Pointed Discussion

This card isn't bad. It does require a bit much to go off. Other cards could do this better.

And then counterspell!

Because we needed more Soul Barriers. Ok, sure, why not.

I like it. If you have two or more in play it's great, and it can be achieved with cards from Scars and Besieged (Mirroworks and Prototype Portal i think). But if your opponent is playing Control with a few creatures, it's useless. Can be good in limited.

Don't waste an early pick on it, I'm begging you, but if this tables around to like 10th pick feel free to take it. If you end up with a really aggressive deck it will do good things for you. Otherwise, notsomuch.

I'd say it's worth paying life for creature spells if you expect them to deal more than two damage to an opponent within their lifespan (which is likely, seeing as this will tend to beat onto he battlefield only larger creatures). If your opponent is spending their fourth turn playing a slow taxing effect such as this, chances are you can race them before the damage even matters.

I like it flavor wise because what it really does is add on a colorless phyrexian mana symbol "{P}" to their creatures.

PS, to make that symbol just put P in brackets (the little half squares located conveniently right next to "p")

edit: woops, it was working right when I posted it, this is the real symbol I was talking about {P}

I want 4 of these! As well as 4 Vapor Snag, 4 Psychic Barrier and Mindcrank just for the lulz!

I've got a blue deck this was made for. Has 2 Soul Barrier, 3 Slow Motion, and about 12 variations on Unsummon. This might be what replaces Tangle Wire. {P} Does it work?

You want to have less choice, my friend? Manabarbs.

Bloodchief Ascension Speed up your opponents death, or screw up their tempo and slow them down.

Soul Barrier?!...
Is...is that you???
dO.ob
HAHA!!
Vapor Snag+Psychic Barrier.
"Oh you pay the 2 life??? Vapor Snag... I see you're trying to cast it again. Hmmmm, quizzical... And paid the 2 colorless??? Let me think about what to do with i-- OH!! Psychic Barrier."

Yep...
My kind of blue deck
>:3

Soul Barrier fulfilled 2 criterias: common and cmc 3.

So this should have been a blue artifact reprint with a blue {P} in both cost and payment method.

In standard multiplayer if Player A and B have an isolation cell in play, does player C have to pay the 2 mana or life for each isolation cell in play?

This can mess up weenie swarm decks, but it doesn't stop token production. I do run this in a blue-red control deck with Eldrazi combined with Propaganda. I have very little in the way of defense otherwise in the early game.

Could someone answer me this question? I am currently playing a deck (Thinking of making a deck.) The main idea of the deck came from this card really, an "Isolation" deck that penalizes people for playing spells to often. Well, here is the problem I am currently having right now. We were in late game, he had 6 health and I had 2, and he plays Goblin Guide and takes the 2 points of damage. I Vapor Snag so now he is down to 3 points of damage...

Now this is were it gets confusing... He played it again and says "I take the 2 points of damage" so I play Psychic Barrier and he says "Since the card was counted, it never hit the board, so I don't take the 2 damage from Isolation Cell."

So, end game, he one with 2 life left and I'm still convinced he should have lost...

Could someone explain to me, who legit one this game? Was he suppose to take the 2 damage so that I won? Or was he right with "You countered the spell, so it never existed"?

@Tsunaki: For a quick comparison, if you counter a spell with Storm, the copies still go on the stack.

The long answer: The creature goes on the stack. In response, Isolation Cell's triggered ability goes on the stack. Then, each player will gain priority in turn. After players pass priority, your opponent makes his choice regarding Isolation Cell (2 life or mana). Isolation Cell's triggered ability resolves and the creature is still on the stack, waiting to resolve. Then each player receives priority in turn. At this point if you counter the spell, your opponent will have paid the 2 life without successfully resolving the creature.

That help?

Hmmm , in the right deck you could run 4 of these at the same time ....for cheap cost too ....play Semblance Anvil and exile an artifact creature and then all your artifacts AND creatures cost 2 less to play....for EACH Anvil onthe field you control! Now ,,,imagine playing 4 of these out in a blue control deck....and say your opponent didnt have a ton of artifact destroyers .....NASTY !Sure there are alot of cards that can get rid of artifacts ,but ,hey , your running blue artifact control ,arent ya ? you can counter those cards all sorts of ways .....eventually it will shut your opponent down!

This doesn't really do a good job of, well, anything. Real creature decks put out so much more hurt than this can account for, and the big theme of the set is how life is a resource anyway.

@ fishsticks...yes u will have to pay for each copy on the field in multiplayer.

@tsunaki...You opponent can't take the damage, as the creature card never resolved, and didn't hit the battle field. Your opponent won.

@Matsumoto: Uh, casting a spell and having it resolving are two separate things. Isolation Cell triggers when the spell is cast, I.E. when the mana is paid and the spell is put on the stack, which causes Isolation Cell's trigger to be put onto the stack above the spell. Isolation Cell resolves, causing the player who cast the creature spell to lose 2 life unless they pay . Now, after Isolation Cell resolves (in which case Tsunaki's opponent would've been at 1 life), it is still completely possible to counter said Creature Spell, as it is still on the stack and therefore still vulnerable to counterspells. Psychic Barrier would've killed him, and technically you would've won Tsunaki. Congrats, by the way, that's a clever use of a fun combination of cards.

As for the card itself, hilarious in any bleeder deck, and in the Mono-White Phyrexian control I've been working on, really makes it hard for the opponent to gain any ground. Combine it with Chancellor of the Annex, Norn's Annex, and Suture Priest, and you have a lose/lose situation for your opponent.