Memoricide

[vanguardian]

Memoricide
3B
Sorcery
Rare
Name a nonland card. Search target player's graveyard, hand, and library for any number of cards with that name and exile them. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

....
I don't understand why this card was printed. Can somebody help me understand that? Thought Hemorrhage never saw play and only occasionally was seen in a sideboard. To me, it was better because of the damage at least! Is this card really better? Really? Is the fact that its only black make it better than Thought Hemorrhage?
As you may be able to tell - I'm absolutely stupefied right now.

Maybe they reprinted Cranial Extraction because, besides the arcane thing, it may be important soon. That's all I can think.

[vanguardian]

And is that Liliana Vess and Ajani?
www.gatheringmagic.com/scars-of-mirrodin-spoilers-0249/

[kartheunlucky]

Cranial Extraction was a huge card. Thought Hemorrhage was a great sideboard card. I, for one, really like Memoricide. It's a really, really good card that helps black quite a bit.

[natedog08]

I think the main things hurting Thought Hemorrhage was that 1)There wasn't a graveyard strategy or a combo deck that was routinely winning, which is what made Cranial Extraction so good and 2)For the non-Standard formats, we already had Cranial Extraction to fill the spot against graveyard decks and combo decks.

[vanguardian]

*blows whistle*
Timeout

Cranial Extraction was a good card. Thought Hemorrhage was a great card too. I never said neither one was bad. However, when Cranial Extraction was standard legal it was played main deck in a lot of decks (I think Gifts ran it main, as an instance) and was a $10 rare. Thought Hemorrhage never got the love Cranial Extraction did. I don't know what made the circumstances different, but Thought Hemorrhage didn't see but an occasional 1 or 2 of in a Top 8 sideboard. It just wasn't as effective as Cranial Extraction was.
That being said, they just reprinted Extraction/Hemorrhage into a format that, as of now, obviously doesn't need it. My question: why? My thoughts:
1) Cranial Extraction can't be reprinted since it is an Arcane spell. Since Thought Hemorrhage is about to rotate out they feel like this is a good time and reason to reprint Extraction without the Arcane.
2) Wizards feels like cards like this should stay standard legal to help balance the scales. If this is true then we will see more cards like this or this same card in future core sets.
3) Scars of Mirrodin may be so good that they feel this deck is necessary to keep the format from getting out of control. Would Ravager/Finity been so good if you played Cranial Extraction naming Ravager (assuming you lived long enough to do so)?
4) All of the above.

In general, cards that were once stupid good just aren't so anymore. That just goes to show you how much the game is changing. Instances: who would have thought that Time Twister would be reprinted and not see play? Time Spiral cost 6 and saw play (okay, so you got to untap the lands and thats a big deal, lol) and was broken. Watchwolf was reprinted and nobody has given a second thought to it (Garruk's Companion) and Watchwolf was a $2-$3 uncommon and broken. Savannah Lions used to be rare, now its an uncommon and never sees much play (Elite Vanguard).
Just evidence of the ever-changing face of Magic.

[jhklauk]

Aug 13, 2010 21:42:18 GMT -6 vanguardian said:

And is that Liliana Vess and Ajani?
www.gatheringmagic.com/scars-of-mirrodin-spoilers-0249/

Perhaps, but Mirrodin did have Leonin's in it last time, so my guess is that this is just a Leonin Cheiftan?

[pr0b4bi1i7y]

Casting cast is 3B not 3G

[vanguardian]

Can't believe nobody noticed/pointed that out before. OOps