Generally speaking, a card like this doesn't get
played because it tends to help your opponent
more than it helps you. You see, Furnace of Rath
affects you and your opponent equally, doubling
the damage to creatures and players.
Unfortunately, YOU are the one who had to (a)
build your deck with enough red mana to play
this card and (b) tap out to play this card
allowing your opponent to gain the advantages of
this card before you will. This is why Furnace
of Rath is no good for limited play. The
exception to the rule is mono red burn. When
Furnace of Rath first appeared, mono red burn
decks played one or two copies. On turn four,
you play Furnace of Rath, then play a couple of
burn spells on turn five. With all the burn
available these days, maybe Furnace of Rath can
make a return.
Furnace of Rath essentially assures that one way
or another, the game will end soon. Since
beatdown decks tend to win fast or not at all,
they like this card. SInce control decks want
the game to drag on, they don't. Furnace of Rath
is therefore a good weapon in beatdown's arsenal
against control. The Furnace is most commonly
used in decks with lots of fast, cheap burn
spells to turn Mogg Fanatic into a living Shock
and Shock into a Torrent of Stone. It also works
great with "X damage" spells, acting much like
Mana Flare used to. The heavy Red commitment is
damaging to it, especcialy in limited, but it
gives any aggresive deck plenty of extra
aggresion.
Furance of Rath
- I remember the first time I saw Furnace of
Rath, all the way back in Tempest. At the time
it was a completely unprecedented card. Double
Strike hadn't been invented yet, and cards like
Rakdos Anthem and Gratuitous Violence were a
long way off. Furance carries a reciprocal
effect, something which is more common than you
might think on red cards. Only green seems to
have more things that affect you and your
opponent equally. As such, this is a very
dangerous card. Although it can turn your red
spells up to 11, it can also turn your opponents
creatures into a wrecking ball. This card has
been used casually in a number of crazy infinite
damage loops, and that's probably where it will
remain most effective. Generally the thought on
Furnace of Rath is that your cards should be
capable of killing your opponent even without
doubling their damage.
Definitely a combo engine. If you’re running
this, you’ll have to build your deck around it
to maximize its use for you. Quick burn decks
might be able to exploit this, but otherwise I
feel that the parallel effect of this
enchantment could be dangerous to you if your
opponent manages to play right. Stay away in
limited- if your opponent has more burn or
trampling/unblockable creatures, you’re in big
trouble.
Standard: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 1
Robert
Overton
Furnace of Rath
- 10/12
Furnace of Rath is one of those cards that I've
always wanted to try out, but never got around
to. It fits Red's theme of "hit them now and
worry about the consequences later" perfectly,
as it lets you hit them hard now, in exchange
for them getting to return the favor later.
Probably not the most efficient means for Red to
win the game. But you know for sure that, one
way or another, the game will be ending shortly
after this hits the table. I'd pass this in
limited due to the inability to really build the
deck around it and the heavy Red casting cost.
Constructed - 3
Casual - 4
Limited - 2
Aethereal
Furnace of Rath
The original global damage-doubler. This
requires you to be almost mono-red, which is
fine as this card is best abused by red. Right
now, if I wanted to play this type of effect in
constructed, I'd pay the 1 more for Anthem of
Rakdos, as it has more of a kick to it and is
not really harder to play due to all the color
fixing available. It does require you to have no
hand, but in a burn/RDW-type deck this happens
fairly often.
In casual, it lets big things hit even harder. A
good card to build a deck around.
In limited, nah. It requires you to play almost
mono-red, and the effect can end up hurting more
than helping.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 1.5
Matt Cortez
Furnace of Rath
Constructed - This card is to much of a risk to
play in constructed. The fact that it's "a
source" and not "whenever a source you control"
makes things a big risk. You better have the
board under your control to make this work.
Limited - I would suggest not to run this. Just
like in constructed it is a major risk. You must
be dedicated to run red and even with that keep
it sideboarded to make sure it doesn't back fire
on you.
Casual - This is where it can be fun. Especially
when you play with the same group of friends and
know what to expect.
Constructed - 2.5
Casual - 4.0
Limited - 2.0
GB250
Furnace of Rath
This is one of my favorite enchantments.
Whenever it is on the field, the game suddenly
changes. A shock becomes a Lightning Blast for
R. Volcanic Hammer smacks someone for six. A
Lava Axe takes away half an opponent's life. A
Demonfire does two damage extra for every extra
mana you invest. Lightning Helix becomes...
Ridiculous.
There is, however, a slight (Huge) drawback.
Your opponents also get to double the damage
that their stuff does, as well. A lowly opposing
Grizzly Bears will deal 4 damage to whatever it
runs into.
When I lay a Furnace at the casual table, I
often hear someone say "Oooh, he's going to win
the game soon."
I reluctantly reply "No, Furnace of Rath doesn't
say that I win soon. It DOES say that SOMEONE is
going to win soon; it's just not guaranteed to
be me."
If you plan on running the Furnace, you plan on
taking a risk. If you don't win the game that
very turn, an opponent might easily use the
double damage to totally ruin your day. And
that's only if they can't immediately destroy
you with a burn card of their own. However, it
is a solid addition to a casual burn deck, as it
helps keep gas in your tank in long multiplayer
games. It's also hilarious to blow huge fatties
to kingdom come with just an Incinerate and to
turn a Flame Wave into pretty much "Target
Player Loses the Game."
Don't forget, also, that not much is going to
stop you from Naturalizing your own Furnace at
the end of your turn.
Constructed: 2/5. While very powerful, it is
also extremely risky. If your opponent survives
to untap, it's probably game over. Only play
this as part of a kill condition that won't win
any other way.
Casual: 5/5. Crazy fun, and quite strong. When
there's 8 players in the game, a burn deck goes
from semi-relevant to huge threat. "You just
casted Sterling Grove? I have my 'disenchant'
right here!" *Massive burn FTW*
Limited: 3/5. Probably not a good idea in
limited. Since an opponent likely has a load of
creatures out, a badly timed Furnace will hand
your opponent the game on a silver platter. A
well timed furnace, however, allows you to
snatch victory from an otherwise unstoppable
opponent. Your call.
Gackley Ferguson
Happy Thursday
readers! Today we're continuing with the 9th
Edition theme that the Timmy in me is just
salivating over.
Furnace of Wrath: For a mere 4 mana (1RRR) you
essentially have a card that can put your
opponent away with a single blow. The only
drawback, is that if you just plop this down on
your turn, and play the game out as normal you
probably won't like the outcomes...however if
you COMBO it with the correct teammate, things
could get really fun, really fast.
Just imagine, you have this thing out in play,
and you Sacrifice a Shard Phoenix, and it's
dealing 4 damage to each creature with out
flying! That's one heck of a removal combo in
and of itself, or if you combo Furnace with a
simple burn or blaze spell, you can knock your
opponent out before they knew what hit them. The
only real drawback is the fact that if you can't
capitalize on this the turn you drop it, then
chances are, your opponents are likely to take
advantage of it before it comes back to
you...with that said, here's my verdict.
Constructed: 3.5/5 I can definately see this in
Constucted, if comboed with the right card, this
thing can be a game ender.
Casual: 4/5 The only reason it's getting a
higher rating here is because in casual there
are more opportunities to get a combo off.
Limited: 4/5 Again it gets the higher rating
here, because anything in Limited that gives you
a big enough card advantage is never a bad
thing.
Mr. Anderson
Today's card is
Furnace of Wrath. I consider this card a
double-edged sword. As much damage as you dish,
you could easily be dealt that much damage. This
card will end games quickly. Furnace of Rath and
Searing Wind equals game. This isn't very good
in constructed unless you're running a burn
deck. Furnace is more of a casual card. Even
then, people will just target and go after you.
I wouldn't waste my time in limited unless I
drafted a good number of big creatures with
evasion.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 4
Limited: 2
You play with fire, you get burned.
Darkuraii
Furnace of Rath
A very fun card, but hard to pull off in
constructed. Everyone loves
double damage, and I can see Spike winning with
it, Johnny only
hitting his oppenent with it, and Timmy reveling
in it. Realistically
though trip red is challenging to pull off in a
draft, and even if you
pull off the mana curve, its quite a risky draft
move. Red also has
problems with getting rid of its own
enchantments, which makes Furnace
of Rath a double edged sword.
Constructed- 3
Casual- 3
Limited- 2
Cyrus Huang
Constructed:
There is absolutely no real reason to play this
card in non red sligh decks. Inexperienced
players will rush to put 4 of these in their
burn decks, but there's no real point. By turn 4
when playing a burn deck a couple things will
happen: A) A burn spell on turn 4 would've put
them at critical life but you just wasted your
turn playing a pointless spell B) You're out of
gas and you just top decked this guy, hooray! C)
Weenies are going to kill you yet it's not going
to help if your burn spells deal twice as much
damage to them when half is more then enough D)
Opponent counters it where you could've played
two burn spells instead and tried to force some
damage in.
Burn is just plain bad in standard anyways.
There's no deck that can support this card. Even
in crappy burn decks it's a waste of a 4cc slot.
It gets .2 for being an ultra low-tier choice in
bad sligh decks.
1.2 /5
Limited: It's simply unplayable. It's way too
random of an effect to depend on and you're
paying the mana for an effect that helps (or
hurts) everyone. If you're in the posistion to
take advantage of it, ie you have superior board
posistion, it's just a win more card, and a
risky one in that aspect that can lead to a huge
upset. The triple red cost completely buries it.
1/5
The Enigma
Furnace of Rath
At first glance, the furnace can be so good in
so many different decks. BUT… it really doesn’t
fit too well. It’s best used in a burn deck, but
in reality, would you rather drop an
enchantment, or play another burn spell. In
constructed, there really isn’t too much use for
this at all. It’s slightly better in casual
play, where you can run things like desperate
ritual. If you pull this in limited, try to stay
away from it.
