Pointed Discussion

Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself.

Mono Red has had basically no way to deal with Phyrexian Obliterator without artifacts like Tumble Magnet and the no longer legal Brittle Effigy. This gives us a blowout :)

A tad expensive, but useful for those big beefy creatures that normal burn spells can't kill.

Gets rid of Blightsteel Colossus, while his predecessor Darksteel Colossus just laughs incessantly.

Because phyrexian obliterator is just absolutely tearing up standard.

Repentance is better, just white.

Kiku's Shadow is back in bla--red.

I always wanted to see a card like this. Fantastic.

Gelzo has the right idea. But I want to see this reflected in the art. NEW PROMOTIONAL ARTS, WITH MONSTERS WE KNOW AND LOVE HITTING THEMSELVES! Imagine it...

Withengar Unbound, punching himself in the face.
Deadly Recluse poking itself once and immediately exploding.
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite whacking a crack into her silly porcelain toilet-face, and then going "Oowwww....."
Kraken Hatchling flailing uselessly, for it does not have the sufficient length in whatever limbs it owns to hit itself in the fleshy bits.
Or just a human face like Village Survivors giving themselves a nosebleed after smacking themselves.

Kozilek is now confused.
Kozilek hurt itself in its confusion.
Kozilek has fainted.

Tailor-made for Phyrexian Obliterator. Mono-Black is looking less appealing now.

This should have had Flashback 0. Becuase, just once, I want to see Flashback 0, and this seems like a good effect to use it on BOTH for Teh Lulz and for 'most balanced to repeat for free'.

Increase it's original casting cost to 4RR to compensate for the Flashback? Oh, and also make sure you preserve the flavor with some kind of rider 'must choose the same target.' THAT would be balanced, not getting to destroy TWO different creatures -.-

Target creature fights itself, but doesn't fight back

~3 seems like a harsh rating for this card. It's obviously designed primarily with limited in mind, and in that respect, it's removal that's going to kill a lot of creatures worth killing - if a creature is on curve its toughness is likely to be either on or below curve, and as such, POW!

@ Superllama12: You're making me wish that's what this card read. If a creature "fought itself", it would deal damage equal to its power to itself twice.

Actually, Repentance was back in black (Kiku's Shadow), that now is back in red... Wonder why they didn't keep the white nor black mana cost. If I remind correctly, they said that the Kiku's mana cost was more appropriate, than the white. At least, they could have made it an instant...

I think that it should cost {2R}... Flavour red damage-based removal! Should become a staple!

3/5

@DarthParallax: Great idea! A removal that costs {0} wouldn't be broken, we all know, surely not in a card that would give card advantage on its own. Moreover, a removal that could be played in every color wouldn't break the color pie. We need other form of color violation, because Planar Chaos and New Phyrexia didn't teach anything about it.

Seriously now. The 'must choose the same target' clause is the only way in you can make a card like this (preserving the Flashback {0}, I mean), but is of the most inelegant rule text I've ever read. Not to say that it's unmakeable, but not a great card. I would prefer something like this:
{1RR}
Choose one: Target creature deals damage to itself equal to its power; or switch target creature's power and toughness until end of turn.

DarthParallax suggested this card with a "0" Flashback cost. Something similar to that would be Rebound.

Darth Parallax also mentioned the 0 Flashback as only being able to target the same creature as the original. Without stating it in any way, I think this suggestion was made at least partially in response to the Innistrad block's Undying mechanic; which, like Persist before it, provides creatures with an incredible level of advantage. This advantage has only been addressed through Rebound, which has not been made nearly as powerfully as Undying or Persist have been (in relation to, say, something like Young Wolf, the Rebound spells are much more expensive; and there simply weren't that many Rebound spells that had very powerful effects to begin with: There was a Red spell that Rebounded with 2 damage each time and a Black spell that induced target player to sacrifice a creature. Other than that, I don't think there were any Rebound spells that were incredibly playable in a Constructed-type deck).

I understand this sentiment - why would you play removal when you could play two-fer creatures all day long, instead - and when your opponents are doing the same thing? Playing something like Bolt or Terror on a creature that's only going to pop right back into place is simply giving yourself significant card disadvantage. It might be that they'll bring some kind of anti-Undying aspect to removal-type spells and effects in the next block - and to a more substantial (i.e. more powerful) degree than they did with Rebound.

I was wondering what would happen if I were to target Belltower Sphinx with this. Is this card the source of the damage, meaning I get milled, or is Belltower Sphinx the source, in which case its controller gets milled?

@CyborgGorilla: Wrack with Madness states "Target creature deals damage to itself..." ergo, Belltower Sphinx is the source of the damage, and it mills its controller.

Sideboard Tech against Phyrexian Obliterator.

There's no reason to run chaff like this. Just splash White like a good boy or girl and Dispatch/Path/STP those Colossi.

This is just a cool thing I noticed:

I thought the guy in the art was on the ground, getting ghost-raped.

Then I turned the card 90 degrees counter-clockwise, and it looks so much better! It's nice to see a card in this kind of framing.

One of the more reliable spot removal cards mono-red has. It's clunky and expensive but, it cleanly kills anything from Inferno Titan to Blightsteel Colossus. That being said, I'd still rather play Flametongue Kavu even if it kills less things because it's 2 for 1.