RMAN: To connect, or not to connect?

For once I'm not going to focus on 12c; instead, I'm going to introduce you to a new feature in 11gR2 that really blew my mind.  RMAN does not need to connect to a target database in order to duplicate the target database.  Let that sink in for a minute or two.  Now if you are experiencing some type of corruption on your live system, you can grab your backup tapes and not even have to mount or open the database at all.  Amazing!!