The thing with Soulshift is, on one side of the coin, there are few other abilities that would fit so well with ghost-like representations that duck in and out of the fabric of reality, playing with life and death like Homer Simpson playing with a hospital bed. It is deliciously flavourful. The dream is, of course, to have a steady stream of spirits. Whenever your foe kills a kami, another rises to replace it.
In practice, that simply does not happen. First, kami come in all five colours, which means there is no solid, in-block way to get them to the graveyard. No reliable sacrifce effects, no other (solid) graveyard interaction. That means we're relying completely on your opponent to pop these things- and if they don't want you to get a certain spirit back, they won't let you. Five colours also means you're either going to speard yourself thin, or deny yourself some of the soulshift tech in the colours you don't play. Compare to infect. Infect is seen on black and green, primarily, with some supporting technology in blue. This focuses the deck considerably. A good infect deck can even be mono-coloured, but the options exist for it to splash, and splash well. The same cannot be said for soulshift. It spreads itself too far. Kami, as representations of a wide variety of concepts, needs to be represented across colours. But it takes a mechanical hitto do so.
Finally,the soulshift mechanic often does exactly nothing. Often, your creatures will die into an empty graveyard, and frankly, when an otherwise overcosted creature like this with soulshift 4 or so bites the dust and gives no returns, you feel ripped off. And that's just not fun.
TinGorilla
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(6 votes)
I'd wager that this card had first strike at some point before being printed. It'd still be too pricey, but at least it could aspire to playability.
Also, 100 talons? It's gotta be able to strike first!
Imperialstonedragon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
DoctorKenneth is right, soulshift sucks
Salient
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
A hundred talons pointed inwards is a weakness, not a strength.
Kirbster
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This card has that distinct Legend of the Five Rings feel to it. More cards from Kamigawa could have used it, to be honest.
Trygon_Predator
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
If Hundred-Talon Strike is a reference to this creature, then it must have had first strike in playtesting. It wouldn't have broken it.
Comments (8)
In practice, that simply does not happen. First, kami come in all five colours, which means there is no solid, in-block way to get them to the graveyard. No reliable sacrifce effects, no other (solid) graveyard interaction. That means we're relying completely on your opponent to pop these things- and if they don't want you to get a certain spirit back, they won't let you. Five colours also means you're either going to speard yourself thin, or deny yourself some of the soulshift tech in the colours you don't play. Compare to infect. Infect is seen on black and green, primarily, with some supporting technology in blue. This focuses the deck considerably. A good infect deck can even be mono-coloured, but the options exist for it to splash, and splash well. The same cannot be said for soulshift. It spreads itself too far. Kami, as representations of a wide variety of concepts, needs to be represented across colours. But it takes a mechanical hitto do so.
Finally,the soulshift mechanic often does exactly nothing. Often, your creatures will die into an empty graveyard, and frankly, when an otherwise overcosted creature like this with soulshift 4 or so bites the dust and gives no returns, you feel ripped off. And that's just not fun.
Also, 100 talons? It's gotta be able to strike first!