At two mana, this ranks in power level with Last
Gasp and Nameless Inversion. Except those were
monocolor, and they each had advantages over
this: Last Gasp subtracted from the target's
power as well as toughness, Nameless Inversion
had tribal interactions, and they both were
instants. This sorcery-speed kill spell's only
advantage is that it lasts more than one turn,
so your opponent can't respond with a Giant
Growth and save his creature, as well as give it
+6/+0.
Alright, he still can, but with Nameless
Inversion, that usually happened while the
creature was attacking you and you took an extra
6. With the Backlash playable only on your turn,
by the time the creature can attack you any
Giant Growth effects will have worn off, leaving
the creature dead.
Should you think of this as a worse Rancor?
Should you think of this as a permanent Nameless
Inversion? Should you think of this as both? As
neither? Should you be glad that Uril, the
legendary creature who arguably likes wearing
this aura more than anybody else, is mythic?
Yes.
Welcome back faithful readers today’s card is
one of the gold/ hybrid cards of Alara Reborn,
Sangrite Backlash. With a casting cost of B/G R
backlash falls squarely into the shard of Jund,
+3/-3 to a large variety of creatures means
death but being removal backlash is fairly
outclassed by any number of red burn spells
including Incinerate, and Flame Javelin, the
only advantage backlash provides is you can
stick it on your creature to possibly increase
its power to beefy levels. Currently Sangrite
Backlash is also outclassed by a large amount of
black removal spells, namely Nameless Inversion
which also promotes or punishes tribal
interactions as well as the classic black kill
card, Terror. In standard there are too many
options for this to see play until after
rotation and possibly not even then. In the
other competitive formats this card is
unanimously out of the question. Casual and
multiplayer have board sweepers and more
efficient pump and kill spells at their disposal
making backlash a sub par choice for these types
of decks. The only real place Sangrite Backlash
shines is in limited, the ability to be a cheap
and effective form of creature removal and a
pumping enchantment on your beefy creatures
bumps its effectiveness up tremendously making
it a nice pick for those in Jund’s colors for
drafts.
