Why does this not see play?
Standard forum
Posted on Aug. 26, 2013, 3:15 p.m. by Wabbbit
I don't understand why Glaring Spotlight isn't in a million sideboards yet. The latest standard grand prix winner was Bant Hexproof. Why has this card not been seen in a sideboard yet?
There are three reasons.
First of all, Glaring Spotlight does nothing on its own. An enchanted Geist of Saint Traft still does just as much damage to you even with the Spotlight in play. It requires other cards (i.e., kill spells) to be useful in any way, and that kind of thing makes players balk.
Secondly, there are other good answers for Bant Hexproof already. Barter in Blood , Devour Flesh , Ray of Revelation , Celestial Flare , Mutilate , Terminus , Supreme Verdict , even Abrupt Decay on an enchantment. There's no lack of answers to the deck and that's why, despite its occasional high finishes, it fails to find any consistency.
Third, Glaring Spotlight is too narrow. For all intents and purposes, it "hoses" (as long as you have help behind it) one single deck that makes up less than 5% of the field. You only have 15 sideboard slots. When you have a fine selection of cards that can fill those slots and be useful against more of the metagame, those are the cards you use. Glaring Spotlight is not one of them.
August 26, 2013 3:35 p.m.
It doesn't see play because it's a bad card. Paraselene is a lot better for dealing with auras
August 26, 2013 4:25 p.m.
Its the Grafdigger's Cage of RTR block. It was specifically put in the set to combat perceived meta problems but ended up being an overreaction. It does one thing well, but it only does that one thing, which makes it bad.
August 26, 2013 5:11 p.m.
All that was said above is true, but a lot of the top decks right now (Jund, Golgari, Junk, Gruul) don't have access to cards like Supreme Verdict . Glaring Spotlight can be played in ANY deck and a lot of the top decks already have removal, so you won't need to also board in a Searing Spear . I'm not saying it's amazing, I just think it deserves a LITTLE more play then it's seeing.
August 26, 2013 5:19 p.m.
And a lot of the cards mentioned are enchantment destroyers. Glaring Spotlight can help kill the creature that's being enchanted.
August 26, 2013 5:21 p.m.
Last 2 FNM's i went 4-0 easily and i thought last week was going the same but then in the third match i was up against naya hexproof and it shut me down completely..
i havent got glaring spotlight in yet but it will be ASAP.
And for all of the "Narrowness" people, read the fucking card, not only does it give your creatures hexproof but they cant be blocked at all this turn if you sac it with 3 mana. this makes it very viable to counter stuff and when u get the board position you just sac it and swing for lethal and win.
August 26, 2013 5:41 p.m.
Barandis knows what he's talking about. Also, though to some degree he already brought this up, using Glaring Spotlight effectively 2 for 1's you. Targeted Removal + spotlight takes out one creature, or nontargeting removal takes out the creature. It's as simple as being up one card and one mana for no cost at all.
August 26, 2013 6 p.m.
@buffy: Any black or red deck has access to Mutilate , Curse of Death's Hold , Mizzium Mortars , and Bonfire of the Damned . Green/black also has access to Gaze of Granite . All of these are absolutely devastating against a deck that has almost no way of interacting with those cards outside of Spell Rupture and Negate . Bant Hexproof's worst matchups are Midrange with either black or red (or both) for this reason. They essentially have to win on turn four or they lose. There's no reason for Jund/Junk/Naya to use up one of their 75 on a card that is just okay in one matchup when they can use board wipes that are amazing vs. Naya/Gruul Blitz, tokens, etc.
@WoopWoop: ...which makes it great for Limited, but it's still a terrible answer to Hexproof, even with the unblockable/hexproof part. If Hexproof is on the receiving end of an attack, it's already lost. There's no reason to make your cards unblockable, because it means they're having to use Geist of Saint Traft or Invisible Stalker to stay alive. They also don't run spot removal, so the hexproof is negligible.
August 26, 2013 6:04 p.m.
Do you see my point though? A decent amount of the tier one decks can't PLAY the best hexproof killers. If you look at the latest grand prix's, very few of the top decks are control. The fact that Glaring Spotlight can be played by any deck (in my opinion) makes it worthy of at the very least some consideration.
August 26, 2013 6:04 p.m.
Yeah, I gotcha sylvannos. Glaring Spotlight does cost quite a bit less then the above.
August 26, 2013 6:06 p.m.
And Mutilate , Curse of Death's Hold , and Bonfire of the Damned are all rotating.
August 26, 2013 6:08 p.m.
After rotation, there is a good chance hexproof won't even be a deck. Losing geist and stalker and a few enchants is going to be pretty crippling.
August 26, 2013 6:11 p.m.
Ah, good point! But Theros is supposed to be an enchantment block, so I think there could be a good chance that enchantments stays a thing.
August 26, 2013 6:13 p.m.
@buffy, GoST and Invisible Stalker are also both rotating. Decks will still have access to red wipes, sac effects, and enchantment hate to counter hexproof auras. All of those options have more applicability than Glaring Spotlight . Spotlight is a bad card because it's too narrow.
August 26, 2013 6:14 p.m.
True, but there is only Mizzium Mortars as far as red board wipes (unless I'm forgetting some). And sac effects will not always kill what you want.
August 26, 2013 6:17 p.m.
Thing about Glaring Spotlot is enchantbant is a bad matchup for me. Sure there's Tribute to Hunger and Devour Flesh , but I tend not run those in high numbers, and while it may have been some luck on their part, they are able to outrace me. So Glaring Spotlight is a great card. Likes of Mizzium Mortars due to costing six is moot to use, I'm done dead.
August 26, 2013 7:05 p.m.
It's funny to see everyone saying "Tribute to Hunger " (and like effects) or "Mizzium Mortars " (and like effects), as the few U/W or Bant Hexproof players at my LGS have already caught onto this... they play/side Snapcaster Mage (flash in to sac it) and/or Pay No Heed (simply ignore the damage).
Only Terminus or Supreme Verdict have any real effect on them lately.
Glaring Spotlight is now seen in sideboards for a number of decks.
August 26, 2013 11:17 p.m.
@Rayenous You're right that flashing in Snapcaster Mage gives them a choice when told to sac (this is assuming we're not talking Celestial Flare ) but Pay No Heed doesn't solve their problem since there's not damage involved.
Unless you're talking about using it in response to Mortars and not Tribute.
DaggerV says... #2
I have included it as a 3 of in most of my sideboard since I run with targeted removals as opposed to tribute to hunger-type effects that seems popular. Though I plan for bad matchsup so that might be why i include any at all. I don't see it being beneficial really in RDW where you should be punching through anyways.
August 26, 2013 3:28 p.m.