Forbidden Alchemy's been compared to Mystical
Teachings, mainly because of the mana costs and
the card quality improvement (the pretty crazy
good card quality improvement). Of course, this
isn't quite as powerful in the abstract as its
famous ancestor, but it should be good enough to
make this Standard season's version of the
blue-black deck that always seems to have
whatever cards it needs at exactly the right
time. You know the one I mean. I think it might
even fit in somewhere in decks that
theoretically have access to older cards from
other versions of that aforementioned deck, even
if not at the maximum number.
Welcome back readers continuing our theme of
powerful standard cards today’s card of the day
is Forbidden Alchemy. An interesting Impulse
variant and powerful standard card. In standard
decks such as Solar Flare it feeds the graveyard
for reanimation targets as well as Snapcaster
Mage targets and other cards with flashback
making it a powerful card. It sees play in Solar
Flare blue/black and combo decks can even use
this powerful instant. The flashback cost is
expensive but not unreasonable to see within a
game it also allows you to hold up mana and just
use it at the opponents end of turn. In extended
and modern I forsee this card seeing quite a bit
of play as well, it can help combo decks such as
Pyromancers Ascension but spells into the
graveyard to abuse the named enchantment and dig
for combo pieces at the same time and having
access to a flashback better Impulse is
certainly powerful. In casual this is powerful
digging and if you are running a blue and black
reanimation deck this card is certainly powerful
and fuels your graveyard for shenanigans. In
multiplayer this card is kind of underwhelming
unless you have a deck built to exploit your
graveyard for maximum advantage this card seems
underwhelming. In limited this card is fantastic
it allows you to dig for your bombs but also
allows you to fuel your graveyard for various
effects. Overall a powerful powerful constructed
card this is all around fantastic.
Today's card of the day is Forbidden Alchemy
which is a major benefit to a Blue/Black
reanimation theme as it both fills the graveyard
and allows you to select one out of four cards
to add to your hand. Both aspects are
great for the three mana cost and having only
one Blue in the primary and one Black in the
Flashback makes it easy to play in the
multicolor deck. The Flashback cost itself
is a bit difficult to manage, but as an Instant
this can be played at the end of an opponent's
turn late in the game to search for a potential
finisher.
For Limited this is a bit more of a gamble as a
decent supply graveyard recursion is unlikely to
be available and the most common use will be to
get the best card possible from the four
revealed. The seven cost on the Flashback
is not as much of an issue in the format, but
having both Blue and Black mana in your build
can be restrictive. Even in that reduced
capacity this is playable and should be used in
Sealed and drafted in Booster after removal or
bombs as a support method to more reliably play
your biggest threats.
