(squirm) Good thing I don't like black; I'd like to have as few incentives to look at THIS art as possible.
And how's he going to read his tomes now? Sonar?
troll_berserker
★☆☆☆☆ (1.4/5.0)(5 votes)
Awful card. 7 mana is *way* too expensive for this type of slow, passive effect. The Titans and Wurmcoil Engine are 6 drops, and Elesh Norn, Karn Liberated, and Platinum Angel are 7 drops. Realistically, this card will do around 1 or 2 damage per turn starting turn 7, and if that's ever too much, your opponent could play out his or her hand and take no damage at all!
To make it worse, the damage is done before your opponents even draw! You'd think the least they could do for a do-nothing 7 drop is to guarantee 1 damage per turn. Maybe this card is sideboard material for your opponent's janky Enter the Infinite deck?
I seriously think this card would've been fair at 4 mana, and constructed playable at 3. At 7 mana it's barely better than Archangel's Light.
PrimordialMyr164
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(6 votes)
@Troll-Beserker: I think you may be looking at this card wrong. It wasn't made to impact legacy or vintage in a huge way, and it certainly won't. This is designed specifically for EDH, games which go long, dumping your hand isn't usually an advisable strategy, and drawing 20+ cards in one turn isn't alltogether uncommon. It's a fine and interesting card in this format.
Ferlord
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(3 votes)
is the difference you have to pay for an all-around The Rack. I guess that's the price of knowledge.
Now what would've benefitted this card greatly was if it said "at the beginning of each opponents precombat main phase". That would raise this from "Not the greatest" to "pretty dangerous". How many hands are going to be refilled before the upkeep? Not many...
JaFaR_Ironclad
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(12 votes)
Blue players: see that guy running black in their deck that's looking at your hand, and grinning as you stuff it full of Sphinx-induced cards?
Nah, its probably nothing.
Totema
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Well, he looks like he's having a terrific time, doesn't he? Yeah, that smile on his face tells it all. I do hope he knows how to read braille though.
tagonizer
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I know what I have to get for my Seizan EDH...
LordOfTheFlies87
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(2 votes)
This card is absolutely going to kill people off in commander. Will be feared.
Goatllama
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(7 votes)
HAHAHA CAN'T READ IF YOU DON'T GOT EYES HAHAHA
Mode
★★☆☆☆ (2.4/5.0)(4 votes)
"Blue players: see that guy running black in their deck that's looking at your hand, and grinning as you stuff it full of Sphinx-induced cards?
Nah, its probably nothing." -- JaFaR_Ironclad
I know I'm being that guy, but those blue players will probably smirk as they counter your seven mana control hate enchantment, and proceed to cast a draw spell at end of your turn.
For that reason, and compared to The Rack, this could have used a lower cost I think. I know it's made for Commander. But it's still very slow, and - as shown in the hypothetical scenario above - the weakest against the type of players you'd want to play this against in particular.
Brakken
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
There's no reason to hate on this card. It's great.
What's that? You can't see the greatness? I guess that means it's time to open the book full of words, open the eyes full of answers, open the fingernails full of maximum hand size.
Make us whole again.
NekrosVite
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
This card is way printed for commander and it is way TOO GOOD in this format. It is unfair at 7 mana, let alone 3 or 4 mana as suggested by troll_berserker. This is printed for a multiplayer format, which is normally a lot slower than standard/modern/legacy, where card draw is very common, getting to 7+ mana is quite common and there is no downside for the caster aside from the hate generation. You don't so much want to play this against blue, you wanna play it as a u/b/x player and group hug people to death (there is no downside to the caster). Other similar cards like The Rack or Viseling this card doesn't give a grace area where you can have cards without taking damage.
sarroth
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
I agree that this card could perhaps be cheaper (but 4 CMC, really? That's too low and asking for power creep). But I am very glad this exists. First of all, I enjoy playing Chaos Magic, which is the precursor to Planechase and plays similarly, only with regular Magic cards that mess up gamestates a ton. Like this card, which will slot in there really nicely. Also, there's a type of Group Slug deck that I love to play that punishes you for having too many cards in hand, using cards like Molten Psyche, VIcious Shadows, and Sword of War and Peace, and for the rest tries to force you to have more cards in hand using cards like Howling Mine, Forced Fruition, Spiteful Visions, and now Nekusar, the Mindrazer. I am glad this and the on-theme Nekusar can entice players to try such a deck out.
NARFNra
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Some guy ramped into this turn 4 yesterday and it was just plain nasty. We were taking about 5-7 damage a turn and it took until someone blew up the enchantment to get us out of the damage race; This card alone did around 20 damage total. I fear it.
I don't even want to know what would have happened if Nekusar got out.
Madarakita
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(6 votes)
I watched one guy in an EDH match draw his entire remaining library through combo hijinks and cast a Laboratory Maniac so that he'd win on his next turn.
And then one of his opponents dropped this thing.
Upkeep before draw, etc., and the poor guy ate 75 damage.
SpaceMagic
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Especially satisfying when combined with Curse of the Bloody Tome's flavor text.
Why are people comparing this with The Rack? The Rack damages one opponent for having less than 3 cards, i.e., for having an empty hand. This card punishes opponents for having a full hand.
What you are looking for is The Rack's sister, Black Vise, which damages one opponent for having more than 4 cards. Conversely, you pay for Iron Maiden (Wheel of Torture's sister) and you hit every opponent.
So, when compared with the Iron Maiden, this costs more, removes the hand-size limit and deals 4 more damage per turn.
BobbySinclair
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Argh, what's with all the modern/legacy players coming and down voting amazing EDH cards, simply because they don't understand the format? This card is a perfect balance in Commander: the group hug of an unlimited hand (meaning it might even survive a round or two) and a decent effect that will surely punish those pesky card-drawers. And 7 mana is not going to be hard to achieve in black-EDH with the likes of Cabal Coffers and Crypt Ghast around. Amazing card.
GrimjawxRULES
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The "no maximum hand size" thing is really amazing. It makes sure that people who have too many cards in hand will most definitely feel the pain.
This card has been the strongest contributing factor to my past few Nekusar, the Mindrazer wins. It takes a while to eventually hit the field, but coupled with Forced Fruition, or any other group hug draw engines will outright kill opponents in a few turns if gone unchecked.
Comments (24)
And how's he going to read his tomes now? Sonar?
To make it worse, the damage is done before your opponents even draw! You'd think the least they could do for a do-nothing 7 drop is to guarantee 1 damage per turn. Maybe this card is sideboard material for your opponent's janky Enter the Infinite deck?
I seriously think this card would've been fair at 4 mana, and constructed playable at 3. At 7 mana it's barely better than Archangel's Light.
Now what would've benefitted this card greatly was if it said "at the beginning of each opponents precombat main phase". That would raise this from "Not the greatest" to "pretty dangerous". How many hands are going to be refilled before the upkeep? Not many...
Nah, its probably nothing.
Nah, its probably nothing." -- JaFaR_Ironclad
I know I'm being that guy, but those blue players will probably smirk as they counter your seven mana control hate enchantment, and proceed to cast a draw spell at end of your turn.
For that reason, and compared to The Rack, this could have used a lower cost I think.
I know it's made for Commander. But it's still very slow, and - as shown in the hypothetical scenario above -
the weakest against the type of players you'd want to play this against in particular.
What's that? You can't see the greatness? I guess that means it's time to open the book full of words, open the eyes full of answers, open the fingernails full of maximum hand size.
Make us whole again.
I don't even want to know what would have happened if Nekusar got out.
And then one of his opponents dropped this thing.
Upkeep before draw, etc., and the poor guy ate 75 damage.
Why are people comparing this with The Rack? The Rack damages one opponent for having less than 3 cards, i.e., for having an empty hand. This card punishes opponents for having a full hand.
What you are looking for is The Rack's sister, Black Vise, which damages one opponent for having more than 4 cards. Conversely, you pay
So, when compared with the Iron Maiden, this costs