Subject: EXODUS Commentary: Pandemonium Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 00:39:44 +0000 From: Elisabeth Kurtz Organization: Institute of Materials Research, Sendai, Japan To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Dear Frank, after I submitted my deck Pandora's Box that is based around a modified Geeba with Pandemonium and Phyrexian Dreadnaught for a treat, I recieved some feedback and I see me forced to ask one question: Pandemonium, the worst (most broken) or the best (most playable, at least in the right deck) card in EXODUS? Here the card text as stated in the mtgnews.com list: ------- Card Title: Pandemonium Card Color: Red Type & Class: Enchantment Casting Cost: 3R Pow/Tgh: n/a Card Text: Whenever a creature comes into play, that creature's controller may deal damage equals to that creature's power to target creature or player. Rarity: Rare ------- Shall we believe the card text? Here is what Zvi Mowshowitz had to say about this card in his analysis: >Pandemonium, 3R, Enchantment, Whenever a creature comes into play, its >controller may deal damage equal to that creature's power to target >creature or player. >Watch List >A very, very good and splashable card. Ball Lightning now does 12, >Viashino 8 a turn. Combine this with Recurring Nightmare and black >recursion for huge amounts of damage, or with Alluran and Man-'o-War for >an instant kill. Dangerous stuff! I think he is perfectly right as well as Bryan Paris is: >Rating: Watch List >If you use this with blue's Eliquibrim, you get a buyback >shock/Incinerate/whatever. This one could potentially be dangerous. I think >that all decks should stock a couple disks/Tranquil Groves in the sideboards >in order to get rid of this and Eliquibrim. For example, here's a deck based >around the Eliquibrim/Pandemonium combo: ... I think that it gets even worse if we believe the card text: creature's controller deals damage ... this means colourless damage??? Devastating if this card is used in red/black speed or living death decks. I think it could be a good replacement for cursed scroll since it costs actually only one mana more than an activation of the scroll ... just the right thing to have if your initial creature rush is stalled by walls, Propaganda, Ensnaring Bridge aso. everything that usually happens past the 2nd turn ... How to protect yourself from Pandemonium? Nevinyrral's Disk: I think is too slow if you expect a Ball Lightning or Phyrexian Dreadnaught to come your way next turn ... It is an activated ability so Interdict should work, possibly Rebound and of course the common enchantment removers ... best to counter it before it even enters play ... In the feedback I recieved for my earlier post, I was actually told that the creature deals the damage, i.e. Ball Lightning would be red damage and Phyrexian Dreadnaught would be colourless. I can't believe it, because if this is the case then this card becomes even more dangerous ... Just think of poison creatures like Sabertooth Cobra or Suq Ata Assassin ... for the first time in Magic History it might be worthwhile to use poison and you need only to hit 10 times for the kill. Sabertooth Cobra has a nice side effect too, because it forces the opponent to spend one mana to prevent a second poison counter ... besides that Suq Ata Assassin is pretty hard to block. Combine that with good old Fire Whip and you can help your opponent to up to four poison counters in one turn with a single Sabertooth Cobra ... how about adding Shocker to the mix or other if-deals-damage creatures (which are usually too vulnerable to live long enough to serve!) ... now they only have to come into play (speaking about card advantage?)... That it works for both sides makes this card no less dangerous because in a well tuned deck the symmetry can easily be broken. All these examples actually fade against the Pandemonium/Aluren/ Man O'War Combo ... which is possible either way. The only way to prevent that would be to errata this card: Pandemonium: When a creature comes into play that creature's controller may have Pandemonium deal damage equal to that creatures power to target creature or player. Each player may use this ability only once each turn. Even then this card would be strong! But all of this is nothing but speculation and let me end with a citation of the comment from the Exodus IAQ section on the Dojo (which I think landed in the IAQ section because no one really dared to play this card during the prerelease, which is only too understandable): > Pandemonium >This card is under debate by the NetReps and the Rules Team. We're not sure >how it _should_ work, and there are several equally likely answers from the >Rules Team. Expect clear rulings for this card in the July Rulings. Until then let's hope ... May the Mana be with you! ELI -------------------------------- Elisabeth Kurtz presently Sendai, Japan kurtz@imr.tohoku.ac.jp