RCotD #31

Random Card of the Day #31:

Falling Star - 2R

Sorcery

Flip Falling Star onto the playing area from a height of at least one foot. Falling Star deals damage to each creature it lands on. Tap all creatures dealt damage by Falling Star. If Falling Star doesn't turn completely over at least once during the flip, it has no effect.

Initial Thoughts:

It's kind of like Chaos Orb's retarded brother. Not that you would ever consider playing this in any format other than casual because it is banned in every format where it is eligible in, which is only any eternal format and Commander. Magic decided it was very bad to have cards that used agility/hand adept for determining the effect of cards and how it resolves. It is important to note that Chaos Orb affects permanents while Falling Star is only creatures.

It should also be known that Chaos Orb is now banned in Commander, I'm not sure when that ruling was put in but Gatherer says it's banned yet I see no updates to Wizard's and EDH's banned list. This is important because Lolzor had been wanting to get a copy of the oversized Chaos Orb and proxy it into his EDH deck. With Glissa, the Traitor on the field, as long as Chaos Orb hit a creature, he would get Chaos Orb back.

To start off, this card is bad, it's like 2R for a Lightning Bolt, and if you don't get to kill the creature, you can tap it. So it can function as bolt and Sleep in one card for cheaper cost and more splashable. But if your opponent has 3 creatures, you won't be able to get all three creatures unless for some reason you are playing on a really small table or your opponent is stacking his cards in the same spot.

But what is so funny about this card is the amount of errata/ruling flip cards have:

1) It is not a targeted ability. It can deal damage to Shrouded and Hex-proof creatures.

2) You cannot rearrange cards while it is on the stack. (I would assume you can tap permanents for mana or abilities to respond, however)

3) A flip is considered 360 degrees.

4) Protective sleeves are considered part of the card.

5) You cannot interfere with the falling of this card.

6) Only cards touched when it stops moving are affected. If it touches a card while moving but did not stop on it, that card is unaffected.

7) Once the card has been flipped it is too late to respond with spells or abilities regardless of what card it stops on.

8) ?"It must flip like a coin not a frisbee"? (I have no idea what that means. Maybe someone got "flip" confused with "rotate")

It's 1/5 card and could possibly be a 3/5 if you manage to perfect it's landing every time. But this card is just too wacky and unreliable to considered good. If you played it perfectly against another opponent who was somewhat competent it could read:

Optimal Falling Star - 2R

Sorcery

Choose up to two creatures. Optimal Falling Star deals 3 damage to each of those creatures. Tap those creatures.

I wonder if there's an oversized Falling Star card somewhere...