Pointed Discussion

Yea, making my guy grow seems pointless if they are just getting bounced or just killed. This is even bad vs. burn since they just won't point the burn at your guys.

Very nice for green infect!

Sideboard against red...maybe. That's about it. Seems a bit of a waste of a rare slot.

Unfortunately those targeted spells will be kill spells...

Dies to removal (trollface)

Everyone seems to be commenting about what happens when opponents target their cards. This card seems more useful for when you target your own cards. It will make your creature huge after you play Prey Upon on it.

Although the card does offer green some protection against red, to get the most mileage out of the card you'd want to run it in a deck that utilizes pump spells. In the current standard, the card seems like a good fit for a G/x infect deck.

Infect with Livewire Lash?

Maybe you could use it with your own spells? +7/+7 for titanic Grown. +5/+5 for Joint Assault. It's not terrible, but it's not the best card either.
Flavour text is badass though. Very Garruk-y.

It also turns Dismember into -1/-1.

Even if they cast a real kill spell, you can counter with an instant that gives hexproof and get +6/+6 out of the exchange. This is crazy in pump decks; the resistance to toughness-based removal is just gravy.

@Superllama12

I feel dirty using infect, but I love the idea of comboing this with Livewire Lash - Especially if Soul's Fire is the spell targeting say.... Spikeshot Goblin/Spikeshot Elder/Goblin Gaveleer?

Can a player use Nightbird's Clutches on their own offensive creature to give it +6/+6 with this card?

That wolf looks amazing. Even the art seems to hint at where to use this card.. wolf looks corrupted somehow, no?

I can see more than a few excellent uses for this card. I started playing MTG during Unlimited, way back when, and lost touch with the rules somewhere around the time Ice Age was incorporated. Just learned there's no more Mana Burn. Point: this question may seem foolish to ask, but if one were to cast more than one Wild Defiance, having multiples on the board, would the effects stack? I have two Wild Defiance out, later I throw down Groundbreaker and Berserk it. Does it get +6/+6?

Not a waste at all, really. Here's how it breaks down most of the time:

For your own green or white buff instants and sorceries, an extra +3/+3.
For your blue cards, most effective playing something like Ghostform (sneak through two creatures AND an extra 6 damage), adds a little oomph to other effects you want to grant them.
Against opposing red burn or black -x/-x cards, can help deter them and put a bit of a stopper on them.

Probably a little better outside of limited seeing as flicker effects don't do anything with this, but good all around, IMO.

Sweet my creature you just terrored / dark banished / swords to plowshares / path to exiled / condemned got +3/+3!!

granted, you can target your own stuff and make them bigger but that's of limited use, considering your oppenent will kill it in response!

Seems like it would be good with Artful Dodge/Distortion Strike. Infect sounds scary, too, what with Uncanny Speed, Rush of Blood, and Assault Strobe just lying around.

In casual, Seething Anger seems REALLY amusing.

Inkmoth Nexus, Wild Defiance, Mutagenic Growth, Mutagenic Growth. 10 infect on board.
For additional security artful dodge or Ranger's Guile. your opponent's spot removal could potentially be their downfall. I'm going to be sad when Scars block rotates out :(

Because Joint Assault isn't enough

Why are so many people acting like hard removal is the only type out there? This nullifies the majority of any burn or -X/-X card out there and gives you your own shenanigans engine. Giant growth, ranger's guile, artful dodge, any of that and you're hitting a lot harder.

@ AthairBaer: Yes, this effect will stack if you have multiple copies out. And in your particular example, the Groundbreaker would be 24/7 ( the Wild Defiances will resolve first for +6/+6 for 12/7, then the Berserk adds an additional +12/+0. )

BFF with Ink-Treader Nephilim

Strength of tajaru or any mass targetting spell can be amazing with this, so imagine a deck with just two of these out, and possibly some kind of flashback or retrace spell,things can get way out of hand

Let's see here, in a green infect deck, if you compare this with Livewire Lash:

PROS:

Costs less mana to activate overall.
Effects all your creatures.
Gives three damage rather than two.

CONS:

Takes an extra turn to get on the field.
Doesn't do damage directly.
Can't be used to take out creatures.
Doesn't give the initial +2/0 bonus.
Doesn't help at all if the creature is killed via a removal spell.

Overall, I think I still prefer the Lash, but this might make a good supplement to it.

Target the Phyrexian obliterator with prey upon and this would make for alotta fun.

This, Precursor Golem and Artful Dodge flashed back: Swing for 27 unblockable damage.

I am having some problems understanding the exact effects of this card. If my opponent cast Vapor Snag and I respond with Ranger's Guile or Apostle's Blessing will the creature get +3/+3 or +6/+6? In a similar scenario if I cast Titanic Growth and it is counterspelled, does my creature get a boost from being targeted even though the spell would not resolve?

Mutagenic Growth -> Tainted Strike...

!SURPRISE!

Yes, your opponent can use Instant-speed spot removal to take out your guy in response. On the other hand, they could have done that anyways. Partially negates your opponents' ability to counter your pump spells. All in all, a good card, in the right setting, but not ridiculous, as it seems people expect at Rare.

Well of course the flavor is to protect against red burn... but can someone say artful dodge, distortion strike and ghostform?

someone should have said precursor golem. Green blue with distortion strike and giant growth with these?

Transforms your standard performance enhancing drugs aka: Giant Growth's into Barry Bonds's private STEROIDS!! Wow. The fact that this isn't an aura and let's you target ANY of your guys essentially giving em a +6/+6 bonus at (1) forest per is just sick NASTY! Sooo.. On T4 you're swinging with Birds of Paradise who just OD'd on growths for a devastating 24 points of damage and THE WIN (more than likely), which you curved right perfectly into and didn't spend more than 4 mana in a single turn. That's not sick, it's so stinkin gross it's DISCUSTING!

With two Spellskite and a Mutagenic Growth, you can keep changing the target between the Spellskites and each time you do they pump.

@Excitable-boy
Yes. This card could care less whether or not the spell resolves. Was it targeted: Yes, +3/+3. No, do nothing. So even if they counter your Giant Growth for some odd reason... :D

Turns Leeching Bite into +4/+4 for one of your creatures and +2/+2 for another. You also get the benefit of flexibility since Leeching Bite is decent removal in the current Standard format.

A Precursor Golem deck could use this, as could infect. Seeds of Strength becomes ludicrous.

Auto-Giant Growth =D

@Ferlord: Prey Upon goes on the stack. Wild Defiance triggers and goes on the stack. Wild Defiance's trigger resolves giving you a 3/4 BOP. Prey Upon resolves and they fight. Birds win. Then they swing in and clock the opponent for three.

@shmewdog: I actually came here to see precisely how this interacts with Spellskite. So I guess you can't just keep having one Spellskite redirect a spell to itself? Probably for the best, that's a little too stupid to be good.

Turn one mana & glistener elf. Turn two mana & rancor on elf. Swing for 3. Turn 3 mana (possibly a cathedral of war), play wild defiance. Swing for 4 w/cathedral + buffs. EASY turn 3 kills with infect these days.

If I have 2 Wild Defiances in play and I play a Titanic growth on one creature, will it get +7/+7 or +10+10? This is going to be a key point in my {B}{G} infect deck.

Seeds of Strength now gives a creature +4/+4 x 3, since it targets 3 different times.

Holy!

How does this work with Redirect? Does the original target still get the bonus?

With Soulbright Flamekin and 6 mana, you can give a creature +21/+21 and trample until end of turn.

@Odinsonnah: Yes, the creature will still get the bonus. Before Redirect is cast, the original spell targets the creature when it's casted, thus triggering Wild Defiance's ability and putting it on the stack waiting to resolve. Redirect won't stop the creature from getting +3/+3 because the ability is already on the stack.

Lightning Bolt sorry.

Combos with Prey Upon for removal more effective removal.

Absolutely love it.

Have four of them in my GW deck, alongside with Titanic Growth, Zealous Strike and few other pump spells. This card is actually a game finisher, if you have more than one on the battlefield and few pumps in your hand.

I finally found a use for my Pyromatics. On turn 6 (assuming I get every land drop and don't mana ramp by other means) I can use it to give any trampler I control +9/+6, and it will continue to scale the more lands I have. It's almost an instant win if I can get 2 of these on the battlefield.

Underrated. This singlehandedly makes any form of removal that much harder, short of "destroy target creature".

Great card in green with all the pumping around and against burn too , deserve a general 4.5 , right now i give 5 to balance the rate .

@Mojovince Rating cards higher than you think they should be in order to get them closer to what you think they should be defeats the purpose of an average rating system, based on the assumption that you know better than the collective community.

Infect, go jump off a cliff.

@LordRandomness
why the need to untap? just wait until mid combat

@AMart83
nice thought, but defiance only triggers on instant and sorcery spells, not activated abilities

Someone help me out here with this. Let's say I have wild defiance on the battlefield + Chandra, The Firebrand. I pop Chandra's -2 in order to copy my next instant or sorcery. I than swing with all my creatures. My opponent declares blockers and lets me get through with a 1/1 creature. Now lets say I instant a titanic growth at that moment. It copies and I target my creature with the copy. My question is, does the copy that is created also trigger wild defiance. Am I now swing with that creature for 15/15 or is it going to be 12/12 instead?

Sorry if that sounds complex. I'm just trying to figure out if a copy of a spell triggers Wild Defiance?

Oh, also. Common bond. Because of the word of the spell, it almost appears like you are targeting twice. Does Wild Defiance trigger on each target?

@Trillenium: The 2011 Comprehensive Rules are a bit murky. Although "targets are declared as part of the process of putting the spell or ability on the stack" (rule 114.1), the rules only mention that objects "become a target" during casting (rule 601.2c). This is a little befuddling because "a copy of a spell isn't cast" (rule 706.10). It's likely that 114.1 takes precedence (in which case Wild Defiance also triggers off of copies that are put directly onto the stack), since it makes sense that an object becomes a target when it is declared as such (i.e. when a spell or ability is put onto the stack). And besides, an object that is a target must have become a target at some point; it wasn't a target forever.

In any case, if copies produced by paying replicate costs (e.g. Gigadrowse, Pyromatics) trigger Wild Defiance, as several comments here seem to suggest, then so do the copies produced by Chandra, the Firebrand. So yes, your copied Titanic Growth turns your 1/1 into a 15/15.

And if THOSE work, then so does Chain of Plasma. If you have some cards left in hand and an unblocked creature with infect or double strike, that's going to put you on a fast track to victory.


@shmewdog, @MaddAddams, @Odinsonnah, @AMart83: However, if we default to Rule 114.1, then the Spellskite and Redirect tricks discussed don't seem to work, since the spell that is being redirected doesn't get put onto the stack again, having never left. Thus, although you in some sense declare new targets, it is not as a part of the process of putting anything onto the stack, be it by casting, copying, activating, or triggering. (Rather, the selection of new targets is part of the process of resolving the spell or ability that is doing the redirecting.) As such, we'd have to rely on the simple-but-compelling logic that the new target MUST have become a target at some point.

The problem is whether the new target has technically become a target, or whether it somehow technically ignores that event, in a vaguely similar manner to how putting an aura directly onto the battlefield attached to something ignores targeting restrictions like shroud. Such situations should remind us that "target" is a very technical term, making it risky to trust common sense arguments that rely on non-technical concepts and definitions.


@Chimaera2357, @Ferlord: According to the Oracle rulings, cards like Seeds of Strength will only trigger Wild Defiance once when targeting the same creature multiple times. On the other hand, targeting three different creatures will give you a total boost of +12/+12. In Standard, Travel Preparations and/or Common Bond (targeting as many of your creatures as possible) might be the way to go. The former curves very nicely into a turn 4 victory if your two targets are sufficiently evasive (each gets +8/+8).

@mewing4: Cathedral of War comes into play tapped. You need an untapped land and Mutagenic Growth or Invigorate to pull it off. Or any of a number of cards that give you free mana. Try Simian Spirit Guide into Assault Strobe with Wild Defiance on the board.

Garruk wouldn't like Ravnica at all. Except for maybe the Gruul. He'd be chill with them.

Combos well with Prey Upon.

Turns your opponent's Searing Spear into a cute little pyrotechnics display. One that angers your creature, at that.

Won on turn three with this in a PTQ.
Turn One - forest, Glistener Elf.
Turn Two - Cathedral of War.
Turn Three - This, paid 4 life for two Mutagenic Growth. Swing for 12 poison. Dead opponent.

'Creatures you control have protection from Lightning Bolt'.

I don't think anyone's mentioned Sylvan Paradise yet: since it can hit any number of targets it lets you pump all your creatures at once for just one card and G.

(Note that something like Angel of Salvation says any number of targets but can't actually hit more than five - see the rulings on that card's page. Sylvan Paradise really is unlimited though.)

Amusing synergy: If you have some way to untap it afterwards (or even if you just do it while attacking), Gigadrowse just became Giant Growth with replicate. This goes double if you somehow stick a {Q} ability on the creature (or it has one naturally).

Or you could just play Cauldron's Haze, although the drowse thing has the benefit of being stackable on one creature (Triple blue firebreathing, whee!)

As dreanor says Ranger's Guile, but also Sheltering Word to help protect against non burn. The thing is, if RDW can't kill your creatureswon't your opponent aim most of it at you?!!

Looking forward to using with Heroic.

Fun with Ink-Treader Nephilim. May I suggest pairing the two with Shadow Rift?

Just hope you don't get act of treasoned

Makes your heroic creatures even bigger!