Pointed Discussion

Sacrifice all lands you control! What a ridiculous Drawback. Gargoyle Castle is way better than this.

I can only find this card effective if used alongside a card with Sweep so you pay for the ability and then play a sweep card to take your lands back or with a Restore Balance to destroy all lands. Maybe using both combined to get an advantage. But overall this card seems very weak to me because of the drawback.

I can't believe the low ratings on this card. Comes into play untapped. Produces colored mana. It has a pretty painful cost to produce but a Tomb of Urborg or, you know, an Orge/Changeling solves that. But you don't play this card in decks that rely on land. Use this with Moxen and other alternative methods of mana production or just use a mixture of Dark/Cabal Rituals to turn this on turn 2-3. Really good in EDH after a big land destruction spell hits the board. Definate combo piece though.

It's pretty awful. The first ability is pretty soundly beaten by many other lands, or well...swamps, and the second ability has an incredibly large cost. It wasn't really worth it in the set. You really had to work to make it worthwhile, when you could have just put in something that didn't suck. Now, there are tons of better lands.

Finally, a finisher worthy of my mono-black suicide deck.

balance or restore balance seems to be a glaringly obvious option...

if you had a B/W deck and rituals enough to throw this out and use it along side a balance card, it could win you the game really fast.

t1. this
t2. plains
t3. swamp, tap swamp,dark ritual x2, tap plains
totals you 5 black mana and 1 while, tap and sac this, use remaining BW mana to cast balance.

Nobody has lands, everyone has 1 creature, and yours is a 5/5 flying, you have 5 cards spent meaning 4-5 left depending on who went first. Not terrible condition considering your opponent probably has a 3/3 at best with no mana left.

"Sacrifice all lands", wow, a drawback like that deserves more than a 5/5 flier.

This and Doubling Season officially get the designation of "Worst Combo in All of Magic"

Bad, but so cool!

This card is just so awful. The only way it could remotely be good is if you tried to activate this with mana floating for balance. And even then there are far better ways to use balance.

And if you're using this as a finisher in a deck with little to no land with the moxen, well that's just stupid. If you have access to the moxen, then you obviously have access to far better alternatives. Or even mediocre alternatives that don't have such severe drawbacks. Come on seriously you guys, why on earth would you run this over goblin charbelcher or tendrils of agony? I mean you're already running dark rituals and moxen...

The whole "you need ogres to make demons not suck and vice versa" theme in the kamigawa block was really frustrating. They had a chance to make demons be something else than a turn 6+ casual drop but completely botched it by having such a heavy requirement on a creature type that rarely saw print outside of kamigawa.

So all in all, never run this card. Replace it with a swamp. Because you don't need to pay life for one measly {B}.

Strangely enough, none so far has proposed using it along with Herald of Leshrac...

Strangely, back then I thought this card was really good. The 1 damage was often negligible, and then I only needed to get them down to 5.

But yes, now it probably wouldn't be good, since no one plays Gargoyle Castle anyways.

Its only slightly better than Untaidake, the Clouder Keeper or Hall of the Bandit Lord. But even as a demon lover, i cant bear to play this card. I like the flavor though

If only this thing's second ability cost 1 less, it'd be run in every deck in Legacy and we'd all get tired of hearing about how great it is. As it stands, doesn't curve well enough.

Hmmm... I guess there are some people who love thinking of combos with this, and it can win the game, but, really, it's an example of why Kamigawa is my least favorite set. "Okay, one pack of Mirrodin, I get a Skullclamp, a Welding Jar, and an Arcbound Ravager. Two packs of Kamigawa, this and Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper. WTF?"

Could be fairly fun with some Dark Rituals and Darksteel Garrisons :P
EDIT: Woops, nevermind, you need to sac the lands >_> Ah, too bad.

combine with the moon folk that bounce lands the all you sac but i dont know why they gave ogre and demons cool art an crap abilitys

Kamigawa's got all the weird bad rares, and the awesome broken uncommons.

Anytime I see a card that prompts people to say "use this with Moxes" or "just get an opening hand with multiple Dark Rituals" in order to make it playable, I know it sucks.

@kurhan

Balance? BALANCE? If a card is so bad you need to combo it with a piece of the power nine to make it good, then that card is garbage. You know, this card is great with a Mox deck too, if it's the only land! Not only are you using power nine, but two dark rituals too? All for a 5/5 that gives your opponent 4 turns to deal with? A garbage "combo", and a bad (but not horrible) card.

Play with Doubling Season and Parallel Lives! That way you can... um... never mind.
You know, without the "sacrifice all lands" drawback it would be quite reasonable.

Use with Sorin Markov, and Bazaar Trader :D

100% worse than just playing one to several of Kaervek's Spite . Taking a land slot out of your deck punishing yourself with damage or playing with sucky ogres can't justify playing this card. Kaervek's Spite is just better if you want this kind of effect it is guaranteed damage.

You guys don't really get the point of this card. You don't use its ability out of the blue. You don't combo with it. You finish with it. If you are dying or topdecking crap, you can go: Oh boy, these lands are useless. Let me trade them for a 5/5 flier instead. Also, this land doesn't ETB or dilute your mana base. It's just a painland that gives you a last ditch option. This isn't a very good card, but it has a purpose that you guys entirely missed. Good job!

Urami was obviously a major dick. Then again, most demons are.

Love the concept. This is a VERY awesome card by flavor, and I think any art-critic looking at Kamigawa need only compare the cards to Legends to see what's going on here:

1) Some modern powercreep makes even the "all upside'' cards look worse than they should. I think people are good at recognizing that though and not being too harsh. This obviously isn't one of those cases.

2) I'm pretty sure Wizards will never know how to Design "Artifacts" and "Blue Cards" because dumb things are always happening at common and uncommon.

3) Yeah some old blocks were full of very crappy rares, but you know how they got through? People looked at them and were starstruck by the AWESOME flavor and forgot to playtest the things that looked cool to make sure they were playing powerfully.

There are two different ways to go about fixing this card- one is to go the "Lazy Mythic" route and keep the cost " {T}, Sacrifice all lands", make it a Mythic, then ask yourself just how much you can get away with printing for "Sacrifice all lands". The other way is to have this sacrifice itself, and just itself, and leave what you get close to this, with a MINOR adjustment for modern powercreeped creatures.

I would say 'sacrifice a land' but saccing a free-to-play resource REPEATEDLY might get degenerate- imagine Strip Mine worded that way.

Cracking open a Tomb to release a bound Legendary Demon though...that's pretty cool. Since it's a Legendary Token, and tokens are broken, the token can't be too good, but it's allowed to be better than it should be because it's Legendary:

Tomb of the Devilboon
Legendary Land
{T}: Add {B} to your mana pool. You lose 1 life unless you control a Demon or Ogre.
{2}{B}{B}{B}, {T}, Sacrifice Tomb of the Devilboon: Put a 4/4 black Legendary Demon Spirit token with flying, deathtouch, and haste named The Devilboon into play under your control.

could be good in a pox shell..

Insurance. Last ditch ability, that's what it's for. In EDH, if you have Urborg out you can sorta get around the damage, otherwise like Cabal Pit, getting ping damage isn't gonna end you. WIth Exanguinate and other methods you can gain life back fairly quick.

Would be fun to use with Sink into Takenuma... sweep, then sac 'em. I'd only use it if it was just down to me vs an opponent or something though.

Actually I would use this in aggro. Would not pop it until I was desperate or had the win. They stabilize with wrath of god? think again, 5/5 flying beater coming at you for a last gasp...

I think this a fine, undervalued card. 4.5/5

That 1 pain damage for not having an Ogre puts me off more than the land saccing thing, you know. I used to have an Ogre/Demon deck, and it gradually began to phase out all Ogres and Ogre-reliant Demons barring Blood Speaker.

Having said that, I do use Moonglove Changeling still, for the synergy required in the odd little card like Scroll of Griselbrand, so I might have some room for this. Very last-ditch desperation tactic mind, and they have a bad habit of backfiring on me - especially with bloody Dismember everywhere.

Guys, this card was an effective finisher in a LOT of black standard decks, and is still played even in legacy.

I don't understand why it has a lower rating than Cackling Imp.

Honestly I can see LOTS of ways to use this. Crucible, Life Loam, or any "return perms to play that went to grave this turn "cards.

Wait a minute, sacrifice WHAT?! What the fu­ck kind of drugs were they on when they made Kamigawa block?

With a drawback that sacrifices ALL lands, this thing should have been a lot better...

At least it should have had Shroud so it wouldn't die to Swords to Plowshares. Hell, Indestructible wouldn't have hurt either. Finisher or not, it's never good to sacrifice all your lands just to see your opponent asplode your last resort.

If you would like to understand why this card is rated so lowly despite being good in competitive Magic, consider the fact that gatherer ratings are made by casual players, not competitive players. There are for more casual players viewing gatherer pages than skilled competitive players who know anything at all about playing Magic. What casual player wants to sacrifice all of his lands AND take damage? Casual players vehemently hate paying for effects, and sacrificing all of your lands is especially harsh, so it's difficult for them to appreciate a card like this. Someone from R&D talked about this in an article. I don't remember the exact example they used, but it went something like this. If you have a Grizzly Bears (1G, 2/2, no abilities) and another card (1G, 2/2, sacrifice it: gain 1 life) side by side, casual players in general would pick the Grizzly Bears, even though the second card is strictly better. Casual players avoid life loss effects in a similar manner, even on very powerful cards.

For anyone interested in getting better at Magic rather than making terrible suggestions as to how to make this card completely broken (DarthParallax's suggestion that you should be able to use it on turn one was especially humorous), I will explain why this card is good.

Simply put, it's because it's a land. If this were a creature that cost 2BB and involved you sacrificing your lands, it would deserve the rating it has. However, it's not. Lands that also function as spells are extremely powerful. In many games, this will just be a Swamp with a minor drawback. The drawback is minor because life is used as a resource in competitive Magic - it doesn't matter if you win the game with 1 life left or 20. In other games, however, it will win the late game for you, when each player has exhausted their resources, you will be able to make a 5/5 flier to end the game. When each player has no important creatures on the board and no or few cards in hand, this will be able to win the game, whereas the other player just has a basic Swamp in play that isn't doing much game winning for him.

Lands with spell-like effects are inherently powerful. They give you one more spell to kill your opponent with, while still being a land that simply prevents you from being manascrewed. The cost to use this is small, but the upside is high.

lol combo!
drop Urami. then a 1 drop creature next turn swamp and culling the weak. turn 2 5/5 flier

Use with Mirror Gallery and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. You now have up to 4 legendary swamps that tap to add B.

I'm sure that this card can be good in certain decks, but is pretty garbage in a vast majority of decks. If you can take this card and build something competitive, I commend you. I personally don't think it's worth the time.

The rating on this card depresses me. It's essentially a swamp that can be used late game as a finisher.
Suicide black decks play their hands extraordinarily quickly. This card provides no tempo loss and doesn't take any slots that would otherwise go to spells. If you have three lands and a dark ritual, an evasive fatty will help you out far more than those otherwise wasted lands.
Remember: your life total, your mana base, the number of permanents you have, the number of cards in your library, and the number of toes you have DON'T matter so long as you have won.

Pretty cool with Songs of the Damned in a fast enough dredge deck.

T1 - this, Putrid Imp, discard stinkweed, street wraith stinkweed, discard him again, maybe gitaxian probe him if you still need more creatures.
T2 - Dredge him again. Songs of the damned and pop it, drop your second land if you have one. They need to answer a 5/5 flyer now. It *did* cost you a couple cards; but eating 5 to the face if you don't cast removal is a terrible thing; especially because that's going to be followed up by a Tombstalker.

May find a home in pox/dredge if such a thing can exist.

Also, Planar Birth can fix that problem. Use this ability, sac your lands, make your land drop, make next turns land drop, and you're good to go, only 1 land behind.

Consider using it with Balance or Restore Balance as well

I give this a 3.5. This card is very under-rated and I use it to great effect in my Legacy Smallpox list. Crack a few fetches late game and activate this ability in response. That saves you some lands and you get a 5/5 demon to kill my opponent with. It has made a good finisher after locking down the board.

This isn't a great card, but it reads a lot worse than it actually is. It's not meant to be a Swamp replacement - it's Legendary.

Pretty hilarious alt win condition for Storm decks that can ritual into it off of a Lotus Petal or something. "Oh, I see you sided out your removal and brought in counterspells, which you're saving for my big tutor spell? Thats cute."

If this instead was done in {G} ({T} for {G} and had an ability of {2}{G}{G} {T} ) it would be much better because of all the mana dorks green has access to (and just ramp in general).

That said, pretty bad card but a 5/5 flier is nothing to sneeze at... even if you do end up sacrificing all your lands.

Uhhh, being able to summon an uncounterable 5/5 flyer at INSTANT speed is really good. Using this on the opponants end step and then finishing him off the following turn with the demon was one of my most memorable experiences in Kamigawa.

This is actually a very solid card and imo its rating should be more in the 3-4 star range. Let me explain.

As with the Invoker cycle, many people look at the heavy cost and say, "You'll never realistically use that in a game. You'll always win or lose before then!" Those are optimistic people. Sometimes neither you nor your opponents draw the right cards to win the game quickly. Sometimes one or both of you has lots of answers to the other person's stuff and the game gets nowhere. Tomb or Urami can be a major piece in your deck, like if you combine it with Balance, but it doesn't have to be. I'm going to let you in on a secret: a single Tomb of Urami is pretty good in nearly every black deck. 1 life is really not that big a drawback; prioritize tapping your other lands first and the life loss often going to be negligible. And when your opponent "stabilizes" at 5 or less life, having wiped your board with Wrath of God after you've played all of your threats, activate this thing at the end of their turn and finish them off with it. Its hard to block, hard to burn, some common black removal fails to hit it, and sorcery speed removal in general won't stop it from hitting for at least 5.

A Lava Axe that requires you to sac all of your lands is not good. A land which acts totally normal and then Lava Axes your opponent in the face to finish them off is very good, and if your opponent has used all of their removal then it can do even more than that.

Tomb of Umami!! BOUNG!!!!!!

Too bad sacificing all your lands is worse than a turd sandwich. Unless you floated Balance mana...

I like the strategic depth of cost-to-activate man lands too, such as Treetop Village: do I start swinging in for 3 a turn on turn three or drop a preemptive Pernicious Deed? The all-in nature of this card makes it too simple.

Maybe try a demon deck using Ob Nixilis, crucible of worlds, or planar rebirth landfall combo.

Oddly enough, combos with the moonfolk abilities.

Well, it would if they didn't also cost loads of mana to use. Kamigawa has such weird mechanical decisions.