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A Complete Review of Torment (blue)

Alter Reality R, Instant , 1U
Change the text of target permanent or spell by replacing all instances of one color word with another. (This effect doesn't end at end of turn.)
Flashback 1U

==> FUN: 3
Sleight of Mind with an extra use. There are a lot of hosers in Torment, so I'm sure this will get played as an anti-hoser or a hoser-hoser if you prefer. The effect is invaluable if you ever want to build a deck around a hoser card like Reap or Douse.

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Ambassador Laquatus R, Creature - Merfolk Legend, 1UU, 1/3
3: Target player puts the top three cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

==> FUN: 5
Milling effects are fun, because opponents always expect to be damaged to death, not run out of cards. Ambassador Laquatus mills a lot faster than Millstone, but is also much easier to kill because it's a creature. On the other hand, it also doubles as a blocker. It's worth trying out in a flashback/threshold deck as well, using the ability on yourself. There are cheaper and more effective ways to fill your graveyard, but they don't serve as effective kill cards at the same time.

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Aquamoeba C, Creature - Beast, 1U, 1/3
Discard a card from your hand: Switch Aquamoeba's power and toughness until end of turn.

==> FUN: 4
Aquamoeba is a solid weenie blocker at 1/3 for only 2 mana, comparable to the often underestimated Canopy Spider. The switching of power and toughness can also be useful. In a pinch, you get a 3/1 attacker to take advantage of your opponent's mana screw and if you're desperate enough, you can kill a 3 toughness attacker by blocking with Aquamoeba, changing it into a 3/1 and after damage dealing changing it back into a 1/3 so it will survive. Of course it also makes madness casting easier, although it doesn't compare to Wild Mongrel for that.

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Balshan Collaborator U, Creature - Bird Soldier, 3U, 2/2
Flying
B: Balshan Collaborator gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

==> FUN: 2
Invasion block had a few off-color pumpable creatures as well and those weren't very good either. It's just not an ability which works very well in a multi-color deck. Sure, you could put this in a black deck with a tiny blue splash, but in that case there are better choices. That doesn't make Balshan Collaborator a bad creature, though. I certainly don't want to be facing one when I'm out of creature removal, because it can be pumped to 5/5 easily and the flying makes it almost certain to get the damage through to me.

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Breakthrough U, Sorcery , XU
Draw four cards, then choose X cards in your hand and discard the rest from it.

==> FUN: 4
What a nutty card. As a normal card drawer, Breakthrough isn't going to cut it, because even with an empty hand you have to pay 4U to avoid having to discard anything. And there's always the threat of your opponent seizing the opportunity to Repulse one of your creatures, forcing you to discard more cards than you had planned to do. Still, Breakthrough can be cast for just 0 to reach threshold quickly. A very gutsy move, but not necessarily bad if you make sure to have a few lands in play first, so you can use your madness and flashback cards.

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Cephalid Aristocrat C, Creature - Cephalid, 4U, 3/3
Whenever Cephalid Aristocrat becomes the target of a spell or ability, put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard.

==> FUN: 3
Cephalid Aristocrat has some potential for achieving threshold and making good use of flashback, but only if you it combo with an easy way to target it repeatedly. And there aren't too many good ways of doing that that are also useful by themselves. The best idea I can come up with is a few en-Kors.

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Cephalid Illusionist U, Creature - Cephalid Wizard, 1U, 1/1
Whenever Cephalid Illusionist becomes the target of a spell or ability, put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard.
2U, T: This turn prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by target creature you control.

==> FUN: 4
The Illusionist is much better than the Aristocrat. Not only does it mill an extra card, it's also cheaper and it can target itself in a pinch. The Gaseous Form ability also gives you a nice, unkillable blocker for a turn.

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Cephalid Sage U, Creature - Cephalid, 3U, 2/3
Threshold - When Cephalid Sage comes into play, draw three cards, then discard two cards from your hand.

==> FUN: 4
The threshold ability on Cephalid Sage would have been a good way of reaching threshold. It's still useful as it is, though. As long as you have threshold when it comes into play, you get card advantage, can dig three cards deep into your library and get a chance to madness cast something. And because it's a creature, you can use a card like Umbilicus to do it again next turn.

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Cephalid Snitch C, Creature - Cephalid Wizard, 1U, 1/1
Sacrifice Cephalid Snitch: Target creature loses protection from black until end of turn.

==> FUN: 1
Cephalid Snitch is just silly. It hoses a very limited type of color hosers. It would be a nice extra on an otherwise useful creature, but a 1/1 for 2 mana isn't going to be very useful as a creature. If you're already playing a color besides black, why not just add something like Syncopate or a good blue blocker to get around protection from black? This is a very limited card, which I'd only expect to maybe see in some sideboards in decks that use Crypt Rats as creature control.

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Cephalid Vandal R, Creature - Cephalid, 1U, 1/1
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a shred counter on Cephalid Vandal. Then put the top card of your library into your graveyard for each shred counter on Cephalid Vandal.

==> FUN: 4
Cephalid Vandal is obviously designed especially for for flashback and threshold decks. It's not very strong, though, mostly because it takes too long to get a good number of cards in your graveyard and by the time your graveyard starts to fill up, you're in danger of decking yourself with it. It still has a lot of potential, though, as long as you're playing something like Haunted Crossroads, so you can prevent yourself from getting decked by the Vandal.

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Churning Eddy C, Sorcery , 3U
Return target creature and target land to their owners' hands.

==> FUN: 3
This would have been a 4 if it had been an instant. For cards like Churning Eddy it really makes a difference, because bounce effects are usually best played in response to a creature enchantment or enhancement like Giant Growth or to save a creature from destruction if it's about to be destroyed by a spell or by combat damage. As it is, Churning Eddy is nothing more than a speedbump for your opponent.

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Circular Logic U, Instant , 2U
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for each card in your graveyard.
Madness U

==> FUN: 4
As splashable counters go, this one is pretty good. At the start of the game, just one or two cards in your graveyard should be enough to make Circular Logic useful for countering the big spells that need to be countered. Later on, especially if you've designed your deck around threshold and madness, Circular Logic will counter anything that needs to be countered, as long as your opponent isn't playing Morningtides. In a blue/green deck, you could play Llanowar Elves on turn one, followed by Island, Wild Mongrel on turn two and you can counter anything, as long as you're prepared to discard some cards for it.

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Compulsion U, Enchantment , 1U
1U, Discard a card from your hand: Draw a card.
1U, Sacrifice Compulsion: Draw a card.

==> FUN: 4
A cheaper version of Mental Discipline, with extra Disenchant protection, because you can just sacrifice it in response to a Disenchant and get a card for it. I liked Mental Discipline, even if I never did get around to building a deck around it. Compulsion is not only a better card, it also comes in Torment, the madness set, which makes this kind of effect a lot more powerful then it used to be. To get the most out of your madness cards, simply discard them to Compulsion so you can cast them cheaply and get a card for them to boot. That only leaves the question if there are enough useful madness cards to make this a winning strategy. Time will tell.

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Coral Net C, Enchant Creature , U
Coral Net can enchant only a green or white creature.
Enchanted creature has "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this creature unless you discard a card from your hand."

==> FUN: 2
A strange card, considering green is an enemy color for blue and white isn't. Coral Net might be useful in the sideboard of a blue/black discard deck, but that's a very narrow use. It can't even get rid of a Spiritmonger, because it could just change color and the Coral Net would fall off.

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Deep Analysis C, Sorcery , 3U
Target player draws two cards.
Flashback-1U, Pay 3 life.

==> FUN: 3
Deep Analysis would have rated much better as an instant. As it is, it's worth trying in a madness deck, because the flashback is cheap enough to make it a good card when played from the graveyard. The life payment worries me, though. With my luck I'll end up with four of these in my graveyard but not enough life to cast even one of them.

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False Memories R, Instant , 1U
Put the top seven cards of your library into your graveyard. At end of turn, remove seven cards in your graveyard from the game.

==> FUN: 4
Instant threshold. Except that it only lasts for one turn, unlike Tolarian Winds. And that's really False Memories' biggest problem, it can't do anything Tolarian Winds doesn't do better if you can manage to keep your hand filled. False Memories can also act as a quasi tutor for flashback cards, because there should be at least 8 cards in your graveyard at the end of the turn, 7 from False Memories and the False Memories itself. That allows you to pick the best flashback card out of the lot and use it. This would have been a very playable card if it was a cantrip, but as it is I don't think the effect, fun as it is, is worth a card.

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Ghostly Wings C, Enchant Creature , 1U
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has flying.
Discard a card from your hand: Return enchanted creature to its owner's hand.

==> FUN: 3
It seems to be some kind of design principle for Wizards of the Coast to have a Flight enchantment in every set. Ghostly Wings is actually not that bad, unlike most of them, because of the added +1/+1. The discard ability looks pretty bad at first, because it costs two cards to return the enchanted creature to your hand, the card you discard and the Ghostly Wings, which won't have anything to enchant anymore. It's not that bad, though, if you consider that you'll likely only use it when your creature would otherwise die, to a Terror or something, causing you 2 for 1 card disadvantage anyway. In that case you might as well discard a spare land or a madness card to save your creature. It's not the hottest card since Tolarian Peppers, but since Odyssey, card advantage doesn't work the way it used to anymore. There are now too many ways of taking advantage of discarding.

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Hydromorph Guardian C, Creature - Guardian, 2U, 2/2
U, Sacrifice Hydromorph Guardian: Counter target spell that targets one or more creatures you control.

==> FUN: 3
The effect is very similar to that of the flagbearers from Apocalypse, except that this costs mana and the Hydromorph Guardian dies no matter which spell you use it on, whereas flagbearers survived Pacifism and remained just as annoying with it. Hydromorph Guardian is a useful backup creature if you want to keep something bigger alive.

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Hydromorph Gull U, Creature - Bird Guardian, 3UU, 3/3
Flying
U, Sacrifice Hydromorph Gull: Counter target spell that targets one or more creatures you control.

==> FUN: 2
Riddle me this: when would I want to sacrifice a 3/3 flyer to save one of my other creatures? It'd be the Hydromorph Gull I'd want to save in the first place! It's only useful if your opponent is using a card like Firestorm to kill several of your creatures in one go or a card with buyback, like Slaughter.

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Liquify C, Instant , 2U
Counter target spell with converted mana cost 3 or less. If it's countered this way, remove it from the game instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard.

==> FUN: 2
Another splashable counterspell. Sadly, the must-counter cards are usually 4 mana and above, which makes Liquify not the best possible choice.

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Llawan, Cephalid Empress R, Creature - Cephalid Legend, 3U, 2/3
When Llawan, Cephalid Empress comes into play, return all blue creatures your opponents control to their owners' hands.
Your opponents can't play blue creature spells.

==> FUN: 1
Great, another rare hoser. A pretty good one against blue creature decks like Merfolks and Blue Skies, but still a hoser. It's pretty weak as a creature as well. At least Major Teroh has flying.

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Obsessive Search C, Instant , U
Draw a card.
Madness U

==> FUN: 4
That madness deck is starting to take shape nicely.

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Plagiarize R, Instant , 3U
Until end of turn, if target player would draw a card, instead that player skips that draw and you draw a card.

==> FUN: 5
This may seem a bit expensive at first glance, but keep in mind that simply casting it during your opponent's upkeep nets you card advantage. Your opponent loses his draw and you get to draw an extra card. That's just the beginning, because Plagiarize works very well with cards like Windfall and Cephalid Broker. If you manage to Windfall for 7 cards after a Plagiarize, you draw 14 cards and your opponent is left with nothing in hand. That's pretty devastating I'd say. Even with Cephalid Broker if you cast Plagiarize before your opponent's draw, you can steal 3 draws from your opponent *and* force him to discard 2 cards. I'd say that's pretty good. Basically anything that forces your opponent to draw and discard can be used to good effect with Plagiarize. I wouldn't even be surprised if it turned out to be too good, especially in combination with Teferi's Puzzle Box.

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Possessed Aven R, Creature - Bird Soldier Horror, 2UU, 3/3
Flying
Threshold - Possessed Aven gets +1/+1, is black, and has "2B, T: Destroy target blue creature."

==> FUN: 3
A 3/3 flyer for four mana is good enough by itself, the threshold ability is just a nice extra.

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Retraced Image R, Sorcery , U
Reveal a card in your hand, then put that card into play if it has the same name as a permanent in play.

==> FUN: 1
The problem with cards like this is that if you already have a certain permanent in play, you'll rarely need an extra copy of it and even if you do, it should be easy enough to just cast it like you did with the first copy. Retraced Image also works on your opponent's permanents of course, but what are the chances of having the same card in your deck and having it in hand as well? The only deck Retraced Image might be useful in is a heavy blue deck that doesn't mind spending a card to get an extra Island into play on the first turn. That doesn't seem worth it to me, but you never know. A combo deck could live or die because of that extra speed.

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Skywing Aven C, Creature - Bird Soldier, 2U, 2/1
Flying
Discard a card from your hand: Return Skywing Aven to its owner's hand.

==> FUN: 4
It's no Cavern Harpy, but any 2 power flyer for 3 mana has potential. Skywing Aven is helped by the fact that it's very tough to get rid of by conventional means. With madness in the mix, just trying to kill it could get your opponent card disadvantage. And, unlike Ephemeron, Skywing Aven is relatively cheap to recast, so it won't tie up your mana several turns in a row, which tended to make Ephemeron less than stellar for me.

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Stupefying Touch U, Enchant Creature , 1U
When Stupefying Touch comes into play, draw a card.
Enchanted creature's activated abilities can't be played.

==> FUN: 4
It's a cantrip and somewhat useful as creature control. Even if your opponent isn't playing any creatures, you can safely cast it on one of yours with no activated abilities. Of course Stupefying Touch's usefulness will vary depending on the creatures your opponent is playing with. A Spiritmonger usually won't be too inconvenienced with it, but it does give a creature with protection from black a chance against it. A Royal Assassin or Prodigal Sorcerer, on the other hand, will be rendered next to useless after a Stupefying Touch. It should work well with Cleansing Meditation after you reach threshold: the Mediation gets rid of all of your opponent's enchantments and you get to move your Touch to a creature it's more useful on. And on top of that you get to draw an extra card when it comes into play again.

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Turbulent Dreams R, Sorcery , UU
As an additional cost to play Turbulent Dreams, discard X cards from your hand.
Return X target nonland permanents to their owners' hands.

==> FUN: 3
The potential for completely wiping out all your opponent's nonland permanents sounds pretty good, but it'll cost ya. Of course, discarding isn't the handicap it once was, but you'll only slow your opponent down for a few turns at best while he's trying to reestablish himself. And when he has, you'll still be behind those cards you discarded. Turbulent Dreams could be a useful victory card in weenie decks, but the only use I can see for it is in a deck with Howling Mines. Because of the extra cards, card advantage and disadvantage isn't as important anymore and tempo advantage becomes a much bigger thing. Turbulent Dreams can set your opponent back to zero with all the extra cards from the Mines.

 
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