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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Act on Impulse
Image from Wizards.com

Act on Impulse
- M15

Reviewed Aug. 6, 2014

Constructed: 3
Casual: 3
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 2.5

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

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Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Deck Garage

Act on Impulse

Kind of a psuedo-draw for red. You only get one turn to try and play what you get off of it, so make sure you have a decent amount of mana to cast the Act as well as whatever you might flip from it. In a red aggro deck where little costs more than three anyway, this would be a solid draw card once you've played out your hand. The fact that it can effectively "skim" excess lands off the top is helpful too, and all the more reason you want to wait until you've got mana to spare. 

Constructed- 3.5
Casual- 2.5
Limited- 2
Multiplayer- 2

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Act on Impulse
 
It's the red Divination! Except that you can't just run it out there on turn three, or to use up any spare mana you might have. Then again, you don't always do that with Divination either. Sometimes, late game when you have a lot of mana, the two cards won't actually play all that differently; I can't think of a common situation where the fact that Act on Impulse's extra cards don't go to your hand first will be relevant (Maro perhaps?). And in most red decks, I'd be surprised if you were ever drawing many cards that you didn't want to play right away.
 
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Act on Impulse which is a three mana Red sorcery that exiles the top three cards of your library and until end of turn you can play them, with casting costs and other requirements still in place.  This is a situational card that isn't likely to see much play as it requires a decent supply of mana or very low cost options to cast from the exiled choices.   With five or six mana it can potentially play all three cards, particularly if one is a land and none were already played, which gives it potential value.  Overall the three mana cost, non-instant speed, and comparisons to Blue's much better draw options will be seen as outweighing the possible card advantage of using it.
 
For Limited this is impractical in the early and even middle stages of the game, but can be effective with a large enough pool of mana to reliably cast the cards that might be exiled.  If only one card gets cast it is a poor investment as a two for one with an added three mana cost.  In Booster it can be a matter of preference, as it can be a benefit, though actual removal or larger creatures would be a better pick.  In Sealed it depends on the pool and can be filler when stretching Red's ratio in a build, though when left in the sidedeck it is unlikely to be missed.
 
 
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 2.5
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 2.5

Mattedesa

Deck Garage
Act on Impulse
 
Aggressive red decks are always running out of cards. There spells are quick and cheap. Act on Impulse is the latest way to try and do this. For three mana, you get to look at three more cards to potentially play this turn. While that potential is real to play three more cards, this is going to be difficult to use effectively. For one, as the card says, you can play them THIS TURN. If you don't, they are exiled forever and you can't use them at all. After spending three mana for Act on Impulse, do you have enough mana left to play other spells? Later in the game you might, but even if you do, you have to tap out right then to play them, possibly making for some suboptimal plays. 
 
In short, I'd have to be pretty desperate to play Act on Impulse. I might play it in limited if I managed to get a very cheap deck, but I don't see it being played elsewhere. There are just too many better ways to get more cards.
 
Constructed: 1.5
Casual: 1
Limited: 2.5
Multiplayer: 1.5

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