Facts that tell us this card is terrible: - I need to have a good instant in hand that makes sense on this card - I need to have a good creature in play. it should have evasion, be large enough to not die easily, but not too large, since else I win by combat damage anyway - must pay a whoopping 7 mana to equip this - hope the creature gets through - I can play this instant only during my turn when it hits the opponent, means the "surprise" effect of beeing an instant is totally gone
If I do hit my opponent once this way, I paid 7 for that instant, which most likely would be cheaper, so I wasted mana. And I also used up two cards (this artifact and the instant), instead of just the instant, which means that I wasted cards. Once I hit my opponent twice, I STILL don't have card advantage. I used two cards, and got two spells. And if the instant does cost 4 or more, I paid barely less mana than for playing the instant. So to make this card good, I need to hit my opponent three times. And if I can hit my opponent three times, why didn't I win yet? Not to mention that if my creatures die, this card becomes useless. And if the card gets bounced or destroy, I lose two cards at once (the instant AND this artifact).
You can't even create an unlimited turn combo with this card, which would at least be fun, since those turn-generating cards are not instants. This card might look interesting on first glance, but in the end it is total and utter unplayable garbage.
Waldo420
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(3 votes)
facts tell us facts are wrong. Great card
kikukillerofkings82
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
this card is amazing with might of the oaks
Donovan_Fabian
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
I have to disagree with you majinara, your points are well made, but there are three distinct additions I would make. The first is its only 7 mana if you pay it all at once, you can of course play the card on a turn where you can't yet play your big creature, but intend to equip it with the spell binder the next turn. The second thing is its easy finding a big instant if your a red or white deck, maybe less so with other decks. The last thing is you don't play this card to mess around and make a card advantage investment, you play it as a win condition. I'll give you an example, play this card first, play deus of calamity for 5 mana, and then have spell binder equipped to deus with a soul's fire instant imprinted on it. Everytime the deus deals trample damage to an opponent, you get a free soul's fire affect which gives you an instant 6 damage to target creature or player, which then also activates the deus's land destruction ability. So, for a 2 turn set up, you get 12 damage and a land destruction every turn. Though the mana cost is slightly prohibitive, especially for control and white weenie decks that try to reserve mana, mana acceleration decks will have no problem casting this card. It's also an equipment card that is easier to keep in play than an enchantment card. It may be vulnerable in some fashion, but there are no cards in the game that are invulnerable, to say never play any card because it can be removed leaves you with nothing..
@kiku, the affect triggers after the damage so might of oaks wouldn't actually benefit your creature, it would attack do the damage and then gain the until end of turn 7/7, which it can't use. It would work however, if your creature had double strike, the first attack would give it the 7/7 on the second combat phase.
Still a risky venture, certainly the equippment could be destroyed by artifact hate, but if it gets attached to a creature with the correct instant it also wins you the game.
Raveknight
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(5 votes)
Searing Wind's best friend
nammertime
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
You know what, majinara, this card could still be fun in casual. Here's how to (almost) fix all the problems you mentionned:
1) Use it on a white creature with shadow (low casting cost, protection from something, good evasion... you know, something like Soltari Monk or Soltari Priest).
2) Use it with a charm of any kind, seeing as how charms generally have multiple effects. Some of them even allow you to draw cards, solving your card advantage problem. Say... Esper Charm, Naya Charm, Rith's Charm, Evolution Charm.
3) If you really want, you could use it with Enlightened Tutor or Eladamri's Call to go search your library for enchantments/creatures.
Reliquium
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Can someone give me an Instant or two that would be worth jumping through the hoops for? I'm not being a wise-arse, I'm honestly curious.
Mode
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(6 votes)
I agree with majinara - in general, this card is rather useless.
Although there's one good use i could think of this, since you might imprint instants that provide an additional combat phase (the only choice for this currently being Savage Beating) and equip an unblockable attacker with this card to win the match. But that still does not make the casting and equip cost of this card cheaper.
On the other hand, you can circumvent that problem by tutoring it with Stonehewer Giant, than i could actually imagine this card to have some good use. Overall it's not advisable using in most decks, but it has some decent narrow uses which can make it handy.
When considering that Savage Beatings is from the same Set, i'd actually guess that this card's costs were increased for being afraid of abusing this combo. Maybe we'll see another version which is cheaper yet can only imprint spells with a cheap mana cost someday...
HappyDude69
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Ive always used this card with decree of savagry. With a 9 CMC it actually turns out to be cheaper if I throw it on this stick. Then mix that with triskelions and it turns out pretty awesome :)
DoctorKenneth
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This is a Johnny card, with a dash of Timmy. It begs for a big honking instant to attach to it, and screams for someone to find efficent use for it. It's easier said than done, of course. Dramatic Entrance comes to mind, as you trample over foes with middle-sized creatures and repeatedly summon bigger ones. Still, not terribly effective.
I guess this seems considerably weaker in light of the other Imprint cards in Mirrodin and it's kin. Most of those were incredibly combo-licious, able to lock down games with counter/removal on-a-stick. Since this says combat damage, pinger combos are out of the question- sorry, Triskeleton. No triple-casting untaps and extra combat phases for you. And it's not as repeatable as the other Imprint cards. So yeah, by comparison, this seems poor. But keep in mind that even theoritically repeatable spell duplication should be costly- it has great potential for broken games.
Snaxme
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This looks interesting for casual games. Heck, just slap a high-powered burn instant on it and wail away with you Phantom Warrior or your Azorius Herald.
Completely out of the question for competitive play, though.
Johnald
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Savage Beating or Relentless Assault work very well with this. If it's on a fatty with trample then you're set. It'll get to keep attacking.
why is everyone complaining about the cost? it can be played on turn 3 and equiped on turn 4, of corse that means that it is vulnerable for a turn, but if you can make a blow with it (like say it is on an unblockable creature) then it can duplicate a extra turn spell, rins and reapeat for infinit turns / combat damage
Mindbend
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
combat damage ....pffffft
Ashamed
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Then fail horribly since that does nothing for you.
Crosserenti
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Blue/Red Deck Turn 4 win with this card. Turn 2: Play Aether Figment, no kicker. Turn 3: Play Spellbinder, Exile Savage Beating Turn 4: Equip to Aether Figment, laugh
Am I the only one who sees this combo?
altf4ninja
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
archive trap on a stick? sounds fun. not very useful in tournaments I guess, but in my casual playgroup it will be epic.
@Donovan_Fabian - *There are tutor spells that can put instants in your hand. *You're paying to equip it, not . You can play it for and equip it for on separate turns if you want to. *Using this card with something like Kor Duelist would allow you to cast the instant twice in one combat step. Imprinting it with removal could easily give you card advantage. *Hoping your creatures get through is stupid. There are creatures like Dimir Infiltrator and Phantom Warrior for a reason. Anything with unblockable would work with this card. *The "surprise" part of an instant only counts when you're using it either as a counter, or a combat trick. There are plenty of instants that are just as useful on your turn when you know you can play repeatedly. For instance, someone has mentioned Archive Trap. *As I've pointed out and numerous people have mentioned, there is a combo for infinite combat phases. Unblockable creatures can easily kill someone in one turn unless the combo is broken. (Which is just as easily possible for any infinite turn combo)
I'm not saying I play this every chance I get, but saying this is garbage when there are clear and obvious uses and combos for this card makes you sound very ignorant. Especially since a lot of your "facts" sound more like weak excuses.
Ladnarud
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
People saying this is useless don't have minds to think of ways to use it.
The equip cost is a little steep, but very good if you can find a Johnny way to use it.
4/5.
Diachronos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If you imprint Blunt the Assault on this, will BtA still prevent all the damage you're dealing with the creature Spellbinder is equipped to? Since you have to do damage to even use the imprinted spell I'm assuming it wouldn't, but I'm not entirely sure...
Instants I can think of that would be great on this:
Savage Beating - Already been said many times.
Celestial Purge if facing R or B users.
Breath of Malfegor in group games.
Bituminous Blast - damage/kill a creature and the next spell in your library with cmc 4 or less is free.
Into the Core
Archive Trap
Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares/Unmake - there's a lot of creatures that aren't going to be fighting because they're more useful to their controllers in other ways.
Puresteel Paladin anyone? That way, you don't 'lose' the card that you imprint and the equip cost is significantly less (with metalcraft, of course). Leonin Shikari would help you get the damage through. Cheap artifact creatures would round out a fun casual deck, IMO.
Imprint Savage Beating as Spellbinder enters the battlefield. The following turn, equip Spellbinder to Invisible Stalker, then infi-loop attack phase for the win.
Win by turn 4:
Turn 1: Island Turn 2: land, Invisible Stalker Turn 3: land, Spellbinder - imprint Savage Beating Turn 4: land, equip Spellbinder to Invisible Stalker, attack with Invisible Stalker to deal combat damage to target player, thus triggering Spellbinder to play a copy of Savage Beating, rinse and repeat this process an infinite number of times this turn.
This combo is effective because Invisible Stalker is hexproof; however, a foil to this combo includes cards such as Fog which prevents all combat damage, or Pariah which redirects damage.
I thought this card was too clunky to be good, but I added it to my Malfegor EDH deck and changed my mind. The deck has various recursive and evasive creatures (including one of the greatest creatures ever to use with equipment, Nether Traitor), various tutor effects (Hoarding Dragon, Rune-Scarred Demon, Increasing Ambition) and useful instants (Breath of Malfegor, Bituminous Blast, Thunderous Wrath). It was often good even without Savage Beating (and a beast with it - basically "counter/remove this or die). I'd recommend this, but only if your deck has the characteristics mentioned above.
Kindulas
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
It's a very cool concept. On that note, whispersilk cloak and surkar spellblade
or Invisible Stalker and Searing Wind... oh god... Turn 2 stalker turn 3 this turn 4 equip: Turn 4 Searing wind, repeat.
Too freaking bad it was outclassed by an uncommon Isochron Scepter....
Salient
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This is one of the sticks you can stick something on to have something on a stick, if sticking things on sticks is your schtick.
Lavaball Trap. Unlike Searing "I can't think of anything better" Wind, you can actually spring a copy of the Trap before you've assembled the stick, for massive advantage.
occamsrazorwit
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Cipher Beta
strider24seven
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@majinara (Granted a lot of the cards I'm going to name weren't around when you made your comment but your staggering ignorance requires me to respond):
Really you just have to pick spells that you would cast otherwise but would really like to cast over and over. It's not that hard if think about it.
- I need to have a good creature in play. it should have evasion, be large enough to not die easily, but not too large, since else I win by combat damage anyway
If they blow a removal spell on your lowbie... oh well. Just reequip and try again (see below). Or you can just stick it on a cheap trampler like ball lightning- and if you win via combat damage... congrats, you win.
If you are hoping you are either doing it wrong or not playing blue. More seriously though... don't you have to hope that the creature gets through if your win condition is combat damage? Not much of an argument you have here, unless you are saying that all creature decks are weak by virtue of hoping that their creatures connect, with the possible exception of Sneak Attacking Emrakul or Griselbrand, or Iona, Shield of Emeria into play, since they pretty much win the game for you the second they hit play.
- I can play this instant only during my turn when it hits the opponent, means the "surprise" effect of beeing an instant is totally gone
If you are playing Spellbinder for the "surprise factor" you are doing it wrong. Unless you flash in Spellbinder after the declare blockers step and attach it with Brass Squire at instant speed. For those that are familiar with TF2 fan-videos, we refer to that sequence as a "Sooprise"
TL;DR This is not a terrible card. It's not legacy-level, but it's not terrible. 4/5 for sheer casual/EDH potential.
SkyknightXi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It probably isn't Legacy-grade, but Majinara's fussing over how many strikes would be needed for commensurate card advantage makes me think this might work better in multiplayer, Commander or otherwise. Attack opponent 1 with the wielder, aim the instant (if it's an offense-oriented instant, anyway, rather than upgrading your own goons or the like) at opponent 2. That sort of thing.
Comments (35)
- I need to have a good instant in hand that makes sense on this card
- I need to have a good creature in play. it should have evasion, be large enough to not die easily, but not too large, since else I win by combat damage anyway
- must pay a whoopping 7 mana to equip this
- hope the creature gets through
- I can play this instant only during my turn when it hits the opponent, means the "surprise" effect of beeing an instant is totally gone
If I do hit my opponent once this way, I paid 7 for that instant, which most likely would be cheaper, so I wasted mana. And I also used up two cards (this artifact and the instant), instead of just the instant, which means that I wasted cards. Once I hit my opponent twice, I STILL don't have card advantage. I used two cards, and got two spells. And if the instant does cost 4 or more, I paid barely less mana than for playing the instant. So to make this card good, I need to hit my opponent three times. And if I can hit my opponent three times, why didn't I win yet?
Not to mention that if my creatures die, this card becomes useless. And if the card gets bounced or destroy, I lose two cards at once (the instant AND this artifact).
You can't even create an unlimited turn combo with this card, which would at least be fun, since those turn-generating cards are not instants. This card might look interesting on first glance, but in the end it is total and utter unplayable garbage.
@kiku, the affect triggers after the damage so might of oaks wouldn't actually benefit your creature, it would attack do the damage and then gain the until end of turn 7/7, which it can't use. It would work however, if your creature had double strike, the first attack would give it the 7/7 on the second combat phase.
Still a risky venture, certainly the equippment could be destroyed by artifact hate, but if it gets attached to a creature with the correct instant it also wins you the game.
1) Use it on a white creature with shadow (low casting cost, protection from something, good evasion... you know, something like Soltari Monk or Soltari Priest).
2) Use it with a charm of any kind, seeing as how charms generally have multiple effects. Some of them even allow you to draw cards, solving your card advantage problem. Say... Esper Charm, Naya Charm, Rith's Charm, Evolution Charm.
3) If you really want, you could use it with Enlightened Tutor or Eladamri's Call to go search your library for enchantments/creatures.
Although there's one good use i could think of this, since you might imprint instants that provide an additional combat phase (the only choice for this currently being Savage Beating) and equip an unblockable attacker with this card to win the match.
But that still does not make the casting and equip cost of this card cheaper.
On the other hand, you can circumvent that problem by tutoring it with Stonehewer Giant, than i could actually imagine this card to have some good use.
Overall it's not advisable using in most decks, but it has some decent narrow uses which can make it handy.
When considering that Savage Beatings is from the same Set, i'd actually guess that this card's costs were increased for being afraid of abusing this combo.
Maybe we'll see another version which is cheaper yet can only imprint spells with a cheap mana cost someday...
I guess this seems considerably weaker in light of the other Imprint cards in Mirrodin and it's kin. Most of those were incredibly combo-licious, able to lock down games with counter/removal on-a-stick. Since this says combat damage, pinger combos are out of the question- sorry, Triskeleton. No triple-casting untaps and extra combat phases for you. And it's not as repeatable as the other Imprint cards. So yeah, by comparison, this seems poor. But keep in mind that even theoritically repeatable spell duplication should be costly- it has great potential for broken games.
Completely out of the question for competitive play, though.
Turn 2: Play Aether Figment, no kicker.
Turn 3: Play Spellbinder, Exile Savage Beating
Turn 4: Equip to Aether Figment, laugh
Am I the only one who sees this combo?
*There are tutor spells that can put instants in your hand.
*You're paying
*Using this card with something like Kor Duelist would allow you to cast the instant twice in one combat step. Imprinting it with removal could easily give you card advantage.
*Hoping your creatures get through is stupid. There are creatures like Dimir Infiltrator and Phantom Warrior for a reason. Anything with unblockable would work with this card.
*The "surprise" part of an instant only counts when you're using it either as a counter, or a combat trick. There are plenty of instants that are just as useful on your turn when you know you can play repeatedly. For instance, someone has mentioned Archive Trap.
*As I've pointed out and numerous people have mentioned, there is a combo for infinite combat phases. Unblockable creatures can easily kill someone in one turn unless the combo is broken. (Which is just as easily possible for any infinite turn combo)
I'm not saying I play this every chance I get, but saying this is garbage when there are clear and obvious uses and combos for this card makes you sound very ignorant. Especially since a lot of your "facts" sound more like weak excuses.
The equip cost is a little steep, but very good if you can find a Johnny way to use it.
4/5.
Instants I can think of that would be great on this:
Savage Beating - Already been said many times.
Celestial Purge if facing R or B users.
Breath of Malfegor in group games.
Bituminous Blast - damage/kill a creature and the next spell in your library with cmc 4 or less is free.
Into the Core
Archive Trap
Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares/Unmake - there's a lot of creatures that aren't going to be fighting because they're more useful to their controllers in other ways.
4/5
Win by turn 4:
Turn 1: Island
Turn 2: land, Invisible Stalker
Turn 3: land, Spellbinder - imprint Savage Beating
Turn 4: land, equip Spellbinder to Invisible Stalker, attack with Invisible Stalker to deal combat damage to target player, thus triggering Spellbinder to play a copy of Savage Beating, rinse and repeat this process an infinite number of times this turn.
This combo is effective because Invisible Stalker is hexproof; however, a foil to this combo includes cards such as Fog which prevents all combat damage, or Pariah which redirects damage.
Thraximundar + Spinal Embrace
I'd recommend this, but only if your deck has the characteristics mentioned above.
or Invisible Stalker and Searing Wind... oh god...
Turn 2 stalker
turn 3 this
turn 4 equip: Turn 4 Searing wind, repeat.
Too freaking bad it was outclassed by an uncommon Isochron Scepter....
Lavaball Trap. Unlike Searing "I can't think of anything better" Wind, you can actually spring a copy of the Trap before you've assembled the stick, for massive advantage.
(Granted a lot of the cards I'm going to name weren't around when you made your comment but your staggering ignorance requires me to respond):
- I need to have a good instant in hand that makes sense on this card
Generally good stuff:
Savage Beating, Decree of Savagery, Searing Wind, Firemind's Foresight
Storm Instants (you get the Storm):
Hunting Pack, Brain Freeze, Scattershot, Reaping the Graves, Sprouting Vines
Amusing high-cost instants (Johnnies rejoice):
Cauldron Dance (highly amusing), Opportunity, Pyrokinesis, Spinal Embrace (actually quite good), Trostani's Judgement
Overcosted cards with alternate casting costs:
any of the Traps (except Mindbreak Trap), any of the "free" spells with alternate costs of exiling cards from your hand (like Pyrokinesis, but not Force of Will obviously), any of the Miracle instants... etc.
Really you just have to pick spells that you would cast otherwise but would really like to cast over and over. It's not that hard if think about it.
- I need to have a good creature in play. it should have evasion, be large enough to not die easily, but not too large, since else I win by combat damage anyway
Invisible Stalker, maybe?
Otherwise just go with a lowbie unblockable dude like Dimir Infiltrator, Tormented Soul, or Blighted Agent.
If they blow a removal spell on your lowbie... oh well. Just reequip and try again (see below). Or you can just stick it on a cheap trampler like ball lightning- and if you win via combat damage... congrats, you win.
- must pay a whoopping 7 mana to equip this
If only spellbinder were an artifact and there were ways of cheating artifacts into play
- hope the creature gets through
If you are hoping you are either doing it wrong or not playing blue.
More seriously though... don't you have to hope that the creature gets through if your win condition is combat damage? Not much of an argument you have here, unless you are saying that all creature decks are weak by virtue of hoping that their creatures connect, with the possible exception of Sneak Attacking Emrakul or Griselbrand, or Iona, Shield of Emeria into play, since they pretty much win the game for you the second they hit play.
- I can play this instant only during my turn when it hits the opponent, means the "surprise" effect of beeing an instant is totally gone
If you are playing Spellbinder for the "surprise factor" you are doing it wrong.
Unless you flash in Spellbinder after the declare blockers step and attach it with Brass Squire at instant speed. For those that are familiar with TF2 fan-videos, we refer to that sequence as a "Sooprise"
TL;DR
This is not a terrible card. It's not legacy-level, but it's not terrible.
4/5 for sheer casual/EDH potential.