This card seems decent. Reasonable. Playable even.

But seriously folks, what are people's thoughts on Mana Drain's reprinting, coinciding closely with Thorn and Mentor restriction, in terms not just of a price shift, but in terms of possibly incentivizing folks to play a big blue strategy in paper magic. Do you think there will be an effect?

It feels to me, like this is the best printing for big blue in awhile (which is pretty sad if you're feeling blue like I am, considering that its a reprint). So now tell me what I'm missing or how I'm wrong. Thoughts?

I doubt this has anything to do with Vintage. I think it's a money grab to bait EDH players to buy into IMA.

@seksaybish right. That might be the motive. You don't think it will cause more Mana Drain play in paper?

@topical_island I'm a goof. I was only thinking about the financial aspect. The DCI's plan to Make Mana Drain Dank Again is on track. Looking at data from mtgtop8 drain went from 22.6% (last 4 months) to 27.8% (last 2 months).

@seksaybish I'm glad to at least see it get played seriously again. It was really really bad at some point in the last year or so.

@topical_island 10 years or so

@13nova haha, fair enough. When was that Dark Confidant, Brainstorm, Tinker into Darksteel Colossus deck? I remember a game online that went, I Mull. He keeps 7. He plays basic island and passes. I play Plains (my first mistake), and pass. He plays Flooded Stand and passes turn, and I ask if I can concede. He just shows me a hand of Force, Ancestral, Confidant, Brainstorm, Underground Sea, Mana Drain, Mana Drain. (pretty sure that was the hand... per your comment, this was a long time ago.) Ahhhh those were the days.

@topical_island it wasnt great back then, but it was decent. I would argue Gifts was the last REAL mana drain deck, and after that, they were all really good decks that just played mana drain by coincidence

@13nova I mean... sure. I'm not gonna debate that. Gifts was the better card and got restricted, so sure. I'm defining good as being a part of a killer deck. Preordain might be a good comparison here. It's... been really good lately. Is that because it's an insane card on it's own?

By comparison, Mana Drain is boarderline busted, but for lack of crushing options to pour that mana into, and for lack of endstep, instant speed deck manipulation, big blue could hardly be played there for awhile...

I just want to see this card on a table again. It's too cool not to. That's my opinion. (I'm not sure I'd even play it, but playing that second island and saying go is just too classic in my mind.)

There are decks with Mana Drain that never stopped being played and which are competitive in the moment: Grixis and Landstill. Both had nice results lately. I especially like how some Grixis builds have moved away from the complete artifact acceleration and now just play the Moxen - still with Tinker, but with the whole cantrip engine and relying stronger on Mana Drain to play more costy stuff like Jace.

@tom-bombadil True story. No doubt it still saw play the whole time.