok, that's nice, if you untap more than you needed to tap to play this card. If you don't have a well sized army in play, or other cards that generate game deciding effects, this card basically does nothing."

Do you even understand how to play Magic? Like, honestly? Is the highlight of every one of your turns being able to draw a card and untap your permanents? What about things like, um, attacking? Does it occur to you that you get 2 seperate attack phases, along with 2 seperate untap phases, along with their respective main phases, back to back? Do you understand that you're able to play additional cards on each of these turns? Did you know that there are cards that will trigger abilities twice in a row because you now have 2 upkeeps? Do you understand what a 'turn' is? Apparently you don't.

3. "And if you have enough stuff in play that it matters, some time late game, you have to hope that your opponents are stupid. Well, if they are stupid, you should win anyway. If they are clever, they will choose the right thing, and this card won't help you much."

The point of this card, at least as I see it, is not always to hope your opponents make the 'wrong' decision. Rather, it's to give your opponent a choice of two outcomes, both of which are potentially devastating to him/her. Sure, you can use it in certain situations that back your opponent into a corner to choose a certain outcome, but most of the time (at least early/mid game) it will be devastating either way. You're seeing this in black and white, where a player is either 'stupid' or not, and where there is always a 'right' and a 'wrong' decision. It's really not that simple.

4. "If you are about to lose, because your opponent is about to combo out, or deal lethal damage to you, and you play this card: then you lose anyway."

This is just the old "here's a very specific instance where this card is useless" excuse. This is common among noobs who don't have a full understanding of the game. Is Baneslayer Angel a 'terrible card' because it dies to Doom Blade? Is Phyrexian Obliterator a 'terrible card' because it can be Mind Controlled? Is a Darksteel Colossus wearing a Whispersilk Cloak and enchanted with Diplomatic Immunity a 'terrible card' because someone could simply cast Back to Nature, then Shatter, and then Dispatch while having metalcraft on the first Tuesday in October during a lunar eclipse?

No.

In this game, you actually have to think about what you play before you play it. You have to have a strategy, and build decks with cards that will work with one another. You have to play said cards at a point in the game that would call for it.

Go back to playing Yu-Gi-Oh.

Temporal Extortion, how I love you.

Majinara probably lost a game to this card.

@ladnarud THANK YOU!!!
Yeesh... Some people don't bother to think before commenting.

Anyway, I plan to make a blackmail deck with this and painful quandary.

Wow, Ladnarud. Just wow.

I completely agree, if you can't see that both options will hurt in the majority of situations, you don't get this game. I can see this running really well in a mono-black control. Either 1) they take the life hit, and you swing in with your win-con (some beefy flying demon, pumpable shade, something along those lines) and kill them. Or 2) they give you an extra turn and you swing your win-con twice. All while keeping their field clear of blockers with 's staple, a stack of kill spells.

Absolutely nothing wrong with this card. The trick isn't forcing one opponent to pick one or the other, but make BOTH choices work in your favor.

You know what, I think that this doesn't get enough credit. Sure, it's not gonna see tournament play because of the choice; however, this is awesome in CASUAL!!!! It was obviously made for monoblack, and I think it would be best in aggro--they either essentially kill themselves by losing half their life, or give you an extra combat step! This is powerful, maybe not constructed quality because it isn't broken, but most of all, it's fun, which is something a lot of tournament players don't seem to value enough.

5/5, for all the fun times we've had together

See, I think this card is a bit tainted by how bad Dash Hopes is. But see, Dash Hopes is bad because unless the opponent is at 5 life, you're never going to get its intended effect. This is bad because Dash Hopes, being a counterspell, is meant to be used throughout the entire game, beginning, middle, and end, and won't work during any of those stages.

But Temporal Extortion is no Dash Hopes. Why? Because if you time it right, both choices will get you ahead.

Temporal Extortion is strictly meant as a mid-game card, and it's good because if you do play it during the mid-game, it will always benefit you. Play it early, and you just paid 4 mana to draw a card. Play it too late, when you're desperate for either one of its effects, and the choice it affords your opponent will mean you never get what you were looking for.

But play it during the middle of the game, and it will always benefit you. During the mid-game, when most mid-range beaters are on the board and your hand still has some spells left, a loss of half a life total OR an extra turn on your side are both horrible choices for your opponent, and both are liable to win you the game.

Say what you want about its value in multiplayer, but I've found it alright in online 2HG where they have to decide whether or not to pay 20 freakin' life. I've won because of this card where I wouldn't have won without it; it's just a lot of work to make it into a win-win scenario every time.
Yes, the card is pretty mediocre in the same way Browbeat is. But, like browbeat, it has a home. It is an under the curve card your opponent won't see coming, but requires timing on your part to make it shine.
And hell. Sometimes your monoblack deck really, really needs that free Explore. I give this guy a 3.5/5

Turn 1: Swamp, Mox Jet, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Phyrexian Obliterator, Temporal Extortion.

WTF YOU GONNA DO?!?!?!? (that seriously might be one of the most disgusting draws mono-black can ever do.)


Just shut up Majinara

Anyone else starting to think majinara and scumbling are brothers?

BTW, a common misconception is that an intelligent opponent will always make the "right" choice with these opponent choice cards (Fact or Fiction, Dash Hopes, Browbeat, Blazing Salvo). The truth is, however, that they won't always even KNOW what the right choice IS because they don't know what else you have in your hand.

EDIT: A friend of mine uses this in his mono-black EDH Drana ramp deck to devastating effect.

Completely unfair choice in EDH. It's a hard choice because you're either losing upwards of 20 life or risking your opponent doing something crazy with his/her additional turn.
Definitely one of my favourite black cards.

I've been trying to do something clever with this card for some time now. I think Im failing that, or maybe I just have bad luck, but it dawns on me.

Alot of the people I WOULD play this against.... run Gitaxian Probe.
that ruins any surprises I have! D:
damn brains >_>;

Angel of Jubilation can break this..

"Boo-f*cking-hoo! This card is terrible because the opponent gets to choose what happens!"

Who cares when both the results are so awesome? Either the opponent is 50% closer to death, or you get the single most powerful effect in the game (short of "You win the game"), which isn't even native to this color.

That's like saying a zombie bite is ineffective because the victim gets to choose whether to slowly wither away and walk the earth in a state of wretched oblivion, or shoot themselves in the face.

What I'm saying is, they both get the job done, folks.

I want to get this for EDH, just so this can happen:

"Well, well well... the time has come to determine who's MAN enough to... take the heat!"

(looks around) "NOBODY?! Oh, come now gentlemen: I am insulted that all of you believe my next turn will be useless! It is turn 6, people! I have 6 swamps out... I can do anything!"
(no response)
"Very well. with the last of my mana, I play Lightning Greaves. I end my turn, making it... well, mine! AHA!"

(Draw a very, VERY lucky 7-cost spell)

"heheh... hehehehahahahaha! HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I play a Swamp, and then... oooooh! THE FUN BEGINS!"

(Friends) Oh god, no...

@Mike-C, that actually doesn't work, they're not activating an ability they're paying a cost, it's the same as Norn's Annex, plus one requires {W}{W}{W} and the other {B}{B}{B}{B} so it's pretty hard to cast both without going swamp, then 3 isolated chapels in a row and then it's not even until T5, a very good thought tho, if you could make the choice for your opponent that would be very nice

Type your comment here.http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=47930

Play it in a Maralen EDH deck with Wound Reflection and Reito Lantern. Who wants to die first?

Synergies with Extort.

This screams "Break me." It is definitely not easy to play outside of mono-black, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Urborg+Cabal Coffers, anyone? In EDH, this presents a terrible choice: lose a lot of life, proboably putting you behind everyone else, or let your opponent have an extra turn, during which they might do who-knows-what.

I like it. 5/5

This card may not be that good, but it's still awesome.

I have a few of these in my zombie horde deck. It's not really zombie-themed, but forcing the players to choose between losing half their life and taking a chance at the zombie top-deck (+extra swings from the current zombies) is just so much fun.

Well, everybody is all riled up about one guy's brutal assessment of this card, but I got to agree to an extent, this card wasn't what it was hyped up to be. Losing half your life is an effect that gets progressively worse as the game goes on (and worse every time you cast Temporal Extortion, the same problem Traumatize had), while taking an extra turn gets better as the game goes on and you have more permanents to take advantage of the extra turn.

These two effects are at odds with each other. If you want to deal maximum damage (usually 8 to 10 damage) with this card, you have to cast it as early as possible, like turn four. At this point, your opponent will probably let you take advantage of the extra turn with the non-land permanents you casted turns 1-3. Huray?... Most often they'll just have blockers your creatures can't get over profitably and you payed BBBB to cast Explore. At best, you'll get a Dark Confidant and Phyrexian Arena triggers going (this is admittedly a good application, if you can afford a playset of Bobs).

And late game, when you have a bunch abusable artifacts, Planeswalkers, enchantments, and an army of Phyrexian Obliterators and Abyssal Persecutors? They'll pay half of the 5 to 10 life they have left. This card is decent for EDH where half of your life is quite a larger number, but otherwise, don't bother with it.

I have yet to lose after playing this card. In a good situation you'll essentially get double your damage or better. The worst I've ever seen this card do:
Down to 3 with Phyrexian Arena.
Take turn, down to 2, tap out to drop extortion, guy lets me have it. Drop a Swamp and Dark Rit into the Hidden Horror I drew, ditching Demigod of Revenge.
Turn two, down to one, Drop a Demigod, pull the two out of my grave and swing for 19. gg.

This card would be very fair even without the "extortion" drawback. Adding the drawback makes it generally unplayable outside of casual formats.

I'm reminded of the old phrase, "If you don't like this card, it probably wasn't made for you."

Please say, "This card is weak," not "This card sucks." Because it doesn't. Just look at it. It's got some haunting abstract artwork and sweet flavortext and a cool unique effect and it costs and it's EVIL.

Majinara is probably right that it's deceptively underpowered. The extra turn is less valuable early game, and the proportional loss of life is less valuable late game. It's unreliable and too often will give you very little value.

But why are you mad? Are you trying to help people who understand less than you, or just insult them? That's the whole problem. If majinara said, "This card is much weaker than it looks," instead of, "This card sucks", his comments would be highly rated and respected. Instead he just antagonizes people who don't share his values.