Honestly, the Tactics are basically just a worse
Shock. Your opponent making you discard it is
unlikely to happen, but you could sideboard it
in if discard is heavy in your area, and if
you're already playing Red. It gets a lot better
in Limited, because A) all burn gets better in
Limited, and B) discard is a lot better in
Limited, so your opponents are more likely to
play it if they get any.
Now this is a card that could be much better if
the wording was just a little different. If they
errata this card to when this card is discarded
instead of an opponent this card would be
amazing. If it stays with the text then its hate
against black rack or 2 for 2 damage.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 2
Limited: 4
David Fanany
Player since
1995
Guerrilla
Tactics
With variations on black Rack decks running
around Standard, expect someone to play this
somewhere. If you have to get hit by a Cry of
Contrition, taking a fifth of your opponent's
life total in the process is a reasonable
consolation. I like it better than Sudden Shock
because of that ability to hose discard decks,
but other than that it's not very efficient as
burn spells go. For constructed, it's sideboard
material at best; for limited, it's reasonable
as removal.
Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 1/5
Limited: 3/5
Arcane
Guerilla
Tactics
Constructed: 2 for 2 is the norm in red decks at
instant speed if you get an effect, the only
problem is that with the Tactics is that you’re
counting on your opponent to enable your
ability, and most of the time, they won’t have
the relevant cards to make it go. I’d say leave
it in the sideboard for against the discard
players like black rack decks, but to be honest
I have to advocate the power of Dodecapod and
repeated smashings of 5 to the face rather than
a 4 point one shot.
Casual/Multi: A good way to help keep players
who like to lather and repeat their discard deck
over and over again in the same night. The
inevitability of multiplayer is that someone
will play an unfun strategy; land destruction,
permission or discard; the more players in the
game, the more likely that this strategy will
come up. So by all means use this as a hoser in
your red deck to make that discarder all that
much warier about throwing about his discard
spells. But really don’t expect this to do much
more than 2 damage most of the time.
Limited: It burns, it’s fairly cheap and is an
instant. That’s a pretty golden trifecta for a
red mage in a draft group. Tricks are what make
limited decks win and all purpose burn is a good
answer to just about anything. Unless you come
across a ravenous rats though don’t expect to
deal more than 2 damage, which is still okay
with me.
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 2
Limited: 3
PsychoAnime
#1
Magic Noob in Canada since 2002
2 mana for 2 damage isn't good, but certainly not
completely useless.
If Mono-Black Rack gains popularity, this is a
pretty decent advantage
piece.
However, the sideboard only has 15 spaces and
there's no room for this.
In casual, this is a bit more playable as there
is less punishment to
run a subpar card to counter discard. In
limited, this is removal so
yeah.
