This was a key component of old-school
permission decks. Drawing lots of cards at once
is insane enough at the best of times, but it
turns out that when your entire deck is capable
of playing on your opponent's turn - including
the spells that don't do anything by themselves
but just keep everything moving - it's pretty
unfair, though in a way that's not precisely
quantified by current theories of Magic. I've
heard an argument that it's like having two
turns for each of your opponent's, at least if
your opponent mainly has creatures and
sorcery-speed cards, but perhaps we need some
new definitions entirely for things that break
the inherent fairness of the rules (there does
seem to be such a thing in Magic, even though
certain classes of cards do also contradict the
basic rules sometimes).
Interestingly, Opportunity made a return in a
recent core set, and we also have Dragonlord's
Prerogative in the current Standard, and things
seem somewhat less soul-crushing than in the
days of Buehler Blue; it makes me wonder if the
problem really wasn't Mana Leak after all . . .
Drawing 4 at instant speed is nothing to sneeze
at. neither is it's 6-drop, double U cost. in
rampy decks, it's not terribly hard to pull off,
but be wary of drawing it at inopportune times.
One of the lynch pins of blue's Draw-Go
philosophy. At the end of your opponent's turn,
use this to refill your hand and keep yourself
stocked with answers so that you can continue to
keep your opponent locked down. If you're
playing this
on your own turn, you're still getting a good
benefit, but really you're doing it wrong.
Unless of course you just need those cards NOW
and have the mana to cast both this and the
thing you need to draw off it.
