Declaration in Stone - Shadows over Innistrad Spoiler

Declaration in Stone



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  • MTG fan

    This is such a strong card! Too bad invasive surgery hits this…

    • Kevan Kramer

      You mean the bad card that hardly anyone will play? Who cares. Warping Wail is what you should be more worried about.

      • MTG fan

        Actually, warping wail requires 1 colorless mana, has a CMC of 2, and can–doesn’t mean it will,– be used for a weak, mana-ramp creature at turn 2, which is also only a 1/1. It’s 1st ability is very sweet– exile target creature with POWER 1 or less–, but it is a slightly harder to cast spell. Invasive surgery requires only one blue mana to cast, with delirium giving it a savage effect if it is already activated.

        • MTG fan

          Just depends on the circumstance, you know? A valid point with the exile effect. We can say we are tied.

  • Rovkir Hexus

    This + Tamiyo’s Journal in a nontoken weenies deck?

    • MrAptronym

      I imagine you’d play Bygone Bishop.

  • De’Elgathor

    So much for token strategies…

    • wwww

      You get nothing if you hit your own tokens.

      It’s good against them tough.

  • Ryū

    Brutal.

  • MrAptronym

    Why does white seem to get the best nonconditional removal? At least it’s a sorcery?
    Flavor text pokes another hole in some people’s “Avacyn is Nahiri” hypothesis.

    • wwww

      Even at instant, White has Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares.

      Black, which is supposed to be the color of death, is ashamed to be less efficient than White. Lol

      • Happy The Cat

        but white has to give something to exile, you cant cast an early path or that extra land could cost you the game and you dont want to Plow something big like what tron tosses out because it could take you an extra one to two turns for you to win. black doesnt give stuff. it just kills it. this lets them draw a card for their creature black wouldn’t do that!

        • MrAptronym

          I don’t buy that very much. There is a reason many Junk decks are running 4 Paths in modern, and only one or two black kill spells. (Abrupt decay gets sometimes as many slots as path, but it’s also two color) The reparations aspect you get tends to be pretty minor and I can’t say they have often thrown a game I’ve played. Especially swords, unless you are playing with a lot of burn swords is scarily effective. I cannot say I have ever felt like I got a bad trade out of giving my opponent the life. It’s far preferable to being stuck with the wrong piece of conditional black removal that costs twice as much.

          I will admit, they can backfire, but they are still the better removal. Black has Dismember, Doom Blade, Slaughter Pact and Murderous Cut. (Okay, maybe murderous cut isn’t as good, but I love it and have had some success with it!) But white’s is still considered better, even if it’s only got a few good cards for it.

      • MrAptronym

        Oh, I agree completely. At least swords is from before they had the color pie nailed down. Path to Exile is my least favorite card in magic. I honestly think it is a mistake to have white be such a destruction powerhouse.

        • Meow

          Except Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares is perfectly flavorful for White. Gods and Angels smite their foes, leaving no traces of them. White isn’t “good” as far as morality is concerned, just like Black isn’t “evil”. White, is lawful. White is absolute. Exiling a creature is lawful and absolute. White and Black are together actually very similar in the color pie. They both are arrogantly set in their own ways, they both destroy (or exile), they both like to gain life inherently, and surprisingly enough, as enemy colors, they work in tandem together incredibly well.

          • MrAptronym

            My issue with the cards is not flavor (you can justify surprising things with flavor) but rather mechanical. I think it is bad for the game to have white taking the best spot removal crown.

            I am all for having white be bad, or having black protagonists for that matter. Also, Orzhov is one of my favorite color combos. I even play with Swords and Path all the time.

        • Meow

          Hell, just look at Wrath of God and it’s colorshifted brother, Damnation. Wizards clearly wants White and Black to have this kind of destruction. White and Black are two sides of the same coin.

          • MrAptronym

            Black and white definitely feel like they have more overlap than most color combinations. (Reanimation, creature destruction, Mass creature destruction, efficient weenies, Life gain, First Strike, Lifelink) I really liked white’s move for answers-with-answers and provoked destruction. I feel like that mitigated some of the overlap.

  • wwww

    Damn son, it’s so brutal, I like it.

    Looks playable for Standard, maybe even Modern along with Path to Exile, especially in aggessive decks that just want to clear opponent’s defenses at all cost

  • Happy The Cat

    nice card, if this was an instant I’d be adding white to my relentless rats deck to counter wraths
    the only thing I dont like is that it says non token, sure it prevents exploits giving you 30 clues but if my entire board of tokens is getting exiled by a two drop I should get the clues that were promised to me

    • wwww

      This card is racist against tokens. xD

    • Kevan Kramer

      The best thing about this card is that it doesn’t let your opponent get clues for tokens being exiled.

    • Jazzyboy1

      Why not just use Eerie Interlude and/or Ghostway in your Relentless Rats deck to counter wraths?

      • Happy The Cat

        because things that cost three dont work in R rats, except for R rats

        • Jazzyboy1

          Fair enough.

    • juan

      How about splash for green for Bloodbond March?

  • Zombie

    If this was Instant I could easily see it hitting Modern very quickly. It would have answered the Eldrazi with an iron fist. It also would have been devastating against Tokens lists.

    But at Sorcery speed it’s far too slow and probably won’t leave Standard.

  • Derek Mullins

    First thing this reminded me of was Detention Sphere… I mean, besides the fact it doesn’t hit non-creatures, could this be better? 1 color, 2 cmc, not an enchantment; usually, this would be good against token strategies, so I’m not sure how much the investigate is a drawback.

    • Mr.Mayhem631

      Different cards, by far.

      • Derek Mullins

        Oh, I know they’re different, but the effect is about the only it could be compared to.

  • wolf

    So this is proof that nahiri is evil or that she just hates all vampires now?

    • Rockstick

      She probably just went to the manor and broke a vase by accident, so to make up for it, she broke the entire manor

    • Kahai

      Nahiri is angry. Angry is very red, but red isn’t usually evil.

      Vampires were not native to Zendikar, and i don’t think she knows they exist there due to the Eldrazi. She may very well be angry just for that. But Sorin also abandoned her and Zendikar before the Eldrazi fully awakened during Zendikar block.

      • Rockstick

        She’s probably mad because elf hitler released the Eldrazi and she thinks it’s Sorin’s fault

        • wwww

          Elf hitler?

          • Rockstick

            Nissa

      • Vincent Godin-Filion

        What? Eldrazi were linked to the creation of vampires on Innistrad? I read a story back then where it was Sorin’s father that created Innistrad’s vampires… Did something new come out?

        • Kahai

          Zendikar.

          Vampires are from Sorin’s father on Innistrad.

          Before the Eldrazi were lured to Zendikar, there were no vampires.

    • MrAptronym

      I wouldn’t go with Good VS Evil here. She is angry, that is for sure.

  • A combination of Jace & Nalaar

    Could use this as a sideboard against those tokens deck. Maybe even use it on some Eldrazis if needed.

  • ZomboJenkins

    1. If they have 128 tokens from Krenko and you target one with this, they don’t investigate.

    2. White removal for two, with the only downside of them getting to pay two for draw, 10/10 solid card.

    Will be a beast in standard, and I’ll probably even use it in modern.

    • MrAptronym

      The only reason I am not sure on modern is that white already has Path to Exile which is instant and costs just W. I’d argue that the only better removal in the format is Lightning Bolt. If you are running into tokens though, this looks like a fine choice.

      • Brian O’Shaughnessy

        Really punishes decks like affinity and the Eldrazi decks that will put out multiple small drops in early turns. Wrath like effects are too slow in modern and I think this card acts as a nice potential wrath against the fast decks. If your opponent drops 2 mimics on their turn 1 and you get to exile both of them on your turn two that is pretty big. Same with getting rid of two ornithopters. Also, you see a lot of the decks with a high number of mana dorks keep questionable hands with two heirarchs or two birds.

  • Rockstick

    The art is one of my favorite thus far

  • Hedronal

    Two mana for exiling target creature seems good, even just leaving the rest out.

  • Nahiri

    Get wrecked!

  • Alex Egertsen

    damn, it is sorcery speed

    • wwww

      It’s still awesome. It’s similar to Maelstrom Pulse and this card saw plays back in Alara standard and still see plays sometime today.

      At instant speed, the best we will get is either tempo card (Echoing Truth), conditionnal creature removal (Bile Blight, Echoing Decay) or other permanent type removals (Echoing Calm, Echoing Ruin).

    • The_Hastener

      I was half excited about it before I saw that. Another bad rare for an insular limited. Seems to be Wizards’ design prerogative now, which is a real shame.

      • Brian O’Shaughnessy

        Yeah seems horrible. A sorcery speed exile spell for a colorless and a white mana. No one would ever play a card like that. Just another unplayable spell like Journey to Nowhere or Silkwrap

        • Jody Williams

          LOL Though if it must be instant speed they could always mess around with Brain in a Jar, that can make it instant speed.

      • Angrygnome

        Because 2 mana condition-less removal is such trash. Oh wait.

  • Kahai

    Now we just need to see a WinCon for Clue tokens and this will be a combo. Make token creatures. Exile them with this. Win. :D

    • Happy The Cat

      bro reread it.

      • Kahai

        Nontoken creatures. Still effective for four Clues.

        ~~~

        • wwww

          You’ve missed one important word : nontoken.

          • Kahai

            You’ve missed one important word: Edit.

          • we have rights !!

            clue tokens are not creatures you can not exile them with this

          • Kahai

            I edited the orignal post. I understand my error.

    • wwww

      I think you will be dissapointed.

  • davee

    better than silkwrap in standard. I like it, especially since it will at least cantrip once for 2 extra mana and can hit things bigger than 3 CMC.

    • Olphod

      The cantrip aspect is for the opponent, not the caster of the spell, so in certain circumstances it might not be better than silkwrap in that regard :P

  • Ryan Hoekman

    It’s not an instant…

    • Atarka Effreet

      .. its a trap!

    • we have rights !!

      does it need to be ?? this is a 2 cmc exile anything with an up in white ! if this was instant it would be beyond broken

  • John Bone

    Investigate is kind of a weird keyword mechanic, especially without reminder text, like on this.
    “Okay, so my guys are exiled… and now what, I have to go looking for them?
    Wat?”

    • we have rights !!

      investigate – put a clue artifact token onto the battlefield with (2) sac this clue and draw a card ,very simple investigate gives you an artifact that you can pay 2 mana and sac to draw a card , the tokens are not creatures just simply artifacts.

  • Atarka Effreet

    Batman subtext?

  • James W. Schlott

    a 2 mana exiling malestrom pulse for creatures, that lets your opponent slow draw. Seems good to me, maybe even a sideboard option for nonstandard formats

    • DJ Pad

      Uh, Maelstrom pulse hits nonland permanents not just creatures, big difference.

      • James W. Schlott

        That’s why I said “for creatures”. You’re right though, it is a big difference, but so is 3 and 2 mana

        • Happy The Cat

          but you shouldn’t compare those at all, Maelstrom pulse is good because it can hit anything, shutting out planeswalkers or artifacts or enchantments that combos use. the only connections they have is that they are sorcery and hit the same name. they don’t share a color and they don’t share a function in your removal suite

          • James W. Schlott

            That’s a valid point. But I still think that they are comparable because a lot of the scenarios where maelstrom pulse is good, declaration in stone is also good. Obviously maelstrom pulse is “better” in a sense because it has more versatility, but I think what players see that makes Maelstrom pulse such a “value card”, they’ll also see in declaration in Stone. Atleast in the standard scene, and I think it’s good enough for modern if you can’t already play maelstrom pulse.

  • Robert FakeLastName

    the reason this says nontoken creatures is March of the Machines combo with ashnod’s alter. It works on your own creatures as well. It has much use and has been pushed very far. this thing is begging to be broken wide open.

    • Vizzerdrix

      March of the machines kills the tokens, they’ll be 0/0s
      Also this doesn’t say non token, maybe you posted on the wrong card?

      • De’Elgathor

        It does say nontoken, in the second sentence (the one that gives you the clue tokens).

        • Lorcogoth

          you can still target token creatures you just get more out of it if you target non token creatures.

          • AlaAlba

            Well, if you’re using it as removal, you get more out of it on tokens, because you aren’t giving your opponent benefits.

          • we have rights !!

            tokens are more often going to have the same name as well like there will be more cases of 3-4 tokens with the same name as opposed to 1-2 cast creatures with extremely rare being 3

      • Robert FakeLastName

        for each non token creature exiled this way. and i misunderstood what march did so i goofed there

    • Happy The Cat

      wait what? how would this help you even if it worked? you have to exile your tokens, you could just leave the tokens you have on the board and attack with them, if it didn’t say say non tokens the only thing that would change is that token decks could run this as insurance to counter wraths with a army of eggs to just beat even the best of control decks with value.

      • Robert FakeLastName

        the combo was to draw a bunch of cards. with the mana generated from the altar half of your clues could be used to draw a bunch of cards. i really like finding janky interactions. For example, if declaration in stone did not have the clause non token creature i could have assemble the legion with 10 counters on it. Given those 10 soldiers, ashnods alter, march, and spear of heliod all in play under your control, you could use this spell to exile your tokens replace them with clues sac 5 to the alter and draw 5 cards. It likely wouldn’t be worth it but that is what i do.

        • Happy The Cat

          but you could just have a Coastal Piracy and hit people, then you get to keep your creatures and maybe draw two or three cards per creature
          not running blue? then skullclamp. most of the time token decks run it anyway with it’s exploit value.
          your tokens too big for clamp? Elemental Bond or Garruk’s Packleader. if you’ve got at least +2/+2 global( which most token decks almost always will have) you get a card per creature
          tokens not drawing fast enough with skullclamp and you’ve got a bunch of mana? Mentor of the Meek
          want more of a one shot draw? Skullmulcher
          this is a removal spell with clues stapled to it, not a clue spell with a removal condition.

  • DJ Pad

    This card will curve well into things like wasteland strangler in the new standard.

  • Vizzerdrix

    Yay more removal for my group hug edh

  • MrAptronym

    I really dislike white getting cheap nonconditional removal, even if they technically have to give something in return.

  • Ryū

    Quite flavorful to boot. I’d love to see Sorin be truly angry for once.

  • Andy Upton

    sorin’s vengeance

  • Ryū

    Seemed more smug than angry to me, plus I’m talking story wise, whereas SV is just a neat one-off card made to support him in a core set.