Ah, the chaos of red, and the combo potential. Niv-mizzet anyone?
rogerkun
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
I run this in my Niv EDH and when I don't go off with curiosity/ophidian eye this is an amazing backup, especially if I keep it though an upkeep because i have the mana to play all of my cheap spells and draw my opponent to death.
like many other fabulous combo pieces from ravnica, it's a little costly and doesn't work emidiatly...
I'ld say 3 mana would be better if Niv-mizzet wasn't in the same block.
A3Kitsune
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Good for libry stacking. Ripple/Cascade, anyone?
GooberSnotpants
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
niv-mizzet
channelblaze
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Niv-mizzet, FTW =)
@Myxomorph: Let's say you had 5 cards in hand. You cast a spell, then put 4 on bottom, then draw 8 cards =) so yeah, that would be cool.
PineappleDisciple
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
This card is actually pretty handy in an EDH deck for non-combo related reasons. A red deck really can use this ability, since they usually don't really have the best draw or tutoring spells around. It lets you repeatedly tunnel through your deck, looking and playing only the best cards in your deck. Also, the looks on the table when you play this card are hilarious.
I've had some fun with this and Lorescale Coatl and Jace's Erasure. Now we just need a set that deals with the 'wedges' ...
~Zuty
supershawn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
no it doesn't combo with gustha's scepter at all..... gustha's scepter just makes it less bad.
I would really like this card if it was cheaper.
Wylyam
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Building a Niv-Mizzet EDH deck, this'll be one of my key combos. Train of Thought replicated a few times or with lots of wizard tribals + Azami, Lady of ScrollsDjinn Illuminatus + Brainstorm could both go off for huge card draws and massive damage. At least in theory...
kiseki
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This can't just go into any deck. It means you always have cards you can play, but your hand approaches zero cards quickly in the general case. And then this is useless. Also, your hand of good cards becomes a hand of ~40% mana sources. If you want to get good mileage out of this, you have to be able to resist playing the lands. It is a good combo piece, and cantrips work well, but it doesn't take many playtests to realize that you need to build around it. If you had two out, the ability would go on the stack twice, and you could play instants from the first draw before you shuffle the cards in again.
JimmyNoobPlayer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I was pulverized by this and Jace's Erasure. My opponent had a Consecrated Sphinx to beef up his hand, then he milled me for more than forty-five cards in one turn, drawing another Erasure in the process. Of course his deck was awesome while mine was merely decent, and I'm not the greatest player. Kinda fun learning experience, though. :)
Ideatog
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Too much like Impulse and too little like Learning? Maybe that's not such a bad thing...
RowanKeltizar
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
5/5 Mindmoil is an amazing card in it's own right even without Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind on board. It's the ideal of hand-cycling IMO. Pick the best card in your hand for the current situation, cast it and draw a new hand. Pick the best card in THAT hand.... etc... I'm thinking its actually worth tutoring up early to dig for what I need.
Yes, this card is very, very good in EDH even outside of combo, especially in mono-red. You can use it in so many ways.
You could use it to get as much land in play as you want, from something like an Explore, because you put on bottom a hand of mostly non-land and grab a hand with a random sample of land. Then, you play whatever draw spell your deck gave you, if any, and look at a new hand. You can also cycle through your deck looking for all your Rav Bounce lands, playing tons of land and generating card advantage. This comes in particularly handy if you want to play a deck with a lot of mass Land Destruction. You blow up all the lands, this activates, then your new hand will likely have a land or two in it, then maybe one spell that you can play with that amount of mana. You play that, get a new hand, repeat. It's like your deck can't possibly give you the high CMC cards that you can't play anymore, and you are lucking into a low CMC hand where everyone else is looking at the same cards they can't cast for the rest of the game.
You can use it to grab whatever card you need out of your deck, of course. Diabolic Tutor is cheaper, but this thing lasts for the whole game. It gets really sick decks that are designed to bounce things to your hand, etc. Even something like a Sensei's Diving Top bounces to your hand next turn, you replay it, get a new hand until you find the card you need. Crystal Shard shennanigans become really sick. And don't even get me started with Shrieking Drake. For that matter, this is going to be pretty sick in any Animar deck. Find Shrieking Drake, Tunnel Ignus, etc, then something like Erayo, Soratami Ascendant.
Just the card you want to see in EDH, and it's red.
With this in mind, you can set off tons of draw effects with rebound cards like Staggershock, or just use Whirlpool Warrior to deal tons of damage with the Crawler or Niv-Mizzet.
Amusing interaction with Moonring Mirror, letting you build up utterly obscene amounts of cards very quickly. Better make sure one of them is Laboratory Maniac.
Comments (21)
I'ld say 3 mana would be better if Niv-mizzet wasn't in the same block.
@Myxomorph: Let's say you had 5 cards in hand. You cast a spell, then put 4 on bottom, then draw 8 cards =) so yeah, that would be cool.
~Zuty
gustha's scepter just makes it less bad.
I would really like this card if it was cheaper.
It is a good combo piece, and cantrips work well, but it doesn't take many playtests to realize that you need to build around it.
If you had two out, the ability would go on the stack twice, and you could play instants from the first draw before you shuffle the cards in again.
This + Thought Reflection = dangerous awesome combo.
You could use it to get as much land in play as you want, from something like an Explore, because you put on bottom a hand of mostly non-land and grab a hand with a random sample of land. Then, you play whatever draw spell your deck gave you, if any, and look at a new hand. You can also cycle through your deck looking for all your Rav Bounce lands, playing tons of land and generating card advantage. This comes in particularly handy if you want to play a deck with a lot of mass Land Destruction. You blow up all the lands, this activates, then your new hand will likely have a land or two in it, then maybe one spell that you can play with that amount of mana. You play that, get a new hand, repeat. It's like your deck can't possibly give you the high CMC cards that you can't play anymore, and you are lucking into a low CMC hand where everyone else is looking at the same cards they can't cast for the rest of the game.
You can use it to grab whatever card you need out of your deck, of course. Diabolic Tutor is cheaper, but this thing lasts for the whole game. It gets really sick decks that are designed to bounce things to your hand, etc. Even something like a Sensei's Diving Top bounces to your hand next turn, you replay it, get a new hand until you find the card you need. Crystal Shard shennanigans become really sick. And don't even get me started with Shrieking Drake. For that matter, this is going to be pretty sick in any Animar deck. Find Shrieking Drake, Tunnel Ignus, etc, then something like Erayo, Soratami Ascendant.
Just the card you want to see in EDH, and it's red.
With this in mind, you can set off tons of draw effects with rebound cards like Staggershock, or just use Whirlpool Warrior to deal tons of damage with the Crawler or Niv-Mizzet.
Card advantage cards are preferable; Firemind's Foresight or Reforge The Soul can get you Mindmoiling much more effectively after they've resolved. You'll also want cheap cards to set it off, like Gitaxian Probe or Gut Shot.