In its fevered dreams, it sees nine red mana,
and 4 damage to each nonflying creature wiping
the board of everything but your own Dragons.
Realistically, by the time you hit nine mana,
you're probably not going to want to spend it on
an Earthquake for 4 that doesn't hit players.
Rolling Temblor's real use is that of a
Pyroclasm that forever haunts your opponents
with whispered threats of its flashback. Its
first casting will clear the board of chaff,
leaving you the better off for having
anticipated it. For the rest of the game each
player will bear that scar of loss, fearing to
overcommit and risk a rout with the second
casting. Rolling Temblor, more so than most
cards, is only as good as the player who wields
it, as it rewards careful play and an eye for
opportunities.
Is the ability to cast Pyroclasm twice from one
card worth losing the ability to damage flying
creatures? I can imagine a situation or two
where it would be, but in many situations,
Pyroclasm will be picked just for the all-around
versatility and lower cost. Of course, you can
always make a deck based around flashback
effects, with Burning Vengeance or River Kelpie.
Rolling Temblor is also a very significant
threat in limited games, even more so than mass
removal spells normally are - sometimes you get
wiped out by Wrath of God and go "well, at least
he only has one." Not this time.
Today's card of the day is Rolling Temblor
which is an interesting three mana variant of
Pyroclasm as it costs one more, but doesn't
damage creatures with Flying and can be cast
with Flashback for six. The six mana cost
on the Flashback is a bit high and unlikely to
make an impact often, but is certainly nice to
have available should mana be available.
The two damage to non-Flying can be extremely
useful if your deck is designed with primarily
Flying creatures to work towards a one-sided
advantage. A build with that in mind can
be competitive and the single Red in the casting
cost allows another color's creatures to be used
efficiently.
For Limited this not hitting Flying can be a
drawback, but both the primary and Flashback
casting costs are very reasonable. This is
a top of the line removal option and a Sealed
pool with this and Flying creatures can form a
dangerous two-color deck. In Booster this
is a good choice for an early pick, especially
if following by Flying creatures or ones with
three or more toughness.
In Multiplayer running a deck to take advantage
of this can be very effective and can be
difficult for many opponents to work around.
Welcome to the
card of the day section here at Pojo.com! Today
we are looking at Rolling Temblor from
Innistrad. Rolling Temblor is an uncommon red
sorcery that costs two generic and one red mana.
It deals two damage to each creature without
flying, and has flashback for four generic and
two red mana.
Rolling Temblor is certainly one of those cards that
had potential but ultimately made me scratch my
head. It severely fails to live up to the
Volcanic Fallout, by far the best multi-hitting
card in the game. Had Rolling Temblor at least
been printed as an instant it would have been
much better than it is. And then doubling the
flashback cost, not likely to be flashed until
absolutely necessary. Altering the cost to maybe
four red mana would have been better than the
six mana. Cards such as this are nice to be able
to play and flashback on the same turn for
maximum effectiveness. But costing nine mana to
do so is highly unlikely to ever have that
happen.
In terms of what it can do at face value, it is at
least a decent option for limited and standard
play, since it can easily handle human based
decks, whose toughness is usually low, and can
even handle werewolves prior to transformation,
and can even pick off some ground based
vampires. I think that not hitting fliers is a
major drawback though, and even in standard
people will likely stick with Slagstorm for the
option of more damage for the mana. But once
Slagstrom rotates out, if this is the only
option, I’m sure it would see a pick up, even if
it doesn’t hit as effectively as some other
burns.
I love cards like this, but this one fell short
of what it could have done. Doesn’t really live
up to what massive hitting red spells can do,
but still a solid choice for limited play.
