SCD - Impact Resonance

[RowanKeltizar]

Does anyone have personal experience with this card? Impact Resonance. I am considering it for my izzet spellslinger list.

What I like about it:

Highly efficient - at just 2 cmc this has a pretty high ceiling of efficiency for how much damage it has the possibility for.

Instant speed - we all know how important this is. A lot of board wipes i have access to are sorcery speed or they also hit my commander which is... less than ideal.

It doesn't care where the damage came from, only that it came from a single source. Notably, I could say, wheel with Niv, hit a player for 7 or more, then cast this and hit the best creature or utility creatures on the field. I could even swing in with Niv for 5 to the face and then take out a problematic couple of creatures.

But another probably more common scenario is that someone swings in with their Serra Ascendant for 6 on turn 2. After combat I cast this and take out their 1 drop. Seems good.

I don't get a lot of discussion on my Primer page (I'm assuming it's just a boring commander for most people here), so I figured i would get more discussion by posting this topic. Thanks

[Crazy Monkey]

I can't really comment on Impact Resonance in Niv specifically, but I've tried it in Feather, the Redeemed and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. Neither of those have built-in ways to generate damage, so my experience will not match up with how it plays for you. Specifically, my main issue was having enablers to enable the initial damage.

That said, I'm not sure whether the payoff is much better than other removal options without "effect increase" cards, such as Feather, the Redeemed for repeated board control or Gisela, Blade of Goldnight as a Repercussion enabler. The issue that you may encounter is that it only checks the largest damage dealt to a single target.

As I thinking about it for Niv-Mizzet, Parun your best enabler is one or more wheel effects. In that context, you will have resolved the wheel and know your hand prior to declaring targets for Resonance and can chose targets to maximize it. I guess the question is how often committing a card slot for this is worthwhile when it can, at best replicate choosing your Niv damage triggers do damage those creatures. The uses in that context are playing against damage prevention (to get damage instances greater than 1), and removing very large creatures along with multiple small creatures.

EDIT: I suppose I should note that I understand this card to check the damage by a single source to a single target in the turn. You can compile the damage, but have to focus your damage on a single target to maximize the effect.

[Serenade]

Too inconsistent for a board wipe slot. Cheap, instant-speed, one-sided: All elite features. However, you need a good setup already to get much out of it. I did consider it for Nin for a while. Maybe I'll try it again, but I think it's only a good spell for when you are ahead.

I think my red wipes need to hit every creature for a lot for cheap (B.Act), exile if you burn them out (Hour of Devastation), also hit PWs (Star of Extinction), be one-sided (Mizzium Mortars), or do something else (Volcanic Vision). Many of those cards fall into multiple categories.

[Mookie]

Ruling to clarify functionality:

Impact Resonance looks at the entire turn to see the greatest amount of damage dealt from a single source to a single permanent or player. For example, if the only damage dealt during the turn was Earthquake, which dealt 5 damage to each of four creatures and two players, then X is 5.

I think my main question re: Impact Resonance is "how much damage does it need to do to be worth running?" If you're doing 3 damage, that's Searing Spear - pretty underwhelming. Based on data, I would usually want my spot removal spells to be dealing at least 5 damage. Impact Resonance does have the upside of being splittable, but that isn't particularly exciting until you're already dealing a lot of damage, IMO. As a result, my impression of Impact Resonance is that it seems like a win-more card - if you're swinging with a 5+ power commander like Niv, you're probably already in a strong position, and the amount of effort that goes into reaching that condition isn't really worth the payoff. I'd rather run a counterspell or something to make myself more likely to have that large creature survive in the first place.

That said, there are some commanders like Thromok the Insatiable and Kresh the Bloodbraided that I could see running it in - if your commander is reaching 10+ power consistently, this starts to look a lot more appealing.

[Dragoon]

It's worth noting that Impact Resonance looks at each instance of damage separately. Niv-Mizzet, Parun deals damage 1 by 1, which means that you will only be able to deal 1 damage with Impact Resonance, no matter how many times Niv's ability triggered.

[Outcryqq]

I'd probably be more inclined to run it if it could go to the face. As a purely damage-based creature removal spell. And while in a a few scenarios it can be great, there are a lot of more common scenarios, like you identified, where it's a mediocre removal spell.

[RowanKeltizar]

It's worth noting that Impact Resonance looks at each instance of damage separately. Niv-Mizzet, Parun deals damage 1 by 1, which means that you will only be able to deal 1 damage with Impact Resonance, no matter how many times Niv's ability triggered.

Dang, if you are correct that makes this a lot less attractive for me. Pretty disappointing. I didn't catch that on first read of the card. And you actually can't choose the value for X, it's defaulted to the "greatest value" which is most likely not a problem, but worth noting.

I think the reason I am considering this card is because there are several commanders in my playgroup who DO swing in for 10+ damage fairly regularly. Korvald, Karlov of the Ghost Council and others. There are generally heavy hitters like Ulvenwald Hydra beating face.

I think this card really could have been fantastic just given a few small tweaks. Most likely I will still give it a try for the sake of SCIENCE but my expectations are low. I view it more as spot removal than a sweeper.

I need to limit my spot removal though simply because it doesn't allow me to generate card advantage. Taking out just one target is often not worth the card slot for me.


I've been looking for efficient and effective sweepers for Niv. Since I am running no creatures of my own, i am totally vulnerable to early aggro. My meta has kind of shifted from being combo heavy to aggro heavy in the past year or so. I've been swapping out a few counterspells for sweepers.

Ideally, I like my sweepers to be:

efficient or flexible - cyclonic rift is great because its modular and it also ticks all the other boxes below!

hit multiple types of permanents - All Is Dust is my best catch all aside from Rift

deal with large creatures - not a fan of cards like Pyroclasm or Mizzium Mortars because they leave the largest creatures on the field

instant speed - obviously this is ideal, i like being able to respond to threats in real time, especially if someone is deciding to swing my way. I can always say "don't attack me or your creatures go bye bye" which feels nice.

one sided - i never want to hit niv with my sweeper if at all possible


At this point the other answers I'm also considering:

Aetherize - 4 cmc kind of feels to be the sweet spot for an efficient sweeper. While this is conditional, I think it will generally do what I want it to do without pissing off the whole table.

Chain Reaction an old standby. while this does hit Niv, it's on curve before he hits the table which is helpful. Not an instant but it acts like a second copy of BA.

Devastation Tide Has the potential to be very efficient if I can set it up. I've ran this before to pretty good effect. Mystical Tutor or Brainstorm can set this up to be cast at instant speed.

Consuming Tide - new sweeper albeit sorcery speed. I like that it can leave Niv alone and draw me a couple cards.

Evacuation another old standby

Also, creature theft seems like something to consider as well.

I know the premium spells for this are Treachery and Gilded Drake but I don't think that's the direction i want to go.

I'm looking at Act of Aggression and Dominate for being instant speed. Killing someone with their own fat commander seems pretty good. There are also some niche scenarios where these spells would be a lot of fun. Sweeping an opponent's field with their own Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite sounds like a lot of fun.


The last option is just to pay more attention to my matchups. Running Niv against 3 aggro decks just is putting me at a disadvantage from the beginning. It's built to matchup with other combo and control decks. Fast early aggro has always been the deck's greatest weak point.

[pokken]

Aetherspouts is the best sweeper-adjacent card at instant speed I think.

I think you might find spot removal to be better than you think. Stuff like Repeal and Into the Roil can do a lot of work, bouncing your own dockside as well (when you inevitably bow to the dockside overlords ).

In my Toxrill build, stuff like Reality Shift and Rapid Hybridization have been solid. They usually are outsized good because people fear them when they know they're there.

[Magiqmaster]

It's in my Xenagos, God of Revels, I have yet to draw it but I am sure that it will one day prove it's worth.

[hyalopterouslemur]

Technically it becomes a slightly cheaper Arc Lightning at instant speed, with the downside that you can't directly hit players. So, better. Still not a boardwipe.

Damage doublers can help with it. So, if you Bolt someone with a Furnace of Rath out, Bolt does 6 damage, so this will do 12 damage. (Impact Resonance is obviously great in Saskia, the Unyielding, a deck that loves damage doublers and wants to get rid of pesky chump blockers.)

[RowanKeltizar]

It would be funny with Repercussion and Toralf, God of Fury // Toralf's Hammer lol. Add a damage doubler and gg?