Pointed Discussion

By god it's a izzet card. this is the izzet guild do weird crazy things to pull MORE sorcery's or instants.

I'm missing something. To me it almost looks like a really expensive draw, except if it's not an instant or sorc, you never get to play it.

this is the worst nonbasic guild land, IMO. 1 Star.

Imagine if you used this to play one of the Ultimatums. Use ponder to get one on top of you library or Brainstorm, then use it for just 5. Not the most useful, but I think more deserving then a 2.

@Ganadote: No, you're reading it wrong. It doesn't say "without paying its mana cost"; you still have to pay for the thing.

I don't think that there's any good way to use this, really. About the only time I would even try is if I was going to lose if I didn't.

It's card advantage. It is like an incredibly overcosted, really bad Future Sight ability, but that is still not bad for something that won't take a spell slot.

This is really disappointingly bad, and I love Izzet. You're essentially needing to pay 3UR + the cost of the spell, and if you're gambling on the top card, you can get an unplayable card either by it being the wrong card type or not having the mana to play it. When a Lightning Bolt costs 3URR just to play, it's not really worthwhile - mana efficiency is key when it comes to instants and sorceries.

Play a mana-fixer instead of this land, and play Future Sight. It's mile's better.

If I were to redesign this card, I might have kept the activation cost the same (it's still quite high) but changed the effect to "Reveal the top card of your library. If it's an instant or sorcery card, you may put that card into your hand." Now that's card advantage I can live with. It's a worse Jayemdae Tome, but because it's on a land it's got that much more value.

At first I read it to say until end of next turn you can play the card as if it were an instant, which would be decent in some way. But on reread, I can think of no good reason to use this card.

I agree with Rasel, card drawing would have been so much better. And if it's on you're turn, you can then pay for the danged sorcery, or the instant whenever, and play it then just as you would on the card we see in print form. No amount of library fixing can make this land playable in my opinion, and I love Izzet.

The only time I've ever used this was in EDH (for flavor) and I topdecked a Lightning Helix for the win.

What if the card is a land? Can I play it as an instant on my opponents turn for zero casting cost, as if it's an instant?

I came to check if the oracle said without the mana cost. It doesn't. Therefore, pretty damn bad.

For the longest time, I just assumed that it let you cast the spell for free and at instant speed until your next turn, because that's just sort of what you logically expect it to do.

I found out that was incorrect, but thought "okay, this is still decent, because at least it lets you cast it for free, you just need to make sure you get a spell that costs more than 4 on top of the library for it to be a good deal. Narrower, but still useful with some setup."

Aaaand I just recently found out that's wrong as well. Forget this card. Shame, because I love Izzet.

dam it wizards why do u make such crap_+?

Wizzards, how bout if change the card rule to "you may cast that card without paying his mana cost" :( pleaseeeeee. Otherwise it shouldn't be uncommon =\ i think but common instead.

WHY do they do this!?

I came to these discussions specifically for "What am I missing here" in reference to this card.

Wizards, MA-RO - you owe us another R/U card to make up for this one and don't get me started on Petrahydrox... C'mon let's let the "Unpredicable nature" of Red/Blue be our OPPONENT''s
worry, not that of the casting Mage..! I mean really.. How bad can a card get? This card says, "we ran out of ideas for Red/Blue".

It seems tho.. we get an extra Green/Black card thrown in extra now and again.. but other than Jhoira..nothing. Get on the stick with this design space Wizards - it just seems like you don't know what to do with Red/Blue but hang onto "chaos" for the casting mage...

Here's an idea - what if a red-blue spells are unpredicable because they have entwine, or choose one effect, or flash/rebound - starting mixing up abilities like deathtouch/dredge or make them chaotic AND playable... but chaotic for the opponent.. Listen we're Izzet geniuses.. we KNOW what we're doing) This is like, oh, Green/Black sometimes when you cast this spell natures wildness kills YOUR creature.. 'cause nature has no order.. so.. let's put the Red/Blue drawbacks/random coin flips into the back of the design box.

Wizards....call me.. I'm in the book. Love you guys - but we need to have you clean this up.

I'd rather just have a colorless land.
I mean, honestly, this thing gives niv-mizzet, the firemind a terrible name

I think that most people misunderstood this card. I quite like it, for some reasons...

I have a single copy in my Izzet deck, that features Izzet Boilerworks, too. Those karoo lands help pay this land's ability, and with a large amount of lands you have the mana to play the cards that eventually you reveal. In a very late game, when I topdeck a non-instant, non-sorcery card (namely, a land or one of the few creatures), and there aren't useful card in my hand, I play this ability and chances are that I reveal an useful card like Char or Electrolyze, that I can cast right at the moment, gaining me a card. If I don't reveal anything useful it's quite ok, in that maybe I wouldn't have done anything anyway... Not so bad for a card that didn't cost any mana to play, instead gives me mana to play my spells!

I don't whine about the lack of "without paying its mana cost" text, because it would be a little overpower and because maybe I have some card with X in its mana cost, like Repeal. The only change that I would do is to lower its ability cost from to ... Sometimes useful card, useful enough to justify a 1x presence in the average Izzet deck!

3.5/5

Fixed version of this ability:
, : Exile the top card of your library. Until your next turn, you may cast that card without paying it's mana cost if it's an instant or sorcery and if it's convert mana cost is X or less.

That way you could
1) Gamble on it. Pay a little and hope for a Lightning Bolt or pay a lot and play whatever it is. (Original spirit of the card)
2) Stack the top of your deck yet still not be able to Cruel Ultimatum-type spell without a justifiable cost. (Which is what I feel they were trying to avoid when they 'overbalanced' this card)
3) Pay and just exile a land or something else undesirable so you can draw whats under it.

Wow...damn. The amount of cards you would have to combo this with for it to even work properly is reprehensible.

Come now, Azure Mage is better than this, and she dies to Doom Blade.

would rather it was : Draw a card. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK? It would have better synergy with Niv-Mizzet, obviously.

@atemu1234: Tacking abilities on lands is really powerful, so one has to be careful with what what abilities they put on lands. Consider that Desolate Lighthouse exists and is playable.

Well... one of these came in the Izzit vs. Golgari deck, so I gave it a whirl. I really tried to use it, but I just can't get around the fact that it is terrible. There's a decent chance you end up exiling something useful, and even if you do hit a card you can play, you still have to pay the mana cost, and that preconstructed deck didn't come with 4 Bolts, so there you go.

Interesting idea, poor execution.

I might use this card if I wanted a full-Izzet deck, because I may feel like doing that, but other than that I see no use in this land

Hey Niv, maybe you should replace those mirrors with something useful.

Would have been forgivable had these Guild lands produced guild colored mana at the cost of life instead of colorless and an unsatisfying ability you wont be able to make good use of until late into the game. That being said, this card has saved me after I burned through my entire hand, but only once.