One of the better Cipher cards. I feel Cipher is a Mana cost ability, and most of the cards are costing for a balanced effect. THIS card however, I think does it right. a Mana cost ability that can be cast again for free (if you hit with someone). This will generally hurt their blockers, as you can perma-lock one of their flying creatures and then move to crush them under your feet with your army of flying creatures.
One of the better Cipher cards, but definitively not the best. High-up there, but I think a 4.5 is worth it for this card.
Dabok
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
I think this is gonna be the Cipher card that's gonna see the most play overall. Not only because it's a hell of a lot cheaper than what Cipher spells usually cost, but the ability in itself is quite good. Add the fact that you can encode it is what made the card even greater.
ImeanReally
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Best Cipher card in the set IMO.
Hercynian
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(4 votes)
Just swallow your pride, Dimir, and say detain. Just say it.
I've seen enough Japanese 'stuff' to know where this is going...
handoflazav_414
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Yes... Things are being put in motion. So you say you've got Aurelia?
Purplerooster
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
The cipher card that sets up other cipher cards. This after an invisible stalker will be like a free removal spell a turn.
Towers76
★☆☆☆☆ (1.1/5.0)(7 votes)
The following is a real life tran*** of a conversation in R&D
Designer 1: Hey lets make a cool mechanic called Cipher or Encode or whatever the hell and then only make one playable card for it!
Designer 2: Well that doesn't make any sense but okay! Count me in! Better yet, for some really good laughs, lets make that one playable card a freakin' common!!
Designer 1: Hell yeah! And then, when people inevitably complain that Cipher sucks, which it does, we'll just tell them that we know what you need better than what you know that you need!
Designer 2: Wait, what? That doesn't make any...
Developer 1: Oh hey guys! Are you talking about that one good card for the Cipher mechanic? I'm starting to think we shouldn't print it. It might be too powerful. We should go all Overload on it and make Cipher unquestionably suck, which it does. Anyways, you guys wanna grab a pizza? Then we can come back and try to find ways to make Friends suck too.
Designer 1: Pizza sounds great! And no worries on Friends! I've got plenty of ideas to make that set suck!
Mr.Wimples
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Cipher just SCREAMS 'ninjas'. This is probably the best candidate for a ninja deck too.
Vividice
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The only playable Cipher-Card (outside of super casual or slow environments). So much for Dimirs-keyword :/
Majinkajisan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So now we can cast copies of spells? Because we can only copy spells on the stack, and have to cast copies of exiled spells... this only further muddles an unclear point.
ThinkOriginal
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Just played with this and against this at the pre-release. With the sever lack of good removal in this set, this plus Metropolis Sprite was brutal.
Lord_of_Tresserhorn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This was excellent in limited. Dimir kind of goes Detain, except it does it again and again and again...
Keiya
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I think it's amusing that this one card from Dimir largely does a better job of locking down an opponent (creatures only, however) than Azorius' entire Detain mechanic.
4/5.
Azorious: "Those Dimir guys are stealing our mechanic and making it better with their cipher mechanic. That's so unfair!"
Dimir: "Well, when you see a good idea steal shamelessly and make it better. Now forget we ever spoke."
Azorious: "What were we talking about? Um...hello? Weird. I could've sworn I was talking about something to someone."
raptorman333
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This minotaur didn't learn from the Elrich Bros. and did some forbidden alchemy...
sonorhC
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Majinkajisan: When you copy something, the copy is created in the same zone as the thing it's copying. When you copy a spell on the stack, you don't need to cast it, because it starts off already on the stack. When you copy an exiled card, though, the copy is created in the exile zone, and then you cast the copy to move it to the stack zone.
On another note, does anyone else think it might get annoying to keep track of which creatures are currently affected by this?
Zenzei
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This has to be constructed playable, it's too cheap source of free spells (and the effect isn't bad at all) to not to be.
4/5
JohnRoss
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(2 votes)
Everyone can stop complaining about this being the only playable Cipher card. Paranoid Delusions is just as playable, PD, Jace's Phantasm and Mind Sculpt let you have a 5/5 flier by turn 3 and have 25 cards out of your opponents library. I dunno about you but I like that.
Orionmark
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I wonder how well will this work with Blistercoil Weird. Will the cipher proc the weird? Cuz it says cast a copy of the card.
Totema
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
There's an interesting thing I hadn't noticed before about cipher: You cast a copy of the spell every time it activates. That might be useful for getting multiple Extort triggers, or for things like Nivmagus Elemental. But yeah, for cipher to be truly useful they need to errata in a clause that says something like "creatures stay encoded even when they leave the battlefield" or something like that, to set them apart from basic auras.
I think this would be a 5/5 if the original spell went to the graveyard as it stands I still like it, just not enough to love it.
The_Trendkill
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Brutal on creatures with reliable evasion, and Dimir has plenty of that. The same could be said about all of the cards with cipher, but the tempo this one gets you is awesome. A pseudo-Frost Titan is a crusher in limited.
TheWaddleDeeKing
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Pretty awesome card, ruins attackers and blockers. Best cipher card when you factor in mana cost, a two drop spell like this is just too good.
whitecow
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
"Just swallow your pride, Dimir, and say detain. Just say it."
this is better than detain since you can attack in your next turn after playing this and the creature will be tapped with detain on the other hand he can block in your next turn
draco_nite
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Easily the best cipher card. Works wonders on a Kiln Fiend.
AitrusX
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Don't be fooled by this card; most of the time its a much worse version of narcolepsy. Sure you can switch targets over time, but you get horrid value if your cipher target dies, and only modest value the turn after you cast it if you actually connected to tap down 2 creatures. From that point on its conditional narcolepsy.
In limited its alright as removal is obviously worse overall and a bad narcolepsy is still removal.
PyroQwerty
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
"cast a copy", does that mean the copy would trigger effects like Wee Dragonauts'?
ToAsTy42o
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
pair this up with a Guttersnipe. Go ahead, give it a shot.
let's say you had your guttersnipe out on 3. they probably swing with whatever they have, assuming you wont block and kill your snipe (because you wont, that would be stupid). they drop their 3rd/4th turn creature.
tap 2, cast this (guttersnipe hits), put it on the guttersnipe, swing 2, cast again (guttersnipe hits again). that's 6 damage and 2 tapped creatures for 2 mana. they don't untap, buddy, nice try. my turn again?
Iam_IronMan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Why would I want to tap a creature AFTER I've attacked?
sketch.tan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This might be a stupid question but I recently just went back to playing MTG. If a creature is tapped and doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step, when does it untap then?
tokensquirrel
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
It won't untap during your next untap step, but it will untap during the untap step following the one affected by the spell.
The spell basically causes the target creature to "skip" the untap step following the casting of the spell. Unless the spell is cast again on the same creature, it will untap during your next untap step after the "skipped" one.
LordRandomness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Play it on Nivmagus Elemental turn 2, it taps down their blocker and then the cipher copy can be exiled to pump the elemental since it likely has no targets.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Cipher cards can work with the pumpable creatures like Nivix Cyclops if you use them on someone with Doublestrike or First Strike.
I'm a little sad the way cipher turned out. While this card and Shadow Slice are very playable in limited, most of the other cards simply don't work very well in limited, since they are overcosted. At the same time, I like the idea of the mechanic, and it works really well with extort. I'm hoping that someday it returns as a returning mechanic for a core set, just so that we can get some ciphered burn spells. As it is, the advantage you get from the cipher doesn't outweigh the extra cost. Consider Last Thoughts versus Divination. Divination gets you the cards immediately and costs {1} less. If you're doing it right, Last Thoughts is also 2 cards the turn you cast it, and can get you extra cards later. {3}{U} for draw 3 is extremely good, but anything less than that, and you have a worse card than most other blue draw effects. That means you have to have an evasive creature 2 turns in a row, and if you don't have a creature at all, it's essentially dead.
Invisible Stalker + Hands of Binding + Gideon Jura = Fun times!
Zebra_Lord
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is so underrated. For such a cheap card, you can essentially lock down any creature you choose on your opponent's side of the board, and you'd be getting damage through, and you can change the target if need be. I mean seriously, it's not like the Dimir don't have creatures that can sneak in damage.
Comments (41)
One of the better Cipher cards, but definitively not the best. High-up there, but I think a 4.5 is worth it for this card.
So you say you've got Aurelia?
Designer 1: Hey lets make a cool mechanic called Cipher or Encode or whatever the hell and then only make one playable card for it!
Designer 2: Well that doesn't make any sense but okay! Count me in! Better yet, for some really good laughs, lets make that one playable card a freakin' common!!
Designer 1: Hell yeah! And then, when people inevitably complain that Cipher sucks, which it does, we'll just tell them that we know what you need better than what you know that you need!
Designer 2: Wait, what? That doesn't make any...
Developer 1: Oh hey guys! Are you talking about that one good card for the Cipher mechanic? I'm starting to think we shouldn't print it. It might be too powerful. We should go all Overload on it and make Cipher unquestionably suck, which it does. Anyways, you guys wanna grab a pizza? Then we can come back and try to find ways to make Friends suck too.
Designer 1: Pizza sounds great! And no worries on Friends! I've got plenty of ideas to make that set suck!
So much for Dimirs-keyword :/
Azorious: "Those Dimir guys are stealing our mechanic and making it better with their cipher mechanic. That's so unfair!"
Dimir: "Well, when you see a good idea steal shamelessly and make it better. Now forget we ever spoke."
Azorious: "What were we talking about? Um...hello? Weird. I could've sworn I was talking about something to someone."
On another note, does anyone else think it might get annoying to keep track of which creatures are currently affected by this?
4/5
this is better than detain since you can attack in your next turn after playing this and the creature will be tapped
with detain on the other hand he can block in your next turn
In limited its alright as removal is obviously worse overall and a bad narcolepsy is still removal.
let's say you had your guttersnipe out on 3. they probably swing with whatever they have, assuming you wont block and kill your snipe (because you wont, that would be stupid). they drop their 3rd/4th turn creature.
tap 2, cast this (guttersnipe hits), put it on the guttersnipe, swing 2, cast again (guttersnipe hits again).
that's 6 damage and 2 tapped creatures for 2 mana. they don't untap, buddy, nice try. my turn again?
The spell basically causes the target creature to "skip" the untap step following the casting of the spell. Unless the spell is cast again on the same creature, it will untap during your next untap step after the "skipped" one.
Consider Viashino Slaughtermaster
Invisible Stalker + Hands of Binding + Gideon Jura = Fun times!
4.5/5