Char

3 mana for 4 damage HOLY CRAP!! This card goes great in most reckless red decks not too mention you combine this with balefire liege!

i think this card is a great one. it is fast damage to any target, for cheap. if you're playing aggro, you dont care about your own life, you are just trying to do as much damage as possible, as fast as possible. I would choose this over flame javelin in multicolor (for example R/G aggro) because most likely you wont have RRR available and will have to pay extra, which ruins the point. as compared to blood hand, that's not even really an argument...this owns it anyday (except in direct damage decks)

Red is supposed to kill quick. This does exactly that. You take damage, but when playing red, you don't care about that since your opponent is supposed to be dead long before you die.

5 stars for an incredibly aggressive card.

you suck if you dont get it

yea 4 damage for 3 mana with 2 damage to yourself doesnt really matter in 90% of the decks that your going to play the card....your saying its not worth the mana and has way too many draw backs? play the card and see 4 damage is huge in the right deck.....anyone who gives it under a 4 clearly hasnt played the card in the decks that really need it...2 damage is nothing for 4 damage at instant speed for 3 mana and only 1 red....

A true magic player would know that this is one of the best spells that Standard has to offer. 3 mana may seem like too much mana to cast a 4 damage spell in the mind of a magic amateur, but what they dont realize is the value the card has for its price. You can either deal 4 damage to the player or you can destroy a creature from just a 3 mana card. Also amateurs don't realize that there is no magic spell in standard that can let you do 4 damage to both the player or creature in standard. The backfall of taking 2 damage is not that big of a deal. You should still be on top of the player no matter what situation arises, since you are playing red.

As the people above stated, it's great in an aggro or aggro/control deck that runs red. I use 4 of these in my G/R Wildfire, and they work. This + 3 copies of arasi guarantee that meloku is no longer a threat

How can people say that this is worse than Flame Javelin?! Char is great because it is able to deal 4 damage for 3 mana, and because it's mana cost allows you to play it in a multicolored deck. Flame Javelin is only better than Char when you're playing a MONO RED deck - in a multicolored deck, you'd normally only get to cast Flame Javelin at 4 or more mana.

Someone please tell me why Char is a bad card? It's manacost makes it easy to play in a RGW deck along with Kird Apes and Lightning Helixes, which is exactly why many people do that.

For a long time I didn't get why this card was so good...Now I get it!

4 Damage! That's a lot of damage for only 3 mana. And it's great in a multi color deck as well. Cause it only requires one red to activate it. Granted it deals 2 damage to you as well. But once again, 4 chars deals 16 damage to an opponent and only 8 to you. If you're playing read your hitting it hard and fast anyway, so what's some measley damage to you? It is also so good because it can target either a creature OR a player! Very versitile.

Now are there better burn spells out there? Of course, but Char isn't a bad card at all. If you are giving it 1 star or 2 maybe you should go back and rethink this card. Or are you one of those people who can't see why Remand is such a great spell either? :)

this card is a great way to deal with the big threats of the time. Its also a great finisher card. Also, because its an instant, its a great post-combat finisher to finish a big threat, or to finish your opponent. The only reason this card isnt a 5 is that it deals damage to you, which i guess it kind of bad.

Best burn spell in T2. Cheapest Teferi remover in red.

It's a must for r/g aggro. There have been countless times playing against someone with 4 life or less that i wish i had a char in my hand. One of the top cards to come out of Ravnica.

not the greatest direct damage spell, but i know this is useful. Back in the ol' back days we used Psionic Blast, and splashed in some counter/ern'em burnem' riff raff wreckers. This just makes it easier for a red player to kill you..........that much faster that is. HOW ABOUT SHRAPNEL BLAST? if you're playing type one and use moxes and a tangle wire with one or even 2 counters on it, 5 damage is KILLER>>>>> and instant. Check out shrapnel blast and keep on casting players!

There are certainly decks which would not want to use this card. However, I can name two that will: Sligh and Boros (Sligh/WW). It will handle most of the major threats to each deck (and at instant speed), but can also deliver the final blow to your opponent's head (and with the tendency for both decks to lose tempo in the mid-game, that is vital.) Shrapnel Blast was huge for my Sligh deck while Mirrodin was still T2 legal for the latter reason: I could get an opponent to around 5 life without much difficulty...but an opponent could recover right about then. Char isn't as good as Shrapnel Blast (one more mana, one less damage, lose two life instead of an artifact), but it fills the same role.

Anyone who doesn't "get the appeal" of this card realy doesn't understand how red decks work. Simply put, a red deck depend on speed at all cost (see the Tempest set's Rathi Dragon). Now, that being said, show me another T2 instant that deals 4 damage to any target for three mana?

Simple, it's good in T2. It's better then Flames of the Blood Hand, all the red Yamabushi burns, Lava Axe, and sometimes shock. 4 damage is alot, and deals with threats like Meloku and Heirarch. May not be worth the price, but definetly a must have in any aggro deck with red.

Not a bad card, but you guys should check out Fireblast. It's the best red aggro finisher out there.

you guys should consider rift bolt if you haven't already, just suspend it during their turn. I'd rather pay 1 mana for 3 damage, then 3 for 4 damage. I know, I know it's an instant, but I do agree, Char is good in standard.

Don't even consider using it in an older format though, flame rift is another great pick.

Why is it worth so much. I mean i just started and i dont konw why this card is so expensive. I pulled 3 out of boosters so far and thats all i get! I think Ill sell mine

there are few direct damage spells at instant speed that are able to deal 4 damage to any target. thunderbolt did four damage to a creature with flying, but the idea is that char allows you to deal 4 damage to any target whenever. With that in mind, I still don't think that it's too amazing. Sure it can take care of an attacking serra with a slight drawback and it can even be effective for dealing 4 quick ones to a player for a net gain of 2 life points but I feel like the casting cost is a little expensive. Then again two might make the card too good, but given some of the other rares in Ravnica it's surprising that it doesn't cost one red...

do you want to know why this is marginal? because red has so many other better burn spells. demonfire is certainly slower but it's more likely to win the game. lightning helix, incinerate, naya charm, of course shock/tarfire, and most of all flame javelin are all out there, and probably better.

As a red spell, this is pretty terrible. Only marginally more damaging to an opponent/creature than an incinerate, but 1 mana more expensive...And it burns you! However, as a blue card (Psionic Blast), this card is killer, as it's basically the only blue burn spell in standard right now. This should either cost 1 or 2, definitely not 3. Bad card, all around.

It needs some "extra credit"

This is one of those cards that are only good for a short time (Standard), so its not worth the price, just wait until its not in Standard anymore and the price drops a lot. Only a fool would pay that much for it, when there are other cards that will be good in the future too.

Awful card, just give me a Lightning Bolt or a Fireball anytime.

The Governor say I do good job, huh? He tell you I work hard. This card just walks around all day. It doesn't help anyone. I do the work of 500 people but this card just goes fishing with your dad. Huh? One day I will put all of the Chars in space, huh? That is after I finish negotiations for Russia-China. Soon I will be able to control all of the cards with my mind, huh? So, the accountant will help me out, huh? She will take care of everything, huh? Maybe this card should go to jail and get it's teeth fixed.

In every block red is going to get a couple of burn spells. From the lightning bolt and incinerate to shock and char. In type 1 no one will use a card like char because,well, it's not very good. However, in the current t2 environment it is versatile and powerful. Compared to burns of old it doesn't stack up.(Fireblast, anyone?) When the Coldsnap block comes out, this will get put back in trading folders everywhere, doomed to stay there while decreasing in value

It's not that it's a bad card; it is versatile. It's OVERRATED. When Ravnica was released lots of magazines and other sources rated this as the second best card in the set.(The shock lands all tied for first) I know it's all a matter of opinion, but I think there are lots of more powerful cards in T2. Red will always have lots of fast direct damage spells and this is potent in T2, but I bet nobody plays it in T1, which says a lot.

This should be uncommon, not rare. I think lightning helix is better and if lightning blast was still T2 I would run four of those instead of these. Yeah, I know these are faster. Great sideboard card. I give it one star simply because it is overrated(most people I know love it). The blue version of this(psionic blast) was great because it was a source of direct damage for blue. This is nothing special to say the least.

I'd rather have six chairs than this card.

How can anyone like this card? It is certainly not worth the price and probably shouldn't even be rare. Red has so many direct damage spells that are WAY better than this and most of them are common or uncommon. (And most of them don't deal damage to the caster.) Can anyone explain to me what the appeal of this card is?