Daily Discussion - Best Instant or Sorcery

[JStephens]

Yesterday we asked about your favorite Ravnica creature. The responses were a ton of fun as people debated what was the best creature in the new set.

Today we want to know what you think is the best instant or sorcery in the set. There are certainly a lot of good ones to choose from, so which is your favorite?

If you answer Lightning Helix we're going to send people over there to flog you with dry lasagna noodles. Even if you think it's the best card make sure you pick a second one for us too.

[Nightmare0511]

Once again, I can only speak from the cards I played with. Gaze of the Gorgon helped me quite a bit. First, the obvious suprise destruction of an opponent's creature. Next, it helped me get in a few free points of damage because when I attacked with a couple small creatures when my opponent had fatties to block, he let them through thinking I had it in my hand (Did I or didn't I. The world may never know).

[Tetraman174]

Gaze of Gorgon was a good card for me too. I think that might be a very populat card for GB. Lightning Helix seems too good and I had to go against a guy who got three of them...

[SRmogg]

In Limited, that Ribbosn card is beyond the nuts. Putrify and Lightning Helix are also ridiculos.

In Constrcuted Helxi and Putrify are FAR ABOVE EVERY SINGLE OTHER instant/sorcery as well as creature for that matter. R/W both in Aggro and COntrol is crazy primarily because they can deal two damage, gain two life, spend just two mana, and do it all at instant speed. Scarab makes G/B good. Putrify makes it Tier 1.

[who is the pilot]

In Limited, that Ribbosn card is beyond the nuts.

yeah. . .i got lucky and got 3 ribbons, so. . .i did well at the pre, finishing some rounds over 20 life. . .i saw people do sick stuff in boros decks with that radiance spell that untaps and gives creatures +2/+0. . .

[GenericKen]

Putrify is the most important for the sake of jitte superiority.
After that helix,
Chord,
Compulsive Research,
Devouring Light,
Last Gasp,
Char,
Vigor Mortis,
Telling time,
Festival of the Guildpact,
Remand,
Muddle in the Mixture (mute for jitte)

In that order. Nothing else will matter much, though Shaddow of Doubt and Master Warcraft have potential. Flow of ideas is inferior to tidings, and Ribbons is inferior to Exile.
Gaze is a limited card, where actual creature combat takes place. It also won't save your dude from jitte counters.

[clustro]

Overall best instant or sorcery?
I am going to say Devouring Light. people will jump all over me for this, but could this be the new Swords that white weenie is looking for? It can easily cost W after playing a few guys out that couldnt attack anyways.
After that, imho, its:
Moonlight Bargain
Compulsive Research
Lightning Helix
Char
Seeds of the Strength
Flow of Ideas (IIII LOVE IT!)

[kawaii_neko]

sins of the past seems breakable

doing a turn 5 eternal domination is no joking matter

[GenericKen]

I can't say I agree with moonlight bargin or seeds of strength. For moonlit bargin, instant speed is great, but 4 mana is a lot for 1 or 2 cards. Grabbing 3 or more cards with it tends to kill you.

As for seeds of strength, otherworldly journey is just better at saving your guys and dominating combat.

I have to admit I overlooked sins of the past as having lots of potential. It's a nice variant on zombify, but it suffers from the lack of redundancy. Meanwhile, there are 4 different good and viable zombifies in standard, not including the temporary stuff like goryos.

[River Boa]

My vote goes to putrify. I expect 4 of in every extended rock deck.
Arguably better than terminate, does the same thing, costs 1 generic more and can do in artifacts as well.
Lightning helix is obviously very good but people are going insane about it. In some ways last gasp is better, it is easier to cast and kills things that regen. The helix gives you life and can finish off an opponent, so its slightly better.
My commiserations to the guy who lost to someone who got 3 helix in limitted. The lucky bastard.

[peeps_champ]

Also a good set for spells. The big ones are:

Putrify, Lightning Helix, Char, Chord of Calling, Nightmare Void, Razia's Purification, Telling Time, and maybe Moonlight Bargain

Putrify will be everywhere, and Lightning Helix will see no shortage of play time. G/B and R/x decks will make up a very large portion of decks in the upcoming Standard environment.

[dragon_flip24]

Okay, if not Lightning Helix...

Char!

[KSJL]

Sins of the past costs 6, not 5.

Midnight covenant is my favorite. Best black card advantage spell since Yawgmoth's Agenda.

[MagicSer]

Putrefy, Helix, and many other spells are probably the best in the set, but I would also like to recognize Rally the Righteous. 3-4 in the new W/r Weenie decks is looking really good.

It is Putrefy by the way. Not Putrify...

[Jimmy_Groove]

I think Char will see more play than Putrefy simply because of color restrictrions, but Putrefy will probably have the most impact on the game of these cards.

Helix and a few others are right behind. There were a lot of standouts in this set.

[SRmogg]

Okay, first off Chord of the Calling is total crap. IT IS NOT THE NEW TOOTH AND NAIL. Tooth and Nail and Tinker before it were broken cause it tutored and skimped out on mana. CHord does not. Sure it tutors but you have to pay 3 extra green to that creatures cc. Dont talk abotu Convoke. The abiltiy is nto only bad but encourages bad play. "lets overextend and put all my creatrues on my board to Plague Boiler or Hideous Laughter can kill them all". Great idea.

Midnight Covennant is bad. Moonlight Baragain on the other hand is quite good. Finding out it has a 5cc instead of 4cc really powers the card down, but it's necessary. At 4 the card is broken, but at five it's still good.

[GenericKen]

SRmogg> Instant speed. No, it's not tooth and nail. Stop comparing it.

Also, Sosuke's Summons.

[ThePwnerONoobs]

Ken many people on these and other forums are talking about chord as "the new tooth" and SRmogg wuz just saying that it is crap which it is. I have seen so many people be like o i am gonna break this card but you can't it is just bad. decks that use convoke roll over and die to mass removal like this:

"rolling over and dyingness"

"uh im rolled over and died uhhhhhhhhh"

[tcg player]

i think its char or helix physionic blast is insane and char is almost the same and helix is beeter than ball lightbing derossa sed that

[KaervekBoo]

Srmogg.... Helix does 3 damage and gains you 3 life... I like Putrefy. I've already built a B/G deck for states with Ravnica cards. While it still needs some work I really like it a lot. It has the most consistent draws I've been able to pull off in recent memory. Anyway I also liked Boros Fury-Shield. If you're playing w/r it makes your opponent think twice about attacking you with big guys.... Just wish you could deal the damage to the crreature though... oh well can't have everything....

[-Reaper-]

My vote goes to putrefy (I expect to see 4x in every B/G deck), and telling time (the new brainstorm, a must in any blue deck IMHO).

[GenericKen]

You know, I've thought a lot about telling time, and I'm starting to think that it's terrible. Putting a card back on top of your library kind of defeats the whole purpose of digging into your deck.

When you actually play with it, you find that it doesn't really dig deeper than sleight of hand.

[Aricanius]

My love of milling makes me say Glimpse the Unthinkable.

[XgEvangelist]

just saying that it is crap which it is. I have seen so many people be like o i am gonna break this card but you can't it is just bad. decks that use convoke roll over and die to mass removal like this:

"rolling over and dyingness"

"uh im rolled over and died uhhhhhhhhh"

actually that's not why convoke sucks, at least not in my oppinion.

You'll notice almost everything with convoke on it was made so expensive that with even 3-4 creatures out it still is either just equal cost for power or a little more expensive for power.

Convoke doesn't die to mass removal if you can splash white promise of bunrei they may end up actually giving you more creatures. Otherwise they have to play around it by killing a single creature first then casting WoG which is horribley inefficient.

[Silverdawn Banisher]

Lots of strong cards here. Let's see....
Lightning Helix
Char
Putrefy
Moonlight Bargain
Telling Time
Glimpse the Unthinkable
Perplex
Seed Spark

[Snake Pliskan]

If you answer Lightning Helix we're going to send people over there to flog you with dry lasagna noodles.JStephens showing off his wit!! :p :D

[River Boa]

That is called giving you a pasta-ing.

[ravager877]

hmmm. best sorcery for ravnica... i'd go with flame fusillade. I'm not gonna be obvious since destroy effects, direct damage are quite obvious. flame fussilade isn't direct damage per say but it does show how useful permenants can be in tight situations.

[Mr. Lucky]

Perplex can put an opponent in a REAL bind if they've got a good hand and they're playing an important spell, but I'd often rather have another counter in hand.

Putrefy is the best killer in the format.

Telling Time is rather effective.

Last Gasp is the best way to deal with weenies.

Helix is a definitely solid card.

Char is a decent burn.

[ravager877]

Initially, i thought perplex was cool but its not so hot now. with agro decks galore, an opponent will likely let you counter the spell and drop something worst. or their hand will be empty netting you nothing. the number of times this card has been stuck in my hand with nothing to do is vexing to say the least.

[who is the pilot]

i've had the same problem with perplex ravager has. . .it's amazing that a 3-mana instant that has "opponent discards his or her hand" written on it is still only marginally playable. . .that just goes to show you how much of a drawback choice is in magic. . .the odyssey punisher cards also all had really huge effects for cheap mana, but most were unplayable because giving the choice to the opponent is just too risky. . .i don't know what happened with fof and gifts, though. . .

[Chainer9999]

I guess it depends on who the beneficiary of the choices is. FoF and Gifts, while allowing opponents to choose, give you the benefits, while cards like Perplex and the punisher cards affect the opponent, so he knows what exactly will happen to him. Of course, this is only half the story...