[SCD] Paralyze

[ScatmanX]

Card Name:Paralyze
Mana Cost: :b:

Types:Enchantment — Aura
Card Text:Enchant creature
When Paralyze comes into play, tap enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
At the beginning of the upkeep of enchanted creature's controller, that player may pay :4: . If he or she does, untap the creature.

So, with lots of arquitypes running 17-19 lands (Tempo Threshs, Counter-Top, Probasco, Zoo, Eva Green...) Isn't Paralyze getting better?

The deal is, when are they going to pay :4: to untap a creature? If you use turn 1 agains't a Goblin Lackey, he's preety much dead. Same as a Turn 2 Dreadnought or Goyf. Used along with LD suite (Wasteland, Sinkhole, Stifle...), Paralyze get's even better, making the ability to untap the creature almost impossible to use.
Also, you can swap Paralyze game 2-3 to something else, making they're SB enchantment removal dead.

Doing some research, I was able to find this black removals:
Inocent Blood - Kills oneof your dudes (if you play them).
Vendetta - May cost too much life; Nonblack.
Snuff Out - 4 Life or 4 Mana. Nonblack.
Smother - 2 mana. -3cc.
Diabolic Edict - 2 Mana. Does not choose Creature.
Terror/Shierkmaw - 2 Mana. Nonblack. Nonartifact.
Ghastly Demise - Situational. Nonblack.
Deathmark - Very Situational

So, does black need an Socery speed "removal" with a very situational drawback?

[Dembones]

Funny that you post this today. I was going through my cards last night and set 4 of my 300 out for a janky shadow deck I was going to throw together.

[nitewolf9]

I remember waaay back when people were using that card to answer turn 1 hyppie. It still seems situational unless you can put a whole lot of pressure on your opponent really quickly. Once they reach the midgame alive they just get the creature back.

[ThatGuyThere]

Not exactly. "Untapped" isn't "back", and a psudo-upkeep of :4:, even if optional, can be damned inconvenient.

It does effectively shut down Lackey. By the time they can pay :4:, he damn well better be irrelevant.

My own testing* has shown, however, it's a little too situational. Some stuff you want your cheap removal to, well, remove is almost-as-good when Paralyzed - Dark Confidant, for instance. It does get them out of your way, right away, so you can swing in, though - and that's important.

That said, in a deck like Team America, you're right - it's basically cheap removal; it's a struggle to get to 4 mana through Wastes + Sinkholes (+ Hymns).

Is it better than Snuff Out? ...eeeeenh... that I dunno.

* - 'Suicide' Black, an Eva Green-ish thing, and Team America.

[FoolofaTook]

If you're going to use Paralyze as creature removal why not run Vampiric Embrace instead? Same :b: casting cost and it plays off of both your creatures and the opponent's creatures.

Neither of them is a good answer at this point but the more versatile one is probably better, particularly if you are playing creatures with evasion so you can move by the potential blocker.

A Dreadnought that has been Paralyzed will start killing you as the game state advances without your opponent having to find an answer. A Dreadnought that has been Vampiric Embraced will stay put until the answer arrives, and it won't be Engineered Explosives.

[workingdude]

If you're going to use Paralyze as creature removal why not run Vampiric Embrace instead? Same :b: casting cost and it plays off of both your creatures and the opponent's creatures.

Neither of them is a good answer at this point but the more versatile one is probably better, particularly if you are playing creatures with evasion so you can move by the potential blocker.

A Dreadnought that has been Paralyzed will start killing you as the game state advances without your opponent having to find an answer. A Dreadnought that has been Vampiric Embraced will stay put until the answer arrives, and it won't be Engineered Explosives.

I think you mean Vampiric Link from planar chaos.

The bad thing about that is if they hit you for more than your life total, you'll lose the game before you regain that life.

[Otter]

I think you mean Vampiric Link from planar chaos.

The bad thing about that is if they hit you for more than your life total, you'll lose the game before you regain that life.

Yeah, though at the state of the game where you're that low on life, I would expect them to have 4 lands, so Paralyze would be equally useless. Paralyze is still probably better though, since you can actually win a Goyf war with Paralyze, Link doesn't get you anywhere except a higher buffer of life.

[FoolofaTook]

I think you mean Vampiric Link from planar chaos.

The bad thing about that is if they hit you for more than your life total, you'll lose the game before you regain that life.

Yes, you're right it's Vampiric Link. If you have any form of evasion you can win races with it though. It's true you can knock a blocker aside for a turn with Paralyze, but that's all it really does after the beginning of the game.

Vampiric Link also wins goyf wars. You drop it on your goyf and attack and your opponent blocks giving you 5 life. There's no way to gain advantage from Paralyze if the opponent has creatures that cannot be hit at Enchantment-casting speed, assuming that you're not doing something funny with Meekstones or something like that.

BTW, I'm not suggesting either of them as playable in this meta, because I don't think they are. Cards that play off of your own creatures have to be better than Spirit Link/Vampiric Link to have much value. Cards that play off of the opponent's creatures need to remove them from the play field or capture them so you only need to deal with the issue once or you gain a big swing from playing the solution.

[blacklotus3636]

I don't think the issue is whether paralyze is good, its that most of the time there are just better cards to play. Most of the time you don't really use more than 8 pieces of removal and those spots are usually filled with stronger cards like stp (there is the new stp as well), lightning bolt, snuff out etc. If splashing colors weren't so easy paralyze would have less competition and might see play but not with the great options you have right now.

[Skeggi]

Whether it's good or not is debatable, but you at least get style points for using this one :smile:.

[eq.firemind]

I tried to use this card in tempo decks, but Snuff Out is better 'cause it costs :0: instead of 1 and both don't disable opposing Confidant's drawing.
Too bad this card's CMC is 1 (conflict with Chalice), or I could use it in some kind of black prison deck.

[Maveric78f]

As almost everybody agrees, I think it's a very good card, but, given the existing problematic black creatures (dark confidant and tombstalker mostly), Snuff Out is strictly superior. Indeed, dark confidant will still draw and tombstalker generally arrives late enough to untap it. Moreover Snuff Out costs 0 and dodges counterbalance.

[GreenOne]

Confidant will still draw.
Meddling mage will still chant.
Lord effects/Warchief will still work.
Doesn't work on manlands.
It's Sorcery speed.
It's a removal that can be removed (disenchant effects, but also with EE or Deed).
It gets hit by counterbalance/chalice all day.
Pumps goyf when removed.
It's a card that would suite better in an aggro deck, since the card doesn't work well in the late game (many lands=bad), but untapping the creature just once they get to have it as a wall at no aditional costs.

Isn't it enough?

[ScatmanX]

Confidant will still draw. - only Edict or Smother can solve this in monoBlack/BG, and they cost 1B.
Meddling mage will still chant. - Who plays him? Not even Standart.
Lord effects/Warchief will still work. - So you Paralyze the other guy, not the lord. (Warchief is a though one)
Doesn't work on manlands. - Wasteland does.
It's Sorcery speed. - Can't fight that.
It's a removal that can be removed (disenchant effects, but also with EE or Deed). - Whou would pack disenchant effects agains't it? If they do, side it out.
It gets hit by counterbalance/chalice all day. - True. Then again, only Snuff Out doesen´t.
Pumps goyf when removed. - Can't this be a good thing?
It's a card that would suite better in an aggro deck, since the card doesn't work well in the late game (many lands=bad), but untapping the creature just once they get to have it as a wall at no aditional costs. - Preety exoansive wall

I think that, if I have a Paralized creature, is my turn 4-6, and I land my 4th mana, I'm not going to waste my whole turn to untap it. Even if I'm Team America, it´s mid game, and I have a Paralyzed Stalker. I have only 4 mana. Will I use them all, BEFORE drawing for the turn, just to untap him once? Or will I play another dude/Chackles, whatever. I'm only going to untap him when I have really nothing else to do right?

PS: quick question: If the oponent pays 4 to untap his creature, can I stifle the untap effect? That could work like a pseudo-Time Walk.

[RoddyVR]

PS: quick question: If the oponent pays 4 to untap his creature, can I stifle the untap effect? That could work like a pseudo-Time Walk.

No. You could stifle the whole trigger, and not give them the option to pay 4 at all that turn.

[DrJones]

I'm pretty sure there are more 'free' or under 2cc black removal spells than what you posted there. At least, there's Imprison which is Thirst/Melancholy for two less mana, there is Contagion, and there's Big Game Hunter.

Additionally, I've played every single one of those cards, so I can give you the following ranking based on my experience (it can contain errors, and some can be better in some decks than others, but I'm trying to make it as general as accurate as I can):

Diabolic Edict > Snuff Out > Shriekmaw > Inocent Blood > Spinning Darkness > Smother > Paralyze > Contagion > Chainer's Edict > Big Game Hunter > Terror > Executioner's Capsule > Deathmark > Assassin's Blade > Imprison > Vendetta > Wall of Corpses > Fatal Blow > Death Stroke > PlagueBearer > Ghastly Demise > Torture

IMHO, any card below Terror is unplayable in Legacy, and Terror itself is a poor choice.

Additionally, there are also these mass removal effects that might take the slot of any the previous ones:

Pernicious Deed > Damnation > Forced March > Mutilate > Massacre

[Forbiddian]

It really doesn't function as removal.


In Enchantress, I used to run Kirtar's Desire. Kirtar's Desire is pretty much strictly better than Paralyze. It's a Paralyze where they don't have the option to pay 4 (although there are some creatures with T abilities like Birds of Paradise... but it's basically strictly better).

Also, for Enchantress it was in-color and you would draw cards off of it if you topped into it lategame.

Still, it was *never* a solid removal spell for Enchantress.

[Malchar]

I've been thinking about black removal for a while now. I was actually thinking about posting a thread about this card. It looks pretty good, but it ends up having a lot of the same problems as Snuff Out. Namely, neither can deal with Dark Confidant or Magus of the Moon. I consider Snuff Out to be the gold standard since it's nearly as good as Swords to Plowshares (at least in my opinion). The real tragedy here is that black somehow missed out on getting good removal, and white got it all! Swords to Plowshares is some kind of an anomaly in the game that creates a ridiculous standard for all other removal to live up to. Black really needs a "new" Snuff Out:

New Snuff
B
Sorcery
Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated.
You lose 3 life.

[DrJones]

It already exists. It's called Thoughtseize.

[FoolofaTook]

Thoughtseize is lousy creature removal after the first few turns. They just topdeck what they need and play it.

[keys]

New Snuff
B
Sorcery
Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated.
You lose 3 life.

Hmm Snuff Out is still better, considering it's instant speed & free (a pretty good combination I hear)...

[lordofthepit]

Hmm Snuff Out is still better, considering it's instant speed & free (a pretty good combination I hear)...

Snuff Out doesn't hit black creatures.

[ScatmanX]

Snuff Out doesn't hit black creatures.

AKA Dark Confidant and Tombstalker.

[Malchar]

Hmm Snuff Out is still better, considering it's instant speed & free (a pretty good combination I hear)...

Snuff Out may or may not be better, but the whole point was to give black a SINGLE cheap creature removal spell that can hit anything. Hell, I'd even settle for something that they could regenerate through.

It's just a real shame that they had to go and print Path to Exile giving white yet another cheap way to answer any creature. Looks like the new candidates are Wretched Banquet or perhaps Bone Splinters. Also, Thoughtseize/Hymn to Tourach will always be great but I don't think that they can carry a deck on their own.

[FoolofaTook]

Snuff Out may or may not be better, but the whole point was to give black a SINGLE cheap creature removal spell that can hit anything. Hell, I'd even settle for something that they could regenerate through.

Based on this I'm assuming you'd be cool if they gave white a Light Ritual to get :w: :w: :w: ?

One of the characteristics of black is that it has a lot of creature removal but that that removal is imperfect, either with significant additional costs, conditions that make it unlikely to be immediate, or lack of perfect control of the target.

Printing the equivalent of a black Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile would go a long way towards breaking the color wheel's restrictions.

[DragoFireheart]

Based on this I'm assuming you'd be cool if they gave white a Light Ritual to get :w: :w: :w: ?

One of the characteristics of black is that it has a lot of creature removal but that that removal is imperfect, either with significant additional costs, conditions that make it unlikely to be immediate, or lack of perfect control of the target.

Printing the equivalent of a black Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile would go a long way towards breaking the color wheel's restrictions.

This is absolutely correct. Even back in Alpha, compare Terror to Swords to Plowshares.

Terror can't hit black or artifact creatures, while Swords will remove ANYTHING at the cost of giving the owner life.

Black has always had a variety of subpar removal and could never match white with targeted removal.

[TheCramp]

Well with the new lifelink rules, Vampiric link comes back into the equation. (still may be worse than paralyze.)

Edit: oops, scratch that, it dosn't grant lifelink. NM

[DrJones]

Also Ashes to Ashes, because people apparently love paying life.

[FoolofaTook]

Well with the new lifelink rules, Vampiric link comes back into the equation. (still may be worse than paralyze.)

Vampiric Link is actually better than Spirit Link, given that it works with Dark Rituals and can come into play attached to a creature on turn 1 and 2 more easily than Spirit Link. I think they made a minor error in printing it with the exact same functionality as Spirit Link. It would have been more logical to make it cost :b: :b: or some other minor restriction compared to Spirit Link along those lines. Like creature removal, black also has ways to gain life but not ways as good as white and they should have preserved the symmetry in that relationship also. Maybe even having Vampiric Link cast for the same cost but do damage to the player when it came into play.

I think both Vampiric Link and Paralyze are under-powered for the meta in play now. If landkill or effective mana suppression makes a comeback then maybe Paralyze becomes a main deck choice, but I can't imagine it would ever be a good sideboard choice.