What are the odds that the top card of your
opponent's library is going to be a creature?
What are the odds that it'll be a better
creature than the one you're exiling? Not great,
I'd say, and even if it is, he still has to pay
its mana cost to get it out from under its 2/2
disguise. Most of the time, this is basically
just Pongify plus one additional mana to make
the Ape you're giving your opponent smaller.
At first glance, you might think that this could
be used like Polymorph, to transform your own
Ornithopters into something more impressive. I
don't think it really can be, though. Even if
you can use scrying tricks to put a powerful
creature on top of your own library, you still
have to pay the mana cost of whatever you
manifest to get the actual creature, and you
have to do it before your opponent finds a
Shock. This might be worth it if your creature
is underneath a Pacifism or the like and you
just need a warm body on the field, but really
the better use for this is downgrading your
opponent's creatures into face-down lands or
whatnot.
This is one of those removal spells that looks
like it has more of a drawback than it actually
does - most decks are 40% land, instants and
sorceries can't be turned face up, and a 2/2
creature may well be smaller than the one that
was exiled. But it does have that element of
risk, and if you truly fear it you can build
your deck to make it less effective - that
creates interesting game states, and interesting
game states are why we play Magic in the first
place.
Today's card of the day is Reality Shift which
is a two mana Blue instant that exiles target
creature and its controller Manifests the top
card of their library. This is similar to
Polymorph, but much stronger against an opponent
with instant speed, half the mana cost, exiling
and possibly only putting a vanilla 2/2 into
play if it can't be turned face up. It is
much weaker on your own creature as it can't be
used to cheat out a Progenitus or similar
endgame threat. Overall this is very
powerful removal for Blue with some additional
versatility if combined with library
manipulation and it will be a very popular card
across formats.
In Limited this is an easy second or third pick
in Booster or even first in an otherwise weak
pack as it is top end threat removal for a color
that usually lacks options aside from bounce
once something is in play.
The low cost and minimal risk in Manifesting
something makes for an ideal tool and almost any
Sealed deck can benefit from running it.
This is an uncommon that's gotten a little bit
of hype. Anything that says "exile target
creature" deserves some attention. When it only
costs 2 mana, it's going to raise some eyebrows.
Add to it the fact that it's in blue, and it has
the potential to be a real show-stopper.
Of course, there is a drawback. The 2/2 manifest
creature they get in return is most likely much
less threatening than whatever else you got rid
of, but you did just help them dig one card
deeper into their library, possibly putting a
big threat on the table, ready to be flipped
over at just the wrong time. But again, since
it's so cheap and in blue, it will usually be
worth the risk of a possible backfire.
If you want to be really creative, you might
even try exiling your own creature in response
to some creature kill.
