Pointed Discussion

This seems like a nice replacement for Memoricide.

Memoricide doesn't restrict you to what's in their hand, but this allows you know what's in their hand and take out whatever they might play next turn.

I find it amusing that this is being reprinted at the same time as Battle of Wits. One of the most fun losses (sounds weird but true) I ever had was when I got hit by Shimian Specter while holding Battle of Wits (1 turn before I could cast it!) thereby removing all my Battle of Wits cards ha.

Hell yes.

Great replacement for surgical extraction and memoricide as others have said. This will fit nicely into a U/B mill/damage deck with jace's phantasm and mindshrieker...

More importantly its the good old specter CMC, which reminds greatly of the fun I had in the m11 cycle with guul'draz specter, painful quandary and inquisition of Kozilek... Ahh, memories

Ooh, didn't expect to see you turn up.

Makes Me Wonder If I Should Put This In Standard Mono Black Once Obliterator Is Out. Or Maybe It Will Be Grixis Once Obliterator Rotates,

Combo with Silent Departure (or Unsummon if you want). Gets rid of a blocker and makes sure you'll never, ever see it again.

Really one of the creepiest creatures possible. "Oh, I'll just slip into your mind, retrieve your most precious memory, and steal every thread of it. You'll always know I've taken something special, but you'll never remember what."
Creee-ee-e--e---epy!

This is NOT the 'good old specter cmc'. That would be three mana. The other card in your hand would be dark ritual. I'm showing my age.

I don't like specters unless you can drop them turn 1, but the flavor and artwork of this card is admittedly really, really cool. I kept mine just so i could look at the artwork.

Aaah, another great reprint. I sure do respect my specters, and I sure like this one.

I think this goes well with exalted, for a start. The typical Specter weakness lies in their fragility (often only 2/2s), but with the new Black exalted toys (such as Duty-Bound Dead) make this a much more appealing attacking prospect.

This is the most balance cmc for effect. Birds of paradise, Fervor and this makes people quit turn 4 in standard lol.

Could have easily been 3 CMC. Hypnotic Specter is just not good any more. Dark Ritual is not being reprinted. Sedraxis Specter was extremely well done. This card does not give you any more card advantage than any of those cards, just a neat side effect. The picture and effect are so cool, I wish it was just slightly more playable.

I like to use this with Otherworld Atlas. Make them draw a decent amount, as do I, and when it hits, I remove one of their key creatures like Delver of Secrets, sorcery speed removal like Oblivion Ring or even an instant that they can't afford to cast right that second. Then that keystone of their structured deck is gone. And another one will be gone next turn. All of this for 4 mana!

What a great specter! I finally have an answer to Relentless Rats decks.

Ride dat skull!

I always misread this as "Simian Specter."
my friends and I call him "that dirty monkey"

I bought 4 of M13 because I think this is an obscene card!

The body is weak, but if you can run it with Dark Ritual on 2nd or (rarely) 1st turn, maybe the evasiveness with the ability can give you the game.

My game is casual, but sometimes is interesting to run some fireworks!

I manged to pull two of these guys from m13 packs and I love, love, LOVE them. While I'm sad how fragile they are my friends absolutely panic when they see this guy and do anything to get him off the field. I can easily recommend throwing in a pair of these guys in an exalted deck (to buff up their toughness), or in a Rakdos deck. In my case I like to throw down one of these guys alongside a Rix Maadi Guildmage or Carnage Gladiator, blocking becomes a tough choice at that point.

A wonderfully effective card, which I didn't notice was reprinted until just now. It's not just potentially repeatable discard - it's potentially repeatable discard of your choice. Add on to that, you can sometimes hit multiple copies of the same card in their hand. Add on to that, you get to see the contents of their deck. Add on to that, you can strip threats or answers out of the deck. Add on to that, the cards don't even stay in the graveyard.

Works great with bounce, and best of all with Echoing Truth - return all copies of the card from play, remove all copies from the hand and deck. Prioritize taking blockers and removal with your first hits, unless there's another target that you know you can't deal with otherwise. If your opponent isn't prepared, you can end up taking each card the turn before they would be able to play it. If you can control the board with your spells in the meantime, this card can net you a lot of advantage.

The only way he could be better is if he could take out nonbasic lands.

I always liked Lobotomy and for the same price this can do it repeatedly (except Lobotomy can get the nonbasic lands). I put him in my vintage with Dark Ritual and Hypnotic Specter, the original turn-one combo.

Seems making this 3 CMC would've been ridiculous, but I'm old and I don't want to see the Hypnotic that powercreeped.

This is an underrated card, strangely, because people seem to be overwhelmed by the type of text in the ability.

Compare to Doomsday Specter. Same CMC, multicolor, must return a creature to hand. But in return, the effect is for the opponent to discard a card of your choice rather than random, as from Hippie. But Doomsday gets 4 stars. This one gets 3.5, while being mono-black and not returning a creature, still also getting a card of your choice. On top of that, itexiles that card instead of putting it into the grave, and only then extracts all the other copies from the deck.

Sure, not every Lobotomy effect gets cards in hand. Some of those effects can also name cards not currently in the opponents hand. But this card isn't to be compared against Lobotomy effects, but rather against specters. And he's got some serious perks over Hypnotic Specter for the extra mana you pay. I have even seen Hippie in EDH once in a while, but never this guy. And whenever I do play it, people always ask about Relentless Rats. Then it eats the wipes they were planning on casting for it, and they don't say anything else.

Completely overlooked card. Before I ran him in my Black/White Specter Deck nobody even knew who he was. I have most of the Specters in that deck, and he's by far the one people hate most. Probably his crowning achievement was exiling an Emrakul from the guy's hand the turn before he could play him with Quicksilver Amulet. That alone gets him 5/5.

I really really like this card. It's essentially card advantage on a stick. For just one more mana than Hypnotic Specter, this card not only lets you look at their hand and get rid of something of your choice, it also gets rid of every other copy of that something in their deck. This completely kills combo decks if they can't deal with this. Imagine playing against Splinter Twin without any Twin. While yes, most combo decks now have some kind of backup plan (Tarmogoyf), it will be a lot easier dealing with the backup after the main plan is out of the equation.