I want this card for EDH. Though, I feel lit would be a bit more fair and still mythic at 3UUU or 4UU.

this is all black.

1) Color-shifting enemy hand manipulation into blue again (precedent first set by Planar Chaos) seemed especially fitting for this block, since the world theme so heavily emphasizes knowledge, secrets, and sanity.

2) It's costed to be as unfair as I could think to make it without being outright broken. It's definitely intended to be probably the best mythic in the set. (This is also why Throes of Genius is such a bad mythic, by the way.)

If you've ever played EDH, then you should know that Throes of Genius is a GREAT card for that format; if you haven't then I can see why you would think it is a bad mythic.

This seems, to me, like a well-costed sorcery (color pie considerations set aside). Double Coercion exile, after all, probably costs . Adding a 5/5 flyer to it is overkill, as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah. This is why I dislike mythics. "Discard half your hand" is a perfectly good card; and the decision thingy makes it blue, fine, no problem there.

But hey, mythics mean you can break the power curve in to tiny pieces! Am I allowed a 5/5 flyer for 5 in blue? I don't think I am. but hey; give it an insane ability too and make it mythic, and everything's fine!

Grumble grumble, get off my lawn.

(Seriously though - nice tweak on a discard ability. Problem is, by the time you've got the mana for this to be a fair body to have it on, it's too late and they're likely down to 1 or 2 cards anyway; and this becomes "Discards card of your choice" which is a lot less exciting. So, ironcically, a smaller body would make this a better card.)

I think that's what PMega was assuming, too. That, of course, assumes a meta-game where people don't hold many cards in their hands. The number of cards in players hands has a tendency to change radically, depending on the year.

I think the card is still easily backbreaking in control mirrors, where people ARE holding full hands on turn 5. Clearly the hand disruption becomes less relevant against aggro, but in those matchups the large body likely becomes a stopping force instead.

Something I didn't think about at the time:

Flip the coin: Choose to go first
Round 1: Forest. Birds of Paradise.
Round 2: Island. Cultivate.
Round 3: Land from Cultivate. Sphinx of Contempt you. Chances of you having 7 cards in your hand at this point? About 40%... depending on the deck. If your opponent doesn't have two cheap removal spells in hand that he/she can split, then the game is over. Otherwise, you only broke their back.

It's Not Jace the mindsculpter the only good thing i see in this card is that its a 5/5 flying blue creature.

It's not Jace, the mind sculptor is not a good defence of a card. It's not Black Lotus either. So what? It's still above the power curve. Just not as far above.

I get the argument. Jace doesn't look broken, on the surface, so it's easy to think of him as being just above the line of acceptable. He isn't, though. Any 4 cost card that sees play in 50% of the Vintage/Type I decks is, by default, busted.

Planar Chaos isn't a precedent for anything. This is black, and probably costs 4BB.