I'm gonna enjoy trying to draft 5 colors with each color having a common land fetch.
Hunter06
★★★☆☆ (3.1/5.0)(4 votes)
Well, at least it cycles for basics, I guess...
2/5 Stars
lorendorky
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(5 votes)
The best use I ever found for this cycle was cycling them then targeting them with Vengeful Rebirth.
Ferlord
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(5 votes)
A shame it doesn't target creatures, but an 8-point life difference isn't anything to scold.
However, I'm assuming its primary use is for the Landcycling.
DarthParallax
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(5 votes)
I like this cycle, it's a good one, and this card is actually a fine example of it. it's not going to impress people wanting to build Modern Constructed decks, but it -is- very draftable. Also, it is one of a few dozen cards that helped bring the preorder market crash from $300, to $250. I like that. :)
I give it 3 stars because it's better than most will give it credit for.
aurioscope: Small chunks of life aren't good enough in Draft, but 4 is just-almost enough, when it's matched with damage. I know removal is important, but I like me a Lava Axe now and again. This is close to a Lava Axe with Lifelink. I'm not saying it's a bomb, but it's a card you'll both enjoy passing early and enjoy taking late, I believe. That's a very valuable place to be to actually end up in your deck, as I have almost never had a card I thought of as 1st-pickable in my decks. They tend to get 1st-picked, not passed.
It's a black land-cycler. And black actually really wants that kind of effect, because you need so many Swamps for the best black cards.
This is by no means a 4 star card, but I do believe it's really a solid 3, or 2.75 in this particular set, which is respectable. I'd pick it as early as 15th or sooner, if the pack was bad. I don't Spike super hard when I draft, but I admit Drafting this earlier than 10 is very wrong for the very Spike among you, unless the pack has been quite plundered. When I say Draftable, I usually mean 11-20th picks in Draft if your deck has a few ways to support it, and 15-23rd picks that you grudgingly accept you pulled bc they are far from the worst cards in the set. 1st-5th pickable cards are often Constructed-viable, though not always.
Odium's comment deserves more stars btw.
auriscope
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
@DarthParallax: There's nothing draftable about a 7 mana burn spell that can't even hit creatures. Most of the time you're going to be cycling this, but it could be a 23rd playable if your pool is that bad.
EDIT: I suppose it's better than I give it credit for, but most of the time if I have a 7 drop slot, I want it to be something fat, that can preferably hit for 4+ more than once. In monoblack, this might be pretty sick.
ScissorsLizard
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Ferlord's right. The primary use of this card is for manafixing. The overcosted drain life is just a nice bonus if you happen to draw this card late game. Not great, but usable in some drafting situations.
SAUS3
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Oh baby I've been so ignorant :P
I've started making peasant modern decks with my friend and I had a deck lying around that I called '5-colour burn' that was already almost a peasant deck anyway.
The thing that sparked the idea was that I found out that tribal flames was timeshifted. Exploding borders and tribal flames are the main spells with a ton of burn and efficient creatures to back it up.
I wanted good cards for getting domain active and originally I was using search for tomorrow and rampant growth. This entire cycle was not even considered - I just deemed them bad cards that are only for drafts.
Then I realised that this is essentially an extra late-game nuke when I don't need more mana (as opposed to rampant growth), and that it can still grab the lands I need for domain. It's also a non-green colour fixer for that odd game I don't find a forest :P
Continue
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Decent as a mana fixer. Black doesn't get many of those, after all. Otherwise... nope. For 7 mana in black, I'd much rather have Sorin's Vengeance as my life drainer. 2.5/5
themanwyatt
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Good card but a bit too much mana cost i think... i wouldn't even use the landcycling.
pahamack
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Mostly used in modern masters limited to enable domain/sunburst strategies. Enables your 5 point tromp the domains, tribal flames, drag downs, and 5/5 skyreach mantas in, say, a base black/white rebel deck. Great limted card, and if you see it late is probably a sign domain/sunburst is open.
Swag_Crow
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Woah! It's landcycling ability is just like a Black Rarnpant Growth!
Comments (12)
2/5 Stars
However, I'm assuming its primary use is for the Landcycling.
I give it 3 stars because it's better than most will give it credit for.
aurioscope: Small chunks of life aren't good enough in Draft, but 4 is just-almost enough, when it's matched with damage. I know removal is important, but I like me a Lava Axe now and again. This is close to a Lava Axe with Lifelink. I'm not saying it's a bomb, but it's a card you'll both enjoy passing early and enjoy taking late, I believe. That's a very valuable place to be to actually end up in your deck, as I have almost never had a card I thought of as 1st-pickable in my decks. They tend to get 1st-picked, not passed.
It's a black land-cycler. And black actually really wants that kind of effect, because you need so many Swamps for the best black cards.
This is by no means a 4 star card, but I do believe it's really a solid 3, or 2.75 in this particular set, which is respectable. I'd pick it as early as 15th or sooner, if the pack was bad. I don't Spike super hard when I draft, but I admit Drafting this earlier than 10 is very wrong for the very Spike among you, unless the pack has been quite plundered. When I say Draftable, I usually mean 11-20th picks in Draft if your deck has a few ways to support it, and 15-23rd picks that you grudgingly accept you pulled bc they are far from the worst cards in the set. 1st-5th pickable cards are often Constructed-viable, though not always.
Odium's comment deserves more stars btw.
EDIT: I suppose it's better than I give it credit for, but most of the time if I have a 7 drop slot, I want it to be something fat, that can preferably hit for 4+ more than once. In monoblack, this might be pretty sick.
I've started making peasant modern decks with my friend and I had a deck lying around that I called '5-colour burn' that was already almost a peasant deck anyway.
The thing that sparked the idea was that I found out that tribal flames was timeshifted. Exploding borders and tribal flames are the main spells with a ton of burn and efficient creatures to back it up.
I wanted good cards for getting domain active and originally I was using search for tomorrow and rampant growth. This entire cycle was not even considered - I just deemed them bad cards that are only for drafts.
Then I realised that this is essentially an extra late-game nuke when I don't need more mana (as opposed to rampant growth), and that it can still grab the lands I need for domain. It's also a non-green colour fixer for that odd game I don't find a forest :P
-Swag_Crow