Puncture Blast

Instant

Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

Puncture Blast deals 3 damage to target creature or player.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (10)

Neotrup on Can I cast a spell …

3 years ago

Polaris is entirely correct for the question you're actually asking. However, in answer to the question "Can I cast a spell after the end step?" the answer actually is "Maybe."

514.3. Normally, no player receives priority during the cleanup step, so no spells can be cast and no abilities can be activated. However, this rule is subject to the following exception:

514.3a At this point, the game checks to see if any state-based actions would be performed and/or any triggered abilities are waiting to be put onto the stack (including those that trigger "at the beginning of the next cleanup step"). If so, those state-based actions are performed, then those triggered abilities are put on the stack, then the active player gets priority. Players may cast spells and activate abilities. Once the stack is empty and all players pass in succession, another cleanup step begins.

For example, if a during the turn Grizzly Bears had both Giant Growth and Puncture Blast cast on it, during the cleanup step the +3/+3 would wear off and it would be put into the graveyard, causing a round of priority followed by another cleanup step.

Unfortunately, beyond being very situational, this still doesn't help with Sea Gate Stormcaller , as it would be after the cleanup step ended any "this turn" effects, so it would already be too late to use the delayed triggered ability.

Yesterday on Is there a set order …

3 years ago

A Vastwood Hydra is on my side of the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it. My opponent targets it with a Puncture Blast. After that spell resolves, before state-based actions are checked, there's a moment when the hydra is on the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it, three -1/-1 counters on it, at P/T -1/-1.

I was playing on MTGO a while ago and something similar to this happened (though I can't remember the exact cards involved), and the game handled it by default — the creature died before the +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters removed each other, and so the owner of the creature got the benefit of it dying with the two +1/+1 counters, rather than none.

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In a different scenario, I'm attacking an opponent in a multiplayer game with three vanilla 2/2s and I control a Blood Artist. The opponent only has 3 life and a vanilla 1/1, and decides to block one of my creatures. When combat damage resolves, as state-based actions are checked, the opponent loses the game for having 0 or less life (and therefore all their creatures are removed from the game), and also their creature dies. If the creature dies before my opponent loses, my Blood Artist would see it dying and trigger.

I've only ever handled it as the creatures seeing each other dying, as I think one intuitively would do if two 2/2s were trading with each other rather than just a 1/1 blocking the attacking 2/2. But if the defending player is able to influence the way the state-based actions resolve, I suppose this isn't necessarily always the case.

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Is there a specific order in which these state-based actions always resolve? If not, who gets to choose the order in each scenario?

Owlteeth on

4 years ago

Puncture Blast and Needle Specter are cool cards too

Withering Wisps is good if you want to upgrade to snowlands

Withering Boon is flavorful and unexpected but lowkey kinda trash

Tzefick on Pattern Recognition #114 - New …

4 years ago

Boza

Efficient creatures with Infect is a strange thing to discuss because of Infect's inherent massive difference between damaging creatures and damaging players. And I think this is the reason why Infect is such a hated mechanic by many.

You can keep playing new creatures to block Infect-sources, that's a "renewable" resource. Poison counters is not something you can interact with (in a positive way) so once it's there, you cannot really do anything about it.

Infect also has the fundamental flaw that it plays its very own sub genre of a win condition and doesn't interact well with many other mechanics in the Magic universe. It plays extremely well with pump effects, because it basically has a hard cap of 10 damage dealt to a player and we're home safe.

However most Infect creatures are either blockable or are too heavy to play around as a win condition. I guess that's why you say the only efficient Infect creatures are Glistener Elf and Blighted Agent . One can win by turn two with pump spells before the opponent can reasonably have a chance to put down a blocker or deal with it, and the other the opponent cannot block, so it doesn't have to be thrown down before the match really starts.

You could just as easily have said Blight Mamba , Flensermite , Ichorclaw Myr , Lost Leonin , Necropede , Plague Myr or Plague Stinger . All of those are 2 CMC 1 power creatures with Infect (well Lost Leonin has 2 power). They have all the same basic characteristics as Glistener Elf , except they cost 1 mana more. Is the difference between a 1 mana and 2 mana creature with the same basic characteristics with Infect really that big? Apparently so, as those creatures requires a whole turn more to get in position to whack for lethal and they don't have evasion (with exception of Plague Stinger , who is just in the wrong colors for efficient fast lethal smacks). In this time the opponent have had a fair chance to drop a blocker or kill the creature and that's just not good enough for Infect. Because Infect is all about dropping a low cost creature with Infect and win the turn after. If it cannot do that, it doesn't function all too well.

Such a huge margin is present for Infect and that's a contributing factor to why the mechanic is such a blow out for many players.

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I'm a huge fan of Shadowmoor and Eventide's Wither mechanic. It was an interesting way to interact with large creatures, but as Berry notes, the mechanic kinda felt too weak to actually matter.

It was interesting as well to have spells with Wither Puncture Blast as it effectively read; deal 3 damage to a player or planeswalker or give a creature 3 -1/-1 counters.

I do hope they consider bringing Wither back, but you wont see me hold my breath for Infect's return. The mechanic is in my eyes fundamentally flawed.

According to MaRo and his Storm Scale article (https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/storm-scale-mirrodin-and-scars-mirrodin-blocks-2018-06-11) , he is more optimistic about Poison counters return than he is Infect.

Head CoIIector on Scorpion God wither

5 years ago

I love the overall idea. Mine is very new and rough around the edges (haven't even picked up a sol ring for it yet) but I tried to put in some options to make the death triggers happen more quickly that you might want to think about. Things like Deathbringer Thoctar and Archetype of Finality. If you are curious about my list this is it. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/the-scorpion-gods-sting-2/ but I think the archetype would be perfect with Warstorm Surge, Everlasting Torment, and Nest of Scarabs. Sick combo. Also a big fan of Necropede and Core Prowler for creature options and Puncture Blast and Volt Charge for red counters as a whole.

matchgrizzle on The Scorpion King

6 years ago

As I was looking through your deck list, a few cards came to mind: Puncture Bolt, Puncture Blast, and Soul-Scar Mage. Hope these are useful!

Boza on Ability overruled?

6 years ago

Soul-scar replaces damage dealt altogether with -1/-1 counters. Damage modifying effects from the wither of Puncture Blast or Soulfire Grand Master will not apply, since they modify how damage is dealt, but with soul-scar, no damage is dealt.

End result is still 3 -1/-1 counters.

Bobby654 on Ability overruled?

6 years ago

Here's what's going on. I'm planning on making jund -1/-1 counter deck. If I have Soul-Scar Mage out and I use Puncture Blast would that trigger soul scar's effect. or thanks to the wither Puncture Blast has on it Overrule soul scar?