Pointed Discussion

Not better than the First, Mana Drain, but a great poormans version.

Despite being the poor man's Mana drain, It's still a solid card.
Again, blue is perfectly good at stacking its draws, so clashing effectively should not be a problem if you build your deck right.

mana drain...NOT!

Mana Drain's "special" cousin.

Not an awful replacement, but I'll take the original, thanks ;-)

Not even a "poorman's" version so much as just a NOT broken version.

Yeah, every time I win the clash, it's just such an amazing boost. I shudder to think what playing with a set of Mana Drain is like.

This is amazing if you want to play balanced magic. Obviously Mana Drain is better. It's banned for a reason though.

(hint: it was insanely over powered.)

Player 1: Scattering Stroke
Player 2: MANA DRAIN!!!!!
Player 1 scoops.

So here's the trick, right:

1) Stack an expensive fatty (or Time Stretch, lol)
2) Win clash
3) Draw fatty
4) Use mana to cast fatty

Seems like a decent way to hit Emrakul late game, frankly.

Hey, I used to run Lay Bare. I would much rather run this, 4 mana is a tricky counter but this packs allot of potential punch.

And Mana Drain was a mistake from R&D, even with mana burn. You sound like a bunch of wallet warriors that enjoy demolishing players with mistake cards that should have never been made.

It only saw 1 printing, and has $150 pricetag for a reason. To many play to wins, instead of play for fun. If you were in my playgroup, We would end up playing only 1 game. And when you asked why I wouldnt play you, I would say you spent over a grand to win at casual magic, I am not going to feed your stupidity.

Mana Drain is obviously worse than this, because this clashes. So you know the top card of the opponent's deck AND you get to steal their mana. What more could you ask for.

@ TheWrathofShane - Excising a player because he plays a Mana Drain is pretty close-minded. I agree with you that too many people play to win and not for fun, but you shouldn't automatically assume because someone plays an expensive card that they are only playing to win. I own a Mana Drain and play it because it has incredible nostalgic appeal for me and because it is one of my favorite pieces of art from my all time favorite artist (Mark Tedin). I put a priority on having fun when I play Magic and I try to out-play my opponents, not out-wallet them. That said, I still use some expensive, powerful cards, but I don't stack my deck with all of them in one deck. I like to play with a lot of mediocre cards too that have awesome artwork, so it usually balances out. Besides, who is to judge how much is too much to spend on cards? Unless you are a dedicated Pauper player the argument can be made that anyone who spends even $1 on a piece of cardboard is stupid. I would much prefer to ban someone based on a bad attitude than the cards that they use. I'm tired of hearing about cry-babies who scoop because someone plays a card they don't like. How about grow up instead and challenge yourself to build a better, more versatile deck.

Anyone who says they'll use this over Mana Drain obviously uses Ancestral Visions over every draw card, Control Magic over Mind Control, Counterspell over Cancel, and Time Walk over Time Warp.

Because obviously those cards are so much better, using other cards would just be silly.

They doubled Mana Drain's cost and made its mana-gaining effect flat out fail half the time. And it's still usable.

That shows you just how broken Mana Drain really was.

What if someone actually has been playing Magic for these past 20 years and PULLED the mana drain from a booster pack???

Granted I dont have mana drain myself, but I do have duals and other older cards. Should I apologize because I own these cards and want to use them?

Now if someone actually did buy a mana drain just to win in a casual setting, then yeah that is a bit much.