Pointed Discussion

Wow. The best chandra wizards has ever done. Makes me want to play a red deck with this and some Dragon Eggs.

Free recurring draw for red? Sign me up.

EDIT: I understand that this isn't literally draw. But in the right deck, say, mono-red burn, it effectively is. You will often have few cards in your hand, and a lot will be cheap a la bolt, so the card will rarely be wasted

This Chandra is the most playable Chandra, and I say the 0 ability is the best one.

I honestly think this is *almost* Jace 2.0 power levels. I'm probably wrong.. but hear me out:

+1 - Ping + Possible card advantage. This has good synergy with her Pheonix, but better than that, it's her previous +1s added together for the same loyalty. This is fantastic; though I'm probably overstating it. Still, with any other burn in your hand this will increase it's damage, helping you against higher toughness fatties that start to come out around T4-5

0 - Card advantage. You get to play 2 cards a turn: what you draw, and what you exile. Straight up card advantage that fuels her to very very powerful levels. The ability to double your spell-output every turn, maximize land plays, dig, etc.. is very powerful. It also allows certain spells that would nuke your hand (dangerous wager, delirium skeins, etc.) to become even more playable.

-7 - Unlikely you'll do this very often, but it's quite possible. Simply +1 when she drops, +1 the next turn and use a Tezzeret's Gambit or Volt Charge, next turn you nuke the opponent for 9 off of a lightning bolt.

Giving her a pre-emptive 4.5/5. She seems very very powerful.

@Ferlord
There is no risk in exiling a random card unless you're speaking of Virtual Card Advantage and get the wrong card exiled; but that's no worse than not drawing it. Use a Lantern of Insight if you're worried, but you shouldn't be..

I...want to use her ultimate in a land destruction deck.

With Rings of Brighthearth.

I'm going to hell, aren't I?

I like how her 0 ability is officially in red's wheelhouse now, according to Maro's article on Monday. Whatever the case, Chandra's more playable than ever, but I'm still not sure she's going to either power or create her own archetype the way some recent planeswalkers have (specifically Domri Rade and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.

Which would be more entertaining: seeing someone whiff on this ultimate, or on Ral Zarek's?

In EDH she goes rather well with Melek more than any other Chandra.
Like all planeswalkers she diverts attacks, her +1 boosts burn, her 0 takes away lands and other Permanents Melek may have shown you, and her -7 has obvious potential with a spell heavy deck.

This Chandra's rather underwhelming, but it's still the best Chandra. The 0 ability is probably the most useful. The Elkin Bottle effect is valuable for red decks that tend to empty their hands early.

Close as you can get to : Draw a card.
Tip: Use this ability before you play a land, and try not to run with counterspells.

Her +1 is fantastic, some utility mixed in with double ping. Her ult is nice, but its not going to strait up win the game like other ults.

@ Totema

easier to just mycosynth lattice + vandalblast

My favorite Chandra yet. Correct me if I'm wrong, but her +1 seems to be her most usable. In a fast Red deck, you need to clear the way of weenies and get your creatures through the bigger ones.

Why yes, I DO have three lava axes in my deck, why do you ask?

I'm copying index three times so that I can get the correct order even if I screw it up the first two times.

Once again Chandra, you dissapoint me.
4, comes in with 4 isn't bad. But you're not gonna wanna zero then (you play her fourth turn, 0: Exile a land, cant be played). Most likely plus when she comes in, but by that time, the 1 damage wont do much. Against not a creature heavy deck, 1dmg a turn is not enough. Against creature heavy deck, 1damage, is still not enough.
She is meant to be used in an aggressive strategy though. Maybe a lot of vigilance creatures, play her, make creature not block, attack opponent, and have blockers to protect her, but then, why not just run Ral Zarek

The one thing that I do like about her is the flexibility of the +1. You can even go to combat, swing your 2 power guy into their 3 toughness blocker, threatening to finish it off post-combat. Of course, they won't block, and you'll get to play a free card with her 0 ability on your 2nd main phase!

@blurrymadness You're kidding, right? This is a decent card, but NOWHERE even close to Jace 2.0 power levels.

Any other redhead lovers present feel cheated?

Chandra Nalaar - mediocre at best. There are faster and more efficient ways to handle all of the effects she offers and you don't have to defend them from enemy attack. The art introduced her. It was pretty good, but beyond worn out now.

Chandra Ablaze - arguably the best one if she didn't cost so much to play and use. She would absolutely annihilate in Grixis if her ultimate didn't cost as much as her cmc does. Too costly, it can be done more efficiently. The art was in your face, but most of the art of her is. It'd have been nice to see something else. It worked for this card given the name though.

Chandra, the Firebrand - it just sucks. Let's be honest peeps. I would also vote it for having the worst art in the bunch. Her second ability is good, but coming in with only 3 loyalty counters and costing 2 to play it's difficult to capitalize on it. Reverberate is just better.

Chandra, Pyromaster - better than Nalaar and Firebrand, but not as good as Ablaze. It's cheaper than Ablaze, but doesn't put out in a way that makes it worth protecting. Then consider the ultimate, you get one card, but you lose nine others. Hardly a good play in anything but a burn deck. If you picked Lava Axe or Blightning it'd have been great, but it's not a very versatile skill and there's a lot more to red than burn, burn, burn. I will admit that this is the best art of her in the bunch, it just feels like more of the same stuff though. Brad Rigney and Igor Kieryluk have great alternate takes on Chandra (and everyone else for that matter,) after being printed for the fourth time I'd just figure it's time for a decent Chandra with fresh artwork.

For being the figurehead character of the set, I was hoping her new card would look cooler. I'm mainly disappointed in the art, as the card itself looks like a lot of fun.
I like how Chandra's +1 ability has continued to become less lame with each incarnation- Ablaze excluded- starting with just 1 to target player; then 1 to target creature or player; and now 1 to target creature AND player... oh and the creature can't block, too. And that 0-ability is just so sweet for red.
I liked Chandra, the Firebrand's ability to copy spells, and I'm glad to see that seems to be her new schtick.
Probably the funnest of the Chandras, but I just wish the art was a little more dynamic to round out the coolness of the card.

Despite what some people are saying, this is about as close to straight card advantage as red is ever going to get. And this does basically say "draw a card" in a lot of red decks. She's great, but I'm not sure how well her abilities will fit into existing decks. Though she's definitely good enough that decks will be created around her. I'm really excited to see where she goes.

Man, they just can't stop amping up Chandra's +1s, can they?

@link3343: Why not run Ral Zarek? Maybe because you're not in blue?

Blue/red decks are likely going to run counterspells (which her 0 is wasted on) and have better ways of drawing cards. She's intended as a way to get pseudo-card-draw in mono-red, as well as helping aggro break through a tough defense. If you're in blue, you're right, you should run Ral instead. You're also not playing the kind of deck she's meant for.

@Ferlord: You're right, if you don't use the card this turn, it's gone. That's not really what I consider "risk," though.

Unless you're running some kind of tutor/fetch, an exiled card is just as inaccessible as a card at the bottom of your library. And again, if you're tutoring, you're probably in blue (and probably running Ral Zarek, just like the last guy). The only "risk" here is that if you can't use the card, it's as if you didn't draw it, and so you just wasted her ability for the turn. You got no advantage that turn, but didn't get any disadvantage either. Finally, if you use this ability before you do anything else in your turn, the chances of not being able to play the card are very minimal.

@KingRusty: Get one card, but lose nine others? Just like Ferlord, you're making the mistake of thinking that cards in your deck are a limited resource.

Unless you're playing tutors (or playing against mill) it doesn't matter that 9 random cards are missing from your deck. Not to mention that if you actually get it to work, you've probably won.

Opened her at pre-release.

From playtesting her, she encompasses red pretty well. If you're on the offensive she's an absolute nuisance. Conversely, if you're on the defensive, she's almost worthless. Her 0 ability can help you rifle through your deck for answers, but that's it. Easily the best Chandra ever made, but still conditional.

4/5

Oh ho ho ho, say what? Lets take a look at this sexy red planeswalker:

+1: The meat of this and what makes this really juicy is not that you can shoot a creature and it can't block, but that you get to shoot both a creature and a player. Let me just say this, as a player who enjoys playing burn, it infinitely more fun to throw burn spells such as Lightnight Bolts, your Comet Storm, or whatever other burn spells you're playing, if you can throw them at a player, you throw them at a player and only use a select few burn cards (Pilar of Flame, Mizzium Mortars etc.) to deal with creatures. That's awesome. And no need to worry about things like Spellskite redirecting that one damage, it's gong to the player. And trust me, every bit of ammunition in burn counts, and getting repeatable burn that will always get through to the player, even if it's at sorcery speed, is very awesome, not to mention it's going to kill off a ton of creatures. The "creature can't block" bit is cool, but not necessary.

0: Lose no loyalty to play a Blasphemous Act, a Comet Storm, or whatever the hell other burn spell you want, or play a Sulfuric Vortex or Seismic Assault for nothing? Sign me up.

-7: Most planeswalker ultimates nowadays are not necessarily worth working for, and this one might not necessarily be either, but if you get a Bolt you're going to hit someone for nine, and just imagine what you can do with a Blasphemous Act.

A very impressive planeswalker, clearly the best red planeswalker ever printed. I'm thrilled to see it, and can't wait to start playing with it.

This is not going to be the TOURNAMENT equivalent of "Jace the Mind Sculptor in Red" but...from a "Represent" standpoint, yeah this is "Chandra the Flame Sculptor" :D


1. the +1 is thankfully a little better than previous Chandras. I think I prefer being able to Multi-target as opposed to loading up into a full Bolt, if that Bolt would only be allowed to affect a creature, or only affect a player. I dunno, I'd have to play more with her, but it seems good.

2. The 0 ability is so cool AND flavorful! She roasts her own library to chuck at the opponents' face. I'm not sure how I'd rate Chandra, Pyromaster vs. Koth of the Hammer. I feel like Koth wants to be about the middle of the mana curve of his deck, whereas I think Chandra really wants to be PRACTICALLY the tippy-top. The more % of your deck is CMC < 3, the better her 0 ability is, obviously. Red REALLY shouldn't have trouble with this.

Here's a fun challenge before I evaluate her Ultimate: Pretend she's only got 2 abilities. Using only copies of either her or cards found in Premium Deck Series: Fire and Lightning, make a deck. I really think her first two abilities are great in that deck.


3. OK, on to her Ultimate. First things first: I once upon a time thought of Milling as "potential disruption". I got so excited that Glimpse the Unthinkable would perform for me, what I later realized we had Jester's Caps for. I was a noob then. I'm here to help out some noobs now.

----Milling is not really disruptive enough to be card disadvantage for your opponent. Not unless we are talking very huge chunks of a library, like fifteen or more cards at once. It does milling. That's a totally different role from Discard or Capping. It can -occasionally- give you that random Cap effect as a bonus, but it Can't be relied upon to do that for you.
---What this means, is that for the right reward, it is MORE than okay, it is ENCOURAGED to mill yourself. It really is not like discarding, because you are still drawing the same number of cards per turn. Much like your remaining life total, your remaining number of cards in deck doesn't really matter.***Except that very last one is worth everything.
SO- please don't be afraid to mill 10. I wouldn't be afraid to mill 20 if I could get 5 free spells out of it!

The only thing I'm less than happy about is that her Ultimate doesn't play friendly with X-spells, or I'd be cooing about Bonfire of the Damned right now (you'll notice I haven't even been trying to stick to Standard).


If there's a Non-X spell way to deal a huge amount of Damage to somebody, like say another Blasphemous Act, then I would end a Pyromaster Deck with Chandra being the top of the curve EXCEPT for 3 copies of that 'win the game' card, and I'd use her 0 every turn to help me burn through my deck. Once I'd seen either in my hand or off the top of my deck the first 2 copies of my "Win the Game" spell, I'd start +1'ing her to get to that Ultimate, using most of my burn spells as Removal-Protection for Chandra and playing cheap creatures to block for her.

If you can stick 3 copies of Blasphemous Act on the stack, or a similar too-expensive card for FREE, obviously you win. You should probably think of a Chandra 4.0 deck as a Combo Deck more than a traditional burn deck.

Think "Channel-Fireball" kind of. Make it where everything is about stabilizing the board, and then burning away your deck to find the one card you actually want to cast 3 times.


Chandra herself doesn't effect the board, but every other card in your deck *should*.

@GhostCounselor: Unfortunately, her -0 ability doesn't say, "without paying its mana cost." So it's like a card draw, but a little weaker, in that you have to play it this turn or lose it.

Sweet, now that guy whose cosplay went viral finally gets a chance to shout "Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!" for the ultimate crossover win.

...it's almost too bad I have never gotten all the way to seven counters in playtest matches, but saying "it turns out the first two abilities are so good, I hardly ever get to use the third ability" is probably the best conceivable complaint to have about a planeswalker. And while Lava Axe! Lava Axe! Lava Axe! for 15 was just a hilarious thing to get lucky and do at a pre-release, I can think of some constructed-playable ways to power out 12 damage...

Yep. Finally. Looks like it's time to break out the Goblin Guides and those awesome-new-art Countryside Crushers, dust off the ol' Fireblast playset, and go melt me some Legacy face. +1'ing Emrakul and swinging in for the win is going to feel amazing. And if I ever actually get a triple Fireblast off, I will die and die happy.

Well done, Wizards, you have my thanks. Red aggro dawns again. <3

4 Chandra's. 3 have +1, deal 1 damage. 1 damage. ON A PLANESWALKER. WTF????? Shock is better than Chandra!!! Is it really to much to ask for a GOOD red planeswalker? One that can do more than ping? Some way to actually defend itself? That's all I ask for. As it stands, this card sucks. Ping, useless "card advantage"-exiles, not actually draws, and an "ult" that does up to 12 if you luck out and grab your Boros Charm, otherwise it's a Searing Spear for 9

Going to be so fun! A great +1 (not stupidly OP, but far from useless), NO 'minus', her 0 gives extra access to the deck (and a few cute cards give you access to the ones you couldn't play), and her ult... >_< I SO can't wait to hit, oh, ANYTHING with that! Whatever it is, it'll do something awesome, times 3! Want a massive army (80+)? No problem. Want to hammer out big damage? No biggie. Want to Wish for a bunch of nice stuff? It's yours.

I don't play the small style that's used in tourneys (Small, fast, short, and boring). I play big, long, and epic decks. Sure, they don't win every time, but when they do, it's worth it.

Don't bash her just because she doesn't fit into your tiny little niche playing (Really? "A non-broken Planeswalker is worth nothing!" and "Red should only do damage, and lots of it, fast and cheap, no matter what" is seriously getting annoying. Let it do more!).
She's awesome, just for a different style.

I'm a little biased against this card because of Wizard's decision to name it Pyromaster when there is another card in this set which has the word Pyromancer. Not cool, guys.

That said, she is probably the best Chandra that has been printed so far, although I still doubt she will see much constructed play.

4/5

Turn nine starts. You're down on life. Down on cards. You have a couple of tricks in your hand, but your opponent has been smashing you relentlessly so you've been saving them for creatures. Thankfully you've been able to re-cast Chandra's Phoenix every turn to block, but it's a losing battle and your opponent knows it. You draw for your turn and get Grapeshot. You try not to smile as a plan forms.

Your opponent knows something is up immediately when, instead of pinging him to get the Phoenix back like you have the last few turns, you lightning bolt him for 3. You re-cast the Phoenix, and, in a surprising move, you slap a Dual Casting on it. Your opponent puts two and two together as you crack the ultimate. You were hoping for another Bolt or even a Volt Charge (although its secondary use is too little, too late), but you see something even better: another Grapeshot. The copies immediately do 4, 7, and 14 damage straight to your opponent's face. You cast the one from your hand to do 28, then tap your Dual-Casting Phoenix to do 56. Your opponent blinks, dumbfounded.

"Did you just burn me for 112 damage?" he asks.

You count it up. Twice.

"Technically, 115." you say.

1 word: Dragonstorm

Cruel Ultimatum seems too good to be true with that ultimate. Target opponent sacrifices three creatures, discards nine cards, and loses fifteen life. You get three dead creatures back to your hand, draw nine cards, and gain fifteen life. If that's not "win target game", I don't know what is.

The best Chandra of all time. But that's like saying Rakdos has the best Keyrune.

AzureAngel17 - The one time I hit Ral Zarek's ultimate I wiffed on it.

Imagine her in a dragon deck, and getting her ulti off on Dragonstorm.

The new Chandra synchronizes perfectly with Izzet. Imagine that ultimate being used on teleportal or mizzium mortars to wipe out an entire board or the enemy itself! About time!

Chandra's slowly getting more and more excessively complex, and I don't think I like it. Not every Red mage wants their spells to be doing 17 things at once. Some of us just want to burn things.

Looking over the rulings on this card... Did they change the planeswalker uniqueness rule? The rulings don't say anything about triggering when different players control versions of the same 'walker, and they say that if you have multiples, you can choose one to keep.

Pantyshot Chandra.

c:

Chandra's -0 ability has some synergy with MIsthollow Griffin, Mirror of Fate, and Riftsweeper. I'm looking forward to seeing this space designed upon for Red. Could the forbidden fruit of the exile zone come to be part of Red's identity?

I pretty much think that all of the Chandra's out there are pretty mediocre; this one, however, strikes me as more than usable.

Her +1 is great in any aggro deck. One damage to a player is not a whole lot, but the potential to ping a pesky creature (Young Pyromancer, Elvish Mystic, etc.) or make one of your opponents big fatties unable to block is invaluable.

Her 0 is particularly useful in just about any deck where you need an extra card. Sure, you might screw yourself over if you can't cast it, but in burn and aggro, the cost shouldn't be any more than Chandra.

Her -7 is a little underwhelming but I'm sure a few games will be won when copying Searing Spear three times over. And in burn you can almost secure the victory with this.

Overall the best Chandra, and I would be happy to throw two of these and something else to replace the four-drop slot in my RDW when Hellrider rotates out. Even if she dies the turn after you play her, you still receive enough advantage to make it worth it, and if they decide to attack her directly it just means less blockers for your next turn.

Has anyone here actually used her? Cause I have, and she rocks. She's in my modern R/W/B deck and she actually gives me an edge when she drops; either clearing the way for my guys to attack, or giving me more options. Who cares if her second ability is 'use it or lose it', in the right deck you'll usually be using it. She really helps my deck to win. She's not a board changer, but rather a great utility card, like Sorin, LoI (who is also in the deck).

I like how her plus one is like Wizards said "Alright, f*** it, just staple on all the abilities the previous ones did." Alone, they were pretty underwhelming. Together, they make a very nice +1.

i really love this card so i hope it gets reprinted on the next core set so i could get more copies...

Chandra, Pyromaster is the red Jace. Okay, maybe not quite the Jace, but still this version is awesome card and will be dominating this year's standard tournaments near you.

Finally, Chandra is exactly what she should be; A very playable powerhouse 4 drop in Midrange. Can't wait to win games with her in R/G standard, and my RUG Midrange in modern. 5/5

Wait... Is that... Is that what I think it is?

....

....

IT'S A RED PLANESWALKER THAT'S ACTUALLY GOOD!

YAHOOEY!!!!!

@sonorhC: Yes, they did. It's now "you're allowed to have the same planeswalker out as someone else. If you would end up controlling more than one, you keep one and sacrifice the rest." Same happened to the legend rule. Not as fun, but apparently Wizards decided it's more grokkable.

I swear each new versions of Chandra become more and more Izzet like. She went from straight up burn to burn a little but with Instant and Sorcery combos.

This is the best Chandra of all her forms, but that's not saying much.

Many cards, planeswalkers included, are judged on their ability ot immediately affect the board, particulalry for cards that are 4 or more mana. There are enough aggro and midrange decks where every card has to immediately do something if you want to keep up the tempo. In general, planeswalkers that can protect themselves are always the ones that excel. Look at how PWs like Sarkhan Vol and Gideon champion of justice are awful because they don't have abilities that protect themselves. Look at how PWs like Elspeth and Jace 2.0 and Liliana of the Veil are good becuase they have abilities that do (there are of course a few exceptions. Koth is an exception because he was very strong in RDW particularly because he could threaten his ultimate 2 turns after he was dropped. Jace Beleren was also an exception because he was only 3 mana so you could afford to play a 3drop and not directly impact the board, but he's horrendous vs aggro).

How does this relate to Chandra?

The problem with this Chandra is that, much like Firebrand, her 2nd ability is very bad when you drop her on turn 4 (or just as early as possible). It's not an actual draw, and going T4 Chandra and 0'ing doesn't do anything because you can't play the exiled because you won't have mana open. You'd have to T5 untap, use 0 ability and then choose to play off the top or not. Yes, if you are in the lategame and you have a ton of mana open, then topdeck Chandra, you can play her and 0 and probably play whatever is on the top, but there are only few planeswalkers that are bad topdecks, so that isn't saying much. This means that, on the turn you drop Chandra, her 0 ability is not good at doing anything, much less protect herself.

Her 0 ability is also bad in a control deck because it's entirely possible to not only exile something useful, but you can only use the exiled card on your turn and control decks just want to play draw-go. For example, if your UWR flash deck exiled a sphinx's rev, how often will you tap out on your turn to use it and how often will you have to let it go?

What this means is that her entire usefulness is basically based on her +1 ability. It's an upgrade from the +1 on firebrand, but it's only a small upgrade. Unless the format is swarming with X/1s, her +1 is not good at protecting herself. Note that the implications of "that creature can't block this turn" from her +1 is at odds with the idea of protecting herself, becuase in order to capitalize on an opponent's creature being unable to block, you need at least a creature around to swing in, which would leave Chandra wide open for a counter. Yes, you can make up scenarios where her +1 stops a blocker and you still have something(s) to leave back to defend, but if your board state is that good, any card that is 4+ mana would have a similar effect anyway. And if you won't attack with a creature then "that creature can't block this turn" becomes a worthless effect.

She WILL see play in standard no matter what, even if she's just a bad red version of underworld connections (that card is boarded in vs control). But unless the format has a lot of X/1s where playing Chandra early, immediately +1 to kill something is a common play, she will never be really good. She will not be a PW like liliana of the veil, garruk relentless/primal hunter, or older PWs like elspeth where you can mainboard 2-4 copies and be happy, because Chandra is bad in enough matchups where that isn't going to work.

The only thing I am wondering, if I exile an instant or sorcery with her 0 ability and then use it, does it go to my graveyard or is it cast from exile?

Boros Reckoner on the field, uses her ultimate, finds that Blasphemous Act...
And they thought she was weak...

EDIT: Sorin's Vengeance... That is all.

Just got a foil version of her for my burn deck, quite happy with the results when I was able to use three fire axes in one turn! Ever since then I have never been able to keep her on the bored long enough to make her useful. Nearly beats Ablaze in burn.

she kinda looks like she's in a martial arts stance of some sort ._.

Kung fu planeswalker duel decks anyone?

Also, I just tested her in edh (jeleva), and she wrecked face. Her first ability kept jeleva alive when it swung, her second was just more card advantage, and I managed to get her to ultimate off time stretch and cruel ultimatum and curse of the cabal.

Yay edh :)

She's going in my Melek, Izzet Paragon EDH deck. I'm going to get to say Time Spiral Time Spiral TIme Spiral!

Or Bribery or Mind's Desire or Temporal Mastery. Even Rite of Replication would be fun, because you can kick it if you want to ( so long as you have the mana).

With scry, Brainstorm, Sensei's Divining Top and Scroll Rack you've got a chance to choose what you're going to get to copy.

That said, I bet the one time I actually get her ultimate off I'll end up with nought but counterspells and X cost burn. Such is life!

Making the comparison to JtMS is unfair, she's not that good, and no Planeswalker really ought to be, Lili-veil excluded

However, she is a pretty decent walker, and will likely see play in standard for the year or so she's in it, wish her name was better though... 'Master', really WotC, really...

4/5 Stars

Very strong. I run it in my Tajic EDH deck and it serves many purposes.

It can ping weaker creatures like tokens, ping other planeswalkers, allow creatures with swords to get through a blocker, and that's just that first ability.

If the game slows down at any point, I can use the 0 ability to start gaining free cards. It's very helpful since there are not many ways for a boros EDH deck to draw cards efficiently.

I've used the ultimate only once and it was to dig for a board wipe. Since my commander is indestructible, it was all I needed to get the last hit in. It's pretty hard to counter 3 wrath of gods, so I won that game :P

5/5

5/5. Best mono Red planeswalker out. Running 2 of her in standard, she's so fun to get out! +1 when she comes down because you're probably tapped out anyway, plus makes her hard to kill. Then 0 all day long, she either draws you spells giving mad card advantage, or takes land out of the way, which you can slam into play.

Her 0 is printed onto Journey's Prophetic Flamespeaker!

But you do it twice if he connects!
Also, first Chandra I REALLY wanted to pull.