Pointed Discussion

Bursama 2010-11-19

★★★★★ (5.0/5.0) (8 votes)

Also known as "The one that beats lifegain decks".

Detonativity 2010-11-20

★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0) (5 votes)

Shame it costs a little too much to play on an Isochron Scepter. This would be a good card to be able to recast repeatedly and easily.

justicarphaeton 2010-11-25

★★★★★ (5.0/5.0) (2 votes)

It's pretty great that such a functional and important burn spell came out of Kamigawa (and carries a lot of the Vorthos flavour too!)

DacenOctavio 2011-05-07

★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0) (6 votes)

Powersleeping, powerlaughing, powergaining life! You'll gain NO LIFE.

blurrymadness 2011-05-17

★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0) (2 votes)

"OH damn, you're going to use Tainted Sigil after my 14 damage kiln fiend attacks? Boy you got me. OH WAIT!!!!.. you lose."

twiddleman12 2012-10-12

☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0) (2 votes)

strictly better than char.

PhantomDust 2012-10-16

★★★★★ (5.0/5.0) (3 votes)

@twiddleman12
Strictly less likely to stop a charging Thoctar than Char.

Kurraga 2012-10-29

★★★★★ (5.0/5.0) (1 vote)

As far as 3 mana 4 power burn spells go, this is your best option if you want to make sure your damage gets through. It has a fair amount of competion though, like Char and Flame Javelin which can hit creatures too, Brimstone Volley which is situationally better and Ball Lightning and Hell's Thunder which are like creature versions of burn spells. Still, in some decks, this thing is the better card.

Lifegainwithbite 2013-05-21

☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0) (1 vote)

Outdone by quite a bit by Skullcrack these days. And ah well. I still draw the cards from Sphinx's Revelation and I still get the 5/3 from Thragtusk and nobody plays pure lifegain anyway.

CogMonocle 2013-07-28

☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)

@Lifegainwithbite

The thing is, when you play aggro, having a card that reads 1R Instant: Deal 8 damage to target player is pretty *** significant. I have won several games off of skullcrack, very relevant for those last few points.

Taudisban 2013-11-14

☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)

@Lifegainwithbite

Both of those also cost a lot of mana. The kind of red deck that runs this card is a burn deck. As in, you never cast your five drop beast because you died on turn three or four. This fought things like Lightning Helix and other cards that were worth anything outside their own standard.

JennJames 2014-03-25

☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)

Outdone by quite a bit by Skullcrack especially when you need to removal that creature thats...

Oh wait, target player only? Damn. Skullcrack is so narrow.

j_mindfingerpainter 2014-05-02

☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)

Played with Eidolon of the Great Revel, this is Char (targeting a player) o_0

Also this has no antisynergy with your own life gain, unlike Skullcrack.