Pointed Discussion

So, it can give you a free mulligan, or thing your deck for a normal mulligan? I'ma fan.

I remember all the excitement when it came out. How since it said "in addition" and not "instead of" we all thought it would be "I mulligan my 7 cards hand for a 6 cards hand, and in ADDITION, I draw 7 cards, for a starting hand size of 13" and then it turned out not to be truth... so sad.

Maybe if one could mulligan at other times but the beginning of game but... as it is, is trash. PLEASE (no irony i swear) prove me wrong. (I have like 7)

it makes your deck smaller. so if you get a initial hand of card you don't need for a game, just remove them from the game and you'll have a smaller deck. meaning you'll have a higher chance of drawing somthing usfull. if you figure out a way to returned exiled cards, it's even better.

...but I'd never run this.

I'd tap that.

What would have been cool, is if Serum Powder made it so you could mulligan and draw 7 new cards even if you had previously mulliganed down to less.

But instead, we get a near unplayable card with a neat mechanic that hopefully will be played with in future sets.

This might be somewhat interesting with Pull from Eternity. Or even Mirror of Fate.

Get a bunch of cards that have an effect while in the graveyard like Bridge from Below, Haakon, Strongald Scourge or Incarnations like Anger or Wonder, and then hope for a Serum Powder in your opening hand.

It really bugs me that it costs to cast, though...
Apparently this card was planned to become a land, this would have made the card far more interesting.
Take a look at that Daily MTG article:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/as3

If you google there is a deck that's supposed to be the best there is and it uses serum powder. That deck is focused on an important card being in your draw hand.

Very useful in decks that go for a first turn kill. On a side note though, I feel that decks designed to win on the first turn are incredibly over-hyped. In nearly all cases, such decks are extremely temperamental and require an unrealistically fortunate opening hand. Then, if they fail their first turn victory or even their second, their probability of winning further plummets, as they are not designed for a "regular game" involving creature combat. With all this in mind, this card does help one's potential for finding that early lethal combo.

if someone beat me on turn one or two I really wouldn't care, after such a short game I would just ask for a rematch...
of course I only play casual so a loss doesn't really matter like it would in a tournament.

I feel that decks designed to win on the first turn are incredibly over-hyped. In nearly all cases, such decks are extremely temperamental and require an unrealistically fortunate opening hand.

Manaless Ichorid runs this in torder to generate a 93% chance at Bazaar of Baghdad in the opening hand. Then wins on turn 3 or 4, with almost nothing able to respond fast enough.

The only reason why it isn't THAT terrible when you draw it from your deck is the ability to produce .
If it didn't have that, I wouldn't even attempt to put it in any deck for the random "free mulligan".
Since it does, it makes it so actually drawing it in the middle of the game isn't backbreaking.

@medomai
If there are cards you don't need in your deck in your hand, then you should probably remove those before playing with that deck |D

If you don't see why this card is great, you aren't a Johnny. This is a godsend for combo decks. And no other card offers a similar ability.

Don't forget about Riftsweeper, fellow combo maniacs. Those crazy Elf combo decks in Legacy can run a playset of Serum Powder and a couple Riftsweepers, so that if their win condition (Banefire / Grapeshot) gets exiled by Serum Powder, they can recover it.

...For those who are scratching their heads wondering "Banefire in a mono-green Elf deck, wtf?" -- the Storm-combo Elf deck uses Glimpse of Nature and Heritage Druid to play a ton of cheap Elves, then it starts doing crazy things with Wirewood Symbiote and Nettle Sentinel.

So, what happens if we have multiples of this card in our starting hand? 14 card draw in the next hand, or only 7?

Actually, now with Innistrad, this is much more powerful than it was before in the Ichorid deck, since the Laboratory Maniac and Runic Repetition allow you to get away with quite a bit using this fellow. At worst, you draw into it and get an extra Derranged Assistant, furthermore it can fuel any "sacrifice artifact" engines at opportunity cost 3 in sorcery speed, so no matter what it can make itself useful without having to work too hard for it.

An opening hand of serum powder and a Misthollow Griffin or two means you basically start the game with a smaller library and an 8th card waiting in exile.

This card allows -1 turn losses in draft and freeform by letting you draw yourself out.

I fail to see how any comment on this card that's NOT about ''Makes Manaless Ichorid so Broken it doens't need BLACK LOTUS'' is relevant. In non-Manaless Ichorid games, it's cute. It's a bit lousy though because to be honest I want more than 1 colorless mana for a downpayment of 3.

Manaless Ichorid warps the conversation about this card almost as hard as it warps all the formats where the pieces are legal. Being so single-minded about not just a deck's theme, but a particular card, that you have a kind of inverted Demonic Tutor- instead of a 'Wild Card' in your deck, it's used to force the only card you want in your hand into it-- it seems not practical, EXCEPT in the Textbook Example of where getting THAT. ONE. CARD. really IS worth it because there really ISN'T an answer. All the other cards you might claim Johnny's would be fishing for except Bazaar of Baghdad have 'reasonable answers', and stop being worth the amount of Warping your deck has. In most cases, take Demonic Tutor or Vampiric Tutor instead. Except when you take the card that gives you near mathematical certainty of victory against everything in Game 1.

What an awesome card. Even outside of T1 win decks, it still can save the day with an emergency mulligan. And its almost a manalith too.

This is the most meta card ever.

Okay so now I understand why this card is good: It eleminates the cards you don't want from your deck and gives you a higher chance at getting what you want in your opening hand. Take the Thopter Foundry combo deck, running Thopter Foundry, Sword of the Meek and Krark-Clan Ironworks. You draw your opening seven and see none of them in your hand, so you can exile your hand and draw seven new cards, now with a higher statistical chance of drawing the cards you want. After all, most combo decks are built around maybe two or three cards, and the rest of the deck are designed to stall the game until your combo gets online or help you find your combo pieces. So who cares if you're exiling a tutor or two if it means starting with your combo pieces in your opening hand rather than having to dig for them?

This card is currently underrated. Everyone playing legacy/modern will soon be looking for this. Combo decks with turn 2 onlines will run 4x of this one for so many good reasons.

I plan to use this with Misthollow Griffin and Leyline of Anticipation. If a combo piece *coughFOOD CHAINcough* gets exiled, I'll use Riftsweeper. With any luck, the hand I wind up keeping will have both Leyline of Anticipation and Force of Will.

God I spend too much money on casual.

Me and my friends have a house rule that you always draw seven on mulligans...

those doubting this things power should check out thins deck.. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mirror-of-fate-16-02-14-1/