I think ill stick with my pernicious deeds thank you very much. No but in all seriousness this is still pretty good, especially with all the tokens floating around
Jupenator
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Pernicious Deed is a classic. It's only fitting that they upgrade it to take out planeswalkers.
Nucleon
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(2 votes)
And then, because you're playing Black/Green, you recur this thing along with all your other stuff, or just use B/G's myriad regenerate effects like Golgari Charm. I'm glad to see some more potent removal available in this set.
drpvfx
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Oh HELLS yes. It's about time RTR Block got a good nonWhite sweeper. My BUG deck is elated, and I imagine Junk Reanimator will appreciate being able to nuke everything except their huge threat.
To all the previous comments: this is in no way an upgraded pernicious deed. For one you have to pour all the mana on it in a single turn, so you can't wrath the board as you could by droping a pernicious deed turn 3. It is nice this kills planeswalkers, but still, those usually go for at least three to five mana, making this card really slow
SyntheticDreamer
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Pernicious Deed, Standard has been waiting for a long, long time.
Cyberium
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
The pros is that it can be casted with surprise factor, kills planeswalker, without the chance of being destroyed before activation like Deed would. The cons is that, for the same mana cost, Pernicious Deed could destroy bigger targets than Gaze the turn after it's in play.
Under normall circumstances I would still use deeds for cost reason alone. After all, you use Deeds and Gaze to do MASSIVE destruction, rarely just to kill one permanent. If I see a single permanent I hate like a planeswalker, Maelstrom Pulse could pinpoint just fine.
Tybaltic
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(7 votes)
Several old greats have been 'retooled' so to speak to fit in standard and modern in Dragon's Maze.
Pernicious Deed is one of the best board sweeps out there, without question. This will never take its place in our hearts or our decks.
But this has a place. And you can bet it's going to be played there.
"Not as strong as Pernicious Deed" is like saying "Not as strong as Superman."
And to be perfectly honest, I'm not going to complain about having to settle for Batman when Superman isn't around.
DarthParallax
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
This card has something that Pernicious Deed DOESN'T peeps! >:)
*Reprintability*!!! :O It is relatively difficult to imagine Wizards finding good places to put such Weatherlight-flavored cards anymore. I know that Deed is NOT Reserved, but being too closely tied to Old Dominaria Flavor is like being Pseudo-Reserved these days. :P You'd need new art, flavor text, and Mythic Rarity to justify Pernicious in any Precon deck in the future.
This is just Wrath of Gorgons, and can fit anywhere you can fit Swamps and Forests together, because Gorgons are Core Set Flavor. :) I'd be quite surprised if this card never got a Commander-themed Reprint. As in, I believe this card is already slated for near-immediate Reprint!
majinara
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is a good card, though Deed is still superior to it.
Guys and gals, Pernicious Deed is WAY too powerful for NWO to be printed again. This card is totally awesome and calls for a different kind of control deck.
rollinsclone
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
A lot of hype, but I'm wondering if it will be as good in practice as it seems in theory. 4 mana is the magic number for a sweeper and this going to be a lot more than that, but this hits all nonland permanents..... Hopefully I'm just being skeptical for no reason, because this seems really cool.
Gcrudaplaneswalker
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Let's get this strait. This is definitely not a Deed. This can easily get countered, but with Deed, you can cast it and let it sit around until you need it.
However, this is easily a Golgari wrath with BBG: Destroy all creature tokens. Good synergy in a Blood Artist deck.
Well designed, 4.5/5
don_miguel
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
so we seem to agree all this is worse than pernicious deed but better than punishment and forced march. hmm that's more than enough in my opinion
GlintKawk42
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
kills everything but your fatty. 4/5
SomeGuy007
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@All the people saying this is better than Punishment: No.
This is certainly a better sweeper than Punishment when you need to clear a board. It hits more permanent types than Punishment, hits a variety of casting costs, and all in all sends more stuff to the graveyard. However, there's a reason that I'm running Punishment in my EDH deck and not Gaze of the Gorgon: Punishment lets you dodge the effect much more than you can dodge this. For example, in an EDH game I was in recently, I had a board of a Lord of Extinction with a Batterskull on it facing down 8 Giant Adephages with an Akroma's Memorial on one side, and a Platinum Angel on a third side. In that situation, Punishment >> Gaze of the Gorgon. I wiped all of the giant bugs out, ended the Memorial that was cramping my Lord's style and was able to swing in to recover all the life I lost to the bugs. With Gaze of Granite, I would have stopped everything all right, but I would have lost my only two cards still on the board in the process, which would have been devastating at the time.
tl;dr: Punishment isn't a worse Gaze of Granite. It's much better at getting X for 1s than Gaze due to the lack of hitting your key cards.
Thought I'd just chime in on the whole this vs. Pernicious Deed discussion. Yes, Deed is like a billion times better, but keep in mind: Gaze of Granite can kill Planeswalkers, while Deed can't. Excellent modernization for an awesome card. Bravo, Wizards.
I do wish I had known of this card when playing against a Voice of Resurgence deck at my last FNM. This is an amazing way to cheaply board wipe tokens.
Fenizrael
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Comparison time! Pernicious Deed is fantastic, yes, but it requires a turn to wait in order to properly drop the big one. Your opponent can play around this and stop dropping cards when they see you play it. Both cards can be cancelled, but Pernicious Deed can also be destroyed with enchantment removal as well. In many circumstances, saccing it early can result in you screwing yourself over. It does have the advantage that you can sac it any time you like (and for more), whereas Gaze of Granite is a bit more surprising and trashes Planeswalkers too. Keep in mind this can also be brought back and recast and whatnot. Casting it for can often still be quite useful, too.
Still a solid card.
RiftenBlack
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
One reason to play this card in Standard right now is that nobody will give you credit for playing it until they lose to it. Just ask Reid Duke.
It's actually very good against tokens. Current jund lists have many wolf and beast tokens, and this gets rid of them all for just 3 mana. Also wipes out M13 Garruk's ultimate surprisingly, which is how Reid lost.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It's heavier in color weight than the Deed, but most of the time it does the exact same thing; as waiting on Deed may cost you if they have a Krosan Grip or some such.
The Deed can do a couple neat things, like, by waiting to activate it you can cause your opponent to stall on dropping another card next turn; then blow it up anyway when they go to pass turn; making it Time Walk + Planar Cleansing, usually one-sided at that.
Aside from those two small details, this is a modern Deed and cements what G/B does in a nice fair way.
Yozuk
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This would free up so many slots in my Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord commander deck its unreal. I really want this card.
Babyjenks
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is absolute gold to me because it's a non-white board wipe for standard. I'm tired white getting all the board-wiping fun; BUG control, here I come.
Ike38
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Against the token decks, this card says : Pay 3, then destroy all token creatures....
Kodanshi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Only just noticed that the petrified figures on the right hand side of the card art look like a Rock band! One guy grooving with his sword, the one behind him rocking out on the guitar, and the chap closest to the gorgon looks like he's moshing.
Rock. Hahaha.
deggdegg
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I used this last night to destroy 3 Chained to the Rocks. It was amazing. I was originally skeptical of running this sideboard, but it's a blowout against a lot of decks. Blue devotion playing a bunch of two drops? 5 mana, all gone (or 6 to hit Nightveil as well). Also great against token and RDW strategies.
Between this, Abrupt Decay, Vraska, the Unseen, and Putrefy, Black/Green is really well positioned to deal with just about any permanents right now.
Comments (34)
It's about time RTR Block got a good nonWhite sweeper.
My BUG deck is elated,
and I imagine Junk Reanimator will appreciate being able to nuke everything except their huge threat.
Under normall circumstances I would still use deeds for cost reason alone. After all, you use Deeds and Gaze to do MASSIVE destruction, rarely just to kill one permanent. If I see a single permanent I hate like a planeswalker, Maelstrom Pulse could pinpoint just fine.
Pernicious Deed is one of the best board sweeps out there, without question. This will never take its place in our hearts or our decks.
But this has a place. And you can bet it's going to be played there.
"Not as strong as Pernicious Deed" is like saying "Not as strong as Superman."
And to be perfectly honest, I'm not going to complain about having to settle for Batman when Superman isn't around.
*Reprintability*!!! :O It is relatively difficult to imagine Wizards finding good places to put such Weatherlight-flavored cards anymore. I know that Deed is NOT Reserved, but being too closely tied to Old Dominaria Flavor is like being Pseudo-Reserved these days. :P You'd need new art, flavor text, and Mythic Rarity to justify Pernicious in any Precon deck in the future.
This is just Wrath of Gorgons, and can fit anywhere you can fit Swamps and Forests together, because Gorgons are Core Set Flavor. :) I'd be quite surprised if this card never got a Commander-themed Reprint. As in, I believe this card is already slated for near-immediate Reprint!
@jake1991
Upgraded Punishment as well.
Whoa.
However, this is easily a Golgari wrath with BBG: Destroy all creature tokens. Good synergy in a Blood Artist deck.
Well designed, 4.5/5
This is certainly a better sweeper than Punishment when you need to clear a board. It hits more permanent types than Punishment, hits a variety of casting costs, and all in all sends more stuff to the graveyard. However, there's a reason that I'm running Punishment in my EDH deck and not Gaze of the Gorgon: Punishment lets you dodge the effect much more than you can dodge this. For example, in an EDH game I was in recently, I had a board of a Lord of Extinction with a Batterskull on it facing down 8 Giant Adephages with an Akroma's Memorial on one side, and a Platinum Angel on a third side. In that situation, Punishment >> Gaze of the Gorgon. I wiped all of the giant bugs out, ended the Memorial that was cramping my Lord's style and was able to swing in to recover all the life I lost to the bugs. With Gaze of Granite, I would have stopped everything all right, but I would have lost my only two cards still on the board in the process, which would have been devastating at the time.
tl;dr: Punishment isn't a worse Gaze of Granite. It's much better at getting X for 1s than Gaze due to the lack of hitting your key cards.
Pernicious Deed is fantastic, yes, but it requires a turn to wait in order to properly drop the big one. Your opponent can play around this and stop dropping cards when they see you play it.
Both cards can be cancelled, but Pernicious Deed can also be destroyed with enchantment removal as well. In many circumstances, saccing it early can result in you screwing yourself over. It does have the advantage that you can sac it any time you like (and for more), whereas Gaze of Granite is a bit more surprising and trashes Planeswalkers too.
Keep in mind this can also be brought back and recast and whatnot. Casting it for
Still a solid card.
It's actually very good against tokens. Current jund lists have many wolf and beast tokens, and this gets rid of them all for just 3 mana. Also wipes out M13 Garruk's ultimate surprisingly, which is how Reid lost.
The Deed can do a couple neat things, like, by waiting to activate it you can cause your opponent to stall on dropping another card next turn; then blow it up anyway when they go to pass turn; making it Time Walk + Planar Cleansing, usually one-sided at that.
Aside from those two small details, this is a modern Deed and cements what G/B does in a nice fair way.
Rock. Hahaha.
Between this, Abrupt Decay, Vraska, the Unseen, and Putrefy, Black/Green is really well positioned to deal with just about any permanents right now.