My only comment on this, at the moment, would have to be that many people who run Wish in 3x or so have started to sideboard a kill card just to escape the scenario where all your win conditions are removed from the game.
Grant it, my experience to this end is limmited to simply 4CC (and variations), but running a
Volcanic Geyser can help dodge this card pretty good. Meaning that even when I got hit with an Extraction for Angel, and then later for Gorilla Shaman (I mean really...), it looked as though I had no wins left in my deck. Since we no longer run targeted draw cards then it was pretty much a game-over situation that a Sideboard Geyser helped avoid.
Is this the perfect choice? Eh, hardly. I just couldn't think of anything better to use when I was playtesting some varios forms of my 4CC decks this past weekend. Perhaps another easier choice for a kill-card it can't touch would be a Mishra's Factory or a Faerie Conclave.
Point being... I had several people trying to break this card, and when it does work then it works VERY well.
I guess I bring all this up because to me the question of how good is a card like this depends entirely on how easily it is dodged in the first place. So, how easy is it to ensure you have a method to kill with after getting hit once or twice? Very. The thing is, the card does extremely well against decks that rely very heavily on one or two certain cards.
When we look at decks like Deathlong then we can see it isn't as useful, because the number of cards you would need to remove are quite staggering. I mean the deck can really take a few of these and not even get slowed down. In the middle road, we see decks like Control Slaver where the first one can almost wrap up the game since the Goblin Welders will start watching from the sidelines, never to return. Sure the deck can still win, but it's a LOT harder. Then finally we have good old 'Tog decks, where one Extraction pretty much ends the game right there.
In other words, the card is already not good against the majority of the decks, since while it can be a hard hit it won't win the game for you, with the sole exception of 'Tog decks. To me this just means that the card can be powerful, but it's potentcy depends entirely on the metagame it's used in.
I mean if you're playing decks ranging from 4CC to Stompy then this card is utter shit. On the other hand, if you're playing a lot of 'Tog and Welder decks, it
could be more useful.
This just isn't one of those cards that people are going to be randomly slapping into decks left and right. I've heard this compaired to
Mind Twist by some people already and that just isn't the case. I'd never take the Twist out of my 4CC, and I'm not afraid to cast it against anyone. Are they playing Welder? So what, Twist is only bad if they have an active Welder out and if they have that then I've got bigger problems anyway; and this is the only time I can imagine Twist ever being bad.
Cranial Extraction just doesn't have a kick like this... It's not as generic, and can't be so easily played out. Basically, it's not as broken.
So then, what good is it? I'd rather have Twist honestly, since it's better and has a more generic use. So then Extraction is better against decks revolving completely around 1 or 2 cards, right? Which decks are these? Actually, let me clafify, how does this card help the decks that are weak vs. decks like these?
Honestly, I think this card would have been completely broken if you looked at the opponents hand and THEN named a card to search for to remove. Then you'd have a better idea of what to name... I mean when you look at thier hand and realize they are playing Stacks and not some other random Workshop.dec then you could have made a better choice in the naming of the card.
The problem that gets me here is the blindness factor. So many Workshop decks look the same right now that, while you can obviously name Goblin Welder just because they played out a Workshop you really don't know how much that will cripple them. Hell, you could name Welder then suddenly get a flood of Juggernaughts and Su-Chi all over your ass and it was pointless.
Now that I've rambled on for what seems like hours... I just think it's too 'clunky' for the metagame we have going on right now. There is enough variety to keep the card in check. At the same time though, it's awesome in that it sort of curbs the possible appearance of 1-card bombs in future sets. This sort of brings to mind an example like Worldgorger... If everybody was playing a shitload of Dragon decks and 'Tog then this card would be insane, and basically win you the game whoever cast it first. This card also prevents metagames from such degeneracy... On the other hand, not only is that not the case now, but it isn't likely to happen either. In which case, that makes the card much less potent.
Of course, I could also be complely full of shit.
