Pointed Discussion

with Mana Burn gone after Magic2010 this is a functionally dead card... BOOOOO!!!!!!!

I hope this card gets an eratta to actually make it not more useless than one with nothing.

TOTALLY nerfed. TOTALLY.

You can still use it with Manabarbs. Bad combo, yes, but it can do something.

Rest in Binders, Power Surge, so sad.

This card does nothing without mana burn (removed in Magic 2010), Citadel of Pain has more potential (though not by much).

Wizard knew that removing mana burn will not just nerf, but only kill some cards. (Those were also stated in their rules change article)
What where they thinking? O.o
Of course new players often didn't know about that since it does not become relevant in most simple games...but was it correct to remove a game element just because it was rather unknown?
I don't miss it that much, but i hope cards like this will get an errata for new use, though.

thank you wizards for making this the worst rare ever (since m2010)

We should start a group that demands Manaburn be reinstated and continue to play with manaburn in casual games.

There's a very, very narrow use for this card. You play instants after your opponent has tapped out allowing you to slip them in mostly counter free.

Not the best option, but I think it's a little better then Trained Orgg

Bust this... if you're playing casually with your friends, you CAN play with mana burn, returning relevance to the cards you love.

A the card still has use, yes nerfed use but still use, B you want mana burn back? then just play with mana burn when your not in a tourney... jesus

The only use I can see is punishing blue for keeping untapped land open for a counter.
But that's trying to see the good side of the sewage tank.

Can anyone send me about 12 of these?...I seem to need a new set of coasters.

power surge plus mana flare plus shivan dragon(and/or other pumpable creatures) makes for a very fun deck. of course with mana burn gone its essentially dead but. back in the day it was great.

I love this card, it was the basis for my long time favorite deck. Power Surge, Mana Flare, Manabarbs, Circle of Protection: Red, and tons of removal and direct damage to deal with permanents. I wrought serious havoc with that deck. With the Candelabra of Tawnos this card is (or was) a killer.

Getting rid of mana burn was a huge blunder, it eliminated a lot of subtleties from the game. I don't know anyone who's happy about the removal of mana burn, WotC really needs to bring it back. Their excuse for removing it was pretty pathetic, "people didn't understand it." The solution to that is better documentation, not gutting a core game mechanic.

manabarbs and land sacing costs.

It is not the worst card... I don't see why it is rated so low....

Even without mana burn it still does the damage.... Could someone explain why removing mana burn nerfed this card so badly?

It still says "At the beginning of each player's upkeep, Power Surge deals X damage to that player, where X is the number of untapped lands he or she controlled at the beginning of this turn."

Get pro Red or go all aggro with haste weenies and some equipment. After about 3 turns with this out your opponent should not be able to do anything with the right aggression. I'm just a bit lost as to why it is considered so nerfed...

Do you guys actually play with the ridiculous new rules that eliminate mana burn? I refuse to play that way, ever. Not for a tournament, not for casual play. Mana burn was part of the game for nearly 20 years for a reason. It forces players to actually make calculated decisions with their resources. Without mana burn, players can just haphazardly tap their lands for mana in a sloppy manner. Mana burn also makes cards like Black Lotus, Sol Ring, and Mana Drain slightly balanced. Seriously, these cards would actually be considerably more powerful - if you can imagine that - without the threat of mana burn. Is this what we want?

Then we have cards like Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Mishra's Workshop, and the Urza lands. You have to actually think before tapping this cards - if mana burn exists, as it should.

And finally, there's cards like Power Surge, which were obviously designed with the reality of mana burn in mind. Of course, so was Mana Drain - the threat of mana burn was the only thing keeping it even slightly sane!!

Why the hell did WotC throw mana burn on the scrapheap? My guess is it was to simplify the game yet further, for the Pokemon kids. Just like eliminating interrupts was. They have changed Magic: the Gathering far too many times in its short lifespan. Imagine if chess went through zillions of changes every decade? It wouldn't have lasted several centuries, that's for sure.

Here's a cookie for you, DrJack. And for you Pokémon kids... NO COOKIE. COME BACK ONE YEAR.

@Amogram

Because palyers can tap lands and add mana to there mana pool even if they are not going to use it. So they can tapp before this effect to avoid or minimize damage.

I understand both sides of this argumentation, and I was actually about to build a deck with this card before learning that they changed the rules, too bad :(.
By the way, there was odd behaviours even before the change, like voluntarily taking mana burn to reach a specific amount life... Cough! fateful hour Cough!.

I've been thinknig for another way to solve this issue: There is already a lot of situations where players are unable to take actions whithout a proper use for this action.
-Can't regenerate a creature that is not going to the graveyard
-can't cast a spell that target something without a valid target, even if it would let you draw :(
-can't discard without a reason...

So why the heck can we tap lands for mana without the intention of using it?

Manabarbs is back, and along with Personal Sanctuary, this is somewhat usable. Is it weird that I want a reprint of this now?

This still works really well with Price of Glory and Manabarb.

One with nothing is actually very useful, you just haven't figured it out.

This card used to be bad ass, Mana Burn made the game so much better. I lament the day they got rid of it. Things like Mana Flare where much more tricky because you didn't want to get burned every turn by them.

They should have errataed this card to make it cause manaburn to work as part of its effect, same as they did with some artifacts back when they changed the rules to make tapped artifacts continue to work.

"10/4/2004 This card knows how many were untapped even if it was not on the battlefield at the beginning of the turn."

It knows. IT KNOWS.

I sense much butthurt within these comments...

@Amorgan
You tap all of your lands at the end of your opponent's turn so that the card does 0 damage to you.

@Nashcoil
As far as regenerating a creature that isn't going to the graveyard, what are you talking about? Do you mean removing damage, removing the creature from combat, and tapping the creature, when regeneration is activated, or do you mean activating the ability that produces a regeneration shield? Because you can do the latter before the creature is going to the graveyard, in fact, you have to or the shield doesn't work.