Why not traumatize???

[Shanghi Knights]

I got razed recently in another thread for suggesting Traumatize in a deck. So naturally I couldn't get a answer to why Traumatize would be terrible in a landstill deck. Which was the deck i suggested it. Naturally speaking Landstill just sits there bringing out lands under stand still to build up to a large decree or something of that nature. least that was the plan prior elsephs conception. the point i'm trying to make is such a deck would have no problem fitting in 1 traumatize. So my logic was why not use something that in the past has completely rendered decks useless. Is magics current game changed so much so that hitting someone with a traumatize really isn't good enough to use anymore? Is taking up one spot for it in a landstill"ish" build really that bad of use of traumatize? (i'm not saying u can kill some one with its, but is it really useless utilitity these days?)

[AngryTroll]

Traumatize doesn't change the board state. It is also a pretty slow clock. Say they have about 44 cards left in their deck (which means that the game has already gone on for a while); when you Traumatize them, they are now on a 22 turn clock. A decree for one is a faster clock. For the same mana, you can Decree for two at instant speed, cast Espeth and Spell Snare, cast Crucible and Counterspell, etc.

[majikal]

It's totally worth a spot if you want to make their Goyfs kill you faster.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/2839262494_8e567db368.jpg

[Aggro_zombies]

You may wish to slow down your rate of posting, Shanghi. At this rate, you're going to get banned for stupidity.

Pretty much every competitive Legacy player ever can see why Traumatize is a godawful card. Hell, pretty much every competitive player ever can see why Traumatize is a godawful card. It's not even good in Limited.

Mill is not, was not, and will not be a viable strategy (except for Solidarity, old school :w::u: control, and that one :w::u: draft deck in triple CoK).

[Otter]

So my logic was why not use something that in the past has completely rendered decks useless.

Either you're mistaken or leaving out half of the picture (like a follow-up Haunting Echoes or something). Ignoring the Haunting Echoes possibility since that's just slow and janky for legacy, Traumatize is equally likely to dump all of your opponent's good spells into their graveyard as it is likely to dump a bunch of chaff and get them closer to the goodies. Or heaven forbid they're playing Loam and would love to you dump half of their deck into the yard.

Statistically the card accomplishes nothing for affecting their draws. It doesn't affect the game state. It costs 3UU. Some decks would even like it cast against them. The only use for it is so that you'll never have to worry about what card to pitch for Force.

[chokin]

I have a super casual deck called Can O Worms which is 250+ cards. It's either a Battle of Wits deck or a Traumatize yourself and make lots of 1/1 Worms with Worm Harvest.

But it's casual.

Competitively speaking, everyone has hit it pretty much dead on; doesn't affect the board state (if you're losing, you're going to still lose), painfully slow clock (outpaced by any creature), against some decks it helps them (I would hope no one is stupid enough to Traumatize vs Loam or Ichorid).

Cards that make it suck less:
Haunted Echoes (mana intensive)
Liliana Vess (fully charged)
Twincast (milling 30 out of 40 is still winning slowly)
Guiltfeeder (lol)

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

It has no effect on their game state. And unlike Haunting Echoes, it doesn't neuter their future draws, and boosts graveyard strategies instead of neutering them.

Cunning Wish to have the option of a late game Brain Freeze is basically infinitely better.

[Aggro_zombies]

I have a super casual deck called Can O Worms which is 250+ cards. It's either a Battle of Wits deck or a Traumatize yourself and make lots of 1/1 Worms with Worm Harvest.
This reminds me of a deck I tried to make when Eventide came out, called Worms Armageddon. As one might expect, it had Worm Harvest and Armageddon in it.

Also, Worms Armageddon was an awesome game, IIRC.

[morgan_coke]

Shangi,

I play and advocate and experiment with a lot of crappy/off the wall stuff. But I'll be honest. Traumatize just sucks. The best use of the card is on yourself, not your opponent.

If you want to use a five mana sorcery in a control deck to mess with your opponent and possibly deck them, go with Haunting Echoes, which is less great than IBA claims, but sometimes does win games.

Traumatize requires you to tap out on your turn (or at least tap a large number of lands on your turn), doesn't affect the board, doesn't affect the stack, affects their graveyard POSITIVELY, and doesn't disrupt them in any way. Also, the longer the game goes on, the less of an effect it has. The card costs five mana and scales negatively. I can't say anything worse about it than that.

[Digital Devil]

Shangi,

I play and advocate and experiment with a lot of crappy/off the wall stuff. But I'll be honest. Traumatize just sucks. The best use of the card is on yourself, not your opponent.

If you want to use a five mana sorcery in a control deck to mess with your opponent and possibly deck them, go with Haunting Echoes, which is less great than IBA claims, but sometimes does win games.

Traumatize requires you to tap out on your turn (or at least tap a large number of lands on your turn), doesn't affect the board, doesn't affect the stack, affects their graveyard POSITIVELY, and doesn't disrupt them in any way. Also, the longer the game goes on, the less of an effect it has. The card costs five mana and scales negatively. I can't say anything worse about it than that.
If morgan dares to say this, you should probably believe him.

[Offler]

I have been playing Traumatize for a while. Decks which were builded on some special cards, but without any operation with grave had trouble with it.

Combination with Mirari or Twincast made some serious trouble to my opponents but only in case if i am able to mill them down completely in two turns.

Reanimators were quite glad that their deck has been milled by it :D

but rather than playing traumatize i decided to use Brainfreeze. Just because it can mill opponent completely and is harder to counter it (right now i remember three cards which can do so, any counterspell can affect traumatize).

Traumatize will not be part of my deck anymore.

[Maveric78f]

If morgan dares to say this, you should probably believe him.

You sum it up wonderfully.