Pointed Discussion

LOL! Best flavor text ever!

Agreed. this is one of the best flavor texts of all time.

The card says target opponent but the oracle says an opponent, did this card get upgraded or is a misprint?

@Fragskull:
Many older enchantments like Kismet, Lifetap or Soul Barrier, which were not designed with multiplayer environments in mind, were upgraded to comprise all your opponents. This is not true for certain artifacts which would probably be too strong with such an errata (The Rack and Black Vise come to mind), other artifacts like Fellwar Stone got a similar errata or rather a clarification in their rules text.

The flavor text can be argued to be a bit in collision with the mechanic as library is the player's "memory" from where they dig up spells.

But the card, without these very minor things, is great and the flavor is better than in most cards.

If you like this flavor text, read that of Clambassadors And... censorship kills another otherwise good link.

Looks like those villigers have been raided quite a few times...look at all the gold they got.

Haha, very flavourful with great text.

One of Magic's more memorable flavor texts; it's up there with Lhurgoyf.

There's so many things wrong with this card: The art's a little odd, drawing cards equaling being paid in gold is a stretch of flavor, and the flavor text talks about villages but this doesn't work if they target your lands.

And yet, this is one of my favorite cards. It has my favorite flavor text, but I also enjoy at least drawing cards if you're going to Terminate my Rafiq of the Many.

Nice flavor text indeed, you often mainly see that humorous kind on red or Goblin-related cards.

But according to it and the artwork, this card should trigger for lands, or even (non-enchantment) permanents in general: In fact there won't be any reparations for you if your opponent Stone Rains your Treetop Village.
...unless it was animated, that is.

@ scumbling1 Why is the flavor text so memorable?

Hahahaha, this card should be called "Racism." It is a great card though.

I understand why this is in {W}{B} but this would just be so darn good in {G}.

Once again the Oracle text doesn't do what the card did(1). To be succesfully cast meant that the speel wasn't countered , so the oracled text should be something like this:

Reparations

Enchantment

Whenever a spell that an opponent casted resolves with you or a creature you control as a target, you may draw a card.


So it should trigger when the spell resolves, not when it is cast.

(1) In excess of the 'a target opponent' vs. 'an opponent'.

The flavor on this card is just hilarious. We'd be hard pressed to find another card to match that in the times to come, without some genius wit and a stroke of luck.
To me, the art and flavor text that goes with it has an anime-esque feel to it; hats off to anyone who could see it.

(edit) Oh no, I have hobbies other than a card game! I must be the harbinger of evil! /sarcasm
Lighten the hell up, guys... or better yet, broaden your horizons a bit.

America: the Flavor text

4/5 Stars

Oracle Text is fine. Oracle Text is supposed to "Update Cards" the way that Patches in games fix the game.

Sometimes, this means just changing the wording (or code) to make it do what was intended.

Sometimes, Errata and Retcons just flat out change what cards did. Errata is always going to be slightly controversial, but In this case, "to successfully cast a spell" was terminology that used to be used, and now isn't, and was basically the only convenient way to denote what it meant.

Any other attempt to reword 'successfully' to say what it meant, is a bit awkward language.

OPTION A: "Whenever a spell is cast (at all) increases the card's usability against Blue decks, in fact it even becomes something of a hate card against counterspells, because every spell they counter still would now trigger "Reparations"- good flavor for the card! "Sorry I countered your spell. Here's a card."

Now you don't have to counter opponents' counters! (At least, not as badly). A {G}{W}{U} version that also gave you a life ontop of the card would be an awesome card to see today! Or...."choose one: put a 1/1 Saproling into play; you gain 3 life; or draw a card". Would be like an Uncommon?


OPTION B: Replace the Errata with the Original Card Text. With the return of the word "cast" via M10 Rules changes, we can once again have cards that just say plainly 'whenever you successfully cast' to refer to casting without being countered. {8}-{11} mana creatures are fine with just using ETB, death triggers, and attack triggers to provide value. {12}+ creatures should reward you for trying to summon the spell at all. Kind of like Recycling Components of the Summon Creature Ritual, in 'in-world Flavor' terms. But you would only get something of like, 50% value. Drawing 4 cards is usually worth 5-6 mana, so a Ten Mana Spell giving you a 4-mana effect 'just for trying' (Kozilek) is almost just right.

You know, I think lesser, non-Titan Eldrazi could be interesting with the added word "successfully". I agree with the wording on Titans though. They cost so much mana, they need to do something cool if you've risked them getting countered or exiled.

Oh. And yeah. Things can get exiled from the Stack. So a Comprehensive Rules Update would need to deal with combining "Wasn't Countered" and "Wasn't Exiled" into the definition of "Successfully".

Hello there Spellskite. I love that they updated the text for multiplayer goodness.

@scumbling1
Ironic that you would say that: http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/79844184749/what-is-your-favorite-flavor-text-and-what-is-your

Heh, a preacher apologizes to aboriginal people with gold after burning down their home? Natives don't need gold to survive the wild, they need their buildings though. Ignorance of the so-call civilization never cease to amaze.