Desperate Ritual

Arcane Creatures Possibility

Hypothetically if you had an Arcane Goblin typed creature, which cost 2R and spliced on Desperate Ritual you are in effect netting 1 reduction in mana cost, and filtering three colorless into red. I know this is a roundabout way of getting there, but sharing a subtype into creatures could solve the problem of reasonable limitation, while also opening up design space and giving older cards new life. So; could we maybe see Arcane creatures in the future?

Arcane is an instant and sorcery subtype and card subtypes are restricted to one card type (where instants and sorcery are the one exception).

Card Types Colorless Creatures Design Space Desperate Ritual Goblin Instants Mana Red Sorceries Subtype

Splice vs Energy

Every Splice onto Arcane card is Arcane itself. Two copies of Desperate Ritual in a deck means you can use Splice. Without any energy outlets, you can't use everything on the card even when every card in the deck produces energy. I just can't see Splice onto Arcane as any different (parasitic-wise) than energy except you handled it better this time (Evermind would be equivalent to a card that uses energy but doesn't produce it).

The difference is subtle but important. The power of a Splice card is in the ability for it to be spliced, so a significant portion of the cost is allocated to the ability. An Energy card has its power resting on the value of Energy but because there’s an economy built in (all energy has the same basic value - see the chart from the mechanics panel at PAX), the output of the cost matches most of the power of the card. (It’s not 100% because of the optimization of synergy.) What this means is if you only buy a few packs of each set, Splice onto Arcane is much harder to use effectively in your pre-existing deck than Energy and thus is considered more parasitic.Note when talking about Energy I mean the cards that both grant and use Energy. The cards that only grant Energy are more parasitic than Splice onto Arcane.

Desperate Ritual Evermind Mechanics Parasitic Splice

Energy vs Splice

Energy spell having a use outside of energy either because they still have another effect, or because they give you energy so you can spend it for the spell's effect, doesn't make this non-Parasitic. With the exception of Evermind, you can still play Splice onto Arcane spells in decks with no other Arcane spells, and it's often done with Through the Breach and with Desperate Ritual, in different Modern decks.

I never said Energy wasn’t parasitic. I said it was significantly less than parasitic than Splice onto Arcane. Splice onto Arcane is an additive (and powerful) ability. Spells with it have to pay extra for the ability so you have very little incentive to play a Splice spell you never plan to splice.Energy, in contrast, gives you an ability with the proper amount of energy to use that ability. Because there’s an Energy economy (each energy expenditure values Energy at the same rate), there is less requirement to play other Energy cards. Yes, there is some Energy synergy in that you get more choices, but that synergy is worth far less than the ability to repeatedly get an effect without costing a card.

Desperate Ritual Energy Cards Evermind Expend Modern Parasitic Spells Splice Through the Breach

Drafting MM

Hey MaRo, I just wanted to say Modern Masters was the most fun limited environment I have ever played in. We did two drafts in the store and in the first one first picked cryptic command and drafted a solid control deck and second game got to go desperate ritual splice ritual splice burnspell play second ritual chalice of the void for 1 lava spike empty the warrens turn 4. Never got to play storm before, so that felt pretty sweet.

: )

Chalice of the Void Cryptic Command Desperate Ritual Empty the Warrens Keyword Abilities Lava Spike Limited Mark Rosewater Modern Modern Masters Spike Splice

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