This feels almost like a box-checking sort of
design, but you don't have to look at it in only
that way. After all, not every red deck is in
Standard, which means that some red decks will
face insanity like Shining Shoal, Mark of
Asylum, or even the dreaded Circle of
Protection: Red. And yes, that means that those
red decks will also have access to previous
years' countermeasures, but sometimes you need
something that's relevant in other matchups too
(or just want to make a super-linear deck to
prove a point to the guy who thinks that playing
every Circle of Protection plus Mind Bend plus
Sphere of Safety is funny).
Today's card of the day is Wild Slash which is
a one mana Red instant that deals two damage to
target creature or player and with Ferocious
damage can't be prevented that turn. As a
strictly better Shock this will see play in many
Red decks across current formats for the one
mana removal or burn. The additional
effect may not come into play often, but having
the ability to negate damage prevention as a
response has the potential to disrupt quite a
few strategies.
In Limited this is a one mana source of instant
speed removal or burn which makes it an easy and
automatic inclusion for any Sealed deck using
Red. The prevention blocking effect is
very unlikely to come up currently as only Feat
of Resistance, Channel Harm, and Deflecting Pain
would prevent or protect a target. In
Booster this is a very solid second or third
pick and possible first pick in a pack with an
unwanted rare and is generally not a card you
want to pass unless a bigger threat is available
to draft.
Shock was fairly popular when it was in
standard, and most of the time, Wild Slash will
be exactly the same card. Two damage for 1 mana
is unexciting, especially for those of us used
to Lightning Bolt's 3 for 1, but it is a
perfectly fair price.
There are occasions when the ferocious ability
will make a difference. How fun would it be to
deflect someone's Deflecting Palm by playing a
Wild Slash? Or, if you have ferocious and an
opponent has a creature with protection from
red, you could target something else with Wild
Slash in response to them blocking a red
creature with the pro-red creature, canceling
the "prevent damage" portion of the creature's
protection.
Really, though, most of the time this is 2
damage for one mana. Not much else to say about
it.
