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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
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Image from Wizards.com |
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Panoptic Mirror
Darksteel Rare
Reviewed July 14, 2004
Constructed: 2.2
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 2.7
Ratings are
based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ...
average.
5 is the highest rating
Click here to see all
our
Card of the Day Reviews
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Chris
Gerhardt
*
game store owner in CA,
ShuffleAndCut |
Panoptic Mirror is of the stuff abuse is made of.
Unfortunately,
Shatter is of the stuff destruction is made
of, along with a bunch of other highly played
artifact hate in the present environment.
Artifact Hate...don't leave home without it.
So while Mirror can't
survive long enough to do much in Tournament
Constructed, it does have a nice place in Casual.
Casual players love cards with abuse potential,
and Mirror is quite abusable.
Time Walk comes to mind...while not something
you'll find in a casual deck, it does give you the
idea behind how crazy this card can be. You
can literally lock the game down with it.
Other power laden
spells and ideas listed by my CotD teammates
include:
Rush of Knowledge,
Plow Under,
Time Stretch,
Explosive Vegetation, &
Final Fortune with
Platinum Angel. This is only the tip of
the iceburg...Besides these, there are hundreds
more cards that can be imprinted on a Mirror for
fun, amusement and abuse.
In limited, it's
interesting, but let's be real. It has about
as much chance of surviving as your Isochron
Scepter does, which is not much. 5 is an
awful lot to pay for something that will just die
to a Shatter. Still, if you have quite a few
spells that would work with it, then you might
want to try it.
Constructed:
2
Casual: 5
Limited: 2.5
Current Price:
Panoptic
Mirror -
Darksteel - $4.33
Combos
Well With:
Time Walk -
Unlimited - $350
Rush of
Knowledge -
Scourge - $0.12
Plow Under -
8th Edition - $5.07
Time
Stretch -
Odyssey - $2.41
Explosive
Vegetation -
Onslaught - $0.42
Final
Fortune -
7th Edition - $1.51
Platinum
Angel -
Mirrodin - $10.89
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Judge
Bill
*Level 2
MTG Judge
*game store employee
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Not viable in
constructed right now for the same reasons Krark-Clan
Ironworks isn't viable (yes, I've changed my
position on the Ironworks. Deal with it). There
is just way too much artifact hate in the
current constructed environments for any
artifact to get too high a score right now.
Lots of fun in
casual. Many good things to imprint.
In limited, provided
you get enough instants or sorceries (at least 4
GOOD ones), this can be a real bomb. You have to
draft your deck around this, though.
Constructed: 1.5
(Potential 3.5 if there wasn't so much
artifact hate right now)
Casual: 5
Limited: 4 (in the
right deck)
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Jonathan
Pechon
2 Grand
Prix Top 8's
Multiple Pro Tour
appearances |
Panoptic Mirror
The judge and jury
that are Magic players have determined that the
Mirror does, indeed, lack wang. While there are
people who still dream of putting Plow Under or
any number of other ridiculous spells on this,
it’s the simple fact that this is terribly slow
and is vulnerable to the plethora of artifact-hate
that exists nowadays. Too bad, it’s a fun looking
card.
Fortunately, there’s
still a place for fun cards outside of the
competitive realm. This allows you to abuse any
number of powerful sorceries or instants;
personally, I keep a couple of copies of this in
my Prismatic deck online to put spells like Rush
of Knowledge and other ridiculous bombs on it.
Artifacts don’t tend to have a long lifespan in
Mental, but this is a candidate if the
circumstances present themselves.
There’s really a split
decision on this card right now. Unlike Isochron
Scepter, it’s much more difficult to get
2-for-1’ed when you play this card; you’ll always
get one trigger from it, once you imprint a card
during upkeep. However, it is still extremely
slow, and you need to imprint something useful on
it. It can dominate a game, but it takes some
situational draws; with Fifth Dawn in draft, it’s
probably become a bit better because of the lack
of artifact destruction.
Constructed: 2.0
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 3.0
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Jeff Zandi
5 Time Pro Tour
Veteran
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Panoptic Mirror
In limited, this card is generally thought to be
not as good as Isochron
Scepter. Of course, you don't get the choice in
limited very often to play
either of these cards, as Isochron Scepter is an
uncommon and Panoptic
Mirror is a rare. The answer, in my opinion, is
that both of these cards are
pretty risky to play in decks because sooner or
later, you get stuck with
the Mirror or Scepter with nothing to play on it.
Equally as important,
having one of these in your deck can make you play
your instants
differently, possibly causing you to play
incorrectly, saving an instant
that you really SHOULD go ahead and play now,
waiting for a chance to
"optimally" use it with your Mirror or Scepter.
All that said, Panoptic
Mirror has a lot of attractiveness. You can
imprint it with instants OR
sorceries, where Isochron Scepter can only be
imprinted with instants.
Secondly, the Mirror activates each upkeep with no
mana cost to you for its
use. Finally, you have the ability to reimprint
the Mirror with subsequent
instants or sorceries later in the game if you
wish. The subtle thing that
makes Mirror clearly worse than the Scepter,
however, is that with Scepter
YOU choose when to use the effect. Panoptic
Mirror, while powerful, makes
neither its effect or when its effect will be used
a secret. I haven't seen
Panoptic Mirror used in constructed. Frankly, this
card's five mana cost,
all things considered, is almost an ender for all
formats constructed or
limited.
CONSTRUCTED: 2.5
CASUAL: 3.0
LIMITED: 3.0
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Ray
"Monk"
Powers
* Level 3 DCI Judge
*DCI Tournament Organizer |
Panoptic Mirror
This is one of those
cards that you really have to build a deck around,
or it just doesn’t fit in a constructed
environment. While its ability is strong, a single
artifact removal spell can ruin your day, and
there’s a lot of artifact removal spells out there
right now. In limited, it can have some use if you
have enough things to imprint on it, but if you
do, it can be worth the risk to have a high
powered spell imprinted on it.
Constructed:
3
Casual:
1
Limited: 2
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DeQuan
Watson
* game store owner (The Game Closet - Waco,TX) |
Everyone was split on
this card when it was first printed. Even now, no
one knows for sure. With blocked constructed
coming up, this might gain a limited bit of value
if there ends of being a breakout deck. For now
though, it doesn't hold a lot of value for
constructed players. Limited palyers don't even
like it all that much unless you get some REALLY
good instants and/or sorceries to play. Casual
players on the other hand seem to really like this
card. There are a ton of effects you can generate
in a group game to make this card worth playing.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 2.5
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Andy
Van Zandt |
Panoptic Mirror
Ah, the best type of imprint, one where you have a
better chance of not
losing card advantage off it, since you can do it
at the end of your
opponent's turn, that requires them to off it
immediately to stop the first
use. I'm cool with the "big isochron", and I'd
like to stick a time warp
under it some day. Two card auto-win combos are
better than average. In
limited, unlike isochron, it's more rare for you
to -not- have enough valid
targets for usage.
constructed 2.5
casual 3.5
limited 3.5 |
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Chase
Secret Squirrel
on the
Pojo.com
Message
Boards |
Panoptic Mirror
I never really liked
the imprint mechanic unless it was on a fast
card where you could use the card’s effect
before your opponent had a chance to respond by
destroying both cards at once. That’s why
Scepter is so good. This card has been
cool, because you can imprint a burn spell,
creature creating spell, or cards drawing during
your upkeep. But it’s never been used much,
mainly cause he’s too slow. 5 mana plus the
cost of your big spell is too effort, and if you
had the acceleration available to do it early,
why couldn’t you use that to win the game? This
card has too many problems that make it
unplayable in constructed.
In limited, the same
problems are present, except here, it’s even
harder to combo.
In Casual, it’s
better, because not as many people are packing
artifact destruction.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 4
Limited: 2
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Paul
Hagan |
Panoptic Mirror --
I swear, I told everyone when this card that it
was overrated. It really costs too much to make an
impact in Standard, especially when everyone is
packing at least a bit of artifact removal because
of Affinity. No one listened, and now, I am up on
good cards and down on the mediocre cards like the
Mirror. In limited, the Mirror is almost worthless
unless your pool of cards has an unusually high
number of good instants and sorceries.
In casual play, I absolutely love Panoptic Mirror.
It screams for a fun, exciting combo deck that
only true casual players can come up with! If you
want to build a wacky deck, please start right
here.
Constructed Rating: 1.5
Limited Rating: 1.5
Casual Rating: 3.5 |
w00t |
Panoptic Mirror -
Constructed - I for
one want to try to get a time walk auto win on
turn 2. Find some way to get 5 mana turn 1-
Mirror, next turns upkeep imprint time walk and
game. I can't think of any other formats it
would be of good use. Just not much is
affordable to imprint, that will completely turn
the game. The blue beacon is in standard, but
it's a lot of mana to hope you get without the
mirror being destroyed. Perhaps a Blue control
deck, using some other artifacts to fetch the
hate, plus countering to stop threats and more
arti hate, and voila.
Casual - Lots of
spells can be put on this beat stick. The
question is - which ones are you gonna use?
Something not so mean, but helpful in your quest
for the kill like Explosive vegetation? Maybe an
extremely killer card, like Corrupt in an all
black deck, or even Searing Wind. Maybe you'll
go with the infinite turn route, with Time
Stetch, Blue beacon, or even Final Fortune with
a Platinum Angel in play. Alot of ways you can
go with Panoptic Mirror - all of them fun.
Limited - I've used
this before, but only when you have a lot of
good instants and sorceries. If you can get
removal on this, you can quickly turn the game.
You really have to draft around this a bit when
making your draft decisions, and have to get
fairly lucky in sealed and open a bunch of good
sorceries/instants.
Constructed - 2.5
Casual - 3.0
Limited - 3.0
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