Journey Into Nyx EDH Set Review, Part 4: Red

Let's hope Red gets a better-than-average haul, because the last three colors got shafted. But it's Red, so that's unlikely. But we'll give it a fair chance anyway.

Red

These effects are fun, and if used properly can be powerful. But the symmetry means they can just as easily blow up in your face as you fall victim to your own damage-doubling spell. Flash helps alot here, but time will tell if it helps enough. My feeling is that this is still a bit too gimmicky to really be good.

Obviously you play this in mono-Red. Maybe in two-color decks, if they're basic-heavy. It's not bad at all, just too color-specific.

This isn't really an EDH card, per se. But I am looking forward to running this in my Aurelia deck, which basically plays random, small Doublestrikers and lots of powerful equipment. Suiting this guy up with a Sword and going to town seems fun.

Limited fodder.

Ugh. That mana cost! Wow.

Cool, but not good enough.

Maybe in Uril? Doubt it, though.

Bad Insurrection is bad, but honestly it might still be playable, in the right decks at least.

Definitely not EDH material, but it can punish the early ramping phase of the game. Prolly not worth it.

 Nope.

Filler.

I'll just quote the venerable Jason Alt on this one:
"It’s so bad. This could have been good and then at the last second someone said “can we add 3 to the mana cost for no reason?” Compare this to Lightning Rift. If this cost 1R it might enable a new archetype. It would be terrible, but it would be the kind of thing someone would try to build. Scry cards cost too much, this costs too much to play and its activation cost is too much. No one has that much mana. Why didn’t they make this good?"

A 1-mana damage spell that is scalable will always have some potential.  Maybe not a lot, but some. I would at least consider this for a Melek deck.

This is pretty cool. I like it. I'll be looking for somewhere to stick a copy of this. Seems iffy, but worth trying out.

Just... don't.

Reprint! Now with 100% less bacon!

Weaksauce.























Red sucks as usual. But it has a couple of semi-playable spells and the Mythic is pretty bad-ass, if not widely playable. So compared to the other colors, Red really didn't do too bad.