@The-Gremlin-Lord said in [AKH] Insult/Injury:
Any luck with that proof of concept, @Serracollector? Theorycrafting doesn't really go far with new cards that haven't made a splash.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and just state for the record that I am 100% confident that this card is utterly worthless in the Vintage metagame.
Is anyone playing any of the red anti-damage-prevention cards like Skullcrack? Nope. They're not because nobody is playing Circle of Protections, Zuran Orbs, or whatever. The only life people are going to be gaining is probably coming from Griselbrand, Sphincter of the Steel Wind, Swords to Plowshares, etc. The "damage prevention" effects are even less popular than lifelink in this format!
I was away from Magic for a long time between Mercadian Masques and Theros (with some intermittent dabbling) so if someone has knowledge about an era where COP Red was a viable strategy please elaborate.
I suppose you could use that card to try and trigger an instant win with the damage doubling effect. I don't remember EVER seeing a non casual deck running Furnace of Wrath though. Sure, this card is one mana less (and two less red mana), but does that make it that much better? Furnace is an enchantment so it's harder to deal with, and it can stick around if you need an extra turn...
Even so, what are we using this card for? Are we trying to make Blightsteel Colossus a one turn killing machine? Are we making Emrakul deadlier? With Griselbrand this is almost as good as a Time Walk or Dragon Breath, except it's actually a lot worse.
I suppose you could use it in a Mentor turn to try to really hammer someone with your monk tokens. I really feel like his is the ultimate definition of win-more though. If you've resolved Mentor and you're attacking with a monk army you're already in good shape. You need cards that can help you when your behind as well.
I applaud you for trying new things Just like @The-Gremlin-Lord has been hinting at, if you had tried to make a deck and tested it prior to making this post I sincerely believe that you wouldn't have even suggested that this card could be good.
There's a Vintage Facebook group that a lot of people from here are in. I have posted brain fart decks in there that were untested and probably bad before, but I did put at least a little bit of thought into them. Even then I had a bit of a reservation about it because I knew that my idea might annoy people as a waste of time. These days I try to keep my posts more productive if possible.