I'm usually not a fan of this mechanic, but in this form it seems much more worth it, playable for sure, and definitely one of the more general leylines of the cycle most seem like sideboard material
Laguz
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(17 votes)
Red Deck Whines
sir_dwar
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(18 votes)
Admirably fulfills Wizard's Modus Opperandi these days- That is, it hoses most of the budget decks in standard, forcing us to shell out massive amounts of cash for overpriced "Mythic Rares" like Baneslayer and Jace, the Mindsculptor.
Swiftgamer18
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(5 votes)
"Red Deck Whines" = epic comment
KnockK
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(2 votes)
As a fan of RDW I honestly don't even see this card getting a lot of play in blue white control, maybe I'm wrong. We will see.
Catmurderer
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(18 votes)
Perfect side board material. Being a card that completely dominates a decktype is pretty crazy. (Oh, Red cant deal with Enchantments... well lets make an Enchantment that hoses red then.)
Further zaniness is that this card costs the exact same as Ivory Mask.
This is one of those cards that I would put under the never should have been printed pile.
spicayd
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(6 votes)
Whoever rated this less than 5/5 is retarded.
PhyrexianLobbiest
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(6 votes)
Effectively shuts down Liliana Vess; unless you feel like forcing yourself to discard. I was actually going to say it shuts down Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker's ultimate as well, then I remembered he can just blow it away for +3.
Also; "Screw you, Wizards, for making entire deck concepts unplayable with a single card." your idea was for a creature-less-red-BLUE deck. The Leyline may hose Mono Red, but there's no way a single enchantment is going to shut down Blue. Counterspell, Cancel, Boomerang, Negate none of which are Mythic, and all of which would fit comfortably into a Red-Blue Creatureless deck.
There are no single cards which unpin entire decks. In my experience there is always an answer for every card; usually, that answer can be found at common, or uncommon.
It doesn't even "completely" shut down red. Chandra's Outrage, for example, targets the creature then as an added affect damages the creature's controler without ever targeting the player. Magma PhoenixLightning Bolts everyone and everything when it dies (hopefully fighting a Baneslayer Angel) and is a really good Red answer to most things white has. Unfortunately, it is rare.
FogRaider
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(9 votes)
Well, there goes the creature-less red-blue deck I was thinking about. Screw you, Wizards, for making entire deck concepts unplayable with a single card.
@ PhyrexianLobbiest: Perhaps you missed the part where this card can come down on turn 0 for no mana. And perhaps you don't realize that bouncing and then countering this enchantment is an absolutely terrible asnwer, as they're 2-for-1ing you AND you lose tempo because you payed mana and they didn't. If by "answer" you mean in the same way Unstable Footing + Earthquake was an answer for Kor Firewalker, then yes, it's an answer. That doesn't make it a good one.
This card hoses certain decks in the same way the Eldrazi Lords hose(d) mill (past tense if Leyline of the Void makes mill good.) You can, in theory, get around it, but it's so hard to do that it's not worth the effort.
LTJZamboni
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(10 votes)
B-R-O-K-E-N
What's that? You're playing Mono Black or Mono Red? How unfortunate for you.
HairlessThoctar
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
As if Kor Firewalker wasn't bad enough, this makes the matchup against Red Deck Wins incredibly one sided.
Also hoses stuff like discard, and Jace's fateseal ability pretty badly.
Who cares if it basically ruins monored and other annoying strategies? (namely a few planeswalkers). Monored is too powerful in this environment anyway, and walkers will always have help from their expensive elemental buddies (colonnade and tar pit and friends). This card is awesome, and it's only your opponent's abilities so you can do whatever. 5 stars or Gideon rapes you out of frustration.
zeyette
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Red players might have to splash green in order to naturalize this son of a b****.
UltimaCenturion
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Wow. This is evil. I hate it already. :( 1) I think very few of the ley lines fit the flavor of what a ley line actually IS. A ley line is a spot of "mystical convergence," where things "come together." That would suggest that leyline cards should do things with your own spells, not be "answers" to your enemies spells like what the one guy said one that one MTG article. 2) I hate cards that destroy an entire deck type. I don't blame them for wanting to take down RDW (its a quite powerful deck type,) but this takes down several, not to mention my Kiln Fiend deck which I have spent much time and effort on.
This is by far one of the most un-fun cards i've ever seen. As unfun as gloom or chill. People say it's a RDW hose, and it is, but it also hoses a lot of other decks that don't play W or G, like discard for example. Come to think of it, it dominate any deck that doesn't turn guys sideways to win... ugh... Even if you deal with it... all those turns lost. A lot of decks just can't handle this.
Oh, look, I wanted to make a deck, but I auto-scoop to this turn 0.
Oops. :\
As if I didn't hate white enough...
And the worst part is, Standard might not be the only format this card will be strong in.
Donovan_Fabian
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(2 votes)
This is great for sideboards but.. beyond hosing red and black sacrifice decks and burn decks, this does like absolutely nothing. Blue rarely interacts directly with the opposing player with spells, and neither does green, or other white decks. They see this in play and are like hah, way to go just took a card out of your hand at the beginning of the game to do absolutely nothing. Not to mention its not like it isn't removable. How hard is it for red to splash a bit of white for warpriest of thune or green for back to nature.
Red green could really easily take someone out using this enchantment, basically you would use kiln fiend, cultivate, garruk's packleader, back to nature, and some 3+ creatures for card draw. That way you kill enchantments, draw cards without even playing blue, have big creatures and big burn. Also, some burn spells don't even target the player, they just do damage regardless.
If i'm not terribly mistaken, this card saves Planeswalkers from direct damage spells like lightning bolt. The rules say that Lightning bolt can not target a planeswalker because it is neither a creature, nor a player; however, if a player is targeted, the owner of the lightning bolt can choose to redirect the damage to a planeswalker that player controls.
Obviously, if the player can't be targeted to begin with because of this leyline, then the damage can not be redirected to the planeswalker.
JaxsonBateman
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Definitely a better card than I initially gave it credit for. RDW is always an interesting match up due to their speed and ability to use spells as either removal or burn. This gets rid of the burn option, and if you were to have a Firewalker out I'd imagine the only way you'd lose would be possibly Manabarbs - but even then, stick a Baneslayer and you're set.
RG Titan Ramp is pretty popular in standard right now too, and this gets rid of arguably their main win condition (Valakut to the face).
What compounds the awesomeness is that it also protects your PWs from burn. Get a few decent defensive options and watch them go ultimate. >=)
Farin
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(4 votes)
What a lot of people are missing is that anything that targets the player with this card on the field is null and void. Trample targets the player thus...cant trample them. Sanguine Bond is out the door too, not to mention countess other things. JMS is dead. But how many cards in standard destroy enchantments, not to mention that Blue can cancel it if its not on turn 0! come on people!!! think!! you can beat this card.
SpencerDub
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Trowa and @Farin:
Trample doesn't target either creatures or players. Take a look at the reminder text on Overrun. There's no usage of the word "target;" therefore, there is no targeting involved.
That said, this seems like a solid card. I would be quite happy to pull one from a booster.
@Farin: I have to congratulate you on your incredible insight. Trample doesn't target, so therefore it must be stopped by Leyline of Sanctity! Yes, this is sarcasm, if your ability to read cannot detect it.
@khanbg: No It doesn't protect against either of those leylines, since they don't TARGET.
This card isn't auto-lose for any deck in Standard except for UR Pyromancer Ascension, mill (hosed enough already?), or Megrim decks, which never really did well anyway. Red decks like to burn opponents with spells to win, but they still have other options, such as Ball Lightning (Farin, the text for trample is on this card) and similar cards. The problem is that Leyline of Sanctity coupled with Wall of Omens by T2 is a position that RDW usually can't recover from. Then again, the chance of this happening in a deck (with 4 of each card) is about 16%, ignoring land problems. The only major card that RDW uses that would be totally useless is Searing Blaze. In any case, Leyline of Punishment in SB for RDW is worth allowing Leyline of Sanctity to exist.
Yozuk
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
"Hey guys! I got an idea... Lets make a card that shuts down a good percent of black and red decks..." .... Honestly... Who in there Right Mind thought it would be a good idea to print a card like this??.. A creature that does this in white... Yes OK! I can understand that because black and white have a chance to get rid of it before white gives it protection or indestructibility. But an enchantment? That can come out on turn 1!!?? Now thats just way too broken!
I give this card a shameful 5 out of 5...
iaiji
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Let's see: What decks did it kill in legacy. . . . .
Charbelcher Storm Discard Burn half of RDW half of Sligh some Rock/ Eva Green Mill
not sure what else i missed
then again, its not the firs time we've had to deal with something like this lol
Eric1618
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Suck on THAT valakut decks.
I love this card. Might be the best leyline, just because it is SUCH good hate for UW control against most of its biggest problems.
Red Deck Whines.
sigmapsicharlie
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I have a question, about this card. It says you can't be the target of spels or abilities your opponent controls, does that count for a Planeswalker card like - Chandra Nalaar?
skew
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
"Oh, i just happen to have a lucky hand, guess it means slow and painful death for you..."
Wow, i might make casual UW control deck, but totally not gonna play this here leyline in it. Brings the fun out of the game. I mean, it's kinda sadistic enough to watch your buddy's face when you pull out meddling mage or declaration of naught or something.
androkguz
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
The reason I rate this card as a 5/5 is because it can singlehandedly screw up 3 forms of first turn kills. One of those is the Protean Hulk "turn 0" klll, which doesn't have to be turn 0 at all, so long as the deck uses the version that kills with Disciple of the Vault (otherwise, see Leyline of Singularity, to stop a carrior feeder from getting too big, which isn't turn 1 anyway). The second one is the old Channel + Blaze plus the proper acceleration (a land and some combination of Simian Spirit Guide, Elvish Spirit Guide and Lotus Petal) The third one is the dreaded turn one Dragonstorm (via rite of flame and seething song) that searches for four Bogardan Helkites. The caster of the storm will still get many dragons in play on turn one, but a least you will get a chance to cast something.
Decks that can kill on the turn 1 are the most dangerous there is, so a card that can stop them from doint this get to be 5/5 (see also, Leyline of the Void)
hoboman1313
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I wish I had this I could do my super defense combo, this lightmine field, and vengeful archon on the field all at the same time, making it very hard for my opponent to attack me.
A3Kitsune
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
The most fun suggestion for this card I've seen is to combo it with Hive Mind and player targeted burn spells. Since Hive Mind is compulsary, your opponent will be forced to target themselves with their copies of the burn spells.
Gomorrah
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(8 votes)
I arranged an entourage that would play MC Hammer's "Can't touch this" whenever I would open with this.
Just because.
@Khanbg: No, it doesn't. Shroud, and this card, only protect from effects with the word target. If a card such as Wrath of God or those other leylines doesn't specifically say target, it still has an effect, and in the case of Wrath of God, all of your creatures are dead. So the leylines are still going to prevent life from being gained or damage prevented (Leyline of Punishment) or exiling the cards that hit your graveyard (Leyline of the Void).
Did this card need to be made? Probably not. Will I add it to my Angel deck to protect me from tiny pingers and Lightning Bolts that would wish to prevent me from putting counters on my Luminarch Ascension? Most definitely.
This isn't a new effect, so I'm not sure why so many commenters are saying "this shouldn't have been printed, rabble rabble rabble!" See Imperial Mask, True Believer, Spirit of the Hearth.
@Cheza: No, it shouldn't have been green. Stop preaching your messed up version of the color pie.
SG_jumpin
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
newbie question
i understand that my opponent cant be targets of my spells such as lightning bolt and fireball and whatnot. but can i still play demolish? since im targeting my opponents land and not him?
DacenOctavio
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Red needs more enchantment hate. Until red gets an official "destroy target enchantment" effect, we're reduced to using Liquimetal Coating and Manic Vandal.
Sironos
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
This is not well made, the other leylines offer nice benefits that assist you, turning the game slightly in your favour, this makes entire decks nearly useless. WTF is red burn supposed to do against this? Give us some red standard viable enchanment. The red leyline does in NO POSSIBLE WAY make up for this, the red leyline annoys white, this decimates red.
WIth deck type hate this bad, they might as well go completely overboard and reprint flashfires.
Evermint
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(4 votes)
I love the flavor of this card. Something about the effect, the name, and the art all tied together feels perfect.
You can just imagine being a mage within the field, and the magical points of convergence meeting at your particular spot. It radiates a most serene glow, putting you at ease. You become untouchable.
I'm procrastinating.
PhyrexianAdvocate
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Admirably fulfills Wizard's Modus Opperandi these days- That is, it hoses most of the budget decks in standard, forcing us to shell out massive amounts of cash for overpriced "Mythic Rares" like Baneslayer and Jace, the Mindsculptor.--Sir_dwar
What? It hoses Jace too, along with 90% of the other planeswalkers out there. And since when is Naturalize not "budget"?
EDIT: I cannot tell you how many times I have been beaten to death by Mono Red while having this card on the battle field. As a White Weenie player, the moment I play this my Red-Loving friend just refocuses every single burn spell in his deck at my creatures (including Koth's emblem). Even being un-target-able, the inability to keep a blocker alive for more than a turn means you die to tiny goblins in a big hurry. People complaining about this "hosing Red" are wrong. It merely slows them down.
So I would say, yes it does "Admirably fulfills Wizard's Modus Opperandi these days" of refocusing the game on creatures.
Londonbrig0
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
And my friends wonder why I don't use my red deck much anymore.
RikerBlake
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
One day, I got tired of my friends using burn and discard on me, and put this in the deck, along with a mark of asylum. The game got boring very quickly.
proanciey
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
lets just say bye to RDW and hello to mono white life gainers, officially think that magic just made white the new op color. don't worry red I'm sure they'll come out with a destroy enchantment for you....... maybe lol
Sterling_Archer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
I hate white, there's no reason for cards like this to exist.
jfre81
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
No, I don't think I'll be taking that Jinxed Idol back. You hold on to it, m'kay?
Cheza
★☆☆☆☆ (1.1/5.0)(4 votes)
@ R&D:
Read the comment from trowa_barton03. Everything he mentioned should make it obvious: This card should have been GREEN !!!
Red also has a high support of damaging spells that deal damage to EACH player. A Lightning Bolt dealing 3 damage to a creature is still worth it. But there aren't many discard spells that target all players/opponents. Blue mill effects become useless, as well as many other abilities. Also noticable: "Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, that player does XYZ." bypasses the shroud effect. And which color has the biggest fpcus on combat situations??? IT'S GREEN.
All these points should make it obvious, that it should be a green card.
Green hunters are focused on the prey and won't be distracted. Hunters stay unnoticed and hidden until it's too late for their opponents. And green mages usually have the deck with the highest converted mana cost and should have some way to protect the cards until they can play them.
The player should be the most iconic symbol of the accordant color philosophy, the creatures should be the tools in his arsenal. So for me, the green player deserves such an ability the most, making him a thick-headed, intuitive, strong & independant character that isn't easily influenced.
A white mage in contrast always lives for the community and this will always makes him vulnerable to influence, because without influence there is no compromise, no empathy, no mercy and no second thought.
So for me it's far from being a good white card.
QUOTE from Daerien: @Cheza: No, it shouldn't have been green. Stop preaching your messed up version of the color pie.
I've added an psychological explanation to this post. Do you have any other arguments than 3 existing cards?
Dragonmaster3.0
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
You turn Hexproof! Sweet!
Sothasil
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Just pray they don't get it in their opening hand so when the time comes you can anarchy it.
Lyoncet
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Sure Wizards, just kick poor old Lava Axe while it's down. =( You already took away its awesome flavor text! What's next? Art by Paul Bonner???
@Daerien "This isn't a new effect, so I'm not sure why so many commenters are saying 'this shouldn't have been printed, rabble rabble rabble!' See Imperial Mask, True Believer, Spirit of the Hearth."
The difference here is that since the ability shared by these cards pretty much entirely hoses many black and red decks, Imperial Mask, True Believer, and Spirit of the Hearth aren't huge problems. The mask would be tough for black, but it wouldn't be too hard to remove the other two with either color, and of course Shatter takes out the mask. With Leyline of Sanctity, neither black nor red has much of an answer, hence the "rabble rabble rabble" as you put it.
Since this is such an extreme hate card, it seems like this is a response to RDW's power, but this kind of response isn't good design and isn't really fun. If one deck really does get too powerful, making one or more cards that make that deck essentially unplayable -or so clumsy they're almost unplayable- not only cheapens the game, it removes a lot of its personality (it's supposed to be my magic, not the only Magic I can play that will win out over deck X). Plus, hard-counters not just to a particular card or two but to entire strategies and win conditions just reeks of poor planning and is enormously frustrating. This is not the only instance of such a thing happening. I should also say that almost never play burn. So it's not like I'm losing sleep over this one; the design direction just irks me.
Of course, now we have the erroneously-printed Liquimetal Coating. Development's error is RDW's gain. :p
BastianQoU
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Just saying, "You have Hexproof" sounds terrible. They should reword it somehow..
RancoredMindfeeder
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(5 votes)
This card is stupid. IT MAKES MAGIC NOT FUN. It's basically an autowin against a lot of red decks since they have no way to remove enchantments and no way to get burn in before it hits the table since it starts the game in play if you have it in your hand. I've seen decks not even playing white playing this card. Nothing makes magic less fun than a card that singlehandedly nullifies half the cards in the opponent's deck. R&D should NEVER print cards like this. It takes a lot away from the game.
Cards like Solitary Confinement and Worship and Circle of Protection Red (against red) seem more gamebreaking and unfair but are actually all fair for two important reasons: First of all, YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO CAST THEM. Your opponent has 3-4 turns to operate before they hit the table and drastically change the gameplay. Also, you need to use mana on your turn to cast them, meaning you are making the choice to play these cards over doing something else with your 3-4 mana. Leyline in opening hand requires no choice, no allocation of mana resources. The second reason is that all those three cards have a built in mechanism for making the effect TEMPORARY: Solitary Confinement has a BUILT-IN mechanism for making it temporary (and the discarding also adds to the cost of using the "gamebreaking" ability), Worship leaves the opponent with an out of killing all your creatures, Circle of Protection Red requires you to leave up mana to prevent the damage. All these cards have a hidden "cost" beyond their mana cost that makes them annoying to the other deck but at least fair and fun.
I like this card, because I'm getting tired of hyper-efficient, no fun red burn decks. That, and I don't like having to discard cards or getting hit by things like Cruel Ultimatum or the different Jace's/Ajani Vengeant's ultimates.
Against most decks. this is a pretty decent card that might deter your opponent from casting a few spells, and it's a nice little bit of security for you in multiplayer games (since your opponents will have to target someone else's face).
However, if you've built a deck that only has a single win condition, and this card ruins it, than I don't have any sympathy for you, because it's probably a miserable, ultra-efficient deck or some boring combo deck. Have fun with it in tournaments, where you can make people miserable, while enjoying how miserable you are when people play this against you.
This card only ruins people's fun if they have some twisted sense of what fun is.
scorpiolegend
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
This single card makes it near impossible for Pyromancer's Ascension to win.
NeoKoda
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I agree that flavorfully and mechanically it should be Green, but historically, it's a White effect.
Midnite_Of_The_Rose
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
this plus Privaliged Position.....death on swift wings....
rinoh20
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
a common occurance at my fmn against burn decks
" k draw seven keeping.... leyline of sancitity"
"scoop"
ClericNacho
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
When you look at your opening hand and you find such a beatiful card in it, you can't help it but smile.
CuriousThing
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Here are some odds for those interested (running 4 Leylines in a 60-card deck):
In opening hand (7 cards): 39.95% By first mulligan (6 cards): 61.06% By second mulligan (5 cards): 72.76% By third mulligan (4 cards): 79.48% By fourth mulligan (3 cards): 83.38% By fifth mulligan (2 cards): 85.54% By sixth mulligan (1 card): 86.50%
Of course, add some Serum Powder for better results. But is this really a card you want to build around?
Lueseto
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
So they got fed up of burn and they said:
"If you got this in your opening hand against burn, you win the game" (No red card can destroy enchantments, you could play anarchy, but that would mean you kept the first three turns looking to the roof)
Good enough sideboard. As well as what it makes to discarders. I don't like this new enchantments that completely ruin certain decks without having even to play them. Just get lucky and get this in your oppening hand. Leyline of the void screws dredge players right from the start very harshly. It's just no fun nor fair. This kind of cards narrow the metagame a lot.
I wish it's tweaked wording were "You *are* hexproof."
goldstar971
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I love this card in legacy it allows agro to survive against combo. Take Ad Neaseaum tendrils thier kill spells targets the player so this prevents it from doing so and red and black can't destroy enchantments so if you mulligan down till you get this in your opening hand you have won the game.
j_mindfingerpainter
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Yes! Screw you, various turn-one targeting discard effects I can't afford.
Also, this does great work against Charbelcher decks.
Keith-Cancel
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
This card should not have been printed its too dang powerful for a turn 0.
TheWrathofShane
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
What they need is an artifact that can take out artifacts and enchantments. So dont get royally hosed to things like this.
I think it is an egregious mistake to make something this powerful playable in all colours and free. It's not broken but it's not a card I like to see ever. This kind of hate makes the game less than fun.
Sword_of_T_and_A
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
When this card first came out I used to throw these around my room for my dog to chase and fetch and now they spiked up to like 15 bucks! ouch!
this card literally hoses almost all of the decks i play. not every deck has enchantment removal and this card just spits on people who can't kill enchantments.
blurrymadness
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Due to the top comment, I bought and side-boarded 4xHunted Horror for my Legacy MBC deck. Pull out the hate BRO. Pull that hate right out.
itsmeyouidiot
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
You know, I actually am glad they printed this. Vendilion Clique and Thoughtseize are ridiculously powerful control cards that can completely ruin most combo decks after only being played once.
Fireballmage
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Hilariously, Leyline of Sanctity is mostly seeing play right now as protection for broken Show and Tell combo decks as free protection against discard. Apparently those decks required sanctity.
There are so many things wrong with this design. Here are the big ones.
1. Both Black and Red have no way of answering this because, you know, Wizards won't ever print decent Black, Red, or colorless Enchantment removal. Now, I understand the need for the color pie, but where are the hosers that White can't answer? Why do the most extreme hosers keep getting printed against the colors that can't do anything about them?
2. Black should be able to "answer" this card through discard, but the disgusting Leyline ability stops any chance of that. The Leyline effect decreases interactivity. It does not use the stack. It does not require you to gather resources to cast it. It just says "No" and removes an entire dimension of the game. There are very few times this is a good thing; the only one I can think of is Leyline of the Void, and that's only because it's necessary for dealing with one of the least interactive decks in the game.
3. "But White should hate its enemies!" Too bad, this isn't a White card. It might have a mana cost of 2WW, but nobody plays it for that. This is a colorless option that gives a White effect to any other colors for free if they're willing to save deckspace. There is no color pie with Leylines and we've known that since Guildpact.
4. So which decks run Leyline of Sanctity? Well, its cost is 4 deck slots. It's a dead draw, so that immediately rules out aggro. It's also not that stellar in control, so you rule that out. Even intensive unfair combo decks like Storm can't use it that well, so you can rule those out. You want deck sifting (Like Brainstorm) to avoid dead draws, so that rules non-Blue out. So what does that leave? Sneak and Show, which need only a few cards to get off the combo and enjoy free discard prevention (AKA stopping their opponents from interacting with the combo).
A card meant to counter fair burn and discard is now another tool for one of the most ludicrously unfair decks in the game. Good job Wizards.
SirLibraryEater
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The only problem I have with this is the absolutely atrocious things that happen when you have this and your opponent's Treacherous Pit-Dweller dies. Or any of the Hunted cycle from Ravnica: City of Guilds.
non1337
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
We do have an enchantment removal for red right there:
Comments (83)
Further zaniness is that this card costs the exact same as Ivory Mask.
This is one of those cards that I would put under the never should have been printed pile.
Also; "Screw you, Wizards, for making entire deck concepts unplayable with a single card." your idea was for a creature-less-red-BLUE deck. The Leyline may hose Mono Red, but there's no way a single enchantment is going to shut down Blue. Counterspell, Cancel, Boomerang, Negate none of which are Mythic, and all of which would fit comfortably into a Red-Blue Creatureless deck.
There are no single cards which unpin entire decks. In my experience there is always an answer for every card; usually, that answer can be found at common, or uncommon.
It doesn't even "completely" shut down red. Chandra's Outrage, for example, targets the creature then as an added affect damages the creature's controler without ever targeting the player. Magma Phoenix Lightning Bolts everyone and everything when it dies (hopefully fighting a Baneslayer Angel) and is a really good Red answer to most things white has. Unfortunately, it is rare.
@ PhyrexianLobbiest: Perhaps you missed the part where this card can come down on turn 0 for no mana. And perhaps you don't realize that bouncing and then countering this enchantment is an absolutely terrible asnwer, as they're 2-for-1ing you AND you lose tempo because you payed mana and they didn't. If by "answer" you mean in the same way Unstable Footing + Earthquake was an answer for Kor Firewalker, then yes, it's an answer. That doesn't make it a good one.
This card hoses certain decks in the same way the Eldrazi Lords hose(d) mill (past tense if Leyline of the Void makes mill good.) You can, in theory, get around it, but it's so hard to do that it's not worth the effort.
What's that? You're playing Mono Black or Mono Red? How unfortunate for you.
Also hoses stuff like discard, and Jace's fateseal ability pretty badly.
Based on the art from this plains.
This is evil. I hate it already. :(
1) I think very few of the ley lines fit the flavor of what a ley line actually IS. A ley line is a spot of "mystical convergence," where things "come together." That would suggest that leyline cards should do things with your own spells, not be "answers" to your enemies spells like what the one guy said one that one MTG article.
2) I hate cards that destroy an entire deck type. I don't blame them for wanting to take down RDW (its a quite powerful deck type,) but this takes down several, not to mention my Kiln Fiend deck which I have spent much time and effort on.
Oops. :\
As if I didn't hate white enough...
And the worst part is, Standard might not be the only format this card will be strong in.
Red green could really easily take someone out using this enchantment, basically you would use kiln fiend, cultivate, garruk's packleader, back to nature, and some 3+ creatures for card draw. That way you kill enchantments, draw cards without even playing blue, have big creatures and big burn. Also, some burn spells don't even target the player, they just do damage regardless.
Obviously, if the player can't be targeted to begin with because of this leyline, then the damage can not be redirected to the planeswalker.
RG Titan Ramp is pretty popular in standard right now too, and this gets rid of arguably their main win condition (Valakut to the face).
What compounds the awesomeness is that it also protects your PWs from burn. Get a few decent defensive options and watch them go ultimate. >=)
Trample doesn't target either creatures or players. Take a look at the reminder text on Overrun. There's no usage of the word "target;" therefore, there is no targeting involved.
That said, this seems like a solid card. I would be quite happy to pull one from a booster.
@khanbg: No It doesn't protect against either of those leylines, since they don't TARGET.
This card isn't auto-lose for any deck in Standard except for UR Pyromancer Ascension, mill (hosed enough already?), or Megrim decks, which never really did well anyway. Red decks like to burn opponents with spells to win, but they still have other options, such as Ball Lightning (Farin, the text for trample is on this card) and similar cards. The problem is that Leyline of Sanctity coupled with Wall of Omens by T2 is a position that RDW usually can't recover from. Then again, the chance of this happening in a deck (with 4 of each card) is about 16%, ignoring land problems. The only major card that RDW uses that would be totally useless is Searing Blaze. In any case, Leyline of Punishment in SB for RDW is worth allowing Leyline of Sanctity to exist.
I give this card a shameful 5 out of 5...
Charbelcher
Storm
Discard
Burn
half of RDW
half of Sligh
some Rock/ Eva Green
Mill
not sure what else i missed
then again, its not the firs time we've had to deal with something like this lol
I love this card. Might be the best leyline, just because it is SUCH good hate for UW control against most of its biggest problems.
Red Deck Whines.
Wow, i might make casual UW control deck, but totally not gonna play this here leyline in it. Brings the fun out of the game. I mean, it's kinda sadistic enough to watch your buddy's face when you pull out meddling mage or declaration of naught or something.
One of those is the Protean Hulk "turn 0" klll, which doesn't have to be turn 0 at all, so long as the deck uses the version that kills with Disciple of the Vault (otherwise, see Leyline of Singularity, to stop a carrior feeder from getting too big, which isn't turn 1 anyway).
The second one is the old Channel + Blaze plus the proper acceleration (a land and some combination of Simian Spirit Guide, Elvish Spirit Guide and Lotus Petal)
The third one is the dreaded turn one Dragonstorm (via rite of flame and seething song) that searches for four Bogardan Helkites. The caster of the storm will still get many dragons in play on turn one, but a least you will get a chance to cast something.
Decks that can kill on the turn 1 are the most dangerous there is, so a card that can stop them from doint this get to be 5/5 (see also, Leyline of the Void)
Just because.
Did this card need to be made? Probably not. Will I add it to my Angel deck to protect me from tiny pingers and Lightning Bolts that would wish to prevent me from putting counters on my Luminarch Ascension? Most definitely.
This isn't a new effect, so I'm not sure why so many commenters are saying "this shouldn't have been printed, rabble rabble rabble!" See Imperial Mask, True Believer, Spirit of the Hearth.
@Cheza: No, it shouldn't have been green. Stop preaching your messed up version of the color pie.
i understand that my opponent cant be targets of my spells such as lightning bolt and fireball and whatnot. but can i still play demolish? since im targeting my opponents land and not him?
WIth deck type hate this bad, they might as well go completely overboard and reprint flashfires.
You can just imagine being a mage within the field, and the magical points of convergence meeting at your particular spot. It radiates a most serene glow, putting you at ease. You become untouchable.
I'm procrastinating.
What? It hoses Jace too, along with 90% of the other planeswalkers out there. And since when is Naturalize not "budget"?
EDIT: I cannot tell you how many times I have been beaten to death by Mono Red while having this card on the battle field. As a White Weenie player, the moment I play this my Red-Loving friend just refocuses every single burn spell in his deck at my creatures (including Koth's emblem). Even being un-target-able, the inability to keep a blocker alive for more than a turn means you die to tiny goblins in a big hurry. People complaining about this "hosing Red" are wrong. It merely slows them down.
So I would say, yes it does "Admirably fulfills Wizard's Modus Opperandi these days" of refocusing the game on creatures.
Read the comment from trowa_barton03. Everything he mentioned should make it obvious:
This card should have been GREEN !!!
Red also has a high support of damaging spells that deal damage to EACH player. A Lightning Bolt dealing 3 damage to a creature is still worth it. But there aren't many discard spells that target all players/opponents. Blue mill effects become useless, as well as many other abilities. Also noticable:
"Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, that player does XYZ." bypasses the shroud effect. And which color has the biggest fpcus on combat situations??? IT'S GREEN.
So wake up R&D, WAKE UP!!!
+ no discard
+ no mill (see Hedron Crab)
+ no donation (see Jinxed Idol)
+ no sacrifice (see Consuming Vapors)
+ no graveyard hate (see Haunting Echoes)
+ no extraction (see Sadistic Sacrament or Telemin Performance)
+ no Sleep
+ no Gideon Jura's first ability
+ no Blood Tribute
+ no Traumatize
+ no Fatigue, no Moment of Silence, no Mind Slaver
All these points should make it obvious, that it should be a green card.
Green hunters are focused on the prey and won't be distracted. Hunters stay unnoticed and hidden until it's too late for their opponents. And green mages usually have the deck with the highest converted mana cost and should have some way to protect the cards until they can play them.
Shroud usually has a high appearance count in green, however it's too often limited to creatures. Asceticism (hexproof), Autumn's Veil (instant), Dense Foliage (vs. spells), Privileged Position (even non-creature permanents), Skyshroud Blessing (lands) and Ground Seal (cards in graveyard).
The player should be the most iconic symbol of the accordant color philosophy, the creatures should be the tools in his arsenal. So for me, the green player deserves such an ability the most, making him a thick-headed, intuitive, strong & independant character that isn't easily influenced.
A white mage in contrast always lives for the community and this will always makes him vulnerable to influence, because without influence there is no compromise, no empathy, no mercy and no second thought.
So for me it's far from being a good white card.
QUOTE from Daerien:
@Cheza: No, it shouldn't have been green. Stop preaching your messed up version of the color pie.
I've added an psychological explanation to this post. Do you have any other arguments than 3 existing cards?
@Daerien
"This isn't a new effect, so I'm not sure why so many commenters are saying 'this shouldn't have been printed, rabble rabble rabble!' See Imperial Mask, True Believer, Spirit of the Hearth."
The difference here is that since the ability shared by these cards pretty much entirely hoses many black and red decks, Imperial Mask, True Believer, and Spirit of the Hearth aren't huge problems. The mask would be tough for black, but it wouldn't be too hard to remove the other two with either color, and of course Shatter takes out the mask. With Leyline of Sanctity, neither black nor red has much of an answer, hence the "rabble rabble rabble" as you put it.
Since this is such an extreme hate card, it seems like this is a response to RDW's power, but this kind of response isn't good design and isn't really fun. If one deck really does get too powerful, making one or more cards that make that deck essentially unplayable -or so clumsy they're almost unplayable- not only cheapens the game, it removes a lot of its personality (it's supposed to be my magic, not the only Magic I can play that will win out over deck X). Plus, hard-counters not just to a particular card or two but to entire strategies and win conditions just reeks of poor planning and is enormously frustrating. This is not the only instance of such a thing happening. I should also say that almost never play burn. So it's not like I'm losing sleep over this one; the design direction just irks me.
Of course, now we have the erroneously-printed Liquimetal Coating. Development's error is RDW's gain. :p
R&D should NEVER print cards like this. It takes a lot away from the game.
Cards like Solitary Confinement and Worship and Circle of Protection Red (against red) seem more gamebreaking and unfair but are actually all fair for two important reasons: First of all, YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO CAST THEM. Your opponent has 3-4 turns to operate before they hit the table and drastically change the gameplay. Also, you need to use mana on your turn to cast them, meaning you are making the choice to play these cards over doing something else with your 3-4 mana. Leyline in opening hand requires no choice, no allocation of mana resources.
The second reason is that all those three cards have a built in mechanism for making the effect TEMPORARY: Solitary Confinement has a BUILT-IN mechanism for making it temporary (and the discarding also adds to the cost of using the "gamebreaking" ability), Worship leaves the opponent with an out of killing all your creatures, Circle of Protection Red requires you to leave up mana to prevent the damage. All these cards have a hidden "cost" beyond their mana cost that makes them annoying to the other deck but at least fair and fun.
You: Damn it, that's not fai- nevermind, I play hunted horror.
Against most decks. this is a pretty decent card that might deter your opponent from casting a few spells, and it's a nice little bit of security for you in multiplayer games (since your opponents will have to target someone else's face).
However, if you've built a deck that only has a single win condition, and this card ruins it, than I don't have any sympathy for you, because it's probably a miserable, ultra-efficient deck or some boring combo deck. Have fun with it in tournaments, where you can make people miserable, while enjoying how miserable you are when people play this against you.
This card only ruins people's fun if they have some twisted sense of what fun is.
" k draw seven keeping.... leyline of sancitity"
"scoop"
In opening hand (7 cards): 39.95%
By first mulligan (6 cards): 61.06%
By second mulligan (5 cards): 72.76%
By third mulligan (4 cards): 79.48%
By fourth mulligan (3 cards): 83.38%
By fifth mulligan (2 cards): 85.54%
By sixth mulligan (1 card): 86.50%
Of course, add some Serum Powder for better results. But is this really a card you want to build around?
"If you got this in your opening hand against burn, you win the game" (No red card can destroy enchantments, you could play anarchy, but that would mean you kept the first three turns looking to the roof)
Good enough sideboard. As well as what it makes to discarders. I don't like this new enchantments that completely ruin certain decks without having even to play them. Just get lucky and get this in your oppening hand. Leyline of the void screws dredge players right from the start very harshly. It's just no fun nor fair. This kind of cards narrow the metagame a lot.
Also, this does great work against Charbelcher decks.
I think it is an egregious mistake to make something this powerful playable in all colours and free. It's not broken but it's not a card I like to see ever. This kind of hate makes the game less than fun.
There are so many things wrong with this design. Here are the big ones.
1. Both Black and Red have no way of answering this because, you know, Wizards won't ever print decent Black, Red, or colorless Enchantment removal. Now, I understand the need for the color pie, but where are the hosers that White can't answer? Why do the most extreme hosers keep getting printed against the colors that can't do anything about them?
2. Black should be able to "answer" this card through discard, but the disgusting Leyline ability stops any chance of that. The Leyline effect decreases interactivity. It does not use the stack. It does not require you to gather resources to cast it. It just says "No" and removes an entire dimension of the game. There are very few times this is a good thing; the only one I can think of is Leyline of the Void, and that's only because it's necessary for dealing with one of the least interactive decks in the game.
3. "But White should hate its enemies!" Too bad, this isn't a White card. It might have a mana cost of 2WW, but nobody plays it for that. This is a colorless option that gives a White effect to any other colors for free if they're willing to save deckspace. There is no color pie with Leylines and we've known that since Guildpact.
4. So which decks run Leyline of Sanctity? Well, its cost is 4 deck slots. It's a dead draw, so that immediately rules out aggro. It's also not that stellar in control, so you rule that out. Even intensive unfair combo decks like Storm can't use it that well, so you can rule those out. You want deck sifting (Like Brainstorm) to avoid dead draws, so that rules non-Blue out. So what does that leave? Sneak and Show, which need only a few cards to get off the combo and enjoy free discard prevention (AKA stopping their opponents from interacting with the combo).
A card meant to counter fair burn and discard is now another tool for one of the most ludicrously unfair decks in the game. Good job Wizards.
Anarchy
If you run red you need to sideboard this... but in newer formats we may be out of luck...