Pointed Discussion

It embraced your spine, got you good

Actually, I think the art shows a spine embracing someone. XD

Slave Of Bolas is probably better. The life gain probably isn't worth the extra and the combat clause, and Slave even has a instead of .

@ Tanaka: The difference is that spinal embrace can be both used for offense and defense (beeing an instant) while slave of bolas only for offense. If an opponent attacks you with several creatures, just spinal embrace one, block with it another attacker and you go two-for-one and get some life to boot. Or you can use it like slave of bolas, play it in your turn and attack an opponent with something.

I personally like the embrace more (because of the instant speed and old card frame).

Its a Goa'uld(Sorta...)! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!

what a great control card to play during your opponent's attack phase. steal the most powerful creature they are attacking with, and use it to block the second most powerful. by the end of the turn you've avoided a ton of damage, gotten rid of 2 of their creatures (ideally) and even gained some life out of the deal. pricey to cast, but you get what you pay for

Yeah, I was about to say what has already been said. I'm running Slave of Bolas in my B/R arch enemy deck, but I would way rather have this.

Isn't that Starke? Shouldn't he be dead (storyline-wise) by this point?
If that isn't him, then it sure looks like him.

radiate! Insurrection, wrath of god and a crap load of life :)

I think the most important aspect of this card is that it can't target your own creatures. Meaning, your opponent can't legally Redirect or Swerve it onto one of your own creatures.

@ Gandlodder : No, it's not Starke. Actually it's a mimetic rod, a remote control of sorts. Greven il-Vec had one, Volrath used it to control and torture him from a distance.

Greatest play with this card: So i'm playing EDH online (on ***atrice). I'm at the bottom of the screen (call me Bottom), and then there's Top and Middle guy. Middle guy plays a Blightsteel Colossus and has nothing else on the battlefield except lands and no cards in play. Top guy has already taken some poison dmg over the course of the game and he has a few cards in hand a few small creatures, but can't stop the Blightsteel from 1 hit KO-ing him, so he says to me (Bottom): "hey can you do something about that blightsteel" and I say "sure i'll get rid of it". My turn comes around and I play Spinal Embrace, taking Blightsteel Colossus, and attack Top guy. The Top guy says "dude what the heck, I thought you said you were going to get rid of it". I say "yeah he's going to die at the end of the turn and I'll gain 12 life. You asked me to get rid of it but never specified how to go about doing that. Oh and one other thing: You can make deals with me and I will follow through with them but don't forget that at the end of the day, I am still your opponent". Top guy: "you're a bastard". Me: "I know :)"

EDIT: I meant to say "and no cards in hand". Also, it was a 3 player EDH game and the program is called c o c katrice (damn you censor).

Anyone ever cast this on an Ink-treader nephilim? Good times.

Boring card which should have never been printed. This and other Ray of Command type of cards really kill fun in multiplayer games. 1/5 for poor design.

Instant speed control effects are often better than their sorcery speed counterparts. Oftentimes, you can use this card to take their fatty, block and kill one of their other attackers with it, then sacrifice it (getting around indestructibility, etc.).

For many games, this card reads "{3}{U}{U}{B}: destroy target creature and target attacking creature. You gain life equal to the first creature's toughness." Which I would play any day. Of course, I mainly play EDH, where unconditional removal is king. And those times when you get a Blightsteel Colossus or a big Hamletback Goliath and someone doesn't have blockers make this worth playing over many other cards.

This is one of the most rude combat tricks in the game if used defensively. Steal your opponent's fatty and use it to block a smaller creature, then their fatty dies and you gain a lot of life. Doesn't even matter that this is a 6 drop, it's only at that point they'd have something you really want to steal.

Ya but Slave Of Bolas is not instant speed. No combat tricks.

Slave of Bolas is more fair.

Surprisingly, I think this is the only place in Gatherer where the Flavor is consistent and Bolas comes out looking nicer than somebody.

Bluntly, Dimir doesn't give a god damn what you think of them. Bolas, being full of self-importance and vanity, DOES care that you are very impressed by his Evil Bad Assness and Majesty.

Dimir Goes for the Throat and doesn't bother explaining itself. Bolas WILL Carpet Nuke you and give you Cruel Ultimatums and Slave you and all kinds of nasty things like that, but his pompous grandstanding demands you pay attention to him, and he's the type to let you hang around on 1 life while you build up mana.

Dimir wants to make sure you die before you can see their face, and erase your memory if you caught a glimpse of them. True, this card came out before the Dimir Guild itself, but it's completely in Lazav flavor. Bolas is the Evil Villain prone to glorious boasting and talking about his Grand Master Scheme.

He'll pour Traumatic Visions into your mind to break your sanity, and he'll make you keep your silence by being too in awe of and terrified of him. Dimir doesn't really like to go for that kind of security risk, it prefers the silence of a dead man, since the only people they can rat you out to are the Orzhov, and the Orzhov don't really care.

When you add Red, you get kind of a "Darth Vader", "Lord Kaan", or "Darth Malak" LOOK AT ME! BE IMPRESSED! kind of Sithyness. When you leave it just Blue-Black, you get more of a cunning Palpatine or Voldemort sort of "I win with Shadows" sort of TRUE dedication to Dark Lordy Ambitions.

There actually aren't many Sith Lords that had the restraint to hold back completely to the Shadows, which is why I had to cite Voldemort as a well-known impressive example (before he heard the Prophecy and lost all his cunning in favor of insane worrying and Greek "make your own worst enemy" idiocy anyway)

@DarthParallax

This is card is of Phyrexia. Don't insult them by calling this a "Dimir" card because Phyrexia would dissect half the guild, then wear that half's skin over their bodies as they mutilate the other half all because Yawgmoth didn't get his morning coffee before 7am sharp.

Also, to correct the timing of your comparison: Lazav is in this card's flavor. Your statement implies Lazav was created first, which is false in every way.