Pointed Discussion

Only problem is it exiles 2 cards from your own hand AND you have to cast it, so it loses card advantage for you. Multiplayer games will make it do more, but it will also *** everyone else off, and pulling aggro turn 2 is a bad idea.

Would you rather pay 2 mana for Hymn to Tourach, or lose 4 cards to Mind Swords?

this is great, hellbent + u can play it for free

ummm this card is fcking great...yea
if you know what you are doing in black, then sacing a creature shouldn't be a big deal. hymn is teh ultimate hand destroyer, but you can only have 4 hymns in your deck. mind swords eats two cards for one if you don't have a hand and has an alternative mana cost. 4/5

this card seems great to me-
it gives you a painful cost (sac-ing a creature...which, if your playing as if your an amoral prick who doesnt 'care about his monsters', should be easy- black usually rewards amoral prickish strategies >:)
and then ON TOP of that, it gives you a REAL challenge-
figuring out how to make this hurt them more than you- but this is MTG. come on. anythings doable.

so for ALL THAT, you get, in the end, a power that is much better than hymn to tourach- exile trumps discard.

huge upside, huge downside. this is the kind of card mono-black mages should revel in. I feel like cards such as Doom Blade have spoiled black mages into thinking too much like Red mages- 'kill them now, damn the future, their wont BE a future' which is ALMOST like black, EXCEPT it means that black players no longer seem to care much about playing cards like this, when cards like this are about the only thing that really lets you tell the difference between black and red. red just doesnt have the tech to play this. black does, if you look for it. without hellbent or madness even, though of course there's no reason not to play good synergies if they work.

Took me so long to notice the giant eyeball in the background.
This is a small Delirium Skeins.

That dude loaned his blades to Gitaxian Probe.

Come to think of it, that giant eye behind him might be a Probe...

With Festering Goblin, you can fry one of your opponent's weenies while dropping this on turn 1.
Just make sure your opponent goes first. If you're playing Hellbent, you can just drop your hand as soon as possible, and then make sure you don't have any cards to exile while your opponent does.

I suggest casting Mind Swords for free by sacrificing Mindslicer!
...
Wait, nevermind.

That's one bizarre nipple.

If you're casting it for it's alternate cost and exiling two cards, you're doing it wrong. Cast this card when you topdeck it or use it as disruption also the fact that it exiles the cards is very relevant. As others have mentioned though, Hymn to Tourach is generally considered superior.

With Misthollow Griffin and Reassembling Skeleton oh my.

Oops, there go my Misthollow Griffins.

@Dr. Jones:

Can Hymn to Tourach hit every player? I don't think so. Add Black Cat if one wants the sacrifice to be worthwhile.

And, like LordRandomness said, Misthollow Griffin. Gotta think outside of the box.