Pointed Discussion

This card is a nightmare of uselessness for it's cost compared to it's abilities. If it could do damage to perhaps a creature on the field in addition it might be worth somewhere near it's mana cost.

Well, it is a 6 point life swing and a 4 mana hard counter. It may not be all that great, but there are certainly worse 4 mana hard counters out there. Take Last Word for one.

This card is good but mostly its just FUN to play! What a diss, to counter some ones spell, bolt them and gain life, I get a huge grin thinking about it. It deserves at least a 3. I loved Absorb and undermine and this is both!

I'd love to be able to PUNISH IGNORANCE!

BEST FLAVOR TEXT EVER!!!!

Nice card but they should have made it 1WUB or 2U+hybrid W\B

It's a quite good combination of Undermine and Absorb.

Hard to cast, but not too hard for Alara's mana producers.

Probably the second best counter ever (*ahem* Last Word). Love the art, the text is great, and it brings out a bit of each color.

It's almost sad how much little play this sees compared to its parents, Absorb and Undermine

Can't blame them, though, we've been spoiled by much more absurd 4 CMC counterspells.

It's certainly nice if you've got the extra mana to throw at it and the effect is nothing to scoff at. counter a spell and then add some insult to injury and then you get to walk away feeling smug about it.

Love the art. And its fun to use even if its not the best counter out there. :)

this card is fun with cards that limit spells players cast to one per turn. i used this in my esper deck with ethersworn canonist. adding that plus venser's ultimate will get you shot though lol

Aaron’s Random Card Comment of the Day #42, 11/30/10

There are only two rare cycles of three-colored gold cards in Shards of Alara, and one of them is the Ultimatum cycle. The other consists of Broodmate Dragon, Sedraxis Specter, Realm Razer, Stoic Angel, and this card--essentially just a bunch of cool cards with varying levels of connectivity to the rest of the set. Sedraxis Specter actually has its shard’s mechanic, Stoic Angel was designed to play well with exalted cards, and Broodmate Dragon is, well, a dragon, which is a big part of Jund’s identity. Realm Razer kind of fits with Naya’s plan of get out a bunch of huge creatures (and then make the lands go away). Punish Ignorance, on the other hand, really has nothing to do with Esper's colored artifacts theme.

I’m okay with that. Typically, when you try to overly force structure when it isn’t necessary, you end up with three-fifths of your cards being lame and, well, forced. The Ultimatums were already a relatively tight gold cycle (that had varying levels of awesomeness), so it was unnecessary to make another cycle that all had shard mechanics or whatever. The set just needed cool cards!

I believe it was Devin Low that made Punish Ignorance; I consciously used “made” instead of “designed” because I don’t really consider mashing up two popular old cards (Invasion’s Absorb and Undermine) card design in its purest sense, although it is a useful way to make cards. I certainly mean no disrespect to the card, the method, or the man; I have employed this tactic many times myself. It isn’t subtle, and it may even be a bit shameless, but you do end up with something likeable. Punish Ignorance is a particularly good example because it reads great to both older players who fondly remember the Invasion cards, and newer players who just appreciate what the card does on its surface. (Contrast this to, say, Time Spiral’s Stormcloud Djinn, a card with two drawbacks that probably doesn’t interest new players at all, and leaves even the most well-studied veterans wondering why we felt the need to combine Cloud Djinn and Electric Eel. Some mash-ups are great, some are abominations.)

So, not only do I get to say "Time to punish your ignorance!" to someone casting a spell I don't like, but I can also quote the flavor text afterward and sound like an epic jerk?

Time to get a playset. I suspect I'll be the most well-liked person in my group.

So Beast Put It In My Esper Tinker Deck With Some Thopter Combo

Play this card face down on the table, Revealing only to your opponent that you are playing "Punish Ignorance." Your opponent must then tell Punish Ignorance's printed flavor text, if he cannot exile target spell, followed by Punish Ignorance's casting cost, if he cannot target player loses 4 life, followed by Punish Ignorances epansion and rarity, if he cannot gain 6 life. Haha, a mini-game of ignorance punishing!

Dang, Shards had some awesome art.
The flavor is excellent, as well.
I wish I had one of these, it just feel so...final.
Unfortunately, I'm a bit sad that I don't have any decks that utilize both esper colors and counterspells, otherwise this card would be on my wishlist.

I love how the main benefit that this card has over a good old counterspell is that it insults your opponent for you.

Printing this in the block after Cryptic Command is almost unfair. Not only is it laughably worse, it's harder to cast. Love the art, love the flavor text, love the callback to Invasion, but it never had a chance to shine with these numbers in that environment.

On American game shows you reward knowledge. On Japanese game show we punish ignorance!

Flavor text ftw

Actually, Mr. Forsythe-- i am REALLY loving this card flavorfully- it seems to fit in with the style guide of Esper's Hegemonic culture perfectly. It also has ridiculously awesome artwork, that makes me feel it is sitting right at the crossroads of Bant and Esper- couldn't you see this as some kind of Renaissance Artwork in some Bant museum, probably next to a mural of Asha fighting Malfegor? This is like, Dante Aligheri stuff here...meets Michaelangelo. Probably one of THE best cards in the Block for Lastability-

unlike many other Alara cards, this one still screams awesome, unwithered at all by any of the monocolored Power Creep that has made some of this block's cards feel harshly overcosted. I think the same thing happened to Invasion Block actually, and I think it's a risk that Multi-Colored sets just cause to happen- the following mono-colored sets often sort of shame them because of the point in Standard where one Block is heavy Gold, one isn't, and the cards are close to equal to each other. But that seems to be mainly a short-term problem, as Invasion Block still has some gems one can find. Long-term, Gold has not ruined Mono Colored, nor vice versa :)

As for Punish Ignorance- In fact it's almost too awesome for itself. I WANTED it to be in Nicol Bolas' Duel Deck! >:P Why U Cost White? OK, actually that one's obvious. I love that it costs White--

Better question, Why Bolas Deck No Have Godless Shrine so it can cast this??? :/

It's playable enough. It's a bit clunky, and it's a bit inneficient, but it's mad stylish, and in casual, isn't that what matters? Bonus points for playing it alongside its little brothers, and maybe their baby cousin too.

one day I will make a "U suck at Magic" deck that will run this and Dismal Failure, just for the lulz

I don't know if you have a counterspell, so I'm going to Duress you.

. . . You're only at 3, right?

Counterhelix.

I would play this card just to say its flavor text as I cast. I love it that much.

Time to construct a real d*ckish Esper control deck.

This card is amazing. No its not the best counterspell around, but I do not care even a little. The name, the art, the flavor text: This is a perfect card.