The way this card is worded, I suspected it
might actually mean that it prevents the next X
damage to EACH permanent you control and you.
But I'm 95% sure that paying 2 for X won't be
enough to save all 12 of your Human tokens from
a Pyroclasm-- you prevent up to a TOTAl of X
damage, and get to cherry pick which creatures
get saved in the event of simultaneous damage
exceeding X. On the one hand, it reminds me of
Hail of Arrows. It looks like a great way to
turn a hectic combat phase into a rout, but it
requires you to leave an awful lot of mana up.
Divine Deflection at least has the advantage of
not being restricted to "attacking creatures".
Playing Hail of Arrows on your own turn made no
sense whatsoever. Here you can topdeck it, swing
with the team, and either turn your opponent's
blockers' combat damage against him, or hold
onto it and wait for the return alpha strike.
Just remember: no matter what damage you
prevent, the spell itself has exactly one
target, and that target must be chosen as you
cast the Reflection (whereas the prevention you
can make your choices upon resolution). If you
want to use the reflected damage to kill a
creature, you have to target that creature, and
you can't hit a second creature with it if
there's overage. Also, a well-timed Ranger's
Guile or Unsummon on the spell's lone target
will counter it. For that reason, I recommend
using it to hit a player instead.
Some things are truly timeless. The first three
Indiana Jones movies. The zeppelin. The Longest
Journey (I dare you to play that game on
whatever Windows XP PC you can find, and not
cry). And, judging by this card, Shining Shoal.
Granted, it's lost the alternate payment and the
cool Japanese fish attack, but it's still
capable of winning games out of nowhere. In
older formats, I might still stick with the
Shoal for the extra flexibility, but this does
the same thing in Standard and for people who
aren't as old and nostalgic as me (or who are
but have friends who play Kitsune Riftwalker).
Use it, people.
Welcome back readers to another week of cards,
today’s card of the day is Divine Deflection. In
standard this card requires a minimum mana
investment to be good but even at x equaling two
mana this can prevent some damage and kill a
creature for three mana you can prevent damage
from a delver of secrets and kill it giving it a
use. Otherwise it is a semi fog effect and a
possible creature kill card giving it some
versatility I don’t foresee this card seeing
much play except maybe in turbo fog decks or
some sort of tech. In modern I don’t foresee
this card doing enough to justify its inclusion
in decks, the same in legacy and vintage this
card doesn’t offer enough power to make it
worthy for including in decks. In casual and
multiplayer this is is fantastic as it allows
you to prevent a huge chunk of damage to you and
you don’t even have to kill a certain players
creature you can kill any threat while
preventing damage to yourself. In limited it’s
not quite a blowout but preventing a substantial
amount of damage to yourself or a creature you
control and possibly killing a creature of an
opponents is powerful and the singular white
cost doesn’t limit what decks it can
realistically be put in. Overall its an
interesting limited and casual card that may see
tech play in standard but overall isent very
competitive.
Today's card of the day is Divine Deflection
which is a one White and X that prevents the
next X damage that would be dealt to you or
permanents you control and if damage is
prevented this way it deals that much damage to
target creature or player. This is a
fairly flexible protection and burn for White
that can take an opponent's removal or direct
damage and gain a sizable advantage by negating
their effort and dealing damage for increased
card efficiency. It is even possible to
make a multicolor theme where your own cards
deal damage to you and using this to prevent it,
though it can be a bit risky and prone to
disruption or just bad luck. Overall this
is a card that has maindeck potential in a
variety of designs and can be a brutal sidedeck
choice against Red or slower large attack
concepts.
In Limited this is a bomb and a surprise for
anyone not expecting burn from White, though
with only one White in the cost this is easily
splashed in multicolor decks. Turning an
attack or burn against the biggest creature or
used directly can easily swing the game from a
loss or close match into a rout and there is
almost no reason not to draft this first in
Booster or splash it in Sealed.
For Multiplayer the option to turn any attack on
you into a weapon against the perpetrator or an
innocent bystander is exactly what makes the
format enjoyable. A tool like this is very
likely to have a use and aside from the
possibility of multiple players trying to
disrupt it there isn't a major drawback to
working it into a deck.
