Pointed Discussion

Distortion Strike to the rescue!

Oooh, nice one Pramxnim!

I too agree with Pramxnim. Rebound makes this guy so playable.

best Surrakar yet.

Slap a Whispersilk Cloak on this one and cast all the rebounding spells you like. :D

He's definitely not good at all on his own, but the potential with Whispersilk Cloak for a nutso card drawing engine is proabably good enough for devoting two card slots. Might not be playable without additional cards of that nature, though. You need both a way to be unblockable and a way to not be so fragile.

To bad the charge counters aren't +1/+1 counters.

Yeah, I like the thought of countering spells early on, then casting Distortion Strike on this guy, and have it rebound for a net of 4-6 cards over 2 turns. I think this is one of the coolest "Fantasy RPG" type character/cards I've seen in a while based on flavor and ability. Okay I'll just say it, it reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance >.<

this guy is amazing for UR.

as an example i'll give a possibility in limited:

turn 3: surrakar spellblade
turn 4: staggershock, distortion strike, swing
turn 5: rebound: rebound, swing

thats 10 dammage and 6 cards, and thats not counting anything you might have played on turn 5

Wow. I can see how ridiculous this is. Alongside Wee Dragonauts and Kiln Fiend, this card is a bomb in UR Pyromancer Ascension/Inst and Sorc abuse decks.

I'll give it a 4 1/2.

New Ophidian? 2/1 for 3 is not impressive, not even in Blue, but this little guy could see play in any sort of counter-beater strategy, relying on White, Black, or Red removal to get him through.

The obvious combination (Distortion Strike) is probably not a good bet for Constructed, since you'll want your deck to be heavily spell-based, thus often self-blanking Strike for lack of targets. Instead, go tear up your local FNMs playing Counter-burn with this dude, Kiln Fiend, Surreal Memoir, Staggershock, Roiling Terrain, Swerve, Double Negative, Explosive Revelation, Deprive and so-on.

Sounds like a Jon Loucks deck, to be honest.

Also Shadow Rift makes for a fun pairing, and Reliquary tower is a must for any deck with this in it.

And now we have Steady Progress.

This really should have been a 1/2 or a 1/3... Think about it: It doesn't matter how much damage he deals, just that he deals damage. I'd rather he not die than beat up the enemy.

Proliferate. Distortion Strike.

I am surprised I have not seen this card being played in any Grow variant. This guy, alongside Quiron Dryad, would be beast.

I play this guy in my Kiln Fiend deck as an alternate win condition. If I can't draw the fiend, I assault strobe + distortion strike this guy for at least 4 cards (6 if I get to counter something). The massive amount of card draw usually gets me what I need to win or draw even more cards.

Puts Surrakar on the board! WTH is a Surrakar?

This *** Looks Like He's Got Spaghetti Sauce All Over His Mouth.

pick up 2x the amount of cards with assault strobe

Why does he have a blank ruling?

Another attempt at a vintage-playable orphidian, and this one was quite close. Most creatures in Type1 cost 2, which can be played 1st turn off a mox + land. This one, however, is a full turn slower and does not guarantee an effect yet (unless you somehow played a spell since during the first main phase.)
The most prohibitive thing about this card is the UU colored in its cost, which might be hard to come by. 2U would have made it more playable.

That being said, you could play this off a turn 1 lotus cobra. It has 2 power, which is perfect for effect creatures in vintage. This card offers the unique ability to be both a win condition (attacking) and an insanely powerful draw engine in counter-heavy control decks - possibly even outdrawing Confidant in the short AND long run. Counter their spells, untap, attack to draw more counters, and eventually draw your win condition or a time walk (which is pretty much the best non-winning card you can draw). As a matter of fact, extra-turn sorceries might be so good with this card that Time Warp is almost justified...almost.

It might find its place as making Cobra Gush decks, which haven't rose to their old dominance since the restriction of Merchant Scroll and Brainstorm, more consistent. You can find fastbond faster, pump out mana with cobras + gush, and start playing spells left and right of your combat phase. A mini-tendrils recovers some of the lost life, and it puts you in range of attacking for the win. I'd like to build a deck around this.

hit 'em hard Larry!

I like to call a lot of cards "Niv-Mizzet's best friend," like knollspine dragon, but truly, not counting curiosity or ophidian eye, this is Niv-Mizzet's best friend.
Curiosity is like his secret mistress or something.

would unblockable be too much?

Best Surrakar in the game.

Of which there are four.

Blue-red burn control. Keep the board clear with spot removal, pack cheap counters, swing with Surrakar to replenish, burn out the opponent.

don some evasive equipment and assault strobe to the rescue!!!

3 Artful Dodge
3 Distortion Strike

I had no clue this card existed, and i played tremendously in Zendikar standard.

This is insane with Hands of Binding.

Play with Rebound,"Free counterspells" (Daze ,Foil) and unblockable and you have a great drawing engine, |All star in my Ninjutsu deck! if only he was a Surrakar ninja... :D

Red/blue really appreciates this. Especially a burn-heavy deck designed to get rid of those pesky blockers and then immediately replenish your hand with this guy right afterwards. Cipher works really well with this guy, as does whispersilk cloak.

Oh wow. This is neat. I gotta build around it sometime.