Pointed Discussion

Why the hell does this cost so much?

Because those cards are devasting in the early game.

I agree nonetheless, it could have been cheaper - but take a look at Balance for example. There are really strong decks you can build around it.
This would also be the case if this card had a low mana cost.

I'd actually have loved to see that card with a moderate cost to make it more playable (it would still likely not have been that effective in standard against Ravager affinity back then - although two Myr Retrievers for example would have saved your side already)

Like this it can still find use, but you won't be able to build an effective deck with this at the center. 8 mana is not a cost you can rely on...
Although you don't have to hardcast it of course, Ar(censored suffix for being a vulgar expression of "sperm" although nobody would ever notice that, lol) Dagsson for instance could help here.

Great combo with Barren Glory. It practically stops the game so you can easily sacrifice all your permanents and discard your hand in peace. Once Possessed Portal and Barren Glory are the last two permanents you control, you sac the portal and win in your next turn. And you're opponent will just be staring at you thinking "What the f***..."

Great!
This is perfect for my Chimney Imp deck.

Why does it cost so much? Because it's probably one of the most unfair cards in the game. You just combo it with something like a discard strategy and anything you have that makes tokens, and your opponent no longer draws cards and has to sac. something a turn while you calmly throw away your tokens. It's powerful, to powerful as a matter of fact, in terms of the game of magic.

How many other cards give you an affect so over the top, that it says something akin to, "nobody draws cards the rest of the game" and then you may as well tack onto that "if you're ahead on the board, you may now instant win" because it's essentially the same thing. Some examples of how this can get really out of hand is the telepathy card and oona, or mass token producers ant queen, mycoloth, or at least multiple single token producers working in effort. You know your opponent doesn't have the removal for it and then they can't draw it once the portal is played.

Not really sure why wizards ever printed a card like this.. even at 8 mana, it's really insane. Once it hits the board the defending player must have an artifact removal in hand or lose the game, since the opposing player's deck will be set up to handle the sac. The only good thing I can say about it is mirrodin is about to rotate out of extended and isn't legal in standard anymore already, so anyone trying to play these possessed portals will have to play in legacy type decks where there are other insane plays like necropotence and desert twister etc etc., being a format where a card like this isn't quite as powerful.

This is one of the most evil cards ever printed.

What happens if someone plays this and I have a Tajuru Preserver out? Would I have to discard a card, or would the effect be stopped altogether?

@DFG_Danger: You'd be safe.

@Arachibutyrophobia: It's kinda risky slowly killing yourself with this to get a win out of Barren Glory, seeing as how your opponent could have some sort of spot removal waiting to be used when you don't have much left on the board.

I'd use Awakening Zone to keep this card alive, or if I had the mana to spare, any of the epic spells (Endless Swarm, Enduring Ideal, Eternal Dominion and Undying Flames, but not Neverending Torment, seeing as how it depends on your hand size... though you could just sacrifice all your permanents and keep your hand, I guess).

Question: Can you still use draw replacement effects such as Dredge? If that's the case, I could see some kind of Dredge lockdown combo deck built around this, using things like Life from the Loam and Grave-shell Scarab.

Feels more like WOTC was possessed when they made this card cost 8 mana.

Its an artifact, so because of one card- Tinker- mana cost is no problem!

@achilleselbow: yes that works. A few years ago I watched a Vintage Dredge player Dread Return Sharuum the Hegemon, which put Possessed Portal into play. From there he continued dredging and discarding as normal, but the opponent was locked out of the game.

I love this card. Transmute this and you have instant win.

OMG I made a card a lot like this a couple of months ago!

Rickroll'd
8BBBBB
Mythic Rare
Tribal Enchantment: D*uchebag
If an opponent drew three or more cards this turn, you may play Rickroll’d without paying its mana cost.
Your opponents skip their draw step.
During your upkeep, each opponent must discard a card. If they can’t, exile all of their creatures.

Granted, mine is faaaaaaaaaaar more powerful and stupidly insane, but it's the same basic principle: No draws, must discard or creatures pay!

Reanimate targeting Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur! I proceed to my end step!

Possessed Portal: *ahem*

Jin-Gitaxias: ... :(

Correct me if i'm wrong but errata for Possessed Portal states: "At the beginning of the end step,..."
Therefore would Sundial of the Infinite's effect bypass this end step?
Essentially "Ending your turn" before the "End Step" takes effect?

They really should have made this an "Artifact Horror".

Ivory Gargoyle

@Donovan: To be fair, Door to Nothingness starts approaching practicality at these sorts of costs.

@Arachibutyrophobia : While in theory you could win with this and Barren Glory, the timing is very tricky if you dont have cards in hand.

You would need a exactly a multiple of k permanents + 1 left after you cast Possessed Portal , where k is the number of players in the game. I.e. if there are 4 players total, and you cast it, you need 8 + 1 (the one is the barren glory) permanents in total after casting it. 4 permanents of yours are gone by the time your first upkeep comes around, then on your second upkeep, you have just Barren Glory, to win.

I wouldnt recommend Barren Glory because if you dont have the conditions exactly right, it won't work.

This card is one of the most unfun cards ever printed.

Cards don't get much meaner than this. It could probably be really effective if you can manage to make it's ability asymmetrical by say, bouncing it every turn or something.

If you have two Goblin Welders in play, you can drop this into your graveyard on your upkeep, then dredge it back up after your opponent's draw step to make it completely one-sided.

This stupid thing looks really annoying, Which means I must get one.
4/5 Stars

I won a game with this once. It was one of the most depressing games I have ever played.

WTF. This card is so freaking awesome. I kept looking for some kind of benefit it gave but it's ALL DOWNSIDE! Also, it has a sort of Kamigawa-ish flair to it. But then I remember that this is Mirrodin, which is apparently home to dozens of Memnarch's failed experiments that he just leaves all over the landscape to wreak havoc on the poor Mirrans. Just think how much fun the Phyrexians are going to have with all that crap. They already turned an Aether Portal into the Omen Machine. And that's just tip of the iceberg, I'm sure.

Wow, that's annoying.

To clear up a misconception many people seem to be having, possessed portal says that at the end of each turn EACH player sacrifices a permanent unless they discard a card. This means that there is no way to stop the portal making you sac or discard by bouncing it. Bouncing it at your upkeep will allow you to draw a card, but it will also allow your opponents to use any instant speed draw they might have.

This thing feels evil. And that art! Anyone else forgetting the third word? Klaatu berata n....neck tie...nectar...

Playing this with Master Transmuter or any kind of token generator seems incredibly unfair.

Don't think I saw it in the comments so far but Necropotence will let you "draw" since the cards aren't actually being drawn, letting you easily keep this thing going.

Oh my god. I never realized this was "Each player's end step" and "Each player"; that is utterly insane. I thought it was like an upgraded smokestack; but no; this is a supersized smokestack with cheese.

In multiplayer you could easily get this out T3 in a Tron or Cloudpost deck; and you know what? Some of your opponents will be saccing 2-4 permanents before untapping again. Not only that; but you can get full effect out of it; then kill itself before your draw and pretend nothing happened.

Ways to get around this:
-Put cards in your hand (Telling Time, Opt, Mycosynth Wellspring)
-Dredge
-Spine of Ish Sah is nasty as you can eat extra permanents while buffing your own; or eat it, discard it
-Tokens, obviously; but you probably want a way to wipe them instead (so your opponent can't use tokens to get out of it)
-Temporal Aperture or other cards that put permanents on the battlefield; with a bonus that you might put this on the field earlier in the game.

A really cool experiment in an artifact (noncreature) finisher. Yeah, it's powerful, but so is wurmcoil engine, blightsteel colossus, myr battlesphere, and any number of other high cost finishers.

What is so cool about this card is that it doesn't actually give you anything like all the other finishers. It just creates a state on board that you have to make sure hurts your opponent more than you. A little like wrath of god or pestilence in that respect, but dialed up to 11. I agree with their decision to print it at an extremely high cost. It would have been silly in token decks or "put cards in your hand" decks otherwise. The thing about the other global effects printed at low mana costs is that they are either relatively easily removed or are very temporary. This is neither.