Pointed Discussion

Repeatable removal is certainly worthy of rare, but, I kinda wish it was at least a 3/3. /powerthirst

GILBIC. I don't think this is good enough for constructed formats, but in Limited it's absolutely monstrous. Not literally, mind you.

You can sacrifice this guy to your own Shock in order to Shock on of your opponent's creatures.

Wait......

Spark Jolt!

I wish red had gotten better heroics. Oh well. At least it's more interesting than "here, have a +1/+1 counter, hurr durr."

I have a feeling development nerfed this card to be four mana instead of three.

Hmm... No balls of string...

At least he's not entirely ripping Theseus off.

Here's to hoping that Huey block has buyback!

This is to Heroic as Burning Vengeance is to Flashback. As in, get rid of it as soon as possible or you're in for a world of hurt.

Turns Gut Shots into a sort of mini-sized Kuro, Pitlord effect, especially if you give him Wither/Infect. I like the guy!

If it will give it more merits, it can kill Fiendslayer Paladin. That's a big achievement compared to others.

this guy is killing in the art a nemesis of mortals

Ugh, I pulled him instead of Purphoros, God of the Forge or Hammer of Purphoros in my prerelease seeded pack. Just tried him in the first draft of my new standard RDW while I try to find some Purphoroses, and he's just waaaaaay too slow for constructed RDW, even in standard. Hesitating to use some of your good pump spells until turn 5 is a terrible idea.

So of course, when I split a booster box with my buddy I opened a second one at the same exact moment my friend opened a Purphoros. FML #firstplaneproblems

I tried really hard back in Scars block to make a good Standard deck built around Livewire Lash and infect. Ultimately, everything I tried was just too clunky. And, being in an environment with poison counters, that had a much better chance of succeeding than this does. It's body is too inefficient for it to see play in aggro decks, and the hoops you have to jump through just to get a repeatable Shock make it too clunky to play in control decks. Probably one of the worst heroic guys outside of Limited (where it's in the top 5).

@ Top Comment:

You know, I COULD see a scenario where you have a Shock in hand, and this on board. Shock allows Labyrinth Champion to beat Maze of Ith, or Sleep, or even Pacificism. It reads "Target Labyrinth is unblockable, untaps, and gains haste. Sacrifice it at end of turn."
Would there be a good reason to do that? Assume your opponent is running some kind of defense or disruption to stop your Labyrinth Champion...is there any reason to not directly target the player?

Flame Slash. And it's ilk. Nothing that says 'target creature OR PLAYER' should ever target your own Champion, but it DOES actually sound truly good to turn your 'target creature' only spells into Shocks with L.C. :)

Crown of Flames becomes ": deal 2 damage to whatever. Repeat as many times as you can."

An enchantment sac engine (like Auratog or Faith Healer) and Rancor become ": deal 2 damage to whatever. Repeat as many times as you can." Bonus points if you use Greater Gargadon.

Ghitu Firebreathing. Have fun.

He's not too bad... unfortunately he dies too readily to red removal, wouldn't have minded so much if he'd had a higher toughness, but sadly it's not red if it's power is less than it's toughness...

Anywho... this guy will be making a cut in a possible Heroic Hidden Hoplite deck...

Heroic and hidden strings are a thing, albeit slow and relatively casual it oughtta still hold it's own against a few prevalent decks at the moment

Pah, this card is nerfed rubbish, terrible design for red.
1.5/5

i'd much rather use Guttersnipe, but this is still nice.

It seems to me the only reason to play this over Guttersnipe would be to utilize auras or human tribal. Otherwise, much less useful.

This guy is so underpowered that I keep forgetting he's in the set. A 2/2 for 4 that will shock maaaybe 2 times, on average, doesn't compare favorably to fellow rare heroes like Anax and Cymede, who frequently end games the first time they're targeted. And Guttersnipe just eats his lunch, of course.

If he'd been a bear, maybe he could've found a home in rdw. Alas.

I don't understand this card.
I have a hard time picturing when he would be better than Agent of the Fates, and the only two times I could think is combat-shenanigans where your opponent has more creatures than you and when you really need two player damage really badly. But Agent of the Fates hits the field a turn sooner, has one more power, has deathtouch and it can work around regenerate, indestructible and hexproof.

The only arguments I could think of in favour of it is red having more access to creature-target spells and the freedom of choice on creature/player damage.

Agent of the Fates: Cost: . P/T: 3/2. Heroic trigger: Untargeted Cruel Edict to opponents. Extra: Deathtouch
Labyrinth Champion:    Cost: . P/T: 2/2. Heroic trigger: A vanilla Shock. Extra: None.

Shock:               Speed: Instant.    Cost: .        Outclassed in Modern by Lightning Bolt, as well as various other spells.
Cruel Edict: Speed: Sorcery. Cost: . Only strictly outclassed in Legacy by Diabolic Edict or Chainer's Edict.


I can see that burn is always relevant, but I think you can also see why I'm not a fan of this card.

It just suspiciously looks like another card that got tweaked during playtesting by increasing the mana cost but adjusting nothing else. I hate it when Wizards does that.
Increasing the cost by is a huge deal. Don't just leave it at that, give us something else in return!

As it turned out, it's just a waste of a perfectly viable constructed slot,
and with that a waste of potential for a more diverse constructed meta.

Now imagine this guy also dealt 2 damage when he enters the battefield. There you go, fixed.
This would have made it Theros take on Flametongue Kavu:
Half the innitial impact and power, but can also target players and offers repetition through Heroic.