For every card that's gained a reputation as
being utterly broken, there's a relatively fair
way to use it. Lotus Petal is an excellent
example: it's pretty ridiculous in storm decks,
where you get plus one to your spell count for a
cost of, in effect, negative one mana, but
merely overpowered in creature decks where it's
more like a land that doesn't use up your
allotment for the turn. I understand why it has
to be banned and restricted in tournament
settings, but there are safe ways to introduce
it to more casual settings. I'd still probably
restrict it in casual constructed, but it can
help decks that are genuinely fun, and that's
not something that can be said about every
tournament card.
Lotus Petal is remarkably
straightforward…and remarkably broken. It turns
out that free mana is one of the hardest
mechanics to balance, and even one colored mana
for zero cost makes for a bad time for your
opponent. It's also an integral card in Storm,
powering the deck to even faster kills than ever
thought of. (Lotus Petal lets the deck try to go
off on turn 2 or 3, if not 1.)
The little
Tempest common is unlikely to see a
reprint anytime soon, no matter its rarity: free
mana in this form will break whatever format
it's a part of. It's only seen one printing
since its original appearance: a
From the Vault: Exiled printing, and
it's probably not changing anytime soon.
