Holy mother of Jehosaphat. It looks like someone vomited up a huge pile of mana symbols on the ultimatums. The effect better be Pretty Spiffy right? Well, on some of them it is a game winner, but for a whopping WWUUUBB you get to draw something like 2 cards and play them for free. There is something like a 2/3 chance that you will get 2 free land drops out of this, or a land drop and some crappy spell. Fact or Fiction cost 4 and put the cards in your hand, but it was splashable. If there wasnt such a heavy color committment this could be good. For WWUUUBB i expect to get to play ALL 5 cards for free, or split up 10 cards for my opponent to choose from.
This card will be played, but only by Johnny's who like to make crappy cards work. I am one of these players though and I am not even touching this ultimatum.
Jester_Dragon
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I think Brilliant Ultimatum is a fun card. The only downside that I have found is that if you've played a land the turn you play the Ultimatum, and the pile you choose has lands, then they get removed cause you can't play them. But other than that downside its really fun, IMO.
Supernovae
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
the fun part is you get to choose which pile to play. you'll never end up playaing a land and a crappy spell if you don't want to. unless of course you get 5 crappy cards in a row..
BrimandVormay
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
that's propaganda, the general idea is that your opponent has to make a choice and you get to use ANY of those cards for FREE!!!! it's a fun card that can stump an opponent. if they make the deal to good, then you choose that pile
Wrathofthemany
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If you play a lot of finishers like i have a habbit of doing. This card can own in a hurry i once 2 ink well lethathan and a sophren sphix lets just say i won that round. While you can get some 3 drops you can get some of the best cards in the game out for nothing. This card might not be the ultimatum in the world its a worthy rare
Asinine-Ultimatum
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It feels like it should be great but I've never got anything good out of it when using it. The concept of the card is great, it's just not what I'd chose to spend my seven mana on!
Rasel
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(6 votes)
I can't wait to play this in a big multiplayer game with Hive Mind on the battlefield. Now that's some epic lulz. That will be a spell-storm to remember.
AlphaNumerical
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is how Mind's Desire was balanced? Mataku, this is boring.
Esperzoa123
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I play with a white, black, and blue deck and personally love this card. Its very useful since I have a uber powerful creature card almost every other card and the person who makes the piles cant look at the cards and the mana cost is not that big look at progenitus.
Worst of the Ultimatum cards by far. Not only that, but if your opponent separates the piles, 2 and 3 respectively, chances are there's going to be 2-3 lands scattered amongst them. Which means you'll probably be looking at the option of playing 2 spells at most. For 7 mana you could cast 2 other spells, without having to exile any cards.
The only real benefit of this is saving the other spells in your hand and being able to cast something in your library, but I'd rather have the open card slots than put this in. 2/5 for novelty sake only.
This is only cool if it lets you play something you wouldn't be able to play- like something requiring more cost than you have payable means, but if you can make the casting cost for this you aren't too far off from casting ANYTHING anyways.
I played this a couple times, once I got a couple angels out for free and that was a game winning move at the time. The other time, well I don't even remember what it was, but I remember I could have made the play for less mana. That has to do with deck design more than anything else, but I think I'm going to leave it out this time. Maybe if I draw into stuff that makes this look useful I'll switch it in and try it during the tune up after a couple games.
O and- I do think the card looks cool as hell. I'm going to give it a 3.5 instead of a 3 just for that!
kittyspit
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
wow, all the other ultimatums OWN this one.
0.5/5, i'll give it that much for creativity.
Folesauce
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Absolute worst ultimatum. At this mana cost, you should have been able to SEARCH for five cards. Instead, it's just plain terrible. There's a reason it sells for next to nothing.
Hibron
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
What happens if you play a card with X in its mana cost?
Gaussgoat
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
For a whopping 7CC, I expect more. Yeah, the card is cool, but 7?! Very tough to make this really work well for you, unless you have some serious fore-sight into what is coming in your deck. I guess it could be useful as a "I've got nothing left to lose..." card...
I really need to play with it a few times to see if it is worth it. Right now, I'm leaning towards a 2/5 due to high CC.
bijart_dauth
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
imagin if you went into another of these or another ultimatum. you will probably win. but the best part is it dosent say you seperate them and the opponit choses. it is the otherway around, so if you hit some thing good like progen then you are going to get it (unless there is a better option, which sense it is free i find that unlikely).
BlackAlbino
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
hellcarver + liliana + distortion strike > this + all the brainstorms in the world
JaxsonBateman
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Works very well as a finisher in an Esper Control deck with Liliana, Jace and Emrakul. Of course, Liliana and Jace aren't required for the combo but certainly help set it up.
It really depends on the deck your facing, but I find T4 Jace (brainstorm), T5 Time Warp (2 cards from Jace), T6 Time Warp (3 cards from Jace), T7 Brilliant Ultimatum is just devastating.
But now that I think about it, you could really do the same thing with Grixis control and Cruel Ultimatum and not need to hit Emrakul to win. Of course, the difference there is that you don't have Day of Judgment.
mdakw576
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
With emrakul recently released, this card finally saw a bit of play. And then it's going to cycle out by october.
Guest513736147
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I play this with Jhoira of the Ghitu in a deck with otherwise uncastable cards. Seems like it fits right in.
Even with some lands in there, there's still no good choice.
ItsSlaughteringTime
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(5 votes)
wow that is *** 1/5
alzabo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is a monster of a spell in EDH where you most certainly will lay out some fatties.
DerStrudelkopf
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Fun I can see with this card: abusing scrying effects to make sure you have 5 very good cards (possibly more ultimatums) before playing this. The fact that you choose which pile to play from means that if you can stack those top 5 cards, you are guaranteed some fun.
As for how to get such a stacked top 5 cards, excessive use of tutors and "draw X cards, then put Y cards from your hand on top of your library" cards may be in order... might need some way of skipping your draw step as well... hmmph. OK. That's asking kind of a lot.
desolation_masticore
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Uses a very loose definition of the word 'brilliant'.
One that apparently means heavily costed and unplayable. Ironically the Blue shard's ultimatum plays very unfavorably with counterspells and board wipes, so how do you make it to that then?
izzet_guild_mage
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Scroll Rack? This card seems good if you don't cast it blindly. I wouldn't know, I've never used it, but I imagine that's the case.
Lueseto
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
a sorcery that is so hard to cast should win the game by itself. this doesn't
Crash21
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This card is a combo-players dream. It fits right in with my Esper combo deck. Following a Lim-dul's Vault, anyone? Especially if you're playing with multiple combo pieces that cost 6+ mana each, it's definitely a value card.
danitrusca
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
It would be decent I think if you didn't have to cast the spells as part of the resolution of the Ultimatum, so if you could cast them later. At one time I used it and got two counterspells, a Sphinx Summoner and two lands, so what I ended up with was a Sphinx Summoner for seven mana.
DarthParallax
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
The reason why this has to be so dissappointing much the time is that it is utterly, horrendously broken to the point of being barely printable some of the time:
You're opponent would probably punch you in the face :P
EDIT: Try this in Multiplayer. Now with Planeswalkers!
Player A- casts Brilliant Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker Karn Liberated Sorin, Lord of Innistrad Garruk Relentless//the Veil Cursed Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Player B- hates Player C, doesn't think Player A can lose anyway.
Player C- screams many obscenities when all 5 cards are put into one pile. (0 is a number, and therefore a valid choice for the second pile)
OmegaSerris
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
In comparison to the others of the cycle, the is only one way this can even hold a candle to Cruel Ultimatum. And that is if there are three Cruels on top of your deck when you cast it (that way your opponent is forced to put two or more into one pile).
Seriously, I have to rate this the lowest of the cycle. There is not even any flavor to support it in Esper. At least Clarion Ultimatum had some sync with Exalted since you could boost your count by 5 (plus any other effects like Angelic Benediction and Finest Hour). A simple fix for that would have been to let you tutor five artifacts out of your deck rather than the random top five.
I get what they were going for, the borderline broken Fact or Fiction. But that card also cost 3 mana less with 1/7th the color weight and at instant speed. No thanks, do not want.
Totema
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Ok... land, land, land, land, land. *sigh*
I am absolutely sure this has happened somewhere.
StrayWanderer
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
With some really basic mana ramp I used this one turn five: Land, Jace, Brilliant Ultimatum, It That Betrays, and another Brilliant Ultimatum. My friend quit.
Zylo-
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is the worst Ultimatum spell. Cruel Ultimatum is the best...
At 7 mana, you are probably paying more to cast this than any spells that you reveal.. There is a big chance of pulling 2 or 3 land cards and a couple 1 - 3 mana cost spells... Especially in modern.. The designers failed huge when they made this for Esper.. Opponent puts 1 land in each pile, 1 decent spell in one pile and 2 very low casting cost spells in the other. You just overpaid to cast a couple cheap spells or 1 decent spell... This is pathetic either way.
I gave this 1 star because it is totally unplayable and the other Ultimatums are so powerful.
Comments (37)
This card will be played, but only by Johnny's who like to make crappy cards work. I am one of these players though and I am not even touching this ultimatum.
The only real benefit of this is saving the other spells in your hand and being able to cast something in your library, but I'd rather have the open card slots than put this in. 2/5 for novelty sake only.
This is only cool if it lets you play something you wouldn't be able to play- like something requiring more cost than you have payable means, but if you can make the casting cost for this you aren't too far off from casting ANYTHING anyways.
I played this a couple times, once I got a couple angels out for free and that was a game winning move at the time. The other time, well I don't even remember what it was, but I remember I could have made the play for less mana. That has to do with deck design more than anything else, but I think I'm going to leave it out this time. Maybe if I draw into stuff that makes this look useful I'll switch it in and try it during the tune up after a couple games.
O and- I do think the card looks cool as hell. I'm going to give it a 3.5 instead of a 3 just for that!
0.5/5, i'll give it that much for creativity.
I really need to play with it a few times to see if it is worth it. Right now, I'm leaning towards a 2/5 due to high CC.
It really depends on the deck your facing, but I find T4 Jace (brainstorm), T5 Time Warp (2 cards from Jace), T6 Time Warp (3 cards from Jace), T7 Brilliant Ultimatum is just devastating.
But now that I think about it, you could really do the same thing with Grixis control and Cruel Ultimatum and not need to hit Emrakul to win. Of course, the difference there is that you don't have Day of Judgment.
Hmm, out of this pile, what do you let me play?
Greater Gargadon
Progenitus
Island
Mountain
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Even with some lands in there, there's still no good choice.
As for how to get such a stacked top 5 cards, excessive use of tutors and "draw X cards, then put Y cards from your hand on top of your library" cards may be in order... might need some way of skipping your draw step as well... hmmph. OK. That's asking kind of a lot.
One that apparently means heavily costed and unplayable.
Ironically the Blue shard's ultimatum plays very unfavorably with counterspells and board wipes, so how do you make it to that
This card seems good if you don't cast it blindly. I wouldn't know, I've never used it, but I imagine that's the case.
Imagine that these were the five cards you got:
Cruel Ultimatum
Cruel Ultimatum
Cruel Ultimatum
Cruel Ultimatum
Storm Crow
You're opponent would probably punch you in the face :P
EDIT: Try this in Multiplayer. Now with Planeswalkers!
Player A- casts Brilliant
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Karn Liberated
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Garruk Relentless//the Veil Cursed
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Player B- hates Player C, doesn't think Player A can lose anyway.
Player C- screams many obscenities when all 5 cards are put into one pile.
(0 is a number, and therefore a valid choice for the second pile)
Seriously, I have to rate this the lowest of the cycle. There is not even any flavor to support it in Esper. At least Clarion Ultimatum had some sync with Exalted since you could boost your count by 5 (plus any other effects like Angelic Benediction and Finest Hour). A simple fix for that would have been to let you tutor five artifacts out of your deck rather than the random top five.
I get what they were going for, the borderline broken Fact or Fiction. But that card also cost 3 mana less with 1/7th the color weight and at instant speed. No thanks, do not want.
I am absolutely sure this has happened somewhere.
Land, Jace, Brilliant Ultimatum, It That Betrays, and another Brilliant Ultimatum.
My friend quit.
At 7 mana, you are probably paying more to cast this than any spells that you reveal.. There is a big chance of pulling 2 or 3 land cards and a couple 1 - 3 mana cost spells... Especially in modern.. The designers failed huge when they made this for Esper.. Opponent puts 1 land in each pile, 1 decent spell in one pile and 2 very low casting cost spells in the other. You just overpaid to cast a couple cheap spells or 1 decent spell... This is pathetic either way.
I gave this 1 star because it is totally unplayable and the other Ultimatums are so powerful.
"I cast brilliant ultimatum and flip:"
Brilliant Ultimatum
Brilliant Ultimatum
Brilliant Ultimatum
Brilliant Ultimatum
Brilliant Ultimatum
Opponent: "Umm???"
I love it and want it all the time.