I remember that it was playable card some time ago - especially on casual level against those annoying beginner blue decks (like mine).
Ace8792
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This and Choke make me thing that ether green or one of the develpers really hate blue.
Belz_
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Something is wrong with this card's flavour...
sarroth
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I agree with Belz. At least Choke makes me think of forests. Tsunami sounds like something a blue mage would wield, not a green one. Such an early and obvious example of flavor being well outside the colorwheel.
Mindbend
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
love colour hate , bring it back guys then peope would start to have 2-3 colour decks again
Zoah
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(4 votes)
You know... I legitimately think that blue is the most picked on color...
A: No real creature removal... (Which is fine) B: Cards like this.
If this had been a cycle providing each of the colors with a nasty "make enemy color cry" card then I wouldn't have a problem.
Whereas there are about a dozen ways to destroy all islands. most of which are in red, which there is nothing in blue to deal with.
ddde
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(5 votes)
Blue has counterspells which can potentially deal with almost any threat. However, I do get the feeling that blue is indeed the most picked on color. I suspect this is not because blue is the most effective color (it's not bad, but doesn't really stand out in terms of power to me) but rather that blue is the most annoying to play against, so people remember their losses to blue more. Blue almost seems designed to *** people off much more then other colors.
izzet_guild_mage
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Blue doesn't really need cards like this. That's what Magical Hack is for :)
@ddde: To be fair, every card in the Power Nine that wasn't an artifact was blue; that probably fueled the perception that Blue is overpowered for the longest time, too. Also, blue's weakness was traditionally that it had weak creatures (excluding a few really expensive fliers) and weak direct creature removal... but early in the game's existence, most creatures were weak anyway, and blue had an undercosted Control Magic that really didn't leave it feeling weak to creatures.
Blue really was pretty clearly the most powerful color back in Unlimited.
(Also, a lot of early mechanics in blue were later moved elsewhere. Deflection, for example, is bizarrely a red power when it's appeared on more modern cards. There has been a tendency by WotC to just throw any oddball powers onto blue.)
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Blue, at the casual level, is basically fine. It has an answer to everything, but it has to be well built for those answers to make sense, matter, and not die before getting a win con on the board.
Blue at the competitive level; however; often has some of the best creatures ever printed (Delver of Secrets, True-Name) or will splash for them; while running 5 lands less than the other colors due to Brainstorm and Ponder. Blue also not only has had some bleed into literally every kind of thing in magic (permanent destruction, exile cards, grave hate, discard, draw, counters, efficient creatures, etc..) but it's the number one requirement for reliable combo decks. They have the best planeswalker; closely followed by black. They have dominated block after block. (Blue Devotion, Delver, Snapcaster, Jace, etc..) Blue decks are nearly always good despite all the power-seep complaints.
As of this post; 6 of the top 10 cards in Legacy are monoblue (you would expect 1-2), 2 of the 10 are hate against blue; including Red Elemental Blast. If blue isn't so dominating; why is Red Elemental Blast one of the *top 10 cards?*
Aside from that huge tangent; this is a reasonable hate card against Counterbalance Divining Top (Countertop) decks; as they only have a few 4-cost cards in the deck; and if it resolves they basically lose.
Comments (13)
A: No real creature removal... (Which is fine)
B: Cards like this.
If this had been a cycle providing each of the colors with a nasty "make enemy color cry" card then I wouldn't have a problem.
But no. True there is acid rain but that's it.
Whereas there are about a dozen ways to destroy all islands.
most of which are in red, which there is nothing in blue to deal with.
Blue really was pretty clearly the most powerful color back in Unlimited.
(Also, a lot of early mechanics in blue were later moved elsewhere. Deflection, for example, is bizarrely a red power when it's appeared on more modern cards. There has been a tendency by WotC to just throw any oddball powers onto blue.)
Blue at the competitive level; however; often has some of the best creatures ever printed (Delver of Secrets, True-Name) or will splash for them; while running 5 lands less than the other colors due to Brainstorm and Ponder. Blue also not only has had some bleed into literally every kind of thing in magic (permanent destruction, exile cards, grave hate, discard, draw, counters, efficient creatures, etc..) but it's the number one requirement for reliable combo decks. They have the best planeswalker; closely followed by black. They have dominated block after block. (Blue Devotion, Delver, Snapcaster, Jace, etc..) Blue decks are nearly always good despite all the power-seep complaints.
As of this post; 6 of the top 10 cards in Legacy are monoblue (you would expect 1-2), 2 of the 10 are hate against blue; including Red Elemental Blast. If blue isn't so dominating; why is Red Elemental Blast one of the *top 10 cards?*
Aside from that huge tangent; this is a reasonable hate card against Counterbalance Divining Top (Countertop) decks; as they only have a few 4-cost cards in the deck; and if it resolves they basically lose.