Murderous Cut

[fsecco]

Murderous Cut
4B
Instant

Delve
Destroy target creature

Well, finally a delve playable card. It's not as flexible in its casting cost as Dismember, but for decks actually playing black this could be very good.

[boggyb]

Hey, neat. Note Delve is a cost-reduction mechanic, so you can use it to compensate for spheres. So Murderous Cut + a swamp + 5 exiled graveyard cards = one dead Lodestone. Not that I think anyone would ever play this over Snuff Out, but . . .

[Protoaddict]

This is a good option for dredge in the board for sure, where it's basically always going to cost B, never cost life, and can remove targets that dismember cannot. It's better against things like Thalia and lodestone in that list for sure, so it can instant speed remove a metalworker or forgemaster under spheres if it needs to. Can also shrink a goyf, but that seems less and less of a selling point.

I don't think it's just splashable anywhere, as in many black decks you will be removing recursion targets from Yawgswin, but I think this is a def player in the format. I think it may have a much more pronounced effect in legacy where it can go into Pox fairly easily.

[MaximumCDawg]

Huh.  They actually did print a decent Delve card, huh?

I feel like this card is similar to Ulcerate.  It's fine, it's good, but it's just not good enough to compete with the cards that currently see play.  In Dredge, sure, now you've got an answer to Anafenza.  But, in other decks, this won't be on-line for a few turns.  Shops is going to pressure you before you're able to shoot this off, Bob is going to resolve and put the game away while you durdle to pay for this, etc.  

I mean, look at it this way; in the early game, this is a Terror that requires a Dark Ritual in your hand to cast it.

A fine card, probably gonna be a standard staple, but I don't see it even making as big of a splash as that Sorcery speed Chain of Vapor did for Vintage.  Very, very fringe sideboard use.

EDIT: Between this and Adamant Negation, I wonder if they are using Delve and Ferocious as a way to print very efficient cards for Modern, but protect the format from those cards dominating the game in the early turns by building costs into the mechanic that prohibit them from going off until midgame.  Sounds a lot like Devotion to me... hmm...

[fsecco]

The fact that this avoids Spheres and Thalias could be very relevant. Although I never counted how many cards actually go to my graveyard vs MUD. You would need 5 cards against 1 Sphere...

[Protoaddict]

1 Stinkweed imp takes care of that

[gkraigher]

Wow, this is a good dredge card.  great!

[ben_berry]

In't killing an opponents creature a bad thing? Or is a bridge or two a small price to pay?

[MaximumCDawg]

More importantly, is the Dredge v. Shops matchup in such dire need for a card that dodges artifact lock pieces that it would rather run this instead of Dismember?

[Protoaddict]

Dredge will often board in its own leylines if they are forced to run removal so the things never hit the yard, at least in my expierence.

The creature that dredge most needs to kill is Jailer, and this can be marginally better than that because you do not have to pay life against a deck that may be pegging at you.

That being said, I think we can accept that this card is marginal at best. Really it is just an upgrade on Death Rattle, which saw no play.

[vaughnbros]

This is probably worse in dredge than any other deck considering your graveyard is so prone to being exiled.  Reminds me of ghastly demise, which saw fringe play at some point in legacy.

[Demagoguery]

I can see this being a solid one of in a lot of decks, it's really not that bad and can easily cost B in most cases, but you never want it too early or more than one in your hand.

What does this card really have over say Snuff Out? Well as far as I understand it, if you give this flash back, you can still use Delve to pay for the majority of the cost, whereas the alternate cost of Snuff Out is not useable. Also, just being able to hit black creatures like Deathrite, Bob, and Grizzle Daddy isn't bad either.

There might also be cases in which this can help you slightly against Tarmogoyf, Deathrite, Welder,  ScOoz, or other cards that benefit from you having things in your graveyard, but it's not very common.

[Saya]

agree,Delve is a great weapon for "sphere"s.Because of 2013 rule alteration this spell can overcome even Trinisphere.

[fsecco]

Remains to be seen if this is better than Dismember against Kuldotha MUD for example... the only advantage I see (besides dodging spheres) is being able to kill Hellkite or Battlesphere.

[Demagoguery]

Remains to be seen if this is better than Dismember against Kuldotha MUD for example... the only advantage I see (besides dodging spheres) is being able to kill Hellkite or Battlesphere.

Hellkite is a 5/5, but Wurmcoil is a 6/6, so there's that I guess?

I think the benefit of this card is a mix of side utility, such as keeping yourself safe from something like a Welder, while also being less life intensive (Which matters as aggro is stronger these days and things like Toxic Deluge exist) and hitting a few extra targets.

[MaximumCDawg]

Forget about this poop card, Dead Drop got printed.

(on the full spoiler here http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/ktk-cig-en#)

Dead Drop
9B Sorcery
Target player sacrifices two creatures.

If you want a removal card that works with Dredge, this seems LIGHT YEARS better.  It's practically a Plague Wind in Vintage.

[fsecco]

It seems way worse to me. .