Well, I didn’t think too much of this card when
I first saw it. I like Dark Ritual, and it’s
hard for an old school Magic guy like me to
appreciate anything less efficient than the
original instant mana accelerator. On the other
hand, I eventually learned to love Seething Song
a few years ago. On Saturday, I watched the
Extended Mind’s Desire deck piloted by my friend
and fellow Texas Guildmage Mark “Wilma” Dean win
a PTQ for Yokohama with four of these bad boys
in his deck, so I guess I’m now a big fan of
Rite of Flame.
The first one is not all that exciting (although
even a LITTLE mana acceleration is good for the
current Goblin decks in Extended), but the
second Rite you play is as good as a Dark Ritual
and the third and fourth Rites you play are even
better. I think this card will be played in all
sorts of constructed decks for the next year or
two. Extended is all about mana acceleration and
speed, and from the looks of Planar Chaos,
Standard constructed is probably about to speed
up as well. As far as limited play goes, there’s
no good reason to play Rite of Flame. But then,
there’s really no good reason to play Coldsnap
limited…
If you draw 4 in your opening hand, plus a
Mountain, you can have 11 mana on turn 1.
Really, they never should've printed a "ritual"
that only cost one mana. Remember Dark Ritual?
All the trouble that caused? Yeah, it's that
powerful. At least it can be, especially in a
deck with Storm cards, like Dragonstorm. But
hey, even Ignite Memories is pretty much a game
winner if you Storm it out this early.
It's not a
Dark Ritual, but it can be close. It can even be
better. It adds to your storm count while
producing more mana than you put into it. In
case you've been living in a cave, this is the
bread and butter of the Dragonstorm deck.
Coldsnap might not be defining the standard
envrionment, but little bits and pieces like
this will be appearing in standard for as long
as it's legal.
This sees play only in the Dragonstorm decks, as
it helps accelerate quickly to the 9 mana needed
for Dragonstorm, as well as fuels the storm
count. Outside of that, not many other uses. Its
position as a key card in a powerful Standard
deck, though, elevates its score.
In casual, play Dark Rit instead, and if you
don't want to play black, skip it altogether.
In limited, it has limited use, so skip it.
Constructed - 5 (in the Dragonstorm deck), 2
(everywhere else)
Casual - 1
Limited - 1.5
