[Single Card Discussion] Repeal

[Moxlotus]

What's the deal with Repeal?  It's the new Confidant--everybody is putting into every deck ever.  Why?  Why is it being played as a 4-of in Brassman's Gifts deck?  Why are people putting 2 or 3 in Control Slaver?  What is so great about the card that is making everybody try it out in so many decks?  As I was typing up the SCG lists it was everywhere.  It has a hard time against Stax pieces.  It can't hit Chalice @ 1.  It will never touch a DSC, a flying angel, or Titan.  Is it just a fad?  Is it any good?

[Hydra]

It's in Gifts because it's an excellent storm enabler while going off, fizzles Welding attempts (or just bounces that silly punk), knocks around Fish critters and buys you at least a turn versus Oath.  I'm sure CS runs it for similiar reasons.

[tehmajickguy]

In addition to what Hydra said, it helps turn Library back quickly, and has some pretty svg synergy with Thirst in the late game when you don't need off color accel as badly as you need to replenish your hand.

[Harlequin]

I think most of the time, its just the right answer to the right problem.  It goes back and cleans up any cards that slipped in those first few turns when drain mana wasn't up.  Needle, Null Rod, Chalice for 0 or even 2 (against shop), a welder, an un-orcharded Oath. 

It may not recover a lost game, where your opponent has DSC or Angels on the board, but it DOES help you gain advantage over the small time cards that might be monkey wrenching your plans. 

The bottom Line is, If it didn't cantrip it would NEVER be played.  If its in the late game, as said before it enables library and thrist... and all in all lets you play one less card in your deck.

[Rock Lee]

Bouncing missed threats (cantriping) then countering them when being replayed (tempo gaining) fits the idea of most drain decks. Repeal is a nice Janitor to a Drain Deck.

The above reasons are all key, and big CMC answers you keep other bounce for. The items that screw my pooch the most are Null Rod and Chalice at 2/3. Without any of those 3 in play the game is a cakewalk.

[EotGiftsGG?]

the reason repeal is good, is pretty self explanatory!
with a saphire, it's 0 mana, draw a card. Two spells.
It generates and nets mana with mana crypt and vault, and wins games through null rod, and slaver. Repeal is the next utility card, but it's no dark confident.
It cantrips for 0 mana and lets you bounce stax's artifacts, and draw you cards!

[zeus-online]

I honestly dont believe repeal is better then the other viable bounce spells:
Echoing truth
Chain of vapour
Rushing river (okay it may be better then this, the river never was good for me!)
Hurkyl's recall
Rebuild

But, repeal does cantrip....and it can get rid of gorilla shamans, delay a welder for a turn, bounce a null rod or chalice etc. etc.

I'd much rather have 4 cantripping bouncers then say, 4 echoing truth's..! ...but im not really sure if i'd ever want more then 2-3 bouncers anyway.

/Zeus

[MoxMonkey]

It has Cool Art and looks badass in Japanese.

Bouncing Null Rod while cantripping is pretty good too.

[Purple Hat]

outlaw and brassy claim that their 4x repeal gifts list went off on turn 1 a few times in tournaments because it got the stupid repeal hand.  basically at it's worst repeal means you're playing a 56 card deck.  the rest of the time you're playing 4 md answers to everythign but chalice for 1 and colossus.

[roberts91rom]

I don't see how CS can run Repeal. My list is tighter than pants at an art show. CS is basically 4 slots of innovation, so why would you run a cantripping Echoing Truth? It doesn't answer the biggest threats in Vintage. In Gifts I can see Repeal as great utility for the storm win. It's just not that good in CS. Oh, and against oath I would rather just destroy thier oath or use cheaper bounce that can also target their fatties.

[Harlequin]

I don't see how CS can run Repeal. My list is tighter than pants at an art show. CS is basically 4 slots of innovation, so why would you run a cantripping Echoing Truth? It doesn't answer the biggest threats in Vintage. In Gifts I can see Repeal as great utility for the storm win. It's just not that good in CS. Oh, and against oath I would rather just destroy thier oath or use cheaper bounce that can also target their fatties.

I agree that CS is tight, esp if your running techy cards in the MD like Darkblast or Tormod's etc.  I think you hit the nail on the head though.... "It doesn't answer the biggest threats in Vintage"  Thats the point.  It hits the smallest threats in vintage!  CS has plenty of sollutions to stop your opponent from winning.  What it tends to lack, is cards that deal with minor threats.  Talk to any seasoned Control player and they will tell you winning the control mirror is about winning through small advantages.  Enableing your LOA 1 turn earlier, Drawing 4 cards off repeal (pearl) -> thrist, Bouncing an early welder, forceing your opponent to pop a tormod's, or eve to keep them off drain mana (targeting thier sapphire) are all reasons to run the card.  ALLL the while, it costs you 0 card disadvantage to run this card.  If this card doesn't win the "small war" I don't know what does.

[roberts91rom]

My CS list runs better answers for small wars than repeal. Later I will list every playable card that wins small wars wnd we can decide which is better.

[Hydra]

Another techy play that came up when I talked to Brassy about the deck is the the "Seven cards in hand?  EOT your turn Repeal your Mox" play.  Forcing your opponent to discard can very good, and depending on how dependent your opponent is on that Mox, you could force them to discard a spell.

I used Repeal in my day one deck because it's an excellent source of tempo.  Keeping your opponent from that early Thirst for Knowledge/Gifts Ungiven/Mana Drain for an extra turn can be the difference between winning and losing in this format, and Repeal offers you the ability to do just that.  Personally, I'm of the opinion that any deck that can afford some metagame slots that runs blue should try out Repeal, especially something like Fish.

Early game for Fish, Repeal also helps to enable Daze as an effective weapon.  Most decks cannot afford to pay for the 1 without their Moxes, and with Repeal keeping the board nice and clean of Moxes, you run into situations where on the play you can Repeal their first turn Mox, drop a beater on your turn, then Daze their EOT Brainstorm.  Most decks cannot cope with that sort of early pressure if you put any type of beater on the board (it gets even more fun if you can get an active Ninja going next turn), and Repeal used as an early threat can definitely make EOT math much more difficult for an opponent, as they can't rely on having that Mox being around during your EOT step to cast that Gifts Ungiven or Thirst for Knowledge, or to have that active Welder on their next turn.

[DoubleDrain]

Repeal is a pretty amazing card for all of the reasons mentioned above. Clown of Tresserhorn and I had a discussion at a recent Type I event, where he was running a copy in his gifts build. He made some interesting arguments for its inclusion. Although there are times when the cantrip effect can be awesome, I feal that as a storm enabler, chain of vapor is much more effective, and can often generate more mana than a single repeal.
Keep in mind we were discussing the value of repeal in gifts decks; repeal can be better in faster decks that don't have time to play multiple lands to sac to the chain, or in decks like CS which don't often need storm to win...