Pointed Discussion

As of the M2010 rules changes, this is now a completely worthless hunk of cardboard as opposed to a mostly-worthless hunk of cardboard.

i just thought the same. without mana burn this card is certainly worse.
although there is still some minor use since your opponent still has to take the damage if he wants to cast spells or activate an ability (that requires mana) on the opponent's turn.

the new rules change the very basics of the game, changing the usefulness of this card and others such as mana flare and the vinyard, making no draw backs for opponents. might as well just changed the cards like these to carrier pigeons and been done with it. why do they have to change things that arn't broken!!!!!

Think on the bright side - you can still force a control/reactive deck to tap out so you can do whatever you want.. barring Force of Will & Daze..

yeah they just turned "tapping yourself out" into a coward's escape from this card. what a shame, basically having two in play at the same time doesn't do much more then having the first one in play.


lol, still decent against blue though, the new mana burn rule makes this card decent in a mana destruction deck.

2010 rules killed this card. It was moderately useful. Now it's useful to make a proxy card with.

I built a really fun deck using this and Magus of the Candelabra and Chimeric Idol (the default card to use this with), along with a few creastures that got better if all lands were tapped. now... with that damn pointless rule change, it's worthless. Fortunately, my mates also agree and we still use mana-burn.

I actually think this is still useful, despite there being no mana burn.

Think about it in a burn deck, versus.. say a blue player, or maybe even any player. At the end of their turn, they either take damage so they can counter your spells that will deal damage OR they dont take damage, then are unable to counter your spells that will deal them damage.

For a burn deck, this does 2 possible things that you want to see. they take damage or are tapped out. And when they do tap out, you can cast those big spells without worry of counter (unless they run force of will in a casual environment,.....)

Force the damage with Mana Barbs. And shout, "screw you wizards my old cards can still work"

Still stops control decks that rely on counterspells.

Anti-counter

This card is not at all worthless! It's a pretty nice shut-off against control. If a control deck wants to pull end-of-your-turn-shenanigans, then the opponent still has to be willing to pay the price.

Combine with Manabarbs

I was sorting cards, and saw this and thought to myself, well this is trash now. Then I thought about how it can be used.

This card isn't completely useless. It works great against blue Counterspell decks. It's also good to get all other decks to use their tricks early way before combat so that you don't have to expect any funny business when you attack. It also ruins cards like Righteousness that only work for blockers.

This card is fundamentally changed with the new rules, but it's not useless. If someone EVER holds a land open, and takes damage from this card, they just told you, "attack me and see what happens". Knowing this you can even use that towards your advantage and play mind games with your opponent by bluffing, and taking 1 or 2 damage every now and then.

If anything this cards flavor has increased tenfold from the 2010 rules change. It's red. It's anti blue. It creates a chaotic mind bender of a mini game full of lies. Toss this in a life gain deck, and you can have some serious fun bluffing your opponent out of attacking, or even from casting their good spells. This is a card that requires a poker face. I'm giving this 5/5

My favorite thing about this card is catching people at the end of their turn: "you sure you want to leave that mana open?"

And then if they do, you know they've a counterspell probably, so you just play it safe and play counterable cards that are still dangerous but not vital. If they don't counter it, free damage! If they do, it's a waste.

All you who say that 2010 rules made this crap look at Power Surge. Like others have already commented, this forces your opponent to tap out, on their turn, or take damage.

To be fair, I've run this card in a casual deck before just because it's good fun. It's like Chain of Plasma: might not be good, but you and your friend will be having too much fun to care.

Because there is no more mana burn, this card is useless. All your opponent has to do is tap all their land before this takes effect.

I can't BELIEVE they got rid of mana burn!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Still good against any deck that wants to cast cards during your turn, aka every control deck ever.

Still a smart sideboard choice for blue.

DIE, BLUE, DIE

People saying this is useless have obviously only ever cast Sorceries.

Honestly, after they changed the manaburn rules, they should have errataed this card to cause manaburn as part of its effect, same as how a few artifacts were errataed to deactivate when tapped as a special rule.

Errata should try to keep the spirit intended for the card when it was printed. Since this card only works the way it was intended when manaburn exists, it should cause manaburn. It wouldn't make it particularly overpowered, just non-useless.

superboi has an excellent point. With mana burn around players could leave mana open and make the reasonable claim that their hand had nothing to cast and they therefore had no choice but to take the damage. Now leaving mana open with this on the field has only two reasons: The player has instants or other effects to make use of off-turn, or the player is pretending to have instants or other effects to make use of off-turn. Good luck figuring out which.

For the upper hand in these bluffing games, have an ability on the board that needs mana and should obviously be used off-turn. That gives you a reason to leave stuff untapped and makes people less likely to question your motives.

With manaburn 4 star without 2