Pointed Discussion

Seems pretty damn awesome in limited have only done prerelease and 1 draft of zendikar so far but there seemed to be a lot of life gain going on

pretty good red. keeps those white decks from gaining to much health too quickly

almost happy stigma lasher isnt standard legal now

idk, red burn may still be viable, this and lava axe (unstable footing)
never been a red mage really, so I dont really know, will have to talk to my bro (I the controler, he is the fire bug)

I like the art and design of this card, but I'm not sure I would run it very often. I was playing 3-player pack wars and when one player dumped Ob Nixilis on the board and started racking up the landfall, me and the other player conspired against him: my ally stuck him in the swamp with Mire Blight, and i bonked him on the head with my lava mallet. Of course any burn would do, but the image of the Legendary Demon's demise was particularly amusing.

it goes great with Grove of the Burnwillows

Awesome combo with Grove of the Burnwillows

It's really subpar burn unless you combo it. The aforementioned Grove of the Burnwillows combo is big in extended zoo right now.

2 damage for 2 mana, pay for return, the only good thing I see about this is it can keep on killing creatures.
And BTW the burnwillows give your opponent 1 life and this thing deals ->2<- damage, 1 red per turn to deal 1 damage to your foe is awful, as I said, aim creatures, don't bother with this on other people.

Great for pinging a vampire deck.

Anyone who doesnt see this cards amazing potential, is an absolute moron.

Good as a sideboard for dealing with Kor Firewalker. The firewalker's still there but he's not going to want to gain life.

Punishes white for siding in Kor Firewalker...or for running lifegain, if anyone still does that. Great synergy with Chandra Ablaze...discard it for 4 damage, return it for R, rinse and repeat.

GREAT discard fodder. Very easy to gain card advantage with this in the right setting.

Also... great against vamps.

This is a fine card with or without Grove of the Burnwillows (in fact Grove is just a mean combo that breaks it, and also puts you out of PURE Red damage. Its a half-green land, and that counts in my book.)
with all the fire on this card, I would only run it in mono-red, cuz thats how I roll.

Compare it to Hammer of Bogardan if you want to know how good this really is. For 1 less mana, you get 1 less damage and REPEATABLE FLASHBACK FOR R!

True, this is only 'conditional' flashback, a card that is just plain bad to MAINdeck because there's cards that are better against 90% of decks. So? Do you not play with a sideboard? Do any of your friends have any love at all for the colors green, white, or black? or the tribes Clerics, Vampires, or Elves? or any of a number of cards like Basilisk Collar, which randomly power out a bunch of life? Chances are you know someone with a lifegain deck. Kill it with this. Auto-Sideboard x4 in all casual Red Decks, and many pro decks as well.

I have seen many cards that give red an advantage against lifegain, such as Leyline of Punishment or Stigma Lasher but this one has REPEATABLE FLASHBACK. Those cards, once in the graveyard, don't come back most of the time. REPEATABLE. FLASHBACK. FOR 1 MANA! It doesn't get better than that for hate cards, since you don't want to play 'all in hate', but when you NEED hate, you NEED IT and this gives you many virtual copies in the hate match.

Also Lolz if its an 'almost mirror', you both have Dragon's Claw, but only YOU have this.

Well it's no Lightning Bolt of course, but think of all the life gain lands alone people tend to throw into decks. The best part, if you have 3 mana open then you end up with this sort of scenario.

Opponent: Ok I gain X life--
You: Before that, Punishing Fire for 2
Opponent: Sure, then I gain my life--
You: And I get the fire back for 1.
Opponent: ...does it really work like that? Freakin' annoying...

Worth considering for sideboard in any burn-heavy decks at least, not bad for a cheap common.

Lol Hedron Crab. Who wants crabcakes?

wut, this card was from zendikar?

Man Zendikar Block had some good burn spells...

This card is very good in Limited, but I am afraid that outside Limited it's not as good as it seems at first glance: even with Grove of the Burnwillows or any possibility of recovering it from your graveyard every time you want, it's still for two damage; not so competitive... However, very interesting!
I must also admit that were it costed less, it would be broken...

I can see the strength of this card in certain decks and against certain strategies - but why is it banned in Modern? Did it break the format?

@Adunar

It's banned in Modern because of its interaction with Grove of the Burnwillows. Basically an infinitely repeatable burn spell for . They decided it was too oppressive against decks that rely on small creatures.