I'm really not a huge fan, this is decent, but it just feels kinda underpowered
However, correct me if I'm wrong, but can you use Paralell Lives to make one of the tokens stick around?
Dolorosa
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
No haste is what kills it. I SUPPOSE you can use this with creatures that do something when they hit the field? But that's it. I guess it can chump block too if you REALLY need that.
kanguilla
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Nom Nom heads.
Paladin85
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I don't get the point of this card if the creatures are exiled and the tokens have no haste
Unless they have some sacrifice or no tap ability
CopySix
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Does the dude at the end look like Matt Smith of Doctor Who fame ?
RAV0004
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I had to reread to make positively sure it didn't give haste. Then I had to doubletake when it didn't allow me to exile my opponents' nasty creature graveyards
In the end, it lets you use your creatures as blockers for a second time, or as a second sacrifice (which disables the exile clause, hint hint) If your deck is based on doomed traveler/selfless cathar or whatever that's decent I guess, but seance will have no place outside super dedicated combo decks, super dedicated etb trigger decks, or an EXTREMELY lucky pull in limited. (this is dark ascension after all. not quite so many human-turning spirit cards)
001010011100101110
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(9 votes)
Sure there's no haste, but it's each upkeep instead of your upkeep, which is pretty huge. This is one of those cards that are either meh or WHY DIDN'T WE SEE IT BEFORE. I'm thinking meh unless you bring back a Titan every turn.
Then again, maybe Sundial of the Infinite might finally see some play... Hint hint
At first, I was thinking, "This seems good. Pop a creature out and swing each turn? Cool" Then I saw that it didn't say without paying its mana cost. "Oh, well it can still get some stuff out for swinging, who cares if you have to pay?" No Haste "So... Can you exile stuff from their graveyards?" Nope. Bad all around.
Splizer
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(9 votes)
That settles it! If they're using French words on their cards, I will be putting "En Garde!" down as a card name for the set I'm making in Set Editor! And on that subject, I've got a good card design for this set:
Quelle Horreur! - 2B
Sorcery Destroy target creature. Say "Au Revoir" to that creature. If you do not, shame on you.
Toquinha1977
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Seconded on the Sundial of the Infinite. Might be fun with Ubarask the Hidden for global haste effects.
@Superllama12: Unfortunately not. According to the ruling on Parallel Lives: If the effect creating the tokens instructs you to do something with those tokens at a later time, like exiling them at the end of combat, you'll do that for all the tokens.
Diab0l0
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
This will be an absolute must in any Golem Splicer deck.
OmegaSerris
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(5 votes)
While I agree that mechanically, haste would have done this card a world of good... flavor-wise it should not have even been considered. Adding haste would have probably done two things:
1) Changed the color. With haste, it would be almost a cut and paste of Unearth, Postmortem Lunge, and other similar mechanics. has some revival, but is more the "goes down swinging" color. As printed, it is more a reverse Unearth. Rather than attacking, you use this for blocking as it has been suggested.
2) Increased the cost. There is no way R/D would have aloud an often abused mechanic as graveyard recursion be so repeatable without some super downsides. Such a card may just be 'Decent' to 'Powerful' in limited, but the older format would break the hell out of this card. Buried Alive alone would set up your next three turns with no further effort.
As it is, I like it. It isn't overly powerful on it's own (becoming an auto-include for decks), but if you build around it, it can be a really good engine for ETB effects. Hell, make a deck and get a free unearth of Ball Lightning and other pre-hasting creatures.
The.Laughing.Man
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I love this card. At FNM I run a Splicer deck with every creature (except for Doomed Traveller and some Grand Abolishers) has an ETB effect and I dont have enough space in the deck for creature recursion so this card is a godsend for me. Even if I lose a Splicer at the end of the turn I've still got its token. And with Parallel Lives I'm looking 4 golems each upkeep if the splicers keep dying.
Pantheon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Use with the Undying and Persist mechanics for some serious shenanigans. This can be a serious threat in the right deck!
Vogie
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
So, people don't really get this card I see. Here's a hint. Token Copies of creatures... copy the mana cost.
Yeah, this pretty much breaks Birthing Pod in half. You can "Pod" each creature twice. White and green are also the "destroy artifacts easily" colors (take that, Grafdigger's Cage) and you can get lots of use out of your Sylvok Replica and Kor Sanctifiers.
Artscrafter
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@Pinto331: "Tokens, even ones that are copies of non-token cards, have a CMC of 0."
This is incorrect. Converted mana cost is derived from an object's regular mana cost. The reason why most tokens have a CMC of 0 is because effects that create tokens have no reason to give them a mana cost, and something that doesn't have a mana cost has a CMC of 0. However, if a token is a copy of another object, it has all of the copiable characteristics of that object. Mana cost is a copiable characteristic, so the converted mana cost of a token that is a copy of something is the same as that of the object it is copying.
Pinto331
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I think it's worth noting that this triggers on your opponent's upkeep as well, which could give it some use providing quick blockers. Combining with some ETB effects make it not so bad at the very least.
Of course, throw in some Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves and this card becomes much more interesting. Slamming into an enemy with two titan effects in a turn can be pretty devastating. The lack of permanence means it's no alternative to Unburial Rites, but I can see this being a lot of fun in a casual deck. Filling your GY with fatties then bouncing them onto the battlefield for nothing means you've got more free mana to spend on other stuff each turn (like getting even more fatties into your GY).
@pdbdbomb You don't pay to cast any of the creatures. You just exile the card and get a token copy of it.
@Vogie
Woops, my bad. Still, wouldn't say this really breaks birthing pod any more than say, undying does.
I was wrong on the internet and now must wallow in shame.
"There is no way R/D would have aloud an often abused mechanic as graveyard recursion be so repeatable without some super downsides."
No way R&D would allow abused mechanics? Need we remind you of the Great Skullclamp Disaster of 2004, or the fact Painter's Servant was banned during the Shadowmoor SPOILER?
lyysander
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is probably the most perfectly-named card ever.
nirvava
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is broken. Buy em while they're cheap.
Blue and black (and even green with Mulch, Splinterfright, etc.) have no problems getting creatures into their owner's graveyard. So, on turn four with this out I will be able to cast a Sun Titan (or any other creature with an awesome 'comes into play' ability) ... for free, mind you... on my opponent's next turn. That's basically skipping 2 turns when my opponent gets his fourth turn. And nevermind the fact that on my fifth turn, (using the Sun Titan example again) I can basically cast 2 more for only 6 CMC total. Not to even mention the fact I'm taking a turn on my opponent's turn, which is basically a built-in Time Walk each turn.
This screams card advantage, turn skipping, counterspell dodging and whatever else... for only 4 mana! Just remember how quickly that spell that put enchantments from your graveyard into play became broken. Only able to use in Standard for now cause I lack the cards for other formats, but with Relentless Skaab and Armored Skaab, the deck pretty much plays itself.
By the way, could someone please tell me how to type that 'e' with the accent mark over it?
SeiberTross
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is one of those sneaky powerful enchantments. No it's not easy to build around, but when you start getting 2 free creature based effects every turn it can be quite powerful. Deceptively powerful with splicers, great in sacrifice decks (Vish-Kal EDH comes to mind)
And don't underestimate what this card can do in a straight up mill yourself/reanimator build. Reanimating Elesh Norn or Sheoldred, and copying it with Cackling Counterpart. Of course this allows much more flexibility than its blue counterpart. Back from the Brink.
Enemy_Tricolor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
gamexpert1990
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card seems like it should get some more respect. It would work wonders in a deck based around the White / Black "Dark Sacrifice" theme in Dark Ascension. It also allows you to give Archdemon of Greed a second helping of every human you have sacrificed to him, saving you from his big backlash if you are running low on humans in the battlefield... Disciple of Griselbrand, Skirsdag Flayer, and Falkenrath Torturer also have a fairly good synergy with Seance for the Innistrad block.
This was my first post on Gatherer. I am not exactly sure how to make the mana symbols, so if anyone could help me out with that, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
Myrderous
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Soulbond haste would vastly improve this card as it is I played with jstorrie's combo backed up with stonehorn saving grasp and self mill played quite well until they got exil into their side board to remove the maniac
Up through turn two you cast your cheap cards (Signal Pest, Memnite and Accorder Paladin come to mind) and this on turn three. Cast Parallel Lives on turn four. Turn five you cast the Geist-Honored Monk, which at this point will be pretty monstrous if your board hasn't been eaten. Turn six is Feed the Pack, and after that you can sacrifice the monk, Séance it back in on your opponent's upkeep, and put a whopping EIGHT Permanent 1/1 Fliers onto the field thanks to the monk's "enter the battlefield" effect and two massive monks for blockers, not to mention all the wolf tokens you just spawned.
And all of that is only if you really need it. With just about any token deck, you can easily be swinging for 20+ by turn four or five, especially if you splash black for the Lingering Souls flashback. What you get is a deck with a ridiculous combo that doesn't rely on the combo to win. :D
This combos with any card with any halfway decent "enters the battlefield" effect. As someone else mentioned, it can also be used to provide additional sac fodder or tokens (Doomed Traveler, sac it, gain another spirit token).
I'm also thinking Angel of Glory's Rise and Fiend Hunter might be a way to really abuse this card. Seance the Angel, bring back the Fiend Hunter, hide the angel token, when Fiend Hunter dies the token comes back only to be hidden again by the Fiend Hunter so it never sees the end of turn trigger. With a couple copies of Fiend Hunter (barring any Journey to Nowhere shenanigans) you could bounce that same angel nearly endlessly.
Dizzavy
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Laboratory Maniac+ Mirror-Mad Phantasm+ Seance= one hell of a surprise win against any opponent.
Jed727272
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ Alphagrime
The angel created would be a token, if you exile it with fiend hunter, it is gone forever, due to it being a token.
this+the new return to ravnica populate=AWESOMENESS
AeternusEclipse
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This could make a lot of cards that have died come back and be those "ETB" effect creatures that drastically change the entire course of the game.
Fervor can make these Spirit tokens come in and go out swinging. Or, any card that grants Haste for any new ETB card (Lightning Mauler comes to mind).
With the right support, this card can be extremely versatile in terms of defence or offence. I would assume some players would try and play around this, and having your Deadly Recluse/Serra Angel/Griselbrand/Misthollow Griffin come out as a spirit and be an emergency blocker can be surprising. You just need to try and dump such cards into the grave.
On its own, it's fairly limited in value. Pair it with Green/White Populate, and it's a whole new ballgame. Centaur Healer will net you plenty of life. Arbor Elf and Avacyn's Pilgrim tokens will ensure a strong mana base. Also obvious are things like Phantom General and Gobbling Ooze.
But it only gets sillier from there. Try Populating Wayfaring Temple over and over. An army of Loxodon Hierarchs will cause your opponent to think twice about almost any type of creature kill, while simultaneously losing ground on your repeated life gain. Angel of Salvation works insanely well, giving you 5/5 fliers and damage prevention for anything as a bonus. Dryad Arbor would be a quirky fit, helping to ramp into something like, say, Worldspine Wurm.
The possibilities are truly fantastic.
NickDay
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
My opponents cringe when this hits the battlefield. Every creature in my deck has an "enters the battlefield" effect.
demidracolich
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Im suprised no one has mentioned thragtusk or angel of serenity.
OceanicSphinx
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This, Growing Ranks and other populate things make some fun interactions. Find a creature you like, I like Stormtide Leviathan, get him in the graveyard and make 2 at first. Yea the first one gets exiled, but the populated ones stays for the spirit party. I invited drogskol captain and civilized scholar to that part as well. You may also want Thragtusk insanity.
patronofthesound
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Apparetly this + thragtusk + angel of serenity and resto, and populate mechanic is now a competitive type 2 deck.
roguepariah
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
That's odd... I'm not seeing any mention of Armada Wurm.
Kadaver666
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
this and Populate, great combo. bring back Armada Wurm or Thrgtusk and then populate the hell out of them.
Patep
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
At one point in a game I had this and two Parallel Lives out (i was running massive mana ramp) on turn five and I was playing mill. . . . I exiled a Captain of the Watch and put a token on the field of it. After the effects resolved I had four captains and 48 5/5 soldiers. Yeah I will just let that sink in. Needless to say he scooped.
azure_drake222222
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
A very recent card with an accent.
Hercynian
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Might use it in allies.
Though it's also really good with the new populate mechanic xD
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Glad it doesn't have haste, but the idea that that would be broken is flawed. How many Dawn of the Dead decks do we see?
I'm glad they held their wits about them and kept white white.
LordRandomness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It doesn't give haste? Oh no, now you actually have to think about how to use it! What a nightmare!
IncoherentEssay
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
With the change to the Legend rule, you can now sneak legends into play with this + populate. If you do so with Aurelia, you can chain the bonus combat phase by populating her and keeping the fresher token. If you have repeatable populate available (guildmage + manamooks for example) you've pretty much won at that point.
O0oze
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
with haste it would have been awesome. still fun with thragtusk.
@RAV004 Sacrificing it doesn't let you reuse the creature; the original card is exiled at the beginning of the effect.
Skinn_Eternal
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm confused about a detail on this card, and created an account here only to ask about it, as I scored this card in a booster and am contemplating adding it to my token-based deck. The card states "Exile it at the beginning of the next end step." So if I activate its ability on my own turn, when do I lose that token? Is it on the end step of the current turn, or the NEXT end step. What I'm trying to figure out is when I create the token, is it exiled before my opponent's upkeep or during his/her end step??
Comments (55)
However, correct me if I'm wrong, but can you use Paralell Lives to make one of the tokens stick around?
Unless they have some sacrifice or no tap ability
Then I had to doubletake when it didn't allow me to exile my opponents' nasty creature graveyards
In the end, it lets you use your creatures as blockers for a second time, or as a second sacrifice (which disables the exile clause, hint hint) If your deck is based on doomed traveler/selfless cathar or whatever that's decent I guess, but seance will have no place outside super dedicated combo decks, super dedicated etb trigger decks, or an EXTREMELY lucky pull in limited. (this is dark ascension after all. not quite so many human-turning spirit cards)
Then again, maybe Sundial of the Infinite might finally see some play... Hint hint
love this with ETB effects, like Blade Splicer and Grave Titan where you can dump tokens on the field or stuff like Inferno Titan and Skinrender to have some weenie roast :D
Then I saw that it didn't say without paying its mana cost.
"Oh, well it can still get some stuff out for swinging, who cares if you have to pay?"
No Haste
"So... Can you exile stuff from their graveyards?"
Nope. Bad all around.
Quelle Horreur! - 2B
Sorcery
Destroy target creature. Say "Au Revoir" to that creature. If you do not, shame on you.
@Superllama12: Unfortunately not. According to the ruling on Parallel Lives: If the effect creating the tokens instructs you to do something with those tokens at a later time, like exiling them at the end of combat, you'll do that for all the tokens.
1) Changed the color. With haste, it would be almost a cut and paste of Unearth, Postmortem Lunge, and other similar
2) Increased the cost. There is no way R/D would have aloud an often abused mechanic as graveyard recursion be so repeatable without some super downsides. Such a card may just be 'Decent' to 'Powerful' in limited, but the older format would break the hell out of this card. Buried Alive alone would set up your next three turns with no further effort.
As it is, I like it. It isn't overly powerful on it's own (becoming an auto-include for
Here's a hint. Token Copies of creatures... copy the mana cost.
Yeah, this pretty much breaks Birthing Pod in half. You can "Pod" each creature twice. White and green are also the "destroy artifacts easily" colors (take that, Grafdigger's Cage) and you can get lots of use out of your Sylvok Replica and Kor Sanctifiers.
"Tokens, even ones that are copies of non-token cards, have a CMC of 0."
This is incorrect. Converted mana cost is derived from an object's regular mana cost. The reason why most tokens have a CMC of 0 is because effects that create tokens have no reason to give them a mana cost, and something that doesn't have a mana cost has a CMC of 0.
However, if a token is a copy of another object, it has all of the copiable characteristics of that object. Mana cost is a copiable characteristic, so the converted mana cost of a token that is a copy of something is the same as that of the object it is copying.
Of course, throw in some Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves and this card becomes much more interesting. Slamming into an enemy with two titan effects in a turn can be pretty devastating. The lack of permanence means it's no alternative to Unburial Rites, but I can see this being a lot of fun in a casual deck. Filling your GY with fatties then bouncing them onto the battlefield for nothing means you've got more free mana to spend on other stuff each turn (like getting even more fatties into your GY).
@pdbdbomb
You don't pay to cast any of the creatures. You just exile the card and get a token copy of it.
@Vogie
Woops, my bad. Still, wouldn't say this really breaks birthing pod any more than say, undying does.
I was wrong on the internet and now must wallow in shame.
No way R&D would allow abused mechanics? Need we remind you of the Great Skullclamp Disaster of 2004, or the fact Painter's Servant was banned during the Shadowmoor SPOILER?
Blue and black (and even green with Mulch, Splinterfright, etc.) have no problems getting creatures into their owner's graveyard. So, on turn four with this out I will be able to cast a Sun Titan (or any other creature with an awesome 'comes into play' ability) ... for free, mind you... on my opponent's next turn. That's basically skipping 2 turns when my opponent gets his fourth turn. And nevermind the fact that on my fifth turn, (using the Sun Titan example again) I can basically cast 2 more for only 6 CMC total. Not to even mention the fact I'm taking a turn on my opponent's turn, which is basically a built-in Time Walk each turn.
This screams card advantage, turn skipping, counterspell dodging and whatever else... for only 4 mana! Just remember how quickly that spell that put enchantments from your graveyard into play became broken. Only able to use in Standard for now cause I lack the cards for other formats, but with Relentless Skaab and Armored Skaab, the deck pretty much plays itself.
By the way, could someone please tell me how to type that 'e' with the accent mark over it?
And don't underestimate what this card can do in a straight up mill yourself/reanimator build. Reanimating Elesh Norn or Sheoldred, and copying it with Cackling Counterpart. Of course this allows much more flexibility than its blue counterpart. Back from the Brink.
This was my first post on Gatherer. I am not exactly sure how to make the mana symbols, so if anyone could help me out with that, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.
Up through turn two you cast your cheap cards (Signal Pest, Memnite and Accorder Paladin come to mind) and this on turn three. Cast Parallel Lives on turn four. Turn five you cast the Geist-Honored Monk, which at this point will be pretty monstrous if your board hasn't been eaten. Turn six is Feed the Pack, and after that you can sacrifice the monk, Séance it back in on your opponent's upkeep, and put a whopping EIGHT Permanent 1/1 Fliers onto the field thanks to the monk's "enter the battlefield" effect and two massive monks for blockers, not to mention all the wolf tokens you just spawned.
And all of that is only if you really need it. With just about any token deck, you can easily be swinging for 20+ by turn four or five, especially if you splash black for the Lingering Souls flashback. What you get is a deck with a ridiculous combo that doesn't rely on the combo to win. :D
Stonehorn Dignitary is good. I also like the idea of Flame-Kin Zealot in a red-white weenies deck, just discard it to Faithless Looting. Speaking of which Demigod of Revenge? Kessig Malcontents even, or hell, Arc Runner or Ball Lightning for some real lullz. For blockers on the opponents turn look at Wall of Omens, a solid blocker and you get a card!
I'm also thinking Angel of Glory's Rise and Fiend Hunter might be a way to really abuse this card. Seance the Angel, bring back the Fiend Hunter, hide the angel token, when Fiend Hunter dies the token comes back only to be hidden again by the Fiend Hunter so it never sees the end of turn trigger. With a couple copies of Fiend Hunter (barring any Journey to Nowhere shenanigans) you could bounce that same angel nearly endlessly.
The angel created would be a token, if you exile it with fiend hunter, it is gone forever, due to it being a token.
Fervor can make these Spirit tokens come in and go out swinging. Or, any card that grants Haste for any new ETB card (Lightning Mauler comes to mind).
With the right support, this card can be extremely versatile in terms of defence or offence. I would assume some players would try and play around this, and having your Deadly Recluse/Serra Angel/Griselbrand/Misthollow Griffin come out as a spirit and be an emergency blocker can be surprising. You just need to try and dump such cards into the grave.
But it only gets sillier from there. Try Populating Wayfaring Temple over and over. An army of Loxodon Hierarchs will cause your opponent to think twice about almost any type of creature kill, while simultaneously losing ground on your repeated life gain. Angel of Salvation works insanely well, giving you 5/5 fliers and damage prevention for anything as a bonus. Dryad Arbor would be a quirky fit, helping to ramp into something like, say, Worldspine Wurm.
The possibilities are truly fantastic.
.
.
.
I exiled a Captain of the Watch and put a token on the field of it. After the effects resolved I had four captains and 48 5/5 soldiers. Yeah I will just let that sink in. Needless to say he scooped.
Though it's also really good with the new populate mechanic xD
I'm glad they held their wits about them and kept white white.
@RAV004
Sacrificing it doesn't let you reuse the creature; the original card is exiled at the beginning of the effect.