Much like yesterday's card, this is also a name
that I'm mildly surprised hasn't been used
before. I imagine if it had been a Rakdos card
from the recent Ravnica block, it might have had
some kind of roundabout backhanded
self-damaging beneficial effect. As things
stand, it's a little hard to place what its most
effective use is. It's not as reliable a source
of damage or creature destruction as some more
straightforward cards, and it's less helpful
even than other red damage spells when your
opponent has no cards in hand and topdecks a
Baneslayer Angel. But in settings that might
make more use of high-cost spells or slower
decks, it has a better chance of doing something
spectacular, and knowing that it exists can make
opponents cast expensive morph creatures face
down earlier than they originally planned. It's
also a hilarious way of showing people that the
Eldrazi really do have a downside after all.
Today's card of the day is Friendly Fire which
is a four mana Red instant that deals damage to
target creature and the creature's controller
equal to the converted mana cost of a card
randomly revealed from that player's hand.
This is a little random to be top of the line
without using without support as it can't
guarantee destroying even a one toughness
creature. The odds are in favor of it two
or more damage twice which equals the casting
cost, but is much worse than just using the two
mana Searing Blood that will do five damage
total. With Blue to bounce something more
mana intensive to hand this gets better or Black
to manipulate the hand more directly. Even
with that it depends on the style of deck and
higher mana cost cards are needed which might
not be present in any competitive setting.
In Commander it may be a bit more likely, but
even there other Red options exist that can be
more reliable and self-sufficient.
In Limited this is a burn and removal spell that
may do nothing or in some situations win a game
almost by itself with a seven through nine mana
creature as the chosen card in an opponent's
midgame hand. It is erratic, but unless an
opponent intentionally keeps a land in hand and
it is chosen this should average a bit higher
than in Constructed formats. A reasonable
second or third pick in Booster and worth
including when running Red in Sealed unless a
little chaos is too much for your style of play.
To me, cards that give you a random benefit are
generally garbage (except for making your
opponent discard at random - that is good). You
want to be able to predict and plan for what is
going to happen. Sometimes you will find a big
card and kill a creature and deal big damage to
the player. But sometimes, you will spend four
mana only to find the land they've been
sandbagging, and do absolutely nothing.
I suppose you could make a strategy to empty
their hand, bounce their most expensive
permanent, and then play this, but that sounds
like a pretty complicated combo that's more
trouble than its worth.
It might have a higher likelihood of being
valuable in limited as people are waiting to get
enough mana to play their big expensive bomb,
but even then, I wouldn't be very happy playing
this card.
