Red Ritual in CHK

[LoA]

Browsing the forums at mtgnews.com, I came across a post by Cok_spoiler, who seems to be a trusted source over there.  Some cool cards for my Samurai deck, but in terms of Type 1, this looked the most interesting:

Desperate Ritual -  1R
Instant - Arcane
Add  RRR to your mana pool.
Splice onto Arcane:  1R.

The entire arcane/splice into arcane synergy here looks interesting.

[jpmeyer]

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting

[Smmenen]

OMG.  That card is insane, if true.

[theorigamist]

Now they're just looking for a way to restrict Dark Ritual.  DeathLong now has access to so many Rituals its turn 1 win percentage is going to leap.

[Jacob Orlove]

Actually, this is much more of a belcher card than a deathlong card.

[Bulls on Parade]

OMG.  That card is insane, if true.

Am I missing something? Is this card worthwhile at all? As far as I understand, Splice works like this:

As you play an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.

I doubt that either of the aforementioned archetypes will be playing any "Arcane" spells, so we're looking at a card that adds a Red mana immediately provided you aren't playing a Dark Ritual in the same turn (it's doubtful that turn one you're going to play both this and a Ritual because of the required R). All this card really does is make me want to build a Helm of Awakening/Seething Song Belcher deck :lol:

[Nameless]

OMG.  That card is insane, if true.

Am I missing something? Is this card worthwhile at all? As far as I understand, Splice works like this:

As you play an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.

I doubt that either of the aforementioned archetypes will be playing any "Arcane" spells, so we're looking at a card that adds a Red mana immediately provided you aren't playing a Dark Ritual in the same turn (it's doubtful that turn one you're going to play both this and a Ritual because of the required R). All this card really does is make me want to build a Helm of Awakening/Seething Song Belcher deck :lol:

Well, unless I misreading this...

Sac the Lotus for {R}{R}, tap a land, cast ~this~ and Splice another one, then cast the 2nd...  Final product, for 2 cards you turned {R}{R} into x9, or a net gain of 5 mana.  Things just get retarded if you've got a 3rd one...  3+3+3 at 6, net 3, 3+3 at 4, net 2, then 3 at 2, net 1...  So you start off spending mana and turn that into , with 3 cards.  Of course I was just trying to figure out the most mana would get with this on a Lotus draw, other more insane situations are possible.

So, the point then would be not really what other Arcane spells there are, but that the little suckers can Splice amongst themselves, too.  Which could be interesting in a LOT of combo decks actually.

[theorigamist]

Yeah, the Splice makes this thing produce much more mana than Dark Ritual.  But since it's all red, a lot of combo decks will start off:

4 Desperate Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Chromatic Sphere
...

Chromatic Sphere becomes a very acceptable -1 mana investment when you get +5 with these Rituals, as Nameless described.

The reason I thought of DeathLong first is that you can now play 12 rituals, which makes Will absurd.  You could use this in Belcher, and then you would use 16 Rituals (12 + Seething Song).

[Nameless]

I can't post on that forum, but I wanted to let you know you were slightly off.

Lotus plus land = RRR1

Play Ritual, splicing second ritual = RRRRRR
Play last ritual = RRRRRRR

7 not 9, but still pretty crazy.

And if you had a swamp and a dark ritual you would have:
Lotus plus swamp = RRRB
Cast Dark = RRRBBB
Cast Red + red = RRRRRRBB
Cast Last Red = RRRRRRRRB

That would give you 9 mana.

A good catch by Lacutis here on my math, I guess I messed it up, but I'm far too lazy at the moment to figure it out so I'll assume he's correct.  

EDIT:

Yeah, the Splice makes this thing produce much more mana than Dark Ritual.  But since it's all red, a lot of combo decks will start off:

4 Desperate Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Chromatic Sphere
...

Chromatic Sphere becomes a very acceptable -1 mana investment when you get +5 with these Rituals, as Nameless described.

The reason I thought of DeathLong first is that you can now play 12 rituals, which makes Will absurd.  You could use this in Belcher, and then you would use 16 Rituals (12 + Seething Song).

Holy Mox Monkeys!  Yea, Mana Crypt, Land, Seething Song, a couple of these new Rituals, then a Wheel...  Nope, that's not broken, who needs 40,000 mana on the 1st turn anyway?  OK OK, so it isn't likely...  Or is it?  But, it would still be pretty frickin' nutzo.

[Bulls on Parade]

My bad. I completely misinterpreted the explanation of Splice.

[MuzzonoAmi]

Short of 'ph34r budget combo', I don't know what else to say.

[rozetta]

Yep, this makes Tinder Wall and even Seething Song look a lot more interesting now. The only thing is that you need to draw multiples of them to get more than a +1 mana effect, and need the initial mana investment, too. Also, the splice thing probably doesn't work off Yawgwill.

Can you splice more than once with the same card if you have the mana? I'm guessing perhaps not.

On the occasion you have 2 of these in hand and the mana to activate the splice, you get a net +3 mana for 2 cards. With 2 dark rituals, you got +4. Since you had the 2RR in the first place, you even get +4 with 2 Seething Songs.

On it's own it's as good as Tinder Wall, Elvish Spirit Guide or Lotus Petal. In multiples, it's a conditional extra mana here and there.

But it's true, a deck with Helm of Awakening, these, Cabal Rituals, etc. would be interesting. In terms of raw mana production, however, Seething Song would still be the best in this scenario, since it's a guaranteed 5 mana for 1 card every time (and at 1R or R, that's nice).

[theorigamist]

Can you splice more than once with the same card if you have the mana? I'm guessing perhaps not.

You can.  They said so on the Wizards site.  I'll try to find a link, but you can Splice as many Splice spells as you want if you can pay for it.

[quoet]A good catch by Lacutis here on my math, I guess I messed it up, but I'm far too lazy at the moment to figure it out so I'll assume he's correct.[/quote]
I think his numbers of mana are correct, but I'm pretty sure you could end up with BB and the rest red in the end.

[Nameless]

Can you splice more than once with the same card if you have the mana? I'm guessing perhaps not.

You can.  They said so on the Wizards site.  I'll try to find a link, but you can Splice as many Splice spells as you want if you can pay for it.

[quoet]A good catch by Lacutis here on my math, I guess I messed it up, but I'm far too lazy at the moment to figure it out so I'll assume he's correct.

I think his numbers of mana are correct, but I'm pretty sure you could end up with BB and the rest red in the end.[/quote]

So if I have enough Red mana I can use two of these to Splice that bitch like a dozen times?  Well, that protential really screws up my math completely then, since if you had 3 then after you cast each progressive set you could Splice it a hell of a lot more then 1 time, giving quite a lot more mana...  But fuck that, I'm not figuring that shit out.

[LoA]

As I understand it, you can splice as many spells as you want into a single arcane spell, but you have to announce them all at once so you can't use a single splice spell more than once.  If you have RR2 open, you can play D. Rit, splice a second D. Rit into it (leaving you with RRRRRR).  You can then play the D. Rit that remains in your hand for a grand total of RRRRRRR.

You cannot, however, use the mana generated by casting the first D. Ritual to pay the splice cost of the second, since you don't get the mana until it resolves and at that point it's too late to announce splice.

Again, just about anyone else has a better understanding of the rules, but that's how I read it.

[Jebus]

To confirm, a Single Splice card can only be spliced onto a single Arcane Spell once.

[Bastian]

Actually this ritual costs 1RR... If you check it out at MtGnews it seems that the last R is missing, but should be there.

[rozetta]

I was wondering if that broken gif was an extra R symbol. If it cost 1RR it's basically completely shite. Didn't someone mention it was reported as 1R on the mtgnews forums?

[Jebus]

Desperate Ritual is 1R, not 1RR.

The broken link appears to be a leftover from when they used the forum smilies as mana symbols.

[leviat]

I think it's a good card, but isn't going to push combo over the top. I mean just how powerful IS a hand filled with Lotus, Mox x 3, and Ritual x 3? Sure you have mana, but without mixing in enough powerful Draw spells, what are you going to do with it?

I see this as helping out Belcher, and that's about it (in Type-1).

[MuzzonoAmi]

Either that or it's going to make 4 Chromatic Sphere, 4 Barbed Sextant mandatory, which it has been in budget combo decks for about a year.

[Bram]

To confirm, a Single Splice card can only be spliced onto a single Arcane Spell once.

This makes it worse to the point of being crap.