Pojo's Magic The Gathering news, tips, strategies and more!

Pojo's MTG
MTG Home
Message Board
News & Archives
Deck Garage
BMoor Dolf BeJoSe

Columnists
Paul's Perspective
Jeff Zandi
DeQuan Watson
Jordon Kronick
IQ
Aburame Shino
Rare Hunter
Tim Stoltzfus
WiCkEd
Judge Bill's Corner


Trading Card
Game

Card of the Day
Guide for Newbies
Decks to Beat
Featured Articles
Peasant Magic
Fan Tips
Tourney Reports


Other
Color Chart
Book Reviews
Online Play
MTG Links
Staff



This Space
For Rent

Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Monomania
Image from Wizards.com

Monomania
M12

Reviewed August 12, 2011

Constructed: 3.00
Casual: 3.00
Limited: 3.33
Multiplayer: 2.67

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Monomania

This is a very interesting card. The number of cards your target discards is fixed at "all but one". On the one hand, it gets better the more cards your opponent has, unlike most discard spells that allow the discarder to choose, and it feels much like Mind Sludge, in that it can come out of nowhere and take a huge chunk of your opponent's hand away. The downside is that they always have something left. You could follow it up with a Horrifying Revelation, of course. Or use it to follow up a Caress of Phyrexia aimed at an opponent. There's plenty of fun things you can do with this card that leaves your opponent with only one fun thing.

Constructed- 4
Casual- 4
Limited- 4
Multiplayer- 3.5

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Monomania

I remember when Persecute rotated out of the core set, with the idea seemingly that it's not entirely fair to have a single spell make your opponent discard their entire hand. Now it's not that long later, and we've got a spell that makes your opponent discard almost their entire hand. Rotation is hard to understand sometimes. Monomania's higher cost will prevent it from being quite as ubiquitous as Persecute was, and that same higher cost also means you'll have to be more careful about casting it into a Mana Leak or Spell Pierce. However, it shouldn't be forgotten either - there may be a control deck at some point that wants to play this, as any opposing control deck that gets hit by it will be more or less wrecked.

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 2/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Monomania which is a five mana Black spell that has target player select one card in their hand and discard the rest.  Outside of a lucky draw in older formats where Dark Ritual is legal this just doesn't enter the game early enough to make an impact, especially when the opponent can keep the card they want most.  The cost is too high and the effect isn't enough to use in that stage of the game when other cards can likely do the job better both then and work earlier as well.  A Multiplayer match will be more likely to provide at least one worthwhile target, but discard often suffers in the format.  Overall a very situational card and not something that should be played in the maindecks of mono-Black discard.
 
In Limited the slower format might benefit this a little more, but it is a weaker rare that may not have much if any benefit depending on the situation.  In Sealed it can be played if you are running Black anyway even though it doesn't make a strong case for the color if it causes a discard of just two cards you at least gain some card advantage.  In Booster this is a rare that can be safely passed over if a stronger card is available in the pack and is unlikely to be a threat against your own deck if you play your hand aggressively.
 
Constructed: 2.0
Casual: 2.0
Limited: 3.0
Multiplayer: 2.5


Copyright© 1998-2011 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.