Perfect to use against Dark Depths, Elemental Appeal, Ajani Goldmane's ultimate, etc. You refill your hand, get rid of the token, and you don't need to discard because the creature won't return.
Speednat
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
At the very least, you should be able to work it to a 4 or 5 net card draw, for , with a bonus of either one of your ETB creatures coming back like Sphinx of Uthuun, Sunblast Angel, Cryptic Annelid, or Clone, or one of their attackers leaving combat. 5/5
BastianQoU
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
An incredible piece of removal against most of Koth's threats. All that mana put into firebreathing? Those lands are 4/4s? Plated Geopede getting a little crazy? Well have I got the card for you!
LordRandomness
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Combine with Pull from Eternity for best results: Skip the second clause and permanently exile a large threat! The combo is unobtrusive and can play nicely in a {U}/{W} deck with other exiling effects (especially temporary once since Pull works nicely with them in a pinch) and, of course, Temporal Mastery and Noxious Revival for the lulz.
A very good card against Kiln Fiend, Plated Geopede, and any red creature that has an absurdly high power to toughness ratio. I once drew 13 cards and only had to discard 2.
Seem decent. Most creatures are front heavy now a days. Even if you drawing 6 and pitching 6, your still digging deep and keeping your best option, wile loading your graveyard with flashback ammo.
Plus this situationally has a lot going on for it. Against something like a ball lightning, complete good game. Can hose auras, tokens, and +1/+1 counters. Or can just stall while digging for your combo piece or win condition.
4.5/5.... kind of shocked at the current 3 star rating.
DarkonCrack
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Just recently toyed with this in a casual Azorius deck I was working on. Didn't have enough money for Restoration Angels, so this seemed a good substitute for helping keep my creatures alive while trying to get card advantage. All I have to say, Lyev Skyknight makes this card amazing. Can be a card advantage for some of the more aggressive Azorius creatures like the Skyknight, Azorius Arrester, Sky Hussar, and of course Isperia, Supreme Judge help make this card what it could never be back in the day... AWESOME.
All are good points but its kinda funny that nobody has mentioned or maybe even thought of using Vanish into Memory on a Phyrexian Ingester. I use it to draw big and drop few while still exiling my opponents creatures and boosting my Ingester. :) It works just fine in my blue white flicker deck.
Whoever has rated this as anything lower than 4/5 is absolutely crazy. Not in a good way either.
1) It's instant speed. 2) It can save your creatures OR stop an enemy's incoming fatty. 3) It nets (massive) card advantage. 4) It can remove counters and auras, and force them to spend mana re-equipping equipment. 5) It kills tokens, and you never need to discard. See Dark Depths, Grove of the Guardian and Promise of Power. 6) It can be used in commander on your own commander when it's going to die, and move it to the general zone. Some opponents may move their general's the the general zone, negating the discard. 7) It can be extra effective with ETB effects. See Rasputin Dreamweaver, Flickerwisp.
I could go on, but the point is that this card is amazing. If you're playing UW edh and this isn't one of your cards you should add one ASAP. If you're playing UW modern, it's still probably a good call.
Solid 5/5 in UW.
surewhynot
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Cast this on an Ink-Treader Nephilim and watch everyone's head asplode.
jonrds
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Pocket sand! But in all seriousness, it may not always be the best blink or draw spell, but I like it. Its either a slow or a very slow blink, so its even better an offensive tool than slow blinks normally are (removes a blocker and that creature can't attack next turn). Plus it has a variable ideas unbound tacked onto it, which makes it amazing for my casual dreams of the dead/blink deck. Its even better than that, because you can occasionally use the next round of mana to cast some instants before you have to discard them. My only complaint is that you draw equal to power and discard equal to the toughness. Occasionally you might get lucky, but most creatures, especially any you are going to be running in w/u, will have higher toughness than power.
Edit: I just realized why there's the "if you do" on the end. This obliterates token decks. Or, yaknow, say hi to Hunted Lammasu.
@speednat Sphinx of Uthuun and Sunblast Angel each lose you a card (well, at least sphinx grabs you a couple extra cards afterwords). Cryptic Annelid loses you three, and Clone will probably lose you quite a few as well (there will probably be a bigger threat for it to copy the second time it comes into play). This is not the card you want to use with those.
Phaeoxen
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm a casual player. I don't have a massive collection and an encyclopedic knowledge of every card ever printed. I get a lot of cards (like this one) from precons.
I didn't play during Coldsnap, so I had never seen this card until I suddenly owned one. I've found that most of the time, it only does one of the things you want it to do, but the fact it can do so many things(see ElliotSternberg's excellent post), and sometimes does all of them at once, is why it rocks.
If you play an EDH deck with access to these colors, it almost certainly deserves a card slot. And if not, you'd better have a really good reason why it doesn't.
Comments (18)
Plus this situationally has a lot going on for it. Against something like a ball lightning, complete good game. Can hose auras, tokens, and +1/+1 counters. Or can just stall while digging for your combo piece or win condition.
4.5/5.... kind of shocked at the current 3 star rating.
Great card. Great card.
It works just fine in my blue white flicker deck.
1) It's instant speed.
2) It can save your creatures OR stop an enemy's incoming fatty.
3) It nets (massive) card advantage.
4) It can remove counters and auras, and force them to spend mana re-equipping equipment.
5) It kills tokens, and you never need to discard. See Dark Depths, Grove of the Guardian and Promise of Power.
6) It can be used in commander on your own commander when it's going to die, and move it to the general zone. Some opponents may move their general's the the general zone, negating the discard.
7) It can be extra effective with ETB effects. See Rasputin Dreamweaver, Flickerwisp.
I could go on, but the point is that this card is amazing. If you're playing UW edh and this isn't one of your cards you should add one ASAP. If you're playing UW modern, it's still probably a good call.
Solid 5/5 in UW.
My only complaint is that you draw equal to power and discard equal to the toughness. Occasionally you might get lucky, but most creatures, especially any you are going to be running in w/u, will have higher toughness than power.
Edit: I just realized why there's the "if you do" on the end. This obliterates token decks. Or, yaknow, say hi to Hunted Lammasu.
@speednat
Sphinx of Uthuun and Sunblast Angel each lose you a card (well, at least sphinx grabs you a couple extra cards afterwords). Cryptic Annelid loses you three, and Clone will probably lose you quite a few as well (there will probably be a bigger threat for it to copy the second time it comes into play). This is not the card you want to use with those.
I didn't play during Coldsnap, so I had never seen this card until I suddenly owned one. I've found that most of the time, it only does one of the things you want it to do, but the fact it can do so many things(see ElliotSternberg's excellent post), and sometimes does all of them at once, is why it rocks.
If you play an EDH deck with access to these colors, it almost certainly deserves a card slot. And if not, you'd better have a really good reason why it doesn't.