Pointed Discussion

This needs to have a DeviantArt Proxy where it's Batman's shadow and Nicol Bolas cowering in the corner....0.0
Same flavor text.
Ya'know, just to overemphasize the overkill...xD

Use with Bolas' - 9 ability

Oh man, Batman would be so awesome on this card. Have Bolas, Urza, Yawgmoth and...Karn hugging each other in a corner, terrified, while the Caped Crusader's shadow is over them.

I want to see this get copied by Cloven Casting, Cast Through Time, Reverberate, and Pyromancer Ascension all in the same turn. I don't care what it takes. I NEED to see 5 instances of this spell on the stack targeting 5 different opponents in a 6-way game at some point before I die. Winning.

You could have Batman φissing himself in a corner with a great looming shadow of the Child Catcher from Chitty-chitty-bang-bang.

I love batman just as much as the next guy.. But what's with all the posts that refer him? Am I missing something?

@Mike-C
It is the classic Batman shadow motif that is in the card. I.E. Batman looming over them out of the frame.

10 point life swing and up to a 7 card swing (-4 to opponent, +3 to you after you consider the ultimatum being spent). Not hard to see why it's so devastating.

EDH:

Friend: "I'll play Knowledge Exploitation. Hey, look! Cruel Ultimatum!"
Me: "Okay... I'll discard Chancellor of the Spires, Crosis, the Purger, and something else."
Friend: "Your turn."
Me: "Animate Dead my Chancellor, playing your Knowledge Exploitation, playing your Time Stretch. Then Reanimate Crosis."
Friend: "You're going to win, aren't you?"

Lesson: Discard isn't that useful against a reanimate deck.

This cycle must be an homage to the elder dragon cycle: the UBR one is, well, uber, and the rest are shite.

The card advantage is strong in this one.

...And this, Planeswalkers, is a mere fraction of Lord Bolas' power.

The definition of efficiency.
An eight-card swing for seven mana is already excellent, and the life swing is just icing on top.
It's:
Cruel Edict {B}
Three Tragedies {B}{B}
Rhystic Syphon {B}{B}
Concentrate {U}{U}
Disentomb {B}
Not really sure how the red gets in there, but it's {U}{U}{B}{B}{B}{R}{R} on one card for the equivalent of five cards and a cost of {B}{B}{B}{B}{B}{B}{U}{U}. I like that.

If a demon is cowering, it has to be Bolas

Life total difference of 10, card advantage difference of 6, and creature difference of 2. Trust UBR colors to make an über card. 5/5, best Ultimatum in my opinion...

@Lifegainwithbite
When that little bit of card advantage you get results in drawing a card like Damnation or some other mass removal card, you can really turn a game around with this card in casual play. I'm sure there's probably no use for it in professional tournaments, but it is still very good. The game when you fall behind by enough to where your opponent can be unhindered by this sorcery is a day when you should have conceded to begin with.

@Lifegainwithbite
Someone needs to play magic a bit more if they think that a Ten life-change around is not helpful, in ANY format.

Someone needs to play magic more if you don't understand how good having card advantage is, in ANY format at ANY time.

Those questioning this card have probably never had one cast against them.

@rancidraptor: Someone needs to play magic a bit more if they think gaining 5 life when the game is about to end is going to help much. Someone needs to play magic a bit more if they think a lava axe for 7 mana is worth it.
Someone needs to play magic a bit more if they think drawing three cards will save them if they've already tapped out to use this and are about to die. And no, this isn't helpful in any format except casual. Someone has obviously never played a tournament in their life and has no idea what it involves. Card advantage is awesome but not when it consumes all your mana and you're left with nothing till next turn.

@Stig: Yeah but you wouldn't be able to use the damnation till next turn and by the time you get to this amount of mana, you'll die too fast to use it or you won't need it.

@iharbinger: I've had it played on me and still won because I had a powerful enough board presence. Plus it was a dead card in my opponent's hand for the first 15 minutes of the game.

However, I can see this being useful for edh, perhaps with Nicol Bolas as general. But even then, in edh you want things that make everyone else discard or sacrifice, not just one person. There are better options everywhere, even in casual. I can see this card being fun to end a game with, but not very useful.

question: what happen when i Redirect this spell to its owner?

Ok...a few things every self-indulging Grixis walker should experience.

1) Casting this out of the graveyard off Chandra Ablaze's Ultimate.

2) Copying this with Chandra, the Firebrand's -2 ability.

3) Giving this Flashback with Snapcaster Mage.

Any others?

Card advantage +7 and life advantage +10. That's the way uh-huh uh-huh I like it.

­It's a combination of Cruel Edict, Fugue, Disentomb, Concentrate, and (almost) Stolen Grain (using this instead of Rhystic Siphon because, well, that's a Rhystic spell). These five cards together cost . You're paying for their five effects together.

Let that sink in. You've paid 7 mana for 18 mana worth of effects. It would be fair at (12 mana) to put it into perspective.

Card advantage: +7 — this is effectively a 4 for -3.
Life advantage: +10 — people say lifegain doesn't mean much, and in this case it's the least of the six effects, but even then it's good.
Mana cost: You would be surprised by how easily this can be cast with such a restrictive mana cost. 7 colored mana is easy as hell in Modern, where we have shocklands among other things. For the first year this was out, there were the Shadowmoor/Eventide filter lands (Graven Cairns et al.) in Standard, as well as Reflecting Pool.
Devastation: Let's just say that when this card hits the table, it goes thud. It is Grixis's bomb. It will kill you. And it will be glorious. 5/5

@Lifegainwithbite

This. For something to cost 7 mana it damn near better affect the board state right there and then. Even an Aetherling outdoes this in turning a game in your favor. Might as well just use wit's end or something. Also means if you want counterspell mana up, to counter and opponent's counter, you'd better have 9-10 mana.

Big card in casual multiplayer if you have some shenanigan to play it without paying for it to hit someone terrorizing the board, or cripple someone who might become a threat to you later in the game. That's about it.

Parjokovic. You can't redirect it to its owner because it states "target opponent".
Nice card btw.

I like the new bolas b!tch slap art from ftv 20 (if that's real), but it lacks a lot of subtlety... haha but he b!tch slaps some guy and it's pretty funny x)

Another valid reason to run or at least sideboard Wild Ricochet

Arranging my ultimatum mana...

@parjokovic

You can't Redirect it back to its owner because the spell says "target opponent" and Redirect just allows you to change to another legal target. The best you can do is redirect it to another player that is also the caster's opponent.