Pointed Discussion

at least it has cool art and flavor text... but with a cmc like this it wouldn't have been broken with infect.

Yeah, we finally got this sets Chimney imp. I new they would make an homage to it some how.

Awesome Art, Name & Creature Type. THE END

Proof power creep exists to all you naysayers. they took chimney imp, which, lets all be honest, isnt that great. and turned him into an absolute bomb. this guy even proves global warming is real.

way too expensive for what its worth..

it could have been a 2/3 and been the BIGGEST BAT OF ALL TIME. But we have this.

They Phyrexianized Chimeny Imp (which was, yes, a Mirrodin card). That's downright hilarious. I just only wish that this guy was an uncommon so he wouldn't flood boosters.

WE WILL MAKE CHIMNEY IMP AGAIN! - WOTC

When I read the name, i thought the bat would CAUSE dementia, not SUFFER from it.

Instant speed discard. They should have made either the creature or the ability expensive. Not both. Instant speed discard is rather powerful yes! but not 10 mana powerful.

The only thing better than paying {3} for a mind rot is paying {10} for a mind rot.

I MEAN TALK ABOUT VALUE.

If I want a black flyer that sometimes makes my opponent discard two cards, I rather take silent specter.

Now that is just bad card design, waaaaayyyyyy too overcosted.

Chimney imp is reborn!

If I was Azax-Azog, I'd be terrified too!

I agree that the cost is too high, especially the casting cost, but instant-speed discard is SO hard to come by that I'm willing to bend to WotC's will and use this in my Nath of the Gilt-Leaf deck.

Worst card in Scars block.

The worst card I ever saw.

Worst creature of the set, hands down. Should have Phyrexian mana.

now i can have 8 chimney imps!!
thank you, wizards, you have made me a happy player.

Ladies and gentlemen, Chimney Imp V. 2.0!

No wonder Azax-Azog isn't the Black Praetor, when he made this **** while Sheoldred was busy making Skinrender.

They better have a good excuse for printing this card.

Come on down and test drive a sparkling-new 2011 Chimney Imp at the Phyrexia Dealership! Just ask for Azax-Azog and fill out our survey!

I do understand that its mana cost is a little high, but two payment of five mana is certainly better than one payment of ten. Also, those of you calling it "the next Chimney Imp" are completely stupid. Chimney Imp kills nothing. Dementia Bats can take down two cards at instant speed. Why is instant speed so important? It steels your opponents' draws, putting you ahead in cards. Whether it's buying you time to improve your board state or keeping your opponent from improving their own, it will certainly be a worthwhile investment. I built a deck around using Funeral Charm and Piracy Charm that, once emptying my opponent's hand, is hard-pressed to lose. The Bats will be a valuable addition.

Impressive art and good flavour text... Such a pity that the card is a waste because of it demented mana cost. Something tells me Azax-Azog is not going to be much succesful. The similarity with Chimney Imp is striking.

I can't wait to play this with Furnace Celebration so that I can make my opponent discard 2 and take 2 damage at instant speed on turn 7. Chimney Imp ought to be feeling jealous right now.

Why is this rated so low? At the moment '1.546'. People, this is Chimney Imp risen again. Wait... it's coming to me... Everyone realises how broken this card really is. Turn one; one Swamp, four Dark Ritual's and Dementia Bat hits the floor. Well, he flies into it anywho.

@CollectiveC It's Chimney Imp 2.0

Personally i'd have prefered a reprint or even a functional reprint of Chimney Imp. Oh well.
A bat is fine too.
Thanks for the laugh, Wizards :D

A few weeks after the New Phyrexia release, some friends and I got together to do a little sealed event. I pulled a foil one of these babies out of one of my packs, and immediately put it up for ante to whomever won the tournament. And fellas, I don't mind bragging...you are looking at the proud 5th place winner in the 1st Annual Dementia Bat Invitational Tourney.

How this sucker is hovering at 1.5 stars is beyond me.

If I ever had a dementia bat in my hand, I would probably just cast it face down for (3). And never turn it face up. EVER.

I like how this is rated lower than Chimney Imp. This isn't Chimney Imp anyway. This is a bat, not an Imp.

The Father of Machines reminds me a lot of General Motors.

Wizards should print one hilariously overcosted card like this in each set.

I may be demented, but I think Batty Koda from Ferngully is awesome.

When messing around with such an unexplored field like instant-speed discard, Wizards needs to be cautious.

It's a bad card, but it's virtually impossible to tell before it's released to the general public whether an unusual card is overpowered or useless.
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OmegaSerris
Esper Charm was a really good card, but it was limited by it's very narrow mana cost. The best decks that would've wanted instant speed discard like that couldn't justify all three of those colors.
A cycled Resounding Scream is prohibitively expensive.
My point stands.

@NoobOfLore
Normally I would agree with you. Good example of them screwing up an unknown mechanic was Arcbound Ravager. So yeah, adding a bit extra to the cost is a nice so they can dip their toe in the water so to speak.

This, on the other hand, is just plain dumb. Instant speed discard isn't something new, just something they avoid. There have been a few in recent sets (Esper Charm and cycled Resounding Scream for example) but they haven't broken anything. I think what they want to avoid is another lockdown method. Discard their hand then instant speed their draw each turn. Wizards hates lockdown/combo decks because it takes skilled players to fight them off, meaning it could potentially lose them money on new players rage-quiting.

Back to this card, if it was just as it with ", sacrifice Dementia Bat: ..." it would be on par with the usual limited-only commons each set has. An interesting alternative would have been ", put a -1/-1 counter on Dementia Bat: ...", it might even have seen play in Commander. They'd probably have to up the rarity as that feels uncommon to me. The extra AND sac is what REALLY makes this completely retarded.

I'm with those saying they made this horrible on purpose as homage to Chimney Imp.

Edit:
No, it doesn't. There is a reason almost all effect that could normally be played as an instant (Scepter of Fugue, for example) have the ADDITIONAL stipulation that they can only be played as a sorcery or, in the scepter example, on your turn. The scepter actually helps support my conclusion as it IS instant speed, only on your turn though.

Seriously, look at some of the older cards. They are completely hellbent (no pun intended) on protecting that draw from being discarded. Anvil of Bogardan (draw an extra one, THEN discard), Bottomless Pit (Discards before the draw step), Breathstealer's Crypt (Discard your draw ONLY if it is a creature, and even then you can pay life to get out of it.) Those were just the first few cards alphabetically that had "discards" but didn't contain "sorcery".

The fact that they are adding an entire sentence to these effects only meant to stop one thing (playing them on an opponents turn, after they draw their card) means that it isn't some accident, Wizards has tested and decided against it. It is by NO MEANS unexplored. Just not well publicly explored as they wouldn't even let it get that far.

Believe it or not, I once nearly beat my opponent with this piece of crap. He had no flying or reach creatures, so I was dealing 2 damage every turn while my Amphin Cutthroats and Bird Maidens blocked the attacks from his hoard of zombies. And when he tried to Victim of Night my Dementia Bat, I simply tapped five and sacrificed it, forcing him to discard the last two cards in his hand.
Honestly, if he had played that Endless Ranks of the Dead one turn later, I would have killed him w/ my Dementia Bat.

This card is so overpowered. I feel bad running it in my deck because it's unfair to the other player, they need at least some hope that they could possibly win.

"When terror outweighs all other thoughts, they will understand that I am the true Chimney Imp."
-Dementia Bat

Reasons this card is amazing:
1: Any card that takes out a strom crow annd lives is more than playable
2: 10 mana to make someone discard 2 cards is clearly card advantage (Strictly better than Jin Gitaxias, Caur Auger)
3. Kills chimney imp and lives
4. Doesnt die to Black lotus
5. 8 of these bigboys take out Emrakul, the aons torn
6. Strictly better than baneslayer angel

Remember Augur of Skulls? I'm not saying that this needs to be Augur of Skulls by any means, but that card was not anywhere near overpowered and anyone comparing that to this can tell this is total crap.

This card is actually very well designed. It shows that Phyrexia truly is what it eats, and even with all of its incredible metamorphic power, there is not a force in the Multiverse capable of making Chimney Imp good.

5 pages of people who don't think limited exists... geez. Yeah, it's not GOOD, it's not supposed to be- it's supposed to fill a limited slot and I think it does it pretty decently! It's MUCH better than Chimney Imp- one point of power makes all the difference! And the discard ability is actually pretty nice in a limited environment- flexibility, even overpriced flexibility, has its value.

Ugh, ten mana for THIS? Possibly the worst card in NPH. Got a lot of these in drafts, always as a 14th pick.

This is better than Chimney Imp guys, he's a 2/2!

@NoobOfLore: I have personally built an instant speed discard deck, and I can attest to the fact that my opponents hate it. I combo Words of Waste with a Merfolk Looter to make them discard during their draw step. This isn't unexplored ground. This is intentionally avoided ground. I run Nezumi Shortfang in the deck, and while it is instant speed discard, its flip clause is there specially to prevent lockdown. Wizards doesn't like it.

Chimney Imp has been Completed.