Invasion - a Complete Review (split)

• intro
• white
• blue
• black
• red
• green
• multicolor
• split
• artifact
• land

292. Stand/Deliver
Stand: W, Instant Prevent the next 2 damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn.
Deliver: 2U, Instant Return target permanent to its owner's hand.

==> TOUR: 2 - FUN: 3
Stand is a pretty weak version of Healing Salve. Even if it was a full Healing Salve, though, I doubt this would have seen play. Deliver is useful, but there is absolutely no synergy between the two cards that warrants putting them on a single card.

294. Pain/Suffering
Pain: B, Sorcery Target player discards a card from his or her hand.
Suffering: 3R, Sorcery Destroy target land.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
There isn't that much synergy between these two cards either. If you're playing a land destruction deck, your opponent will be stuck with a lot of cards in hand, in which case the choose and discard effect is useless. In a discard deck, though, this would be a useful card. It furthers the discard strategy gives some spot land destruction if needed, like against an irritating non-basic or to enforce a mana screw caused by your other discard.

296. Wax/Wane
Wax: G, Instant Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
Wane: W, Instant Destroy target enchantment.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 4
This is a bit like an Erase that's playable in the main deck. Sure, it doesn't remove enchantments from the game, but 1cc enchantment destruction is very useful. If you play it as a Giant Growth, it's still just about as good as a real one, because you rarely need the full +3/+3 to save your creature and kill your opponent's creature.

293. Spite/Malice
Spite: 3U, Instant Counter target non-creature spell.
Malice: 3B, Instant Destroy target nonblack creature. It can't be regenerated.

==> TOUR: 4 - FUN: 3
Malice picks up where Spite leaves off. It can be comforting to know you have a solution in hand in case some big bad creature gets through your counters, but four mana is quite a lot to pay for that comfort. What if your opponent plays a Blastoderm or a big black creature? A normal Counterspell would have dealt with that, but Spite/Malice can't.

295. Assault/Battery
Assault: R, Sorcery Assault deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Battery: 3G, Sorcery Put a 3/3 green Elephant token into play.

==> TOUR: 5 - FUN: 4
What's not to like about another good direct damage card? Sure, it's a sorcery, but Shock is so good that even a sorcery version is still good. The Battery part is just gravy. This card will probably get used in decks that won't even be able to cast the green part. Still, there's a lot of synergy between the two parts. In an aggressive creature deck, removal is very useful most of the time, but sometimes you'd just rather have a big creature when the removal isn't cutting it. The casting cost is a bit more than I'd like (a 2/2 for 1G would have been better and still balanced).

On the whole, the split cards are an interesting idea, but I'm not sure they're worth the inevitable rules headaches for beginners. Still, the cards are pretty useful and none of them are over- or underpowered. The names are pretty clever as well, but as they make more of these, I think they're going to run out of phrases to use pretty quickly.