Pointed Discussion

I bet bluephiles wished they had something like this in the current format

Cards like this are retarded. IF it wasnt in your deck you would have the card that you would draw for free!

Wizards was kind of boasting with this card back then in an article for it not having a mana cost.
I didn't dislike the idea of an arcane only being able to be spliced, in fact i really liked it. But this card was the wrong one to consider doing this with. Yes, it kind of allows you to make any Arcane spell you cast to a cantrip. Yet they could have easily given this card a cost of or even . This would have made it much more useful since you could also have used this card the other way round by casting this and splicing others (as with Reach Through Mists).
However, it's still worth using with the Shoals nontheless.

I think utility is not really the focus here. This was uncharted territory at the time, and I'm kind of glad they stuck a toe in with something safe. Obviously alternate casting costs have been around before this, but something lacking the ability to hardcast altogether had nothing to really compare it to. So I can understand it's limited functionality.

That said, the splicing mechanic was never, to my knowledge anyway, played very heavily outside of the block's limited environment. So the experiment kind of faded into obscurity. But I guess we can thank it for the pioneering some ground for the costless-suspend cards that came later.

Finally, directed towards @go: This particular card is designed for repeatable card draw. Most other "draw a card"-for-one cards have some minor strategic benefit tacked on (Ponders and Peeks and the like). It's not quite the same as simply making your deck smaller, especially considering other interactions with other cards. That's why blue card draw has to be carefully considered when deckbuilding- too much may be useless padding, while some may be exactly what you need.

Would this combo with Celestial Kirin... if you cast it through Isochron Scepter?

Tsk.

Perhaps because Kamigawa came right after Mirrodin one could theorize that Wizards was trying to limit the power level of cards/strategies. Even still, I think that that's bull. Arcane spells are far from being competent of winning a game (more competent than Storm Crows and Air Elementals). They have much room for power level boosts without even thinking of being a top-tier strategy.

With that, this is indeed a thoughtful card in the mechanic. However, this card only works (in an arcane-spell heavy deck) when the deck is at an advantage (even slight) with the opponent. Otherwise, it's as dead as a card can be. I say this because 90% of arcane spells are weak and situational, and the strategy or your life total will crumble when attempting to bend over backwards to splice this onto something (You Rend Flesh an irrelevant creature to draw a card; or instead of splicing on Consuming Vortex to your Rend Flesh, you do this and draw a card- only to find that you still need to bounce a creature to not lose). As seen in that example, I have found that instead of using Evermind, use more business cards (like removal and such). After that, if you still find that the deck needs card draw, go elsewhere.

The artwork is really interesting and well-composed. And the card itself is alright, even if it is limited to arcane.

@Enchantment_Removal

Good post, but really, you are going to recomend one of the power 9 as the draw card you should use instead of this one?

They should have done this with way more Splice cards. At least a cycle, if not nearly all of them. Otherwise the ability is crap.

Wizards was kind of boasting with this card back then in an article for it not having a mana cost.

Yeah i think the point of it was to splice the mechanism onto the splice mechanic. pretty logical and cool idea

I really like the concept, and I really hope that they bring back splicing, it gives a whole new strategy, because it takes up a card in your hand but draws you new ones...although I think that it should cost a little less, costing U may be too cheap, but maybe UU for 2 cards would be a better deal

maybe one day it'll become useful...

Huh. You can suspend this with Jhoira of the Ghitu or cascade into this with literally any cascade spell, and it would be weird to see this on the stack, but you would.

Fist of Suns, for when you really, REALLY have to play it.

It seems like there is little reason to ever use this card when you could use any of a number of blue spells that allow you to draw a card PLUS have another effect for less mana, even considering cards that have a positive effect with splicing/arcane.

I find it cute that this turns the spell it's spliced onto blue. However, when the latest Oracle updates come into effect, this will no longer change the spliced spell's color.

Instant with CMC 0...Might not be bad on an Isochron.

You guys don't seem to realize how this makes any Arcane spell cantrip. That's pretty useful. Maybe not useful, but still useful.

Use with Panoptic Mirror and Djinn Illuminatus.

Splice wasn't actually a bad mechanic to be honest, many arcane spells are pretty powerful. People tend to focus on the Soulshift when it comes to Kamigawa, and even then that was only messed up because wizards decided to increase CMC instead of putting the word 'another' into the soulshift rules text.

Creative, I'll give it that... Also you can imprint it onto Isochron Scepter to draw without worrying about splicing. Be even more ridiculous and play it with Celestial Kirin and you can destroy all lands every turn (as well as tokens since they also have a CMC of 0)

Strange that this is the only card with 'Non-Existent Mana Costs Cannot Be Paid' its not on any of the suspend cards or pacts...

still this seams decent, {2} for a cantrip seams to be about average, although not usually at the cost of two cards

2.5/5 Stars

Greatest Draw card in the world.

Why all the hate? With it in your hand you can add to any arcane spell to make it a cantrip. Not optimal no, but its interesting and certainly usable. Maybe in mono-blue people would scoff, but its fun to attach this to a Lava Spike or a Kodama's Reach.

@Blackworm_Bloodworm Erm, *no*. If the rule is as stated "can't be played", then suspend simply doesn't work, because if you don't allow the card to be played, then the card can't be played by suspend. You'd have to put in a specific exception that suspend cards can't be cascaded, as "has no CMC" would cause ridiculous problems with a lot of cards.

And broken combos is what Legacy or "My House Rules" is about.

@Hunter06
Yes. And what a coincidence that the old errata would have ended up preventing a lot of problems that exist in the present.

Had all cards with no mana cost retained the errata originally printed on this card, including bombs like Hypergenesis, Ancestral Vision, and Living End for example (all 'problem' cards as deemed by modern rulings...), then they wouldn't have been cascadable by cards such as Bloodbraid Elf (another 'problem card' pointlessly banned), and instead would have been playable only as they were intended: through splicing or suspend.

And as a result, none of these cards would have had to be banned in Modern, since there would be no problems. Thank God I still have my house rules...

*sigh* WotC... *facepalm*

Edit:
@deworde2510
Nice hate-rate. It's almost like you don't even understand what I'm trying to do here. Suspend cards could be errata'd so that they are only castable from exile. Or, in Evermind's case, simply "Evermind can't be cast".
Even better would be to change the way Cascade works, in that cards that don't have mana costs aren't considered to cost "0", and instead simply have no implied mana cost, and thus can't be cascaded into.
The goal is to fix an inherent problem caused by newer cards, and this allows each card type to be played as intended.
Implying such exceptions are unfeasible is ignorant, and shows lack of ability to design outside the box.

And no, *my* house rules prevent 'broken combos' in favor of a fair and fun playing experience for everyone. It's also why I don't play legacy.

Giving this card a manacost of {U} would've been too strong compared to Reach Through Mists. {1}{U} seems reasonable, but I don't hate it for not having a manacost.

The idea behind the card was good, just not a lot of cards to support the use of it. It used to be more powerful and did see competitive play. Originally "Evermind is Blue" changed the color of the spell it was spliced onto although Wizards didn't consider this. This allowed for red burn to get past protection while drawing more cards.

Name makes it sound much more powerful than it is.