If you equip it to an infect creature and target him, and use the triggered ability to target an opponent for 2 dmg, does it turn into poison counters?
S-R
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Yeah! Throw this on an infect creature, attack, when they block to kill play Withstand Death and you got the choice of giving a creature 2 -1/-1 counters or a player 2 poison counters.
Also works if they try to use some removal on your infect creature. Win/win situation card here.
Blazer_Dawg
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
@BadProgram Overrun wouldn't work because it does not target the creature.
JaxsonBateman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I got one in one of my prerelease pools and was pretty happy to play it, but due to not having many beneficial targetted spells in my deck I never actually got to use the ping - but that may be a good thing, with the opponents being too worried about giving me card advantage.
Having said that, at least in limited, there are too many viable non-spell ways to kill creatures, thus getting around the 'aggro-shroud'.
Akaleth
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Koth of the Hammer's ultimate + Darksteel Myr + Lash. Double the damage from Koth's ultimate. The Myr can of course be replaced with any indestructible creature, but the Myr is easily accessible in both rarity and color (or lack thereof)
coyotemoon722
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Wow, definitely combos amazingly with Giant Growth in infect.
djpraiseadelik
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I have a Black/Red infect deck that loves this card:
It makes Vampire Bite on my Infect Creature bite just a little bit harder. Assault Strobe gives it two bites. Panic Spellbomb and Smouldering Spires get it through early. Flame Slash lets me get a final 2 poison damage through if I have to. All around awesome card for infect decks.
SpencerDub
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@Akaleth: Unfortunately, the Lash won't trigger from the Mountains' ability, since it only triggers on being targeted by a spell. Abilities, unusually, aren't included. I made the same mistake when I first looked at the card.
Redeemer707
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Equip to Devoted Druid, pump up Quillspike... Game over
Salohkin
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(5 votes)
This, a creature with infect and Distortion Strike is pretty much a game winner, even if the creature is a 1/1.
Sswift
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Does Virulent Swipe's deathtouch kick in before the damage is dealt? It would be awesome to give a creature deathtouch before it dealt 2 damage to target creature/player.
Totempariah
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Since no one here seems to have mentioned it yet, does anyone remember Wee Dragonauts?
Combos well with Soul's Fire, especially with infect creatures. Even if you equip it to a 1/1, they deal 5 poison counters total.
Shoe2
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
fun card
Sorxores
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I got a question. if I attack with my creature equiped with livewire lash. I cast on my creature 2 giant growth. In respond my opponent cast non kicked Vine of vastwood (Target creature can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control this turn). so my 2 giant growth cannot target my creature anymore so I do not proc the Livewire (only the vine of vastwood proc it once)?
And what if instead of vine of vastwood he cast a destroy creature spell (and my creature isn't indestructible) it's still proc only once (for the destroy spell)
LiXinjian
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@sorxores: when you cast giant growth, a livewire trigger goes on the stack (you pick its target). Assuming you don't let anything resolve, you can cast a second giant growth, which puts another livewire trigger on the stack (again, you must pick a target for the damage). Now, before anything resolves again, you friend targets the creature with Vines of Vastwood. Again, another livewire trigger goes on the stack and you pick a target for the damage. Then, a$suming nobody cares to cast anything, all of these triggers resolve, from last to first. 1) your creature deals 2 damage to target creature or player. 2) your creature gains shroud. 3) your creature deals its 2 damage to the target you had picked (unless you had, for some strange reason, picked itself as a target) 4) the second giant growth fizzles because its target is no longer valid 5) your creature deals another 2 damage to the target you had picked for the ability. 6) the first giant growth fizzles also.
It doesn't matter whether the spell that targeted the equipped creature is allowed to resolve or not: livewire lash only cares that it became targeted at some point.
BTW, you should almost always allow your spells to resolve before you attempt another one. Cast giant growth, let the creature get +3/+3, then cast another. It sucks when you cast a bunch of buff spells on a creature, and your opponent casts a doom blade in response to all those spells.
Kryptnyt
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(5 votes)
Whip Silk Crown of Flames Flickering Ward Shimmering Wings All of these will do the same thing, essentially... 1 mana, 2 damage, 1 mana, bounce aura, repeat. All of em will also draw you cards from enchantress type creatures or Azorius Aethermage as well. You probably want a monocolored deck if you're going to do this.
J_man92
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Seeds of Strength on an infect creature equipped with this deals a whopping 6 poison counters. Green-white infect, anyone?
I feel this card may eventually make it into a top tier deck soon. This card is very versatile. In an infect deck it can be a turn 4 game winner merely with any 1/1 infect creature targeted with distortion strike, and virulent swipe. The fact that once the creature is targeted while this is equipped, even if you counter the spell you still get to deal 2 damage is just amazing. 5 out of 5 from me because its fun to play with, its versatile, and is a threat in any infect deck.
ZirilanoftheClaw
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
this + any infect creature + = the most fun combo youll ever have-
kolomeha
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(3 votes)
Equip Livewire Lash to creature with Infect: Cast Seeds of Strength on that creature. Target player receives 6 poison counters and faces at least a 4/4 creature. No blockers? GG. Blockers? Name your favorite instant...(insert Evil Laugh here)
I'm also working on a way to combine this with Ground Rift and Infect. I think I can use the storm mechanic to break this card. Currently working on a stormy way to kill all 4 of my opponents at the same time during my next multiplayer game. Suggestions appreciated...
ps. To all those people who will remind me that this is a lightning rod for removal, most point removal that targets this creature will still trigger it's ability before death. All Hail Phyrexia!!!
Entropic_Acolyte
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Here's a homebrewed recipe for a "Shock Cannon" I whipped up...
1. Play a high-toughness creature 2. Equip creature with Livewire Lash 3. Build up your storm count (I'm a fan of Grinning Ignus) 4. Use Grapeshot on equipped creature...
The end result: DOUBLE Grapeshot! Grapeshot becomes... Shock Cannon!
(Of course, there are other, arguably better ways to abuse this card. The shock cannon is always a surprise to the opponent though, since they never see it coming...)
EDIT: Could just use a Darksteel creature (like the Myr) instead of a high-toughness creature. Somehow I didn't think of that...
EDIT EDIT EDIT: I came up with this independently, but am glad others had thought of it too (@Incendiary Saint) Now, mono-blue will have a cannon that outdoes Fireball... impressive. I would like to propose the ideal creature candidate for the Gigadrowse + Livewire combo... His name is Flensermite.
Gremlin Power!
Richard_Hawk
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(2 votes)
does additional equipments and auras trigger Livewire's ability as well??
step 1: get 2 creatures (one Leonin Shikari preferred) step 2: attach livewire to one creature and have the equipment shuko in play step 3: since equip targets, have fun swapping shuko between the 2 creatures for infinite damage :D
Hibron
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
In conjunction with spellskite, this creates a
pay 2 life: deal 2 damage to target creature or player
effect
DazeRyuken
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
@iSlapTrees: That idea actually wouldn't work, since Livewire Lash will only trigger if a spell targets the equipped creature, and Equip is an ability that targets, not a spell.
Ava_Adore
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
stuffy doll, pariahs shield, this, win even faster,
in multiplayer, take down multiple people with one stuffy doll
however the most obvious of all is infect. protects your creatures like the tree of woe
Also Spellskite seems built for this
AssKickingBoots
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Actually, I completely misunderstood this card. I thought Equipment would count as a target, which would have been awesome with Shuko or that an ability would trigger it like from a Shaman en-Kor. Neither is true. It has to be a spell.
This is still an awesome card, since with Flickering Ward this becomes a massive repeatable monowhite burn combo (essentially 2 damage for every 2 white mana). It's just not bordering on the realm of ridiculous like I thought.
A quick and clean 8 poison counters for those of us running blue green infect anyway.
tazman321
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Type your comment here.
Buderus
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(3 votes)
I just love how many people missread this card.
Other then that all has been said, infect, recastable Auras, maybe even some buyback cards would do the trick.
Tempted_Johnny
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
This is unquestionably my favorite standard-legal card to date. Powerful enough to build a deck around, yet specific enough it's basically necessary. Works well with instants, sorceries, and let's not forget auras (regardless of how much play they may or may not see), so there's lots of room for creativity and in any color/color combination!
Coolest, although not most efficient, thing I've done: Equipped 3x Livewire Lash to an Inkmoth Nexus, and then targeted it for both parts of Wing Puncture. "What? 12 Poison?!?" "Yeah, THAT's how you get through a Tumble Magnet defense!"
Let's give this little gem to our old friend Stigma Lasher. Now I call that a 3rd degree burn.
Salient
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Equip onto a manlanded Inkmoth Nexus and carpetbomb your own critter!
This turns Gigadrowse into Gigadouse, and Shattering Spree into... bad puns fail me at the moment... a spree of shattering that shatters your opponent moreso than your artifact land creature?
Paleopaladin
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Such shenanigans with infecters and deathtouchers -- you can use your combat tricks to clear out blockers and punch through for the win unimpeded OR deal even more damage to your opponent. Great w/ lifelink too!
CuriousThing
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Great in standard infect, but Rancor is still better in legacy infect. Each gets +2/+0, but Livewire Lash equips for the first time and each subsequent time, while Rancor "equips" for only the first time and each subsequent time (and on top of that, Rancor is immune to enchantment destruction). Livewire Lash's damage effect may be better than trample, but not that much better.
nope.avi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
if youre doing legacy infect youre probably going for cheating out a blightsteel or with that second turn infect deck from modern with blazing shoals and whatnot. scratch that no one in legacy actually runs a decent infect deck or vintage or modern or standard for that matter. Also i don't think that anyone runs rancor despite the fact its one of the best aura's of all time. This is a fun card to combo with, however the people that are saying that this is so awesome and might take standard by storm with their 8 card combos are wrong. splintertwin and deciever exarch were a 2 card infinite combo and it still wasn't the best deck in standard. This has much less of a chance of actually being decent since its 4 mana to play and equip and you have to have a creature, plus at least 1-3 other spells to do anything. 3 card combos aren't seeing much play ever probably, see grimgrin/bloodline keeper/necrotic ooze which is actually a half way decent combo in standard. Any card that you have to build around to the extent that this card has to be built around doesn't make a good deck since it is so disrupt able, and with the way people would make the deck and run it even half way consistently wouldn't have much counter disruption, and isn't fast enough or consistent enough to do well in standard much less modern/legacy/vintage. Also since most spells that people play in any competitive format (draft doesn't count) any spell thats going to target your creature will kill it, or at least make it so it is no longer a threat at all. Don't try to say i'm wrong by saying that they played against a deck that destroyed them with this, if it was good then it would be a top standard deck or w/e other competitive format Having said that this card is cool. I might consider putting it in some edh deck or some extremely casual combo deck. Not a great card or for that matter very good but it is cool. tldr its meh also please stop with the bad puns
wadprime
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Awww, why couldn't it be "Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell OR ABILITY"? :(
raptorman333
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Standard Bearer or any other type of flagbearer kick-n it old school
Kiln Fiend, then this, then Tainted Strike, then Soul's Fire, then Distortion Strike for 30 poison (I think, correct me if I missed any triggers). Then slap on an Assault Strobe just for the hell of it (66 unblockable poison counters).
Report Abuse Posted By: Superllama12 (4/13/2011 4:24:39 PM)
I think the best way/correct calculation for this combo would be:
Kiln Fiend, equip this to fiend, cast Tainted Strike- Your lash deals 2 STANDARD damage to creature/opponent as it'll resolve before infect applied to Fiend, then your fiend becomes 4/2, then Tainted resolves and fiend is 5/2 with Infect, then cast the Distortion Strike- 2 poison counters on enemy, Fiend pumps to 8/2, Distrortion resolves and you now have a 9/2 unblockable fiend with infect; NOW play the Soul's Fire (may as well take advantage of Distortion pumps), this triggers for a total of 4 poison counters on opponent, then fiend pumps to 12/2, then Soul's resolves and applies 12 poison to opponent for a total of 16 poison counters. Swing in for unblockable 12 infect for a total of 28 poison counters on enemy. Of course you wouldn't even need to attack at that point as I believe the player loses immediately upon Soul's resolution as they have over 10 poison counters.
This is of course an extremely unlikely combo to begin with as it'd be probably at least a Grixis deck, and assuming you cast Kiln Fiend on an earlier turn (esp. if you planned on swinging anyway) AND that you cast AND equipped fiend with this before the "winning turn," this combo still requires (u),(b),(r),(2). I suppose this could be a turn 5 win with Fiend or this turn 2/3, Fiend + equip turn 4, this combo....but yeaa...
Anyway this is a pretty sweet card for combos. Probably something a little more likely though.
wholelottalove
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Boring broken card is boring. This was made for boring infect decks and so very uninteractive.
bay_falconer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Infect's "punisher" version of shroud, except that it's even moar lulzy when you cast Giant Growth on the equipped creature.
Seeds of Strength doesn't work, guys. According to an Oracle ruling on the similarly-worded Wild Defiance, a spell that targets a creature more than once will only trigger Wild Defiance once. Same thing here.
talcumpowder0046
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Ursapine doesn't always use livewire lash, but when he does, everything f**king disintegrates. He is the most interesting beast in the world.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I love this card; it's also a useful sideboard against removal. Basically, if they aren't ready with mana and it's the mid-game; you can drop small critters, put this on them, and thus have a reasonably sized blocker on top of having anti-removal tech.
Works wonders with apostle's blessing as well; give yourself an unblockable +2/+0 while smiting something for 2, hopefully while also hitting for another 2 and countering a spell.
NARFNra
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This is really great with Theros. Hell yeah I want some Heroic activations with this guy around.
It's almost too slow for poison, but I sideboard it in case I run into decks where I just can't get through, or get locked down. Makes each spell a direct 2 poison counters at worst and can make some spells just ridiculous (like giant growth for 5 poison on a blighted agent). Fun to play with for a card that is pretty balanced, can't give it less than 5.
Comments (64)
Also works if they try to use some removal on your infect creature. Win/win situation card here.
Having said that, at least in limited, there are too many viable non-spell ways to kill creatures, thus getting around the 'aggro-shroud'.
It makes Vampire Bite on my Infect Creature bite just a little bit harder. Assault Strobe gives it two bites. Panic Spellbomb and Smouldering Spires get it through early. Flame Slash lets me get a final 2 poison damage through if I have to. All around awesome card for infect decks.
And what if instead of vine of vastwood he cast a destroy creature spell (and my creature isn't indestructible) it's still proc only once (for the destroy spell)
1) your creature deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
2) your creature gains shroud.
3) your creature deals its 2 damage to the target you had picked (unless you had, for some strange reason, picked itself as a target)
4) the second giant growth fizzles because its target is no longer valid
5) your creature deals another 2 damage to the target you had picked for the ability.
6) the first giant growth fizzles also.
It doesn't matter whether the spell that targeted the equipped creature is allowed to resolve or not: livewire lash only cares that it became targeted at some point.
BTW, you should almost always allow your spells to resolve before you attempt another one. Cast giant growth, let the creature get +3/+3, then cast another. It sucks when you cast a bunch of buff spells on a creature, and your opponent casts a doom blade in response to all those spells.
Crown of Flames
Flickering Ward
Shimmering Wings
All of these will do the same thing, essentially... 1 mana, 2 damage, 1 mana, bounce aura, repeat.
All of em will also draw you cards from enchantress type creatures or Azorius Aethermage as well. You probably want a monocolored deck if you're going to do this.
Cast Seeds of Strength on that creature.
Target player receives 6 poison counters and faces at least a 4/4 creature.
No blockers? GG.
Blockers? Name your favorite instant...(insert Evil Laugh here)
I'm also working on a way to combine this with Ground Rift and Infect. I think I can use the storm mechanic to break this card. Currently working on a stormy way to kill all 4 of my opponents at the same time during my next multiplayer game. Suggestions appreciated...
ps. To all those people who will remind me that this is a lightning rod for removal, most point removal that targets this creature will still trigger it's ability before death. All Hail Phyrexia!!!
1. Play a high-toughness creature
2. Equip creature with Livewire Lash
3. Build up your storm count (I'm a fan of Grinning Ignus)
4. Use Grapeshot on equipped creature...
The end result: DOUBLE Grapeshot! Grapeshot becomes... Shock Cannon!
(Of course, there are other, arguably better ways to abuse this card. The shock cannon is always a surprise to the opponent though, since they never see it coming...)
EDIT: Could just use a Darksteel creature (like the Myr) instead of a high-toughness creature. Somehow I didn't think of that...
EDIT EDIT EDIT:
I came up with this independently, but am glad others had thought of it too (@Incendiary Saint)
Now, mono-blue will have a cannon that outdoes Fireball... impressive.
I would like to propose the ideal creature candidate for the Gigadrowse + Livewire combo...
His name is Flensermite.
Gremlin Power!
step 2: attach livewire to one creature and have the equipment shuko in play
step 3: since equip targets, have fun swapping shuko between the 2 creatures for infinite damage :D
pay 2 life: deal 2 damage to target creature or player
effect
in multiplayer, take down multiple people with one stuffy doll
however the most obvious of all is infect. protects your creatures like the tree of woe
Also Spellskite seems built for this
This is still an awesome card, since with Flickering Ward this becomes a massive repeatable monowhite burn combo (essentially 2 damage for every 2 white mana). It's just not bordering on the realm of ridiculous like I thought.
Livewire Lash
Giant Growth
A quick and clean 8 poison counters for those of us running blue green infect anyway.
Other then that all has been said, infect, recastable Auras, maybe even some buyback cards would do the trick.
Coolest, although not most efficient, thing I've done: Equipped 3x Livewire Lash to an Inkmoth Nexus, and then targeted it for both parts of Wing Puncture. "What? 12 Poison?!?" "Yeah, THAT's how you get through a Tumble Magnet defense!"
Doesn't work with fling, I am bad at life. Works well with Apostle's Blessing and Mutagenic Growth though.
This turns Gigadrowse into Gigadouse, and Shattering Spree into... bad puns fail me at the moment... a spree of shattering that shatters your opponent moreso than your artifact land creature?
scratch that no one in legacy actually runs a decent infect deck or vintage or modern or standard for that matter. Also i don't think that anyone runs rancor despite the fact its one of the best aura's of all time.
This is a fun card to combo with, however the people that are saying that this is so awesome and might take standard by storm with their 8 card combos are wrong. splintertwin and deciever exarch were a 2 card infinite combo and it still wasn't the best deck in standard. This has much less of a chance of actually being decent since its 4 mana to play and equip and you have to have a creature, plus at least 1-3 other spells to do anything. 3 card combos aren't seeing much play ever probably, see grimgrin/bloodline keeper/necrotic ooze which is actually a half way decent combo in standard.
Any card that you have to build around to the extent that this card has to be built around doesn't make a good deck since it is so disrupt able, and with the way people would make the deck and run it even half way consistently wouldn't have much counter disruption, and isn't fast enough or consistent enough to do well in standard much less modern/legacy/vintage. Also since most spells that people play in any competitive format (draft doesn't count) any spell thats going to target your creature will kill it, or at least make it so it is no longer a threat at all.
Don't try to say i'm wrong by saying that they played against a deck that destroyed them with this, if it was good then it would be a top standard deck or w/e other competitive format
Having said that this card is cool. I might consider putting it in some edh deck or some extremely casual combo deck.
Not a great card or for that matter very good but it is cool.
tldr its meh
also please stop with the bad puns
kick-n it old school
T2: Livewire Lash, attack with Glistener Elf
T3: Equip, Giant Growth, attack with Glistener Elf
9 poison!
Seeds of Strength would be useful too.
Report Abuse Posted By: Superllama12 (4/13/2011 4:24:39 PM)
I think the best way/correct calculation for this combo would be:
Kiln Fiend, equip this to fiend, cast Tainted Strike- Your lash deals 2 STANDARD damage to creature/opponent as it'll resolve before infect applied to Fiend, then your fiend becomes 4/2, then Tainted resolves and fiend is 5/2 with Infect, then cast the Distortion Strike- 2 poison counters on enemy, Fiend pumps to 8/2, Distrortion resolves and you now have a 9/2 unblockable fiend with infect; NOW play the Soul's Fire (may as well take advantage of Distortion pumps), this triggers for a total of 4 poison counters on opponent, then fiend pumps to 12/2, then Soul's resolves and applies 12 poison to opponent for a total of 16 poison counters. Swing in for unblockable 12 infect for a total of 28 poison counters on enemy. Of course you wouldn't even need to attack at that point as I believe the player loses immediately upon Soul's resolution as they have over 10 poison counters.
This is of course an extremely unlikely combo to begin with as it'd be probably at least a Grixis deck, and assuming you cast Kiln Fiend on an earlier turn (esp. if you planned on swinging anyway) AND that you cast AND equipped fiend with this before the "winning turn," this combo still requires (u),(b),(r),(2). I suppose this could be a turn 5 win with Fiend or this turn 2/3, Fiend + equip turn 4, this combo....but yeaa...
Anyway this is a pretty sweet card for combos. Probably something a little more likely though.
Also, Curiosity for hilarious card advantage.
He is the most interesting beast in the world.
Works wonders with apostle's blessing as well; give yourself an unblockable +2/+0 while smiting something for 2, hopefully while also hitting for another 2 and countering a spell.