Overwhelming Insanity (by request of Anusien)

[Liam-K]

1U
Instant

Draw 5 cards, then reveal your hand.  An opponent separates your hand into 2 piles.  Put one of those piles into your graveyard. (The rest remain in your hand.)



Apparently how good this is is a subject worthy of discussion.  In the invitational card contest thread, I phrased its effect as "mediocre-izing your hand for +1 90% of the time" and I feel that's accurate.  From 2 cards in hand your opponent makes 2 piles from 6.  From 3 cards in hand your opponent makes 2 piles from 7.  From 5 cards in hand your opponent makes 2 piles from 9.  Obviously if you have a small or totally dead hand you should come away ahead by resolving this, and for cheap, but you also show your opponent your hand and basically can't get the complete nuts.

I feel like it's super skill testing, less from the pile-splitting mechanic and more deciding when to cast it.

The only concern I can think of is some graveyard-enabling interaction (legacy threshold?)

[Jacob Orlove]

At the lower limit of 0 cards in hand, this is a Fact or Fiction for 1U. That alone is hugely problematic.

[Titanium Dragon]

At the lower limit of 0 cards in hand, this is a Fact or Fiction for 1U. That alone is hugely problematic.

At 0 cards in hand, it is Fact or Fiction for 1U, and at 1-2 cards, you're still ending up with +0-1 CA but some pretty solid card selection. Only at 3+ cards does it start to decline in quality, and you wouldn't play this card unless your hand is full of junk at 5+ cards (though, you might if it is).

Frankly, I think the effect is fine, but I think the card itself is undercosted by at least 1, if not 2, and to be honest I'm not sure that it should be instant speed at all - a card that can give +2 CA is pretty much never going to be instant-speed under modern design rules, especially not via the means of drawing cards.

[Liam-K]

Infernal Tutor is terrible.  Hellbent generally allows pretty bad cards to do silly things if you have an empty hand, and in a deck running blue having an empty hand usually means you're getting your face smashed.  While the card has the potential to be really good if you're really losing, would you put 4 in a deck assuming you're going to have a terrible hand pretty often?  If you're running it, you're assuming you won't be casting it off the top into 0 cards in hand too much.

[The Atog Lord]

Infernal Tutor only works if you manage to empty your hand. If you have a useless spell or two sitting there, Infernal Tutor gets shut off. This can still work just fine if you have a hand of two dead cards. That makes it more powerful than Infernal Tutor. This card is  really broken.

[Liam-K]

If you have two dead cards, it's near the level of brainstorm + fetch... it probably gets you +1 but costs twice as much, and you end up with at least 1 dead card still in your hand.  Again, assuming your hand is completely, totally useless.  As much as 1 somewhat reasonable card in your hand and the card's value plummets; 2 acceptable cards in hand and it's practically uncastable.

I'm moderately convinced both 2U and 4 cards make it unplayable, or I'd defend it less vigorously.  Of the two 2U is probably better.