Pointed Discussion

Is this not the same as Heartbeat of Spring but with diffrent wording and in Red?
3.5

Yes.

And where is mana burn to make this card playable? I want my mana burn, Rosewater!

This was fantastically balanced when mana burn was still a game mechanic. It screamed red and enabled turn 4 Shivan Dragons and enormous Fireballs for the win. And, it still does. It just doesn't give red the advantage it once did. However, this could really see play in legacy decks that like powering out enormous evasive fatties such as leviathans and the Eldrazi.

The end all, be all, of mana rampery. Wrap your deck around it, heck wrap it around 4. YOU know how to use that mana, right? Card draw and direct damage. Creatures are just frosting. Keep a few counters handy for your 'friends' stuff.

In my opinion, blame Sorin Markov and Mindslaver for the removal of mana burn. Controlling your opponent and tapping them out to no effect is bad enough, killing them while doing it makes such effects auto-win.

Without a mana burn house-rule, this card is 2/5 tops. Any ramp that affects both you and your opponents essentially does nothing, as it will just make the better deck go off sooner rather than later.

Even without mana burn this still is not bad, you just stack your deck right to abuse it. Most likley, your opponents deck will not be prepared to handle this much mana this early. Then again you drop this and they drop a turn 3 wurmcoil T_T

@Dr. Pingas: They never said they took it out for that reason, stop spewing crap you made up yourself. They took it out because it adds complexity creep to the game. Magic is constantly getting more complex as more mechanics are added, but the only way it ever gets less complex is if they cut stuff from the rules. Mana burn was a rule that came up very, very rarely - so the obvious thing to do was remove it, giving newcomers one less pointless rule to learn about. It's such a niche rule I don't see how people could complain about it being gone, unless you built your deck specifically to mana burn the enemy out, mana burn occurred less than 1 in every 100 games.

@Henrietta: The given reason why they removed mana burn was because it made setting your life total to a certain amount, like for say Near-Death Experience, too easy. Which I think is a design flaw, but whatever, abolishing mana burn makes a ton of red cards (Scoria Cat) that much better.

@Tonymitsu Actually, if you look at the old reminder text for mindslaver (The one printed on the Mirrodin version) you'll notice that it specifically states that the player will not take damage from mana burn.

@Henrietta: Your wrong, mana burn came up very rarely simply because wizards stopped making and releasing cards that take advantage of this feature.

If Wizards had made and released more cards that allowed players to take advantage of using manaburn to hurt their opponents, it would be far more common

wizards screwed up royally when they removed mana burn.

This card was never a "good source of Mana Burn". It only speeds up good players and MIGHT punish less experienced ones. Since all you have to do is think "1+1=2, so 2+2=4" to keep your mana straight, you only had to watch how you cast odd-cost cards, saving the little -cost cards to fill the blanks, maybe.
However, as skilled players show... paying life for a winning advantage is worth the loss... because you'll win.
Of course, with numerous methods to produce more than one mana with a land, that becomes totally moot, with the only problem being maybe casting super-low-cost cards late in the game, or if the boost gets too high too early in the game (for about... one turn).

They took out Mana Burn because it has simply become no more than a MINOR HINDRANCE at best, a ONE-TURN-WIN strategy at worst. Read their statement on it, rather than whine about it and throw blame around.

As for this card itself... yeah, in 3+ games it can help keep you alive (being the Mana Outsource), but in one-on-one... this should be more of a win condition. Done right, that's how it works, since you set it down just before blowing out on the expensive stuff, which are now functionally half-cost, even effect costs.

Group hug in Red, sure, but does it bone?

This was THE mana burn card. They said they took it out because it only ever effected noobs that didn't know better, but I bet R&D completely ignored this card and Upwelling when making that decision.
EDIT: what the hell is "complexity creep", I swear magic plawers make up the weirdest crap. I learned the game when I was in second grade, and my brother had a mana flare; I knew exactly what the rule was, it doesn't take more than 2 short sentences to explain. No new rules will change that. Meanwhile since it's been gone I've seen hundreds of games it would have come up it, the people I play with make sure to comment on it every time.

This an absolutely fantastic card. Love it to death; it and Heartbeat of Spring find their way into every EDH deck that's color appropriate. I've heard the fact that it helps everyone is a disadvantage; maybe so, but it's extremely political. Who wants to kill the guy who's hooking everyone up?