I remember pulling one as a kid, thinking "what the **** can I do with this?". Fastforward years later, to the age of widespread internet and me seriously getting into magic: This thing is hilarious. The uses for this card range from the complicated (summoner's egg/phage routine) to absurdly lethal (the infamous Illusions). Rating? Depends on the user, but usually when you see an opponent cast this you know you are in trouble.
HAVE FUN!!! (and think twice when you say Donate isn't a good card!)
nekosan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
you don't loose by donating phage, this is not an aura that leaves play as the opponent does. So when the player looses, phage doesn't come back to you but leaves play as well ^^
PhyrexianEditor
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(5 votes)
...and then lose when Phage comes back under your control?
>>The problem is Phage is not "coming into play," it's just changing controllers. So no one loses, your opponent just gets control of your bomb. Then if you Turn to Mist it, it will come back into play at EOT under its OWNER'S control, and since you didn't play it from your hand, you lose.
Exuberance
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(6 votes)
Dropped a Steel Golem on turn three, Donate on turn four, Unsummoned his other creature he had... yeah, he wasn't too happy when his Elf deck just stopped.
Arglypuff
★★★☆☆ (3.4/5.0)(8 votes)
Well if the Elf deck hadn't gone off by turn four, it must not have been a very good elf deck in the first place.
ChampionofSquee
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Throw this in with illusions of grandeur and i think its a game winner, you just gotta play donate either the same turn or the next turn as you play this. or Sanguine bond with it
SinnerSage
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Aside from the multiple uses of "giving away" something really annoying, I use this in a Dominus of Fealty Deck to permanently get control over well... a permanent. Bazaar Trader pretty much allows you to achieve the same results in most cases, but there are times where Donate just does it better.
The guy on the right pretty much captures how I feel when I play this card.
AvatarOfHOE
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Why not donate your Necropotence? It's the kinda card that if you run it, you can plan ahead. But your opponent will definitely not be expecting to have his draw step taken away and have to pay life to get cards in hand.
Harleau
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
My big question is this: are there any cards that can donate instants while they're on the stack? If so.... such wonderful carnage we could reap. In any case, donate does some nasty stuff.
iamludo
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Donate Forbidden Crypt then pop Tormod's Crypt. Auto WIN.
divine_exodus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Good ol' beeble bomb routine!!
ratchet1215
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
An interesting and cool card idea broken by the reality of the cards around it. Yet another example from Urza's block of a busted combo card.
DarthParallax
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(10 votes)
a blue card with an urza's block symbol? screw this Im not bothering to read it. its 5 stars, its broken, theres a zillion combos and it makes kids cry, right? im getting one. :)
gasimakos1
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
i have a real itch to try out trix once or twice
GoblinNaysayer93
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(8 votes)
This is an example of a well-designed card. It challenges a common intuition among players that certain cards are "strictly worse" than others because of their drawbacks. No matter, you simply use Donate to make your opponent suffer the drawbacks instead.
If you manage to then win that game, I'll be impressed.
phyrexiantrygon
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
I just love how this card was meant to be a Johnny card, but it turned out to have too many combos... Of course the TRUE Johnnys are the ones making combos with cards like Mudhole...
Zacklar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Gameguy602 tapping them with spells won't cause the ability to go off since you are tapping them, not activating them
Edit @tavaritz oh right, my bad
forumbrowser
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
"Please, have my Illusions of Grandeur. I couldn't possibly pay its cumulative upkeep any longer!"
Gcrudaplaneswalker
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
"Here."
DrJack
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
"This is an example of a well-designed card."
BZZZZZZZZZZZT. Wrong. Do not pass "Go", do not collect $200.
Donate + Delusions of Grandeur* = nearly guaranteed victory for yourself, and a fairly easy 2 card combo to pull off. Play the Delusions, pay the cumulative upkeep a couple of turns, then donate. You'll keep your 20 life you gained, and when your opponent can't pay the upkeep (which will be very soon now, being that it will probably be a 6-mana upkeep cost by then), he'll lose 20 life - unpreventable loss of life. How do you recover from that?
Yes, this was the original ridiculous broken 2-card combo before Painter's Servant and Grindstone. Guys, there was always a reason it was never too easy to "donate" one of your cards to your opponent just like that. But the "Wizards" seem to always leap before they look when it comes to breaking sacred rules of this game.
Before this, the nastiest 2-card combo was Lich plus Mirror Universe, which was considerably harder to pull off and carried much more risk, and also a bit easier to recover from (a simple Healing Salve would save the opponent, and you'd still be in danger from your Lich).
* OK, I realize the actual name was "Illusions of Grandeur", but I hate the Wizards of the Coast's tendancy for a poor grasp of the English language.
mono_blue_forever
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Combine with Jinxed Idol.
A_Real_Travesty
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Playing a team game with a Silver deck, and everyone wonders why I bothered putting a Hivestone out...
ParallaxtheRevan
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Whoops, for 10 years you've all been doing it wrong. That Illusions of Grandeur deck? Yeah apparently Donate was extremely broken BEFORE that card was made, with two OTHER cards that I am fairly certain no healthy mind could possibly think of Donating...>.>
Thankfully, JacktheStripper doesn't have a healthy mind, so when I looked up Oath of Lim-Dûl I saw him say this:
"Donate this and Necropotence. Hurts like hell unless I'm reading a rule wrong."
......
......
That's right folks. Somewhere, someone out there is busy breaking Necropotence BY DONATING IT?!?!
And it works. My God there is something wrong with that person's brain. And something even more wrong than I thought with Necropotence. InQuest gave it a 0/5 before later changing to 5/5. It's possible that when Ice Age wasn't so old and Urza's Saga was brand new, this combo would have torn up people just as well as the 'conventional' uses of Necropotence that were discovered (But were very much unconventional ways to play MAGIC. Back then anyway.)
Comments (38)
Fastforward years later, to the age of widespread internet and me seriously getting into magic:
This thing is hilarious. The uses for this card range from the complicated (summoner's egg/phage routine) to absurdly lethal (the infamous Illusions). Rating? Depends on the user, but usually when you see an opponent cast this you know you are in trouble.
Colfenor's Plans
Transcendence
Nefarious Lich
Delusions of Mediocrity
HAVE FUN!!! (and think twice when you say Donate isn't a good card!)
>>The problem is Phage is not "coming into play," it's just changing controllers. So no one loses, your opponent just gets control of your bomb. Then if you Turn to Mist it, it will come back into play at EOT under its OWNER'S control, and since you didn't play it from your hand, you lose.
Two more words: Good bye.
"Whenever Sorrow's Path becomes tapped, it deals 2 damage to you and each creature you control."
Doesn't matter how it gets tapped.
If you manage to then win that game, I'll be impressed.
tapping them with spells won't cause the ability to go off since you are tapping them, not activating them
Edit
@tavaritz
oh right, my bad
BZZZZZZZZZZZT. Wrong. Do not pass "Go", do not collect $200.
Donate + Delusions of Grandeur* = nearly guaranteed victory for yourself, and a fairly easy 2 card combo to pull off. Play the Delusions, pay the cumulative upkeep a couple of turns, then donate. You'll keep your 20 life you gained, and when your opponent can't pay the upkeep (which will be very soon now, being that it will probably be a 6-mana upkeep cost by then), he'll lose 20 life - unpreventable loss of life. How do you recover from that?
Yes, this was the original ridiculous broken 2-card combo before Painter's Servant and Grindstone. Guys, there was always a reason it was never too easy to "donate" one of your cards to your opponent just like that. But the "Wizards" seem to always leap before they look when it comes to breaking sacred rules of this game.
Before this, the nastiest 2-card combo was Lich plus Mirror Universe, which was considerably harder to pull off and carried much more risk, and also a bit easier to recover from (a simple Healing Salve would save the opponent, and you'd still be in danger from your Lich).
* OK, I realize the actual name was "Illusions of Grandeur", but I hate the Wizards of the Coast's tendancy for a poor grasp of the English language.
Thankfully, JacktheStripper doesn't have a healthy mind, so when I looked up Oath of Lim-Dûl I saw him say this:
"Donate this and Necropotence. Hurts like hell unless I'm reading a rule wrong."
......
......
That's right folks. Somewhere, someone out there is busy breaking Necropotence BY DONATING IT?!?!
And it works. My God there is something wrong with that person's brain. And something even more wrong than I thought with Necropotence. InQuest gave it a 0/5 before later changing to 5/5. It's possible that when Ice Age wasn't so old and Urza's Saga was brand new, this combo would have torn up people just as well as the 'conventional' uses of Necropotence that were discovered (But were very much unconventional ways to play MAGIC. Back then anyway.)
>Clean the field of creatures.
>Have Form of the Dragon on you.
>Drop Witchbane Orb
>Donate Form of the Dragon.
>Laugh like a manic as he can't target anyone else
with the fire ball than himself.