Pointed Discussion

Cipher cards, when played right, will always have double of the effect written on the card. They are priced fairly. The more important problem here is that this poor lady is obviously addicted to inhaling people.

Same as Last Thoughts. Overcost by 1 mana. Considering this is an UNCOMMON card, I feel they could have gotten away with this being easily a or spell card, instead of a .

Cipher has been ruined in this set....

-edit-
@ Gostllama: As it is right now, they NEED to activate 3 times or their overcost, since the cards that are THREE manacost that ALREADY play it 2 times without having to hit... and they are RARELY, if EVER played. Oh, and the only cared you are ever guaranteed x2 Effects is Invisible Stalker, and that is only if they don't have the card that cancels Hexproof. Oh, also, their 3 cost relitives? ARE COMMON AS WELL! So don't use rarity as an excuse.

You need to hit, on average, 2 or more times with the encoded creature in order to make this card better than an upfront Mind Rot. But discard is always good in limited, especially since there's zero risk of running into a Loxodon Smiter this time around.

"Yo man, you want a hit of this?"

It's not too bad, turning a strong creature into a specter might not always be worth 4 mana but it will ruin your opponent's day a lot more assuredly than Last Thoughts.

Look at the large art to really see the cranial cigarettes http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/daily/features/feat231b_mentalvapors.jpg

At 4CMC, they could have at least made the discarding random.

I dunno. I'm not a fan of this card. It seems like an awful lot of mana to make my own Hypnotic Specter.

Tormented Soul

I like to imagine that Snape just died and Harry is pulling out his thoughts to use in the Pensive, and we're in some bizarre fanfiction that Harry's a girl and then I get grossed out and stop thinking about it

This card sucks my mind.

Oh, I DO Declare!

Cipher this on black cat, now you have a mind sucking black zombie cat that your opponent doesn't want to block.

Yummy. Can always help to discard cards. *said sarcastically*


Actually, this and Liliana's Caress could work with the Dissension Rakdos.

I am sure that Cipher has been playtested. I am sure that Wizards doesn't want to obsolete Mind Rot and Divination. I think it possible that these Cipher cards would be much better than Mind Rot and Divination if they cost 2U or 2B. The kind of creature you are going to try to Encode onto is GOING to have Trample, Flying and/or other types of evasion to get in that Red Zone.

Because Wizards is thinking about what KIND of creature you're GOING to use with these, they don't care about costing these fair enough to turn Any Old Gruul Ragebeast or for Pete's Sake Krenko, Mob Boss into some kind of Super Ninja Assassin of Evil Conspiracy and Secret Stuff. They want to cost these so that they are fair on cards like Sakashima's Student, or Ninja of the Deep Hours, or Invisible Stalker.

Alright, let's see if these are well-costed FOR THAT. Hm. Well, it looks like they might just be half-a-mana away from being as good as I want them to be. I'd like my creatures to get in 3 hits or more to make these seem really worth playing, and I can find creatures that seem like have good chances of getting in 2 hits, but people WILL be gunning for these creatures Already, Cipher or no Cipher.

Pretty much, unless there aren't any Cipher cards in Dragon's Maze, Cipher is playing around with direct card advantage slapped onto Ninja Attacking. Any of the Core Set Illusions that were in Illusion Tribal are awesome with Cipher, and if we even get one more Aggressive Evasive creature, you'll all be pretty much shutting up about how weak these cards are because if you try to make a Mythic Cipher spell, you're gonna be making a Banned and Restricted List Update Announcement in the near future. You try to make a Common one, and you end up with a card that's 'fair, but too weak to play'. These are tempting to use, and make me interested in Cipher as a Mechanic. :)

How can this rating lower than Mind Rot ? Do not underestimate Cipher mechanic. This card won me at the prerelease many times.

T3 : Have creature unblockable like Deathcult Rogue
T4 : Use Mental Vapors and encode it with your creature. Attack - Opponent discard two cards.

Cipher could repeat every turn after that so pretty much they almost need to discard every turn unless they kill your creature. That means you will have card advantage every turn for 4 CMC. This is very good in the control deck.

Put it on Slate Street Ruffian, block? discard a card. Don't block take 2 damage still discard a card.

I thought that was Teysa for the longest time.

Don't be fooled by this card. It is much better then it looks. Turning any creature you have into a Abyssal Specter?

Even if this only hits twice, it still has advantages over Mind Rot. Don't forget that every copy of cipher counts as casting another spell.

has plenty of cards which benefit from casting many spells in rapid succession.

i would really like to see some new angles wth cipher in Dragons Maze. I think it would be really cool if there were some cipher instants, so you could be gaurenteed two hits. It would also be pretty cool to see some minor bonus for weak cipher cards like these. I could see something like "ciphered creature has intimidate" or something to that effect. That way you could help ensure that whatever creatures you have available will have some support on triggering cipher. I think that, if the cipher is abit more consistant like this, Wizards will be able to get away with making cipher on the more expensive side, as the results of the spell won't widely vary from 1 trigger to 5 triggers. Other than that, i really like the concept of cipher.

Slooow!

Turns your creatures into Spectres and discard 1 card effect for 4

I would have enjoyed this in enchantment form for cheaper

It actually annoys me on how the cipher mechanic is getting so much hate. It ca be abused so horribly bad with unblockable and double strike.

Encode this onto a deathcult rogue, give that bastard hexproof and your opponents will be forced to top deck for the rest of the game.

I'm seriously tempted to make a deck based on the cipher mechanic just to show people what I mean.

Mark my words! *Shakes fist*

Hilarious with Master of the Feast.

Stupid hipsters and their e-cigarettes and black leather clothes!