If you can play it turn 2, especially if you went first, you can surprise them and at least do 4. If it hits them twice, it's more than worth it. On the other hand, if you don't draw it immediately, it's worthless unless you have a deck based around it. Some kind of lockdown deck could work.
Mode
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
It's also a great win option in a Stasis deck, since it prevents your opponent from playing any cards and therefore results in a filled hand each upkeep which will hurt him/her accordingly.
I always forget the name of this card and simply refer to it as the Owl Nuke card. I think it would be much more interesting if it was 8 or more cards that triggered the damage. Otherwise it is a passive damage card that punishes your opponents for playing the game, rather than being a strategic card that forces you to keep their hands full. The difference between 7 and 8 is that, unless they have something that gives them unlimited hand size, you would need to force them to draw extra cards during your turn, instead of passively letting the game keep them at 7. With this coming out on turn 2 or even 1 (Sol Ring, Dark Ritual, etc.), it's an exceptional amount of damage for such a small price.
Raexs
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
In multiplayer (particularly EDH, as the early games tends to be pretty slow), drop a Sol Ring and power this bad boy out turn one. Assuming your opponents don't run a lot of 1-drops in their edh decks, it should hit most of your opponents at least once. But then again, everybody starts out at 40, so it is effectively just a free, albeit conditional, Shock.
...Forget that, just go with Forced Fruition. Also provides good tech against certain other cards. "You just played Enter the Infinite and passed the turn? Have fun taking 4 owl damage... also you're not using that card properly."
SnackyNorph
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Based on the comments and rating, I'm guessing that Gatherer has never heard of Owling Mine, an absurd tempo deck that really should have not worked. I can't recall all the cards involved, but essentially you used Howling Mine, Boomerang, and other cards that returned their field and spells to their hand, force them to draw extra cards, ping them with Ebony Owl Netsuke every turn, then finally finishing them with Sudden Impact. This card is great in the right deck, and hilarious enough of a win condition that people legitimately played One With Nothing.
Mindbend
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If you see this game one, I stroungly advise you to mulligan down to four next game , when this deck is on form it's unbeatable. I've made people force of will their own spells just to stay alive one more time after i have overloaded their hand, true story
Comments (19)
Not really necessary to build a deck around it. It can be a good supplement to a bounce deck.
Use with a bunch of bounces and Temple Bell type cards.
...Forget that, just go with Forced Fruition. Also provides good tech against certain other cards. "You just played Enter the Infinite and passed the turn? Have fun taking 4 owl damage... also you're not using that card properly."