Dark Ascension contains two red burn spells with
Flashback. This is the good one. Its first shot
is two mana for three damage, compared to Fires
of Undeath's three mana for two damage. Its
flashback is a more reasonable 3W. This is
balanced by the fact that it can only hit
attacking or blocking creatures. Don't fool
yourself-- this is a real limitation. Some
creatures, like Soul's Attendant, can cause a
lot of problems for you without ever attacking
or blocking. The limiation also means you can't
use it to take out a potential blocker and
maximize the damage you do. It does, however,
lend itself better to combining the spell damage
with combat damage and taking out creatures with
higher toughness, or maximizing the impact of
first strike.
I'm tempted to give this card a high score just
because it's an in-universe representation of
Greek fire (look it up, it's cool!). From that
point of view, the fact that it's very efficient
at taking out attacking creatures, and putting
you ahead in card count in the process, is only
a bonus. Whichever of those is more important to
you, this card is quite appealing. Also, did you
notice that you're spending white mana here to
"deal damage" - does that mean we can get
Sunlance back in M13 or M14?
Today's card of the day is Burning Oil which
has a two mana Red or four mana White Flashback
cost and deals three damage to target attacking
or blocking creature. The requirement of
attacking or blocking is a somewhat common in
White, but both colors have other options for
removal that are more flexible. Even if
you are playing Red/White where the potential
efficiency of the Flashback is a factor there
are better choices to play and in a purely Red
deck this really doesn't have any place at all.
For Limited the potential double removal makes
this an excellent card to have in your pool and
even if White isn't being played as a primary
color it is worth it to splash some in for the
Flashback. An easy second or third pick in
Booster and should be played whenever Red or
White are part of your build in Sealed.
Welcome to the card of
the day section here at Pojo.com. Today we are
looking at Burning Oil from Dark Ascension.
Burning Oil is an uncommon red instant that
costs one generic and one red mana. Burning Oil
deals three damage to target attacking or
blocking creature, and has a Flashback cost of
three generic and one white mana.
Burning Oil is definitely a useful card for Standard forms of
play, and perhaps even in decks where you just
like to feel the flavor of Boros (red/white).
Three damage to an attacker or blocker is a
great way to kill something off in the event
your creature cannot, butu also serves to lure
someone into blocking, and then taking out that
creature. For instance, this card is extremely
useful against Glissa the Traitor. She is
devastating to try and block or get by, this
makes it easy. Once blocking is declared, cast
Burning Oil, and enjoy the irony in the fact
that oil will kill a Phyrexian who is born of
oil. I love it!
While Burning Oil is a decent card, it can never
replace a Lighting Bolt, even with Flashback.
But it does remain a good Limited option.
