Here were are again, or maybe not again if you’re reading me for the first time. All the same, Magic Grab Bag is here again, and the online world is a’flutter with the tinklings of little Planar Chaos digital representations of cardboard chunks o’ love. Of course, this being the tail end of Release Week (well, just a few days past at the time this is printed), prices are still nutty and I’m still poor, so I’m not quite ready yet to unleash massively PC-powered decklists just yet, but I’ll cope anyhow. We have other things to discuss… well, not discuss. I tried that last week, and only one person actually discussed it. Heh. But I will be phrasing my Burning Issue in the form of a question, even though I am not on Jeopardy, and I will not give a definite answer once again. Last week, because I was looking for opinions, this week because I’m going to discuss the big, scary unknown. Shall we get started?
The Burning Issue
Very simply, my question is, "Could Armageddon be making a return in Tenth Edition?"
Stew on that for awhile; does it seem implausible?
Let’s look over some potential hints I’ve seen dropped, then look at the question again:
* Here Randy claims, "I guess the real lesson here is that Armageddon has not been permanently taken away from white. The card Armageddon is too powerful to have as a constant part of the game, but my current opinion is that it’s not too powerful to have around sometimes. And the mechanic of “destroy all lands” has not been taken away from White."
* Here Aaron states, "Armageddon is still in flavor for White (as are all symmetrical mass destruction spells)."
* Here Mark mentions, "White has the ability to reset the board so that both sides have an equal playing ground. This is why spells like Wrath of God (and yes, even Armageddon) are flavored in White."
* Again we have Aaron here suggesting that Armageddon was considered as a Timeshifted card, albeit admittedly before they were sure they could be made Standard legal.
* Aaron again, mentioning that an "expensive Armageddon" could be good for the environment, hence the printing of Boom / Bust.
* People on Internet message boards (myself included) have said prior to Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth editions they’d be willing to trade Wrath’s presence for that of Armageddon in a core set. Or even maybe a corset, depending which message boards we’re discussing.
* Flagstones of Trokair has synergy with Armageddon, Bust has seen print, and Damnation could replace Wrath in Tenth.
* Life from the Loam can assist recovery in Extended, and Sacred Ground tends to end up in core sets anyhow.
Hardly conclusive evidence, I know, but it seems that if they were going to reprint Armageddon, Tenth would be an ideal time to do it. Or, as suggested, a more expensive version; perhaps Global Ruin, Catastrophe, or Cataclysm might be seen. Talen and I have been discussing this from time to time for several months now, when I first started suspecting we might be seeing Armageddon back, although I forget what originally spurred that idea into my head at the time. I believe it might have been Life from the Loam seeing print, but I’m not entirely sure.
Talen feels that Armageddon gives too much disincentive to run non-counter based control decks, and I worry that it might be a slap in the face to Green’s land acceleration cards; neither one of us is certain it would be an overall wise decision to reprint it, but I have some reasons for liking the idea of it, anyhow. Perhaps Bust will allow for me to test them.
For one, I’m an old-school player. Holding lands in your hand used to be a significant part of strategy, and one I’m fairly certain I’d welcome back. Not only is it an aid for Armageddon recovery, but it’s a cushion against discard spells that don’t grab your hand and do your thinking for you. Not to mention that currently, it also helps against Rack based decks.
Two, I feel that aggro is struggling and White’s lacking for pie right now. A reprint of Armageddon (or one of the knock-offs, above) could serve to help these ailments. I should point out that Talen does not fear any of the knock-offs, and I’m fine with any of them or the original (I think). Armageddon itself worries me just a tad because the four mana cost more easily works with "drop something big on the same turn first" or "with counter backup" strategies to the overall mass land-destroying effect.
Lastly, I think it’s frankly about time the card’s been given another shot, if for no other reason to see if it’s really quite the same card it was in the days it was removed. Quite honestly, I don’t see a whole lot of risk – it is, after all, bannable if it turns out reprinting it was a mistake, so any damage would be temporary at best. Besides, having it available for Classic play would be nice as well (albeit also achievable via reprinting an old set Armageddon was a part of online – the Portal sets come to mind as fertile ground for this).
As previously stated, I have no definite conclusion to provide, other than I for one vote for some variant of it in Tenth – although I’m probably saying so a few months too late to make a difference. By now it’s either in or out most likely, so this is more an exercise in observation or speculation. All that being said, it’s time to move on to…
Ze Decklist
Here we are again, at that juncture where I’m supposed to come up with some witty or clever intro for a deck, but frankly, I’ve got nothing here. The format this time, by popular request, is Rainbow Stairwell. The slant on the deck, by absolutely no request, is, well… Legends. Why not? I’ve only got to fill a few one-drop slots with non-Legends, after all. Let’s throw caution, and possibly our pants, to the wind and see how it goes, no?
Creatures (22)
- 1 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
- 1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
- 1 Iwamori of the Open Fist
- 1 Ishi-Ishi, Akki Crackshot
- 1 Fumiko the Lowblood
- 1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
- 1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Nezumi Shortfang
- 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
- 1 Masako the Humorless
- 1 Keiga, the Tide Star
- 1 Jushi Apprentice
- 1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
- 1 Budoka Gardener
- 1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
- 1 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
- 1 Kiyomaro, First to Stand
- 1 Reki, the History of Kamigawa
- 1 Sakashima the Impostor
- 1 Darien, King of Kjeldor
- 1 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
Lands (24)
Spells (14)
And there we go, a decklist that probably fulfils my word count requirement all by its lonesome. Just the same, I’ll give you a rundown of the deck.
What the deck does: It plays a bunch of legends and swings with them, Timmy. And yes, I know full well I could have put Norin the Wary in, and sure, for theme reasons, I’d have loved to, but I’ve already got one nearly blank card in the deck, as is. Speaking of which, say hello to Haakon, whom you can only get into your bin by getting mana screwed or over-drawing via Hondens / Jushi Apprentice. Yeah, I’m not really being secretive about how badly the theme hogties the playability here in some places, am I? On the other hand, you’re running Isamaru, Keiga, Kumano, Kokusho, Iwamori, and Godo (alongside Tatsumasa and oh… what’s that? Umezawa’s Fork of Rectal Intrusion!). Yeah, it’s a little hit and miss here, but oh my, do the hits ever hit. And just in case your busted-in-half equipment gets nuked, you’ve got Academy Ruins. Infinite Jitte is very, very fair, I think you’ll agree. Especially if you can keep Reki out to draw a card every time you’re "forced" to replay it. Fiddle-dee-dee and gee gosh golly willikers, how unfair life is to you!
Oh, and using That Which Was Taken to make Academy Ruins indestructible is equally fair, I might add. And by "fair", I mean "not fair at all," in case you were wondering. In both cases. Sure, the deck is slow, has more issues than National Geographic when it comes to mana, and runs some overall embarrassing cards (Budoka Gardener, by the chilly nipples of Carmen Electra!) but give it time, and it will grind your opponent (or at least their patience) into the ground.
Who the deck is for: Legend enthusiasts, Kamigawa block lovers (all three of them), and Rainbow Stairwell followers. Not to mention anyone with a comma fetish, I suppose (okay, guilty – and I’ve been seeing parenthesis on the side). At this point, it almost goes without saying with my decklists that this deck is not for those inclined to quick beatdown, but I swear at some point I will one day make a list that might occasionally kill someone before turn 9 or so. If you think this is bad, I should point out that long ago, before Meloku was printed or people noticed "Hey, Allied Strategies is some good when you’re running Domain anyhow," Bribery actually used to see heavy play in this format; often snagging the opposing Pristine Angel (yes, pretty much everyone ran it). I was so annoyed by this – I hate theft, like a fat kid hates gym class – that I built an Enchantress Rainbow Stairwell deck with no creatures in it whatsoever. How was it an Enchantress deck, then? Why, Enchantress’s Presence, of course, of course! Every loss I ever accrued with that deck was totally worth it just for watching people concede when they paid five mana to Time Walk me. Ah, the joys of rogue deckbuilding.
What to watch out for: Well, aside from the off chance of someone actually running Hero’s Demise in the format, I think you’re pretty safe from any standard concerns (oh, the pain of the pun) barring the number of obviously sub-optimal cards you’re running in here. Decks like this are the reason I spend most weeks festering down at the bottom of the page, but no regrets, right? Someone’s got to cover the odd formats. Back to business here, the other major concern is not decking yourself with your Honden array – you don’t even have a way of ridding yourself of the Honden of Seeing Winds, should things come down to it, but on the other hand, with that much draw, you should be winning, barring something odd like an Ensnaring Bridge. I’ve been dropping hints here and there, but if you haven’t noticed, you can’t deal with any non-creature permanents with this deck, barring perhaps animating opposing lands with Kamahl in response to mass removal. How come we don’t get a Legend that taps to Disenchant or something similar, mm? Would that really be game-breaking on something that was otherwise a Grey Ogre?
Bonus section time!
The Why’s Why of Who Made the Cut: Here is where I explain why some Legends made the cut and others, well… didn’t.
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails: Mana consistency be damned, I took this guy simply because he was flat-out more useful than the two Samurai available to take here, and Kataki could hurt me as much or more than my opponent.
Nezumi Shortfang: Kiku was skipped because of her mana cost, and Nezumi Graverobber, despite being quite useful in the format, was skipped because at least Shortfang gave you some way to deal with a non-creature permanent.
Ishi-Ishi, Akki Crackshot: Because Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer was even less likely to be useful.
Budoka Gardener: See above, except Slobad equals Thelon of Havenwood.
Masako the Humorless: Because Rune-Tail was useless and every other legend required double White, although Mangara or Tivadar might have been worth it. Still, she’s a nice trick to have around.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner: Why? Well, she can just be freakishly annoying to the opposition sometimes. You have to love being freakishly annoying.
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge: Only Toshiro Umezawa could have done anything more impressive, and he only interacts with Brainstorm in this deck. Haakon is at least recursive if you can dump him.
Honden of Infinite Rage: I wanted all five Hondens, so I automatically took them over other options. Admittedly, all the other decent Red options required double Red, but without the auto-Honden excuse, I couldn’t have run Honden of Seeing Winds over Meloku, the Clouded Mirror in good conscience. Same with not running Day of Destiny in White, which I’ll probably kick myself for during the rest of all eternity, but hey, that’s my problem, not yours.
Reki, the History of Kamigawa: As much good as Isao, Enlightened Bushi might have done this deck, I couldn’t pass up one of my few card-drawing options.
Fumiko the Lowblood: What better option was there? Maybe, maybe Jeska, but I consider that pretty highly debatable.
Iwamori of the Open Fist: Okay, yes, Kokusho and Keiga are popular in this format anyhow, but given that he trades with either of them anyhow, the only other potential option was Glissa Sunseeker, and her usefulness is pretty limited compared to a 5/5 Trampler for four mana.
Sword of Kaldra: The Shield of Kaldra didn’t do enough, especially with That Which Was Taken in the deck, and even if I owned Skyship Weatherlight, it’s not exactly good.
Kagemaro, First to Suffer: I’m playing Hondens, for one. He tends to get huge. For two, how else was I going to fit a Wrath effect in here? Chainer, Dementia Master was the only other real competition and he requires triple Black to use. Kagemaro it is.
Kumano, Master Yamabushi: Jiwari, the Earth Aflame requires triple Red to use his good ability, which only exists for one turn. I figure hey, just stick with Kumano.
Darien, King of Kjeldor: Yosei, the Morning Star is probably the better card overall, but the synergy with this and Honden of Cleansing Fire amused me too much. Sorry, Dragon boy.
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa: Because the better options require triple Green. Somewhat shameful, because Jedit Ojanen of Efrava would otherwise be a house. Why did you not make him 4GG, Wizards, why?
Tatsumasa, the Dragon’s Fang: Because Mindslaver is my most hated card ever. I will never use it or play against it. Theft of even a single card makes me furious. Theft of my turn is utterly unforgivable and I would never put someone else through that.
Make sure to come back next week, or I’ll miss you baby, and I don’t want to miss a thing. I’d say that if anyone could figure out how that at all ties into the article, I’d offer to do something in internet public that would be outlandish and embarrassing, but that only guarantees someone would pull it off and hold me to that, so uh… if anyone actually gets that, I’ll ah, applaud. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Signing off,
Rivien Swanson
flawedparadigm a(aye Carumba!)t gmaSPAMSUCKSil d(.)ot co[I am not here. You do not see me. Or this. Or anything. Your life is a lie.]m
Flawed Paradigm on MTGO (when I actually log in)